After Mu En withstood the Star-Glory Unicorn's dragonified charge head-on, his protective aura was torn apart. The unicorn's horn had carved two bone-deep wounds into his arms, and blood dripped from his fingertips.
He lowered his head to glance at his arms, then looked up at the blood-covered unicorn collapsed on the ground. His brow furrowed slightly.
How embarrassing!
Before coming here, he had bragged that killing a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast would be effortless. Yet this beast had beaten him into such a sorry state.
Though the old man had lived for two hundred years, he still had a bit of a child's temperament.
He could embarrass himself in front of anyone, but not in front of his own great-grandson.
Mu En walked over, stepped on the Star-Glory Unicorn's head, bent down, grabbed its still faintly glowing horn, and snapped it upward.
The unicorn let out a shrill, miserable cry. Its four hooves kicked wildly, but it could not break free from that withered foot.
Mu En remained expressionless. The force in his hand was neither too light nor too heavy as he bent the horn bit by bit, like he was dismantling a disobedient toy.
The sound of bones cracking mixed with the unicorn's screams and echoed through the valley for a full quarter of an hour.
The nearby herd of unicorns had long since fled without a trace. Even the eighty-thousand-year one did not dare look back.
Mu Tianyi stood some distance away, watching Xuan Zu tame that Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast until it was utterly obedient. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
Only when the Star-Glory Unicorn could no longer even cry out did Mu En release it. He took two steps back and tipped his chin at Mu Tianyi.
"Come, Tianyi. The final blow is yours."
Mu Tianyi stepped forward, condensed a dragon claw around his right hand, and his first soul ring lit up.
Golden light flashed past, piercing through the unicorn's skull.
Those golden vertical pupils dimmed completely. A red soul ring slowly rose from the corpse like a rising sun, dyeing the entire valley blood-red.
Mu Tianyi took a deep breath, sat cross-legged, and guided the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring toward himself.
The instant the soul ring entered his body, a surge of Soul Power so violent it was nearly out of control exploded within him.
The energy accumulated by the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast over countless years was like a breached flood, crashing wildly through his meridians and making his organs tremble.
Any five-ring Soul King would have had his meridians shattered at this moment.
But before that violent force could run rampant, the Dragon Core in his Sea of Spirit moved.
Golden light spread from the Dragon Core, like a great net enveloping the rampaging Soul Power.
The Dragon Core itself contained the formidable properties of the Bright Dragon bloodline, and it had also fused with the Seed of Life from Life Gold.
Now, operating at full force, it redirected, suppressed, and refined the pressure of the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring layer by layer.
The golden net tightened, forcibly compressing the violent Soul Power into trickling streams that slowly circulated through his meridians and gradually merged into his Soul Core.
The tiny injuries in his meridians were repaired by the emerald energy emitted by the Seed of Life before they could cause any real damage.
Emerald light flowed through his body. Wherever it passed, hidden injuries healed, and his meridians became supple once more.
Mu En stood beside him, watching everything without blinking.
He still remembered what the Dragon Core had been like inside his own body.
It had been nothing more than a lifeless bead, occasionally releasing some light power to prolong his life and sometimes elbowing him a couple of times.
But once it reached Mu Tianyi, the Dragon Core seemed to have come alive.
Suppressing soul rings, repairing meridians, balancing attributes—it could do it all.
After living for two hundred years, the old man had truly had his eyes opened today.
What was this?
It even picked people?!
How was this still the Dragon Core from back then? It was clearly a completely new one.
Even so, Mu En was delighted, and he had already begun making plans.
If the Dragon Core had this effect, then Mu Tianyi's matter of condensing a Soul Core might be brought forward.
The Soul Core system was another path of cultivation for soul masters. Once successfully condensed, both the recovery speed and total amount of Soul Power would far surpass those of others at the same level.
If Mu Tianyi could condense one successfully, he might even possess a foundation no weaker than a Super Douluo before reaching the Title Douluo stage.
Five hours later.
Mu Tianyi opened his eyes.
Five soul rings rose from beneath his feet...
Yellow, purple, black, black, red.
The first four were the ones he already possessed. The fifth was the newly absorbed Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring.
Red light flowed, bathing even the temporary tent in a bloody hue.
Mu Tianyi raised his right hand, gathering a sphere of golden light in his palm. It was more solid and purer than before.
After absorbing the Star-Glory Unicorn's soul ring, his Bright Sacred Dragon martial soul had gained an indescribable sense of weight.
Its light attribute had also been greatly enhanced.
Mu Tianyi clenched his fist, feeling the surging Soul Power within him, and the corners of his lips rose slightly.
He moved his somewhat stiff body, and his bones crackled.
Mu En walked over and looked him up and down. His gaze settled on the red soul ring still slowly rotating, and his tone carried a trace of urgency and curiosity.
"What is your fifth soul skill? Hurry up and show me."
With a thought from Mu Tianyi, his fifth soul ring lit up.
"My fifth soul skill has two abilities." As he spoke, a thin golden membrane emerged over his palm.
The membrane rapidly spread, covering his entire body and forming fine, dragon-scale-like light armor that clung to his skin, gleaming softly beneath the sunlight.
"The first soul skill is called Holy Dragon Light Defense Body."
"After activating it, I enter the Holy Defense state, reducing damage by eighty percent. The reduced portion is converted into light-attribute damage and added to my next attack. The conversion limit is twice my normal attack power."
"How much?!"
Mu En was utterly stunned.
Hearing only the first half, Mu En had thought it was merely a defensive soul skill. An eighty-percent defensive effect was indeed astonishing, even far surpassing the ninth soul skills of most defense-type Title Douluo.
But the key point was:
It could also convert the reduced damage into a counterattack.
In other words, the terror of this soul skill did not lie in simple defense, but in the integration of offense and defense.
The harder his opponent hit him, the more devastating the blow he returned would be.
Mu Tianyi dismissed the light armor, spread the fingers of his right hand, and gathered a ball of golden light in his palm.
The light ball rapidly expanded and enveloped him. In the end, Mu Tianyi transformed into a miniature Bright Sacred Dragon.
"The second soul skill is called Heavenly Dragon Fall."
"Bright Sacred Dragon," Mu Tianyi explained, "allows me to transform into a Bright Sacred Dragon phantom and dive at a single target, dealing massive light-attribute damage with a purification effect that can dispel the target's beneficial effects."
He paused, and a sharp gleam flashed through his eyes.
"If the enemy is weaker than me, or if their martial soul bloodline is inferior to mine, Heavenly Dragon Fall triggers a devouring effect. It drains all of their Soul Power and feeds it back to me."
Mu En fell silent.
It was not that he had never heard of soul skills with devouring effects, but most of those came from Evil Soul Masters, following crooked paths and carrying immense side effects.
Mu Tianyi's skill, however, was righteous and aboveboard, fundamentally different from them.
This was a positive ability granted by a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, not something obtained through crooked means.
Mu Tianyi withdrew his soul rings and looked at the two wounds on Mu En's arms that were still seeping blood.
He took out the Blade of Life's Watch from his storage Soul Tool and lightly scraped the back of the blade over Mu En's forearm.
A layer of exceedingly thin emerald dust fell upon the wounds and seeped into the flesh at a visible speed.
The edges of the wounds slowly began to close, and most of the bleeding stopped.
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