New Skills

"Soul power level, thirty... This is my current limit, not the limit of the soul power feedback. The remaining soul power is enough for me to advance another level or two after I become a Soul Venerable!"

Xu Bai slowly opened his eyes with a smile on his face, and then two purple soul rings slowly rose from beneath him.

Geniuses are only a minority; ordinary people are the norm.

In the worldview of Douluo Dalu, the total number of Soul Masters on the entire continent does not exceed one million.

Yet, among these one million Soul Masters, eighty percent are unable to break through to level thirty in their entire lives, relegated to the bottom of the Soul Master world.

But once a Soul Master achieves the rank of Soul Venerable, they can already be considered a powerhouse in certain small regions.

"Possessing two thousand-year-old tamed beasts, plus being a level thirty half-step Soul Venerable myself, I suppose I've finally left the ranks of the common ants."

Xu Bai teased himself in his heart and opened the manual within his Sea of Divine Consciousness:

[Tamed Beast Top 1]: Mutated Green-Red Tiger (Number One)
[Attribute]: Metal
[Current Age]: 1,001 years
[Racial Potential]: Ten-thousand-year
[Racial Skills]: Metal Spirit Power (Mastery), Metal Spirit Perception (Novice)
[Evolution Path]: Golden Spirit Holy Tiger

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[Tamed Beast Top 2]: Mutated Blue Silver Grass (Little Blue)
[Attribute]: Wood, Life
[Current Age]: 1,100 years
[Racial Potential]: Thousand-year
[Racial Skills]: Early Wisdom (Proficient), Tenacious (Perfect), Soul Calming and Spirit Purifying (Novice), Binding Absorption (Novice)
[Evolution Path]: Nine Tribulations Blue Silver Grass

[Current Tamed Beasts Recorded in Manual]: 184

The age wasn't much of an issue; the only thing that surprised Xu Bai was that Little Blue's third reverse-living had directly increased its age by a hundred years.

But that wasn't the main point; the point was the newly appeared skill.

Xu Bai truly hadn't expected that after Number One promoted to a thousand-year Soul Beast, it would also awaken a new racial skill.

Judging by the name, it was clearly a perception-type skill. As for what it was actually useful for, he would have to ask Number One later.

Then there was the new skill on Little Blue's side, Binding Absorption...

Having had the experience of one reverse-living, Xu Bai could roughly guess that the skills Little Blue gained after reverse-living might be related to its primary materials.

Take the last reverse-living as an example: the main materials were the hundred-year Bitter Tree Heart, and the Soul Nourishing Stone also counted for half.

Therefore, the skill obtained was "Soul Calming and Spirit Purifying," a skill that was an aggregate of the abilities of the Bitter Tree and the Soul Nourishing Stone.

And this time, the main material for the reverse-living was the Azure Vine, so the new skill "Binding Absorption" should be related to the Azure Vine.

As for the Blue Silver King's blood, it seemed to act more like a catalyst during the reverse-living process.

Xu Bai knew about the Azure Vine; it was considered one of the strongest among plant-type Soul Beasts.

Its core abilities were concentrated in two aspects: powerful binding control and efficient energy absorption.

The powerful binding control was manifested in the Azure Vine's extreme toughness and nearly infinite growth; in battle, it could quickly bind and entangle enemies, and the more the enemy struggled, the tighter the binding became.

Efficient energy absorption was manifested in the two aspects of parasitism and devouring.

For parasitism, one could refer to Tang San's second soul skill, "Parasite," and devouring meant it could absorb the soul power and life force of the bound target through the Azure Vine vines.

Two very strong abilities, and now they might have been bundled into a single skill for Little Blue.

Thinking this, Xu Bai withdrew his gaze from the manual and looked back at his two tamed beasts, Number One and Little Blue.

It was a good thing he looked; the sight nearly gave him a fright.

Having advanced to a thousand-year Soul Beast, Little Blue's size had become even more massive. Just planted there, it could no longer be called grass, but a large tree.

The vines had also thickened; where they were once two fingers wide at their thickest, they were now about the thickness of an infant's forearm.

However, the patterns on the vines and leaves hadn't changed, but the color had—it had become greener. If it continued to change like this, after the fourth reverse-living, Little Blue's Blue Silver Grass would have to be renamed Green Silver Grass.

Number One, however, hadn't changed much; its size had increased from three meters to four and a half, still sporting its original gold and white fur.

Whether it was his imagination or not, Xu Bai vaguely felt that Number One's golden fur was more dazzling than before, and a faint golden light had appeared in its tiger eyes, making it look even more majestic and extraordinary.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Xu Bai smiled slightly, stood up, and patted Number One on the lower leg.

After becoming a thousand-year Soul Beast, Number One's muscles were even more robust. He felt like the few pats he gave were like hitting a hairy rock; it was terrifyingly hard.

Then, he looked at Little Blue with a smile: "And you, the feeling of getting stronger isn't bad, is it?"

Little Blue's leaves swayed, and it complained in a small voice:

"The feeling isn't bad, but next time, could you not just suddenly insert it in like that? At least give me a little time to prepare..."

Xu Bai was shocked at first, then wore a look of confusion.

"What kind of wild talk is this? Did I let you peek at some strange books, Number One?"

Number One, having been slandered: !!!∑(ﾟДﾟノ)ノ

It wore a pensive expression, then decisively decided to argue its case, defending its beastly dignity while making its Beast Tamer deeply realize the error of his slander.

Beast Tamer, do not slander a good beast with empty words. I don't even read the kind of books you're talking about, let alone show them to Little Blue!

Xu Bai: "So, you do know what kind of books I'm talking about?"

Number One: ∑(O_O;)

"Alright, I'm just teasing you."

Xu Bai shook his head with a smile, then his expression turned serious as he got to the point: "Number One, you must have awakened a skill. Quickly, see what it does."

Number One had been about to complain after hearing its Beast Tamer say he was just teasing, but upon hearing the latter part, it froze in place, casting all thoughts of complaining to the back of its mind.

A new skill, awakened?

Me?

How come I didn't know?

Number One hurriedly felt around carefully and, sure enough, discovered a new energy within its body. It was of the same origin as its "Metal Spirit Power," but its function was different.

"Well? What does it do?"

After a while, Xu Bai asked again. He had a faint feeling that this "Metal Spirit Perception" was not simple and might be of great use to him.

By this time, Number One already knew the function of this new ability, but it was so useless that it didn't like it at all.

The little, big white tiger furrowed its brows tightly, feeling as if it were looking at something as tasteless as chicken ribs.

"What exactly is it?"

Xu Bai gave Number One's calf a sharp kick. In this life, he, Xu, hated two types of people most.

The first were those who spoke in riddles, and the second were those who wouldn't let him speak in riddles.

Number One had been alternating between surprise and furrowed brows, refusing to answer his questions, which made him feel as if his patience was being ruthlessly trampled upon.

Feeling the slight pain in its calf, Number One finally snapped out of it, let out a howl, and began to explain.

Soon, Xu Bai understood, and he was instantly overjoyed.

It turned out that the function of "Metal Spirit Perception" leaned more toward a utility-based ability, but for Xu Bai, this utility was perfectly skewed in his favor.

Simply put, its function was to perceive the location of metal, and the more precious and rare the metal, the clearer the perception.

What was this? Wasn't this just a stripped-down version of a treasure-hunting mouse?

With this ability, he felt he wouldn't have to worry about the materials for Number One and Little Blue for the next ten thousand years.

After all, the Douluo Continent had quite a lot of precious metals, and every single one of them was worth a fortune!