As soon as he entered, several staff members in the hall recognized him and greeted him warmly.
Ye Feng was something of a local celebrity at the Nuoding City Martial Soul Branch. After all, everyone remembered a genius with innate Soul Power of level seven.
"Mm, I'm here to take care of something."
Ye Feng smiled as he replied.
None of them seemed particularly surprised to see him.
With his innate level-seven Soul Power, going from zero to level ten in a year and becoming a true Soul Master had been a foregone conclusion.
"Xiao Feng, congratulations on officially becoming a Soul Master!"
Ma Xiunuo came out from the inner room. When he saw Ye Feng, his aged face broke into a broad, gratified smile.
"Grandpa Ma Xiunuo."
Ye Feng greeted him respectfully, then got straight to the point.
"I'm here to register my Soul Master rank and collect my subsidy. Could you register me first?"
"Of course, of course, my good lad."
Ma Xiunuo replied with a cheerful smile. He took a blue crystal ball from beneath the counter and handed it over.
"Come, place your hand on it."
Ye Feng did as instructed and pressed his right hand against the crystal ball.
In the next moment, light swirled inside the crystal ball, blooming into a soft blue glow.
Within the glow, two clear golden digits slowly appeared.
Twelve!
The smile on Ma Xiunuo's face froze. The hand holding the crystal ball even gave an uncontrollable tremor.
"This... level twelve?"
His voice nearly failed him. He even wondered if his old eyes were playing tricks on him.
"Xiao Feng, what kind of Soul Beast's Soul Ring did you absorb? How could you have jumped two levels at once?"
Ma Xiunuo was truly shocked.
It was common knowledge that absorbing a First Soul Ring raised a Soul Master's Soul Power by one level.
He had been a branch hall master for so many years, yet he had never heard of anyone jumping two levels at once!
"Grandpa Ma Xiunuo, I can't tell you that."
Ye Feng scratched his head, looking a little embarrassed.
"I can only say that I absorbed the Soul Ring of a Hundred-Year Soul Beast.
"As for why I went straight to level twelve, I'm not really sure either."
A half-truth was always the hardest to see through.
"All right."
Ma Xiunuo knew that every Soul Master's opportunity was a secret, and pressing them about it was taboo.
Suppressing his shock, he asked in a different way:
"Child, could you let this old man have a look at your Soul Ring?"
"Sure."
Ye Feng readily agreed.
At a thought, a bright Yellow Soul Ring slowly rose from beneath his feet and circled around his body.
Its light was pure and solid, giving off a faint aura of radiance.
Ma Xiunuo leaned closer to examine it, nodding again and again as he praised it.
"Excellent, excellent! I can't tell exactly what kind of Soul Beast it came from, but this Soul Ring is around three hundred and fifty years old!"
"Xiao Feng, you've laid an excellent foundation with your First Soul Ring. You'll surely go far in the future!"
He was genuinely happy for Ye Feng.
Having once been a commoner himself, he understood all too well the cost and danger a common-born Soul Master faced when trying to obtain such a high-quality Hundred-Year Soul Ring alone.
"Then I'll take your kind words to heart, Grandpa Ma Xiunuo."
Ye Feng put away his Soul Ring, wearing a modest smile.
Soon, all the registration formalities were complete.
Ye Feng received a brand-new, black-covered booklet recording his Soul Master information, along with a gleaming Gold Soul Coin.
He tucked both items into his clothes and turned, satisfied, toward the inn.
Back in his room at the inn, Ye Feng slid the bolt into place behind him.
The gleaming Gold Soul Coin and the black booklet recording his Soul Master information brought him a brief sense of peace and contentment.
But that feeling was soon replaced by a deeper vigilance, one that welled up from the depths of his soul.
Sitting on the edge of the bed with his eyes closed, he began rapidly replaying every scene from the Star Dou Great Forest in his mind.
His battle with the Radiant Lion—every moment was crystal clear.
The lion's noble bloodline, its pure light attribute, and its terrifying strength, far beyond that of an ordinary Hundred-Year Soul Beast.
He had won, but by the skin of his teeth.
Had he not pretended to be unconscious at the crucial moment, trading serious injuries for a chance to strike the killing blow, he would be the one lying in the forest, devoured to the bone.
The difference in physical strength, the vast gap in Soul Power reserves—these were crippling weaknesses that skill alone could never fully overcome.
Next came the standoff with Jiang Yi and the five bandits.
That had been a dance on the edge of a blade.
The chaos of the beast tide, the unexpected appearance of the Nether Wolf Pack, Jiang Yi and his men's greed and overconfidence... every one of those factors had been indispensable.
On an ordinary day, in an open area, if a level-thirty-something Soul Elder and four level-twenty-something Soul Grandmasters had set their sights on him, he could have had three heads and six arms and still stood no chance of surviving.
His successful counterattack had been seventy percent luck and only thirty percent calculation.
It felt awful to entrust his life to something as fleeting and insubstantial as luck.
He had to get stronger!
And he needed truly overwhelming power, the kind that could let him dictate the course of a battle!
Ye Feng opened his eyes and spread his palm. A wisp of pure golden Soul Power flowed across it.
His First Soul Skill, "Radiant Body," could increase his strength and defense by thirty percent, with an additional ten percent boost to his light attribute.
It was powerful—extremely powerful.
It had already made his physical abilities superior to those of Soul Masters at the same level.
But in the end, it was only a buffing skill.
Right now, he lacked effective offensive techniques, let alone any means of controlling his opponents.
If he were surrounded or faced an enemy far faster than himself, he would still be in grave danger.
He had already worked out his future Soul Ring plan.
For his first three Soul Rings, he would choose two skills that enhanced his own attributes and one healing- or purification-type Soul Skill.
That plan was meant to take him as far as possible along his future path.
He could imagine how terrifying it would be in the mid-to-late stages, when he became a Soul King, Soul Emperor, or even a Soul Saint, with two or three top-tier buffing Soul Skills and a powerful healing skill to go with them.
By then, his basic attributes would crush those of his peers, giving him the absolute ability to challenge opponents above his level.
But... that was the mid-to-late game.
Before becoming a Soul Ancestor, especially now, with only one Soul Ring, he was basically a "sandbag"—to be precise.
This sandbag might be a little tougher and hit a little harder than other people, but at heart, he could still only rely on the most primitive close-quarters fighting with fists and feet. If he ran into a powerful Beast Martial Soul or Tool Martial Soul user, he would be seriously disadvantaged early on.
That was pathetic.
His early weakness could easily keep him from ever making it to the stage where he would become powerful.
It seemed he would have to find a way to create his own Soul Skill.
At a thought, Ye Feng raised his right hand, Soul Power surging in his palm.
A triangular Light Blade, about half a meter long and made of pure light energy, slowly took shape.
This was the only offensive technique he had that was any good right now: "Light-Gathering Blade."
He could use it as a melee weapon or swing it to launch a ranged attack.
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