Golden Shield, Level Forty

In the blink of an eye, twelve hours had passed. Jing Chen finished absorbing the Golden Tortoise External Soul Bone.

This Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone had brought Jing Chen enormous benefits.

The most obvious improvement was to his Soul Power Level, which directly increased Jing Chen's Soul Power by two levels.

Originally, Jing Chen had only been at the early stage of level thirty-eight. After absorbing the Soul Bone, he reached the level forty bottleneck.

As long as he absorbed a fourth Soul Ring, he would become a four-ring Soul Ancestor.

He was only eleven years and eight months old, not yet twelve. Such cultivation at such an age was nothing short of terrifying.

"This Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone really didn't disappoint me." Jing Chen was very satisfied with the two-level increase in Soul Power.

The two levels of Soul Power gained through absorbing the Soul Bone were quite solid, without any sense of instability.

It was as though he had earned those two levels through painstaking cultivation, and that was what pleased him most.

He had originally worried that such a rapid increase in Soul Power would leave his foundation unstable, but it now seemed he had worried for nothing.

Through Soul Bones—or at least Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones—there should be no risk of damaging one's foundation.

This also greatly eased his concerns about absorbing the upcoming Three Hundred Thousand Year and Five Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones.

Aside from the increase in Soul Power, absorbing the Soul Bone had further improved his physical condition.

He could not yet say exactly by how much, but he felt stronger than before.

His speed, defense, and other aspects had likely all improved to varying degrees. It was a rather comprehensive enhancement of his physique.

His vitality had not disappointed him either. After absorbing the Soul Bone, his spirit and complexion had visibly improved.

Although it had not directly restored him to his former state, it had at least added the equivalent of twenty years to his lifespan.

With so much additional vitality, the tightly drawn string in his heart loosened considerably, and his pressure sharply diminished.

"Let me see what this Soul Bone can do." Jing Chen stood up, anticipation filling his heart.

He gathered his Soul Power and released the Golden Tortoise External Soul Bone in the same manner he used to release the Ice Crystal Behemoth Left Palm Bone.

A golden turtle shield appeared over his right hand, pressed against his forearm.

The golden turtle shield was only about half a meter in diameter. Its surface was covered in diamond-shaped protrusions, thick in the middle and thin at the edges, giving it a highly layered appearance.

This shield did not merely resemble the Golden Tortoise's shell—it was exactly the same. The only difference was its reduced size.

Jing Chen examined the golden turtle shield fitted over his forearm and the back of his hand in astonishment. He could sense its weight and solidity.

"Whoosh, whoosh..." Jing Chen tried swinging the shield, and a low, piercing wind sound rang out.

The shield weighed over a thousand jin. Swinging it was tremendously powerful; it could even be used as a hammer, making it an excellent weapon for smashing people.

After feeling it over for a while, Jing Chen released the Ice Crystal Behemoth Left Palm Bone and forcefully scraped the Ice Crystal Claw across the turtle shield.

A harsh grinding sound rang out, yet the sharp Ice Crystal Claw failed to leave so much as a scratch on the turtle shield.

"Even an Ice Crystal Claw with six or seven thousand years of cultivation can't leave a scratch?" Jing Chen's eyes lit up, and he gained a clearer understanding of the turtle shield's hardness.

External Soul Bones could increase in age as a Soul Master's strength grew. This Ice Crystal Claw, which had initially only been a little over six hundred years old, had now increased tenfold in age.

An Ice Crystal Claw with six or seven thousand years of cultivation was exceptionally sharp, capable of cutting open the bodies of Soul Beasts tens of thousands of years old.

Yet now, it could not leave any mark on the turtle shield. This showed just how powerful the shield's defense was.

"Yi Yi, come and give it a try." Jing Chen intended to test just how strong this Soul Bone's defense really was.

This was necessary. Only by gaining a detailed understanding of his own methods could he put them to better use in battle.

"Yiyi?" Yi Yi sought confirmation from Jing Chen. Did he really want it to test the turtle shell's defense?

"Don't use too much force. Take it easy," Jing Chen reminded it, worried that Yi Yi might misjudge its strength and nearly kill him.

A Hundred Thousand Year Yi Yi was no joke. Its strength was equivalent to that of a Limit Douluo.

Moreover, it was among the stronger Limit Douluos. A weaker Limit Douluo probably would not even be its match.

Yi Yi shifted into its combat form and worked with Jing Chen to test the turtle shell's defensive power.

After numerous tests, Jing Chen gained a preliminary understanding of the turtle shell's defense.

Its hardness was definitely at the Title Douluo level. After all, it was a Hundred Thousand Year External Soul Bone, and its hardness had not diminished after being absorbed by him.

But that did not mean he could rely on this shield to withstand a Title Douluo's attacks.

The shield's hardness might be able to block Title-level attacks, but his body could not endure them.

This was a shield. When an attack landed on it, part of the force would be transmitted to him, the shield's wielder.

Once that force exceeded the limit of what he could withstand, he would most likely be doomed. By then, the shield might still remain intact.

The factor determining the limit of the shield's defense was not its hardness, but the limit of what his body could endure.

By his estimation, blocking attacks from a Soul Emperor should not be a problem. As for attacks from a Soul Saint, that would depend on the situation.

If he encountered a particularly powerful Soul Saint, he might not be able to withstand the impact of their attacks.

Of course, that was assuming he did not use the Soul Bone Skill.

If he used the Soul Bone Skill, he could certainly block attacks at the Soul Saint level. A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone Skill was no joke.

It was just that using the skill consumed a great deal of Soul Power. With his current total Soul Power, he could use it at most once.

"I'll call you the Golden Shield." Jing Chen gave the Golden Tortoise External Soul Bone a short, simple name.

When Jing Chen left the Time and Space Divine Tower, he discovered that it was already nighttime, so he gave up on setting out to obtain a Soul Ring.

After taking care of dinner for himself and Yi Yi, he cultivated for a while before returning to the Time and Space Divine Tower to continue cultivating.

Yi Yi's dinner consisted of the leftover Soul Beast meat, while his was the Whale Rubber that was over three hundred thousand years old.

He only cut off a fist-sized piece of Whale Rubber to boil and eat, not daring to cut too much for fear that his body would be unable to handle such nourishment.

There was still nearly half of the Whale Rubber that was over three hundred thousand years old remaining, equivalent in volume to half an elephant. It was enough to last him several months.

The next day, Jing Chen and Yi Yi arrived in the Far North. With Yi Yi's Space Shuttle, getting there took only a moment.

The skill made traveling convenient, but it also came with a problem: they could not precisely determine where they would arrive.

Just like now, Jing Chen and Yi Yi were in the Far North, but they had no idea of their exact location.

After Jing Chen determined their direction, Yi Yi carried him through space for more than seven hundred kilometers in that direction.

Jing Chen did not know what lay over seven hundred kilometers away, and neither did Yi Yi.

After arriving there, Jing Chen looked around in confusion, unable to determine where exactly they were for the moment.

Today's first chapter. The new book is setting sail—please bookmark it and vote with recommendation tickets.