Bottleneck, Soul Hunting Forest

When he had first awakened, the Ice Silkworm Martial Soul had not even been as large as his little finger, no more than three centimeters long. It had looked like nothing more than a tiny maggot.

But after Chen Yumo had continuously fed it for two and a half years, the Ice Silkworm, having absorbed abundant energy from Cold Mulberry Leaves, had steadily grown larger. From a tiny creature three centimeters long, it had now reached the thickness of a middle finger and nearly ten centimeters in length at Level Ten.

Not only that, after reaching the Level Ten bottleneck, which was now—

The Ice Silkworm Martial Soul before Chen Yumo slowly emitted a dim icy-blue glow, then gradually transformed into a dark brown silkworm cocoon within the light.

Chen Yumo could sense that his Martial Soul had reached a critical point of Metamorphosis.

Its accumulated energy had reached its limit. All it needed now was an opportunity for the Ice Silkworm to Break Cocoon for the first time and undergo its first evolution since awakening.

Excluding the first three months after awakening his Martial Soul, during which he had not cultivated, Chen Yumo had raised his Soul Power by nine levels over two years and three months—a total of twenty-seven months. On average, he had gained one level every three months, rising from Innate Level One Soul Power to the Level Ten bottleneck.

With this cultivation speed, not to mention a Spirit Master with an Innate Level One trash Martial Soul, even Tang San had never cultivated this quickly.

He was still stuck at Level Nineteen now.

Chen Yumo did not know whether it was because of the nickname "Ghost Hand Demon San," or whether Yu Xiaogang had influenced him as well, but Tang San's cultivation speed over the past two years had been far from ideal.

After obtaining the Mandala Snake Spirit Ring, Tang San had jumped straight to Level Thirteen. By the end of the first year's holiday, he had nearly broken through to Level Sixteen. Yet another year and a half had passed, and he was still stuck at Level Nineteen.

Not only did he have to divide his attention between forging at the Blacksmith Shop and taking care of Yu Xiaogang, he also occasionally had to accompany that lazy mutt Rogue Rabbit to play, while frequently dealing with those utterly bizarre rumors.

Yu Xiaogang had been driven to the point where he did not dare leave the house. As Yu Xiaogang's disciple, how could Tang San possibly remain uninvolved?

Even Xiao Wu could not help asking him several times whether Yu Xiaogang had really gone out to sell himself. She even reminded him to watch out for Yu Xiaogang, lest he be led into selling himself too.

Already mentally exhausted, Tang San had even quarreled with Xiao Wu several times over it, refusing to let her slander his teacher like that.

Yu Xiaogang's self-harming act of standing guard for Tang San during the hunt for the Mandala Snake was still fresh in his mind, leaving Tang San—already hooked like a gullible fish—blindly defending Yu Xiaogang.

It was only because the version of Douluo Continent had not yet updated to the domestic version. Otherwise, Xiao Wu would definitely have asked him whether Yu Xiaogang was more important or she was.

With all that internal turmoil, how could Tang San cultivate the Mysterious Heaven Skill?

The Mysterious Heaven Skill, which valued calmness and balance above all else, was most taboo against impatience and agitation. A decline in cultivation speed was the least of it; it was already fortunate that Tang San had not suffered a cultivation deviation. The fact that he could still progress steadily showed that his mentality was strong enough.

That was why, despite clearly having better talent and conditions than Chen Yumo, Tang San's cultivation speed had ended up slower than his.

By Chen Yumo's estimate, Tang San would probably need more than half a month before breaking through to Level Twenty.

The gap between him and Tang San was steadily shrinking.

No matter what, he had already reached the bottleneck. The chance for his first evolution, which he had awaited day and night ever since awakening his Martial Soul, had finally arrived.

Chen Yumo stopped cultivating and spent three days properly relaxing. After adjusting himself to peak condition, he quietly left Nuoding Academy without alerting anyone and headed for Soul Hunting Forest.

A permit token was both precious and not particularly precious. When Chen Yumo reached the Level Ten bottleneck, Brother System somehow procured one and gave it to him.

When Chen Yumo asked where it had come from, it simply replied, "I picked it up," leaving him speechless.

You forgot to turn off auto-loot, didn't you?

Still, with the system's help, he did not need to expose his absurd cultivation speed. He could obtain his first Spirit Ring without anyone noticing.

As for necessities for entering Spirit Beast Forest, along with supplementary supplies such as Beast Repellent Powder, Chen Yumo had prepared them long ago. Preparing all of it had completely drained his remaining savings.

Fortunately, entering Soul Hunting Forest only required a permit token and no ticket. Otherwise, he would not even have been able to buy all the supplementary supplies.

What a pain.

For the sake of his first evolution, Chen Yumo had already done everything he could.

After traveling for an entire day, Chen Yumo finally arrived at Soul Hunting Town. After presenting his permit token, he entered Spirit Beast Forest.

The moment he entered Spirit Beast Forest, Chen Yumo prepared himself to pull out his Recurve Crossbow and attack at any moment. He kept his body slightly crouched as he cautiously ventured deeper into the forest.

He had set his target for his first Spirit Ring as a four-hundred-year Ice Mist Cold Butterfly.

After two and a half years of nurturing, the Ice Silkworm should have no trouble bearing a Spirit Ring at the optimal age limit. Chen Yumo himself had also consumed two pieces of Hundred-Year Whale Rubber, bringing his physical strength up to the level of his peers.

As for an even higher age limit, Chen Yumo had never considered it.

The strength of the Ice Silkworm Martial Soul would likely struggle to withstand a Spirit Ring with a higher age limit. If he wanted to absorb one beyond his level, he could only try after his Martial Soul evolved and its origin became more robust.

Brother System would provide him with any assistance aside from directly evolving his Martial Soul, but it would not interfere with decisions that affected evolution. Therefore, he had no way to seek the system's help with such a matter.

He would rather play it safe.

In any case, there were ways to increase a Spirit Ring's age limit at this stage. There was no need to risk everything over one or two hundred years in the early stages.

Based on the habits of the Ice Mist Cold Butterfly, Chen Yumo deliberately moved toward damp areas around marshes and streams in Soul Hunting Forest, paying particular attention to regions with dense mist.

Those were the environments Ice Mist Cold Butterflies loved most.

With the Encyclopedia, Chen Yumo understood Ice Mist Cold Butterflies better than even scholars who specialized in researching this type of Spirit Beast. Before long, he found one fluttering gracefully through the grass.

However, this Ice Mist Cold Butterfly was not of a suitable age for Chen Yumo.

The way to determine an Ice Mist Cold Butterfly's age was by examining the eye patterns on its wings.

Its wings bore beautiful natural patterns formed from phosphorescent powder. Aside from mutated Ice Mist Cold Butterflies, every other member of the species displayed eye-shaped patterns: white patterns indicated ten years, yellow indicated one hundred years, purple indicated one thousand years, and so on.

The exact age, meanwhile, was determined by how complete the eye patterns were.

A one-hundred-year Ice Mist Cold Butterfly only had the rough outline of a pair of eye sockets. After reaching two hundred years, eyeballs appeared inside the sockets. At three hundred years, details such as pupils appeared. At four hundred years, the outline of a second pair of eye sockets emerged, and so on, until three beautiful eye patterns appeared at nine hundred years.

Ten-year and thousand-year Ice Mist Cold Butterflies could also be distinguished this way; only the colors of their eye patterns differed.

The Ice Mist Cold Butterfly before Chen Yumo had only two hundred years of cultivation, far below his expectations.

"Keep looking!"