Su Mo, Level 78 Soul Saint

Ten years.

In the eleventh year after the Soul Beasts' extinction, Douluo Continent had completely changed.

The Soul Hunting Forests that Soul Masters had once flocked to had now become barren wilderness overgrown with weeds.

The outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest had been turned into lumberyards by the two great empires. Loggers came and went carrying saws, felling ancient trees that had stood for hundreds or thousands of years one by one.

The concentration of Soul Power between heaven and earth had not changed much from ten years ago. All Soul Masters still cultivated just as quickly, but the faster they progressed, the more anxious they became.

Because the faster they cultivated, the closer they came to a bottleneck.

And the closer they came, the more despairing they became.

Over the past ten years, every single one of the younger generation of Soul Masters had become stuck at a bottleneck.

Level-ten Soul Scholars, level-twenty Soul Grandmasters, level-thirty Soul Elders, level-forty Soul Ancestors... No matter how talented they were or how desperately they cultivated, once they reached a bottleneck, they could only stop.

Soul Power accumulated thicker and thicker in their dantians, yet their realms did not budge in the slightest.

Those old fellows who had long since entered the ranks of Titled Douluo did not care much. After all, they no longer needed Soul Rings.

But as they watched their descendants and disciples become trapped at bottlenecks, unable to move forward, they too grew anxious.

The grand experience-sharing event held by Spirit Hall ten years ago had briefly ignited hope in every Soul Master.

Dozens of peak experts had gathered in Spirit City to discuss plans for the survival of the Soul Master world. The spectacle, the grandeur—it had seemed as though Self-Condensed Soul Rings would soon be born.

But then,

A year passed with no news.

Three years passed, and there was still no news.

Five years passed. The announcements from Spirit Hall's Creation Institute grew shorter and vaguer. They went from "currently tackling core challenges," to "having achieved phased progress," and finally to "requiring more time."

By the eighth year, the Creation Institute's announcements stopped altogether.

Only then did people realize that the so-called "Self-Condensed Soul Ring" was probably impossible to develop.

Or rather, developing it within a short period was likely impossible.

Despair.

That was the shared backdrop of the entire Soul Master world.

They could not break through, they could not find Soul Beasts, and so the Soul Master world became lively.

Most Soul Masters, when they reached a bottleneck and could not break through, went to scrape by in Soul Fighting Arenas.

There, they could still prove that they were Soul Masters.

Over the years, Soul Fighting Arenas had multiplied.

Some Soul Masters, driven by despair, began causing trouble and venting their frustrations.

Chaos naturally became unavoidable.

The number of Fallen Ones grew every year.

The population of Slaughter City also rose again and again.

In a small courtyard on the outskirts of Suotuo City, sword light flashed like silk.

Su Mo stood in the courtyard, his right hand loosely clenched. A dark red longsword silently appeared in his palm.

The blade was narrow and long, its edge restrained. An exceedingly thin line of blood ran along its spine from the guard to the tip, glimmering with a faint crimson light beneath the moon.

The entire sword was sleek and sharp, without the slightest trace of damage or rust. It looked like a killing weapon forged from moonlight and blood.

This was not a Refined Iron Longsword. This was his Martial Soul.

Over ten years, the ability of Soul Weapon Fusion had allowed the Broken Sword Martial Soul to continuously absorb the essence of weapons. It had begun with an ordinary iron longsword, then moved on to a hundredfold-refined steel sword he had forged at great expense, and then, three years ago, one made from tungsten gold... With every fusion, the quality of his Martial Soul improved by another level.

Now, his Martial Soul had long since undergone a complete transformation. From a rust-covered broken sword, it had evolved into this dark red longsword that radiated a chilling edge.

Its name was Blood Shadow.

This was the new name Su Mo had given his current Martial Soul.

"Blood Shadow Instant Kill: Triple Strike."

Su Mo gave a low shout, and his figure instantly vanished from where he stood.

There was no movement trajectory, no process of acceleration. He simply vanished into thin air, then appeared out of thin air behind the wooden stake erected beside the courtyard wall.

Almost at the same instant, three sword lights bloomed at once. Three smooth, mirrorlike cuts burst open across the upper, middle, and lower portions of the stake. Each cut sank three inches into the wood, identical in depth.

And Su Mo had already sheathed his sword and turned back, his clothes fluttering lightly.

Over the past ten years, he had watched countless battles at the Great Soul Arena. He had broken down and absorbed the attack methods of every weapon-type Martial Soul, the energy circulation patterns of every Soul Skill, and the points at which Soul Power erupted in every battle, incorporating them all into his own system.

Yet what he valued most was still Teleportation.

Now, he had successfully incorporated Teleportation into his sword techniques. Every sword move he used had become impossible to guard against.

"So fast! Even faster than before!" Xiao Wu sat in a wicker chair beneath the eaves, swinging her long, slender legs as she clapped and cheered.

Nineteen-year-old Su Mo had grown into a tall, lean young man with a cold and handsome face.

He wore the simplest dark training clothes, his black hair casually tied behind his head. There was a touch of indifference between his brows, and only when he looked at Xiao Wu did a faint, almost imperceptible smile appear in his eyes.

As for Xiao Wu, she had also grown into the adult Xiao Wu from the anime who had stunned Su Mo at first sight.

She had completely shed the immaturity of girlhood.

Her face was even more exquisite than it had been ten years ago, and her fair, tender skin resembled the finest mutton-fat jade. Her large eyes were dark and bright, while her long scorpion-tail braid hung over her chest, its tip swaying along with her swinging legs.

The Rogue Rabbit who had once worn a scorpion-tail braid and bounced about cheerfully had now blossomed into a graceful young woman. Yet the occasional flash of cunning in her eyes still retained the shadow of that rabbit girl from ten years ago.

How could Su Mo possibly restrain himself in the face of Xiao Wu like this?

So he had already done everything there was to do, only waiting for Xiao Wu to officially come of age before devouring her completely.

The current Su Mo was no longer a two-ring Soul Grandmaster.

He was now a level 78 Soul Saint.

Xiao Wu was no slouch either. She had long since entered maturity and was now a level 77 Soul Saint as well.

After absorbing the Immortal Herb, Xiao Wu's level had initially been higher than Su Mo's, but Su Mo had now surpassed her again.

Xiao Wu's first six Soul Rings had all been condensed by unsealing the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast origin within her body.

Her seventh Soul Ring was the first Soul Ring she had truly condensed herself.

The quality of the Soul Rings Xiao Wu condensed was unremarkable—simply the limit that a normal genius Soul Master could achieve.

Su Mo was different.

When Su Mo condensed his second Soul Ring, it had already been a black Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring.

Naturally, the ones that came later could not be worse than the earlier ones.

Su Mo's third Soul Ring was twenty thousand years old.

His fourth Soul Ring was thirty thousand years old.

His fifth Soul Ring was forty thousand years old.

His sixth Soul Ring was fifty thousand years old.

His seventh Soul Ring was eighty thousand years old.

For his Eighth Soul Ring, Su Mo was absolutely confident that he could condense a Soul Ring of Hundred-Thousand-Year quality.

If the Soul Masters outside learned that Su Mo had not only been able to obtain Soul Rings and break through realms all these years, but had also assembled such high-quality Soul Rings, every last one of them would surely go mad with envy.