The First Ring of a Thousand Years

"ROAR!!"

Almost instinctively, the Death Demon Spider hissed at Luo Chen while scrambling backward.

Watching the human before it, whose aura was now worlds apart from a moment ago, it could no longer control its own body.

Unlike the pressure and sense of submission it had felt from the Death Spider Emperor earlier, this time it felt a deep, soul-shaking tremor.

It was going to die!

Looking at Luo Chen, he had already completed his Martial Soul Possession with the Six-Winged Angel.

Under the influence of the martial soul, the spider legs that had been on his back were now replaced by six golden wings, his entire being radiating a sacred brilliance.

His golden hair, which had previously clashed with the Death Spider Emperor martial soul, now shimmered brilliantly under the state of the Six-Winged Angel.

His aura had undergone a complete metamorphosis.

He looked down at his hands; this was his first time performing the Martial Soul Possession of the Six-Winged Angel.

It was truly worthy of being a god-bestowed martial soul—he felt more than twice as strong as he had been under the enhancement of the Death Spider Emperor!

"So, do you have any other tricks up your sleeve?"

With a slight upturn of his lips, Luo Chen looked again at the Death Demon Spider, which was now terrified and ready to flee at any moment.

The Six-Winged Angel was the natural nemesis of all evil in the world, and the Death Demon Spider was no exception.

Without a second's hesitation, Luo Chen raised his right hand and gripped the empty air.

Accompanied by a burst of golden light, a Holy Sword formed entirely from his own soul power materialized in his grasp.

He was still somewhat weak, however, and could not maintain this blade for long, so he had to end the fight quickly.

Luo Chen understood this well, so the moment he gripped the Holy Sword, his six wings flared, and he instantly dove toward the Death Demon Spider.

Although the Death Demon Spider's reactions remained swift, it appeared sluggish in the face of the Six-Winged Angel, its natural counter.

The moment the Holy Sword made contact with its legs, black blood sprayed out, and the spider's legs, once as hard as stone, were severed cleanly.

The black blood hissed and evaporated upon touching the Holy Sword, emitting a harsh, sizzling sound.

The Death Demon Spider was utterly terrified; it wanted to escape, to run for its life, but Luo Chen, carried by his six wings, had already landed before it.

He swung his blade down again, this time pouring most of his soul power into the edge.

Without suspense, a "crack" echoed out as the hard carapace was easily shattered, and Luo Chen cleaved the Death Demon Spider in two with the angel's Holy Sword.

A pale purple soul ring slowly rose from the carcass of the dead beast.

Luo Chen paused for a moment.

"A thousand-year ring?"

And it was exactly one thousand years—it seemed to be just right for him to absorb.

After a brief hesitation, Luo Chen used the remaining soul power of the Six-Winged Angel to set up a defensive barrier around him as a precaution.

He then switched to his other martial soul, the Death Spider Emperor.

Without further hesitation, and after confirming there were no abnormalities in the surroundings, Luo Chen began to draw the thousand-year soul ring toward himself with his soul power.

He was alone, and to avoid any unforeseen circumstances, it was best to absorb the ring as quickly as possible to prevent any unnecessary trouble from interfering—this was no small matter.

Perhaps because the ring belonged to a Death Demon Spider, the process was not as arduous as he had imagined; in fact, it went quite smoothly.

By the next morning, Luo Chen had finished absorbing his first thousand-year soul ring.

He had been fortunate enough not to be disturbed by the outside world during the process.

"Martial Soul Possession."

He stood up and activated his martial soul again; this time, the aura of the Death Spider Emperor felt even more formidable.

Moreover, his feet were no longer empty; a purple soul ring hovered silently beneath him—the thousand-year first ring from the Death Demon Spider.

This absorption had pushed Luo Chen's soul power to level 23, and the purity of his soul power had reached a new level.

Standing in place to sense the changes, Luo Chen slowly raised his left hand.

"First Soul Skill, Death Spider Silk!"

As Luo Chen spoke, accompanied by the purple radiance of the thousand-year ring, the phantom of the spider behind him moved.

Several strands of silk shot out, dense and rapid, piercing the giant trees ahead. With a few crisp sounds, the silk easily bored through the ancient trees, leaving behind hollows and traces of purple venom.

This was his first soul skill, Death Spider Silk.

It carried potent venom, could bind, and could cut; most importantly, if used against a soul master or soul beast, the target infected by the exclusive neurotoxin carried by the silk would suffer a one-second silence effect.

Within that second, they would be unable to mobilize any soul power for defense or attack.

Though the duration was short, battles were often decided by such fleeting moments.

Furthermore, this soul skill could evolve. As his soul power increased, he could fire more strands. As for whether the silence duration would increase, Luo Chen did not yet know and would have to confirm it over time.

In short, Luo Chen was quite satisfied with his first soul skill.

It was capable of both offense and control, and even possessed a silencing effect.

Next was the second spirit ring.

However, Luo Chen was not in too much of a rush for this; instead, he sat down to begin adjusting his state.

Having just absorbed a spirit ring, the spirit power within his body was still somewhat unstable and required consolidation.

And this sitting lasted for an entire day.

Because it was already night, Luo Chen chose not to continue his journey, setting off again only the next day.

Since his first spirit ring was already at the thousand-year level, his second spirit ring naturally could not be lower than the first, so he began to head toward the next region of the Star Dou Great Forest.

The Mixed Zone, a region where thousand-year and ten-thousand-year beasts coexisted and where hundred-year spirit beasts could only survive in the cracks by living in groups, was the third region one entered after arriving at the Star Dou Great Forest.

Of course, Luo Chen did not intend to enter it right now; he only needed to get a bit closer to the Mixed Zone.

After all, he did not want to walk in and have the misfortune of running into a ten-thousand-year beast, forcing him to flee for his life.

His goal for today was to go deep into the outer perimeter to see if he could pick off a few thousand-year spirit beasts that had slipped out of the Mixed Zone to serve as his spirit ring.

His requirements were not high: over 1,500 years.

If they were of the same category, Luo Chen felt the upper limit could continue to stack.

After all, Luo Chen had just tested it, and it was indeed possible; furthermore, there was no strong rejection, and once he endured that brief moment in the middle, everything else would proceed smoothly.

However, what Luo Chen did not know at this moment was that during the two days he had been hunting for spirits, a secret letter had already been delivered to the Worship Hall...