Sudden Change

"Thank you, Grandpa Qian. Thank you, Xue'er." Qin Heng accepted the gifts and thanked them sincerely.

To be fair, Qin Heng had mostly been using Qian Daoliu, Qian Renxue, and Spirit Hall.

He had previously used his inner thoughts to bluff them mainly so that, before he had fully developed, he could cling to a powerful backer who would protect and support him.

Qin Heng had originally thought that since he had used Spirit Hall in his early days, he would naturally protect Spirit Hall in the future and prevent it from being destroyed. That should count as an equal exchange.

Yet Qian Daoliu and Qian Renxue's attitude today stirred an unfamiliar feeling within Qin Heng. Whether the grandfather and granddaughter were sincere or merely acting, Qin Heng had to admit that he was a sucker for this sort of thing.

That evening, Qin Heng returned to his residence. He took out the Wisdom Skull of Mental Condensation and immediately began fusing with it.

This Soul Bone mainly enhanced spiritual power, but the Soul Power contained within it was also exceptionally abundant. After all, it was a Soul Bone more than sixty thousand years old.

Once Qin Heng had completed the fusion, his Soul Power Level reached level 40.

What delighted Qin Heng even more was that something unexpected occurred during the fusion. He did not know whether it was because both possessed spiritual attributes, or because the skull's area happened to overlap with that of the Illusion Pupil.

As Qin Heng fused with the Soul Bone, the Illusion Pupil inexplicably began absorbing the Soul Bone's origin power, while the Soul Bone also attempted to absorb and assimilate the Illusion Pupil.

The Wisdom Skull of Mental Condensation had been fused later, while the Illusion Pupil had already completely fused with Qin Heng. The Illusion Pupil thus had home-field advantage.

However, the Wisdom Skull of Mental Condensation was more than sixty thousand years old, whereas the Illusion Pupil was only twelve thousand years old.

One had home-field advantage, while the other had the higher age. The result was an evenly matched struggle. Neither could completely devour the other; instead, their origins merged.

In the end, the Wisdom Skull of Mental Condensation's age fell to just over thirty thousand years, while the Illusion Pupil rose to thirty thousand years. At the same time, after merging with the Illusion Pupil, the Wisdom Skull of Mental Condensation gained growth properties like an External Soul Bone.

Although the skull's age had dropped by half, the fusion of the two Soul Bones was, overall, a good thing. As long as they could grow, there would be plenty of opportunities to raise their ages again in the future.

Qin Heng then examined the Soul Skills of the Illusion Pupil and the head Soul Bone.

First, the Illusion Pupil. Its two Soul Skills had not fundamentally changed much. Illusion Body had become more complete, and even his clones could activate the Illusion Pupil and use the Soul Skill Illusion Dream. Illusion Dream itself had also become increasingly realistic.

Beyond that, the greatest change was that the Illusion Pupil's consumption had decreased considerably. Previously, activating it for one minute consumed 1% of his spiritual power. Now, that consumption had been directly halved.

As for the Wisdom Skull of Mental Condensation, its Soul Skill had not changed at all. It was still Purple God Light. The difference was that Purple God Light could now be fired through the Illusion Pupil and receive a certain degree of amplification.

Lastly was Qin Heng's spiritual power. The Illusion Pupil and the Wisdom Skull of Mental Condensation had fused, while the Soul Power and spiritual power contained within them had not been lost. Qin Heng's spiritual power smoothly broke through to the Title Douluo level.

After figuring out the changes to his body, Qin Heng was in high spirits. He struck while the iron was hot, taking out the fifty-thousand-year Evil Spirit Orca Whale Rubber. He sought Mighty Lion Douluo's help to melt it, then consumed it directly.

The effects of fifty-thousand-year Whale Rubber were indeed extremely potent. Although this body of his was only seven years old, he could not help entertaining improper thoughts. Fortunately, Qin Heng had already gained an initial grasp of Taiji True Meaning. Using it to guide away those wicked thoughts, he spent a full day and night successfully absorbing the Whale Rubber.

After Qin Heng finished absorbing the Whale Rubber, Mighty Lion Douluo immediately helped examine his body.

"Not bad. You brat can now absorb a thirty-thousand-year Soul Ring."

Qin Heng was extremely satisfied with this result.

For ordinary Soul Masters, the absorption age of the next Soul Ring generally doubled based on the previous one.

Qin Heng's third Soul Ring was twelve thousand years old, so his target for the fourth Soul Ring had been around twenty-four thousand years.

Yet this fifty-thousand-year Evil Spirit Orca Whale Rubber directly raised the age of Soul Rings he could absorb by five thousand years, bringing him to the standard for absorbing a thirty-thousand-year Soul Ring.

Do not underestimate those five thousand years. With that increase now, his fifth Soul Ring could attempt to reach sixty-five thousand to seventy thousand years. Once that succeeded, his sixth Soul Ring could absorb a hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring.

Before today, Qin Heng's target for his sixth Soul Ring had been eighty to ninety thousand years. Now, he set it directly at a hundred thousand years.

After Qin Heng absorbed the Soul Bone and Whale Rubber, Qian Daoliu immediately arranged for the Third Consecrated, Azure Luan Douluo, to take him hunting for a Soul Ring.

"Xiao Heng, what is your target for your fourth Soul Ring?"

Qin Heng had already selected his target during this period. When Azure Luan Douluo asked, Qin Heng stated his choice without hesitation. "Grandpa Azure Luan, my target is a thirty-thousand-year Wind-Thunder Flying Dragon."

As its name implied, the Wind-Thunder Flying Dragon was a draconic Soul Beast possessing wind and lightning attributes. Its greatest characteristic was its skill at using wind-and-lightning Soul Power to launch large-scale, long-range attacks.

Its signature Soul Skill was to flap its wings, gathering wind-and-lightning Soul Power together before detonating it in an instant to create the wide-area Wind-Thunder Burst.

Qin Heng's goal was to obtain this Soul Skill and compensate for his weakness of lacking long-range, wide-area destructive Soul Skills.

Upon hearing this, Azure Luan Douluo pondered for a moment before recalling where this type of Soul Beast frequently appeared.

Across the entire Douluo Continent, the vast majority of Soul Beasts could be found in the Star Dou Great Forest, and Wind-Thunder Flying Dragons were no exception. These Soul Beasts often appeared in a canyon within the Star Dou Great Forest.

Besides that, this type of Soul Beast could also be found in the forest where the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan raised Soul Beasts.

After considering it, Azure Luan Douluo still took Qin Heng to the Star Dou Great Forest. It was not that he feared the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan; there was simply no need.

There was truly no need to clash with the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan over a mere Soul Beast and expose Spirit Hall's hidden strength.

Under Azure Luan Douluo's lead, they soon arrived above the canyon.

Just as Azure Luan Douluo had said, this canyon was the habitat of the Wind-Thunder Flying Dragons.

There were several hundred Wind-Thunder Flying Dragons within the canyon, and the oldest among them was already more than seventy thousand years old.

Distinguishing the age of a Wind-Thunder Flying Dragon was actually very simple: one only needed to look at the color of the horn on its head. Those under a hundred years had white horns; those from a hundred to a thousand years had yellow horns; those from a thousand to ten thousand years had purple horns; and those from ten thousand to a hundred thousand years had black horns.

As a Soul Beast's age increased, its horn continuously grew longer. Whenever it broke through a threshold, the old horn would fall off and a new one would grow. This happened when it advanced from a hundred years to a thousand years, and again when it advanced from a thousand years to ten thousand years.

After searching for a while, Azure Luan Douluo identified the most suitable target.

Among the Wind-Thunder Flying Dragons below, there were two whose horn color and length indicated an age of thirty to forty thousand years. Azure Luan Douluo chose the younger one. The other was nearly forty thousand years old, so there was no need to take the risk.