Liu Erlong came out of the Mercenary Guild in high spirits.
She had thoroughly taught those foul-mouthed good-for-nothings a lesson, left the steward too dumbfounded to say a word, and had a thousand Gold Soul Coins tucked in her arms.
As she walked down the street, even her steps felt three times lighter than usual.
When she reached an intersection, she was just about to head to the western district when Jiang Ce's voice suddenly sounded in her mind.
"Wait. Do you know where I can get some Whale Rubber around here?"
Liu Erlong stopped dead in her tracks, frowning. "Whale Rubber? What do you want that stuff for?"
Who on the continent, if they'd ever scraped by at the bottom, didn't know about Whale Rubber?
It was a regular fixture in apothecaries. It wasn't cheap, but people never bought it to treat an illness—it was always for what went on behind closed doors.
Swallow it, and your whole body grew hot. The effects lasted all night.
Whenever the big, burly mercenaries at the Mercenary Guild exchanged knowing looks and whispered about its miraculous effects, she'd always found it utterly disgusting.
"Obviously, it's for you to eat."
Liu Erlong's pupils contracted. Her ears turned bright red. "You bastard—what are you trying to do?"
She lowered her voice to a growl. Passersby turned to stare, but she didn't care.
"That stuff makes your whole body burn with unbearable lust. What the hell do you mean, you're giving it to me?"
"Dummy." Jiang Ce's voice was lazy. "That stuff's a treasure. Give it a little heat, and it becomes a top-tier body-tempering material—
"It can strengthen your body, broaden your meridians, and raise the age limit of the Soul Rings you can absorb. It can do all that and more."
"It's just that people these days treat it like an aphrodisiac. What a waste of a treasure."
Liu Erlong froze.
She also noticed that the people around her were looking at her strangely, so she quickly slipped away from the scene.
Only after reaching a quiet corner did she press him for an answer. "That stuff can increase the age limit of the Soul Rings you can absorb?"
"What else do you think determines how old a Soul Ring you can absorb?"
"Your body's strength, determination, Martial Soul strength, and compatibility with its attributes can all raise the age limit of the Soul Rings you can absorb."
"Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings cause Soul Shock. You need strong Mental Power and willpower, or you're likely to be blasted into an idiot.
"If a Soul Beast's Mental Power is far stronger than a Soul Master's, and its resentment is vicious enough, its lingering will really might seize the chance to strike back, devour you, and take over your consciousness."
"The boost I gave you triples everything across the board. Your Mental Power, your soul's quality, capacity, and total strength—all of it."
"But the stronger your foundation, the more terrifying the results when it's tripled."
"Your body's foundation is weak right now. Absorbing an eight-thousand-year Soul Ring for your third ring is already your limit."
"If your foundation had been a little stronger, the boost would've let you absorb a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring."
"To break through to a higher age limit for your fourth ring, getting a piece of Whale Rubber is the first step."
Liu Erlong nodded.
What he said did make sense.
A threefold boost was already terrifying when applied to a weak foundation. How powerful would it be if the foundation were already solid?
And absorbing an eight-thousand-year Soul Ring for her third ring was astonishing in itself, yet she had managed it with ease.
"If you want Whale Rubber, you'll have to go to an apothecary."
"Preferably something with a higher age. Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue would be best."
"Ten-Thousand-Year?" Liu Erlong frowned. "If that's what you want, then we can only go to an auction house. Ordinary apothecaries have nothing older than a few hundred years."
An auction house—Liu Erlong would never have gone into one before. The prices there soared like mad whenever anything went under the hammer.
But things were different now.
She touched the cloth pouch in her arms. It held several Soul Tools, stuffed full of Gold Soul Coins taken from the Red Flame Earth Dragon's lair.
Over all those years, the mother dragon had killed countless Soul Masters and mercenaries. Their belongings had all been piled deep inside her lair.
Gold Soul Coins, broken Soul Tools, sealed treasures—the total had to be at least two million. It was enough to buy her cultivation resources all the way to Soul Sage.
The most valuable item among them was naturally the External Soul Bone, the Red Flame Dragon Wings, but the other belongings couldn't be underestimated either—
After all, there were several Soul Bones, too.
Speaking of Soul Bones, she suddenly remembered something.
Not one of the Soul Bones collected by the Red Flame Earth Dragon was less than three thousand years old.
Looks like I should find time to absorb them.
Liu Erlong considered it—
Soul Bones several thousand years old were already extremely precious to ordinary people.
"You're not thinking of absorbing those junk Soul Bones, are you?"
Jiang Ce cut off the thought with a single sentence.
"Junk? Those Soul Bones are at least three thousand years old. Do you know how much a Thousand-Year Soul Bone sells for out there?"
"I don't care what they sell for. Now that you have me, every Soul Bone you wear has to be top-tier."
"Those three-thousand-year Soul Bones are junk. Absorb them, and once your level rises, they'll all become dead weight."
"Of course, you can absorb them if you want. They'll do for now."
"When you get better Soul Bones later, I can just cut off your hands and feet and pull them out. I can regenerate your severed limbs anyway."
Liu Erlong's mouth twitched.
Once a Soul Bone had been absorbed, there really was no ordinary way to remove it again—
For a hand Soul Bone, you had to cut off the hand. For a leg Soul Bone, you had to cut off the leg.
Most people didn't exactly want to have their hands and feet chopped off.
"Then you can cut them off when the time comes. Didn't you say you could fit them back on afterward?"
Liu Erlong figured that more power was always a good thing.
"Refining them all would be a waste of time. You'd be better off eating Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue to strengthen yourself, then spending the time eating Soul Beasts."
"Maybe you'll even get a higher-grade Soul Bone out of them. Forget these several-thousand-year ones."
"Remember, if you want to become a true powerhouse, every Soul Bone in your set needs to be at least a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone."
"Hundred thousand years?" Liu Erlong thought he was boasting. "Have you lost your mind?"
A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone was enough to make even a Titled Douluo green with envy. You couldn't find more than a few across the entire continent.
She'd been lucky enough to get an eight-thousand-year External Soul Bone and already felt like her ancestors' graves were smoking. This guy wanted a whole set of Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones.
"And you even said we'd become gods—"
"Of course. If you want to become a god, set yourself a small goal: start by becoming a God King. What's the point of being a First-Level God or a Second-Level God? Those things aren't good enough for you."
Liu Erlong opened her mouth, not knowing whether to call him ignorant of the heights of heaven and earth or to feel touched.
She was an illegitimate daughter. Her clan wouldn't even put her in the family records.
The only person who'd ever sheltered her was her mother—and her mother was dead, too.
Now she had someone else protecting her, looking out for her every step of the way.
She couldn't quite make sense of what she was feeling.
"...Are you serious?"
"When have I ever lied to you?"
Liu Erlong irritably swept the loose hair from her forehead. She felt like her heart was starting to go haywire.
She'd only offered her body to him because she couldn't stand the thought of dying and wanted to become stronger.
But now he was considering everything for her, with all his heart. She felt her heart beating beyond her control.
"Oh, looks like I'm quite the charmer. You've fallen for me so quickly?" Jiang Ce's voice suddenly changed its tone. "Heh heh, looks like your body and soul are both going to belong to me."
The black, skintight rubber suit clamped down abruptly. Liu Erlong let out a muffled groan, her cheeks burning. "Don't squeeze so tight."
"You need to get used to our relationship. Your body is mine."
As the saying went, ride the mount when there's trouble, and ride the mount for fun when there's not.
Liu Erlong endured the discomfort running through her body and decided not to argue with him about it.
She grabbed onto a practical question and changed the subject. "Gods are divided into First-Level and Second-Level? And there are God Kings, too?"
"We'll talk about that later. Right now, the priority is getting our hands on the Whale Rubber."
"Fine. But what should we do with these Soul Bones?" As she thought about it, Liu Erlong suddenly remembered how Jiang Ce had devoured the Soul Beast's corpse earlier. "You swallowed a Soul Beast's corpse before. Can you swallow Soul Bones, too?"
"In theory, they're part of a Soul Beast's body, just in a different form of energy. Give me one to try."
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