External Soul Bone: Flame Tail Hook

"Roar--"

The Earth King let out a roar, and the stinger at the end of its tail sprayed out crimson flames once more, burning the incoming vines to ash.

"To burn my vines to ash in an instant—it truly lives up to its reputation as a high-level fire-attribute soul beast. However, its weakness is also quite obvious: its tail."

Ling Yun's gaze sharpened. He moved with agile steps through the dense forest, simultaneously channeling pure wood-attribute soul power into the surrounding trees. With a wave of his hand, he unleashed his ultimate move.

"Wood Vine Entanglement!"

Boom, boom, boom!

Suddenly, thick vines erupted from the surrounding trees, dancing like wild, spiritual serpents as they swept toward the Earth King.

"Roar..."

The Earth King growled, attempting 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 own ultimate move, dozens of vines had already tightly coiled around its scorpion tail, pinning its stinger toward the sky so it could no longer spray flames at the two of them.

Beyond that, Ling Yun controlled the vines to bind its scorpion claws and eight legs, leaving it unable to move.

"It's immobilized. Director Su, now is the time! Quickly, cut off its tail!"

"No problem!"

With Ling Yun holding the Earth King in place, Director Su sprinted forward like a gale, striking directly at the beast.

"Third Soul Skill: Wind Blade Slash!"

The thousand-year soul ring beneath his feet suddenly lit up, and a cyan wind blade whistled out, tearing through the air with a piercing shriek.

The wind blade struck the Earth King's tail bone, and with a puff, it severed the tail completely!

Ling Yun, having transformed into the Divine Wood Ape, followed closely behind, unleashing a flurry of combo strikes against the Earth King's head.

After consuming the Whale Rubber, his strength had increased significantly. Combined with the innate power of the Divine Wood Ape, it took only a few breaths for Ling Yun to beat the Earth King into a critical state, leaving it gasping for air on the ground.

Ling Yun ended his transformation, pulled out a dagger, and plunged it into the Earth King's skull, ending its life for good.

After the Earth King died, a purple soul ring drifted out from its corpse, hovering above the remains.

Ling Yun sat cross-legged, adjusted his state, and prepared to absorb the soul ring.

Seeing this, Director Su was shocked and hurriedly tried to dissuade him: "Ling Yun, are you really going to absorb a thousand-year soul ring beyond your level? You must know that 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 I run into trouble, you can always interrupt me."

"...Alright then."

Knowing he couldn't sway Ling Yun, Director Su stopped insisting. Furthermore, he wanted to see if Ling Yun could create a miracle, though he still added:

"But I'll say this first: if any accident occurs, I will interrupt you immediately."

"No problem."

Ling Yun smiled nonchalantly. For the past two years, he had been training his body, and over these last four months, he had consumed five pieces of Whale Rubber. Absorbing a thousand-year soul ring should be a breeze.

With that thought, he immediately released his soul power, guiding the soul ring and attaching it to his martial soul.

The soul power within the ring poured out, constantly battering Ling Yun's body. Although painful, his physical constitution was enough to withstand it.

At the same time, the Five Spirit Lock on his wrist began to glow, greedily absorbing the fire-attribute soul power from the soul ring.

Then, as if a switch had been flipped, Ling Yun faintly heard the cry of a crane.

About two hours passed before Ling Yun opened his eyes. The bottleneck of his soul power had been completely shattered, and a powerful soul pressure surged outward, sweeping through the surroundings.

At this very moment, his cultivation had reached level 24!

Seeing Ling Yun open his eyes, Director Su, who had been standing by, watched with wide, glowing eyes, exclaiming: "It, it actually succeeded! A thousand-year second ring—this is truly unprecedented..."

Although he was only a minor Soul Elder, seeing Ling Yun's thousand-year second ring made Director Su realize that the sky of the soul master world was about to change.

"Ling Yun, how do you feel? Absorbing a soul ring beyond your level—did it hurt your body?"

"Haha, I feel better than ever! My soul power has even reached level 24."

"Level 24? Your soul power increased by that much?" Director Su was stunned for a moment, but upon reflection, Ling Yun had absorbed a soul ring beyond his level; a four-level increase was only natural.

As he spoke, Ling Yun reached out to touch his stomach. He wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but after absorbing the Earth King's soul ring, his back seemed to have become stronger, and the muscles on his abdomen were slightly bulging.

"Could it be..."

A bold idea sprouted in Ling Yun's mind, and he hurriedly channeled his soul power into every bone in his body.

Rip!

Suddenly, his shirt tore instantly, and a snow-white scorpion tail, three meters long, burst out from his spine, swaying in the wind behind him.

Seeing this snow-white scorpion tail, Ling Yun's eyes lit up. Without a doubt, this was a soul bone!

Director Su, standing nearby, wore a puzzled expression, asking curiously: "Is this the Earth King's scorpion tail? Kid Ling Yun, is this your second soul skill?"

Before Ling Yun could explain, Director Su shook his head, dismissing the idea: "No! When a soul skill is activated, a soul master's soul ring will flicker.

But just now, let alone a soul ring, you didn't even release your martial soul. So, what is this tail? If it's not a soul skill, could it be..."

At this point, Director Su thought of a possibility, and his spirit couldn't help but stir.

"A Soul Bone!"

"That's right, this must be a Soul Bone! I never expected you to be so lucky, kid. Not only did you absorb a thousand-year soul ring beyond your level, but you even obtained a fire-attribute torso Soul Bone. No wonder your cultivation has reached level twenty-four."

Watching Ling Yun's snow-white scorpion tail, Director Su grew more and more excited, as if he were the one who had obtained the Soul Bone.

However, Director Su was wrong about one thing: this scorpion tail was not a torso Soul Bone, but an External Soul Bone!

Ling Yun could feel that this scorpion tail had fused with the base of his spine, while his rib area remained empty; it was clearly an External Soul Bone.

Although he had obtained an External Soul Bone, he did not intend to tell Director Su. His strength was still too weak, and the fewer people who knew he possessed an External Soul Bone, the better.

"Now then, let's test the abilities of this Soul Bone."

Ling Yun smiled slightly, then channeled his soul power into the bone, aiming at a large tree in front of him and controlling the tail hook to thrust and coil.

In an instant, the tail hook shot out like an arrow released from a bow, piercing straight through the trunk of the tree.

Before the snow-white tail hook, the tree, which required two people to embrace, was as fragile as paper, pierced through in a heartbeat.

Immediately following, the tail hook released a raging inferno, burning the entire tree to ashes.

Witnessing the power of the External Soul Bone, Ling Yun's eyes lit up, and he exclaimed in pleasant surprise, "Not bad power. If used for sneak attacks in battle, it will definitely deal a heavy blow to an opponent. I'll call you Flame Tail Hook."

Ling Yun had named his External Soul Bone. The Flame Tail Hook could not only perform thrusts and coils, but after condensing soul power, it could even unleash the innate skill of the Earth King: Magma Earth-Splitting Strike!