One Year

Li Han sat cross-legged, the Three-Turn Heavy Origin Technique circulating rapidly within him as his soul power began to dissipate at a high speed.

However, this soul power was not vanishing into the heavens and earth; instead, it was merging into his bones, flesh, and meridians.

The profound soul power faded quickly, and soon, his level thirty-three soul power was reduced to level thirty.

The thousand-year soul ring he had just hunted from the Star Dou Great Forest emerged, trembling incessantly.

In but a moment, this thousand-year soul ring shattered, transforming into specks of purple starlight.

The powerful energy merged into his body, causing his physical constitution to improve rapidly.

As the thousand-year soul ring dissipated, Li Han's soul power dropped once more.

Twenty-nine... twenty-eight...

Until his soul power dropped to twenty, his second soul ring emerged.

It followed the exact same process as before.

The soul ring shattered, and the energy merged into his body, nourishing his frame.

Although Li Han's soul power was constantly dissipating, the strength of his flesh and blood grew increasingly potent.

The Elephant Armor Skill automatically broke through to the seventh level.

And this was not the end.

Because the dissipation of power continued.

The first soul ring emerged, then shattered!

Li Han's face turned slightly pale, and the fluctuations of his soul power grew increasingly fragile.

It was not until his level dropped to six that Li Han's dissipation of power finally concluded.

"As expected, the dissipation only ends when I return to my initial Innate Soul Power. This feeling of soul power emptiness is something I haven't experienced in quite a long time."

Li Han sighed.

Two years of cultivation had vanished in this moment; naturally, it was impossible for him to feel completely calm.

However, for the sake of a brighter future, this small sacrifice was worth it.

After all, he was still in the novice village, which was the most suitable time to dissipate his power and restart his cultivation.

If he were to dissipate his power and restart after leaving the novice village and offending others, it would be no different from courting death.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Li Han discovered that although his soul power had dissipated to level six, his physical constitution was even stronger than before.

"This is... the Elephant Armor Skill actually broke through to the eighth level?"

Li Han was overjoyed upon this discovery.

"It must be that the energy released during the dissipation merged into my body, causing a massive increase in the strength of my flesh and blood, which inadvertently provided the Elephant Armor Skill with enough energy to break through. In this way, relying on this physical strength alone, my combat power won't be much worse than it was before."

Although the Elephant Armor Skill originated from the mortal world, it was merely a secular body-refining martial art, far inferior to immortal-cultivation body-refining techniques like the Wisdom King Art or the Heaven-Supporting Demon Art. Nevertheless, when cultivated to the extreme, it could grant the strength of a giant elephant and the effect of being impervious to blades and spears.

This was Li Han's trump card for survival during the weak period of his power dissipation, sufficient for him to calmly deal with any opponent below the level of a Soul Ancestor.

In Nuoding City, while he could not be considered invincible, he had few rivals.

Li Han clenched his fist slightly, feeling the surging power within his body, and a sense of confidence welled up in his heart.

His previous worries about dissipating his power vanished completely.

"Next, I must focus on alchemy and cultivation to raise my level as quickly as possible. It took me two years to reach level thirty before, but perhaps I can be faster this time. Aside from soul power cultivation, actual combat can also be put on the agenda. I had some experience fighting soul beasts while hunting for soul rings, but I haven't had many opportunities to fight against powerful soul masters. Nuoding City lacks a Great Soul Arena; if I really want to engage in real combat, I'll have to go to other cities. Of course, the most important things are alchemy, artifact refining, talisman making, and formations. These are all trump cards for survival that allow one to overcome the strong while being weak; I must practice them more. I still haven't processed the Purple Thunder Roc carcass I brought back from the Star Dou Great Forest. I can try to refine its wings into my Wind-Thunder Wings to enhance their wind and thunder power, and the feathers can be refined into hidden-weapon-type magical treasures. The sharp claws can be refined into magical artifacts similar to the Black Dragon Snatch..."

Various refining methods flashed through Li Han's mind, though whether he could succeed remained to be seen.

After all, such things could never have a one-hundred-percent success rate and were extremely time-consuming.

With Li Han's current abilities, succeeding in one or two would be considered quite good.

"The road ahead is still long and arduous."

Li Han let out a sigh and threw himself back into his cultivation.

Only cultivation could bring him a sense of security.

A year passed in the blink of an eye. Li Han had cultivated to level twenty-seven once again and completed the hunting of his first and second Martial Soul rings.

These two Martial Soul rings were still the Lone Bamboo and the Chameleon Vine, though their age had increased significantly.

The first Martial Soul ring had been upgraded from eight hundred years to three thousand five hundred years.

The second Martial Soul ring had been upgraded from one thousand eight hundred years to three thousand eight hundred years.

It was a pity that the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo could not stack the age of the previous Martial Soul rings; otherwise, his Heavenly Thunder Bamboo could have already broken through the ten-thousand-year mark.

However, when he hunted for his third Martial Soul ring, he should be able to turn the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo into a ten-thousand-year Golden Thunder Bamboo.

It is worth mentioning that after re-hunting his first Martial Soul ring, Li Han's cultivation base jumped directly from level ten to level nineteen. If anyone else had seen that speed of improvement, they would likely have been shocked out of their wits.

When he hunted for his second Martial Soul ring, his level also increased by seven.

This left Li Han with few worries regarding his path of re-cultivation.

After all, the soul power gained from hunting soul beasts was simply too abundant.

Relying on the Lost Track Formation, the commotion he made while hunting soul beasts was minimal; as long as he wasn't particularly unlucky, he would basically never be discovered.

Even if he were discovered, he had the Golden Light Talisman to protect his body, so ordinary people could not hurt him.

Therefore, everything was proceeding very smoothly.

As the third year at Nuoding Academy came to an end, although Li Han had re-cultivated once, his cultivation base was still far ahead of his peers.

Another person who had changed significantly was, naturally, Xiao Wu.

Under Li Han's care, Xiao Wu's cultivation speed had been extremely fast. She had now broken through level twenty, and a third thunder pattern had grown on her Soft Bone Rabbit Martial Soul.

"Li Han! I finally broke through to level twenty! Aren't I amazing?"

Xiao Wu stood with her hands on her hips, triumphantly sharing her achievement with Li Han.

"In one year, you improved by four levels; that is indeed impressive."

Compared to the six-level increase in the first year, this year's four-level increase might seem like two levels less, but in reality, it wasn't much of a difference.

After all, the further one progressed in cultivation, the more difficult it became, and the speed of cultivation would naturally slow down.

Even Tang San, as of now, had only cultivated to level eighteen, still some distance away from level twenty.

"The holidays are coming up again. Do you have any plans?"

Xiao Wu asked out of habit.

"I plan to go to Exotic Beast Academy to see Wang Sheng. I heard there is a Great Soul Arena in Exotic Beast City, and I intend to go there for some experience."

"Great Soul Arena? What is that?"

"It's a place for soul masters to duel."

"That sounds like fun! I'll go with you!"

"You just broke through to level twenty. Aren't you going to find an academy teacher to take you to hunt for a Martial Soul ring?"

"Oh, that's right. You go ahead then, and I'll come find you later."

Hearing this, Xiao Wu felt a bit guilty and could only say as much.

She did not need to hunt for a Martial Soul ring, but she could not tell anyone about this.

According to her original plan, she was supposed to pretend to go home for a trip and then return with her second Martial Soul ring.

Others wouldn't pry into the matter; they would only envy her increased strength.