"An injury like this could have been caused by the Mountain-Moving Apes outside."
"To kill more than ten ten-thousand-year Mountain-Moving Apes alone while missing his left arm, then seal the cave entrance with such a huge rock despite his grievous injuries—his strength must have been considerable. At the very least, I couldn't have done it."
"It was precisely because he couldn't kill those Mountain-Moving Apes without being injured that I guessed he was an Eight-Ring Soul Douluo."
"But we can't be certain that the wound on his chest was caused by the Mountain-Moving Apes, so there's also a slight chance he was a Nine-Ring Titled Douluo."
Clap, clap, clap—
As soon as Flender finished his analysis, everyone applauded in unison.
Shen Rui cupped his hands. "Your experience is truly extensive, Senior. That was an excellent analysis."
Ling Na smiled gently. "As expected of a dean, Senior. You're clearly skilled at teaching and guiding others. Your explanation was very easy to understand."
Shen Feng bowed slightly. "Thank you for your guidance, Dean Flender."
Seeing how Shen Feng's family treated him, Flender was in high spirits. His effort had been worthwhile; ever since entering the cave, he had brought all his knowledge and experience to bear.
Fortunately, he was about twenty years older than Shen Rui and Ling Na. Otherwise, the things he had accumulated over the years might not have impressed them at all.
Flender waved a hand and said modestly, "I've merely lived a few years longer than you. I have a little more experience with the ways of the world, but it's nothing worth mentioning."
"Still, this senior's remains are a genuine treasure. I imagine the two of you are interested as well?"
Shen Rui and Ling Na's expressions changed at once. They pulled Shen Feng behind them to keep him safe.
Flender froze for a moment, then laughed heartily. "There's no need to be nervous. Really."
"This is just a corpse, and we don't even know whether it has a Soul Bone. What's there to be so nervous about?"
Shen Rui's expression remained unchanged. "Please don't take offense, Senior. It's only natural to be wary. You're a Soul Saint, while my wife and I are only Soul Kings, so..."
Flender shook his head helplessly. "Very well. We haven't known each other long, so it's only natural for you to be cautious."
"Since we found this senior's remains together, let's divide the spoils according to the rules for Soul Master teams exploring for treasure."
"I may be a Soul Saint, but the two of you are Five-Ring Soul Kings, and you also have a Martial Soul Fusion Skill."
"So our strength is about equal. If we find anything, we'll split it evenly, with whoever needs something getting first pick. How does that sound?"
Shen Rui and Ling Na exchanged a glance, then nodded. "That works. You're our senior, so please be the one to search the remains."
Flender rubbed his hands together with a grin. "Then I won't stand on ceremony!"
He channeled Soul Power over the dried corpse, then sent a wisp of spiritual power through it to examine the details, checking for traps, Soul Bones, and treasures.
Flender moved slowly, but he was thorough.
A moment later, he sighed and shook his head in disappointment. "No Soul Bone. I only found a Storage Soul Tool."
Flender crooked a finger, and a black bracer set with gemstones flew out from a crevice behind the dried corpse.
He caught it, then frowned and fed a wisp of Soul Power into it. At once, a large number of bottles, jars, bones, metal objects, and other odds and ends flew out of the bracer, quickly piling up into a small mound on the ground.
Shen Feng crouched and picked up a pretty jade bottle beside his foot. He gave it a gentle shake; some liquid seemed to slosh inside.
Curious, he had just pulled out the stopper when a nauseating stench poured from the bottle.
"Ugh!" Shen Feng quickly plugged it back up, and the air became more bearable.
"What is this stuff? Some kind of biochemical weapon?"
Ling Na furrowed her brows and pinched her nose in disgust. "Don't touch things carelessly. These items are old, and most of them have probably gone bad."
"But some of them could be poison traps deliberately left in the Storage Soul Tool. If we accidentally touch them, we could all be in trouble."
Flender glanced at Shen Feng and chuckled. "All right, kid, put that thing down. We'll take care of sorting through this stuff."
"Take this and go absorb your Soul Ring. Don't get in our way."
As he spoke, Flender tossed the Storage Soul Tool bracer toward Shen Feng.
Shen Feng caught it, infused it with a wisp of Soul Power, and sent his spiritual power inside. A three-by-three-by-three cubic space appeared in his mind.
"Whoa, twenty-seven cubic meters. This is high-end stuff. Thanks, Dean Flender. You're the best."
Flender waved him off. "Now get lost before I regret it and ask for it back."
Shen Feng immediately fastened the bracer around his right wrist, then put his little backpack inside.
"Don't even think about it. Once you give something away, it's gone. Who takes it back?"
"You wouldn't want to ruin your reputation, would you, sir?"
Shen Rui smiled faintly and smacked Shen Feng on the back of the head. "Is that any way to speak to your senior?"
"Come on. I'll protect you while you absorb your Soul Ring."
The Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo grew not far from the cave entrance. Shen Feng had already spotted it earlier, when Flender brought him up.
Following Shen Rui to the entrance, Shen Feng saw that faint purple currents still crackled along the broken stalk of the Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo. Every so often, it made a sharp sound like a short circuit, and tiny sparks occasionally flew off it.
Shen Rui pointed at the broken Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo. "Like Thunder Sword Bamboo, Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo's age can be determined by the number of nodes per meter and the thickness of its main stalk."
"Generally speaking, the main stalk of a ten-year-old Sword Bamboo is less than ten centimeters in diameter. It gains one node per meter every ten years. A hundred-year-old Sword Bamboo has a main stalk more than ten centimeters thick, and it gains one node per meter for every hundred years beyond the first ten."
"This Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo's main stalk is over ten centimeters thick, with as many as eighteen nodes per meter. That means it's more than eight hundred years old, but not yet nine hundred."
"It's a little older than the range of seven to eight hundred years I set for you earlier, but not by much. Absorbing it will be harder and more painful, but it shouldn't be too dangerous."
Shen Feng nodded, then pointed at the Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo rooted in the steep rock face and asked helplessly, "Dad, I understand all that, but how am I supposed to kill it?"
Shen Rui paused. "Shoot it with your gun. Use your little Handgun. The Breaker is too powerful; it could shake the cliff loose."
"Just shoot through its base, and the Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo's Soul Ring will appear."
Shen Feng nodded, took his little backpack out of the Storage Soul Tool, then rummaged out his automatic pistol with a silencer.
A string of faint pops rang out. The Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo snapped, and tiny yellow specks floated up from its severed base, quickly gathering into a brilliant, bright-yellow Soul Ring.
"Use Soul Power to draw the Soul Ring onto your Leiming Blade Martial Soul. Then meditate and circulate your Soul Power at once to absorb its energy."
Following Shen Rui's instructions, Shen Feng raised his right hand. With a thought, purple light blossomed, and a reduced version of the Leiming Blade Martial Soul floated above his palm.
"Phew. Come on, I choose you, my First Soul Ring."
Taking a deep breath, Shen Feng began channeling Soul Power into his right hand. The purple light flared, drawing the Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo toward him.
Shen Rui stared intently at the approaching Soul Ring and called out, "Sit cross-legged. Focus on your Martial Soul, circulate your Soul Power, and refine the Soul Ring."
Shen Feng did as he was told, sitting cross-legged where he stood and focusing all his attention on the Martial Soul in his right hand.
As the eight-hundred-year Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo Soul Ring settled around the Leiming Blade, Shen Feng immediately felt an extremely violent energy surge into his body.
In an instant, his right hand felt as if it had plunged into a pot of boiling oil. Violent lightning energy raced up his right arm and into his body.
In the blink of an eye, his insides felt as if they were burning. An explosive, agonizing pain flooded Shen Feng's mind.
Crack, crack, crack—
At once, faint cracking sounds came from his bones, as if they were being fried over and over in a pot of boiling oil.
"Stay conscious. Focus on your Martial Soul and use your Soul Power to resist the Soul Ring's power, then assimilate it. The pain is only temporary; the strength will stay with you."
That was the last thing Shen Feng heard Shen Rui say. The next second, his consciousness sank completely into the unbearable torment.
At the same time, the Soul Power in his body sprang fully to life. His mere ten levels of Soul Power couldn't compare to the energy of the eight-hundred-year Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo Soul Ring, but another Martial Soul within him was also working passively.
The Body Martial Soul—his body itself was his Martial Soul. At that moment, it displayed its most domineering side.
A soft, pale golden glow spread across Shen Feng's skin. His flesh, meridians, bones, organs, and everything else inside him took on a golden sheen.
With his Body Martial Soul taking effect, Shen Feng might as well have been a humanoid Soul Beast.
With his Body Martial Soul sharing the strain, the pain in Shen Feng's body eased considerably, leaving him with plenty of strength to refine the Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo Soul Ring's energy.
As the Soul Power within him carried the Soul Ring's energy through his meridians again and again, Shen Feng's Soul Power grew little by little, allowing him to refine even more of the Soul Ring's energy.
The virtuous cycle went on for an unknown length of time, until Shen Feng suddenly heard a roar beside him, like a flood bursting through a dam.
A great surge of Soul Power, fluid as water and oil, swept through his body, coursing along its many meridians before finally merging into a single current and flowing into his lower dantian.
It worked! Shen Feng rejoiced inwardly.
Although this was his first time absorbing a Soul Ring, he somehow knew that he had broken through his bottleneck.
The next moment, the eight-hundred-year Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo Soul Ring smoothly merged with the Leiming Blade, then blossomed once more around Shen Feng.
An overwhelming sense of comfort washed through Shen Feng's body and mind. It was a sensation beyond words, many times more wondrous than the pleasures of the flesh.
It was the satisfaction of suffering finally giving way to relief, not the hollow weariness after a hard-fought battle. The sensation made him feel as if he were floating weightlessly among the clouds, or had climbed to the peak and reached the heights of bliss.
Every one of the thirty-six thousand pores across his body opened, greedily breathing in the wonderful air. As his body underwent a qualitative transformation, it began to change in strange ways.
"Mmnh..." Shen Feng couldn't help letting out a sound of pleasure.
Seeing this, Ling Na chuckled softly. "If you're awake, open your eyes already. What are you pretending for?"
Shen Feng's cheeks reddened, and he stealthily opened his eyes.
Fortunately, the setting sun shone right onto his face, so Ling Na couldn't see his embarrassing expression.
"Haha, what a beautiful sunset. Looks like absorbing a Soul Ring didn't take me that long."
Shen Rui gave him a speechless look. "It's the next day!"
Shen Feng froze. He had begun absorbing the Soul Ring at sunset and opened his eyes at sunset, so he'd thought only a short while had passed. He hadn't realized an entire day and night had gone by.
No wonder Ling Na and Flender, who had been sorting through the dried senior's belongings earlier, had somehow ended up beside him.
The spot where the miscellaneous items had been piled was now a small mound of dirt.
Shen Rui sighed. "Don't be an idiot. Get up and check your condition, then test your Soul Skill."
"Oh, right." Shen Feng climbed to his feet and looked down at himself.
"I seem to have grown a little. My clothes are too small."
Shen Rui nodded. "That's normal. Absorbing a Soul Ring tempers your body each time. Growing taller and stronger, and gaining strength, are all benefits that come with increased power. What matters most is what your Soul Skill can do."
With a thought, Shen Feng summoned the Leiming Blade in its full, one-meter-thirty form into his hand. The blade was purple-black, with lightning flashing across it and sharp crackles sounding now and then.
A bright yellow Soul Ring slowly rose from beneath his feet and revolved around his body.
This was the defining sign of promotion to One-Ring Soul Master.
"Quick, control your Soul Power and channel it into the Soul Ring. Activate your Soul Skill and give it a try."
Shen Rui seemed even more eager than Shen Feng.
That was only natural. A parent's heart was a strange thing; watching your child grow little by little brought a special kind of satisfaction.
Of course, that didn't apply to rebellious brats.
Shen Feng nodded and directed the Soul Power within him into the Soul Ring to activate his Soul Skill.
The Yellow Soul Ring lit up. The Leiming Blade in Shen Feng's hand let out a hum, and the lightning flashing along the blade gathered together, forming a solid purple-black blade of lightning across its surface.
At a glance, it looked as if the blade had suddenly grown more than ten centimeters longer.
Shen Feng carefully gauged it, then gave the Leiming Blade a gentle swing. "My strength and speed have increased by about fifty percent. The Leiming Blade's sharpness has increased by one hundred percent, and its penetration by two hundred percent. As for how long it lasts, about fifteen minutes."
Shen Rui nodded with satisfaction and analyzed, "The boost to your strength and speed should be because the lightning attribute has fully awakened your body. The increase in sharpness and penetration is the real ability granted by the Purple Thunder Sword Bamboo Soul Ring."
"The duration isn't short, either. It's enough for a battle at Soul Grandmaster level. After all, this Soul Skill boosts your attributes more than many thousand-year Soul Skills do, so it's no surprise that it consumes more Soul Power."
"Your Soul Power will increase as your level rises, so the duration will grow as well. There's no need to worry about that."
Shen Feng furrowed his brows. "No, I think this Soul Skill has a second stage."
As he spoke, Shen Feng poured all the Soul Power in his body into the Soul Ring. The Leiming Blade blazed with dazzling purple light.
Gripping the hilt with both hands, he slashed hard at a nearby stone wall. A purple blade of light, about a meter long, shot out.
A boom rang out, leaving a charred gash nearly ten centimeters deep in the stone wall.
Flender was startled. "Whoa, that's powerful. No wonder it's an eight-hundred-year Soul Ring. It's already on par with the Third Soul Skill of an ordinary Three-Ring Soul Elder."
Ling Na smiled brightly. "Well done, well done. My Xiao Feng is amazing."
Before you continue