Light Awakening

Setting aside Bibi Dong's strange emotions, Wang Zhao sat cross-legged and began circulating his soul power, drawing the dark yellow soul ring that was about to dissipate above himself before lowering it over both himself and Golden Scale, who sat crouched beside him.

In an instant, Wang Zhao felt an incomparably warm power enter his body. Through the connection between a Soul Master and his Martial Soul, he could also clearly sense that some long-dormant power within Golden Scale seemed to have been awakened.

"This is... the power of light!"

Wang Zhao was delighted.

If he had guessed correctly, the light attribute within Golden Scale had been completely awakened!

In other words, just as Soul Masters with the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul could innately wield the power of thunder, Golden Scale would henceforth be able to draw upon light-attribute energy on its own and unleash attacks like a turret mage.

He quickly calmed himself again, focused his mind on his Dantian, and concentrated on refining the energy within the soul ring.

Although this energy was neither violent nor scorching, but instead brimming with warmth, making Wang Zhao feel as though even his life itself was being elevated, there was one problem...

There was simply too much of it. He felt as though his body had been filled to the brim and was about to burst!

"Damn it, how did those transmigrators in the fanfics from my past life absorb thousand-year, even ten-thousand-year soul rings as their First Soul Rings without the help of some bug-level thing like a system?"

"And Huo Yuhao from Douluo 2—looking at it now, that was utterly ridiculous! Starting out with a million-year soul ring? Even the slightest aftershock of that energy should have shattered his frail body, shouldn't it?!"

"Hiss~"

Fortunately, Wang Zhao had come prepared. He slowly opened his eyes, raised one hand, and gently placed it on Golden Scale's beastly body.

For something like Dragon Blood Grass, while pairing it with an Herbal Bath could greatly strengthen a Soul Master's physique, it was still constrained by age.

Otherwise, thousand-year First Soul Rings would have become commonplace among Soul Masters long ago.

In the end, it was not that Dragon Blood Grass was ineffective—it was that Soul Masters had limits!

So...

I won't do it—ah, spit, I'll just let my "soul beast" Martial Soul absorb it in my place!

One had to know that, under normal circumstances, Soul Masters of the same level were absolutely not as physically robust as soul beasts.

Thus, during the month after reaching Level 10 but before hunting a soul ring, Wang Zhao had drawn inspiration from the so-called Seven-in-One Soul Power Fusion Skill in the original work. Tailoring it to his special detached Beast Martial Soul, he had invented this Energy Conduction method.

The concept was simple: it was merely energy conduction, hardly worthy of being called a Self-Created Soul Skill.

The key issue, however, was how to conduct it so that energy could flow smoothly from one host to another without causing too much rejection along the way. It was similar to the blood transfusion principle from his past life: energy or soul power of the same attribute yielded the best and safest conduction results.

Wang Zhao and Golden Scale already shared a closely intertwined symbiotic relationship, so conducting energy between them could not have been easier.

This experiment was a complete success!

It also meant that Wang Zhao could freely absorb soul rings beyond his limit in the future—say, a thousand-year Second Soul Ring or a ten-thousand-year Fourth Soul Ring...

They were no longer just dreams!

And that was without encountering any fortuitous opportunities along the way.

As for the future, who could say?

Could other Soul Masters with non-detached Martial Souls pull off the same thing?

Of course they could try—if they were not afraid of their Martial Souls permanently collapsing.

Try it, and die trying~

With that...

Wang Zhao could not help mentally digging up Great Master's corpse for another whipping.

There were no useless Martial Souls, only useless Soul Masters?

Yeah, yeah, sure!

Before long.

This eight-hundred-year Cloud-Traversing White Python soul ring was completely refined and absorbed under the combined endurance of Wang Zhao and Golden Scale.

Wang Zhao slowly rose to his feet, feeling every part of his body singing with joy. Lowering his head slightly, he easily noticed that he seemed to have grown a little taller. His skin also appeared to have gained a lustrous sheen, while his body felt even lighter. Presumably, all aspects of his physical abilities had improved.

That was the wondrous aspect of Douluo's soul ring system. Perhaps it was not particularly world-shattering, but it absolutely promoted growth—and not in the forced, growth-stunting way, but through genuine elevation.

He instinctively tilted his head to look, but did not find Golden Scale. Only then did Wang Zhao suddenly recall that when the soul ring had successfully been absorbed, Golden Scale seemed to have returned to his body on its own, receiving the baptism of the soul ring's energy alongside him.

Without further hesitation, he immediately released Golden Scale once more. At the same time, a dark yellow soul ring slowly rose from beneath his feet.

Boom!

An invisible Soul Pressure spread from Wang Zhao's body.

At the same time, he roughly understood his current Soul Power Level—

Level 14!

Besides the guaranteed one-level increase from absorbing the soul ring, another level and a half had come from the soul power energy provided by this eight-hundred-year soul ring. The remaining level and a half came respectively from Wang Zhao's accumulated soul power over the past month and from Golden Scale itself!

It turned out that after Golden Scale awakened its hidden light attribute during the soul ring absorption process, Wang Zhao had also undergone a minor transformation. His aptitude had improved, naturally making breakthroughs in soul power easier and smoother.

At this moment, however, Wang Zhao was not solely concerned with the improvement in his own soul power. He cared more about the changes that had occurred in Golden Scale.

Because he understood clearly that the Martial Soul was the foundation of everything, while soul power was merely an outward manifestation.

Golden Scale had now become far more worthy of its name. Though it had not truly grown indestructible scales, golden specks of light could faintly be seen flickering amid its purple beastly body, making its overall appearance far more splendid.

As for its size, even Wang Zhao, its master, had undergone a complete elevation, so Golden Scale needed no further explanation. Standing near it, Wang Zhao had to look up just to see the top of its head. Its body had grown increasingly muscular and powerful, its claws and fangs sharp; merely looking at it was enough to sense the sheer destructive force it possessed.

Finally, there was the bulge atop its head. It had not grown much larger, but its surface was now covered with a dim, flowing radiance.

Wang Zhao thought that this might be the core of Golden Scale's light-attribute origin. It was dim because Golden Scale was still not truly powerful enough to reveal its genuinely dazzling form.

But he believed that the day Golden Scale would show its brilliance was not far away.

At this time.

Bibi Dong and Die, who had been watching Wang Zhao's condition and standing guard over him, approached him. As for the Soul King-level Purple-robed Bishop who had led the way earlier, Bibi Dong had long since dismissed him.

Spirit Hall possessed an extremely rigorous internal structure and set of procedures. Matters of merit, fault, rewards, and punishment did not require the Saintess herself to handle personally.

"You actually succeeded."

Looking at the changes in Wang Zhao, Bibi Dong's eyes were filled with complicated emotions.

The undeniable truth lay right before her, leaving her no room to continue defending a certain Grandmaster in her heart. Xiao Gang's invincible theory—

Really was wrong!!!