From the treetops, Su Changge's gaze swept like a blade over the ruins left behind by the battle.
Even after catching his breath, the pungent stench of blood flooded his nostrils, making him gag with nausea.
Su Changge's gaze finally settled on the massive corpse of the Red Gold Fire Python, then on the Titan Giant Ape, sprawled on the ground and hovering on the brink of death.
A chance!
A godsend.
A dying Titan Giant Ape. A three-thousand-year Soul Ring.
Without a stroke of luck, he could have waited until the end of time and still never encountered one.
If Heaven gives you a gift and you refuse it, you invite disaster.
Su Changge's eyes blazed, as though a great sun were burning within him.
He leaped down, wrapped his arms around the tree trunk, and slid to the ground.
"Hey, Su Changge, what are you going to do?"
"That Titan Giant Ape isn't quite dead yet. Even if you want to scavenge, you should wait until it's dead!"
Seeing Su Changge sneak toward the Titan Giant Ape, Murong Ruyan grew anxious and, as if possessed, followed after him.
Was it the aftershock of the battle? Or the subtle pull between a young man and woman deep in this seldom-visited forest?
Who could say for sure?
When he drew within a hundred meters of the Titan Giant Ape, Su Changge stopped hiding.
He got to his feet, brushed the thorns off himself, took out a poison-coated dagger, gripped it tightly, and straightened his back as he walked toward the Titan Giant Ape.
"Su Changge! Hey, you bastard, can't you listen to reason?"
Seeing what Su Changge was doing, Murong Ruyan went pale. She hurried forward and clung tightly to him, then simply hung herself off his back.
The soft curves shifting against his back distracted Su Changge for a moment.
"Get down!"
Su Changge forced himself to stay calm.
"I won't."
Seeing Murong Ruyan dig in her heels, Su Changge slapped her on the rear. Startled, she quickly jumped away, blushing as she took a few steps back.
"Su Changge, you... you shameless scoundrel."
"I was only trying to help you, and you take advantage of me?"
"I appreciate your concern, but I have no choice. I have to do this."
"Stop trying to hold me back, or... I won't mind having my way with you right here."
A few dangerous glints appeared in Su Changge's eyes.
Those brazen words seemed to have truly shaken Murong Ruyan. She wrapped her arms around her chest and backed away, keeping several meters between them.
Still, doing it in a place like this did seem wild and thrilling.
Murong Ruyan seemed to imagine something, her face turning red enough to drip blood.
Rustle! Rustle!
Crisp footsteps echoed through the silent ruins.
Seeing Su Changge, the Titan Giant Ape instinctively tried to roar, but its injuries were too severe for it to make a sound. It could only twitch its mouth, baring its sharp fangs to warn him.
But such an empty show of force clearly couldn't shake Su Changge's resolve.
Splurt.
The dagger plunged into the Titan Giant Ape's wound, and more than a dozen kinds of poison surged through its blood.
The wound turned purplish-black in an instant, and its life force grew ever weaker.
After seeing this, Su Changge took no further action. He simply stood nearby, quietly waiting... for the Titan Giant Ape's life to come to an end.
After an unknown amount of time, the Titan Giant Ape finally stopped breathing.
As Su Changge and Murong Ruyan watched, a purple Soul Ring rose from the Titan Giant Ape's massive corpse, floating in the air as if calling out to someone.
"A three-thousand-year Soul Ring!"
Su Changge murmured as he stared at the purple Soul Ring before him. His heart wasn't stirred in the slightest; instead, he grew utterly calm.
Sixteen years!
He had finally made it this far.
Once he absorbed the Soul Ring before him, he would become a true Soul Master.
"Su Changge... what are you doing? Wait, hold on."
When repeated calls failed to get a response, Murong Ruyan ran in front of him and blocked his way.
Her chest rose high as if she had steeled herself to be taken by him.
"Su Changge, this is your first Soul Ring, right?"
"Do you have any common sense?"
"Who was your teacher? Did he never teach you?"
"A Soul Master's first Soul Ring should ideally be a hundred years old. It's also the safest to absorb."
"Even the top geniuses at Heaven Dou Royal Academy and among the Seven Great Sects rarely absorb a first Soul Ring that's more than four hundred years old."
"But this Soul Ring is a full three thousand years old! It's the kind of high-year Soul Ring that even a Soul Grandmaster—and most ordinary Soul Elders—wouldn't dare absorb lightly."
"The violent Soul Power within it could burst a little Soul Scholar like you apart in an instant... Get a grip! Don't let the temptation before you cloud your judgment."
"I know everything you've said. Move."
Su Changge's gaze swept across Murong Ruyan's delicate face. He pushed her aside with an arm around her waist and kept walking, reaching out toward the purple Soul Ring.
"Fine! Fine! Fine! You can't talk a damned fool out of dying."
"Su Changge, if you die, I won't even give you a proper burial."
When Su Changge's hand touched the Soul Ring, Murong Ruyan's legs went weak and she sank to the ground, cursing him through her tears.
But by then, Su Changge had no strength to spare for Murong Ruyan.
The instant he touched the Soul Ring, surging Soul Power poured into his body like the tide rushing into a cave, constantly reshaping and widening the channels throughout his body...
Under this violent transformation, the aura around him gradually climbed.
He dared to be so reckless not because he was gambling his life on a slim hope for the future.
When he was six, not long after awakening his Martial Soul, his parents—who were still alive at the time—had found many precious treasures for him. Among them were two pieces of Whale Rubber that were several thousand years old.
He knew of Whale Rubber's remarkable effects and had swallowed them long ago.
The combined effects of those two pieces might still not equal one piece of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue.
But he wasn't absorbing a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring. He was absorbing a three-thousand-year Soul Ring.
That was enough for now.
Half an hour later, after Su Changge absorbed the last wisp of energy from the Soul Ring, the purple ring shattered with a crash.
The sight before her shook Murong Ruyan's understanding of the world to its core, as if reality itself had been remade.
"This... how is this possible? He actually succeeded."
"A Soul Scholar absorbed a three-thousand-year Soul Ring from a top Soul Beast species like the Titan Giant Ape?"
"No, that's impossible! It's impossible!"
Murong Ruyan stared blankly, moving like a puppet as she stumbled backward.
Buzz!
At the same time, the aura around Su Changge reached its peak.
The barrier that had troubled him for countless days and nights shattered with a resounding crack.
A purple Soul Ring appeared beneath his feet, radiating an aura of violence and power.
"Hahaha... I did it! I did it!!!"
Ding! The host has obtained his First Soul Ring. Martial Soul Evolution: Goblin Cub has advanced into a Goblin. First trait reward acquired: Many Children Many Blessings.