"Good. You've got guts!"
Tian Meng said no more and immediately began preparing the ritual to absorb Soul Power. At that moment, Huo Yuhao also called out to Wang Hong.
"What is it, Lord Huo Yuhao? Is there something else you have in mind?" Wang Hong asked. Tang Ya had already found the century-old Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine again, and was waiting for Huo Yuhao.
"Brother Wang Hong, I want to try absorbing this Soul Ring. More precisely, I want to absorb the Spirit Skill contained within it."
Huo Yuhao's tone was perfectly calm, but to Wang Hong, those words were nothing short of a thunderclap.
He could hardly believe what he had just heard. Absorb a Soul Ring...but only absorb the Spirit Skill it contained? Was that even something one could do while absorbing a Soul Ring?
"Lord Huo Yuhao, are you sure you understand what you just said? Why would you suddenly come up with such a strange idea as absorbing only the Spirit Skill inside the Soul Ring?" Wang Hong wasn't even sure he'd heard correctly. Either way, what Huo Yuhao proposed sounded like complete nonsense.
"Besides, only the person who delivers the final blow to a Soul Beast can absorb its Soul Ring. That should have been taught in the very first lesson..."
"Brother Wang Hong, hear me out first." Huo Yuhao cleared his throat and cut him off.
"When I absorbed Dream Silkworm's Soul Ring, I had a strange feeling that I never told you or Brother Bei Bei about. I've always felt that something was missing from Dream Silkworm's Soul Ring."
"Something was missing?"
Wang Hong repeated the words, and Huo Yuhao nodded.
"That's right. And after exploring it myself all this time, I've figured out what my First Soul Ring is missing...a Spirit Skill."
Huo Yuhao's words stunned Wang Hong once again. It was missing a Spirit Skill?
On Douluo Continent, one Soul Ring corresponding to one Spirit Skill had always been an ironclad rule. There had never been an exception. Even the Sea God and the Pope from ten thousand years ago, whose Soul Rings had all reached the hundred-thousand-year level, had never been recorded as possessing a Soul Ring that granted more than one Spirit Skill.
But Huo Yuhao wouldn't have said this without reason.
Wang Hong crouched down so he could meet Huo Yuhao's eyes.
"Lord Huo Yuhao, I need to be sure of something. Are you certain your feeling is absolutely right?" Wang Hong's tone was more serious than ever. He had to make sure Huo Yuhao hadn't simply seen the Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine's Spirit Skill and gotten carried away with some wild idea. Children this age were always full of flights of fancy.
However, Huo Yuhao's next words shattered Wang Hong's understanding of the world all over again.
"Actually...there's something I've been hiding from you, Brother Wang Hong. Dream Silkworm's Soul Ring didn't just give me one Spirit Skill. It gave me three: Spirit Detection, Spirit Acceleration, and Spirit Deceleration. I've always felt there was an empty slot in that Soul Ring. That's why I came up with this idea."
That was right. Huo Yuhao chose to tell Wang Hong everything about the three Spirit Skills in his First Soul Ring.
The utility of this Spirit Skill was simply too powerful. And one mustn't forget that Huo Yuhao still had his strongest trump card: Soul Spirits.
He had also been studying the Soul Spirit system in the Divine Realm. During his research, he'd discovered a special property of Soul Spirits:
They could increase their age through certain special methods that had yet to be identified.
Although he hadn't discovered exactly how to raise a Soul Spirit's age, Huo Yuhao was certain that some means of doing so existed.
If he obtained the Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine's Spirit Skill through a Soul Spirit, Huo Yuhao was confident he could evolve it from a thousand-year-level Spirit Skill into one at the ten-thousand-year or even hundred-thousand-year level!
And according to Tian Meng, he could attach the Spirit Skill to his First Soul Ring. In other words, if Tian Meng succeeded, Huo Yuhao might even be able to evolve the skill to the million-year level!
A thousand-year illusion could already affect a Soul Saint. What about an illusion at the ten-thousand-, hundred-thousand-, or even million-year level? Forget Titled Douluo—could even the highest gods be drawn into it?
In other words, obtaining this Spirit Skill was risky, but the potential rewards were just as immense.
So, even at the cost of revealing the truth about his First Spirit Skill, he had to earn Wang Hong's trust and convince him to let Huo Yuhao absorb the Soul Ring.
Back in the present, Wang Hong fell silent at Huo Yuhao's words. A single Soul Ring granting four Spirit Skills wasn't merely incredible. It was impossible by every measure.
But on closer thought, when Huo Yuhao had first used his Spirit Skills on Wang Hong, he had indeed demonstrated several completely different effects. Each effect on its own was already hard to imagine coming from a single Spirit Skill. If they were the combined result of several Spirit Skills, however, it made more sense.
Wang Hong had to admit that Huo Yuhao's evidence did hold together.
"Phew..." Wang Hong felt his body trembling, but beneath that tremor was excitement.
Rationally, he absolutely didn't want to see Huo Yuhao take this risk. But emotionally, he was willing to believe the idea Huo Yuhao had just proposed. Besides, Dream Silkworm was a Soul Beast that existed only in legends to begin with. It wasn't impossible that it possessed an equally legendary ability. And being able to witness it firsthand was undeniably thrilling for Wang Hong.
"Lord Huo Yuhao...no, Yuhao. I can stand guard for you, and I can explain things to Miss Tang Ya. But you have to promise me you're not fooling around, or saying this because you think I'm easy to trick with an argument you made up out of thin air."
Wang Hong had changed how he addressed him, from "Lord" to simply "Yuhao." Huo Yuhao was no longer his benefactor, but a junior about to embark on an unprecedented adventure before his eyes—a novice Soul Master who had only just entered the Soul Master World.
"I'm sure, Lord Wang Hong. I know exactly what I'm saying, and I know exactly what I want to do."
Huo Yuhao's eyes were filled with determination. That look couldn't be faked with a simple lie.
"Yuhao, the ritual's ready. When are we starting?" Tian Meng's voice appeared in Huo Yuhao's mind, urging him on. But Huo Yuhao didn't answer. He simply waited for Wang Hong's response.
"All right. I'll stand guard for you. But if anything goes wrong, I'll stop the absorption by any means necessary. My Martial Soul Avatar can ignore and block all negative effects for a certain period of time, without causing any additional harm to either of us."
At last, Wang Hong led Huo Yuhao to the corpse of the Soul-Pulling Ghost Vine, which was already well and truly dead. Using Soul Power, he drew its Soul Ring toward Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged. With Wang Hong's help, the Soul Ring floated behind his head, just as it did whenever Huo Yuhao released one.
The next moment, pale-blue Soul Power extended from the back of Huo Yuhao's head. Like countless hands, it seized the Soul Ring, which began trembling violently at once, as if resisting the Soul Power of those who hadn't delivered the killing blow.
But then, Tian Meng's and Huo Yuhao's mental powers merged and mingled with the Soul Power, forcibly stilling the Soul Ring's trembling.
"Stop struggling, little Soul Ring. I don't need to absorb you, just the part of you that stores the Spirit Skill!" Tian Meng Ice Silkworm coaxed the Soul Ring as if soothing a child, even though neither the Soul Ring nor the soul within it could hear a word.
Wang Hong watched silently. He could hardly believe Huo Yuhao had actually managed to do this.
Meanwhile, high above, behind a veil of golden clouds, a pair of eyes watched Huo Yuhao perform this unprecedented feat.
"Roar...as expected of the young man I chose. He really dares to take risks and think big."
Before you continue