"An External Soul Bone!"
Oscar stared at the dragon horns atop Su Zhen's head in shock. As the closed-door disciple of the Worship Hall's Fifth Priest, Oscar might not have known everything under the sun, but he was familiar with ninety-nine percent of the knowledge in the Soul Master World.
"Mm, not bad."
Qian Daoliu rarely offered words of approval, and he was pleased that Su Zhen had obtained an External Soul Bone. External Soul Bones were even rarer than Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings. Not even he, Tang Chen, or Bo Saixi had one.
Three hours later, Su Zhen finally finished absorbing the Soul Ring.
Su Zhen opened his eyes. A streak of purple-gold lightning flashed through them, and his pale blue irises brimmed with delight. He rose to his feet, his body crackling like thunder.
"Teacher, Little Ao, I'm done absorbing it. My Soul Power has also reached level forty-three."
"Congratulations, Brother Zhen! You've achieved the feat of acquiring a ten-thousand-year fourth Soul Ring. But don't get too excited just yet. Feel the top of your head—you'll find a pleasant surprise."
As he spoke, Oscar handed Su Zhen a mirror.
Oscar's words left Su Zhen puzzled, but he still reached up to touch the top of his head. Zzt—his hand had barely touched something hard when a faint bolt of lightning shocked him.
Su Zhen took the mirror from Oscar and looked into it. He was already a handsome young man, but as he angled the mirror upward, two sky-piercing objects came into view.
They were a pair of purple dragon horns, jagged and imposing, wrapped in lightning patterns with purple sparks flickering between them. They looked exactly like the horns on the Thunder Spirit's head.
"Xiao Zhen, what Soul Skills does your External Soul Bone have?"
Su Zhen closed his eyes and carefully sensed the information coming from the dragon horns atop his head.
"The horns have two Soul Skills. The first is Thunder Kirin's Fury. When activated, it increases all attributes by two hundred percent and grants complete immunity to thunder-attribute Soul Skills. The second is Thunder Judgment. The horns gather thunder-attribute energy and fire a beam that paralyzes and blasts apart anything it hits. At the moment, its power is about twice that of my third Soul Skill."
Su Zhen calmly described the two Soul Skills of his External Soul Bone. They were decent enough, but nothing extraordinary.
"Those are decent Soul Skills. They'll grow stronger as you do, and one day they'll make a fine trump card. Give them a name."
Qian Daoliu nodded, approving of the External Soul Bone's abilities.
"I'll call it Sorrow of the Thunder Spirit."
After some thought, Su Zhen decided to commemorate the Thunder Spirit that had provided him with the Soul Bone.
"Brother Zhen, what's your fourth Soul Skill?"
Seeing that the two were still discussing the External Soul Bone, Oscar grew impatient and asked Su Zhen.
"My fourth Soul Skill is Thunder Spirit Bodyless."
The pitch-black fourth Soul Ring beneath Su Zhen's feet lit up. Purple light blossomed around him, and thunder roared from within his body. The handsome young man vanished, replaced by a purple silhouette formed entirely of lightning. Bolts of electricity snaked across its body, striking the ground and blasting craters of varying depths into it.
"Thunder Spirit Bodyless: The body becomes elemental, increasing the power of all thunder-attribute Soul Skills by one hundred percent. Grants complete immunity to physical attacks and seventy percent immunity to elemental attacks. Duration: five minutes."
Su Zhen's voice rang out from within the purple lightning, his excitement clear as he spoke of how much he liked the Soul Skill.
"Elementalizing your body! This is practically a divine skill. For those five minutes, you're all but invincible—unless your opponent can wipe out all your Soul Power in an instant. My search for that Thunder Spirit was worth every bit of effort."
Qian Daoliu's expression changed dramatically. The Soul Skill was so powerful that even he found it unbelievable. Su Zhen's surprises just kept coming. Oscar, meanwhile, was already too excited to speak.
"Now that Xiao Zhen's finished hunting for a Soul Ring, it's Little Ao's turn. Let's go to Sunset Forest. There are Soul Beasts there that will suit him."
Qian Daoliu carried the two of them into the sky and headed toward Sunset Forest.
In no time, the three of them arrived at the edge of Sunset Forest.
"There's a nine-hundred-year Purple Thunder Mad Rhino in the middle reaches of Sunset Forest. It can provide Little Ao with a good Soul Skill that improves his physical constitution and strengthens his thunder attribute."
Qian Daoliu explained this to Oscar. The consensus among the priests of the Worship Hall was to train Oscar as Su Zhen's personal support Soul Master, so most of the Soul Beasts Oscar hunted for Soul Rings would have thunder attributes. Oscar himself agreed with the Worship Hall's decision. Being able to help Su Zhen was one of his greatest wishes.
Su Zhen entered Sunset Forest alone to search for the Purple Thunder Mad Rhino. It was an assignment Qian Daoliu had given him.
"Great-grandpa, will Brother Zhen really be all right on his own?"
Oscar sat cross-legged outside Sunset Forest, meditating to get ready for absorbing his Soul Ring. But he couldn't focus, and worried about Su Zhen's safety, he turned to Qian Daoliu.
"Don't worry, Little Ao. Xiao Zhen is extremely strong, more than capable of handling most of the Soul Beasts in Sunset Forest. As long as he doesn't venture into the depths, he'll come back safely."
Qian Daoliu was completely unconcerned. With the guidance he and the other priests had given Su Zhen over the years, Su Zhen could dominate every member of the younger generation. He was even a match for some Soul Kings of the previous generation.
Sure enough, it wasn't long before Su Zhen appeared before Oscar, carrying the unconscious Purple Thunder Mad Rhino over his shoulder.
After Oscar fussed over Su Zhen for a while, he took a dagger from his Soul Tool and ended the Purple Thunder Mad Rhino's life. Then he sat cross-legged and began absorbing its Soul Ring.
"Teacher, something's going on in Sunset Forest."
"Oh?"
"When I first reached the middle reaches of Sunset Forest, the Thunder Prison Qilin suddenly sent me a strong feeling of longing. I followed that feeling and found a basin surrounded by poisonous miasma. I couldn't get inside, but the closer I got, the more my Martial Soul yearned for it. I memorized the location, then hurried to catch a Soul Beast and return."
Su Zhen spoke of what had just happened with a grave expression. Of course, this was a story he had prepared in advance. He'd wanted to come to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Spring for a long time, but he had no reliable source of information and had never been to Sunset Forest. If he told his teacher about it outright, there'd be suspicion—and if they couldn't find it, he wouldn't know what to say.
"Is that so? Once Little Ao finishes absorbing his Soul Ring, we'll go have a look. It'll only take a few hours, at most."
After finishing his conversation with Qian Daoliu, Su Zhen sat down nearby to meditate and cultivate while they waited for Oscar to finish absorbing his Soul Ring.
Two hours later, Oscar finished absorbing his Soul Ring too.
"Great-grandpa, Brother Zhen, my second Soul Skill is Mad Thunder Rhino Meat Sausage. It increases the user's strength and defense by fifty percent and boosts the power of thunder-attribute Soul Skills by one hundred percent. It lasts five minutes."
Oscar excitedly described his second Soul Skill to Qian Daoliu and Su Zhen.
"Mm, it's a decent Soul Skill. It should work well alongside Xiao Zhen's. Let's head into the forest. Xiao Zhen made a new discovery earlier."
Led by Su Zhen, the two of them headed toward the depths of Sunset Forest. Su Zhen hadn't actually found the poisonous miasma earlier, but according to the original story, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Spring lay at the very center of Sunset Forest. They just needed to keep going deeper and look for a basin where the ice and fire elements were active and poisonous gases were spreading.
The deeper they went into the forest, the fewer Soul Beasts they encountered, and the air grew faintly toxic.
"Hmm? This poison comes from Green Scale Seven Absolute Flower, and there's quite a lot of it. Over there."
Qian Daoliu keenly sensed the poison in the air. As a Limit Douluo, he recognized its source at a glance. He grabbed the other two and flew toward it.
In no time, a stretch of land wrapped in poisonous fog appeared before them.
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