First Soul Skill, Cheat Activated

A faint yellow glow appeared on this peculiar flower, gradually converging and condensing until a yellow ring of light hovered above it, flickering in and out of existence.

Yang Fan felt a surge of excitement and hurriedly used his soul power to guide the soul ring toward himself.

So this is a soul ring?

The soul ring that would make him a true soul master.

Yang Fan struggled to calm his racing heart, scattering beast-repellent powder around the perimeter to ensure he wouldn't be disturbed while absorbing the ring.

As for human soul masters, he wasn't too worried; after all, who would dare commit crimes under the nose of the Spirit Hall? They would be arrested as evil soul masters on the spot.

Aside from the chaotic era of The Unrivaled Tang Sect, the Douluo series rarely featured such rampant killing, and even when it did, it was usually over soul bones.

As for the probability of a century-old plant-type soul beast dropping a soul bone... let's just say it was about as likely as hitting the jackpot on a gacha wheel in his past life.

Perhaps because he was a transmigrator, Yang Fan's mental strength was quite formidable. Although he lacked Tang San's Purple Demon Eye cultivation method or the mental detection instruments of the third era to quantify it, he could achieve a state of "spiritual communion and intent reaching the target." Conservatively, his mental strength was at the early stage of the Spirit Connection realm.

Therefore, Yang Fan didn't find absorbing this century-old soul ring particularly difficult. Within about an hour, he had completely refined it, and through the information transmitted by the ring, he learned about the soul beast and the soul skill he had acquired.

The flower was called the Thousand-Change Myriad-Spirit Flower. Its name sounded intimidating, but its actual combat power was weak. It possessed only two core abilities: top-tier disguise and energy shaping.

Energy Shaping: It could transform the energy it controlled into various forms at will. This ranged from changing its overall shape and life aura to precisely simulating the soul power fluctuations of other soul beasts.

Perfect Disguise: Relying on the "Energy Shaping" talent, it could easily camouflage itself in the forest, blending perfectly into the surroundings, and even simulate powerful auras to scare off potential predators.

This was the fundamental reason it was extremely rare and could grow to five hundred and ten years old on the edge of the soul beast forest—not because its abilities were powerful, but because almost no human or soul beast could truly find it.

The soul skill he obtained was the Thousand-Change Myriad-Spirit Flower's core ability: Energy Shaping.

This was a soul skill with significant development potential. Whether for hiding himself to develop in secret or for the secondary development of soul skills, it was far more suitable for him than a simple attack skill.

After all, a transmigrator's advantage lay in creativity. Since soul rings provided very little combat power increase ten thousand years ago, influential factions often chose buff-type or special-effect soul skills as their best early-game combinations.

What surprised him even more than the soul skill was a heart-shaped red crystal in his sea of consciousness; his cheat had arrived.

Logically, his mental state shouldn't have been able to support a sea of consciousness, but this red crystal had made it possible. He immediately realized this was likely a treasure no less significant than the Blade of Life.

However, he didn't intend to study this treasure right now; instead, he hurriedly packed his things to leave.

Whether it was developing his soul skill or researching the red crystal, he needed a quiet and safe environment. The soul beast forest didn't meet those criteria, and since his first soul skill lacked direct combat power, leaving was the best course of action.

A week had passed since he obtained the soul ring. Yang Fan had returned to Shambhala Village two days ago, greeted the village chief, and immediately began his seclusion.

After two days of research, he was still stumped regarding the development of his soul skill, but he had figured out the heart-shaped red crystal.

When he understood how to use the red crystal, he was both shocked and delighted.

The name of this red crystal was the Heart of Eros, suspected to be the remnant left behind after the Goddess of Love fell. He remembered the original work described the Goddess of Love as a goddess of pure emotion and nature, though it seemed she had been betrayed by true love or something similar, cursing the world after her fall.

That was why, whenever a Child of Destiny fell in love, it was always a bumpy road of life-and-death separations, and even soul-splitting or amnesia were common occurrences.

In his past life, some even joked that the fall of the Dragon God was likely the result of the Goddess of Love's curse taking effect.

The function of the Heart of Eros was singular but powerful: time travel.

However, traveling through time wasn't easy; one could only gain a six-month opportunity for time travel by obtaining a true love.

Had the Goddess of Love turned dark after her fall? True love must suffer, and only scumbags can truly inherit her power?

There was a way to make it permanent, and that was to complete the Heart of Eros. Fragments of the Heart of Eros were scattered across the three great treasures of Douluo: the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the Valley of Asking Love, and the Dragon Valley.

However, rather than saying the fragments were scattered in these places, it was more accurate to say that the Heart of Eros had created these three great locations.

The Lovesick Heartbroken Red, the remains of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings, the Dragon Graveyard, the trials of the Goddess of Love, or the place of her fall. In his past life, he had wondered how it could be such a coincidence, but even when Tang San was reborn again and again, this plot hole was never filled.

It seemed they had introduced some concept of a "Universal Will" or something... he wasn't sure, as he had only seriously read the first three parts of Douluo. By the time the Little Dragon God appeared, he couldn't bear to watch anymore, let alone the twice-reborn Tang San who had maxed out his shamelessness.

Because of the Heart of Eros cheat, Yang Fan slightly modified his original plan for rising to power.

Originally, his plan was like those of other fan-fiction protagonists: go to Notting City, join the Spirit Hall, or cling to Qian Renxue's thigh.

His Monocle martial soul had improved in quality after obtaining his first soul ring. The original insight effect had become stronger and now had the potential for identification, though it hadn't fully formed its own characteristics yet. He speculated that at the second ring, he might obtain a classic cheat like an identification skill.

But even without reaching the level of an identification skill, with his current insight and analytical abilities, he was definitely a capable individual. Going to Notting City would allow him to obtain books inaccessible to commoners from the Grandmaster, and he could study Tang San's cultivation techniques and Xiao Wu, the human-shaped soul beast.

The Spirit Hall also valued such research-oriented talents. Otherwise, how could the mediocre Grandmaster and a Bibi Dong who hadn't yet seized full power obtain so much classified research data? By the same token, Qian Renxue was also a lover of talent and controlled the Spirit Hall's knowledge channels.

If not for the Heart of Eros, these would be standard transmigrator starts. But since he had the opportunity to travel through time, why limit himself to this era?

Weren't the soul tools, soul spirits, and necromancy of the second era appealing?

Was the battle armor, mecha, and other sub-profession systems of the third era bad?

And the interstellar era of the fourth era was even more yearning.

But all of this required one thing: true love.

He was ten years old now. Generally speaking, it was very difficult to find true love. Even in the precocious Douluo Continent, few people would develop true love for a child of this age.

However, there was one category of people who were the exception: soul beasts.

The transformed soul beasts of the Douluo Continent were one more naive and gullible than the next... A Yin, Xiao Wu, Qiu'er, Gu Yuena, Lan Fuzi, and so on—all of them were "love-brained." If they weren't simple and easy to deceive, they were prone to love at first sight. They were practically angel investors for the Heart of Eros.

Given his current lack of strength, he couldn't think about Xiao Wu. If he tried to intercept Tang San, Tang Hao would likely smell the scent and arrive that very day.

This pioneer of the soul beast sacrifice method, which uses affection as a lure, was no saint.

On the surface, he appeared to love A Yin dearly, but in reality, he was terrified of her resurrection. He imprisoned her in a pitch-black cave, even cutting off all the Blue Silver Grass around her to prevent her from sending messages to the Blue Silver King and subsequently reviving.

It was not until Tang San obtained the Blue Silver Emperor's inheritance and gained the confidence to return to the Clear Sky Sect—the number one sect on the continent—that Tang Hao, acting on Tang San's suggestion, finally transplanted A Yin to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to accelerate the resurrection process.

Excluding Xiao Wu, there was only one candidate left in this era.

That was A Yin.