After the Soul Bone had finished condensing, Jiang Che stored it in the Ring of the Overseer.
Then he began recalling every detail of the panel's danger warnings.
"The panel seemed to say that the Polar Ice Bear had spotted me." Jiang Che muttered to himself. He opened the panel and looked it over, trying to find more clues.
"Right! The panel only gave a danger warning after the Polar Ice Bear and the Snow Wolf noticed or sensed my presence." Comparing the two warnings, Jiang Che spotted a common feature.
"Could it be that the warning only appears when a Soul Beast not only finds me but also notices me?" Following this line of thought, Jiang Che quickly began experimenting.
He instantly flashed in front of a six-thousand-year-old Ice Moss Wolf. But the moment it sensed the terrifying aura around him, the Ice Moss Wolf got so scared it nearly pissed itself, and the panel gave no danger warning.
"Hm? Could I have guessed wrong?" Jiang Che wondered if he'd made a mistake and the panel simply issued danger warnings at random.
Unconvinced, he sought out several more Soul Beasts, but the result was the same every time: as soon as they sensed his aura, they ran without looking back.
Jiang Che knew this wouldn't work. He didn't even mind getting dirty; he found a spot and sat down to think again. He felt like he was missing something.
The biting winds of the Far North never let up. They howled across the frozen land, carrying fine shards of ice and snow that stung with a bone-deep chill.
Jiang Che sat casually on a frost-covered bluestone. A thin sheet of ice coated its surface, cold enough to pierce to the bone, but he didn't notice at all.
Beneath him lay a thick sheet of ice that never thawed, its surface shimmering with a pale blue light that stretched beyond sight. In the distance, ranges of Ice Peaks loomed beneath the gloomy sky, their summits hidden by the swirling snow, making the landscape seem vast and desolate.
Jiang Che didn't know how long he'd been thinking. The Soul Beasts he'd scared away earlier had long since vanished. Across the vast ice field, he was all alone. The wind whipped at his clothes, and tiny ice crystals clung to his hair.
[Careful. A two-thousand-year-old Biting Wind Swift Wolf has its eyes on you. Its strength is on par with yours, but if it ambushes you, your life will be in danger.]
The panel warned Jiang Che once again, which left him a little puzzled. The Biting Wind Swift Wolf had been there for quite a while, and he'd noticed it from the start.
Jiang Che had been thinking about the panel. Since the Biting Wind Swift Wolf hadn't attacked him, he couldn't be bothered with it.
Why hadn't the panel warned him as soon as the Biting Wind Swift Wolf appeared?
Just as Jiang Che was questioning his sanity, the Biting Wind Swift Wolf charged at him.
Jiang Che didn't take its attack seriously at all. He raised his hand, ready to put it to sleep, but a sudden flash of insight struck him. It was as if he'd grasped something.
He softened his blow, changing his plan from putting the Biting Wind Swift Wolf to sleep to freezing its feet so it couldn't move.
"An attack? Right, that's the key!" Jiang Che slapped his thigh as he figured it out. When the Biting Wind Swift Wolf had first arrived, it had only watched him; it hadn't intended to attack. But after the panel showed a danger warning, the wolf had lunged at him.
Jiang Che recalled that the first time the panel had warned him of danger, he'd concealed his aura, which had caused the Snow Wolf to attack. The second time had been the same. And if his cultivation really were as low as the panel claimed, then he truly would have been in danger.
His original reasoning hadn't been wrong; he'd just missed one thing. He hadn't concealed his aura back then, so none of the Soul Beasts he found had dared attack him. Naturally, that meant there'd been no danger.
Once he understood, Jiang Che looked at the Biting Wind Swift Wolf nearby and found it pleasing to the eye no matter how he looked at it. If it hadn't suddenly attacked, he might not have figured things out so quickly.
Jiang Che decided to let the Biting Wind Swift Wolf go. He wasn't short of a few more years on a Soul Ring.
Once the Biting Wind Swift Wolf was free, it realized Jiang Che was someone it couldn't afford to provoke and fled the scene with its tail between its legs.
Jiang Che, meanwhile, happily went off to find some more Soul Beasts. This time, he was certain his theory was right: every one of them triggered the panel's danger warning.
Now that he'd figured it out, Jiang Che decided to stop wasting time and flew straight to the true core area of the Far North.
He found a place where no Soul Beast had appeared in a long time and carved out a cave. Then he set up defenses with Soul Tools both outside and inside the entrance.
These defenses could stop any Soul Beast under a hundred thousand years old, and even hold off a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast for a while. That would keep Jiang Che from being disturbed while he absorbed his Soul Ring.
Jiang Che sat cross-legged. His Ice Dragon King Martial Soul transformed into the Holy Sword of Light, and in an instant, the entire cave filled with the aura of Ultimate Light.
Jiang Che opened the panel and claimed a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring for the Holy Sword of Light to absorb.
His plan was to first give the Holy Sword of Light two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings to improve his physical strength, so that when he gave his Ice Dragon King Martial Soul its ninth Soul Ring, he could raise its age limit.
[Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring claimed successfully]
The instant the panel showed that the claim had succeeded, a crimson Soul Ring appeared around Jiang Che.
Jiang Che took a deep breath. He'd absorbed a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring before, and it had taken him a full two months. He didn't know whether a Soul Ring rewarded by the panel differed in any way from one obtained by hunting a Soul Beast.
But without a doubt, absorbing it would take a long time, which was why Jiang Che had chosen such a quiet place.
In the blink of an eye, half a year had passed since Jiang Che began absorbing the Soul Ring.
During the time Jiang Che had spent absorbing it, Shrek Academy, far to the south, had gone on break.
"Brother Sky Dream, where are we going?" Huo Yuhao's Soul Power Level had now reached twenty.
"You don't need to worry about that. Just keep heading north." Inside Huo Yuhao's Sea of Consciousness, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had woken up for once and spoke lazily.
"Keep heading north? What place is that?" Huo Yuhao asked curiously.
"Why, it's my old home, of course—the Far North of the Douluo Continent. It's also the place I know best."
"But it's so far away, Brother Sky Dream. After I get my Second Soul Ring, I still have to hurry back for the entrance exam. Are there no Spirit-type Soul Beasts anywhere else?" Huo Yuhao asked, confused.
"Of course there are. Spirit-type Soul Beasts are rare, but the Star Dou Great Forest has them too. But this time, we're also going to equip you with a Second Martial Soul."
As Huo Yuhao made his way to the Far North, inside the cave Jiang Che had built,
Jiang Che had already finished absorbing the two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings for the Holy Sword of Light. His Martial Soul had now changed back into the Ice Dragon King, and he was absorbing the most suitable Soul Ring the panel had given him.
Jiang Che sat cross-legged, his teeth clenched. Veins bulged on his forehead, and cold sweat instantly soaked through his clothes, only to freeze into a thin layer of ice in the chill around him.
His once-steady aura had fallen into complete disarray. His muscles spasmed violently, and every inch of his bones and flesh, every single cell, let out a piercing wail.
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