He was trying to tell Ling Yun that a genius could have pride, but not arrogance. Arrogance was asking for trouble.
"I know. I'll be careful."
Ling Yun didn't have the bad habits of local geniuses. If he could win, he fought; if he couldn't, he ran; and if he couldn't outrun them, he joined them.
Having no shame and a flexible bottom line were the keys to staying alive.
As long as you were alive, there was hope.
After a few breaths, Ling Yun's head finally stopped ringing. He muttered inwardly, He hit me so hard...
Dugu Bo looked at him and shook his head. That perfunctory answer and that attitude really did make it hard to feel at ease!
He sighed to himself. It seemed the old man would just have to keep a close eye on him!
After a little while, Ling Yun remembered the important matter. He had broken through and needed a Soul Ring to advance. He didn't know much about Soul Beasts, only what had appeared in the original story.
But there was a local right beside him, and a Titled Douluo at that. He had to ask him properly.
"You know the Sunset Forest well. Are there any Soul Beasts with both yin and yang attributes? Or ones with opposing attributes would do, too."
"My Martial Soul, the Yin-Yang Mirror, is founded on yin and yang and encompasses everything. I can freely control the ratio between yin and yang, so I don't have to worry about an imbalance."
"But I'm still too slow to grasp these things. Using a Soul Ring to speed things up is clearly one way."
"..."
After Ling Yun finished explaining, Dugu Bo fell into thought.
His Martial Soul was the Jade Phosphorous Serpent, and he usually paid attention to all kinds of poisonous creatures. Ling Yun's sudden question really had him stumped.
"There aren't any with yin and yang attributes, but there's a Soul Beast with five-element attributes. It left a deep impression on me, though it's old enough to be more than suitable even as your third Soul Ring."
"Oh? What kind of Soul Beast?"
"A Five-Elements Qilin!"
"What did you say? Say that again!" Ling Yun stared at Dugu Bo in disbelief.
"A Five-Elements Qilin, two thousand years old." Dugu Bo repeated it loudly.
"Hahaha... Heaven is helping me!"
Ling Yun danced around in excitement. A Five-Elements Qilin! Meeting one was like having smoke rise from his ancestors' graves.
He remembered that, during the era of Legend of the Dragon King two thousand years later, there was a Limit Douluo whose Martial Soul was a Five-Elements Qilin, and every one of his Soul Rings was a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.
He had never expected Dugu Bo to have encountered such a rare Soul Beast. There was no way he wouldn't be excited.
"Where's the Qilin? I want it! Grandpa Dugu, help me. You have to help me find it!"
Ling Yun stared straight at Dugu Bo, the desire in his eyes completely undisguised.
It was the look of a hungry wolf.
Dugu Bo felt thoroughly uncomfortable under that gaze, but quickly suppressed the feeling. "Calm down!"
"Never mind that its age exceeds the limit for your Second Soul Ring, so you can't absorb it yet. I saw it two years ago."
"Who knows where it is now!"
"For all we know, someone may have already hunted it! Let me think of some other Soul Beasts that might suit you."
Ling Yun felt as if he'd just missed out on a fortune. "Two years ago? That was a long time ago. Then it really is hard to say."
"The Qilin is an auspicious creature of heaven and earth. The Five-Elements Qilin is even more auspicious than the most auspicious of them all. Wherever it goes, every Soul Beast in the entire forest benefits."
"No. I can't give up. An auspicious beast is protected by fortune. I don't believe someone else hunted it. It must still be alive. I have to find it."
Dugu Bo stressed again, "You can look for the Five-Elements Qilin slowly after you get your Second Soul Ring."
"There can only be one Five-Elements Qilin at a time. Even if you find it, it'll be too old for you to absorb right now. You can consider it as an option for your Third Soul Ring."
"My First Soul Ring already exceeds the limit. It's nearly six hundred years old."
"And after going through Ice and Fire Body Tempering, I'm completely confident I can handle a thousand-year Second Soul Ring!"
Dugu Bo's worldview was shattered once again. Every Soul Master had to learn about Soul Ring absorption.
The facts had shown that most Soul Masters who tried to challenge the limits of Soul Rings ended up exploding to death.
Ling Yun's First Soul Ring was already what other people would use as their Second.
Now he wanted to challenge a thousand-year Second Soul Ring. Was this still the Soul Master world he knew?
"Don't try to fool me, boy. How could that be possible?"
"Did the Five-Elements Qilin go to your head, making you invent all this? You can't afford to be careless when absorbing a Soul Ring."
"Listen to my advice. Play it safe when absorbing Soul Rings."
Dugu Bo's expression turned unusually serious as he looked at Ling Yun, his concern plain to see.
Ling Yun explained the theory behind Soul Ring absorption. After listening, Dugu Bo tested his physical strength himself.
"Good lad! You really are something. Just in terms of physical strength, you're no weaker than a Soul Elder with a Power Attack System Martial Soul."
Ling Yun's mind was still full of the Five-Elements Qilin. He continued, "So can you take me to find it now?"
Dugu Bo nodded, took him away from the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well, and flew north. After flying about thirty miles, they stopped atop a cliff.
Five-Needle Pines covered the mountainside. Looking down from the summit, they saw clouds and mist swirling like cotton candy drifting across the sky.
Under the sunlight, they shimmered with five-colored light, a breathtaking sight.
A waterfall cascaded down one side of the cliff like a strand of pure white jade. Just looking at it lifted the spirits.
"This is where I found the Five-Elements Qilin."
"Backed by the mountain and facing the water, with steep cliffs and so many Five-Needle Pines, it really is the kind of place a Five-Elements Qilin would like."
"Let's search!"
Ling Yun focused intently, refusing to overlook any place where a Qilin might be hiding.
The two searched the area inch by inch, looking for traces of the Five-Elements Qilin. They left no cliff unexplored, no matter how high; no tree untouched, no matter how dense; no cave unentered, no matter how intricate.
Five days passed in the blink of an eye. They saw plenty of Soul Beasts and even found many Qilin subspecies, but not a single true Qilin—not even one with a single attribute, let alone a Five-Elements Qilin!
"Why isn't there one?"
"Could my luck not be strong enough?"
They had searched every area where a Qilin might roam, and Ling Yun had no choice but to give up.
He changed his target and found a thousand-year-old Five-Needle Pine with a well-balanced mix of the five elements. That would do, too.
"Oh, great tree, I hope you can meet my needs."
Ling Yun summoned his Martial Soul and activated his First Soul Skill. A rain of Light Needles aimed at the Five-Needle Pine.
The instant the Light Needles shot out, the pine needles all turned toward him. Purple Soul Power flowed across their surfaces, and the next moment, they met the Light Needles with pinpoint accuracy, blotting out the sky in a devastating barrage.
The Light Needles were at an absolute disadvantage against the pine needles.
The sheer number of them far outstripped what Ling Yun's Soul Skill could match.
Dugu Bo was more than happy to see Ling Yun struggle. With him there, Ling Yun's life wasn't in danger. Opportunities for this kind of training didn't come often.
Ling Yun raised a Soul Power barrier and swiftly retreated. It wasn't long before he was out of the Five-Needle Pine's range.
That was the drawback of plant-type Soul Beasts: they couldn't move.
But Ling Yun had no way to deal with the Five-Needle Pine for the moment, and from the look of Dugu Bo, he clearly couldn't count on him for help.
He carefully considered his options. The next moment, he saw a mound of earth beneath the Five-Needle Pine shift, and a head poked out.
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