Qian Renxue envied the girl from earlier.
The reason her heart had felt pierced wasn't that the girl had stolen her identity.
It was the girl's smile. It was something she had never had.
"Her mother must love her very much, right?" Qian Renxue gazed in the direction the girl had gone.
"I'll find a way to make your mother love you too. Give me some time, okay?" Ying Chengfeng said firmly.
Qian Renxue looked at him strangely. "You seem to care about me a lot?"
Ying Chengfeng froze for a moment, then smiled without saying anything.
After a little while, Ying Chengfeng finally spoke. "We should get going. I hope we still have enough time."
With that, he lowered his head and walked out of Spirit Hall.
Qian Renxue wrapped a headscarf around herself, hiding her signature golden hair.
These two peculiar children naturally drew a few extra glances.
But there were plenty of children inside Spirit Hall, so no one paid them much attention.
The two of them easily left the Spirit Hall grounds.
They headed east.
"Are we going to get Soul Rings now?" Qian Renxue couldn't help asking again.
On the day she had awakened her Martial Soul, Ying Chengfeng had taken her into the Dream Space.
She hadn't forgotten to cultivate during these nine years.
She was probably already around Soul Power Level 30.
It was still possible to cultivate Soul Power without obtaining a Soul Ring, but most of that Soul Power would become altered.
If she had obtained Soul Rings and cultivated afterward, Qian Renxue would have been at least Level 40 by now.
"Mm." Ying Chengfeng nodded slightly.
The Star Dou Forest was very, very close to Spirit Hall.
It could even be said that the Star Dou Forest was Spirit Hall's backyard.
Less than a thousand meters beyond the East City Gate of Spirit City lay the outskirts of the Star Dou Forest.
However, many Soul Masters were stationed there as well.
Ying Chengfeng directly took out a token he had gotten from his maternal grandfather, Azure Luan Elder.
At once, several Soul Masters became respectful.
They even asked with concern whether he needed help.
"No need. An expert will protect us from the shadows." Ying Chengfeng directly declined their kind offer.
As for the expert, there was nobody at all.
He was now a missing person along with Qian Renxue.
He absolutely couldn't let anyone recognize him.
Right now, he was Spirit Hall's runaway young master.
Ying Chengfeng and Qian Renxue entered the Star Dou Forest.
There were basically no Soul Beasts in the outskirts near the East City Gate.
But the two of them didn't venture too far in. Instead, they searched around the outskirts.
They made their way into a denser part of the woods.
The trees here were only a little over twenty meters tall.
Their branches and leaves spread thickly, letting in far less sunlight.
Birds chirped in their ears, and the wind around them had grown much weaker.
Ying Chengfeng looked up and saw an emerald-green bird about the size of his fist staring at him.
As soon as the bird noticed his gaze, it flew to another tree.
It seemed to be taunting him.
"Wind-Whisper Birds have very distinctive calls and fly very fast," Qian Renxue said. "This one looks to be about eight hundred years old. Let's leave it alone."
"No, it'll do!"
As Ying Chengfeng spoke, the Wind Domain expanded.
In an instant, he took control of the wind within a hundred-meter radius.
He was the undisputed king of the wind.
Within this domain, he could turn windless air into wind, and wind into stillness.
What he controlled wasn't just wind, either. There was also a little bit of space element.
The Wind-Whisper Bird, caught within the Wind Domain, immediately realized something was wrong.
It discovered that it had lost its advantage completely. Even flying had become difficult.
Ying Chengfeng's Soul Power Level was at least 20 now.
He summoned his long sword and drew it from its scabbard.
Whoosh!
Breath-Severing Sword! It wasn't merely sword energy and sword wind. There was also a little bit of time element.
The Wind-Whisper Bird's wings beat more than twice as slowly.
Pfft!
Its body burst like fireworks, its blood spraying out like a blooming red firework.
"Clown."
Ying Chengfeng slowly sheathed his sword, then sat down cross-legged.
But he discovered that the Wind-Whisper Bird's Soul Ring was actually purple!
"This Soul Ring is already at the thousand-year level. Don't absorb it," Qian Renxue said anxiously.
But Ying Chengfeng had already drawn the purple Soul Ring toward himself and begun absorbing it with full concentration.
The Soul Ring instantly constricted around him.
"Ughhh!"
For a moment, Ying Chengfeng felt a gale tearing at his meridians and even his internal organs.
The wind turned into sharp blades, as if slicing his flesh.
Just then, the clothes on Ying Chengfeng's body gave off a hazy gray light and absorbed the raging wind.
That was the confidence that had let Ying Chengfeng dare to absorb a thousand-year Soul Ring!
Did anyone think a Super-God Grade Martial Soul was a joke?
The world's rules suppressed Super-God Grade Martial Souls, sealing away the power that should have belonged to them.
Ying Chengfeng intended to use the rules governing Soul Rings to absorb a Soul Ring beyond the limit;
to pit one rule against another and gradually unseal his Super-God Grade Martial Soul!
At that moment, the purple Soul Ring hung quietly around Ying Chengfeng.
"No wonder you dared to act so arrogantly. It turns out you had a cultivation of one thousand nine hundred years."
Ying Chengfeng stood up and drew the Soul Ring into his body.
After checking his condition, Ying Chengfeng smiled with satisfaction.
He hadn't chosen to gain a Soul Skill. Instead, he'd used all the Soul Power to strengthen his Martial Soul.
As a bonus, it had also slightly weakened the seal on his Martial Soul.
Now his Wind Domain could expand to a radius of two hundred meters.
That was the result of strengthening his Martial Soul, breaking a little of its seal, and obtaining a Soul Ring.
Under normal circumstances, how could a domain improve so much?
It wasn't some common Soul Skill, after all.
Ying Chengfeng turned to Qian Renxue. "What kind of Soul Ring do you want?"
"Let's look around. I don't really know either." Qian Renxue lowered her head in embarrassment, not daring to meet Ying Chengfeng's eyes.
Earlier, she had said the Wind-Whisper Bird was an eight-hundred-year Soul Beast.
The estimate had been way off.
As for what kind of Soul Ring she should absorb, she didn't really know.
After all, she had gone missing on the very day she awakened her Martial Soul. No one had ever taught her.
Still, Qian Renxue had an instinctive sense of what she needed, thanks to her Angel Martial Soul.
She said, "If possible, let's look for a light-attribute Soul Beast."
"Okay." Ying Chengfeng replied with just one word.
Then he took Qian Renxue and continued searching the outskirts.
The two of them settled down in the outskirts of the Star Dou Forest.
During the day, they searched for suitable Soul Beasts. At night, Qian Renxue leaned against Ying Chengfeng's shoulder and slept.
When they got hungry, they roasted some Soul Beast meat. When they got thirsty, they drank from the stream.
They also had to avoid Soul Masters from Spirit Hall who came to obtain Soul Rings.
After all, this was Spirit Hall's "backyard," and people came almost every day.
Ying Chengfeng and Qian Renxue had to keep changing locations.
They had practically explored every inch of the surrounding area within a few hundred meters.
They stayed there for a month.
Qian Renxue obtained two Soul Rings in succession.
They were a one-thousand-one-hundred-year Phantom Light Butterfly and a two-thousand-three-hundred-year Light Prism Goose.
With two purple Soul Rings, Qian Renxue had reached the Soul Grandmaster rank, at Level 30.
Like Ying Chengfeng, Qian Renxue focused on strengthening her Martial Soul's quality rather than insisting on obtaining Soul Skills.
Her Angel Holy Sword seemed sharper and more divine!
But she didn't continue hunting for Soul Rings, deciding to spend some time adjusting first.
After all, her six-year-old body could only take so much.
Once she was a few years older, she might be able to try for a third Soul Ring with a limit of over five thousand years.
Ying Chengfeng also obtained his second Soul Ring.
It came from a five-thousand-eight-hundred-year Blade Feather Owl.
Ying Chengfeng's Soul Power Level reached 26.
To hunt the five-thousand-eight-hundred-year Blade Feather Owl, Ying Chengfeng had struggled with it for ten days.
He had suffered terribly, but fortunately, Qian Renxue had helped him.
Both of them could fly. Their combat experience had improved a great deal, and they had grown more in sync.
The sun shone brightly that day. Ying Chengfeng said, "Come on. I'll take you to beat someone up!"
Before you continue