Second Soul Ring

Second Soul Ring

What had happened today was far too fantastical, so neither Chen Shijie nor Chen Tianyun wanted word of it to get out. Though Chen Ming repeatedly said it was unnecessary, the two of them still swore a solemn oath, invoking the Angel God and staking their Martial Souls as the price.

In this world, such matters were exceedingly serious. If Chen Shijie and Chen Tianyun revealed it carelessly, then even if the Angel God did not bring down Divine Punishment, their Martial Souls would develop problems. At best, their Soul Power would regress; at worst, their Martial Souls would be crippled.

However, a cave was hardly a place for conversation. After confirming there were no further issues, Chen Shijie led Chen Ming and Chen Tianyun back through the underground passage to the secret chamber beneath the Chen Family estate.

The cave where the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower was cultivated lay deep within Bioluo Gorge. By integrating themselves into the soul beast ecosystem, the Chen Family had occupied an ecological niche. For hundreds of years, they had pretended to be a group of soul beasts in order to maintain this place. Since it was deep underground and located at the heart of Bioluo Gorge, with many ten-thousand-year soul beasts forming a barrier outside, no outsiders had ever discovered it.

The secret passage was long and winding. Even with a Soul Master's speed, it took half a day to traverse, and once one became lost inside, it was difficult to find the way out. At present, only a small number of Chen Family members knew the passage's full layout.

After returning home, Chen Shijie allowed Chen Ming to spend a month playing around the city under Chen Tianyun's supervision. If he wanted to leave Biluo City and visit other cities during that time, both Chen Shijie and Chen Tianyun had to accompany him.

Chen Ming agreed, but after playing around Biluo City for only a few days, he had already had enough after being repressed for so long. Barely half a month had passed before Chen Ming slipped back into the Chen Family estate and resumed cultivating.

There was no other reason. There was simply nothing fun to do.

Entertainment on the Douluo Continent was extremely underdeveloped and limited in variety. Furthermore, because of the values he had carried over from his previous life, Chen Ming had no desire to visit those special kinds of places.

Biluo City was nothing but a harsh and barren place. The largest market in the city belonged to the Chen Family, and Chen Ming had visited it countless times. The best trading venue in the city belonged to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, but there was nothing there that caught his attention either. After taking a lap around it, Chen Ming felt that rather than wasting his time, he might as well go home, eat some Whale Rubber, and continue cultivating.

Because his Martial Soul had evolved and he had obtained the Soul Ring of the top-tier soul beast, the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower, Chen Ming's talent had improved further, and some of his former deficiencies had been made up for. Generally speaking, the period before a Soul Master reached level ten was when cultivation progressed the fastest, and the speed would begin to slow after level ten. Yet with all these advantages, Chen Ming's cultivation speed had become more than twice what it had been before.

In just two short years, Chen Ming rose from level twelve Soul Power after absorbing his Soul Ring to level twenty Soul Power, gaining eight levels and becoming a prospective Soul Grandmaster.

During that time, he had not only strengthened his body through training and the proper use of Whale Rubber, allowing it to withstand a Soul Ring of greater age, but had also successfully grown his Martial Soul to thirteen segments through the cultivation and accumulation of Soul Power before obtaining his Second Soul Ring, further improving its quality.

Although an eleven-year-old prospective Soul Grandmaster was already considered exceptionally outstanding by the standards of the Douluo Continent, Chen Ming himself was not particularly satisfied. After all, at his level, among the Shrek Seven Devils of the original story, he was merely on par with Ning Rongrong and Zhu Zhuqing, far inferior to Tang San, who had the Mysterious Heaven Skill from the start.

In his eyes, his greatest gain over the past two years had not been Soul Power, but the exploration of his "golden finger."

Through repeated meditation and exploration of his Soul Rings, Chen Ming discovered that his golden finger was likely the manifestation of a unique spiritual trait that did not belong to the Douluo Continent. This spiritual trait could not yet be used in battle, but it could manifest in other areas.

For example, when he had absorbed his Soul Ring before, Chen Ming had been able to actively choose the Soul Ring's soul skill and form, as well as obtain a portion of the deeper power of the laws contained within it. After a Soul Ring was fixed, he could slowly increase its age by actively consuming Spiritual Power and Soul Power, and to a limited extent alter the soul skill within it.

However, much like Huo Yuhao ten thousand years later, this enhancement could not improve his basic physical attributes. It could only improve the power of the laws carried by the Soul Ring. In other words, if he absorbed a hundred-year Soul Ring, his body could only gain the base attribute enhancement of a hundred-year Soul Ring. Even if that Soul Ring was later raised to a hundred thousand years, it likely would not cause his physical constitution to change.

Two years had only allowed Chen Ming to uncover his golden finger to this extent. As for its deeper layers, Chen Ming felt he would need to gradually explore them after reaching a much higher level.

In fact, if he had not set aside time to explore the abilities of his golden finger and experimentally increase the age of his Soul Rings, Chen Ming might have reached level twenty another half year earlier. However, developing his golden finger was obviously more important than cultivating Soul Power.

As for what kind of soul beast his Second Soul Ring would come from... that had been decided the moment he awakened his Martial Soul.

"A thousand-year Jade Scorpion with nine tail segments... What incredible talent. If it doesn't die, becoming a Scorpion King in the future won't be a problem. Becoming a Scorpion Emperor isn't impossible either, right?"

Looking at the Jade Scorpion before him, which had been prepared for who knew how long, Chen Ming spoke with a hint of emotion. Yet there was no pity in his eyes, nor was there any killing intent on his body.

Killing an insect that had intruded into one's life might require working up some killing intent, but slaughtering a chicken or duck awaiting the knife was not even worth the effort of summoning it. Before Chen Ming awakened his Martial Soul, when he had attempted mimicry cultivation in Scorpion Cave, he had killed no one knew how many scorpions. Killing one more now made no difference at all.

The Jade Scorpion's body had been pierced through by wooden nails, and its tail segments were tightly bound. Facing Chen Ming and the other two, it possessed none of the bearing or reaction a soul beast should have had.

This exceptionally gifted Jade Scorpion had been discovered by a Chen Family ancestor several decades ago, then brought home in one piece.

At that time, the Jade Scorpion had only a hundred years of cultivation, yet it had been born with seven tail segments. After being captured by the Chen Family, they pierced its body with specially made wooden nails and submerged it in a deep pool underground, soaking it in medicinal liquid concocted from all kinds of herbs and poisons to stimulate its growth through every possible method.

Just maintaining that pool of medicinal liquid every year cost over a thousand Gold Soul Coins. Some of the soul beasts used as medicinal ingredients also had to be personally captured by the Chen Family in Bioluo Gorge. In terms of cost alone, the Chen Family had spent several hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins on this soul beast. The price they had paid was no small one.

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