Sea of Consciousness.
Lin Rui and Lin Fan sat there discussing what to pair with their first Soul Ring and what age limit to absorb. They did not immediately go absorb one, instead wanting to discuss it with the others first.
Before long, Lin Nuo and Lin Xiu appeared before them.
"You two were together?" Lin Fan noticed something and asked.
They had entered at the same time, which meant they might have been together. But weren't they from different timelines?
Hearing Lin Fan's puzzled question, Lin Nuo held out his hand. "I'll show you my memories, and you'll understand." He gestured for him to place his hand on it, preparing to share the memories of what had just happened.
Lin Fan immediately reached out and touched it. Lin Rui also leaned closer from the side, and the two soon learned why Lin Nuo had entered the Sea of Consciousness together with Lin Xiu.
"So that's how it is." Lin Fan nodded. "As a soul master with a time attribute, traveling into the past is indeed perfectly reasonable. And since you were able to borrow power, could others share the burden of absorbing a Soul Ring at the same time?"
The moment he said that, the room fell briefly silent. Lin Xiu finally spoke. "I haven't tried that, but I can confirm that you can absorb Thousand-year Soul Rings as your first Soul Ring."
"Why do you say that?" Lin Fan asked curiously.
"My first Soul Ring came from a thousand-year sea soul beast. My other two Soul Rings were the same," Lin Xiu explained. "Other than some pain, I didn't feel anything unusual when I absorbed my first Soul Ring."
Back then, that Thunder Whale had truly raised him as its child, feeding him every sort of nourishing treasure. Later, he directly absorbed a thousand-year Soul Ring as his first one. As for a Soul Spirit, naturally, there was none.
The Demon Empress had simply said, 'There are plenty of soul beasts in the sea. They haven't gone extinct like they have on the continent.'
"So this is what it means to have a top-tier Demon Emperor protecting you?" Lin Nuo could not help but sigh. Though he also had a Demon Emperor protecting him at home, unfortunately, she was a little glutton.
Lin Fan and Lin Rui both nodded in agreement. Having a Demon Emperor protect you during the Dragon King era really was different from Lin Nuo, who only had the free beginner benefit of awakening a martial soul.
"Actually, there's something else I've been thinking about. If we can borrow power, can we borrow Soul Rings too?" As soon as Lin Fan said that, Lin Nuo and Lin Xiu exchanged glances.
Borrowing power meant using the physical strength and Soul Power of other soul fragments to strengthen oneself. Then, could Soul Rings also be borrowed from others to improve one's Soul Ring configuration and soul skills? That was a very interesting experiment.
Lin Xiu spoke first. "Want to try it?"
"Sure." Lin Nuo nodded and summoned his first Soul Ring.
The Spirit Ascension Platform had indeed improved the quality of his Soul Spirit just now, but unfortunately, his Soul Ring had not changed. So if he borrowed Lin Xiu's Soul Ring, would his own Soul Ring change?
At that moment, Lin Fan and Lin Rui also carefully watched Lin Nuo's Soul Ring. That yellow Soul Ring instantly turned purple.
One of Lin Xiu's three Soul Rings vanished, leaving only two.
"Fusing Soul Rings?" Lin Nuo blurted out the instant he saw his Soul Ring change.
"Fusing Soul Rings ourselves." Looking at his vanished first Soul Ring, Lin Xiu gave his judgment. "We were originally the same person, and we'll eventually become the same person again. That means our Soul Rings belong to the same person as well, so it's perfectly reasonable for us to fuse them with each other. But if we need to fuse Soul Rings or borrow power in the future, it's best to find somewhere safer."
"That's true." Lin Nuo nodded and returned the Soul Ring to Lin Xiu. Both borrowing power and fusing Soul Rings had a drawback: the other person would become an ordinary person or lose several Soul Rings. At that point, they would be lambs waiting to be slaughtered.
Lin Xiu's gaze swept across Lin Fan and Lin Rui's faces. With genuine curiosity in his voice, he asked, "So why did you two specifically call this Sea of Consciousness meeting?"
A knowing smile appeared at the corner of Lin Fan's mouth as he replied lightly, "We've been considering what kind of Soul Ring we should absorb for our first one.
Originally, we wanted to challenge ourselves by directly absorbing a Thousand-year Soul Ring, so we came to discuss it with you. But now, there's no need."
Clearly, after their discussion just now, he already had a definite answer.
Lin Rui slowly nodded as well. "I was actually still hesitating before, unsure of myself. But based on what you just said, absorbing a Thousand-year Soul Ring as our first one should not be a problem at all."
Hearing them say that, Lin Nuo could not help but remark, "If that's the case, when Shrek Academy sees you two in the future, they'll probably say, 'This child was meant to be a Shrek student.'"
Lin Fan: "..."
Lin Rui: "..."
They were now discovering that the main body could be rather absurd at times.
The meeting soon ended.
When Lin Nuo opened his eyes again, he was back in his familiar room, holding the adorable Na'er in his arms. Breathing in Na'er's sweet scent, he slowly fell asleep.
Although this trip through time had not improved his Soul Rings, it had made him even more certain of how to strengthen himself through soul splitting.
At that moment, Na'er's eyelashes fluttered lightly in his arms. Like a kitten secretly hiding a little secret, she quietly opened a narrow slit of an eye while her brother was not paying attention.
She carefully raised her head and looked at her brother's face as he held her. But her nose twitched first, and she softly sniffed. Strange, why did her brother smell fresher and more pleasant than usual?
It was not an intense fragrance, but a clean and warm scent that made her unable to resist taking two more sniffs. Her eyes quietly opened a little wider, holding innocent curiosity and fondness within them.
During the Peerless Tang Sect era, at the Body Sect.
In Lin Rui's private room, he slowly opened his eyes, got down from his bed, and headed toward the Body Sect's private reading room.
That was right. The rough and burly Body Sect actually had a reading room. He sneaked over and found no one there, then swaggered inside.
He stood on tiptoe and pulled a book from the middle shelf. Just as he was about to open it, a faint chill suddenly crept over the back of his neck. It was the feeling of someone's gaze locking firmly onto him—sharp, yet carrying a familiar gentleness.
Without the slightest hesitation, he gripped the book and used the force of turning around to strike behind him with his backhand. His movement was swift and decisive, carrying a young man's vigilance.
The expected collision never came. A warm, powerful hand steadily caught his wrist. The grip was not heavy, but it perfectly dispersed all his strength.
He looked up and saw a white-haired old man with kind brows smiling at him. His voice was full of affection and curiosity. "Little Ancestor, it's already the middle of the night. Why aren't you asleep? Why did you sneak over here to read?"
"You scared me. I thought it was some lunatic." In the days since Lin Rui joined the Body Sect, Du Busi, who had originally planned to take Long Aotian as his disciple, had not accepted Lin Rui as his disciple. Instead, Long Aotian had become the disciple of Golden Body Douluo.
Then he came to challenge him every day. Lin Rui had not even absorbed a single Soul Ring yet—what was there to spar about?
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