First Soul Ring

But Lin Ye had no excuse. He hesitated, clearly thinking of how to lie.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion stared at Lin Ye. "You're trying to figure out how to trick me, aren't you?"

Huh? Lin Ye blinked. This girl didn't seem as dumb as he'd thought.

His brief hesitation had given him away.

"I knew it. My instincts were right. It really is you, Lin Ye!"

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion suddenly pounced. Lin Ye reacted a little too slowly and was caught off guard as a huge paw slapped him to the ground.

"Hey! What are you doing? Get your foot off me!"

Lin Ye struggled, but the paw on his back pressed down like a mountain.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion grinned. "Heh heh heh. Weren't you so cocky before? Where'd all that swagger go? You used to yap all day long. Still feeling cocky now?"

Lin Ye: "..."

At this point, Lin Ye couldn't help realizing that the Three-Eyed Golden Lion had learned all of that from him.

Well, what goes around comes around!

"Heh heh, Auspicious Beast, let's talk this out, okay? Could you let me up first?"

Knowing he'd been the one to bully the Three-Eyed Golden Lion first, Lin Ye wasn't angry with her now.

"Don't you have the Eighteen Styles of Cat Licking? Don't chicken out! Get up and let's fight eighteen rounds." The Three-Eyed Golden Lion said this, but kept one huge paw pressed against Lin Ye's back.

The Snow Empress and Ice Empress watched from the sidelines, making no move to intervene.

Soul Beasts in the vicinity of an Auspicious Beast grew twice as fast as normal. Once a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast reached a bottleneck, its chances of breaking through doubled. The effect even applied to more powerful Soul Beasts.

For this reason, the Auspicious Beast was incredibly popular in the Soul Beast Realm. All Soul Beasts indulged her, doted on her, and granted her every wish.

The Snow Empress and Ice Empress were no exception. If they could, they would gladly bring the Auspicious Beast to the Extreme North Land.

"Hey, don't just stand there and watch! Help me!" Lin Ye called to the two women.

They ignored him, pretending not to hear. They could see that the Auspicious Beast had no intention of hurting Lin Ye.

That only made the Three-Eyed Golden Lion more smug. "Heh heh heh. Go ahead and shout! You could scream your lungs out and no one would come to help you."

Lin Ye: "..."

"Auspicious Beast, think carefully. If you keep picking on me, we'll have a real grudge between us. Just watch—I'll hang you up and whip you every day, then shave off all your fur!"

When giving in didn't work, Lin Ye resorted to threats.

At his words, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's bravado faltered. She was a little scared. Just imagining herself shaved bare filled her with shame.

Feeling the pressure on his back ease, Lin Ye knew she was afraid. He tested it, then managed to wriggle free of her hold.

Lin Ye brushed the dust off himself. "Why are you so resentful? I was only joking with you before."

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion turned her head away haughtily. That detestable guy had actually dared threaten her, the Auspicious Beast. She would curse him with endless Misfortune!

Knowing that the Little Ancestor was still holding a grudge, Lin Ye didn't provoke her. He simply called to the Snow Empress and Ice Empress to continue searching for a suitable Soul Beast.

Seeing this, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion trotted after them. "Hey, where are you going?"

"Sightseeing."

"You're lying to me, aren't you?" The Three-Eyed Golden Lion immediately grew angry.

"Isn't that obvious? What else would a Soul Master come to a Soul Beast Forest for besides a Soul Ring?"

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion blinked. "Isn't there one right here? Why go looking for another?"

There was no need to ask. The one she meant was the Cyclops.

"Go play somewhere else. Don't get in the way." Lin Ye pushed the huge head leaning toward him away, thoroughly exasperated. Why was this girl so clingy?

He certainly wasn't going to absorb the Cyclops's Soul Ring. Their attributes didn't match.

"Aw, just listen to me. Use it as your Soul Ring—you definitely won't regret it."

No matter what she said, Lin Ye wouldn't listen. He instinctively felt she couldn't be trusted. When he tried to leave, the Three-Eyed Golden Lion caught his sleeve in her teeth to stop him.

"My instincts are never wrong. Why won't you believe me?" the Three-Eyed Golden Lion muttered.

Seeing that she didn't seem to be joking, Lin Ye asked seriously, "Are you sure? You're not trying to get me to cripple my own cultivation, are you? I'm telling you, you can be unreliable about other things, but you can't mess around with this."

"Hmph. You're like a dog biting Lü Dongbin—you don't recognize kindness when you see it." The Three-Eyed Golden Lion turned away in annoyance.

Lin Ye: "..."

It looked like she'd learned quite a few things from him!

"Big Sister Xue Nu, how old is that Cyclops?"

"Three thousand years."

Three thousand years. What a coincidence. Lin Ye glanced thoughtfully at the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. More than a coincidence, he felt her presence had brought him good luck.

The Three-Eyed Golden Lion was an auspicious Soul Beast. She was basically like those protagonists blessed with great fortune.

What good was having great fortune? Some people jumped off a cliff and were dashed to pieces; others leaped down and found a secret manual. The first had their household registration canceled for good, while the second became a legend.

Fortune was invisible and intangible, but it truly existed.

Lin Ye now suspected that he was being blessed by the Three-Eyed Golden Lion's good fortune.

Get close to an Auspicious Beast, and its fortune would bless you.

Of course, there was one condition: the Auspicious Beast couldn't be hostile toward you. Otherwise, instead of receiving its blessing, you'd be plagued by Misfortune.

The Cyclops had the rare attribute of Chaos, an unclear attribute that could change at any moment. Could it turn into a Spirit Attribute suited to him while he was absorbing it?

That wasn't impossible.

He couldn't imagine the Three-Eyed Golden Lion lying to him about something like this. After much hesitation, Lin Ye ultimately chose to trust her.

Under the Ice Empress's control, the ice encasing the Cyclops quickly melted.

But even after it thawed, the Cyclops couldn't escape. Under the effects of Ultimate Ice, its body and even its internal organs had suffered severe frostbite.

With a thud, the Cyclops collapsed helplessly to the ground, barely alive.

A three-thousand-year-old Soul Beast had been so fragile in the Ice Empress's hands—utterly defenseless.

Holding a long sword, Lin Ye approached the Cyclops's enormous head and stabbed its single eye with all his strength. The blade pierced the eyeball and entered its brain.

That blow put an end to the Cyclops.

Purple motes rose from the Cyclops's body and gathered in midair, forming a purple ring.

This was his First Soul Ring. Lin Ye felt a flicker of excitement, eager to see what kind of Soul Skill it would grant him.

Guided by his will, the purple Thousand-Year Soul Ring floated above Lin Ye's head, slowly descended, and began to ripple gently around his body.

Lin Ye sat cross-legged on the ground. His body suddenly shuddered. The Thousand-Year Soul Ring was even more powerful than he'd imagined. Its fierce, violent energy rampaged through his body, making him feel like a Pufferfish swollen with air, ready to burst at any moment.

In this situation, all he could do was focus all his attention on absorbing the Soul Ring.