Return to the Sect, Elder Electrolux Awakens

The soul hunt lasted a full three months.

The group's soul hunt went fairly smoothly. In the Core Zone of the Far North, they consecutively encountered Soul Rings suitable for each of them.

Mu Yuan absorbed a Titan Snow Demon Soul Ring that was nearly twenty thousand years old.

Long Aotian absorbed an Ice Bear Soul Ring that had just passed ten thousand years.

Wei Na obtained a Snow Lotus that had transformed into a Soul Beast. Its cultivation was five thousand years, making it perfectly suited to serve as her Fourth Soul Ring.

As for Xiao Ye, his Soul Ring was the hardest to find. For his Sixth Soul Ring, he intended to attempt absorbing one that was forty thousand years old. Not merely one that had just reached forty thousand years, either—anything below fifty thousand years was within the range he could attempt.

The Bloodline Furnace, medicinal baths, and Martial Soul Second Awakening had made his Sixth Soul Ring endurance far exceed that of ordinary Soul Masters.

For ordinary Soul Masters, the upper limit of the Fifth Soul Ring was twelve thousand years, while the absolute limit they could attempt for the Sixth Soul Ring was only twenty thousand years.

Xiao Ye's upper limit was nearly two and a half times that.

After searching for a long time, the group finally found a suitable Soul Ring for Xiao Ye during those three months. It belonged to a forty-five-thousand-year-old Red Flame Ice Lizard. Its entire body flowed with blood as scorching as lava, yet it lived amid the frozen snowfields, making it an absolute aberration.

Its exterior was covered in an ice-attributed keratinous layer, while blood like molten lava flowed within. The two opposing attributes of ice and fire existed in an eerie balance within its body.

Xiao Ye was extremely satisfied with this Soul Ring.

According to him, with the aid of this Soul Ring, he was confident he could fight a Soul Saint.

If he used his Secondary Awakening, he could even suppress most Soul Saints.

Such confidence was not merely empty talk.

In this era, after undergoing Martial Soul Second Awakening, the Body Sect's strength generally surpassed that of Soul Masters at the same level.

And that was without the foundation of Bloodline Power.

As Mu Yuan developed the Bloodline Furnace method, many Body Sect disciples began cultivating it. Even if they had not condensed Bloodline Power, the improvement to their physical constitution now had a relatively unified direction, greatly increasing cultivation efficiency and enhancing the power of all kinds of Combat Techniques.

Xiao Ye had not initially mastered the Bloodline Furnace method, but he gradually grasped this secret technique afterward. On the eve of his Martial Soul Second Awakening, he successfully condensed Bloodline Power.

With the support of Bloodline Power, he had the confidence to confront a Soul Saint possessing a Martial Soul Avatar while only having six rings!

Body Sect.

The five returned to the Mountain Gate and learned that Du Busi's closed-door cultivation had yet to end.

"Condensing a Second Soul Ring is painstaking work. Even after obtaining an opportunity, it still takes the Sect Master so long to break through."

Mu Yuan looked at the room where Du Busi was in seclusion and could not help but sigh.

Only with such a real example before him could he truly understand how difficult it was to condense a Soul Core.

Under normal circumstances, condensing a Soul Core required at least half a year to possibly succeed, while some took more than a year.

That was assuming one had seized the opportunity for a breakthrough and had a chance of succeeding.

"There are still nine months until the Soul Master Tournament. Over the next half year, you must cultivate diligently. Master the Combat Techniques you need to cultivate as soon as possible during this time, and make sure your foundations are solid before the final three months. During those last three months, the sect will prepare intensive high-strength training for you, using the opportunity to transform all the foundation you have accumulated into combat power."

After Yu Gu instructed the four of them, he also began his own cultivation.

After fusing with the Narcissus Jade Muscle Bone and undergoing a Gold-level Second Awakening, it felt as if the gates to his cultivation had opened once again. Having followed the four to the Far North and returned, he felt his Soul Power showing faint signs of rising again.

In as little as three months or as long as half a year, he would definitely make another breakthrough!

The four encouraged one another before returning to their rooms one after another to cultivate on their own.

Mu Yuan slowly exhaled.

After absorbing a Soul Ring that was nearly twenty thousand years old, his Soul Power naturally was not merely level forty-one. After all, that was the theoretical limit for the Sixth Soul Ring of many Soul Emperors.

After previously breaking through level forty and fusing with the Blade of Life, then now absorbing a Soul Ring close to twenty thousand years old, his Soul Power had directly reached level forty-five.

Of course, he had not made no progress at all during the three-month soul hunt.

After staying in the freezing Far North for so long, upon leaving that bitterly cold land, Mu Yuan's Soul Power became far more active, faintly showing signs of another breakthrough.

"I can break through to level forty-six within three days!"

Mu Yuan's gaze burned brightly, as though divine light burst forth from within. His bearing was extraordinary, and under the influence of his soaring Willpower, the Soul Power behind him faintly condensed into the phantom of an Eight-Armed Demonic God.

"Eleven years and three months old, level forty-five—or rather, soon to be level forty-six."

"There are still nine months. What a pity. If I were level forty-seven now, I could try to reach level fifty before the Soul Master Tournament."

These thoughts flashed through Mu Yuan's mind.

As his Soul Power Level rose, his cultivation speed had faintly declined. However, the decrease was not significant. By his estimate, during the Soul Ancestor stage, he could still maintain a rate of one level every three months—four levels a year.

In fact, if Blood Qi cultivation had not taken up the buff from the Blade of Life, his Soul Power cultivation could have been slightly faster. Five levels a year might be too much to claim, but four and a half levels would have been more than achievable.

"Not a problem. I still have an Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid I haven't taken."

This was the Immortal Herb Oscar had absorbed ten thousand years ago, allowing him to overcome the difficult stage of cultivation for a Support-type Soul Master.

In Mu Yuan's understanding, even if ultimate attributes caused slow cultivation from Three-Ring to seven rings, the Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid could offset that somewhat.

Of course, it was not merely useful for offsetting a debuff.

The Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid's rich medicinal properties were themselves a buff!

Second Sea of Consciousness.

Mu Yuan looked at the Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid, its branches and leaves spreading freely in all directions, and secretly sighed.

"I wonder how long it will take before it develops sentience and transforms into a Soul Beast."

Given the medicinal properties of this Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid, if it transformed into a Soul Beast at this moment, it would likely directly become a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

It had originally grown within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. Although the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well accelerated plant growth tenfold, it also suppressed plants from transforming into Soul Beasts.

Ordinary exotic flowers and rare herbs generally developed intelligence and transformed into Soul Beasts once they possessed ten thousand years of medicinal properties. Some could even transform after only a few hundred or thousand years. Yet within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, despite countless exotic flowers and rare herbs and ten thousand years passing, only a small number had developed intelligence.

After the Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid was removed from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and nurtured within the Second Sea of Consciousness opened by Mu Yuan's Blade of Life, its growth continued. Its sentience was slowly developing, and it had hope of transforming into a Soul Beast.

However, Mu Yuan had kept watch over the Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid for three months, and it had undergone virtually no change.

"I wonder how much longer it will take."

"Very soon. Its sentience is developing quickly. At most, another year will be enough. If it has not transformed by then, its sentience will still be sufficient. I can try to intervene externally and help it transform."

An aged voice rang out.

Mu Yuan looked in delight toward the gray sphere of light at one side and discovered that Electrolux had already condensed a Spirit Body. He was also looking at the Eight-Petal Immortal Orchid.

"Elder Electrolux, you recovered so quickly?"

Electrolux had expended a great deal helping him fuse with the Blade of Life and needed to enter seclusion to recuperate. Mu Yuan had not expected him to recover in merely three short months.