Two External Soul Bones (Seeking Follow-up Reads)

This Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear is worth a try.

No matter how formidable the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear may be, it is, after all, only five thousand years old.

He only needs to endure this period of time.

Besides, he has Electrolux to back him up.

Sitting cross-legged beside the carcass of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, Feng Piaoling raised his hand to release his Talisman Martial Soul, channeling the Green Lotus Sword Art to draw the energy within the spirit ring into his body.

Boom!

The moment the spirit ring's energy was absorbed into his body, it immediately transformed into an incredibly domineering spirit power.

Instantly, the Green Lotus Sword Art, as if a starving wolf having caught the scent of blood, surged fiercely from his dantian. In almost the blink of an eye, it enveloped the tyrannical spirit power converted from the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's spirit ring and began to refine it ruthlessly.

"Such domineering spirit power. If it were a spirit ring of the same age from any other beast, the Green Lotus Sword Art could refine it in an hour or two at most. But refining this is like a snail's pace—it's several, even over ten times slower."

The higher the intensity of the energy contained within a spirit ring, the slower the refinement speed; this is precisely why the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear is so notorious on the Douluo Continent.

Its bloodline grants it spirit power of unimaginable intensity.

This allows it to possess attack and defense capabilities that defy imagination.

It is the foundation of its ability to fight across ranks.

An hour passed.

A series of soft pop sounds emanated from within Feng Piaoling's body.

His dantian, already expanded significantly by the Green Lotus Sword Art, collided once more, feeling like an inflated balloon.

At the center of his dantian, the speed of the pure, transparent vortex accelerated suddenly, resembling a sentient nebula.

It continuously inhaled and exhaled, absorbing the incoming spirit power.

Following this, Feng Piaoling's meridians were also being widened. Although the impact of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's tyrannical energy caused unbearable swelling and pain, under the protection of the Green Lotus Sword Art, the meridians remained intact.

A day passed, and Feng Piaoling's skin was already covered in a mist of blood.

His body was covered in bulging veins due to the immense pain that exceeded what an ordinary person could endure.

Two days passed, and the situation remained the same.

It was not until the third day that this pain began to subside.

Electrolux, residing within Feng Piaoling's spiritual sea, had been monitoring the changes in Feng Piaoling's body the entire time.

He discovered with astonishment that the spirit power within Feng Piaoling was actually circulating along a path that was extremely intricate yet incredibly refined.

As the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's spirit ring was absorbed and refined, that path became increasingly sophisticated and complex.

At the same time, the spirit power itself grew more and more robust.

Compared to before, it was at least thirty percent more substantial than its original foundation.

Finally, it formed a unique spirit power circuit, circulating rhythmically through his meridians, endless and unceasing.

"A heaven-sent genius."

Without reason, Electrolux let out this sigh of admiration.

Over these three days, he had witnessed the birth of a new cultivation technique.

And this technique was something Feng Piaoling had created through constant exploration.

While the circulation path complemented his previous technique, it had broken away from its original form, increasing the quality of his spirit power while simultaneously boosting the speed of its circulation.

It was clearly not something ghostwritten by another.

In other words, this technique was created entirely by this boy of less than twelve years old before his eyes.

Even Electrolux had to admit that if they were of the same era, he would be cast into the shadows by Feng Piaoling.

As long as he did not fall, the path ahead of this youth was destined to go further than his own.

After a long while, Feng Piaoling opened his eyes and slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. A joyful expression appeared on his face; he had finally stepped into the fourth level of the Green Lotus Sword Art.

The fourth level of the Green Lotus Sword Art provided an increase of about thirty percent in spirit power density compared to the third level.

However, this was only for Feng Piaoling, who practiced the Green Lotus Sword Art; for Tang Ya and Bei Bei, who practiced the Mysterious Heaven Skill, the improvement would be far greater.

At the very least, it would be a doubling.

Calculated accordingly, the density of Feng Piaoling's spirit power was at least four times theirs.

Even compared to the complete Mysterious Heaven Skill, he was at least three times stronger.

Not to mention those ordinary spirit masters.

Furthermore, the bottleneck of level 30 spirit power, where Feng Piaoling had been stuck for half a year, was finally broken, reaching approximately level 34 and a half.

About two levels of this were accumulated by his own efforts, while the remaining two and a half were gained from absorbing the five-thousand-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear spirit ring.

"There are two days left until Shrek opens for enrollment. With the speed of my Earth Escape Talisman, I can arrive in at most one day. Before that, I should consolidate my cultivation."

Feng Piaoling knew well the importance of foundations. Only by building a solid foundation could one continue to build upward; if the foundation is not firm, it is like a castle in the air, liable to collapse at any moment.

Take that Brothel Phoenix from ten thousand years ago as an example; despite having sufficient cultivation, he had been lazy in his youth and failed to train diligently, which resulted in a shaky foundation.

The end result was—the Phoenix eventually ascended to godhood, but he lost his Swift and his soul along the way.

This was precisely why Feng Piaoling placed such great importance on foundations.

According to his plan, the first six levels of the Green Lotus Sword Art would not focus too heavily on offense, but rather specialize in building a foundation; once that foundation was solid enough, it would not be too late to focus on increasing his attack power.

Before that point, the spirit ring skills of his Talisman Martial Soul, along with his Soul Tools, would be more than enough for his needs.

"Almost forgot, there's also this."

Feng Piaoling raised both hands, fingers slightly spread, with five streaks of dark golden light extending from each.

The light on his left hand was about one foot and two inches long, while the right was about one foot and five inches; wide at the top and narrow at the bottom like blades, the dark golden luster rippled like water. The moment they appeared—

Feng Piaoling's hands turned entirely dark gold, his fingers and the blades becoming one, indistinguishable from each other, as if they were natural extensions of his own fingers.

"I never expected that, just like that scoundrel from ten thousand years ago who absorbed the Man Faced Demon Spider spirit ring along with its External Soul Bone, I would absorb the External Soul Bone produced by this Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear while absorbing its spirit ring. And to think it's a pair of palm bones—a pleasant surprise indeed."

Muttering this to himself, Feng Piaoling controlled the two External Soul Bones, imitating the Wolverine from the superhero movies of his past life, and casually swiped his claws across the ground.

To his surprise, the ground was sliced through as easily as foam, leaving two claw marks without making a single sound.

"As expected of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw, renowned for its formidable offense. This attack power is simply peerless. However, until I have fully fused with these two soul bones, it is best not to expose them to others for the time being."

With a movement from Feng Piaoling, the dark golden claws vanished like melting snow, and his hands returned to normal.

He glanced at the carcass of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear before him, thinking that spirit beast meat not only increased one's cultivation speed but was also delicious—especially the bear paws, which were a rare delicacy.

Fortunately, the temperature in this underground cavern was quite low, so even after three days, the carcass of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear had not spoiled.

Thus, he butchered the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, cleaned it, and used a Fire Bomb Talisman with controlled power to create a non-explosive fireball to roast a piece of meat, washing it down with some water.

After simply filling his stomach.

He re-entered a state of cultivation to consolidate his foundation.

ps: Seeking monthly tickets and continued reading.