Facing a speed-type opponent, the chance would only last a split second,
There was no time to think, let alone feel excitement. He hadn't even noticed that this snake seemed much smaller than the one that had attacked him earlier.
In the blink of an eye, slap!
Tang San's eyes immediately lit up with an eerie purple glow.
At the critical moment, he flipped the right hand holding the short sword and slammed the back of it against the lower half of his raised left arm.
The three arrows concealed in the arm crossbow fired at once. For some reason, the snake froze and didn't dodge. The second arrow struck true, piercing through its body at the neck.
Pure and Innocent San was overjoyed, his heart pounding so hard it nearly stopped.
What could be more thrilling than surviving a catastrophe by the skin of your teeth?
He sprang forward on one leg and swung, chopping off the snake's head.
He hacked the body into several pieces with a few more strikes. Only after it was thoroughly impossible for it to still be alive did he plop onto the ground and gasp for breath, tears of happiness welling in his eyes.
His whole body trembled with excitement.
"That was so hard."
"Really, so hard."
After a while, he felt something was missing. Somehow, the victory didn't feel quite complete.
He thought for a moment, then added the missing steps in his mind:
"A so-called apex predator is actually a wicked creature found in the Soul Beast Forest.
"Though it's a Soul Beast itself, it slaughtered other beasts of its own kind without restraint. It had no bottom line and was utterly depraved.
"And it ambushed me first, then poisoned my teacher. You've earned your death."
He immediately felt much better.
Only then did he belatedly realize that this snake seemed to be just ninety centimeters long, while the previous one had been at least one and a half meters.
Before he could ask his teacher, a faint, dim white ring slowly rose in front of him, hovering motionless in midair.
"Wait, a Ten-Year Soul Ring?"
"How could it be a Ten-Year Soul Ring?"
Tang San's smile froze. His head buzzed, and his whole body went numb.
"No wonder it reacted so slowly. It wasn't the same snake at all."
The Soul Ring had gone from five hundred years to less than a hundred. Sanzi's mood plummeted from the clouds into the abyss, and he was torn by anguish.
"They're both Silver Shuttle Snakes. In theory, this one should also be able to counteract the poison. Should I absorb it?"
He turned and looked around. By now, it was already extremely dark. Even with the Purple Demon Eye, he couldn't find where the Silver Shuttle Snake that had attacked him had gone.
But he could imagine it lurking somewhere in the darkness, waiting for his heart to stop beating.
So, in truth, he had no choice.
Realizing that he could only absorb this Ten-Year Soul Ring, Tang San felt as if some heavy weapon had smashed a gaping hole through his heart.
The suffocating pain made it impossible to breathe.
Having to carry a humiliating white Soul Ring for the rest of his life, never able to hold his head high again, was hardly any better than being killed outright.
Tang San was tormented by conflict and frustration, but Yu Xiaogang didn't see it that way at all.
Seeing that there was another ninety-year Silver Shuttle Snake and that his disciple had successfully hunted it, he was so overjoyed that his face flushed and his cheeks quivered.
"Hahaha, good! Little San, well done!
"Now we have a way to survive, and your Soul Ring is taken care of.
"Heaven hasn't forsaken me! Hahaha, heaven hasn't forsaken me!"
He had studied Spirit Hall's research records on Blue Silver Grass. He knew that although Blue Silver Grass seemed weak, it possessed many top-tier abilities, such as devouring.
Its ability was simply too weak to be of much use in actual Soul Fighting, and Blue Silver Grass users generally had low Innate Soul Power, so they couldn't use multiple Soul Rings to keep developing and evolving it.
But just because it wasn't useful in Soul Fighting didn't mean it was completely useless. After Tang San absorbed the Silver Shuttle Snake's Soul Ring, he could devour its poison as well.
As for the devouring ability being weak, that just meant it would take more time.
After celebrating for a while, he saw his disciple sitting there in a daze without doing anything and asked, puzzled,
"Hmm? Little San, what are you sitting there for? Hurry and absorb it!"
"Teacher, but it's only a white Ten-Year Soul Ring. Didn't you say the limit for the First Soul Ring could be four hundred and twenty-three years? You also said Soul Rings were extremely important to a Soul Master."
"Ah, that was then, this is now. Life is the most important thing. Without your life, you have nothing."
To ease his precious disciple's resistance, Yu Xiaogang spoke against his conscience:
"Actually, the First Soul Ring is the least important Soul Ring on a Soul Master.
"Its limit is only a little over four hundred years. Compare that to the later ones: the Fifth Soul Ring can reach ten thousand years, and the Ninth can go beyond a hundred thousand.
"This Silver Shuttle Snake is already ninety years old. It's less than ten years short of a Yellow Soul Ring. A mere ten years is nothing compared to the Ninth Ring's hundred thousand years; you can easily make up for it later.
"Besides, even Huang Tian's First Soul Ring was a Ten-Year one. Is he weak?
"And there's Xiao Chenyu, the city lord's son. You're already far better than they are.
"At least this Silver Shuttle Snake fits the plan I had for your Blue Silver Grass perfectly. You've experienced its poison firsthand, so I don't need to tell you how effective it'll be as a Soul Skill."
Yu Xiaogang spoke without changing expression, but inwardly, he gave a faint sigh.
The truth was nothing like that.
Every Soul Ring strengthened the body and spirit and enhanced and evolved the Martial Soul. Each one became the foundation for all the Soul Rings that came after it.
It was like building a pyramid upside down.
A tenth-level Soul Scholar's body was already as strong as it would be after absorbing a three- to four-hundred-year Soul Ring, which was why the limit for the First Soul Ring was four hundred years.
From the Second Soul Ring onward, each one built on all the data accumulated from the previous ones. Then, with additional factors such as training, physical maturity, and absorbing Soul Bones, the limit increased a little.
The Second Ring was just under eight hundred years, the Third around seventeen or eighteen hundred, the Fourth five thousand, the Fifth ten thousand, the Sixth twenty thousand, the Seventh fifty thousand, the Eighth under a hundred thousand, and the Ninth over a hundred thousand.
Overall, the limits roughly doubled each time.
If even a single Soul Ring fell short of its limit, the impact would last a lifetime.
"All right, then."
Tang San knew there was no changing things now.
He nodded dejectedly and, following the method his teacher had taught him the day before, drew the white ring over and placed it around his Blue Silver Grass.
In the distance, after seeing with her own eyes that Little Scumbag had really started absorbing the Soul Ring of that ninety-year Silver Shuttle Snake, Gu Yue couldn't keep the smile from her lips.
She had controlled the five-hundred-year Silver Shuttle to approach a three-hundred-year Datura Snake, which was very likely the one Tang San had absorbed in his previous life, then let out a sharp snap and died.
After the Silver Shuttle had been swallowed whole by the Datura Snake, completely obliterating all evidence, she returned to Notting City, satisfied.
Absorbing a Ten-Year Soul Ring was hardly difficult. After about four or five minutes, Pure and Innocent San suddenly opened his eyes.
He flung his right hand forward, and as the Soul Ring shone, three Blue Silver Grass vines shot out in a triangular formation.
His First Soul Skill, Blue Silver Thrust, let his Blue Silver Grass shoot forward like a Silver Shuttle Snake.
After three whooshes, the vines struck a tree. Their tips were completely shattered, but the tree was unharmed.
Pure and Innocent San's brows furrowed into a deep frown.
"Teacher, is my Soul Skill worse than Huang Tian's? That spear of his seems pretty useful."
Before you continue