Because neither Ye Guyi nor he had yet broken through to the realm where they could absorb soul rings.
After the freshman competition ended, everything proceeded as usual.
In the blink of an eye, half a year passed.
During those six months, aside from researching Soul Tools and cultivating, he had tried every possible method to accelerate the growth of ten-thousand-year spiritual herbs.
The spiritual herbs he had previously asked the sect to search for had also been found and added to the ranks of those he was cultivating.
In addition, both he and Ye Guyi had successfully broken through. It was time for them to absorb soul rings.
His fourth soul ring had come from an eighteen-thousand-year Diamond Mammoth, granting an ability that increased the strength of others.
For his fifth soul skill, he intended to absorb a Jade Demon Bird over thirty thousand years old. This was an exceedingly rare gemstone-type soul beast. Its name differed by only one character from the notorious Emerald Demon Bird, yet the two were worlds apart.
Jade Demon Birds inhabited a mountain mine in the mixed zone of the Star Dou Great Forest. They fed year-round on jade marrow drawn from ores. They were beautiful in appearance and possessed considerable speed and lethality.
For this kind of soul beast to transform into a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, it needed to sleep for a thousand years in a special location before it could evolve further. It was extraordinarily rare.
That was why he had cared so much upon learning that the Star Luo Royal Family possessed a hundred-thousand-year Jade Demon Bird soul bone.
It was simply too rare.
There was one advantage to being born into a major power: once he stated his requirements, people naturally handled the legwork of finding soul beasts for him.
Right after his breakthrough, the sect's Title Douluo had already brought back the soul beasts they needed.
Thus, Ning Que and Ye Guyi left Shrek Academy and headed for the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect's trading house in the city, going straight to an underground secret chamber.
Two soul beasts were imprisoned there.
One was the Jade Demon Bird Ning Que needed, thirty-eight thousand years old.
Among the Jade Demon Birds, this was the age most suitable for Ning Que. Capturing it alive had required the direct involvement of two Title Douluo.
As for the other soul beast, it was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
More precisely, it was a hundred-and-ninety-thousand-year soul beast. However, its aura was exceedingly weak, making it seem like a soul beast of only around fifty thousand years.
It was the Golden Hawksbill Turtle from the original story that would become Xu Sanshi's Soul Spirit and had stolen the Gold of Life from the Lake of Life.
"Guyi, go persuade it to sacrifice itself. If it refuses, with your current physique and spiritual power, you can kill it outright and forcibly absorb its soul ring."
Ning Que had long coveted this soul beast. He had originally planned to find it and have it sacrifice itself to become Guyi's fifth soul ring. Unfortunately, they had been unable to locate it. After several years of effort, and even the deaths of several Nine Treasures Glazed Sect disciples, they had finally found it.
As for tricking it into sacrificing itself, Ning Que did not think that would be much of a problem.
Because of the Gold of Life, it did not have much longer to live. Coupled with the fact that Guyi possessed god-grade soul bones and could promise to revive it after becoming a god, there should not be any issue.
Of course, it would be best if it willingly sacrificed itself. After all, it was half an Auspicious Beast, in a manner of speaking. If they killed it, unforeseen trouble might arise when they entered the Star Dou Great Forest in the future.
Ning Que had already begun absorbing his soul ring.
A thirty-eight-thousand-year fifth soul ring was indeed difficult, but for someone carrying two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones, it was not a major problem.
If one of his soul bones had been a torso bone, Ning Que would even have dared to try absorbing a fifty-thousand-year soul ring as his fifth.
Though there were some difficulties, the absorption proceeded smoothly enough.
After a day, Ning Que successfully absorbed his fifth soul ring.
There was not much to say about the soul skill gained by the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda martial soul. It was an auxiliary enhancement, successfully granting the speed boost he had wanted.
It was not as though he had never considered changing the soul beast he absorbed, obtaining a special soul skill, or using a mutated soul beast to resist the martial soul rules of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
The sect had tried that before. It was useless.
The fundamental rules could not be changed.
He could only devote all his efforts to Martial Soul Evolution.
What surprised him this time was that he had, quite unusually, produced a soul bone.
A thirty-eight-thousand-year right arm bone.
It was an exceptionally precious kind.
After all, gemstone-type soul beasts had an extremely low chance of producing soul bones.
Otherwise, with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's foundation, they would have gathered a complete set of the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones he needed long ago.
Of course, this was not his greatest gain.
His greatest gain was that the phantom image of the eighth layer of his martial soul had become several degrees more solid.
By Ning Que's estimate, if his sixth soul ring also exceeded its age limit and came from a gemstone-type soul beast, and if he fused with a hundred-thousand-year gemstone-type soul bone, his martial soul would be able to advance further.
It sounded easy enough, but outsiders could hardly imagine how much effort and money had gone into it.
On the other side, Ye Guyi had also completed the martial soul sacrifice.
Clearly, she had successfully persuaded the Golden Hawksbill Turtle.
Fortunately, this was a cultivation chamber the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect had built at enormous expense. Otherwise, the commotion from a soul beast's sacrifice would have drawn the attention of countless people long ago.
"In a few days, I'll research martial soul simulation and make you a Soul Tool to conceal your soul rings and aura."
Ning Que looked at Ye Guyi's brilliant red hundred-thousand-year soul ring, feeling vaguely concerned.
With the Nine Treasures Glazed Sect's strength, they could naturally protect her from ordinary enemies. The problem was that Ye Guyi's martial soul had sacred attributes, and she possessed such outstanding talent. Her sixth soul ring was already a hundred-thousand-year one. How could the Holy Spirit Cult allow her to continue growing?
"Thanks for your hard work. I'll study soul ring control with Senior Sister again soon. Unless necessary, I'll only display my first five soul rings."
Ye Guyi's heart was still filled with excitement.
Even though she had expected it long ago, how could anyone not be thrilled to obtain a hundred-thousand-year soul ring as their sixth soul ring?
After successfully absorbing their soul rings, Ye Guyi's Soul Power had reached the peak of level sixty-four. With a little more effort, she would easily break through to level sixty-five.
By comparison, Ning Que was somewhat weaker. His Soul Power had only reached level fifty-three.
"This is the torso bone provided by the Golden Hawksbill Turtle. Keep it for now. If you truly cannot find the gemstone-type soul bone you need, I think this soul bone may have an unexpected effect for you as well."
Ye Guyi gave the hundred-and-ninety-thousand-year torso bone to Ning Que.
She possessed an entire set of god-grade soul bones, so she naturally had no use for it.
Ning Que did not stand on ceremony and put it away.
If there was truly no other choice, he would consider using it. If he could find the soul bone he needed, then this one would be reserved for Jin Sheng.
He was confident that he could make Jin Sheng's martial soul transform into the Golden Crocodile King at the Soul Sage level.
Even in the current era, the Golden Crocodile King martial soul was still extraordinarily formidable.
Was Golden Crocodile Douluo's performance ten thousand years ago poor?
Although his battle with Tang Hao had shattered his confidence, that did not mean Tang Hao could kill him.
He had merely grown old, his vitality declining. If they had truly fought to the death, even if Tang Hao used Ring Detonation, the final result would have been nothing more than Tang Hao's death and Golden Crocodile's severe injury.
Furthermore, with his level ninety-eight cultivation, he had knocked away the divine artifact Trident and withstood attacks from the god-grade martial souls Hell White Tiger and Phoenix.
At level ninety-eight, his defense had already reached the god-grade level.
One had to remember that this was while he was old and frail. If he had been thirty years younger, he truly could have beaten those so-called experts senseless.
In the end, he had even self-destructed to save Qian Renxue.
Therefore, Ning Que placed great importance on the reappearance of the Golden Crocodile King.
Before you continue