Who Gets the Soul Bone

When Dugu Bo successfully absorbed the Soul Ring, the barrier of Soul Power in his body was broken, and he smoothly advanced to Level 71, or even took a big step forward. He was only one step away from level 72. Nearly an hour had passed.

Before Dugu Bo could even sense the changes in himself, he opened his eyes and his attention was drawn to two things placed in front of him.

A purplish-black round bead about the size of an average person's fist, and a piece of green crystal-like bone that looks like a human skull.

These two items were placed on a square stone, no more than a meter away from where Dugu Bo was sitting cross-legged, within easy reach of him by simply leaning forward and stretching out his hand.

His gaze lingered on the purplish-black bead for a moment, sensing the familiar aura. It must be the inner core that "Demon Dragon Zixi" had previously spewed out to resist the heavenly lightning.

This is a good thing. It can be said that, apart from the Soul Ring, it contains nearly half of the power in the body of the "Demon Dragon Zixi".

However, this thing was of little use to Dugu Bo, who had already become Soul Saint. Even if he swallowed and absorbed it, the violent Soul Beast Soul Power inside, after being refined and consumed, would not save Dugu Bo much cultivation time.

As mentioned before, the Soul Master cultivation system, after reaching the Soul Saint level, is no longer just about accumulating Soul Power, but also involves the fusion of Spiritual Power and Soul Power.

The most suitable people to absorb this inner core are Soul Master at the Soul King and Soul Emperor levels.

Those below the Soul King level are unable to digest the violent energy within the inner core, and may even suffer damage to their meridians and internal organs from the impact of the violent energy. As for Soul Saint, they will painstakingly work to wear down the remaining ferocity of the demonic dragon within the inner core's energy, and then imprint it with their own spiritual power. This process is not much faster than cultivating on their own, absorbing and refining the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Compared to the effort expended, the slight increase gained is clearly not worthwhile.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the demonic dragon's inner core is useless. On the contrary, it's a rare treasure that's extremely difficult to find even across the Douluo Continent!

This is especially true for Soul Master whose Martial Soul is a dragon or snake!

After absorbing the Soul Ring of "Demon Dragon Zixi", although he has not yet summoned his Martial Soul, Dugu Bo felt a faint touch in his heart. His "Jade Phosphorous Serpent" Martial Soul seemed to have received great benefits, a kind of fundamental transformation!

Therefore, since both are the source of the power of the "Demon Dragon Zixi", if this inner core is absorbed by Soul Master whose Martial Soul is a dragon or snake, it is very likely to strengthen the other party's Martial Soul Origin, thereby allowing the Martial Soul to be sublimated and evolved!

These thoughts flashed through Dugu Bo's mind, and he had already decided to give the demon dragon's inner core to his son, Dugu Xin.

Dugu Bo shifted his gaze from the demon dragon's inner core to the green crystal-like skull placed alongside it.

At first glance, Dugu Bo didn't pay much attention, but in less than a breath, Dugu Bo gaze suddenly sharpened, and he became serious.

"Soul Bone?!"

Two heavy words came out of Dugu Bo's mouth.

These are words that would attract attention anywhere in the entire Douluo Continent.

In the Soul Master World of the Douluo Continent, there is a "Soul Master Dream Ranking" that is spontaneously selected by Soul Master themselves.

Regardless of how the content and rankings change or how much controversy there is between different Soul Master, the top three have remained largely unchanged.

The first place goes to Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, hailed as a dream-level treasure that is almost impossible to find.

Just like the martial prowess rankings at the end of the Han Dynasty, no matter how the others were ranked, Lü Bu was always number one. Guan Yu saw everyone else as worthless trash, and the only person who could make him and his third brother, who possessed the "courage of ten thousand men," gang up on Lü Bu.

Similarly, in the thousands of years of the Douluo Continent, many Titled Douluo have emerged, but Soul Master who can obtain Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring currently only exist in legends.

Second place goes to External Soul Bone. Information about them has only circulated among the people of certain powerful forces; ordinary Soul Master have only heard of them but are unaware of their abilities. However, the fact that they have gained the unified recognition of those powerful forces naturally lends them a very high degree of credibility.

Third place goes to Soul Bone. Whether it's Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone, Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, or even a 1,000-year Soul Bone, they are all rare treasures that ordinary Soul Master can only dream of. They are treasures capable of turning brothers against each other and spouses stabbing each other in the back.

So why would such a precious Soul Bone be placed so openly in front of him, within easy reach?

At this moment, Dugu Bo's mind was in turmoil.

"Senior, have you successfully absorbed the Soul Ring?" Ling Yi's voice rang out just in time, waking Dugu Bo up.

Dugu Bo looked in the direction of the sound and saw a handsome young man standing with a knife in front of a white skeleton not far away, smiling at him.

It was Ling Yi. The blade of the cleaver in his hand was spotless and gleaming, and his white teeth seemed to carry a hint of coldness.

Dugu Bo subconsciously shuddered, dispelling the strange feeling that had just arisen in his heart.

Before Dugu Bo could say anything, Ling Yi's voice came again. "Senior, I won't stand on ceremony with you. I'll take this corpse of the ' Demon Dragon Zixi ' as my own!"

As he spoke, Ling Yi gripped the knife in his right hand, then raised his left hand and pointed at the demonic dragon's inner core and the green crystal skull-like Soul Bone on the rock in front of Dugu Bo, saying, "Then you, senior, can absorb the inner core and the Soul Bone— "

Upon hearing this, Dugu Bo felt as if he were in a dream. He stared blankly at Ling Yi, his gaze fixed on Ling Yi's still-open mouth, but he could no longer hear any sound.

Forget about the demonic dragon's inner core; although Dugu Bo did intend to give it to his son, Dugu Xin, to absorb, the Soul Bone —if it hadn't been discovered, that would have been one thing, but this...

Dugu Bo asked himself, if he were in Ling Yi's shoes, would he give up this treasure that was the dream of 100,000 Soul Master in the Douluo Continent after discovering the Soul Bone?

Dugu Bo could not provide an answer.

Or rather, this is already an answer.

To take it to an extreme, if after killing "Demon Dragon Zixi" he hadn't been Dugu Bo such a hurry to absorb the Soul Ring, but instead discovered this Soul Bone with Ling Yi, then... would he have chosen to strike Dugu Bo?

On the other side, after saying a few words to Dugu Bo, Ling Yi watched as the other man's face changed color from red to green, his eyes sometimes filled with confusion and sometimes flashing with fierce light, as if he were acting out a very exciting drama.

Shaking his head, Ling Yi said nothing more and turned back to continue dismembering and dividing the enormous body of the "Demon Dragon Zixi".

The dragon scales and skin were completely peeled off and stored away. The dragon eyes, teeth, horns, and whip were placed into specially made containers. Before the body completely lost its vitality, the dragon blood was drawn out through the arteries and filled several large vats.

To accomplish this, one must separate the pieces of flesh and fascia, as well as the bones and internal organs.

Fortunately, Ling Yi had already replicated the craftsmanship of Storage Soul Tool back in Gengxin City. Although the internal space of the Storage Soul Tool that can be used stably is not large, only about one to three cubic meters, we can make up for it with quantity and use more.

As for Medusa's corpse, it had already been stored in Ling Yi's "Ruyi Hundred Treasure Purse".

To be precise, after the Head Soul Bone was dug out, along with the gathering Soul Ring, Ling Yi sealed it into the third "Coffin of Life" and then put it into the "Ruyi Hundred Treasure Purse".

The first "Coffin of Life" contains Ling Yi's spare body, which has now been completely replicated. The skull, scalp, hair, and even the facial features such as eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and tongue are all complete. Except... the brain.

Inside the second "Coffin of Life" lies the Fallen Soul King Ming He, now completely reduced to a vegetative state. The "Blood-Devouring Vine" continues to diligently perform its function. Unfortunately, it still hasn't been able to break through the barrier and reach the ten-thousand-year limit.

The last bit of life force on Medusa's body was shattered by Ling Yi. Naturally, the Soul Ring that Medusa had condensed was also locked onto Ling Yi. It was only because Ling Yi's Soul Power was not up to standard at this time that he could have absorbed it as his Fifth Soul Ring.

Fortunately, although Ling Yi himself could not absorb the 23,000-year-old Soul Ring, he could use his energy to pull Medusa's Soul Ring along with her body into the "Coffin of Life" and seal it with Soul Guidance Array. With the existence of another "Coffin of Life" containing Ling Yi's spare body, the energy transfer went relatively smoothly.

For Ling Yi, the technical hurdle of sealing Soul Ring has been initially overcome. However, Ling Yi wants to go further and solve the problem of locking the Soul Ring's aura.

If this problem can be solved, it means that Soul Ring will become a marketable commodity.

In this way, one of his later plans will have a core competitive advantage, making it easier to achieve.

Currently, the number of Soul Ring handled is still relatively small, and there isn't a sufficiently large database for comparison. Even for Ling Yi, it would be difficult to directly identify the medium through which Soul Beast's Soul Master Soul Ring locked onto and killed him. Even if he were lucky enough to find it on a Soul Ring, figuring out how to remove that lock would be a significant research topic.

Thinking of this, Ling Yi sighed softly, "We still need some research assistants—"

Despite his sighs, Ling Yi's movements did not slow down. The body of the "Demon Dragon Zixi" was quite enormous, with a diameter of nearly three meters at its thickest point and a length of almost ten zhang!

The specially forged butcher's knife was a long, narrow triangle with an extremely sharp tip. With Ling Yi's Soul Power amplified, it sliced through the "Demon Dragon Zixi" body with the smoothness of a hot knife through butter, cutting away chunks of flesh—some as red as jade, others as white as ice—following the muscle fibers. Often, Ling Yi would simply swing the knife a few times, activate a Storage Soul Tool, and collect the pieces of flesh, leaving behind bones as hard as refined iron and as beautiful as jade.

It took Dugu Bo nearly an hour to absorb the Soul Ring, and it took Ling Yi about an hour and a half to divide the body of the "Demon Dragon Zixi".

During that half hour, Dugu Bo finally couldn't suppress his desire and absorbed the ten-thousand-year-old "Medusa" skull.

After absorbing it, Dugu Bo, perhaps out of guilt or embarrassment, stood there for a while before stepping forward to help Ling Yi separate the remaining tail of the "Demon Dragon Zixi".

However, it's clear that some things require a specific area of expertise. Compared to Ling Yi's relaxed and carefree attitude, Dugu Bo's actions were somewhat counterproductive.

It's important to know that although Ling Yi wasn't a butcher, he had been handling scalpels and carving knives for years. Skills like butchering an ox were basic for him. He wouldn't dare say he could carve a Along the River During the Qingming Festival Scroll on a grain of rice, but a Tang Bohu painting of ladies would be a piece of cake for him.

So, under Ling Yi's smiling gaze, Dugu Bo awkwardly took a few steps back, watching Ling Yi quickly collect the last piece of dragon meat from the tail, leaving behind a complete, white dragon skeleton, as clean as a dinosaur skeleton in a dinosaur museum.

With a wave of his hand, he summoned the "Blue Silver Grass" Martial Soul. Driven by his Soul Power, the blue vines climbed like snakes, entangling the joints of the dragon bone. With Ling Yi's strength, the dragon bone, which was nearly ten feet long, coiled up and turned into a disc-shaped object like a mosquito coil. Finally, Ling Yi waved his hand and put it into the largest Storage Soul Tool.

Having completed all this, Ling Yi waved to Ah Yin and Yang Shelly, who were waiting in the distance.

As the two women approached, Ling Yi looked up at the mountaintop, which was still shrouded in white mist, and said to Dugu Bo, "Senior, let's go up and take a look. We could smell sulfur from the foot of the mountain, so I guess there might be a volcano connected to underground lava."

"If that's the case, then I can use the earth's fire here to forge a batch of true divine weapons and armor from the bones and scales of the ' Demon Dragon Zixi '."

"Otherwise, I'd have to make a trip to ' Gengxin City ' and use the earth fire there. That would be a bit of a hassle."

However, there's no other way. Without a strong enough flame, it's difficult to maintain a sustained high temperature for a long time using only ordinary charcoal and accelerants..."

"Alright, let's go up and take a look." Dugu Bo nodded without hesitation.

Dugu Bo had absolutely no objection to Ling Yi's words. You see, with Ling Yi's help, he not only successfully hunted down the 48,000-year-old "Demon Dragon Zixi," absorbing the Soul Ring ring of this overlord-level dragon -Soul Beast to advance to Soul Saint, but also obtained a 23,000-year-old "Medusa" Head Soul Bone —he'd made a killing!

Dugu Bo knew he would remember this favor for a lifetime!

It can be said that at this moment, in Dugu Bo's heart, apart from his son Dugu Xin, Ling Yi is the person he values most in this world!

The kind of person you can entrust your life to!

Seeing the same light in Dugu Bo's eyes as in Ah Yin and Yang Shelly beside him, Ling Yi's smile remained unchanged. He nodded slightly and said, "Okay, let's go then."

As he spoke, he began to walk towards the top of the mountain.

Dugu Bo quickly leaped over Ling Yi, saying, "Ah Yi, let me go ahead and scout the way..."

After saying that, without waiting for Ling Yi's reply, he quickly traversed dozens of meters and disappeared into the white mist that enveloped the mountaintop.

Strangely enough, after the heavy rain and the two bolts of lightning that followed, most of the white mist above the halfway point of the mountain had dissipated, but the white mist at the top of the mountain seemed to be stuck, showing no sign of dissipating.

Seeing that Dugu Bo had already rushed into the white mist, Ling Yi could only chase after him, calling out, "Senior! Be careful! We don't know what's going on up there yet!"

To be continued tomorrow, goodnight everyone~