"This feels awful." Jing Chen wanted to jog away, but his body hurt the moment he ran, making it impossible to pick up speed.
"Yi Yi, I'm counting on you." Jing Chen lifted the miniature Yi Yi off his head and smiled at it.
"Yiyi! (Bad guy!)" After a brief moment of confusion, Yi Yi understood what Jing Chen meant. It kicked its limbs wildly in protest.
A few minutes later, a huge Black Tiger raced across the icy plains with a six-year-old child sitting on its back.
"Yi Yi, it's so good to have you." Jing Chen enjoyed the feeling of riding a tiger as he praised the hardworking Yi Yi.
"Yiyi!" Yi Yi voiced its displeasure again and sped up considerably, making Jing Chen lean back and nearly fall off.
Yi Yi was extremely fast. Before long, the two had left the Far North and continued racing south.
After traveling more than a hundred li beyond the Far North, the man and tiger stopped by a small river.
Jing Chen simply prepared the Soul Beast meat he had already cut but not finished eating, then put it into the pot to cook.
He had brought this pot from home. It was a Soul Guidance Pot he had modified himself, requiring no fire and being very convenient to use.
After putting the meat into the pot, Jing Chen ignored it and took out the Ice Crystal Behemoth's corpse, beginning to search it over.
He would search every Soul Beast Yi Yi had killed before, checking whether it contained a Spirit Bone.
However, after searching more than a hundred times without finding anything, he had gained a rather deep understanding of just how low the drop rate for Spirit Bones was.
He checked the limbs first, then the head and torso. All six conventional Spirit Bone locations disappointed him; there was no Spirit Bone.
"What luck." Jing Chen smiled helplessly, but he did not give up. Instead, he began feeling around other areas.
Besides dropping Spirit Bones in the six conventional locations, Soul Beasts could also produce special External Soul Bones.
For example, a Man Faced Demon Spider might drop the Eight Spider Lances, while a Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear might drop Dark Gold Dreadclaw. These were all special External Soul Bones.
Jing Chen kept searching. When he touched the Ice Crystal Behemoth's left claw, both hands paused as the unusual energy made him freeze.
"There really is one?" Jing Chen could not help but feel delighted as he carefully examined the Ice Crystal Behemoth's left claw.
Several minutes later, Jing Chen held an icy blue Spirit Bone shaped like the Ice Crystal Behemoth's sharp claw.
Looking at the Spirit Bone, Jing Chen was somewhat excited. This was not a Spirit Bone from an ordinary location, but a relatively special and rare External Soul Bone.
Though it was only a little over six hundred years old, its ability to grow without limit made it even more valuable than a conventional Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone.
"My luck really is pretty good." Jing Chen gradually calmed down and remarked with emotion.
The Ice Crystal Behemoth truly had not disappointed him, dropping such a top-grade External Soul Bone for him.
Jing Chen stored the Ice Crystal Behemoth's corpse back in the Time and Space Divine Tower, then sat on the ground and studied the Spirit Bone.
Yi Yi lay on top of his head, its eyes fixed on the pot of boiling Soul Beast meat. It cared more about when they would eat.
"These claws are probably even sharper than a Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear's claws, aren't they?"
Jing Chen lightly scraped the Spirit Bone across a rock, easily leaving claw marks in it. It felt capable of slicing through iron like mud.
Other than learning that this External Soul Bone was extremely sharp, he could not figure out anything else about it.
"I wonder what kind of Soul Skill it will grant after I absorb it?" Jing Chen looked forward to finding out.
He had the urge to absorb it immediately, but restrained himself. He planned to eat first and adjust his condition before absorbing the Spirit Bone.
After all, absorbing a Spirit Bone was no easy matter. He remembered that Xiao Xiao in the original work had nearly lost the use of an arm while absorbing an External Soul Bone.
That showed just how dangerous Spirit Bone absorption was. If he was careless, he might end up like Xiao Xiao.
After testing his Soul Skill and eating his fill, Jing Chen began absorbing the exceedingly precious External Soul Bone.
Just as he had expected, absorbing the Spirit Bone was far from easy. His left palm went through a process of the bones shattering, energy pouring in, then being pieced together and reconstructed.
The pain from that process was even worse than absorbing a Soul Ring, hurting Jing Chen so badly that he nearly fainted.
Fortunately, his will was firm. He endured it and did not allow himself to lose consciousness.
More importantly, he did not dare lose consciousness, because once he fainted, he might never wake up again and would simply die.
Absorbing the Spirit Bone took less time than absorbing a Soul Ring, only a little over two hours.
Yet for Jing Chen, who experienced piercing pain every moment, those two hours felt longer than ten.
"The greater the risk, the greater the reward. There is some truth to that saying." Jing Chen looked at his left hand and spoke weakly.
After absorbing the Spirit Bone, he could feel that all his attributes had improved significantly. Even his Soul Power had increased considerably, showing signs of a breakthrough.
The benefits were great, but so was the price he had paid. He had nearly failed to endure it just now.
It would not be wrong to say he had traded his life for these benefits. It had truly been far too dangerous.
Pain had drained him completely. His entire body was weak, and his left hand had yet to regain sensation. He could not even release the Spirit Bone.
Jing Chen lay weakly on the ground, breathing heavily. He needed to recover properly.
More than half an hour later, Jing Chen's condition had improved somewhat. His body recovered some strength, and feeling returned to his left hand.
Jing Chen injected Soul Power into his left hand and tried to release the Spirit Bone.
Gradually, four long blue strands of energy appeared between the fingers of his left hand. They were like a doorway, from which sharp blades slowly emerged.
Jing Chen watched without blinking. Just as he had guessed, the Ice Crystal Behemoth Left Palm Bone was somewhat similar to the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Spirit Bone.
When released, both produced claws extending from between the fingers, giving off a Wolverine-like impression.
However, his claws did not have a metallic texture. They had the texture of ice crystals, as though they had been forged from pure ice crystal stone.
Once fully extended, the claws were more than thirty centimeters long and extremely thin. Their thickest point was only as thick as three sheets of paper, while the thinnest was like a cicada's wing.
"Why am I so excited?" Jing Chen looked at the ice crystal blades uncertainly, trying hard to suppress his emotions.
His body felt hot, and he was in an extremely excited state, seized by the urge to find someone and have a fierce fight.
This emotion was clearly abnormal; it had not arisen naturally.
Jing Chen stared at the ice crystal blades, and an idea came to him. He tried putting away the External Soul Bone.
The Spirit Bone vanished, and his emotions gradually returned to normal. He was no longer so excited.
Jing Chen released the Spirit Bone again. The blood in his body began to boil, his body heated up, and the excited feeling returned.
"So it really is because of this Spirit Bone." Jing Chen wore an expression of realization, having figured out why that excited emotion had appeared.
Today's second chapter. The new book is setting sail; please bookmark it and vote with recommendation tickets.
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