Autonomously Condensing a Soul Ring

That golden light blazed brilliantly, like the sun hanging high in the sky, illuminating the entire ancestral hall until it was as bright as day!

And the gold kept deepening, shifting from pale gold to bright gold, from bright gold to crimson gold, before finally transforming into a dense column of golden light, almost solid in its intensity, that shot up from the Awakening Stone!

"Innate Full Soul Power! Level ten!" Chu Yunshan's voice trembled.

The ancestral hall fell completely silent.

The five clan elders and Chu Yuntian, an eighty-third-ranked Soul Douluo, all stood frozen in place, unable to speak for a long time.

Innate Full Soul Power, level ten.

Everyone present knew exactly what those seven words meant.

Throughout the history of the Douluo Continent, every Soul Master with Innate Full Soul Power, as long as they didn't perish along the way, had ultimately reached the pinnacle of this world.

A Titled Douluo was the bare minimum.

Super Douluos and Limit Douluos were their destined heights.

Even more astonishingly, Chu Yan's Martial Soul wasn't an ordinary one. It was the Yan Divine Weapon, something even Soul Douluos couldn't touch!

A powerful Martial Soul of unknown rank, paired with Innate Full Soul Power...

What did that mean?

It meant a true genius, one who might change the balance of power across the continent, had been born into the Chu Clan!

"Ha ha ha ha ha!"

Chu Yuntian was the first to recover. He threw his head back and laughed, his voice brimming with delight and pride.

He strode over to Chu Yan, lifted his six-year-old son high above his head, and said in a voice as loud as a bell, "Good! Good! Good! The proudest thing I've ever done in my life, Chu Yuntian, is having a son like you!"

Held aloft by his father, Chu Yan felt a little embarrassed.

His body might have been only six years old, but his soul belonged to a twenty-year-old adult. Being lifted up like this felt kind of strange.

Still, seeing his father's heartfelt joy, the clan elders' astonished yet pleased expressions, and Xu Xiaoyan's adoring, delighted face...

Chu Yan's lips curved upward, and warmth spread through his heart.

So this was family.

"Clan elders." Chu Yuntian set Chu Yan down, then turned to face the five elders, his eyes blazing. "Yan'er's Martial Soul Awakening results are the Chu Clan's highest-level secret. No one present today may breathe a word of them to anyone."

"Of course." Chu Yunshan nodded firmly.

The five clan elders were all shrewd people; they naturally understood the stakes.

A genius with Innate Full Soul Power and a powerful, unknown Martial Soul would inevitably attract endless trouble if hostile factions—and those loathsome forces—learned about him.

Especially in this era, which seemed peaceful but was in fact rife with undercurrents.

"And Xiao Yan." Chu Yuntian looked at the little girl hiding behind Chu Yan, his tone softening. "Xiao Yan, you heard me. Don't tell anyone about Brother Yan's situation for now, not even your father. All right?"

Though Xu Xiaoyan was young, she came from a prominent family and had picked up an understanding of what mattered from the people around her.

She nodded seriously, her little face taut with earnestness. "Don't worry, Uncle Chu. Xiao Yan won't tell anyone! It's a secret between Xiao Yan and Brother Yan!"

"Good girl." Chu Yuntian ruffled Xu Xiaoyan's hair and smiled. "It's getting late. I'll take you home. Tomorrow, I'll have Yan'er visit the Xu Clan to see you."

"Mm!" Xu Xiaoyan answered, but she didn't hurry to leave. Instead, she turned to look at Chu Yan.

She rose onto her tiptoes, leaned close to Chu Yan's ear, and whispered, "Brother Yan, you're so amazing. Xiao Yan wants to become amazing too, so I can stand by your side!"

Her warm breath brushed his ear, and Chu Yan felt something stir gently inside him.

He hurriedly tamped down the feeling. No, no, I'm not even six yet! Are you trying to kill me?!

He reached out, pinched Xu Xiaoyan's cheek, and smiled. "All right. Brother Yan will wait for you."

Only then did Xu Xiaoyan leave contentedly with Chu Yuntian. Even when they reached the doorway, she remembered to turn back and wave at Chu Yan.

As he walked, Chu Yuntian laughed loudly:

"My son, Chu Yan, has the makings of a Titled Douluo!"

Late that night

Chu Yan sat cross-legged on his bed, holding the dark golden Yan Divine Weapon in his hand.

After the Awakening Ceremony, the Yan Divine Weapon had transformed into a golden mark imprinted on his palm.

With a thought, the mark could become a solid staff for him to wield.

The feeling of being connected by blood put him completely at ease.

"The Yan Divine Weapon..." Chu Yan murmured to himself, closed his eyes, and began carefully sorting through the information in his mind.

The Yan Divine Weapon had nine forms, from the first, Phantom Sword Style, to the ninth, Immortal Rival. Each form required a corresponding level of spiritual telekinesis and comprehension of laws to unlock.

But it was obvious that its power wasn't as great in the Douluo World as it had been in Swallowed Star. Who knew how many versions weaker it had become?

What had originally required spiritual telekinesis now required spiritual power here, while the Law of Metal and Law of Space had become the Yan Divine Weapon's unique attributes of extreme metal and space.

With his current spiritual power, boosted by Innate Full Soul Power at level ten, he could barely sense the threshold of the first form, Phantom Sword Style.

"A small sword... With my current spiritual power, controlling one should be my limit." Chu Yan made an estimate in his mind.

He didn't rush to try. Instead, he first circulated the Chu Clan's ancestral Soul Power cultivation method to stabilize his newly awakened Martial Soul.

Soul Power flowed slowly through his meridians, warm and abundant.

The golden mark formed by the Yan Divine Weapon hovered in his dantian, surrounded by wisps of golden mist and radiating an ancient, domineering aura.

"Wait..."

"I think I can condense... a Soul Ring!"

The moment the thought entered his mind, Chu Yan himself was startled. The Yan Divine Weapon's energy was simply too immense, compressed to the extreme, yet there was still a surge of energy he couldn't suppress.

As everyone knew, on the Douluo Continent, there were only two ways to obtain Soul Rings without hunting Soul Beasts or absorbing Soul Spirits through the Spirit Pagoda.

One was Soul Beast Transformation, since only Soul Beasts who had transformed into human form could autonomously condense their first seven Soul Rings.

The other possibility was a god-gifted Soul Ring, which wasn't autonomously condensed by a Martial Soul.

Of course, there was one special case: Buddha Ancestor Tang's fifth Soul Ring, which had been condensed from its source.

"Then I'll give it a try. If it works, all the better!" Chu Yan murmured, then focused his mind, gathering all his spiritual power into the Yan Divine Weapon in his hand.

Second by second, time passed. Before he knew it, it was late at night.

Suddenly, energy condensed within the Yan Divine Weapon. The next moment, a deep yellow Soul Ring appeared.

The newly manifested deep yellow Soul Ring hovered around him, turning slowly and radiating a faint halo.

Its color was rich and deep, tinged with a hint of gold. It looked nothing like a Soul Ring that had just been condensed.

"This... is really my First Soul Ring?"

Chu Yan was both astonished and delighted.

He had never heard of a Soul Master condensing a Soul Ring solely through their own Martial Soul, without a Soul Beast or Soul Spirit. Even the legendary god-gifted Soul Rings required a deity's blessing or some special opportunity.

Of course, the fanfiction he'd read in his previous life was another matter. That was just the author's power at work.

Besides, this Soul Ring's age far exceeded the norm!

In the Douluo Continent, very few people had a First Soul Ring that was more than five hundred years old.

That was because beyond that age, a Soul Ring's violent energy would exceed the limits of a Soul Master's body.

Of course, this rule wasn't absolute.

Some exceptional geniuses had bodies far stronger than ordinary people and sufficiently high spiritual power, allowing them to withstand Soul Rings of greater age.

And of course, they could spend money on rare treasures from heaven and earth, such as Whale Rubber, which could increase a Soul Ring's age.

Even so, most Soul Rings were between five hundred and six hundred years old. Across the entire continent, those who could manage it were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

After all, there weren't many people with both sufficient spiritual power and a strong enough body, and even fewer who could afford to spend money on it.

And the color of Chu Yan's Soul Ring...

Deep yellow, signifying an age between seven hundred and eight hundred years!

"Seven hundred and fifty years—more than three hundred years beyond the usual limit for an ordinary Soul Master's First Soul Ring..." Chu Yan guessed to himself.

If word of this got out, it would be enough to shake the entire Soul Master World.

But what Chu Yan was focused on right now wasn't the Soul Ring's age. It was something else.

The Soul Skill that came with the Soul Ring.

Every Soul Ring granted a Soul Master at least one Soul Skill. This was an unchanging rule of the Douluo Continent.

Chu Yan closed his eyes and sent his spiritual power into his dantian, sensing the information contained within the deep yellow Soul Ring.

Buzz—

His mind exploded with a thunderous roar!