Absorbing the Soul Ring

After the spirit bone finished condensing, Jiang Che stored it inside the Ring of the Overseer.

He then began to recall every detail of the danger warnings the panel had issued just moments ago.

"The panel seemed to mention that it was the Polar Ice Bear that discovered me," Jiang Che muttered to himself, then opened the panel to inspect it, attempting to find more clues.

"That's it! Both the Polar Ice Bear and the Snow Wolf only triggered the danger warning after they discovered or sensed my presence." Jiang Che compared the two notifications and discovered a common trait.

"Could it be that this warning doesn't just require finding a soul beast, but also requires the soul beast to discover me?" Following this hypothesis, Jiang Che quickly began to experiment.

He instantly flashed in front of a 6,000-year-old Ice Moss Wolf, but the wolf was so terrified after sensing the terrifying aura on Jiang Che that it fled in a panic, and the panel gave no danger warning.

"Hm? Could I have guessed wrong?" Jiang Che doubted if he had made a mistake and that the panel simply issued danger warnings at random.

Refusing to believe it, he sought out several more soul beasts, but the results were identical without exception: they would run away without looking back the moment they sensed his aura.

Jiang Che knew this approach wouldn't work. Not minding the dirt, he sat down in a random spot and pondered again, feeling that he must have missed something.

The cold winds of the Far North never ceased, howling as they swept across the frozen earth, carrying fine shards of ice and snow that bit into the skin with bone-chilling cold.

Jiang Che sat casually on a frost-covered bluestone. Its surface was coated in a thin layer of ice, cold enough to pierce the bone, yet he remained completely indifferent.

Beneath his feet lay a thick, perennial layer of ice, shimmering with a pale cyan, cold light that stretched endlessly. In the distance, continuous ice peaks stood beneath a gray, hazy sky, their summits obscured by the swirling snow, appearing vast and desolate.

Jiang Che did not know how long he had been thinking. The soul beasts he had startled away earlier were long gone. On the vast ice field, he remained all alone; the cold wind tugged at his robes, and fine ice crystals clung to his hair.

[Caution: You have been targeted by a 2,000-year-old Biting Wind Swift Wolf. Although its strength is comparable to yours, you are in danger of losing your life if it ambushes you.]

The panel reminded Jiang Che once again, which struck him as rather strange, as this Biting Wind Swift Wolf had been there for a long time, and he had spotted it early on.

Because Jiang Che was preoccupied with the issue of the panel, he couldn't be bothered to pay it any mind since the wolf hadn't attacked him.

Why didn't the panel warn him the moment the Biting Wind Swift Wolf appeared?

Just as Jiang Che was doubting his life, the Biting Wind Swift Wolf charged over the very next second.

Facing the wolf's attack, Jiang Che didn't care in the slightest. He raised his hand, just about to lull it to sleep, when a flash of inspiration struck his mind, as if he had grasped something.

He softened his blow significantly, changing his intent from lulling it to sleep to freezing the Biting Wind Swift Wolf's feet, rendering it immobile.

"An attack? That's right, it's a matter of aggression." Jiang Che slapped his thigh, realizing the key to the problem. When the Biting Wind Swift Wolf first arrived, it was merely observing him without the intent to attack, but the moment the panel displayed danger, the wolf had lunged at him.

Jiang Che recalled that the first time the panel's danger warning appeared, he had been suppressing his aura, which led to the Snow Wolf's attack. The second time was the same. If his cultivation truly was only as low as what the panel displayed, then he would indeed be in a state of danger.

His initial judgment hadn't been wrong, but he had missed one point: at that time, he hadn't suppressed his aura, causing the soul beasts he found to be too afraid to strike at him, and naturally, there was no danger to speak of.

Having figured it out, Jiang Che looked at the Biting Wind Swift Wolf not far away and found it quite pleasing to the eye. If it hadn't suddenly launched an attack, Jiang Che might not have realized the truth so quickly.

Jiang Che immediately decided to let the Biting Wind Swift Wolf go; he wasn't exactly short on that bit of soul ring age.

Once the Biting Wind Swift Wolf regained its freedom, it realized that Jiang Che was not someone it could afford to provoke, and it tucked its tail and fled from this place of trouble.

Jiang Che, on the other hand, happily went to find more soul beasts. This time, he was certain his reasoning was correct, as all these soul beasts triggered the panel's danger warnings.

Having cleared his doubts, Jiang Che decided not to waste any more time and flew rapidly toward the true core area of the Far North.

He found a spot where no soul beasts had appeared for a long time, carved out a cave entrance, and set up defenses using soul tools both outside and inside the entrance.

These defenses could block soul beasts under one hundred thousand years, and could even hold off a hundred-thousand-year soul beast for a period of time, allowing Jiang Che to absorb his soul ring without outside interference.

Jiang Che sat cross-legged, his Ice Dragon King martial soul shifting into the Holy Sword of Light. In an instant, the entire cave was filled with the aura of the Ultimate Light.

Jiang Che opened the panel and claimed a hundred-thousand-year soul ring for the Holy Sword of Light to absorb.

Jiang Che's plan was to first attach two hundred-thousand-year soul rings to the Holy Sword of Light to improve his physical constitution, so that he could increase the age of the ninth soul ring he would attach to his Ice Dragon King martial soul.

[Hundred-thousand-year soul ring claimed successfully.]

The moment the panel displayed success, a scarlet soul ring appeared around Jiang Che.

Jiang Che took a deep breath. He had absorbed a hundred-thousand-year soul ring before, and it had taken him a full two months. Although he didn't know if there was any difference between the soul rings rewarded by the panel and those obtained by hunting soul beasts, there was no doubt that both required a long period of absorption, which was why Jiang Che had chosen such a quiet place.

Time flew by, and half a year had passed since Jiang Che began absorbing the soul ring.

During the time Jiang Che was absorbing the soul ring, Shrek Academy, far to the south, had also gone on break.

"Brother Sky Dream, where are we going?" Huo Yuhao's soul power level had reached level 20 by this time.

"You don't need to worry about that, just keep heading north," the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, who had rarely awakened, said lazily from within Huo Yuhao's spiritual sea.

"Keep heading north? What kind of place is that?" Huo Yuhao asked curiously.

"It's my old home, of course—the Far North of the Douluo Continent, and the place I'm most familiar with."

"But that's too far, Brother Sky Dream. I still have to rush back for the advancement exams after obtaining my second soul ring. Are there only spiritual-type soul beasts there?" Huo Yuhao asked, puzzled.

"Of course not. Although spiritual-type soul beasts are rare, the Star Dou Great Forest has them too, but this time we are also going to equip you with a second martial soul."

Just as Huo Yuhao was rushing toward the Far North, inside the cave Jiang Che had built.

Jiang Che had long since finished absorbing the two hundred-thousand-year soul rings for the Holy Sword of Light. At this moment, his martial soul had shifted back to the Ice Dragon King, and he was absorbing the most suitable soul ring provided by the panel.

Jiang Che sat cross-legged, his teeth clenched tight, blue veins bulging on his forehead. Cold sweat instantly soaked his clothes, only to be frozen into a thin layer of ice by the surrounding cold air.

His originally steady aura was in complete disarray, his muscles twitching violently, and every inch of his sinews and every cell in his body was emitting a shrill, mournful wail.

ps: Updating with the Ice Empress tomorrow!