Old Medicine and Electrolux were both masters of manipulating souls.
One was an Alchemist with a Spirit Realm soul, and the other was the Necromancer of Calamity.
Both were intimately connected to souls.
In just two short months, they had already figured out everything about Soul Spirits.
They had even raised the success rate to this extent-it was a full hundred percent.
He had to admit, having a good teacher really was wonderful.
"Teacher, Elder Yi, does that mean you can now definitely turn the other party into a Soul Spirit?"
Lin Xiao asked aloud.
Old Medicine nodded lightly. "Xiao Xiaozi, you could say that. From now on, every one of your Soul Rings needs to be a Soul Spirit."
"Only then will your Soul Skills unleash their greatest power."
Lin Xiao had no objections. That was exactly what he intended to do. Soul Skills unleashed through a Soul Spirit were stronger by who knew how many times.
"Teacher, I understand."
"Teacher, is my Soul Power strong enough to refine pills now?"
Two months had already passed. Lin Xiao felt he had become quite proficient with the techniques, and he really wanted to try refining pills himself.
Old Medicine assessed him, then shook his head before nodding. "With your current soul perception, you can refine unranked medicinal pills if you use Soul Power."
"But you're still a long way from refining pills with battle energy."
Lin Xiao was instantly delighted. Refining pills with Soul Power? Unranked? That's fine! They're still medicinal pills, aren't they?
Having something is better than having nothing.
Even if they're unranked, they're still medicinal pills, right? Their effects won't be that strong, but they'll still be useful. If I have no use for them, I can sell them later.
"Teacher, let me give it a try."
As he spoke, Lin Xiao took out the pill furnace again.
Following Old Medicine's instructions and using the few unranked pill recipes he had provided, Lin Xiao began refining them step by step.
The first attempt-the furnace exploded...
The second attempt-the furnace exploded...
The third attempt... the fourth... the fifth.
On his fifth attempt, Lin Xiao finally refined a pill that actually looked like a medicinal pill.
"Teacher, this pill refining is completely different from what I was doing before."
Only when he truly began refining pills did Lin Xiao discover that it was nothing like his earlier practice.
One mistake in controlling the heat, and the furnace exploded. One moment of carelessness while condensing the pill, and it exploded again.
Pill refining was far too difficult.
And these were only unranked medicinal pills. If he tried refining a first-grade pill, he had no idea how many times the furnace would explode.
"Xiao Xiaozi, you've already done very well. Without those two months of practice, you would have needed at least a hundred furnace explosions before you had a chance of succeeding once."
The boy's talent for pill refining was quite good. His Spirit Power was just a little too low.
Hearing Old Medicine's reassurance, Lin Xiao felt relieved. His earlier practice had been useful after all.
"Xiao Xiaozi, you should start thinking about how to escape this place now."
After saying that, Old Medicine fell silent and paid Lin Xiao no further attention.
Lin Xiao froze at his words. Isn't it pretty safe here?
Lin Xiao looked down the mountain. Dense masses of scorpions all around it had begun crawling steadily up the slopes.
"Holy shit! Where did these scorpions come from?"
Lin Xiao was dumbfounded, but he quickly realized what had happened.
The repeated explosions of his furnace had attracted the Soul Beasts' attention, even though his fifth attempt had succeeded.
He just had not expected so many to come. Apart from the summit, every direction was already surrounded by these ice-blue scorpions.
Inside the ring, Old Medicine reclined leisurely, showing no concern whatsoever for Lin Xiao's safety.
"Martial Soul Possession!"
Lin Xiao roared. Dark purple light erupted from his body, and his muscles swelled, making him look immensely powerful.
"First Soul Skill: Dark Feast!"
The next instant, darkness enveloped Lin Xiao. Amid the pitch-black surroundings, he darted about like a phantom.
With every step he took, another scorpion died.
A mass of darkness surged across the snow-covered mountain, as though darkness had intruded upon the dawn and tainted that patch of purity.
At the foot of the mountain, more and more ice-blue scorpions gathered in an endless stream. A ten-thousand-year scorpion seemed to be directing them.
Hundred-year, thousand-year... the farther down he went, the older the ice-blue scorpions became.
Lin Xiao struggled more and more. His Soul Power was only at level fifteen, after all.
When that Soul Beast had sacrificed itself, his Soul Power had risen to level twelve. Most of that Soul Power had gone toward conversion into battle energy. During this period, he had trained and cultivated, raising his Soul Power by three levels.
For a level-fifteen Soul Master to face such a dense swarm of ice-blue scorpions, Lin Xiao had already shown tremendous courage.
"Eight Extremes Collapse!"
With his Soul Skill bolstering him, Lin Xiao pushed his current Eight Extremes Collapse to its limit, killing every scorpion under a thousand years old with a single palm strike.
Old Medicine collected all the Soul Rings that emerged after the Soul Beasts died.
By the time Lin Xiao charged halfway down the mountain, his strength was already beginning to fail.
"Damn it."
Lin Xiao cursed under his breath.
Only then did Lin Xiao realize that things had been going too smoothly for him. After gaining Old Medicine and Electrolux, he had grown cocky, no longer taking even the most basic safety precautions seriously enough.
Hardening his resolve, Lin Xiao brought the battle energy throughout his body into play and charged down the mountain once more.
Inside the ring, Old Medicine and Electrolux watched Lin Xiao's actions, neither in any hurry to intervene.
"Medicine, how much longer do you think this little fellow can hold on?"
Electrolux asked.
While converting Soul Rings into battle energy, Old Medicine replied, "No rush. The boy hasn't reached his limit yet."
"He's barely gotten started."
Old Medicine was not worried in the slightest. Though the boy had grown a little cocky, he still had the strength to back it up.
A little cockiness was only natural.
"A three-thousand-year one!"
Lin Xiao drew a deep breath. He could barely handle the two-thousand-year ones, but a three-thousand-year scorpion made him a little anxious.
"My life isn't cheap!"
Lin Xiao had no desire to die here. He maintained Dark Feast, while the Eight Extremes Collapse strikes he kept unleashing had nearly battered his own hands to pieces.
Finally, after delivering another palm strike, Lin Xiao could no longer hold himself up and collapsed to the ground.
"Teacher, I might be cocky, but I haven't disappointed you, have I?"
The three-thousand-year ice-blue scorpion facing him was not dead, though it had suffered some injuries. Had he been at full strength, Lin Xiao was confident he could have wounded it more severely.
Lying on the ground, Lin Xiao spoke with a smile. Though he was cocky, that confidence rested on having his teacher there. Still, whenever danger arose, Lin Xiao gave it everything he had and fought with his life on the line.
The next instant, Old Medicine's terrifying aura erupted from the ring on Lin Xiao's hand. "Xiao Xiaozi, you certainly haven't disappointed me."
"From now on, look for five-thousand-year ones when you train."
"These aren't much use to you anymore."
Old Medicine appeared beside Lin Xiao. The surrounding white mist blended with the white snow, making his immortal bearing seem profoundly mysterious.
A smile surfaced on Lin Xiao's face. This was his greatest asset, but he could not rely too heavily on his teacher.
This time, Lin Xiao understood that without his teacher, he might well have died here. From now on, he needed to act more cautiously and take greater care.
He could not rely on his teacher for everything.
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