Soul Hunting Forest, the Azure Dragon's Divine Might First Revealed

Three days later, Yu Yuanzhen sent word: they would depart tomorrow to hunt for the first soul ring.

Before dawn, Qing Luo came in carrying hot water. When I took the warm towel she handed me, our fingers brushed, and her entire body froze.

"Young master, be careful on the road."

"Mm. Wait for me to come back."

Her face reddened again.

Outside the Martial Arts Arena, Yu Yuanzhen was already waiting. He wore a dark purple combat outfit and was accompanied by two middle-aged Soul Saints. The four of us boarded a soul-guided carriage pulled by four unicorn horses and headed for the Soul Hunting Forest.

After the carriage had traveled for half an hour, Yu Yuanzhen spoke. "Tian Lin, your physical strength far exceeds that of others at your level. An ordinary person's first soul ring can only endure around four hundred years. You are different."

"How many years do you think I can withstand, Uncle Yu?"

After pondering for a moment, he held up seven fingers. "Seven hundred years. The bloodline of the Prison-Suppressing Azure Dragon has made your meridians and body much stronger than those of ordinary soul masters. You can endure the energy impact of a seven-hundred-year soul ring."

"I want to try a thousand years."

The air inside the carriage instantly froze. The middle-aged man driving the carriage trembled, and the unicorn horses let out a neigh. The other middle-aged man abruptly opened his eyes, his brows knotting tightly.

Yu Yuanzhen stared at me. "Do you know what you are saying? Throughout the entire history of Douluo Continent, no one has ever absorbed a thousand-year soul ring as their first soul ring."

"I know the risks. But the Prison-Suppressing Azure Dragon has an innate suppression over all beast martial souls. The remnant soul within a soul ring is also a beast soul. Before a true dragon, it cannot cause any trouble."

"Your body may endure it, but what about your mind? What will a six-year-old child use to resist the impact of a thousand-year soul ring?"

A soul impact. I laughed inwardly. The spirit tempered by the Visualization Method might not even be shaken by the remnant soul of a ten-thousand-year soul beast. But I could not say that.

"You saw my martial soul awakening. The moment the Azure Dragon phantom appeared, every beast martial soul in the arena bowed its head. That was not suppression through cultivation; it was suppression through bloodline. Before a true dragon, the remnant soul in a soul ring does not even have the right to resist."

Yu Yuanzhen fell silent.

The middle-aged man beside him could not help interjecting, "Tian Lin, seven hundred years is already astonishing. Why take such a risk?"

"The quality of the first soul ring determines one's future ceiling. Between seven hundred and a thousand years, the basic attributes differ by an entire tier. The further one progresses, the more apparent that gap becomes. By the time one reaches Title Douluo, it may be the difference between heaven and earth."

Both middle-aged men fell silent. They were Soul Saints, and no one understood better than them how important a soul ring's foundation was.

Yu Yuanzhen closed his eyes and tapped his fingers against his knee for a full quarter of an hour. Outside the carriage window, the outline of the Soul Hunting Forest was already faintly visible.

He opened his eyes. "Have you considered what will happen if you fail?"

"At best, my meridians will be damaged and my cultivation will regress. At worst, I will die on the spot." I met his gaze.

"But Uncle Yu, I am not someone who overestimates himself so easily."

Another long silence followed. After a while, Yu Yuanzhen let out a breath of turbid air.

"Fine. I will give you this chance. But if anything feels wrong during the absorption process, I will forcibly interrupt it. You will bear the consequences yourself."

"Thank you, Uncle Yu."

Yu Yuanzhen waved a hand.

Many sect disciples and independent soul masters had gathered at the entrance to the Soul Hunting Forest. Several vendors had set up stalls selling dried rations and medicine for injuries. Yu Yuanzhen did not stop and led us directly into the forest.

The light beneath the trees was dim, with the canopy blocking out the sky and sun. Thick layers of fallen leaves covered the ground, while beast roars echoed in the distance.

After walking for half an hour, my spiritual senses detected two waves of Soul Power ahead. One was very weak, belonging to someone about my age, but the circulation of his Soul Power was extremely unusual, moving through his body along some sort of cyclical route. The other belonged to an adult, around rank twenty-seven or twenty-eight, with a fairly stable aura.

"Uncle Yu, there are people fighting ahead."

Yu Yuanzhen changed direction and led us through a stretch of dense woods.

In a clearing, a middle-aged man in his forties was fighting a Datura Snake.

The snake was over four meters long, entirely dark green. Its head was broad and flattened like an opened flesh-colored flower bud, with a ring of densely packed fangs at the center.

The middle-aged man's martial soul was a purple pig, which was farting at the Datura Snake. The fart struck the snake in the face, dealing considerable magical damage.

Behind the young man stood a boy about my age, dressed in plain cloth. A bulging leather pouch hung from his waist, stuffed with scattered iron pieces.

Yu Xiaogang and Tang San.

The Datura Snake grew impatient from all the farting. Its entire body shot forward, lunging straight at Tang San. Tang San flicked his wrist, and three flashes of cold light flew from his sleeve. The Datura Snake tilted its head to evade two, but the third embedded itself in the corner of its mouth, splashing several drops of dark green blood.

That strike enraged it. After landing, the Datura Snake slid across the ground in a high-speed S-shaped path. The mucus on its scales corroded the withered grass along its path into black ash. In the blink of an eye, it had darted beneath Tang San's feet.

A violet gleam flashed through Tang San's pupils. His body bent backward at an unimaginable angle, and the Datura Snake's fangs grazed past the tip of his nose.

But the snake's tail had already swept in from another direction, sealing off his retreat. Tang San had nowhere to evade and was preparing to gamble everything.

A streak of azure light flashed.

The snake's tail stopped in midair, firmly caught by a hand. The Datura Snake's venomous mucus had no effect whatsoever on that hand.

"Get lost."

The Azure Dragon's pressure erupted from my palm. The four-meter venomous snake trembled violently all over, its flattened head pressed against the ground as it gave hoarse hissing cries. I released my grip, and it plunged into the nearby bushes, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

Yu Xiaogang clutched his shoulder and panted heavily, his eyes filled with shock as he looked at me. A child around the same age as his disciple had caught a Datura Snake's tail barehanded and scared off a several-hundred-year venomous snake with a single word.

Tang San climbed to his feet. Those violet eyes stared directly at me, holding no gratitude, only vigilance and scrutiny.

"Thank you, little brother, for lending us a hand." Yu Xiaogang quickly cupped his hands. "May I ask which sect you belong to?"

"Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. Yu Tianlin."

Yu Xiaogang's expression instantly froze. His lips moved for a long while before he finally forced out two words. "Fa... Clan Leader."

Yu Yuanzhen stepped out from behind a tree, his expression as calm as still water. He merely nodded, his gaze sweeping over the bruise on Yu Xiaogang's shoulder. He did not ask anything, nor did he spare him another glance.

That indifference hurt more than directly calling him trash.

Yu Yuanzhen turned to me. "Let's go. There is the aura of a thousand-year soul beast deeper in the forest. It happens to fit your requirements."

I nodded and followed him away. After walking several dozen steps, I looked back. Tang San was watching us leave. The violet light in his eyes had faded, but his guarded expression had not diminished in the slightest.

After leaving the outer region, the trees grew increasingly massive. The concentration of Soul Power in the air was clearly a tier higher.

Yu Yuanzhen stopped and closed his eyes to sense the area for several breaths. "One li ahead. Exactly one thousand years of cultivation. Wood attribute."

Everyone passed through the final stretch of dense forest, arriving at a clearing within the woods. Thick moss carpeted the ground. In the middle of the clearing lay a giant beast as large as an adult rhinoceros, resembling an enormous Mystic Armor Turtle. Moss and vines covered its shell. Every breath it took sent pale green mist from its nostrils, and wherever the mist fell, moss grew wildly.

"A thousand-year Mystic Armor Turtle, with a thousand years of cultivation." Yu Yuanzhen lowered his voice. "Wood attribute, with life-type abilities. Its defense is top-tier, but it is slow and dull-witted. Your luck is not bad."

His figure flashed, and he appeared above the Mystic Armor Turtle. He pressed down with one hand, and an invisible force crushed the air across the entire clearing downward. The Mystic Armor Turtle desperately dug at the ground with its limbs, while the vines on its shell grew wildly in an attempt to retaliate. Yet before they could touch even the corner of Yu Yuanzhen's robes, they shattered into fragments.

"Do it. Strike the head. The shell is too hard."

I walked before the Mystic Armor Turtle. Its eyes were dark green, its pupils cross-shaped. Even while being suppressed so thoroughly it could not move, those eyes still glared fixedly at me, full of unwillingness.

I brought my fingers together, wrapped them in Soul Power, and struck its brow with my palm.

The Mystic Armor Turtle's body jolted sharply. Its limbs stiffened, then went limp.

Above its body, a purple soul ring slowly condensed.

Yu Yuanzhen looked at me, his gaze carrying both anticipation and tension. "Speak up if you cannot endure it. Do not force yourself."

I sat cross-legged beside the corpse and drew the thousand-year soul ring into my body.

The instant the soul ring entered my body, it felt as though I had been struck by a speeding truck.

A thousand years of energy surged wildly through my meridians, and the agonizing pain instantly beaded my forehead with cold sweat.

Immediately afterward, the Mystic Armor Turtle's remnant soul roared within the depths of my consciousness.

Then it crashed into my spirit.

The spiritual power tempered over two hundred years in the cultivation world was like an egg meeting a rock before a thousand-year remnant soul. The Mystic Armor Turtle's remnant soul did not even have time to release a complete roar before it was crushed into fragments.

All that remained was the fusion of energy. The life force of the wood attribute seeped into every inch of flesh and blood. My previously torn meridians healed at a visible rate, and the healed meridian walls became even tougher.

One hour.

Two hours.

When the moon hung high overhead, I opened my eyes.

A purple soul ring emerged from within me and slowly revolved around my body.

Yu Yuanzhen's clenched fist relaxed. "It worked."

"What is the soul skill?"

I walked over to a small tree as thick as a bowl and extended my right hand, activating my Soul Power. A phantom azure-green dragon claw appeared in my palm, surrounded by patterns of emerald vines.

The dragon claw flew out and struck the small tree, leaving only five shallow claw marks on its trunk.

Then, the tree's leaves began growing wildly. Its crown tripled in size within a single breath, and it bloomed with white flowers. Immediately afterward, the leaves yellowed and curled from their tips, while the bark cracked inch by inch. Within three breaths, it became a dead log.

A stream of pure life force flowed back into my body along the soul skill's connection, replenishing more than half of the Soul Power I had expended earlier.

Yu Yuanzhen's pupils contracted slightly, while the two middle-aged men sucked in breaths of cold air at the same time.

"What is this soul skill called?"

"Azure Dragon Longevity." I withdrew my hand. "Its first effect is absorption, drawing out the target's vitality and converting it into Soul Power and life force. As long as I break through the opponent's defenses, I can drain their life to restore my own. Its second effect is replenishment. I can distribute the vitality I absorb to others, using it for healing or temporary enhancement."

Yu Yuanzhen was silent for a long while before speaking in a complicated tone. "Absorbing an enemy's life force to replenish yourself, and even replenishing your allies... this soul skill has far greater potential than you imagine. Before becoming a Title Douluo, try not to reveal its full effects before outsiders."

"I understand."

When we left the Soul Hunting Forest, the moonlight was bright.

By the time we returned to the clan residence, it was already deep into the night. Qing Luo was waiting at the door with an oil lamp.

"Young master, did you get your soul ring?"

I released my soul ring. The purple halo slowly revolved in the night, and her mouth fell open into a round shape before finally closing after a long while.

"A thousand years?"

"Mm."

"A thousand-year first soul ring? Young master, are you a monster?"

"More or less." I smiled and walked toward the room. "Come inside. We have something important to do."

Qing Luo's face instantly reddened. She followed me into the room.