"Watch out!"
Qin Yun let out a low shout. As Soul Power coursed through him and a chill surfaced, both his hands had already turned jade-like.
With a flick of his fingers using Mysterious Jade Hand, Qin Yun precisely knocked away the several bamboo leaves flying toward him.
"Pfft! Pfft!"
Though they had lost their force, their edges remained just as sharp. Like hot knives through butter, they plunged straight into the surrounding rocks.
"That sharpness... They might be even sharper than steel blades!"
Tang San stared at the razor-sharp bamboo leaves, his eyes burning with excitement.
The Solitary Bamboo's sharpness and its hidden-weapon-like attacks made it the perfect template for his First Soul Ring!
Sure enough, he still loved hidden weapons!
"Brother Yun, you were right. We'll choose this one!"
Tang San immediately raised his hand. His Silent Sleeve Arrow shot out in an instant, three fine-iron sleeve arrows whistling through the air toward the Solitary Bamboo's stalk, aiming to cut it clean in half.
But what happened next left Tang San unable to believe his eyes.
With a sharp clang, the sleeve arrows struck the ink-green stalk and sparked against it, yet didn't even leave a single white mark!
The bark of a Four-Hundred-Year Solitary Bamboo was as hard as fine iron, and its defense far surpassed the hide of Soul Beasts of the same level.
Even though Tang San had crafted these sleeve arrows with great care, they were, in the end, only the simplest kind of mechanical hidden weapon. They weren't among the Tang Sect's top-tier hidden weapons, and couldn't penetrate its defenses.
"It's certainly tough!"
Tang San furrowed his brows. Though he was eager, he had no idea what to do.
At that moment, there was no need to use some other method or summon the Golden Dragon Spear.
It was only a Four-Hundred-Year Solitary Bamboo. Using a cannon to kill a mosquito would be a bit much.
Qin Yun smiled faintly. Light shimmered across his Storage Soul Tool, and in the blink of an eye, a piece of black ironwork with a solid, rugged design appeared in his hand.
At first glance, it looked a bit like the shotgun from Terminator.
"Is this the hidden weapon the sect master made?"
As the Tang Sect's current sect master, Qin Yun making hidden weapons didn't surprise Tang San at all.
On the contrary, he would have found it strange if Qin Yun never used hidden weapons.
He was simply curious about what kind of hidden weapon Qin Yun had taken out.
[It looks a little like the Godly Zhuge Crossbow, but not quite. Could it be something the sect master developed himself?]
Never mind. If he couldn't figure it out, there was no point in thinking about it. To keep his dear Brother Yun from getting hurt, Tang San called out a warning.
"Brother Yun, its bark is incredibly hard. Ordinary hidden weapons can't penetrate it. Maybe we should think this through and try something like setting it on fire..."
Before Tang San could finish, Qin Yun made no unnecessary movements. He raised the gun, aimed at the base of the Green Blade Solitary Bamboo's stalk, and steadily pulled the trigger.
"Boom—!"
A muffled blast shattered the forest's stillness.
A heavy Slug Soul Power Bullet, carrying a violent impact, slammed into the Solitary Bamboo in an instant!
The already-hard stalk snapped under the bullet's furious impact!
The thick stalk crashed to the ground, and its leaves immediately withered.
Before it had completely died, Qin Yun barked,
"San, now!"
Though he was shocked by the shotgun's power, Tang San reacted quickly when it mattered.
He pulled the short blade from his waist, stepped forward using Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, and slashed at the Hundred-Year Solitary Bamboo, severing its life force for good.
Its tense attack came to an abrupt halt. A bright yellow Hundred-Year Soul Ring slowly rose from the fallen Solitary Bamboo's corpse, hovering quietly in the air.
Qin Yun said, "Clear your mind and try to draw the Soul Ring in with your Soul Power. It'll feel a little uncomfortable at first, but you'll get used to it soon!"
"Yes, Brother Yun!"
Tang San slowly circulated the Soul Power within him and followed Qin Yun's instructions, beginning to absorb the Four-Hundred-Year Yellow Soul Ring.
Absorbing a Soul Ring allowed no distractions. Seeing Tang San sit down cross-legged, Qin Yun arranged for Xiaowu and Wang Sheng to stand guard.
He poured out a pile of prepared droppings from his Storage Soul Tool—those of powerful Soul Beasts such as Fierce Tigers and black bears—and scattered them evenly across the ground.
The pungent smell spread through the area, effectively deterring low-level Soul Beasts in the forest and keeping them from barging in and disrupting the process.
The method wasn't very dignified, but it was the easiest and most effective way.
Then Qin Yun took the front, Wang Sheng guarded the left, and Xiao Wu watched the right.
The three of them formed a triangle around Tang San, protecting him without moving an inch away.
A Four-Hundred-Year Soul Ring wasn't especially difficult to absorb as a First Soul Ring, and it was from a plant-type Soul Beast, too, so nothing was likely to go wrong.
After standing guard for a quarter of an hour, when the time seemed right, Xiao Wu, who had been quietly keeping watch nearby, suddenly came up beside Qin Yun. Her little face flushed as she spoke softly.
"Brother Yun, I... I need to go take care of something."
Did she really need to take care of something, or was she using the chance to secretly condense a Soul Ring?
One advantage of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beast was that, besides having Innate Full Soul Power and cultivating far faster than ordinary Soul Masters, they also didn't need to hunt Soul Beasts for their first seven Soul Rings. They could simply condense the rings themselves.
Qin Yun glanced up at her but didn't ask any questions. He only nodded.
"Don't go too far. Be careful."
"Okay!"
Xiao Wu answered, then hurried into the nearby woods, disappearing from sight in no time.
Wang Sheng looked puzzled and was about to say something, but Qin Yun stopped him with a glance. He could only continue standing guard in silence.
Xiao Wu was gone for nearly a quarter of an hour.
When she came back out of the woods, her clothes were still neat and she showed no sign of a struggle, but the aura around her had completely transformed.
She had broken through the bottleneck at level ten. Faint Soul Power rippled around her. She had clearly condensed a Soul Ring and successfully advanced to an eleventh-level Soul Grandmaster!
"Brother Yun, I was pretty lucky. When I went over there just now, I found a rabbit that had run into a tree. I finished it off, and I got a Soul Ring too!"
"A rabbit ran into a tree?" Wang Sheng scratched his head, his little brain full of big questions.
"What, it can't happen?
"Even a pig can run into a tree. Why can't a rabbit? You've been in school for years already. Don't you know the story of waiting by a tree stump for a rabbit?"
"Sister Xiao Wu, that's not what I meant..."
Without dwelling on that, Qin Yun changed the subject.
"What's your First Soul Skill?"
"Hehehe, my First Soul Skill is Teleportation. Its range is only five meters to start with, but it'll increase as my Soul Power grows!"
She might have been a little disobedient, but she was still pretty sensible.
A Waist Bow was only useful in the bedroom, aside from making it easier to eat well. It was practically useless.
By contrast, Teleportation, a skill related to space, was incredibly useful!
"Not bad. Looks like you really did get lucky!"
Almost as soon as Xiao Wu returned, the yellow light around Tang San, seated cross-legged, suddenly flared!
He had finished absorbing the Soul Ring!
Tang San slowly opened his eyes, a sharp glint flashing in them. His Soul Power rose steadily, and he successfully broke through to the thirteenth-level Soul Grandmaster.
It wasn't that the Four-Hundred-Year Solitary Bamboo had increased his Soul Power. Tang San had been cultivating all along and had accumulated quite a bit.
So as soon as he broke through, the Soul Power he had stored up surfaced.
"Brother Yun, I did it!"
"Just like you said, after absorbing the Solitary Bamboo Martial Soul, my Blue Silver Grass is much tougher. Its leaves are as sharp as flying knives, so I can use them as hidden weapons.
"And I also gained a Soul Skill called Blue Silver Pole Vault!"
Before you continue