A Small Opening Isn't an Opening

Gun Modification Bench?

That page which had remained dormant for the past half year?

Zhang Yang hurriedly chose to enter the Gun Modification Bench.

On the Gun Modification Bench interface, the simple yet powerful Lord M14 lay quietly, surrounded by nine locked accessory slots glowing faintly.

Muzzle, barrel, handguard, optic, magazine, stock, flashlight, foregrip, and functional accessories.

Zhang Yang understood what this meant.

He only needed to click on an accessory slot to unlock it.

Furthermore, Zhang Yang noticed some changes that differed from the game.

In the original game, "flashlight" was categorized under "functional accessories," grouped with lasers, gas tubes, and bipods.

However, in this system, it had directly cut the pistol grip accessory type and pulled the flashlight out to become its own major category.

Zhang Yang naturally understood why, as the M14 could not be equipped with a pistol grip at all.

Additionally, there were nine slots on the M14.

These nine slots were the specific accessory positions currently available for the M14.

They were the muzzle, barrel, handguard kit, scope, side optic, magazine, cheek riser, magazine well, and handguard.

These nine accessory slots belonged to six types of accessories.

Among them, the handguard kit and handguard belonged to the "handguard" accessory type.

The scope and side optic belonged to the "optic" accessory type.

The cheek riser and magazine well belonged to the "functional accessories" type.

So, which accessory slot should he unlock first to provide the greatest boost to Zhang Yang?

Did that even need asking?

Without a second thought, Zhang Yang directly selected the [magazine] accessory slot.

Zhang Yang had grown to loathe the default magazine, which only held ten rounds.

The M14's fire rate was so high that a slight squeeze of the trigger would empty the magazine entirely.

Now, Zhang Yang wanted to equip Lord M14 with a massive drum magazine and enjoy the pleasure of holding the trigger down in the upcoming battles.

A golden light flashed, the lock in the center of the [magazine] accessory slot vanished, and the other accessory slots dimmed simultaneously.

"[Magazine] accessory slot unlocked. You may now purchase magazines in the pre-battle preparation interface."

"Please select a magazine accessory to set as your appearance accessory."

"The functions and performance of appearance accessories will be reflected on your Martial Soul in reality and will affect the Martial Soul's combat performance in the real world. Please choose carefully."

"Note: You may only change your appearance accessory once per natural year."

Appearance accessories affect combat performance?

Zhang Yang naturally chose the [M14 50-Round Drum Magazine], which possessed the greatest intimidation factor, as his appearance accessory.

Do you understand the intimidation factor of an M14 with a steel-wall muzzle and a large drum magazine?

With the accessory unlocked, Zhang Yang looked toward the bottom right corner of the Gun Modification Bench interface.

There, the buttons for "purchase all accessories" and "remove all accessories" had disappeared, replaced by a button labeled "Soul Ring Age Enhancement Function."

Clicking this button caused the accessory slots around the M14 to vanish. The M14 shrank to one-third of its size, and a pale yellow soul ring entered the frame from the surroundings, rhythmically pulsing around the M14.

On the left side of the interface were five slots, from top to bottom: "Ten-Year Soul Ring," "Hundred-Year Soul Ring," "Thousand-Year Soul Ring," "Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring," and "Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring."

At the same time, the quantity was displayed in the bottom right corner of each slot.

The bottom right of the "Ten-Year Soul Ring" showed 4248, the Hundred-Year Soul Ring showed 1558, the Thousand-Year Soul Ring showed 990, and the remaining three types of soul rings all showed 0.

Looking back at the Hundred-Year Soul Ring behind the M14, Zhang Yang touched it with his intent, and the specific details popped up.

"First Soul Ring:"

"Age: 312 years."

"Source: Mirror Shadow Prism-Eye Sparrow."

"Enhanceable: 245 years."

As the specific details of the first soul ring appeared, a "+" sign also appeared next to the five soul ring slots on the left side of the page, meaning he could now enhance the age of his soul rings.

Zhang Yang tried clicking the plus sign next to "Ten-Year Soul Ring" and then clicked the [Confirm Enhancement] button.

A new prompt appeared.

"Are you sure you wish to consume material [Ten-Year Soul Ring] *1 to increase the age of your first soul ring by [1] year?"

"Note: The age of the material will be converted into soul ring age at a 10:1 ratio."

Seeing the 10:1 conversion ratio indicated in the prompt, Zhang Yang calculated silently.

If he calculated based on the optimal soul ring configuration of two yellow, two purple, four black, and one red, that should amount to nearly 220,000 years of soul ring age.

If Zhang Yang wanted to upgrade all nine of his soul rings to the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring level, he would need to hunt a total of 6.8 million years' worth of soul rings—which meant 680 ten-thousand-year soul beasts.

Zhang Yang thought about it and felt this number wasn't too bad. Once he reached the Title Douluo level, wouldn't ten-thousand-year soul beasts be easy pickings?

680 ten-thousand-year soul rings? A piece of cake.

After reviewing the new features, Zhang Yang clicked on the Season Mission.

He wanted to see if the new season's 3*3 missions were difficult.

Opening the [Season Mission] page, Zhang Yang went directly to the [Action Plan] page.

Then, Zhang Yang saw two unlocked [Action Plan 1] and [Action Plan 2], followed by the yet-to-be-unlocked [Action Plan 3] through [Action Plan 16].

Zhang Yang was stunned. How had the number of 3*3 missions in the new season doubled?

There were 9 missions in the first season; how did it become 18 missions in the second season?

What about the ninth season?

Would he have to complete 81 missions?

Zhang Yang felt a headache coming on.

Zhang Yang began to meditate to absorb the soul ring, while Zhang Lingyue stood not far away, holding his martial soul to stand guard for him.

In front of Zhang Yang, Zhu Ranqing sat on a tree root, still maintaining her Martial Soul Possession state. She held a piece of dried beef, using her sharp claws to tear it into thin strips one by one.

Just as Zhu Ranqing finished tearing the bag of jerky and was about to ask Zhang Lingyue for another, the soul power around Zhang Yang suddenly flowed back into his body.

Exhaling a long breath, Zhang Yang slowly opened his eyes.

In an instant, the yellow soul ring on the M14 barrel flickered and vanished. The next moment, a pale yellow Hundred-Year Soul Ring rose from beneath Zhang Yang's feet.

From this moment on, Zhang Yang had become a true Level 11 Battle Soul Master.

After obtaining the first soul ring of his life, Zhang Yang underwent some subtle changes.

Not only had he grown a few centimeters taller and his frame become sturdier, but his little face was rosy, and his eyes were much brighter and more spirited.

This was the comprehensive improvement the soul ring's energy provided to a soul master's body after absorption.

Seeing the yellow soul ring rhythmically pulsing beneath Zhang Yang's feet, Zhu Ranqing happily pulled Zhang Yang into her arms and hugged him tightly.

Zhang Lingyue, standing to the side, was very calm: "Alright, Ranqing, calm down. Don't forget, we are still inside the Star Dou Forest."

Hearing Zhang Lingyue say this, Zhu Ranqing let go of Zhang Yang, wiped her tears with her palm, and forced herself to calm down: "You're right, this isn't the place to celebrate. Let's leave here first."

Zhang Lingyue carried Zhang Yang on his back, then his soul power erupted, and he shot forward toward the north like an arrow released from a bow.

Behind him, Zhu Ranqing maintained her Martial Soul Possession, her speed in no way inferior to Zhang Lingyue's.

Soon, the family left the Star Dou Forest and arrived outside.

Getting down from Zhang Lingyue's back, Zhang Yang couldn't wait to show his parents his first soul ring skill.

Zhang Lingyue flicked his finger, and a Copper Soul Coin tumbled into the air.

"First Soul Skill, Precision Shot!"

Zhang Yang raised his M14 with its large drum magazine, the yellow soul ring at his feet lit up, and he quickly steadied the gun, pointing the muzzle toward the general area.

As Zhang Yang pulled the trigger, a wave of soul power shot from the muzzle. A bullet head the size of a knuckle traced an arc and accurately struck the Copper Soul Coin in mid-air.

In the air, the Copper Soul Coin, now just a black dot, flipped again and shot upward a distance before falling back to the ground.

"Interesting." A smile appeared on Zhang Lingyue's face. He flipped his palm, revealing a dozen more Copper Soul Coins.

Zhang Lingyue threw them into the sky with a sudden motion, and the dozen coins instantly scattered like stars.

Seeing this, Zhang Yang immediately understood his father's intent and pulled the trigger repeatedly.

Finally, after emptying the drum magazine, Zhang Yang deactivated his soul skill and retracted the M14 into his body.

Zhu Ranqing picked up a few of the struck Copper Soul Coins and showed them to the two.

The centers of the Copper Soul Coins had been pierced through without exception, the rough edges blooming in one direction like flowers, the edges of which were sharp and keen.

All three were pleasantly surprised by this performance.

Zhang Yang's first soul skill was a status-type skill.

When firing, the bullet would undergo ballistic fine-tuning under the effect of the soul skill, ensuring a 100% hit rate on stationary or uniformly moving targets within the effective range.

For high-speed targets changing direction, it would significantly increase the hit rate.

It was a very overpowered skill.

To put it plainly, auto-aim was already one of the core soul skills for long-range attack-type tool martial souls, so the effect it could achieve was naturally stunning.

Furthermore, unlike other long-range attack-type tool martial souls like "bows," "crossbows," "short spears," or "blowpipes," the flight speed of the bullets was far ahead of other projectiles.

The extremely fast flight speed, combined with the accuracy of auto-aim, naturally made the resulting effect even more astonishing.