After defeating Qian Shan, Su Ming didn't stop. He quickly moved on to the next match.
The Great Soul Arena's backstage operations were incredibly efficient. In less than five minutes, the broadcast announcing his next match rang out across the entire sub-arena.
Then, less than ten seconds later, the battle was over.
Over the next two days, the 14th Sub-Arena became Su Ming's personal hunting ground for consecutive victories.
Whether they were defense, control, or Power Attack System Soul Masters, everyone crumpled like paper before Su Ming's overwhelming strength.
In just two days, Su Ming had swept through the Great Soul Arena's solo division like a thunderbolt.
"Match ten, Su Ming wins! He has achieved a ten-match winning streak in the solo division!"
As the referee made his final, impassioned announcement, Su Ming walked off the platform with a calm expression.
He accepted the Soul Fighting Badge commemorating his ten solo victories from a staff member.
With that, he had easily completed the first mandatory assessment set by his homeroom teacher, Liu Ru.
After leaving the Soul Fighting Arena, Su Ming didn't go looking for Hu Liena to compete in the doubles division.
He knew very well that the next doubles matches would take him straight into Soul King-level battles. With his current Soul Power at level 39, he could defeat Soul Ancestors above level 40, but if he faced a Soul King with five Soul Rings, the outcome would still be uncertain.
He needed to become stronger.
After returning to the Golden Hall, Su Ming locked the door behind him and went straight into seclusion.
Sitting cross-legged on the couch, Su Ming circulated the Ultimate Evil Soul Power within him throughout his body.
Over the past two months, while researching adjustments and modifications to his third Soul Skill, he had repeatedly compressed his Soul Power within his meridians and guided it along different paths tens of thousands of times, all to make it rotate rapidly in sync with his body's movements.
These near self-torturous experiments had unknowingly widened and tempered his meridians.
Now, the Ultimate Evil Soul Power within him was purer and more viscous than it had been two months ago.
"Everything is in place. Today's the day."
Su Ming closed his eyes and guided the surging black Soul Power within him, launching one final assault on the bottleneck at level 40.
Boom!
His pure Extreme Evil Soul Power became a black tidal wave and slammed into the barrier at level 40.
In an instant, the air around Su Ming twisted violently. The phantom of his Black Phoenix Martial Soul flickered behind him, letting out a low cry.
Three days later.
A crisp cracking sound rang out inside him. Under the frenzied assault of his Soul Power, the solid bottleneck finally shattered.
With a rumble, the Soul Power around him contracted like a tsunami, then surged back into every part of his body.
Su Ming opened his eyes. A flash of black light glimmered and vanished from their depths.
Level 40. Quasi-Soul Ancestor.
After breaking through, Su Ming went to see Bibi Dong.
When she learned that the twelve-year-old Su Ming had reached the level 40 bottleneck, Pope Bibi Dong was utterly astonished.
A twelve-year-old Quasi-Soul Ancestor at level 40—such a rate of cultivation had never been seen in the history of Spirit Hall.
Then, to ensure Su Ming's safety, Bibi Dong issued an order, assigning the level 95 Titled Douluo, Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan, to personally lead an escort and take Su Ming to the Star Dou Forest to hunt for his fourth Soul Ring.
Half an hour later, at the gates of Spirit City.
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan stood beside a carriage, clad in gleaming gold armor, his features delicate and feminine.
Seeing Su Ming approach, Yue Guan's eyes flashed with undisguised astonishment. "Little Su Ming, it's only been a few days, and you've already broken through to level 40? At twelve years old, no less. You truly have opened my eyes."
"Tell me, have you already picked a target for your fourth Soul Ring?"
"His Holiness the Pope has given me the go-ahead. If it exists in the Star Dou Forest, I can help you get it."
Su Ming bowed slightly to Yue Guan. "Elder, I've already chosen my target. I want a Soul Beast around thirteen thousand years old, and of course, it should still have an evil attribute."
"How many years?!"
At the words "around thirteen thousand years," Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan froze on the spot.
He knew Su Ming could absorb Soul Rings above his level, but he hadn't expected him to reach so far beyond it.
He stared hard at Su Ming, his voice turning shrill with shock. "Kid, you're not joking, are you? I know you can absorb Soul Rings above your level, but a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring comes with Soul Shock. Your spiritual power at this stage can't withstand it. It'll turn you into a complete idiot!"
Su Ming lifted his head and met Yue Guan's gaze. "My physical strength and spiritual power are ready, Elder. Lead the way."
Seeing Su Ming's calm, confident expression, Yue Guan opened his mouth, then could only stamp his foot in resignation.
He knew that this monster, favored by the Pope, couldn't be judged by ordinary standards. If Su Ming dared to ask for it, he must have had the confidence to back it up.
"You really are a little monster who won't stop until you've gone mad. Let's go!"
After several days of travel, the two reached the Star Dou Forest without incident.
With a level 95 Titled Douluo like Chrysanthemum Douluo escorting him, none of the low-ranked Soul Beasts in the outer ring dared approach.
They didn't waste time in the outer ring. Instead, they crossed straight through it and reached the edge of the Star Dou Forest's core region.
The Soul Beasts active here were mostly at least ten thousand years old.
They slowed their pace and searched as they went. Yue Guan's terrifying Titled Douluo-level spiritual power spread out in invisible waves, covering an area more than ten kilometers in every direction.
They hadn't walked for even half an hour when Yue Guan's gaze snapped toward a shadowy valley to the northwest.
"Found one. Its attributes and age match almost everything you asked for."
Yue Guan spoke quietly, then grabbed Su Ming by the shoulder. In a flash of golden light, the two vanished from where they stood.
When they appeared again, they had reached the depths of the shadowy valley.
A huge black bird of prey was perched motionless atop a massive, dead ancient tree.
It was a rare Soul Beast that wielded evil power—the Nine-Nether Soul-Snatching Owl.
The Nine-Nether Soul-Snatching Owl was more than three meters long. Its feathers were a lifeless, pure black, and its enormous eyes glimmered with an eerie, ghostly green light.
From the Soul Power fluctuations emanating from it, its cultivation was precisely around thirteen thousand five hundred years—equivalent to a human Soul King above level 50.
Seeing intruders enter its territory, the Nine-Nether Soul-Snatching Owl let out a piercing cry and spread its wings. Countless black wind blades swept toward the two of them like a storm.
"Hmph. Wretched beast, you dare to run wild in front of me?"
Chrysanthemum Douluo snorted and pressed his right hand forward.
A terrifying pressure of Soul Power erupted, forcibly scattering the countless black wind blades in midair in an instant.
Immediately afterward, the phantom of a gigantic Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum flashed through the air.
With a deafening boom, the Nine-Nether Soul-Snatching Owl was smashed out of the sky by that force and crashed into a pile of hard rocks.
The bones in its wings snapped one after another. Feathers fell from its body in clumps, and blood streamed everywhere.
In an instant, the Titled Douluo had beaten it to within an inch of its life. It lay on the ground, unable to move.