Thousand-Year Soul Ring

The heat of the flames was scorching; even though the Crimson Fire Boa shared the same fire attribute and possessed resistance to fire, it still wailed in agony under the Buddha Fury Fire Lotus.

A piercing shriek echoed through the air, but Xiao Yan paid it no mind, his hands once again gathering flames.

"Blazing Fist, Heaven Blasting!"

Thanks to the Essence Replenishment Pill he had refined, even after unleashing a full-power Buddha Fury Fire Lotus, Xiao Yan still had enough soul power remaining to sustain his continued release of flames.

Blazing fist shadows emerged, one after another, before raining down like a torrential downpour.

Having already been heavily wounded and paralyzed by Thunderous Might, and further injected with toxins by the Blue Silver Grass of the newly-promoted Soul Elder Tang Ya—who had just obtained her Datura Snake soul ring—the Crimson Fire Boa's condition had plummeted drastically.

Now, blasted by the Buddha Fury Fire Lotus, which rivaled a ten-thousand-year soul skill, and subsequently assaulted by the relentless Blazing Fists, the Crimson Fire Boa truly felt regret.

A thousand-year soul beast possessed rudimentary intelligence, though it wasn't particularly clever; even so, it only wanted to escape these humans as quickly as possible. Damn it all, they were too terrifying!

However, how could Xiao Yan let it go so easily?

"Don't you dare run, you thief!"

He roared, swallowed another Essence Replenishment Pill, and once again gathered terrifying power in his hands!

"Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss! (Don't you come any closer!!!)"

Huo Yuhao, Beibei, and Tang Ya watched this violent scene, all of them stunned into silence.

"Brother Beibei, I remember... you said before that you couldn't guarantee a win against a thousand-year soul beast, right?"

Little Yuhao swallowed a mouthful of saliva, his voice trembling.

"Mm."

Beibei nodded. In truth, if not for the assistance of Yuhao's Spiritual Detection Sharing and Xiao Yan's help, he would have had to put in much more effort to deal with that Datura Snake.

"Then... then how is he, a Soul Scholar without a single soul ring, managing to chase down and beat a thousand-year soul beast?"

Tang Ya's eyes widened, her teeth gritted so hard that the words seemed to be squeezed through the gaps.

She had originally thought this kid Xiao Yan was a decent sort, but who knew that once he got ruthless, he would actually dare to hunt down a thousand-year soul beast!

If he dared to chase a thousand-year soul beast today, tomorrow he would dare to chase a ten-thousand-year one, and the day after, he would be aiming for a hundred-thousand-year soul ring!

"In the future, he is destined for boundless glory."

Beibei watched Xiao Yan's retreating back as he pursued the beast, sighing with emotion.

"A golden scale is no creature of the pond; once it meets the wind and clouds, it transforms into a dragon."

Xiao Yan's hunt lasted for half a day.

After consuming an entire bottle of Essence Replenishment Pills and treating the Buddha Fury Fire Lotus like a basic attack, the Crimson Fire Boa was finally slain.

Looking at the purple soul ring gradually rising from the corpse, Xiao Yan silently took a deep breath.

"Are you really going to absorb a thousand-year soul ring?"

Tang Ya caught up, looking somewhat worried.

It was common knowledge that the optimal age for a Soul Master's first soul ring was one hundred years; even for an over-limit ring, it shouldn't exceed five hundred years.

Yet here, Xiao Yan had gone straight for a thousand-year soul beast, wanting to reach the heavens in a single step and start with a purple soul ring.

As the saying goes, a man's greed is like a snake trying to swallow an elephant; if Xiao Yan forced this, he would surely explode and die.

However, Xiao Yan was not a member of the Tang Sect, and Beibei had already said he had no intention of joining, so Tang Ya felt no need to warn him further.

Xiao Yan nodded and said:

"Although this Crimson Fire Boa is a thousand-year soul beast, its intelligence is low, so I suspect its age is just barely over a thousand years."

"You know that I can refine pills. Before coming here, I prepared pills that can temporarily boost physical constitution and increase the age limit of soul rings I can absorb. However, whether I can withstand this thousand-year ring, I don't know myself."

After all, this was still the early version of the second era; Soul Spirits had not yet appeared, so absorbing a soul ring relied more on physical constitution than spiritual power.

Coincidentally, in the three years since Xiao Yan's Martial Soul awakened, he had been constantly tempering his body. Every wisp of soul power he cultivated was absorbed by the Dragon Egg and returned to him in the form of enhanced physical constitution.

In other words, Xiao Yan's physical constitution was actually far stronger than it appeared.

Furthermore, Xiao Yan had another calculation in his heart.

He and the Little Fire Dragon were two separate entities, but due to the connection between the Martial Soul and his physical body, they could be considered twins of one soul. This meant that when absorbing the soul ring, the physical constitution of two entities was resisting the damage.

To put it simply, the upper limit of the soul ring age Xiao Yan could absorb was effectively twice that of an average person.

Xiao Yan did not deactivate his Martial Soul Possession. At this moment, he and the Little Fire Dragon were of one mind and body—it was the perfect time to absorb the soul ring.

"Alright, Little Brother Xiao Yan, give it a try. We will guard you."

Beibei did not try to stop him further. As for Huo Yuhao?

He himself was a being with a million-year first soul ring, and combined with the stories Tian Meng had told him in his mind, he had received more than enough shocks over the past few days; this was nothing new.

Seeing this, Xiao Yan had no more reservations and pulled another bottle of crimson pills from his robes.

Dragon Blood Pills, refined from materials like Dragon Saliva Grass and Crimson Blood Flower, had the effect of improving physical constitution, increasing stamina, and boosting endurance. Long-term use could lead to myocardial infarction, sudden death, and ascension to a body-tempering planet.

Xiao Yan naturally had no intention of ascending to a body-tempering planet, so he only took one when tempering his body, one when breaking through while absorbing a soul ring, and one to stabilize his state after the breakthrough...

In short, now was the best time!

Xiao Yan tapped his wrist, flicking the Dragon Blood Pill into his mouth, then immediately sat cross-legged to begin guiding the spirit ring with his spiritual power, drawing it toward his body.

In his past life, Xiao Yan had not been without fantasies of what it might look like if he were to transmigrate to another world and break through a bottleneck.

Yet, when he truly reached this moment, when he had to personally absorb a spirit ring and battle the residual will lingering within it, he discovered there was quite a gap between reality and imagination.

Though the spirit beast was dead, its spirit and will remained lodged within the spirit ring; if one could not overcome them, one would be unable to absorb the ring, resulting in injury, loss of rank, or in severe cases, even death.

Within the boundless Sea of Consciousness, a Crimson Fire Boa, its body standing several stories tall, looked down upon Xiao Yan as he stood upon the surface of the sea.

"Hiss, hiss~"

It flicked its tongue, its entire body radiating a terrifying pressure.

Xiao Yan knew this was the thousand-year cultivation of the spirit beast exerting its influence.

The youth stared straight at the spirit beast that seemed to reach the heavens, even though, within the Sea of Consciousness, it appeared far larger and stronger than himself.

However, Xiao Yan had seen even more powerful creatures.

For instance, that hundred-thousand-year Kan-Water Profound Turtle.

The corners of the youth's mouth curled up slightly, and then, a red lotus ignited in his hand.

"Chirp!"

Beside him, the little golden fire dragon was equally brimming with fighting spirit.

"Hiss—"

The Crimson Fire Boa condensed fireball after fireball, firing them toward the man and the dragon, only for Xiao Yan to wave his hand and conjure a curtain of fire, blocking them all.

"You couldn't defeat me when you were alive; now that you're dead, you still want to rebel?"