"Roar—"
The Earth King roared, and the tail hook at the end of its tail spewed crimson flames once more, burning the incoming vines to ash.
"It burned my vines to ash in an instant. As expected of a high-level fire-attribute Soul Beast. But its weakness is obvious too: its tail."
Ling Yun's gaze sharpened. He darted through the surrounding forest with nimble steps, releasing pure wood-attribute Soul Power into the trees around him. Then he swept out his hand and unleashed his signature move.
"Wood Vine Entanglement!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
In an instant, thick vines burst from the surrounding trees, twisting through the air like frenzied serpents as they surged toward the Earth King.
"Roar..."
The Earth King growled, preparing to use the same trick again, but under Ling Yun's control, the vines moved with incredible speed.
Before the Earth King could unleash its attack, dozens of vines had already tightly wrapped around its scorpion tail, pointing its tail hook toward the sky. It could no longer spew flames at the two of them.
On top of that, Ling Yun controlled the vines to bind its pincers and all eight legs, leaving it unable to move.
"It can't move now. Director Su, this is your chance. Cut off its tail!"
"Got it!"
With Ling Yun holding the Earth King in place, Director Su raced toward it like a gust of wind and attacked head-on.
"Third Soul Skill: Wind Blade Slash!"
The Thousand-Year Soul Ring beneath his feet suddenly lit up, and a blue-green wind blade howled forth, tearing through the air with a piercing whistle.
The wind blade struck the Earth King's tailbone. With a soft thump, it severed the bone completely!
Ling Yun, transformed into the Divine Wood Ape, followed close behind and unleashed a flurry of punches against the Earth King's head.
After consuming Whale Rubber, his strength had increased substantially. Combined with the Divine Wood Ape's own strength, it took only a few breaths for Ling Yun to beat the Earth King into critical condition. It collapsed to the ground, barely alive.
Ling Yun ended his transformation, drew a dagger, and plunged it into the Earth King's head, ending its life for good.
After the Earth King died, a purple Soul Ring rose from its corpse and floated above it.
Ling Yun sat cross-legged and adjusted his condition. Then he prepared to absorb the Soul Ring.
Seeing this, Director Su was alarmed and hurriedly tried to stop him. "Ling Yun, are you really going to absorb a Thousand-Year Soul Ring beyond your level? If anything goes wrong, you could explode and die!"
"Don't worry, Director Su. I have confidence in myself!" Ling Yun smiled, then added, "Besides, if something does go wrong, you can stop me."
"...All right, then."
Knowing he couldn't talk Ling Yun out of it, Director Su no longer insisted. Besides, he wanted to see whether Ling Yun could create a miracle. Still, he said, "But I'm warning you now: if anything happens, I'll stop you immediately."
"No problem."
Ling Yun smiled casually. For the past two years, he had been training his body, and in the last four months alone, he had consumed five pieces of Whale Rubber. Absorbing a Soul Ring that was just over a thousand years old would be a piece of cake.
With that thought, he released his Soul Power, drew in the Soul Ring, and attached it to his Martial Soul.
Soul Power poured out of the ring, continually battering Ling Yun's body. It was painful, but his physical constitution was strong enough to endure it.
At the same time, the Five Spirit Lock on his wrist began to glow, greedily absorbing the fire-attribute Soul Power within the ring.
Then, as though some switch had been flipped, Ling Yun faintly heard the cry of a crane.
About two hours later, Ling Yun opened his eyes. The bottleneck in his Soul Power had completely broken through, and a powerful pressure burst from him, sweeping out in every direction.
At that moment, his cultivation had reached level twenty-four!
Seeing Ling Yun open his eyes, Director Su's eyes lit up. He exclaimed in astonishment, "Y-you really did absorb it! A Thousand-Year Soul Ring as your second ring—that's unprecedented..."
Though he was only a lowly Soul Elder, seeing Ling Yun's second Soul Ring made Director Su realize that the Soul Master World was about to change.
"Ling Yun, how are you feeling? Absorbing a Soul Ring beyond your level didn't hurt your body, did it?"
"Haha, I feel fantastic! My Soul Power has even reached level twenty-four."
"Level twenty-four? Your Soul Power actually increased that much?" Director Su was stunned for a moment, but then he thought it over. Ling Yun had absorbed a Soul Ring beyond his level, so gaining four levels of Soul Power was only natural.
As he spoke, Ling Yun reached out and touched his stomach. Perhaps it was his imagination, but after absorbing the Earth King's Soul Ring, his back seemed to have grown stronger, and the muscles in his abdomen had bulged slightly.
"Could it be..."
A bold idea occurred to Ling Yun. He hurriedly channeled Soul Power through all the bones in his body.
Riiip!
Suddenly, his shirt tore apart, and a snow-white scorpion tail, three meters long, burst from his spine, swaying in the breeze behind him.
The moment he saw the snow-white scorpion tail, Ling Yun's eyes lit up. Without a doubt, this was a Soul Bone!
Director Su, standing nearby, looked puzzled too. Curious, he asked, "Is that the Earth King's scorpion tail? Ling Yun, is this your second Soul Skill?"
Before Ling Yun could explain, Director Su shook his head and rejected the idea. "No, that's not right! A Soul Master's Soul Ring flashes when they use a Soul Skill.
"But just now, not only did your Soul Rings not flash, you didn't even release your Martial Soul. So what is that scorpion tail? If it isn't a Soul Skill, could it be..."
At that thought, Director Su realized what it might be, and his spirits rose.
"A Soul Bone!"
"That's right, this must be a Soul Bone! You're incredibly lucky, kid. Not only did you absorb a Thousand-Year Soul Ring beyond your level, you even got a fire-attribute Torso Soul Bone. No wonder your cultivation reached level twenty-four."
As he gazed at Ling Yun's snow-white scorpion tail, Director Su grew more and more excited, as if he had obtained the Soul Bone himself.
But Director Su had gotten one thing wrong: the scorpion tail wasn't a Torso Soul Bone. It was an External Soul Bone!
Ling Yun could feel the tail fused with the base of his spine. His ribs, on the other hand, were still empty. It was clearly an External Soul Bone.
Although he had obtained an External Soul Bone, he had no intention of telling Director Su. His strength was still weak, and the fewer people who knew he had an External Soul Bone, the better.
"Now, let's test what this Soul Bone can do."
Ling Yun smiled slightly, then channeled Soul Power into the Soul Bone. He aimed at a tree in front of him and controlled the tail hook to thrust and coil around it.
In a flash, the tail hook shot out like an arrow loosed from a bow and pierced straight through the tree trunk.
Before the snow-white tail hook, the tree—which would have taken two people with their arms outstretched to encircle—was like paper. It was pierced in an instant.
Right after, the tail hook unleashed roaring flames, reducing the entire tree to ash.
Having witnessed the power of the External Soul Bone, Ling Yun's eyes lit up. He exclaimed with delight, "Not bad. If I use this to launch a sneak attack in battle, I can seriously injure an opponent in one strike. I'll call you Flame Tail Hook."
Ling Yun had named his External Soul Bone. The Flame Tail Hook could thrust and coil around its target, and once it gathered Soul Power, it could even unleash the Earth King's innate skill: Magma Earth-Splitting Strike!
Before you continue