Three days later, the aura around Jiang Che finally settled. The Soul Ring the panel had given him had changed from white at first to red, and five golden lines now adorned it.
"Huff." Jiang Che slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, then stood and casually stretched a few times. His whole body crackled, followed by a wave of satisfying soreness. That was the price of spending half a year absorbing a Soul Ring.
After sitting motionless for so long, his muscles and bones felt as if they had rusted solid. But as he stretched them out, the surging Soul Power coursing through every limb brought him a sense of utter comfort. Every cell in his body was cheering.
The Soul Power he gained from absorbing three Soul Rings over a hundred thousand years old was simply too vast. By the time Jiang Che had attached the ninth Soul Ring to his Ice Dragon King Martial Soul, he had not only become a true Titled Douluo, but had also broken through to level 92.
His robust Soul Power surged through his meridians, filling his entire body with strength. Compared to before his breakthrough, he was more than twice as powerful.
Jiang Che silently sensed the three new Soul Rings he had gained. The two hundred-thousand-year Soul Rings on his Holy Sword of Light were ordinary, each with two Soul Skills. But the Ice Dragon King's 560,000-year Soul Ring had three.
His heart stirred. He focused and sent his spiritual power into the dark-red Soul Ring with golden lines. The instant he touched it, a vast, domineering, and icy aura from an ancient Ice Dragon rushed toward him. It carried the pride and power of the dragon race, a hundred times weightier than the Soul Ring of an ordinary Soul Beast.
What shocked him even more was that the Soul Ring came from a true Ice Dragon. Perhaps it was his imagination, but Jiang Che could feel it resonating with his Martial Soul.
The Ice Dragon King Martial Soul inside him manifested of its own accord. A pale-blue dragon shadow circled behind him, its low, distant roar vibrating in sync with the aura of the Soul Ring. The five golden lines abruptly lit up, and streams of exceptionally pure, ultimate ice power poured through the Soul Ring into the Ice Dragon King Martial Soul. The dragon shadow grew ever more solid, its scale patterns clearly visible, and its pressure swelled with it.
Jiang Che could sense clearly that the two seemed bound by an innate bond. The Ice Dragon Soul Ring was no longer merely an external force attached to his Martial Soul. Instead, it seemed like an extension of the Ice Dragon King Martial Soul, a perfect match born of the same bloodline.
The Ice Dragon's source power within the Soul Ring continuously nourished his Martial Soul and even subtly transformed his bloodline, making the Ice Dragon King blood within him purer and purer.
The ninth Soul Ring behind Jiang Che flashed. Suddenly, an ice-blue longbow appeared in his hand. This was its first Soul Skill—Ice Dragon Bow. According to the information provided by the Soul Ring, the Ice Dragon Bow was a true divine artifact. However, the one in Jiang Che's hand was merely a projection of it. Using Soul Power as arrows, every shot had the force of a Super Douluo's full-powered attack.
The second Soul Skill was meant to be used in tandem with the Ice Dragon Bow. It could condense an arrow called "Wrath of the Ice Dragon King." The two combined could unleash the power of a Limit Douluo.
As for the third Soul Skill, Ice Dragon Transformation, Jiang Che considered it a skill for staying alive. It required very little Soul Power, yet its might was immense. It could give him the strength of a Limit Douluo for a short time, and would grow stronger alongside him. The cooldown was long, though: he could use it only once a month. He did not know whether that would change in the future.
Jiang Che put away the longbow and all his Soul Tools, then left the cave. He could hardly wait to try out his new Soul Skills.
"Whoosh!" Soul Power surged around Jiang Che, and his entire figure shot into the sky like a streak of blue light tearing across the heavens.
The Far North's icy wind howled beside his ears in a piercing shriek. The flying ice chips struck his face, but he felt no pain. He leaned slightly to one side, his long blue-gold hair whipping wildly in the gale. Through the layered clouds, he looked down at the endless, ancient ice mountains beneath him, a slumbering horde of beasts stretching across the boundless land.
Jiang Che's gaze swept quickly over the frozen wasteland. With a light tap of his finger, his spiritual power instantly locked onto a solitary peak towering a thousand zhang high.
The entire mountain was a deep, dusky blue, its surface riddled with jagged fissures as if it might collapse at any moment. It was a forbidden zone rarely visited by Soul Beasts in the Far North, and the perfect target for testing his new Soul Skill.
"That's the one."
Jiang Che gave a low shout. The ninth Soul Ring, hidden within the glow of his other Soul Rings, suddenly blazed.
In an instant, the dark-red Soul Ring, its five golden lines gleaming across its circumference, rose into the air and hovered above his head. Its vast, ancient pressure swept across the surroundings.
At that moment, the Far North's icy wind seemed to be seized by an invisible hand. Even the snow swirling through the sky paused in midair.
Jiang Che raised his hand and drew the bow.
A longbow formed from ultimate ice-blue Soul Power appeared in his palm.
The bow shimmered with the luster said to belong only to divine artifacts. A phantom Ice Dragon coiled around its limbs, roaring without end. This was the first Soul Skill of the ninth Soul Ring—Ice Dragon Bow.
The instant he drew the bowstring, the air groaned under the strain. The level 92 Soul Power within Jiang Che surged like a mighty river, pouring into the bow and resonating with the 560,000-year Ice Dragon Soul Ring.
The five golden lines on the Soul Ring spun rapidly. Streams of ice-blue energy patterns spread along the bow and onto the string, instantly condensing into an ice-blue arrow several zhang long.
The arrow was crystal-clear from end to end, its tip glimmering with a chill capable of freezing all things. Its fletching consisted of three flowing Ice Dragon feathers.
Deep within the arrow, the roar of an ancient Ice Dragon lay dormant. The surrounding space twisted faintly under the freezing aura, and even the clouds high above rapidly dispersed, revealing a clear blue sky.
"Go!"
Jiang Che abruptly released his arm.
The bowstring vibrated with a sharp report like a dragon's roar.
The arrow, carrying the power of a Super Douluo, shot from the bowstring in an instant, becoming a brilliant streak of blue light that tore through the sky. It plunged toward the thousand-zhang ice mountain below with a force that could destroy the heavens and earth.
There was no flashy sound, only the shriek of air being torn apart in an instant.
In a flash, the blue light struck the mountain.
Boom—!!!
A shock wave erupted from the point of impact, clearly visible to the naked eye. The thousand-zhang dusky-blue mountain shuddered violently, then its surface shattered before their eyes. The whole thing exploded with a roar.
Countless enormous chunks of ice turned to crystal dust in midair, while the snow within several li instantly evaporated into nothing.
The once-unbroken range of ice mountains now had a vast hole nearly a hundred zhang across, pierced clean through by that single arrow. The shock wave spread outward, pulverizing several smaller mountains nearby. Huge chunks of floating ice scattered like flowers strewn by a celestial maiden, raising layer upon layer of snow across the Far North's frozen wasteland.
Jiang Che hovered high in the sky and slowly put away the Ice Dragon Bow.
He looked down at the ruined wasteland below, a flicker of amazement in his eyes.
Just one arrow had destroyed an entire thousand-year-old ice mountain. Its power far surpassed any of his previous methods.
Even a Titled Douluo of the same rank would probably be grievously wounded on the spot if they took a direct hit from a single shot of the Ice Dragon Bow.
"Exhilarating!"
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