Half an hour later,
Lin Feng suddenly opened his eyes, a flash of excitement passing through them. The Soul Power gathered around him quietly receded, while the Gold Bag martial soul in his palm trembled slightly.
Within his consciousness, a familiar dazzling azure halo floated in midair.
As he sensed the soul skill contained within the soul ring, he sharply drew in a breath.
"This is freaking Blue Buff, every mana hog's favorite."
He then looked at the dim, sealed Crimson Halo beside it. Even though he could not sense its soul skill information yet, he knew it had to be Red Buff.
Flender had already noticed the change in him.
Ever since enrolling, Lin Feng had been steady and hardworking, yet he had always concealed a trace of confusion over his martial soul, as if it were a weight on his mind.
But now, he exuded an innate pride. It was as though he had come alive, his entire bearing completely transformed.
Flender strode over, slapped a large hand onto Lin Feng's shoulder, and smiled so broadly that his eyes narrowed to slits and his mouth could barely close.
"Lin Feng, judging by that look, your martial soul must have given you a huge surprise. Tell me, can your soul skill turn stone into gold, or does it spit out gold coins directly?"
His eyes practically turned into gold coins as he spoke. The excitement on his face was impossible to hide, every word dripping with the purest desire for money.
Oscar leaned in from the side, already imagining a wonderful future in his little head, thinking about how he would have endless Gold Soul Coins to spend if he followed his big brother.
"Hahaha..."
The more he thought about it, the higher the corners of his mouth rose, until he was practically drooling.
Lin Feng lifted his gaze and looked at Flender with a smile.
"Dean, congratulations. You guessed completely wrong."
"My money bag doesn't spit out gold coins. It swallows them."
Did he expect Tencent's stuff to spit out gold coins? It was made to suck in money.
Flender's face instantly fell, every trace of his earlier smile vanishing as his voice abruptly rose.
"How dare you! Who are you really? How dare you impersonate Lin Feng of Shrek!"
The speed at which he changed faces was astonishing.
Lin Feng was long accustomed to this side of him. He raised a hand and brushed away Flender's hand from his shoulder, gently shaking the Gold Bag in his palm.
"Don't fool around, Dean. My martial soul is a little special."
"The soul ring has two soul skills. One is already unlocked, while the other needs to consume Gold Soul Coins to unlock. I don't know exactly how many it needs, so lend me two thousand gold coins first and let me test it out."
"One soul ring, two soul skills?!"
Flender was stunned by those words, his eyes filled with shock. A rare dual-soul-skill ring had actually appeared on a hundred-year soul ring.
But the moment he heard "two thousand gold coins," his heart skipped a beat. His eyes widened as he cried out in a cracking voice.
"How much?! Two thousand?!"
"Dean, I'm not even sure whether two thousand will be enough."
Lin Feng felt a little embarrassed as well. He scratched his head and spoke sheepishly.
"This money-bag martial soul has its own minting rules. After swallowing outside gold coins, it remints them into its own unique gold coins. I don't know what the conversion rate is either."
As he spoke, he secretly glanced at Oscar nearby, his eyes carrying a hint of hopeful solidarity.
Oscar immediately understood. He shook his head like a rattle drum, retreated three steps in a row, clutched his pocket tightly with both hands, and shouted miserably.
"Big Brother! You know me—I'm poorer than dirt. I'm so broke I can't even afford a full meal. I don't have a single coin!"
Flender pressed a hand to his temple and rubbed it, letting out a heavy sigh inwardly.
He had traveled far and wide throughout his life and seen no fewer than eighty bizarre martial souls, including ones that gnawed on ore. Yet this was the first time he had seen one that needed to swallow gold coins to unlock a soul skill. It was utterly absurd.
What a curse. How had he ended up with such a Gold-Swallowing Beast?
But he had chosen this genius himself, so all he could do was grit his teeth and accept it.
He took several deep breaths, his chest rising and falling as he calmed the pain in his heart, then waved a hand to suppress his helplessness.
"Let's set the money aside for now. Tell me what your first soul skill does first. I want to see what kind of hundred-year soul skill dares to be worth two thousand gold coins!"
Lin Feng nodded and began introducing Blue Buff.
"It's a Soul Power recovery-type soul skill called Blue Sentinel Power. Its effect is to restore 3% of maximum Soul Power per second..."
Before he could finish, Flender exploded. His voice shot up as he waved a large hand, disbelief written all over his face.
"What? A soul ring close to four hundred years old only restores 3%?!"
"This lousy effect isn't even as good as an ordinary ten-year soul ring. Is your martial soul a scam?"
The moment he finished speaking, he suddenly froze. His eyes widened, and even though his black-rimmed glasses slid down to the tip of his nose, he did not bother to push them back up. He asked in a trembling voice,
"W-wait! Did you just say... per second?"
"That's right. It's calculated by the second."
Lin Feng nodded with a faint smile.
"And one activation lasts for two minutes. Even if my Soul Power is completely drained, I can recover to peak condition in just over half a minute. In two minutes, I can fully recover at least three times."
"Oh, and there's an additional effect: soul skill cooldowns are reduced by 20%."
Upon hearing that, Flender stared at Lin Feng as if he were a monster. He swallowed and muttered,
"Can a four-hundred-year soul ring really produce an effect like this? How is it even more outrageous than a Ten Thousand Year Soul Skill?"
Recovering 3% of maximum Soul Power every second was terrifying whether it was on a low-level or high-level Soul Master.
The Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda was universally recognized as the pinnacle of support martial souls, the finest under heaven. Yet now, it seemed that Lin Feng's martial soul might not be inferior to the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda at all. In terms of sustained recovery, it completely crushed it.
Lin Feng merely smiled faintly.
Blue Buff was only an appetizer. If he truly brought out the effects of heaven-defying equipment like the Name Blade and Resurrection Armor, he did not know whether Flender's heart could take it.
Oscar scratched his head from the side and said in shock,
"Big Brother, if you keep casting the soul skill on yourself in a loop, wouldn't that mean infinite Soul Power?"
As soon as those words came out, Lin Feng froze for a moment. His mind buzzed, and a brilliant light burst from his eyes.
Hiss! That really might work.
"That makes sense. I'll try it."
He acted as soon as the thought struck him. He immediately stood, brushed the grass clippings and dust from his clothes, and a pale yellow soul ring rose from beneath his feet, circling his body. With a thought,
"Blue Sentinel Power!"
A dazzling azure halo appeared around him.
A warm current of Soul Power instantly surged through his meridians. The Soul Power he had expended just moments ago to activate the skill began rapidly recovering at a visible rate, and the emptiness in his dantian vanished in an instant.
Half a minute passed in the blink of an eye.
Lin Feng willed it again, and his first soul ring lit up once more as the Blue Sentinel Power halo was applied a second time.
The remaining minute and a half of Blue Buff duration was directly reset to two minutes, beginning its countdown anew, while the warm current restoring his Soul Power did not break in the slightest.
He then tried canceling the effect.
With a single thought, the azure halo around him instantly disappeared.
Lin Feng secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Thankfully, it could be canceled with one command. Otherwise, if he ever blessed someone in the future and they turned around with six sets of Godly Gear and buffs to betray him, he would not even have anywhere to cry.
Flender and Oscar stared at him from either side, their eyes filled with tension and anticipation. Lin Feng turned to meet their gazes, grinned, and nodded firmly.
"Dean, it's a perfect infinite loop. There are no restrictions at all!"
"From now on, I'll never have to worry about Soul Power consumption again. It's inexhaustible."
Did this count as exploiting a bug?
Oscar hurriedly shouted,
"Big Brother, Big Brother, let me experience that Blue Sentinel Power too!"
"Alright!"
Lin Feng's soul ring lit up again, applying Blue Sentinel Power to Oscar.
Before you continue