That frenzied current of heat had been surging through Su Mo's body for who knew how long when he vaguely heard roosters crowing and villagers passing by, one after another.
They were probably heading out to work in the fields from dawn till dusk.
He endured the pain, trembling all over, but kept his teeth clenched and made not a sound, lest the villagers notice anything unusual.
After an unknown length of time, the scorching pain disappeared.
A pleasant warmth spread through his body. The comfort was beyond words, as though he had gone straight from hell to heaven.
Su Mo got out of bed, clenched his fists, and jumped twice on the spot.
He discovered that every movement brimmed with strength, and his body felt lighter than ever.
"Is this what becoming a soul master feels like?"
Standing before the bronze mirror, Su Mo noticed that he seemed to have grown a little taller. His skin had also become much fairer, making him better-looking than before.
Unfortunately, without a soul power crystal ball, he could only estimate that he was around level twelve or thirteen.
Although he had gained a hundred-year soul ring and leveled up, Su Mo still felt a lingering fear over Froggy's earlier recklessness.
The soul ring he had absorbed this time was probably only a little over four hundred years old.
Had it been any older, he definitely would not have withstood it.
Once Froggy returned, he would have to teach the little fellow some basic facts about the Douluo Continent, lest he encounter a thousand-year or even ten-thousand-year soul ring and curiously reach out to touch it again.
Strangely enough, other soul masters absorbed soul rings of their own volition.
Why had Froggy absorbed one passively?
Was it because Froggy himself was a martial soul?
"Hey, since Froggy is a martial soul, can I recall him?"
However, after several attempts, Su Mo ended up failing.
"How strange. That 'Grandmaster's' Luo Sanpao can't stray very far, and he can recall him whenever he wants. They're both mutated beast martial souls, and both can leave their owners' bodies, so why can't Froggy do it?"
After turning it over in his mind, Su Mo could only attribute it to a hidden effect of the travel halo's properties.
It allowed Froggy to ignore the restrictions on martial souls and travel freely.
Otherwise, why would it be called Travel Frog?
Next, Su Mo tried summoning his soul ring. A distinct yellow ring of light rose from beneath his feet, circling up and down around his body.
"Whoa! I can summon a soul ring without my martial soul? How does that work?"
Su Mo understood less and less.
Surely it could not be compensation for his inability to recall Froggy.
He sensed his soul skill. Named Frog Home, it seemed to be a separate dimension where Froggy could stay and store items.
However, he needed to touch the target to use it.
"Seriously? What hundred-year soul beast could provide a soul skill like this?"
Su Mo was skeptical. His gaze fell on the empty cup on the wooden table, and he immediately touched it while activating his soul skill.
Whoosh!
The next instant, the cup disappeared.
At the same time, a three-dimensional image of a space appeared in his mind.
Its interior covered roughly four hundred square meters and was about four meters high. Its layout closely resembled his current residence, with a cottage and courtyard, though the whole place was much larger than his home.
The cottage was empty, with no furnishings apart from the cup he had just placed inside.
On the right side of the courtyard lay a patch of tilled soil.
There was light within the separate dimension, and a distinction between day and night as well.
But there was no sun or moon.
It seemed that the light outside was synchronized with this separate dimension.
"Could that wolf soul beast Froggy happened to snag have been a spatial-type beast?"
Seeing that his soul skill really was a separate dimension left Su Mo utterly stunned.
Was it a spatial-type soul beast he had never heard of, or were Froggy's soul skills unaffected by soul beasts, following their own unique system instead?
After all, no matter how he looked at it, Frog Home resembled the cottage and courtyard in the game.
And there was the precedent of Nine Heart Begonia.
It was not impossible to accept that Froggy had a set of soul skills all his own.
"Right, if Froggy can stay in Frog Home, can a person go inside too?"
Su Mo's large, dark eyes instantly lit up.
To be safe, he caught a grasshopper and tested it. Only after confirming there was no problem did he use the soul skill on himself.
The next instant, Su Mo vanished from the wooden cottage.
His vision blurred, and he found himself standing in the courtyard of the separate dimension.
Inhale... exhale...
Taking a deep breath, Su Mo felt no suffocation.
Clearly, the air was connected to the outside world too.
Like Granny Liu entering the Grand View Garden, he looked this way and that, touching everything around him, his eyes filled with both wonder and a sense of security.
"Now this is the home I wanted..."
Before the age of three, he had lived in someone else's home, where nobody liked him except Grandpa Jack. After turning three, he had moved out on his own, but the land and house still belonged to the village, not him.
Now he had a space that belonged entirely and exclusively to him.
Su Mo felt a sense of fulfillment unlike anything he had ever experienced.
Although the soul skill was called Frog Home and served as Froggy's dwelling.
Even Froggy was his martial soul, so of course everything belonging to Froggy belonged to him.
Thud!
Su Mo looked toward the sound and saw a crystalline blue leg bone fall into the front courtyard.
"Huh? Could this be...?"
He hurried over and picked up the blue leg bone.
The bone was lustrous and flawless, radiating rich vitality. A single breath of it left him refreshed and clearheaded. It truly lived up to being the hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone.
Eww...
Why did this suddenly feel a little perverted?
Amitabha. A mere beauty, nothing but a rosy skeleton beneath the flesh-how dare you disturb my Dao heart?
Suppressing the urge to take another breath, Su Mo turned his attention to serious matters.
He had obtained the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone, but absorbing it posed a problem.
He was still too weak to conceal its aura.
Moreover, there was a Titled Douluo in the village. If he absorbed it, he would very likely be discovered.
"Tsk. Sitting on a mountain of treasure without being able to use it... this hurts."
Su Mo found himself in a quandary.
Fortunately, Froggy had placed the soul bone inside the separate dimension. As long as Su Mo did not expose it himself, Tang Hao would never find it, even if he searched until he died.
"No point overthinking it. Now that I have the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone, it's time to plan how to get Xiao Wu's soul bone." Su Mo's gaze hardened.
Pretty or not, anyone connected to Tang San can forget about meeting a good end.
Whoosh!
Just then, a little girl suddenly spawned before Su Mo's eyes.
Her pretty face was fair and rosy, tender as a ripe peach, making one want to take a gentle bite.
Her scorpion braid hung past her bottom, and her slender legs resembled white mutton-fat jade, smooth and lustrous, shapely and supple.
Although her clothes were plain, they were clean and neat, lending her a fresh, simple air.
At this moment, however, a trace of panic appeared in the little girl's sparkling eyes.
The sudden change of surroundings and the unfamiliar human who had abruptly appeared seemed to trigger her defensive instincts. She turned sideways and lashed out with a kick.
It did not look particularly powerful, but it was astonishingly fast.
Clang!
Su Mo was startled for only a moment before summoning the Infinity Gauntlet and turning it into armor over his chest. Her long leg struck it with nothing more than a muffled clang.
It did not hurt Su Mo at all, nor did it even force him back a single step.
Then the Infinity Gauntlet turned into a chain, extending along her leg and binding her entire body tight.
One end of the chain was attached to Su Mo's right hand. With a gentle tug, the little girl toppled to the ground.
No matter how she squirmed, she could not break free.
PS: The contract has been signed~