One Year

Li Han sat cross-legged as the Three-Turn Heavy Origin Technique circulated rapidly within him. His Soul Power was quickly dissipating.

But this Soul Power wasn't vanishing into the world around him. Instead, it was merging with his muscles, bones, flesh, and meridians.

His deep reserves of Soul Power rapidly dwindled. Before long, his Soul Power had fallen from level thirty-three to level thirty.

The Thousand-Year Soul Ring he had just obtained in the Star Dou Great Forest appeared, trembling without pause.

In a matter of moments, the Thousand-Year Soul Ring shattered, turning into specks of purple starlight.

Its tremendous energy flowed into his body, rapidly improving his physical constitution.

As the Thousand-Year Soul Ring dissipated, Li Han's Soul Power fell again.

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

When his Soul Power had fallen to level twenty, the Second Soul Ring appeared as well.

The process was exactly the same as before.

The Soul Ring shattered, its energy merging into his body and nourishing his physique.

Though Li Han's Soul Power continued to dwindle, the strength of his flesh and blood grew greater by the moment.

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

And that wasn't the end.

The dissipation of his cultivation continued.

The First Soul Ring appeared, then shattered!

Li Han's face grew slightly pale, and his Soul Power fluctuations became increasingly feeble.

His Soul Power dropped all the way to level six before the process finally ended.

"Just as I thought. The dissipation only ends once my Soul Power drops back to my original Innate Soul Power.

It's been a long time since I've felt this empty of Soul Power."

Li Han let out a sigh.

Two years of cultivation had vanished in an instant. Naturally, he couldn't be entirely unmoved.

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

After all, he was still in the beginner's village. This was the best time to dissipate his cultivation and start over.

If he left the beginner's village and made enemies, then trying to start over later would be no different from courting death.

"Hm?"

Suddenly, Li Han realized that although his Soul Power had fallen to level six, his physical constitution was even stronger than before.

"Could it be... the Elephant Armor Skill broke through to the eighth layer?"

Li Han realized this and was overjoyed.

"It must be because the energy released during the dissipation merged into my body, greatly increasing the strength of my flesh and blood. That unintentionally gave the Elephant Armor Skill a massive influx of energy, allowing it to break through.

"With the strength of my body, I shouldn't be much weaker than I was before."

Though the Elephant Armor Skill came from the Mortal Realm, it was only a worldly body-tempering martial art, far inferior to cultivation techniques like the Wisdom King Art and the Heaven-Supporting Demon Art. Still, when cultivated to the utmost, it could grant the strength of a giant elephant and make its practitioner impervious to blades and spears.

This was Li Han's trump card for staying alive during the weakened period after dissipating his cultivation. It was more than enough to let him calmly handle any opponent below the rank of Soul Ancestor.

In Nuoding City, he might not be invincible, but there would still be few who could match him.

Li Han clenched his fist slightly, feeling the surging power within his body. Confidence welled up in his heart.

All his worries about dissipating his cultivation vanished.

"Next, I need to make more pills and cultivate more, so I can raise my cultivation as quickly as possible.

"It took me two years to reach level thirty last time. Maybe I can do it faster this time.

"Besides cultivating Soul Power, I can also start working on actual combat.

"I've fought Soul Beasts a few times while hunting for Soul Rings, but I haven't had many chances to fight powerful Soul Masters.

"There's no Great Soul Arena in Nuoding City, so if I want real combat experience, I'll have to go to another city.

"Of course, refining pills, forging artifacts, making talismans, and studying formations are the most important things.

"These are all life-saving trump cards. They can let me overcome stronger opponents, so I need to practice them more.

"I still haven't done anything with the Purple Thunder Roc corpse I brought back from the Star Dou Great Forest.

"I can try refining its wings into the Wind-Thunder Wings to enhance their wind and thunder power. Its feathers could be made into Hidden Weapon-type magical treasures.

"Its claws could be forged into a Dharma Artifact like the Black Dragon Snatch..."

All sorts of crafting methods flashed through Li Han's mind, but whether he could successfully make anything remained to be seen.

After all, success was never guaranteed, and the process took a great deal of time.

With Li Han's current abilities, making one or two things successfully would be a good result.

"There's still a long road ahead."

Li Han sighed and returned to his cultivation.

Only cultivation could make him feel safe.

A year passed in the blink of an eye. Li Han cultivated back to level twenty-seven and completed the hunts for his First Soul Ring and Second Soul Ring.

The two rings still came from Lone Bamboo and Chameleon Vine, but their ages had increased considerably.

The First Soul Ring had gone from eight hundred years to three thousand five hundred years.

The Second Soul Ring had gone from one thousand eight hundred years to three thousand eight hundred years.

Unfortunately, the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo couldn't stack its Soul Ring age with the previous one. Otherwise, his Heavenly Thunder Bamboo could have surpassed ten thousand years.

But when he hunted for his Third Soul Ring, he should be able to turn the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo into Ten Thousand Year Golden Thunder Bamboo.

It was worth mentioning that after hunting for his First Soul Ring again, Li Han's cultivation had risen straight from level ten to level nineteen. If anyone else had seen how fast he advanced, their jaws would have dropped.

Hunting for his Second Soul Ring had also raised his cultivation by a full seven levels.

This left Li Han with few worries about starting his cultivation over.

After all, the Soul Power gained from hunting Soul Beasts was simply too abundant.

And with the Lost Track Formation, he made almost no noise while hunting Soul Beasts. Unless he had terrible luck, no one would discover him.

Even if he was found, the Golden Light Talisman would protect him. Ordinary people wouldn't be able to hurt him.

So everything went very smoothly.

The third year at Nuoding Academy came to an end. Although Li Han had started his cultivation over once, he was still far ahead of his peers.

Xiao Wu had changed considerably, too.

With Li Han feeding her, Xiao Wu's cultivation had advanced rapidly. She had now broken through to level twenty, and a third thunder mark had appeared on her Soft Bone Rabbit Martial Soul.

"Li Han! I finally broke through to level twenty! I'm amazing, right?"

Xiao Wu planted her hands on her hips and proudly shared her achievement with Li Han.

"Four levels in a year. That's impressive."

Compared to the six levels she had gained in her first year, gaining four levels this year seemed like a drop of two. But in truth, it wasn't much slower.

After all, the further one progressed in cultivation, the harder it became. Naturally, the pace would slow down.

Even Tang San had only reached level eighteen by now, still a ways off from level twenty.

"Summer vacation's coming again. What are your plans?"

Xiao Wu asked out of habit.

"I'm planning to visit Wang Sheng at Exotic Beast Academy.

"I heard there's a Great Soul Arena in Exotic Beast City. I'm planning to go there and get some training, too."

"A Great Soul Arena? What's that?"

"It's a place where Soul Masters fight each other."

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

"You just broke through to level twenty. Aren't you going to ask a teacher from the academy to take you to hunt for a Soul Ring?"

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

Xiao Wu felt a little guilty at his words, so she could only say that.

She didn't need to hunt for a Soul Ring, but she couldn't tell anyone that.

According to her original plan, she was supposed to pretend to go home for a while, then come back with her Second Soul Ring.

No one else would ask about it, either. They would only envy her for becoming even stronger.