Meanwhile, elsewhere.
In the Soul Hunting Forest, Tang San sat cross-legged beside the corpse of a savage giant snake, fully focused on absorbing a century-old soul ring.
Suddenly, without any warning, Tang San's aura violently destabilized!
The Blue Silver Grass martial soul within him began trembling wildly out of control, and an indescribable wave of sorrow instantly flooded his mind!
Tang San had been at the most critical point of absorbing the soul ring, and the sudden change in his martial soul immediately triggered the most terrifying consequence!
"Puh—!"
A mouthful of blood sprayed from Tang San's mouth. The soul ring energy that had just begun to merge instantly went out of control, crashing madly through his fragile meridians like a runaway wild horse!
Without help, he would likely suffer the fate of exploding to death.
As for the Grandmaster he had only recently taken as his teacher, Yu Xiaogang had long since passed out from snake venom nearby and could barely save himself.
"What's going on?!"
Tang San still retained consciousness, and an unwilling roar sounded in his heart. Why is my martial soul trembling?! Where is this sorrow coming from?!
No, if this continues, I'll die. Mysterious Heaven Skill, suppress it for me!
Unfortunately, although the Mysterious Heaven Skill was a balanced and tranquil Daoist cultivation method, it could not save him from this desperate situation of Soul Power backlash.
Just as Tang San's consciousness was about to be completely devoured by the violent energy, at the final moment between life and death—
A tall figure draped in a tattered black robe appeared soundlessly before Tang San.
The newcomer was none other than Tang Hao, who had been secretly protecting him all along.
It could be said that without Tang Hao's covert protection, Tang San and Yu Xiaogang—two people who had lost the ability to move—were nothing more than two cans of high-salt, high-fat meat to Spirit Beasts.
Tang Hao frowned as he looked at Tang San. He did not have much affection for this son; he saw him more as a tool for reviving the sect.
But precisely because of that, he would never allow Tang San to be crippled like this.
So Tang Hao acted without hesitation.
He merely raised one hand and pressed it over Tang San's head from the air. In an instant, the immense Soul Power of a Title Douluo poured into Tang San's body, forcibly stabilizing the rampaging soul ring energy.
Yet even with Tang Hao's cultivation as a Title Douluo, he could only temporarily restrain that energy and could not help Tang San absorb it. This was one of the fundamental rules of the Douluo Continent.
At most, a Title Douluo could interrupt a low-level Spirit Master's absorption process. Though doing so would injure the Spirit Master, they could recover after a few months of rest.
Just as Tang Hao hesitated over whether to use this brutal method to save his son's life, another change occurred!
The Mysterious Heaven Skill within Tang San unexpectedly borrowed the momentum of this external force, regained control, and began guiding the suppressed soul ring energy once more, trying to pull it back onto the proper path.
Hm? Is this the meditation method Xiaosan has cultivated since childhood?
Tang Hao was somewhat surprised. Though he had long known that Tang San had been cultivating these past few years, he had only assumed it was some crude technique for strengthening the body. He had not expected it to be so resilient and profound that it could find a sliver of life amid the desperate situation of Soul Power backlash.
What an overbearing technique... If I could bring it back to the sect...
The thought flashed through his mind only briefly before he snuffed it out.
No matter what, Tang San had cared for his daily needs for several years, and he was, after all, the child of Ah Yin and himself. As for the technique, he would wait until Tang San returned to his ancestral roots and let him offer it to the sect of his own accord.
Once Tang Hao sensed that Tang San's soul ring absorption had returned to normal, he vanished into the shadows again. As for Yu Xiaogang beside them, whose fate was unknown, Tang Hao had not spared him a single glance from beginning to end.
About half an hour later.
Covered in sweat, Tang San finally slowly awoke from his soul ring absorption and immediately summoned his martial soul, wanting to determine what had gone wrong with it.
The moment he looked, Tang San was utterly shocked. The Blue Silver Grass in his palm no longer had its former weak and harmless appearance.
The entire blade of grass had not only changed from pale blue to an eerie blue-black, but its long, narrow leaves were densely covered in barbs and emitted a sickly sweet poisonous vapor.
However, Tang San did not find anything particularly wrong with the change in his martial soul's appearance. What truly filled him with shock and fury was the first soul ring slowly emerging beneath him!
Tang San had previously seen Bai Shu and Yu Xiaogang display their soul rings. Both of their century-old soul rings had been a pure bright yellow, flowing with luster and without the slightest trace of another color.
But the soul ring circling beneath him now... not only was its color extremely dim, a sickly pale yellow, but its surface was also mixed with countless murky white spots!
White was the mark of a ten-year soul ring!
No matter how lacking Tang San was in common sense, he knew this was absolutely abnormal! Because of the rampage midway through the process, his first soul ring had been contaminated into a defective product somewhere between ten years and a hundred years!
But when he recalled the agony of his meridians tearing apart earlier, intense lingering fear and panic surged through Tang San's heart.
If an extremely domineering mysterious power had not suddenly descended midway through and protected his heart meridians, he would already be dead.
He did not know why this had happened, but since his martial soul had conveyed such sorrow, something extremely unfavorable to his martial soul—or perhaps even to himself—must have happened outside!
"Damn it! Who was it?! Don't let me find out who was plotting against me from the shadows, or I, Tang San, swear that one day I'll use Tang Sect Hidden Weapons to tear you into ten thousand pieces!!"
Tang San's eyes were bloodshot as he clenched his fists tightly and cursed through gritted teeth, venting his fury. Only when the pain in his chest was aggravated did he suddenly remember his teacher and hurriedly turn to look around.
Very soon, Tang San found the unconscious Yu Xiaogang beneath a crooked tree.
Only... because something had gone wrong while he was absorbing the soul ring, he had wasted too much time. Yu Xiaogang's entire body had become stiff by now. If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, Tang San would have thought his teacher was already cold.
Not daring to delay, Tang San hurriedly pulled a short knife from Twenty-Four Bridge Moonlit Night and scrambled over, beginning a frantic and clumsy bloodletting treatment.
Compared to Tang San's frantic efforts to treat Yu Xiaogang, Bai Shu was far more at ease. He sat cross-legged lazily at the edge of a cliff, enjoying the wind as he refined the saturated life energy within his body.
After claiming the mission reward, the system directly placed the Guardian, Xie Biyan, beside him.
However, because the system needed to alter the other man's cultivation system and instill the relevant knowledge, Xie Biyan had remained wrapped in a dazzling white cocoon ever since his arrival.
The white light lasted for a full half hour before slowly fading away, and the other man's true appearance finally became clear before Bai Shu.
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