An Unexpected Find

After discovering a new way to use the panel, Jiang Che went on to find several more Soul Beasts to test it on.

Strangely, though, the panel displayed nothing for any of them, leaving Jiang Che baffled.

"This is weird. Why does this lousy panel work sometimes and not others?" Jiang Che looked at the Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast in front of him. By all rights, its strength should have been far beyond what the panel had shown.

Jiang Che was just about to suspect that what he had seen earlier was merely a "bug" in the panel when—

[This is bad! A Ten-Thousand-Year Polar Ice Bear seems to have noticed you spying on it. How dare a mere Soul Elder covet its power? It's furious. Your best choice is to run as fast as you can.]

The panel's warning made Jiang Che look toward the Polar Ice Bear again. Sure enough, it had spotted him.

"ROAR—"

The Polar Ice Bear's deafening roar suddenly exploded through the cavern like a thunderclap from a clear sky. The surrounding ice crystals rattled loose and fell, while layers of freezing mist rippled through the air.

Its body was towering, standing a good seven or eight meters tall. It was covered in snowy white fur as translucent as colored glass, every strand bristling upright, with tiny ice shards clinging to the tips and glinting with a cold silver light in the dim ice cavern.

Its powerful limbs were like massive pillars carved from ice, and each claw was half a foot long, gleaming with an edge sharp enough to tear through steel.

Before its roar had even faded, the Polar Ice Bear was already moving. Its massive hind legs slammed against the ground, shattering the thick ice beneath it with a web of cracks. Shards of ice and a biting gale rushed toward Jiang Che.

Its enormous body shot forward like a cannonball, bearing down on Jiang Che with the force of a landslide. Ice spires and stone pillars shattered in its wake, as freezing air wrapped around its rampaging Soul Power.

Once a Soul Beast reached the Ten-Thousand-Year level, it underwent a qualitative transformation. This polar bear had a strong bloodline, and with the home-field advantage, its strength was probably already close to that of an ordinary Soul Saint.

Jiang Che didn't dare get cocky and fight without his Martial Soul. The instant the Polar Ice Bear attacked, he activated Martial Soul Possession.

"YIIII!" As Jiang Che's Martial Soul Possession took effect, the phantom of a colossal Ice Dragon King appeared behind him and let out a dragon's roar. Jiang Che's body also underwent a massive Dragon Transformation.

Soul Rings rose one by one from beneath Jiang Che's feet. The first was a pale black Soul Ring—its age had increased twice already—and each ring after it grew darker. Even the edge of his seventh black Soul Ring carried the faintest hint of dark red.

When his eighth Soul Ring, a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, appeared, Jiang Che's aura reached its peak. The Polar Ice Bear sensed it, too, and a flicker of fear crossed its eyes. But there was no turning back now, so it unleashed all its strength, hoping to carve out a chance of survival.

"Sixth Soul Skill, Winter Guardian!" Jiang Che barked. Soul Power erupted around him, and his sixth Soul Ring flashed. A transparent, hemispherical shell of ice instantly formed around him. Fine ice patterns covered its surface, which shimmered with a fierce, freezing glow.

The moment the shield took shape, the Polar Ice Bear's enormous paw crashed down on Winter Guardian with enough force to crush anything in its path!

"BOOM—!"

A deafening collision rang out. Ice shards flew in every direction as a violent wave of Soul Power swept through the entire cavern. The surrounding ice walls instantly cracked, and countless chunks of ice came crashing down.

The Polar Ice Bear's mighty strike landed, yet the transparent ice shell around Jiang Che didn't so much as ripple. The bear's attack had failed, but it tried to strike again.

Jiang Che wasn't about to just take it. The third Soul Ring behind him flashed. "Third Soul Skill! Ice Dragon Claw!"

The pale black Soul Ring blazed, and the phantom of the Ice Dragon King grew stronger. Jiang Che's right arm instantly transformed, covered in crystalline dragon scales. His fingers grew several inches longer, and glinting ice claws formed at their tips. Freezing air crept up his arm, and even the air itself crackled with tiny fractures of ice.

He stamped down and shot forward like a streak of icy blue lightning. Winter Guardian's shield vanished, and the Ice Dragon Claw cut through the air with a shrill hiss, aimed straight at the Polar Ice Bear's chest.

The Polar Ice Bear's pupils contracted. In a desperate move, it raised both arms to block. The instant its thick coat of ice armor met the Ice Dragon Claw, a grating metallic screech rang out.

The ice claws tore through the outer layer of ice with ease. Dragon scales clashed against the cold gleam of the bear's claws, sending shards of ice spraying everywhere.

Jiang Che's dragon claw didn't slow for an instant. It tore straight through the Polar Ice Bear's entire chest.

The bone-chilling Soul Power surged from his claw tips and instantly shredded the flesh and organs in the bear's chest. Even its beating heart was pierced through and frozen solid by the icy claws.

The Polar Ice Bear's enormous body stiffened on the spot. Its beastly eyes, blazing with rage and savagery, flew wide open. Their light faded before Jiang Che's eyes, leaving nothing but deathly stillness.

A low, broken whimper escaped its throat. It could no longer unleash the roar that had shaken the cavern. Its powerful limbs trembled uncontrollably, unable to support its mountain-like body.

The next moment, the Ten-Thousand-Year Polar Ice Bear, whose strength had nearly reached the Soul Saint level, lost every trace of life. Like a massive mountain of ice collapsing, it crashed heavily to the ground.

"BOOM!!"

The deafening impact made the whole ice cavern shudder. The already cracked walls collapsed in great sections, sending ice and crystals tumbling down and raising a vast cloud of freezing mist.

The Polar Ice Bear lay on the cold ground, frozen blood oozing from the horrific claw wound across its chest. Its snowy white fur had lost all its luster, and its once-glinting claws hung limply. There was no trace left of the might it had possessed as a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

Jiang Che slowly lowered his right arm. The ice crystals and blood on his Ice Dragon Claw vanished in an instant, and his arm gradually returned to normal.

He looked down at the dead Polar Ice Bear. The Soul Rings around him pulsed faintly, his breathing steady. He had won the battle with ease.

The next moment, a Soul Ring began to take shape above the Polar Ice Bear's body, but Jiang Che didn't think it was worth taking.

[The host was attacked by a Ten-Thousand-Year Polar Ice Bear and narrowly escaped death. Through his own wisdom and desperate determination, he ultimately won because the Polar Ice Bear let its guard down.]

[Congratulations, host! You have received a 5,000-year Soul Ring age bonus.]

Without hesitation, Jiang Che added the age bonus to his Seventh Soul Ring. He had originally obtained it from an 86,000-year Soul Beast, and with the additional 5,000 years, the dark red around its edge gradually spread.

Since the panel had once again warned him of danger, Jiang Che could be certain it wasn't a "bug." But he still didn't understand the rules behind it.

Just as Jiang Che was preparing to leave and find a few more Soul Beasts to test it on, his sharp eyes caught something strange about the Polar Ice Bear's left hand.

After checking, he discovered it really was a Soul Bone. Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts had a higher chance of dropping one, but only in comparison with century- and millennium-level Soul Beasts.

"I didn't expect to make an unexpected find on this trip," Jiang Che said with a sigh.

P.S. About the Martial Soul setting: I did some research, and it seems there aren't any pure elemental Martial Souls in Douluo, so I changed it to the Ice Dragon King Martial Soul. It also contains the Ultimate Ice attribute. I've updated the Martial Soul in the opening chapters. If I missed any places that still need changing, please let me know in the comments. I'll go back and fix them when I see them. Thank you for your support!