Spirit Bone and Soul Ancestor Spirit Ring

Wang Chuan then took out a Spirit Power Crystal to test his current level.

Because absorbing a Spirit Ring induces a state of deep meditation, even the special sensation that accompanies a breakthrough went unnoticed by Wang Chuan; at this moment, only the Spirit Power Crystal could confirm his level.

Looking at the feedback from the crystal ball, Wang Chuan raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"As expected of a ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring, the energy contained within is truly sufficient. It's pushed me almost all the way to level 24."

For a moment, Wang Chuan even toyed with the idea of absorbing ten-thousand-year Spirit Rings every time from now on to save himself the time of bitter cultivation.

But Wang Chuan quickly cast that thought aside.

While the age of a Spirit Ring is important, the most crucial thing is that Golden Scale remains satisfied; otherwise, if it stops evolving toward a Five-Clawed Golden Dragon halfway through, he would have nowhere to cry.

Calming his mind, Wang Chuan intended to carefully sense his body to see exactly how much of a boost he had gained under the reinforcement of the ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring.

But the moment Wang Chuan focused his intent, he discovered that his perception had undergone a subtle change.

At this moment, even without Wang Chuan consciously using his five senses, every subtle change in his surroundings was already fully perceived by him.

A flash of realization crossed Wang Chuan's eyes; it seemed that under the catalysis of the ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring, his Mental Power had undergone a qualitative change.

Then, Wang Chuan was immediately drawn to the corpse of the Dragon-Headed Jackal King lying dead before him.

"An abnormal fluctuation of spirit power."

As the words fell, Wang Chuan had already sliced open the abdomen of the Dragon-Headed Jackal King with a hand blade.

In an instant, intestines spilled all over the ground, a sight that felt slightly unsettling.

But Wang Chuan was not deceived by this appearance; instead, he spotted a faint red glow shining from within at a single glance.

Not minding the disgusting mucus, Wang Chuan reached out and grabbed the source of the anomaly.

It was a bone, red throughout and possessing the texture of jade; it appeared to be a left arm bone.

"A Spirit Bone!" The two words exploded in Wang Chuan's mind, filling him with joy.

However, although this Spirit Bone came from a top-tier Sub-Dragon Spirit Beast like the Dragon-Headed Jackal King, Wang Chuan had no intention of absorbing it.

The reason was simple: the age was too low.

The reason Wang Chuan felt happy was entirely because, over the past four years, he had hunted at least a thousand Spirit Beasts. While not every one of them was ten-thousand-years old, at least fifty ten-thousand-year Spirit Beasts had ended up in his stomach.

Yet, not a single one had dropped a Spirit Bone!

There weren't any from the more numerous thousand-year Spirit Beasts either!

It felt as if Wang Chuan had been playing a game, only to go four years without the gear he wanted dropping; now that the gear had finally dropped, Wang Chuan was naturally happy on instinct.

But before Wang Chuan could decide how to dispose of the Spirit Bone, he calmed down and, through his Observation Haki, finally detected abnormal sounds from the outside.

"Hmm? That's Zhao Wuji fighting a Spirit Beast! And there's more than one!"

Thinking this, Wang Chuan hurriedly put away the Spirit Bone, kicked away the boulder blocking the cave entrance, and prepared to support Zhao Wuji.

As soon as he arrived at the battlefield, Wang Chuan saw Zhao Wuji fighting a group of Great Strength Apes.

At this moment, Zhao Wuji was covered in blood, and the situation for the Great Strength Apes wasn't much better; the troop, which should have numbered thirty, now had seven lying dead on the ground, with purple thousand-year Spirit Rings floating above them.

However, anyone with a bit of common sense regarding Spirit Masters would not think that Zhao Wuji had the upper hand.

This was because the Great Strength Apes that had been hammered to death were merely the low-to-mid-level members of the troop; the five Great Strength Apes currently fighting Zhao Wuji were the true main force, each possessing cultivation of no less than ten thousand years.

But even while suffering such heavy injuries, Zhao Wuji did not retreat even a single step.

Whenever he saw a Great Strength Ape trying to break past him to enter the mountain where Wang Chuan was, Zhao Wuji would use his Gravity Control spirit skill or perform Shave to intercept them quickly.

Seeing this, Wang Chuan felt moved while simultaneously cursing Zhao Wuji for being a fool.

Because this style of fighting by Zhao Wuji was practically telling the enemy that he had a weakness to protect!

Especially since the opponents were Spirit Beasts like apes, which were relatively intelligent—it would be a miracle if they didn't figure it out!

So, it was no wonder Zhao Wuji was being beaten so badly.

Otherwise, with Zhao Wuji's mobility and attack power that was not inferior to a ten-thousand-year Spirit Beast, how could he have been beaten into such a state?

Soon, a fierce look stained Wang Chuan's eyes.

Although Wang Chuan did not eat humanoid Spirit Beasts, these Great Strength Apes had clearly crossed his bottom line; they all deserved to die!

Thus, Wang Chuan roared immediately, "Old Zhao! Push them out! Then come behind me!"

Upon hearing Wang Chuan's voice, Zhao Wuji, whose eyes were already swollen shut from the beating, felt a visible sense of joy appear on his face.

Immediately, while casting Gravity Control, Zhao Wuji said viciously.

"You stinking apes, you're finished! My boss is out, hahaha!"

In an instant, the Great Strength Apes were all blown dozens of meters away by the invisible gravity from Zhao Wuji, while Zhao Wuji tapped his feet repeatedly, using Shave to hide behind Wang Chuan.

Wang Chuan looked coldly at the Great Strength Apes in front of him but did not act immediately.

Then, spirit power surged around his body, and the ten-meter-long Golden Scale appeared imposingly, coiling around Wang Chuan like a snake, looking down at the Great Strength Apes and letting out a slightly immature dragon roar.

"Roar!"

Yet, this mere show of force in the form of a dragon's roar seemed to awaken a fear etched deep into the genes of the Great Strength Apes.

In an instant, their faces filled with panic, and they instinctively turned and fled.

Wang Chuan let out a cold snort at this.

They thought they could just run away after hitting his people? That was wishful thinking!

Besides, it was perfect timing to test the effects of his Golden Scale spirit skill on these Spirit Beasts.

Wang Chuan had discovered that although he couldn't directly use the Golden Scale spirit skill, this second spirit skill, Roaring Dragon Rage, was closely linked to his own Mental Power, so he could use this opportunity to gauge the level of his mental strength.

With a flick of his thought, one purple and one black Spirit Ring suddenly appeared around his body.

Wang Chuan's expression flickered with surprise for a moment.

Because the Spirit Rings, which had originally only been purple and black, now displayed distinct patterns on their surfaces.

The thousand-year purple Spirit Ring had its purple hue transformed into five triangles that, when connected, formed a large star pattern, with smaller purple star patterns interspersed between the triangles.

The pitch-black ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring had condensed into a massive crescent moon, outlined with smaller white crescent moons.

Beyond that, two wing-shaped patterns adorned the ring, complementing the crescent moon and giving the Spirit Ring a noble and elegant appearance.

Wang Chuan looked at them thoughtfully.

This seemed to be the Soul Ancestor Spirit Ring mentioned in passing in the comics, a change that spontaneously occurs in a Spirit Master's rings when they break through to the Soul Ancestor level.

As for why this change occurred or what purpose it served, Wang Chuan could no longer recall.