Where Are My Spirit Rings?

No expected surge of energy, no painful process of fusion.

The rotating nebula within the gate, at the heart of its deep vortex, suddenly erupted with a gravitational pull that made one's heart seize up.

It was a gravitational collapse on an astrophysical scale.

Under the stunned gazes of the crowd, the yellow soul ring representing four hundred years of cultivation, the moment it touched the Star Gate's event horizon, instantly disintegrated.

It was no longer a complete ring. Instead, it was forcibly torn apart by that terrifying tidal force, shattering into countless streams of golden light particles.

Those light particles, like meteors captured by a black hole, traced graceful parabolic arcs across the nebula, then irretrievably plunged into the endless abyss of deep blue, utterly annihilated.

The light gate remained deep blue, the nebula still spun, as if what it had just devoured wasn't a soul ring, but an insignificant speck of cosmic dust.

The air suddenly fell into a deathly silence.

A gust of wind swept through the forest, lifting a few withered leaves that slapped against the frozen faces of the crowd.

Su Yun maintained his cross-legged meditative posture, his hands frozen mid-air. The sunglasses he'd been using to look cool had slipped down to the tip of his nose from his sudden head jerk, revealing a pair of eyes filled with bewilderment.

"???"

Su Yun blinked, immediately checking inside himself.

Empty.

That solid bottleneck at level ten soul power remained unmoved.

Not a shred of soul power had flowed into his body, nor had that iconic yellow ring materialized.

Where was my big, bright, hard-won four-hundred-year soul ring?

It was right here just a moment ago!

Not even a sound, and it didn't even leave me a scrap of soul power residue?

"Um..."

Su Yun turned his stiff neck to look at the petrified crowd.

"Does anyone know what just happened? It... didn't go into my body."

The kneeling Red Hair's Group had their mouths wide open, their jaws literally hitting the ground, completely unable to comprehend what they'd just witnessed.

I'm just a spirited young guy, and you're asking me?

Tang San rubbed his Purple Demon Eyes fiercely, even consuming soul power to activate them again, until his eyes ached and teared up before he had to admit a fact that defied all logic.

The soul ring was really gone, as if that gate had devoured it.

And the most devastated person there was none other than Yu Xiaogang.

Grandmaster's eyes, which had been full of anticipation, ready to welcome his moment of glory, now looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets.

His blackened face twisted instantly, both hands clutching his explosive hair.

!!!!

"It... it... ate... ate it?!"

"How can a martial soul eat a soul ring?! That's not scientific! That's impossible!!"

Grandmaster staggered up to Su Yun, abandoning all decorum, dropping to the ground and frantically groping around the Star Gate, trying to find any trace of the soul ring, even a speck of light dust.

"Nothing... it's really gone..."

"A soul ring is an energy construct! How could it be devoured by a martial soul? Even a tool martial soul only carries the soul ring, it doesn't break it down!"

Yu Xiaogang's worldview crumbled completely in that moment.

He had studied theories his whole life, reviewed thousands of files, and never seen such an absurd, overbearing, unreasonable sight.

Watching the delirious, incoherent Grandmaster, the atmosphere around them began to shift subtly.

Red Hair was the first to react.

He got up from the ground, looked at Yu Xiaogang still searching for the soul ring, his eyes full of suspicion and anger.

"Hey, old man!"

Red Hair stepped forward, grabbed Yu Xiaogang by the collar, and yanked him up off the ground.

"Weren't you just swearing you had a ninety percent chance of success?"

"Didn't you say if we followed your method, there'd be absolutely no problem?"

"So where's the soul ring now?! My godfather worked so hard to get that ring, and your gate swallowed it! Is it your damn incantation that's messed up?!"

"I..."

Yu Xiaogang choked, his face turning purple, waving his hands frantically in defense.

"It's not my fault! My theory is perfect! This... this is an accident! It's that kid's martial soul mutation being too extreme!"

"Bullshit!"

Green Hair stepped up too, pointing at Yu Xiaogang with contempt.

"What mutation or not, I think you're just a fraud! Earlier, you got the rat direction wrong, you got hung from a tree in the fight, and now you've lost the soul ring during absorption!"

"And this is what you call a grandmaster? I think you're a grand scammer!"

"Un... unreasonable! You can't argue with someone who's ignorant!"

Yu Xiaogang trembled with rage, pointing at Su Yun's Star Gate as he screamed hysterically, making one last desperate struggle:

"Su Yun! Say something! Don't you feel that even though there's no soul ring inside you, your soul power has increased? Or that your martial soul has undergone some qualitative change? Even the slightest feeling would do!"

Su Yun looked at the Grandmaster, who was on the verge of tears, sensed his soul power still stuck at level ten, and glanced at the door that remained aloof and unchanged.

He paused for two seconds, then honestly shook his head.

"Grandmaster, to be honest..."

Su Yun pushed up his slipping sunglasses, his tone helpless.

"Still level ten. The bottleneck hasn't budged an inch."

Boom!

Those words were the final straw that broke Yu Xiaogang.

His eyes went vacant, muttering to himself, his body swayed, and with a thud, he collapsed to the ground.

It was over.

This time, it was truly over.

Not only had his guidance failed, but he'd also destroyed a four-hundred-year top-quality soul ring.

A four-hundred-year Spatial Soul Ring!

A treasure priceless and impossible to find on the market!

Looking at the murderous glares from Red Hair and the others, and Tang San's silent but clearly skeptical look that said, This teacher really is unreliable, Yu Xiaogang felt that his lifelong reputation was completely finished in this forest today.

He clutched his head, yanking at his hair in agony, letting out a desolate wail:

"I can't tell... I really can't tell..."

But just as the Grandmaster's despairing cry faded away—

Buzz—!!!

An unprecedented, terrifying tremor erupted without warning from the Star Gate!

Everyone instinctively looked up.

The door that had swallowed the soul ring and remained unresponsive now had its deep nebula vortex inside suddenly spinning wildly!

It moved so fast that it instantly turned into a chilling, deep storm eye!

Then—

Crack, crack, crack!

On the silver metal doorframe, countless obscure, intricate patterns lit up with blinding blue light, as if a circuit had been activated!

A vast aura from another world burst forth from the center of the vortex!

The blue light turned into a piercing, harsh white.

It felt like a TV signal being forcibly cut off, leaving only frantic, jumping static on the screen.

"Zzz... zzz... Warning... coordinates... lost..."

The conversation in Su Yun's Tactical Earpiece, hanging on his ear, with Lei Zhan was instantly cut off, replaced by a sharp, piercing feedback noise and a chaotic static like sounds from the deep sea.

"Hey? Captain Lei? Can you hear me? This is 001."

Su Yun frowned, pressing his finger against the earpiece, calling out three times in a row.

"Zzz—zzz—"

No response.

Su Yun's heart sank.

Ever since arriving in this world, whether in bustling cities or deep mountain forests, communication had never been interrupted.

But now, it was broken.

It wasn't a bad signal...

It was that the anchor point had changed.

Su Yun snapped his head up to look at his martial soul.

The data stream on the doorframe was no longer the silver-blue of Earth's technology. Instead, it had turned into an ancient, desolate, primordial purple-gold hue.

"This door... seems to have switched channels?"

Su Yun pushed up his sunglasses, a sense of foreboding rising in his heart.

That soul ring just now didn't seem to have been absorbed. Instead, it acted as some kind of toll or fuel, forcibly twisting the Star Gate's connection coordinates.

It was no longer connecting to Earth.

...but an unknown, more ancient and dangerous plane.

"Pfft—"

Just as everyone was frozen in doubt and uncertainty, a faint silver mist suddenly sprayed from the center of the Star Gate's vortex.

Then.

A hoof, white as snow and spotless, shattered the chaotic starlight and stepped out from within the gate.