"This was quite an unexpected delight." Jing Chen smiled. Life Gold was a rare treasure; if he could obtain it, it might bring him unforeseen benefits.
Life Gold contained immense life energy, and that was what he cared about most.
If this life energy could be used for healing, then both he and Yi Yi would have fewer concerns in future battles.
Take Yi Yi, for example. Over the past three years, it could actually have hunted more soul beasts to increase its cultivation.
But injuries were inevitable in battle, and sometimes they were severe, which was why some time had been wasted.
Whenever Yi Yi was injured, Jing Chen would have it recover fully before going back out to fight and devour soul beasts.
Once, Yi Yi had spent a full three months recuperating before its injuries finally healed. During that time, it had not gone out to hunt any soul beasts.
That was because Yi Yi's species itself was powerful, with sufficiently strong recovery abilities that allowed its wounds to heal quickly.
Had it been another species, injuries of that severity might have taken years, even decades, to recover from.
Yi Yi's recovery abilities were already formidable. If combined with external treatment, the time needed for its injuries to heal would surely be greatly shortened.
"If I really obtain it, I'll have to think carefully about how to make use of it," Jing Chen murmured.
Time passed bit by bit. Jing Chen did not do anything else, simply watching Yi Yi devour the Golden Tortoise's energy and life force.
His thoughts gradually shifted from Life Gold to the Golden Tortoise's Soul Ring.
After two years of cultivation, his Soul Power had reached level thirty. Absorbing one Soul Ring would allow him to break through to Soul Elder.
More than ten days ago, he had planned to head to the Far North to obtain a Soul Ring, but he had been delayed until now because he had been avoiding Ferocious Beasts.
He was short one Soul Ring, and a Soul Ring was about to form before his eyes—a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, no less.
If he could absorb it, he would successfully break through to Soul Elder.
The Golden Tortoise possessed both water and earth attributes, with water as its primary attribute and earth as its secondary one. Its water attribute matched his own.
Although its attribute certainly could not compare to that of a pure water-attribute soul beast, its special qualities as an auspicious beast and its age could make up for that.
There was only one question before him now: could he absorb it?
To put it more precisely, did this fantasy world follow the law of conservation of energy?
The reason for this question was that a Soul Ring formed when a soul beast's cultivation and its Origin Source imprint combined in a special way.
During the formation process, the soul beast's Origin Source imprint was essential and could not be absent, while its cultivation was not strictly necessary.
This could be seen from the fact that even after Yi Yi absorbed all the energy within a soul beast, the beast could still produce a Soul Ring.
If energy conservation applied, then after the energy of a soul beast's cultivation had been absorbed, there should be no energy left to enter the Soul Ring.
The reason soul masters had to pay attention to a soul beast's age when absorbing Soul Rings was that they feared the excessive energy would exceed what their bodies could withstand, ultimately causing them to explode.
If there was no such energy within the Soul Ring, would there still be any need to care about its age?
Jing Chen felt that there should not be, but since he had never tested it, he could not be certain that this was truly the case.
After all, this was a fantasy world. It did not care much for science, so it was normal for some things to defy common sense.
It was precisely because he was uncertain that he could not make up his mind whether to take the risk and see if this world followed science.
Or to give up this Soul Ring and properly seek out one that he could safely withstand.
The former carried great risk. If this world did not follow science and the Soul Ring still contained immense energy, then his fate would be death.
With his current physical strength, there was absolutely no way he could endure the energy impact of a normal Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Ring.
But if it truly followed energy conservation, the benefits would be enormous. He could do the same with all his future Soul Rings.
He could have Yi Yi absorb all their energy, then absorb the energyless Soul Rings himself.
That way, even his first few Soul Rings could be Hundred-Thousand-Year level ones. Just thinking about it was wonderful.
Aside from whether energy conservation applied, there was another issue he needed to consider.
That was how effective a Soul Ring formed solely from a soul beast's Origin Source imprint would be. Could it achieve the same effects as a normal Soul Ring?
If not, he might waste one Soul Ring slot, and that would have quite a significant impact.
"Should I take the risk and gamble?" Jing Chen hesitated, unable to decide for a while.
Time passed quickly within the Time and Space Divine Tower. More than six hours had passed since Yi Yi began devouring the Golden Tortoise's energy.
The Golden Tortoise had died after its energy and life force were completely devoured, and a blood-red Soul Ring floated out.
Just as Yi Yi had judged, this Golden Tortoise truly was at the Hundred-Thousand-Year level. The color of its Soul Ring said it all.
After devouring the Golden Tortoise, Yi Yi's age increased by more than three thousand years, bringing its total age to over forty-six thousand years.
Now, soul beasts above fifty thousand years but below one hundred thousand years could generally only grant it a few hundred years of cultivation.
The exact number of years depended on the age and species of the devoured soul beast. The stronger the soul beast, the greater the improvement it brought.
For an ordinary soul beast of more than fifty thousand years, the increase was generally just over a hundred years.
But devouring a soul beast of more than ninety thousand years could increase its cultivation by at least eight or nine hundred years.
Devouring a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could also increase its cultivation by around a thousand years, but that required devouring a soul beast with an exceptionally strong bloodline.
The strongest Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast Yi Yi had devoured so far was a Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear that was over ninety-five thousand years old.
It was also the soul beast with the greatest combat power Yi Yi had devoured to date. Even the Hundred-Thousand-Year Golden Tortoise and the Hundred-Thousand-Year White Armored Earth Dragon were inferior to it.
Of course, this inferiority referred to combat power, not to the cultivation gained from devouring them.
After devouring that Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear, Yi Yi's cultivation had increased by more than two thousand years, nearly matching the increase brought by a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
The energy of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast differed fundamentally. The latter brought Yi Yi a greater improvement.
Even the most ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was far more tempting to Yi Yi than a Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear over ninety thousand years old.
Yi Yi looked at the blood-red Soul Ring, opened its mouth wide, and prepared to devour it as well.
There was not much energy in the Soul Ring, but the soul beast's Origin Source was still somewhat useful to it. There was no need to waste it.
"Yi Yi, don't devour this yet," Jing Chen called out to stop it as he walked to Yi Yi's side.
Yi Yi gave Jing Chen a puzzled look. It did not ask why, merely nodding.
Its body began to shrink. It transformed into its miniature form, leaped onto Jing Chen's head, and lay there with a satisfied expression.
That pleasant feeling came from the Golden Tortoise it had just devoured. Having eaten its fill, it was naturally quite happy.
This was today's second chapter. The new book has set sail—please bookmark it and vote with recommendation tickets.
That's all for today. See you tomorrow.
Before you continue