Gold of Life, Transformed from Within

After Wang Chen returned home, he entered the cultivation room, locked the door from inside, and began his closed-door cultivation.

Wang Chen held the purified Soul Devouring Carving Knife, which now resembled blue crystal, in his palm. Its former ferocity had vanished without a trace. The carving knife felt warm and smooth, with an excellent texture that gave off a vibrant sense of life.

Wang Chen looked at the purified Soul Devouring Carving Knife—or, more accurately, the Gold of Life—and could not help feeling excited.

The Gold of Life was absolutely one of the finest treasures on the continent. If treasures were ranked by grade, it was undoubtedly a divine-level existence.

It greatly benefited both the body and spiritual power. The Silver Dragon King could use it to heal injuries, while Electrolux could use it to stabilize his divine sense and no longer worry about dissipating.

Something that was so useful even to divine-level powerhouses was unquestionably a divine treasure.

Even an ordinary-talented soul master would be transformed from within after absorbing the Gold of Life, just like a caterpillar transforming into Rayquaza, gaining the potential to break through to the divine level.

In the original story, after Huo Yuhao obtained the Gold of Life, Electrolux occupied most of its power to repair and nourish his divine sense.

Even so, Huo Yuhao still gained enormous benefits from merely drinking the soup. Not only did his physique strengthen and his talent improve, but his injuries also healed much faster.

Even his Sea of Consciousness expanded, and his spiritual power grew three times faster than before. From this, it was easy to imagine just how incredible the Gold of Life was.

Of course, although Huo Yuhao had only drunk the soup, he had received Electrolux's inheritance of Undead Magic. Whether he had profited or suffered a loss depended on one's own perspective.

Wang Chen had no one to share the benefits with. He alone had the final say over this huge piece of Gold of Life.

Of course, absorbing the Gold of Life was also a technical task. It could not be absorbed recklessly.

The first owner of the Soul Devouring Carving Knife, an Evil Soul Master at the Titled Douluo level, had not known how to absorb the Gold of Life. He could only inject his evil thoughts and curses into it, turning it into the Soul Devouring Carving Knife. This was nothing but destroying a heavenly treasure—a pure waste.

Another example was the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast Golden Hawksbill from the Star Dou Great Forest. It had secretly snuck into the Lake of Life and bitten off a piece of the Gold of Life, swallowing it into its stomach.

Not only did it fail to gain any benefits, but the Gold of Life instead absorbed its Life Force in return. In the end, it was forced onto the path of destruction and had no choice but to become a Soul Spirit.

The reason it had been counterabsorbed by the Gold of Life after eating it was that the Life Force contained within the Gold of Life was simply too vigorous.

A solid piece of the Gold of Life as large as this small carving knife would take roughly two hundred thousand years for the Star Dou Great Forest to condense.

After an ordinary soul master or Soul Beast swallowed such a high-concentration crystal of Life Force, it was like an ordinary person eating salt. A small amount could replenish what the body needed, but too much would cause the salt to absorb all the water in the body.

Thus, even good things had to be taken in moderation, and one had to know how to use them. Otherwise, a treasure could become a deadly poison.

As a transmigrator who had read the original story, Wang Chen naturally knew how to utilize the Gold of Life.

Wang Chen pressed the Gold of Life against the center of his forehead. Then, under the effect of his spiritual power, the Gold of Life rippled slightly.

Immediately afterward, a boundlessly dense and vigorous Life Force, insignificant compared to the Gold of Life but overwhelmingly powerful to Wang Chen, poured into his body through his brow.

In that instant, Wang Chen's entire body was dyed blue. Even his Sea of Consciousness was covered.

An unprecedentedly comfortable sensation spread through his entire body. Wang Chen felt his brain, internal organs, skin, muscles, bones, bone marrow—everything, even every cell and every pore—being nourished by that abundant Life Force.

Wang Chen's body was like parched land receiving sweet rain, greedily drinking in the vigorous Life Force.

Under the nourishment of that abundant Life Force, Wang Chen's body began to transform.

First, his skin became tougher and more lustrous, his muscles more powerful, and his meridians more elastic, allowing them to accommodate more Soul Power.

His internal organs also became tougher, his bone density increased, and his blood and energy grew more vigorous. His entire body was undergoing a qualitative transformation.

Under the effect of the Gold of Life, Wang Chen's physique improved rapidly. Before absorbing the Gold of Life, he could only absorb a Soul Ring of around two thousand years. Now, he could absorb at least a five-thousand-year Soul Ring.

What a terrifying improvement. In such a short time, Wang Chen's physical qualities had more than doubled.

This enormous improvement rendered the foundation-strengthening pills Wang Chen had taken in the past worthless. Compared with the Gold of Life, they were worlds apart—like a dragon and an ant, or the bright moon and a firefly.

Moreover, the improvement of his physical qualities was merely the least significant benefit.

As the Life Force continuously washed through Wang Chen's body, strands of foul, nauseating impurities began rapidly emerging from his pores.

These impurities had been accumulated within Wang Chen's body and affected his talent and cultivation speed.

As the impurities were expelled, Wang Chen's talent became even more outstanding. If described simply with data, Wang Chen had now broken free of the shackles of his Innate Level Nine Soul Power and could completely rival geniuses with Innate Full Soul Power.

This cleansing did not increase Wang Chen's cultivation, but it caused enormous changes to his body.

Under the nourishment of the dense Life Force, Wang Chen's body seemed to return to its innate state, becoming as clean and clear as a newborn infant's. It had never felt so pure.

Wang Chen now felt that his body had become so light—extremely light. Every part of him was filled with boundless vitality, and even his breathing had become smoother.

This feeling made Wang Chen feel as though he had arrived in heaven above the nine skies. It was so wonderful and blissful.

The vigorous Life Force did more than nourish Wang Chen's body. It also entered his Sea of Consciousness through his brow, cleansing his spirit.

Under the effect of the Gold of Life's supremely pure Life Force, Wang Chen's Sea of Consciousness became wider and purer, while the spiritual power within it grew more condensed.

A transformation, an unprecedented transformation, was taking place within Wang Chen.

Under the nourishment of the Gold of Life's extreme Life Force, Wang Chen underwent earth-shaking changes from body to spirit.

Time passed in a flash. A quarter of an hour went by.

Just as Wang Chen was immersed in the nourishment of the Gold of Life's vigorous Life Force, the broken Black Book deep within his soul suddenly began to tremble.

Accompanied by the Black Book's tremors, Wang Chen abruptly awakened.

He immediately moved the Gold of Life away from his brow.

Wang Chen took a deep breath and muttered, "I almost became immersed in it. Luckily, the Black Book warned me. Otherwise, if I absorbed too much Life Force, my body would be unable to withstand the nourishment. I might even be killed by it.

"I'm still too weak. If I had the strength of a Limit Douluo right now, I could truly make full use of this piece of Gold of Life and perhaps even raise my physique to the divine level."

Wang Chen returned to his senses and looked at the Gold of Life in his hand. He could not even tell that it had diminished.

Clearly, the Life Force previously injected into Wang Chen's body was merely a drop in the ocean to the Gold of Life and was not worth mentioning.

After all, this carving-knife-sized piece of Gold of Life was a supreme treasure that required two hundred thousand years for the Star Dou Great Forest to condense. How could it be consumed so easily?

With such tremendous Life Force, even a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast would be stuffed to death. As for Wang Chen, a mere quasi-Soul Elder at level thirty, even a hundred of him combined would not be able to absorb it all.

Feeling the Life Force within his body, Wang Chen knew that he could not absorb any more Gold of Life for the next few months. He had to wait until his body digested this Life Force before absorbing it again.

Otherwise, the Hundred-Thousand-Year Golden Hawksbill would become his warning from the past. If he did not want to meet the same fate as that Golden Hawksbill, he had to restrain his greedy desires.

One should eat only as much as one's stomach could hold; eating too much made it easy to burst. Wang Chen understood this principle well. He immediately placed the Gold of Life into a Soul Tool box that concealed its aura, then stored it inside his Storage Soul Tool.

After putting away the Gold of Life, Wang Chen looked at the impurities expelled from his body. He immediately washed himself thoroughly, then sat cross-legged and began investigating the changes in his body and spiritual power.

After examining himself, Wang Chen discovered that his physical qualities had improved tremendously. He would have no problem absorbing a five-thousand-year Soul Ring as his third Soul Ring.

Regarding Soul Rings, Wang Chen had an idea. He would wait until his spiritual power reached the Soul Sage level.

Once he could use the Black Book's second function, the Crystal Mark, to deduce the Ring Tempering Secret Art a second time, he wanted to see whether he could deduce a Secret Art for replacing Soul Rings.

At that time, he would replace his hundred-year, thousand-year, and ten-thousand-year Soul Rings with Soul Rings exceeding one hundred thousand years. His Soul Power cultivation would inevitably advance by leaps and bounds.

Besides his physique, Wang Chen's spiritual power had also improved considerably, directly reaching the Soul King level.

Of course, none of that was the most important thing. The most important things were the improvement of his aptitude, potential, and cultivation speed.

Wang Chen clenched his fists. With his current aptitude, advancing to the Titled Douluo level in the future would be completely unobstructed. He would encounter no bottlenecks.

Most importantly, so much Gold of Life remained. It was enough to support him in cultivating to an extremely high realm.

Over the next few years, Wang Chen's strength was destined to advance at a terrifying speed.

If an ordinary soul master's cultivation speed was walking, then Wang Chen was riding a high-speed train. He was practically an existence with cheats activated.

It was truly unimaginable. When the great curtain opened a few years later and Xu Tianran was assassinated, to what level would Wang Chen's cultivation and strength have risen?

Wang Chen thought to himself, *"Today, I'll adapt to my greatly improved physique and spiritual power. I'll also carefully organize the Life Force in my body, then store it in my dantian wrapped in Soul Power so no one discovers it.

"Then tomorrow, I'll go with the family's experts to a Soul Beast settlement, hunt a Soul Beast, absorb my third Soul Ring, and become a true Soul Elder."*

Having made his plans, Wang Chen immediately began cultivating.

Time passed in a flash, and the next day arrived.

After getting up and eating breakfast, Wang Chen told his family that his cultivation had reached level thirty.

Upon hearing the news, Wang's Father and Wang's Mother happily embraced each other.

Wang's Father and Wang's Mother: 罒ω罒, Our son is becoming more and more impressive. It won't be long before we can enjoy our retirement.

After learning of this, the family quickly dispatched two elders at the Soul Sage level to take Wang Chen to the Jingyang Mountain Range to hunt a Soul Beast.

The Jingyang Mountain Range lay in the central-northern region of the Sun and Moon Empire, just over five hundred kilometers from Mingdu. It was the large Soul Beast settlement nearest to Mingdu.

If the Star Dou Great Forest was unquestionably the number-one Soul Beast settlement, then the Jingyang Mountain Range could also rank among the top five.

The Jingyang Mountain Range possessed extremely abundant mineral resources, and many special Soul Beasts that favored metallic energy had been born there.

These Soul Beasts were powerful, of excellent quality, and highly aggressive. The Soul Rings they produced were also quite outstanding.

Several of Xiao Hongchen's Soul Rings had been obtained in the Jingyang Mountain Range.

In the morning, beneath the bright sunlight, a handsome young man arrived at the outskirts of the Jingyang Mountain Range under the guidance of two men in their fifties and sixties.

Because Wang Chen's cultivation was too weak to use a Flying Soul Tool for a long journey, he was currently being carried through the air by a Soul Sage elder.

Seen from above, the Jingyang Mountain Range looked like a gigantic spider.

The spider's eight legs were its eight branch ranges. These eight branches coiled around and protected the Central Mountain Range, which resembled the spider's huge abdomen.

The Soul Sage elder carrying Wang Chen was Elder Wang Yuan, who had previously presided over the Family Competition.

Wang Yuan said, "Chen'er, what type of Soul Beast do you plan to absorb for the third Soul Skill of your Artifact Spirit Martial Soul?"

Wang Chen had already considered the type of Soul Beast he wanted to absorb.

Wang Chen planned to pursue an extreme offensive path. As the saying went, quality mattered more than quantity, and one perfect move could carry one through the world. Rather than covering many directions and being mediocre at all of them, it was better to charge fiercely in a single direction.

As for defense and movement, Wang Chen planned to make up for them with Soul Tools.

Wang Chen said, "Elder Wang Yuan, I hope to choose a highly offensive Soul Beast for my third Soul Ring."

Wang Yuan nodded. "It seems that you plan to take the extreme path. Since that's the case, this old man must capture a powerful Soul Beast of high quality for you."

After saying this, Elder Wang Yuan and another elder named Wang Xiaoming bypassed the branch ranges and headed directly toward the Central Mountain Range of the Jingyang Mountain Range.

The two elders, both seventh-level Soul Engineers at the Soul Sage level, charged straight ahead along the way. Any Soul Beast blocking their path was easily driven away.

The reason they did not slaughter them wantonly was that the Sun and Moon Empire's Soul Beast resources were relatively scarce, so everyone consciously protected them.

With two Soul Sage powerhouses escorting him, Wang Chen soon found a suitable target.

Wang Yuan looked at the golden giant tiger and twitched the corner of his mouth. He said to Wang Chen, "Chen'er, this giant tiger's cultivation is probably beyond five thousand years. If you want to absorb it, it will be extremely difficult even with special medicine to assist you."

Wang Chen said, "Elder Wang Yuan, I recently absorbed a Soul Bone. Together with the resources provided by the family, my physique has improved rapidly. I want to give it a try."

The great curtain was about to rise, and the exciting story was about to begin (づ￣3￣)づ╭~