Growth Over Three Years

Wang Chen gazed in the direction of Mingdu, a contemplative expression on his face. Six black soul rings glimmered faintly around him, making him appear powerful and mysterious.

Three years might not be enough for other soul masters to improve much.

But for Wang Chen, three years had been enough to transform him from a powerless, immature ant into an expert with considerable strength.

The cultivation of a Soul Emperor, six black soul rings, a physique no weaker than that of a Soul Sage, Soul Douluo-level Spiritual Power, and Wang Chen was also a Seventh-Level Soul Engineer.

One had to know that Wang Chen was still a boy under fifteen. At this age, even Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen, who had terrified Shrek Academy in the original story, had only been Soul Kings.

What a terrifying cultivation speed. Moreover, Soul Power cultivation was merely Wang Chen's weakest attribute.

His tremendous growth in just three years was inseparable from Wang Chen's diligent cultivation, but it also relied on the power of the Black Book and the Gold of Life.

On the Douluo Continent, Innate Full Soul Power geniuses at the Soul Elder and Soul Ancestor stages, without considering fortuitous opportunities and relying solely on cultivation, advanced by an average of roughly five levels a year.

Upon reaching the Soul King stage, even an Innate Full Soul Power genius could at most advance two or three levels a year through personal cultivation alone. (These figures are not made up; they are compiled from the original work's data.)

However, the Meridian Opening Skill derived through the Crystal Mark, the Black Book's second function, made Wang Chen's cultivation efficiency twice that of others.

During the Soul Elder and Soul Ancestor stages, Wang Chen had spent only two years easily breaking through to Soul King.

Even after advancing to Soul King, the time required to raise his Soul Power by one level had increased.

Wang Chen could still raise his Soul Power by five or six levels a year. Of course, even Wang Chen could not have broken through to Level Sixty and become a Soul Emperor in three years through cultivation alone. It would have taken at least four years.

The reason he had broken through to Soul Emperor within three years was that, after his Spiritual Power reached the Soul Sage realm—

He had expended all his Spiritual Power to conduct a second derivation of the Ring Tempering secret technique, advancing further from the Ring Burst Secret Technique obtained during the first derivation and gaining a secret technique for replacing soul rings.

This soul ring replacement technique was exceptionally ingenious. It could strip away unwanted soul rings, after which new soul rings could be added.

Of course, this secret technique had side effects.

Once a soul master absorbed a soul ring, it fused with their body. Stripping it away afterward inflicted enormous harm upon the soul master.

Moreover, the stronger the soul ring that was stripped away, the greater the damage it caused to the soul master's body.

Aside from the immense damage, the replacement soul ring had to come from the same type of soul beast as the one that had been removed. Otherwise, rejection would occur.

The latter requirement, that the replacement soul ring had to come from the same type of soul beast as the removed one, was manageable. It merely required more searching; eventually, one could be found.

The enormous damage caused by stripping away soul rings was the truly terrifying and deadly part.

Only because Wang Chen's body had absorbed the Gold of Life, giving him exceptionally vigorous vitality and astonishing recovery speed, coupled with the exquisiteness of the soul ring replacement technique derived by the Black Book, could he do this.

Otherwise, if an ordinary soul master without such an exquisite secret technique or sufficient vitality rashly stripped away their own soul rings, there were only two words for it: suicide.

Even if the stripped ring was merely the weakest ten-year soul ring, it would still be fatal to an ordinary soul master.

Even the best outcome would be damage to one's foundation and severe injury to one's martial soul, leaving it impossible to ever recover. It might even be impossible to absorb a new soul ring after the old one was removed, rendering one completely crippled for life.

After deriving the soul ring replacement technique, Wang Chen used it cautiously. He first stripped away his first two hundred-year soul rings one by one. Only after determining that he could withstand the backlash from the third soul ring did he remove his third Thousand-Year Soul Ring.

Yet even with such caution, stripping away his five-thousand-year third soul ring brought Wang Chen immense pain and severely injured him on the spot.

Wang Chen had originally wanted to strip away his Fourth Soul Skill's soul ring as well, but when he saw how severe the backlash had been from removing a mere five-thousand-year third soul ring—

He immediately did not dare remove the fourth soul ring. After all, the fourth soul ring was a ten-thousand-year soul ring, and its backlash was certainly beyond comparison with that of a thousand-year soul ring.

Wang Chen's intuition told him that if he dared strip away the fourth soul ring, he would very likely lose his life.

At the very least, with his current physique and vitality, he absolutely could not strip away the fourth soul ring. He would have to wait until his physical qualities improved before continuing to remove soul rings.

Of course, the injuries Wang Chen suffered from stripping away the soul rings soon recovered under the powerful vitality of the Gold of Life.

Afterward, Wang Chen spent over a month alone before finally finding soul beasts over twenty thousand years old that were of the same type as his first three soul rings.

After several days of effort, Wang Chen successfully absorbed three black soul rings. His cultivation rose several levels in succession, reaching the peak of Soul King, then surging forward with unstoppable momentum as he shattered the bottleneck and directly broke through to the Level Sixty Soul Emperor realm.

This was why Wang Chen had become a Soul Emperor in only three short years.

Now, Wang Chen's precise Soul Power Level was sixty-three, and he possessed as many as six soul skills.

Although his first three soul skills had their soul rings replaced, the soul beast types remained the same as before, so the directions of their enhancements were largely identical.

Only now, their enhancement ratio had reached one hundred percent, and their range of enhancement had also become greater.

Wang Chen's Fourth Soul Skill, however, differed from the previous three.

This soul skill was not an enhancement-type soul skill, but a utility-type soul skill.

Wang Chen's fourth soul ring came from a Lightning Bird with more than ten thousand years of cultivation. Lightning Birds possessed astonishing speed, and the penetrating force of their attacks was exceptionally terrifying. They also possessed teleportation abilities.

Wang Chen had originally hunted the Lightning Bird in hopes of obtaining enhancements to speed and penetration, but things did not go as he wished.

Soul skills were not fixed. Even when different people absorbed soul rings from the same species of soul beast, the soul skills they gained could differ.

This soul ring did not grant Wang Chen an enhancement soul skill for speed or penetration. Instead, it gave him a spatial soul skill.

Wang Chen's Fourth Soul Skill was called Flash. The Artifact Spirit Martial Soul could teleport itself, along with whatever it was attached to, fifty meters.

After each use, five minutes had to pass before it could be used again.

It could also be used consecutively, but the Soul Power consumed would double each time. It could be used at most three times in succession, after which the cooldown would become fifteen minutes.

Originally, the Artifact Spirit Martial Soul could only attach itself to nonliving objects. However, Wang Chen, as the owner of the Artifact Spirit Martial Soul, was an exception. The Artifact Spirit Martial Soul was part of Wang Chen's body; the two were one.

Therefore, the Artifact Spirit Martial Soul could teleport Wang Chen along with it.