Electrolux

Noon.

High above the Extreme North, a white figure tore through the air, moving so fast that it left a long white trail across the sky.

Snow Empress wore a flowing white dress, her long hair cascading like a waterfall. She held Lin Yaoyang around the waist and pulled him into her embrace as she flew south at an unimaginable speed.

"First, we'll go to the Star Dou Forest and attach your fourth Spirit Ring," Snow Empress's voice carried clearly through the wind.

Lin Yaoyang nodded.

For his fourth Spirit Ring, he intended to go straight for a ten-thousand-year one.

His physique had already fully met the requirements for absorbing a Ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring.

But there was one issue: spiritual power.

A Ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring would bring intense spiritual shock during absorption. If one's spiritual power was not strong enough, the absorption would fail at best; at worst, the Spirit Sea would collapse, turning the person into an idiot.

With Lin Yaoyang's current Soul Power Level, his spiritual power was indeed insufficient to withstand the impact of a Ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring alone.

But that was fine. He had Snow Empress.

"When the time comes, I'll use a Hundred-Thousand-Year Snow Lotus to protect your mind," Snow Empress had long since made her plans. "That Snow Lotus can calm the mind and stabilize the soul. It will be enough to withstand the spiritual shock of a Ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring."

Lin Yaoyang chuckled. "With Sister Xue'er here, I'm at ease."

Snow Empress glanced down at him. The corners of her lips lifted slightly, but she said nothing.

Star Dou Forest.

Deep within the dense jungle, sunlight filtered through layers of overlapping canopies, casting mottled patches of light and shadow across the ground. The air was filled with the fresh scent of grass and trees, while the occasional birdcall drifted in from afar.

Snow Empress circled over the forest with Lin Yaoyang for a while and quickly found a suitable soul beast: a Heavenly Dragon Horse.

This Heavenly Dragon Horse had a very peculiar appearance. Its body resembled a horse's, but its head was shaped like a dragon's. White dragon scales extended from its forehead down the back of its neck and along its entire spine.

Most eye-catching of all was the pale golden diamond-shaped gemstone on its forehead, which radiated a brilliant glow.

This Heavenly Dragon Horse had roughly twenty thousand years of cultivation, making it just right for Lin Yaoyang.

Snow Empress moved swiftly and cleanly, directly freezing the Heavenly Dragon Horse as it drank from a stream into an ice sculpture. Lin Yaoyang stepped forward and delivered the final blow. A black Spirit Ring slowly rose up.

A Ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring.

Lin Yaoyang sat cross-legged and began absorbing it.

Snow Empress stood beside him and opened her right palm. A crystalline Snow Lotus bloomed in her hand.

The Snow Lotus was the size of a fist, its petals seeming to have been carved from ice crystals as they gave off a faint white halo. With a gentle push, she sent the Snow Lotus floating above Lin Yaoyang's head. It slowly rotated, scattering a milky-white curtain of light that enveloped his entire body.

Lin Yaoyang only felt a cool current pour in through the top of his head, flowing along his meridians toward his brain. His consciousness instantly became incomparably clear.

The spiritual shock brought by the Ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring as it entered his body was weakened by at least seventy percent under the soothing effect of that cool aura.

The absorption proceeded very smoothly.

Meanwhile, dozens of miles away.

In a forest clearing, a young man lay on the ground, covered in blood and barely clinging to life.

Huo Yuhao.

He had entered the forest alone to hunt a soul beast, and then he encountered that Ten-Year Wind Baboon.

A mere Ten-Year Soul Beast had nearly taken his life.

His current state was truly miserable.

Several long bloody gashes marked each shoulder. His shirt had nearly been torn to pieces, covered in dirt and blood. The corpse of a Ten-Year Wind Baboon lay not far from him, while a white Spirit Ring slowly rose above it.

A Ten-Year Soul Ring.

Leaning against a tree trunk, Huo Yuhao stared at the white Spirit Ring, his heart filled with unwillingness and confusion.

What he wanted was a Hundred-Year Soul Ring. Preferably a Hundred-Year Soul Ring with a spiritual attribute.

But this Wind Baboon was neither spiritually attributed, nor would it produce a Hundred-Year Soul Ring.

Even a Ten-Year Soul Beast had nearly killed him. How was he supposed to hunt a Hundred-Year Soul Beast?

But... without great strength, how could he seek justice for his mother?

Just as his heart was filled with bewilderment and helplessness, a voice suddenly rang out in his mind without any warning.

"Finally, I've found a human with a spiritual attribute! Too bad I can't cry, or I'd definitely be weeping tears of joy!"

Huo Yuhao jumped in fright and abruptly sat upright.

"Who? Who's talking?"

He looked around, but there was no one there.

Just then, the ground suddenly trembled. About two meters ahead of him, the earth split open in a huge crack, and a golden-white glow faintly spread from within it.

Immediately afterward, a round head burrowed out of the crack.

It was a chubby, fleshy head over a meter in diameter, its entire body the color of white jade. It struggled to crawl out of the fissure, its body wriggling section by section. Every segment was round and more than a meter long.

At last, a giant silkworm over seven meters in length appeared before Huo Yuhao.

"Th-this... what kind of soul beast is this?" Huo Yuhao hurriedly raised his White Tiger Dagger, his face filled with alarm.

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm raised his head and looked at Huo Yuhao with an almost infatuated gaze.

"Ababa... ababa..."

Huo Yuhao said, "Ababa..."

"..."

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice suddenly turned solemn.

"I'm going to become your Spirit Ring. The first Wisdom Spirit Ring in the history of Douluo Continent."

"Ah?"

Before Huo Yuhao could react, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had already charged toward him.

It did not hurt him. Instead, it wrapped its body around him and began the sacrifice.

An unimaginably massive torrent of spiritual power and Soul Power surged into Huo Yuhao like a flood. He did not even have time to scream before the force knocked him unconscious.

At that moment!!

The sky, which had been clear for thousands of miles just moments before, suddenly darkened.

A thunderous boom resounded high in the sky. In that instant, even the sun's light was completely swallowed by darkness.

An immense, suffocating pressure descended from above, as if some indescribable existence was watching over this forest.

Sky Dream Ice Silkworm within Huo Yuhao's body shuddered violently. Even as a Million-Year Soul Beast, it felt a trace of instinctive fear beneath that pressure.

A gray current seeped out of the void and drifted toward Huo Yuhao. It contained an extremely faint remnant soul aura, yet it carried an overbearing presence that looked down upon all beneath heaven, as though it alone reigned supreme.

"With the sun and moon in hand, I pluck the stars; none in this world are like me..."

An aged sigh came from the remnant soul, its voice filled with endless vicissitudes and regret.

"I never expected that a trace of this old man's remnant soul would still remain."

The gray current was about to fly toward Huo Yuhao when it suddenly stopped.

It turned in another direction.

In that direction was an incomparably pure Light Power.

So pure that even this remnant soul felt a hint of surprise.

"Oh?" Interest entered the aged voice. "This world actually possesses such pure Light Power?"

The gray current hesitated for a moment, then changed direction and drifted toward the source of that Light Power.

Dozens of miles away.

Lin Yaoyang sat cross-legged beneath a great tree. He had already absorbed more than half of the Ten-thousand-year Heavenly Dragon Horse's Spirit Ring. The Snow Lotus's curtain of light enveloped him, and everything appeared to be proceeding smoothly.

Just then, a gray, phantom-like figure appeared behind him without warning.

The figure was blurry and indistinct, and only the vague outline of a person could be seen. He floated in midair, looking down at Lin Yaoyang as he absorbed the Spirit Ring. A flicker of surprise flashed through his eyes.

"This is... Sun Power?"

His voice was soft, but the other presence nearby heard it.

"Who goes there?!"

Snow Empress spun around sharply, unleashing a powerful, imposing aura. The presence of a soul beast with nearly seven hundred thousand years of cultivation crashed down like a mountain, enough to make any Ten-thousand-year Soul Beast collapse on the spot.

Yet the gray phantom seemed entirely unaffected. He did not even spare Snow Empress a glance.

He simply kept staring at Lin Yaoyang, at this young man whose entire body radiated Sun Power.

"Sun... light..." he murmured, his voice carrying an indescribably complicated emotion. "In all my life, I have never seen such pure Light Power..."

"Stop!"