Soul Ring Mutation, Thousand-Year Mandara

The Datura Snake's body gradually stopped struggling.

Above its enormous corpse, a ring of bright yellow motes slowly began to gather. It was a yellow soul ring, its glow clear and brilliant—countless times stronger than the white soul rings produced by the Netherworld Wolves before.

Even without touching it, one could clearly sense the immense energy contained within.

Tang San looked at the soul ring, suppressing his urge to absorb it as he asked Yu Xiaogang, "Teacher... do you think I can absorb its soul ring?"

Master nodded, a nearly fanatical gleam flashing in his eyes.

"A Datura Snake, with cultivation close to four hundred years—it's within the maximum limit a first soul ring can withstand. Its attributes are exceptionally compatible with Blue Silver Grass: toughness and venom, precisely the optimal combination we discussed before. And besides..."

He looked at Tang San, unable to hide the flicker of pride in his eyes. "You killed this snake with your own hands. Though there was some trickery involved in the final blow, it still counts as your kill. For you to absorb its soul ring is practically Heaven's arrangement."

When Tang San saw the undisguised light in Master's eyes, he understood what Master was hoping for.

Master had spent his entire life researching martial soul theory, putting forward countless "fallacies" ridiculed by the world. Now, at last, he had a disciple willing to prove his theories through practice.

"Teacher," Tang San said with unusual determination, "I won't let you down!!"

Struggling to sit cross-legged, he endured the surging blood and weakness wracking his body as he slowly gathered his Soul Power in his right palm.

A pale blue glow lit up, and his Blue Silver Grass martial soul grew from his palm. Golden patterns slowly flowed across the blades, radiating an ancient and noble aura.

"Sit properly and focus your mind on your martial soul." Master's voice was low as his gaze remained fixed on the yellow soul ring drifting slowly toward them. "You can only rely on yourself during the absorption process. I will stand guard for you, but whether you succeed will depend entirely on your willpower."

Tang San nodded and closed his eyes.

The yellow ring floated above his head, then suddenly contracted, turning into a solid golden ring no larger than a bracelet before directly slipping over the Blue Silver Grass martial soul in his right palm.

Boom—

A terrifying torrent of heat surged into Tang San's body like molten lava, instantly spreading through every limb and bone.

He felt as if his body had been set ablaze, every inch of his meridians groaning beneath the unbearable strain.

What domineering Soul Power!

The Datura Snake's lingering ferocious will churned and roared within the Soul Power, trying to batter his mind. But Tang San's will was exceptionally steadfast. Thirty years of bitter cultivation in the Tang Sect in his previous life had long tempered his resolve into iron and steel. The remnant soul of a mere four-hundred-year soul beast could not shake him.

Gritting his teeth, he slowly guided that frenzied Soul Power according to the pathways of the Mysterious Heaven Skill, allowing it to circulate through his meridians in an orderly flow.

Deep within his consciousness, he seemed to see a sea of flames. At the very center of that inferno, a stalk of Blue Silver Grass swayed and unfurled amid the blazing fire.

Rather than burning it to ash, the flames seemed to be tempering it, forging its originally slender blades ever tougher. The pale blue grass gradually turned deep blue, black patterns appearing across it—identical to the scale markings on the Datura Snake.

Boom—

At last, all the heat was fully absorbed by his body. Tang San abruptly opened his eyes, sharp light blazing from them.

A bright yellow soul ring slowly rose from beneath his feet, pulsing up and down around his body and giving off a dazzling glow.

His hundred-year first soul ring had been successfully absorbed!

"Success!" Master's voice trembled with excitement. Forgetting his usual dignified image, he rushed to Tang San in a few strides and gripped his shoulders tightly with both hands.

"Xiao San, you did it! A hundred-year soul ring—your very first soul ring is a hundred-year one, and it's from a four-hundred-year Datura Snake!"

Xiao Wu also came over, tilting her head as she examined the gleaming yellow soul ring beneath Tang San's feet. Rarely, she offered him praise. "Not bad, Xiao San. That color suits you."

Tang San could feel an unprecedented fullness of power within his body.

Soul Power surged through his meridians, many times stronger than before. More importantly, he could sense that his Blue Silver Grass martial soul had undergone a fundamental transformation.

He raised his right hand, and with a slight movement of thought, Blue Silver Grass spread from his palm.

The blades had turned deep blue, broad and resilient, covered in black patterns. At their edges was a faint, barely perceptible dark gleam—the sign of the Datura Snake's venom adhering to the Blue Silver Grass.

"The four-hundred-year Datura Snake soul ring has bestowed two traits upon your Blue Silver Grass." Master suppressed his excitement and spoke in the steadiest tone he could manage. "First, toughness. Your Blue Silver Grass is now at least dozens of times more resilient than ordinary Blue Silver Grass, enough to restrain assault-type soul masters of the same rank. Second, the Datura Snake's venom. This venom has a powerful paralyzing effect. Once an enemy is bound by your Blue Silver Grass, the venom will continuously erode their nervous system and weaken their combat ability."

Tang San was about to nod when the smile on his face suddenly froze.

Without any warning, an even more immense, scorching, and domineering force exploded from the depths of his body!

The force came with such speed and violence, like a volcano that had accumulated power for a thousand years suddenly erupting within his meridians. If absorbing the four-hundred-year soul ring had felt like being thrown into a pot of boiling water, then this felt like being cast directly into the heart of the sun.

"Argh—!"

Tang San suddenly doubled over, both hands clutching the ground as his fingers drove hard into the soil.

In an instant, the skin all over his body turned crimson. Veins bulged from his forehead like earthworms, while his bones let out a dense series of crackling pops like exploding beans.

The yellow soul ring that had only just stabilized trembled violently, as though gripped by an invisible hand.

"Xiao San?!" Master's expression changed drastically. He reached out to support Tang San, only to be flung two steps back by an invisible force.

Xiao Wu was also startled by the sudden change. Instinctively taking up a defensive stance, she cried anxiously, "Xiao San! What's wrong?!"

Tang San could no longer speak.

He could feel the newly surging force madly transforming his meridians, flesh, and bones. Its violence far surpassed that of the hundred-year soul ring from before.

If the power of a hundred-year soul ring was a swift river, then this force flooding into him now was a burst dam—charging wildly through his body with an unstoppable, destructive force.

His consciousness began to blur. His ears rang, and everything before his eyes swayed violently.

Just then—

[Ding—]

A crisp, icy notification rang out in Tang San's mind, like a clear stream pouring into his consciousness on the verge of collapse.

[Detected that the host has absorbed the first soul ring. Current soul ring cultivation: 412 years. System assessment indicates that the soul ring absorbed by the host has not reached the absolute limit the host can absorb.]

[Initiating automatic compensation procedure... Increasing soul ring age...]

When Tang San heard those words, his consciousness was still hazy. The violent energy within his body continued to rage wildly, and every inch of his meridians groaned under the unbearable strain.

Tang San did not know how much time had passed. Perhaps a year, perhaps only an instant.

At last, the system's voice rang out again.

[Soul ring age increase complete. Current first soul ring age: 1,000 years.]

[The first soul ring has reached the absolute limit that the host's current physique can withstand. Congratulations, host, for setting the greatest first soul ring in the history of Douluo Continent.]

One thousand years.

The instant those three words exploded in Tang San's mind, he felt as though a bolt of lightning descending from the heavens had struck him.

The yellow soul ring beneath his feet suddenly erupted with a blinding radiance. It was more than ten times brighter than before, forcing both Grandmaster and Xiao Wu to squint involuntarily.

Then, within that brilliant light, the yellow began to fade.

A hint of purple emerged from the very bottom of the soul ring.

Then it rapidly spread upward.

Xiao Wu was the first to see it clearly. Her large eyes widened into perfect circles, her mouth forming a tiny O as even her voice cracked. "Pur... purple?!"

Grandmaster froze in place as though someone had cast a binding spell on him.

His pupils contracted violently. His lips moved for a long while before he finally forced out a nearly groaning sentence. "Th-this is impossible..."

The yellow on that soul ring had completely faded away, replaced by a ring of deep purple light.

Pure purple, dazzling purple, purple so intense that one hardly dared look directly at it.

A thousand-year soul ring!

Grandmaster's legs gave out, and he collapsed onto the ground.

Only one thought remained in his mind—a thought spinning madly, one that would not stop no matter what.

That soul ring had clearly been yellow just moments ago, clearly carrying the aura of only a little over four hundred years.

He had studied martial souls for half his life. He could not possibly be mistaken. Hundred-year soul rings were yellow, thousand-year soul rings were purple—this was an immutable law that had endured on Douluo Continent since ancient times.

Yet right before his eyes, a hundred-year soul ring that had already been fully absorbed had abruptly, forcibly transformed into a thousand-year one.

It was not that Tang San had absorbed a new soul ring of higher age. The original soul ring itself had undergone a metamorphosis.

A hundred years becoming a thousand. Yellow becoming purple.

This had utterly surpassed everything he knew about martial soul theory. Once a soul ring was absorbed, its age was fixed. There had never been—and could never be—a case of it increasing a second time.

But now—looking at the deep-purple thousand-year soul ring beneath Tang San's feet, Grandmaster felt the entire framework of knowledge he had built throughout his life shatter into pieces.

"Impossible..." Grandmaster muttered, his eyes filled with shock, confusion, and a thirst for knowledge bordering on madness.

"Once a soul ring is attached, it takes shape. That is an ironclad law. Even a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's sacrifice can only raise the upper limit of a soul ring's age; it could never make an already attached soul ring advance in place. And this was only a Datura Snake a little over four hundred years old. How could it possibly produce a thousand-year soul ring?"

He abruptly raised his head and stared fixedly at Tang San, his gaze as though he were looking at an unparalleled treasure—and also an utterly incomprehensible riddle.

"A four-hundred-year soul ring turning into a thousand-year soul ring... How was this done? Was my theory wrong, or has something happened to you that I cannot understand?"

He drew in a deep breath, his voice trembling with near-reverence. "And... the limit I calculated for a first soul ring was four hundred and twenty-three years, yet what you have absorbed is a thousand years. A thousand years! Xiao San, do you know what this means? This is no longer a question of whether my theory is right or wrong. The cultivation rules used by the entire soul master world for thousands of years have failed on you."

At that moment, Tang San was undergoing a transformation as though he had been reborn. After its initial rampage, the violent power brought by the thousand-year soul ring was finally completely absorbed by his body.

He could clearly feel that, under the impact of that violent energy, his meridians had been forcibly widened by more than double. The inner power of the Mysterious Heaven Skill surged through those newly formed meridians, more than ten times stronger than before.

His Blue Silver Grass martial soul underwent another metamorphosis.

The dark-blue blades became even deeper in color, while the black veins upon them gave off a faint purple glow.

Most astonishingly, a ring of visible, deep-purple serrated protrusions had grown along the edge of every blade of grass. That was a brand-new trait bestowed by the thousand-year soul ring.

The once-docile Blue Silver Grass now emitted a chillingly savage aura, as if every blade had turned into a venomous snake ready to devour its prey.

Tang San slowly opened his eyes.

A flash of purple passed through them. It was not the purple of the Purple Demon Eye, but a phenomenon caused by soul power spilling over after merging with the thousand-year soul ring.

He lowered his head to look at his hands, clenched them, and felt the unprecedentedly vast power within his body.

His first soul ring—a thousand years!

What Innate Full Soul Power at level twenty, what Twin Martial Souls—compared to this moment, none of it was worth mentioning.

A thousand-year first soul ring. This was an achievement no one in the history of Douluo Continent had ever attained.

From this day onward, he would be the most unique existence on this continent.

The system had truly not deceived him!

The corners of Tang San's lips slowly rose, and then he could not help but laugh.

His laughter rose from low to high, from restrained to unrestrained, from hoarse to resounding, until it finally became a laugh directed at the heavens.

That laughter pierced through the dense forest, startling a flock of night birds that circled overhead without dispersing.

"Hahahaha—good! A thousand-year soul ring, what a splendid one!"

He laughed to his heart's content, laughing until his whole body trembled. All the humiliation, all the resentment—at this moment, it had all been worth it.

A thousand-year first soul ring. With such a foundation, Tang San would one day stand at the pinnacle of this world.

"Xiao San," Xiao Wu's voice suddenly sounded beside his ear, carrying a hint of concern. "Have you laughed enough? It's really scary..."

Tang San's laughter came to an abrupt halt.

He turned his head and looked into Xiao Wu's sparkling eyes, suddenly realizing that he had lost his composure just now.

He took a deep breath, suppressing that wild joy deep in his heart and returning to his usual calm demeanor.

"...It's nothing. I'm just too happy." Tang San stood up and stretched his limbs, his entire body crackling loudly.

"Your soul ring... turned into a thousand-year one?" Xiao Wu pointed at the purple soul ring beneath his feet, her voice full of disbelief. "Wasn't it yellow just now? How did it suddenly turn purple? That's way too strange, isn't it?"

Tang San fell silent for a moment. He knew he would have to face this question sooner or later, but he truly had no way to explain the system's existence.

He could only answer vaguely, "I don't know either. Maybe... the Datura Snake had hidden cultivation? Or perhaps my martial soul was especially compatible with its attributes and triggered some kind of mutation?"

Xiao Wu gave him a suspicious once-over, clearly unconvinced. But she did not press further, merely curling her lips. "Then your luck is really something. You picked up a thousand-year soul ring for no reason at all."

"Mm-hm, and for that... I have to thank you, my dear grandaunt!!!" Tang San looked at Xiao Wu, the light in his eyes flickering uncertainly.

Xiao Wu failed to notice anything off in Xiao San's tone. She froze for a moment before asking, "What are you thanking me for?"

Tang San looked at her seriously. Seeing that Xiao Wu truly did not understand, he recalled how easily she had handled the Datura Snake just now. Though he had broken through, he might not actually be Xiao Wu's match.

Remembering all those days of getting beaten up, Xiao San could not help but shudder.

So he said solemnly, "Without you, I wouldn't have gotten this soul ring."

Xiao Wu was made a little embarrassed by his earnest thanks. She turned her face away, and her voice lowered as well. "Cut it out. You're someone your grandaunt protects. What's the big deal about helping you beat up a snake? If anyone bullies you in the future, come find me."

Grandmaster finally climbed up from the ground.

His legs were still somewhat weak, but the shock and confusion in his eyes had turned into an almost devout fervor.

He walked up to Tang San, crouched down, and asked, "Xiao San, what... exactly happened just now? How did your soul ring change from a hundred-year one to a thousand-year one?"

Grandmaster's call brought Tang San back to his senses. He knew it would be best if no one else learned of the strange phenomenon just now.

What should he do? Kill Grandmaster to silence him?

Tang San believed that, with his strength, he had at least a seventy percent chance.

Tang San hesitated. Thinking of Xiao Wu beside him, he ultimately chose to give up on the idea. "Teacher, I really don't know. Halfway through absorbing it, an additional force suddenly surged into me, and then the soul ring changed. Maybe that Datura Snake was particularly unusual?"

Grandmaster stared at Tang San for a long time before slowly nodding. "So be it. There will always be phenomena in this world that we cannot yet understand. But no matter what—"

He suddenly pulled Tang San into his arms, his voice trembling with excitement. "A thousand-year first soul ring! Xiao San, do you know what this means? It means you possess the most powerful first soul ring in the history of Douluo Continent! Even among those great clans of the Upper Three Sects, with inheritances spanning thousands of years, no one has ever reached the thousand-year level with their first soul ring! You are the first—the only one!"

Tang San was at a loss in the face of his teacher's sudden embrace, but he did not pull away.

He could feel Grandmaster's arms trembling slightly around him. It was not fear, but joy—a pure joy from the bottom of his heart.

This theorist, who had been mocked and looked down upon by the soul master world for most of his life, was even more excited at this moment than Tang San himself.

"Teacher, didn't you say the limit for a first soul ring was four hundred and twenty-three years? Then this thousand-year soul ring of mine... could it have any hidden danger?"

Grandmaster released Tang San, wiped the moisture from the corners of his eyes, and forced himself back into a rational state.

"That is a good question. In theory, the limit for a first soul ring truly is four hundred and twenty-three years. You absorbed a thousand-year soul ring without exploding to death, which means my theory was not entirely wrong. At least part of it was correct. But your situation has already exceeded the scope of what existing theory can explain."

He paused, a trace of self-mockery flashing through his eyes before being replaced by an even fiercer light.

"The theory I spent half my life building was shattered by you in a single hour. But that's all right, Xiao San. Theories are meant to be broken. You have shown me an entirely new possibility, a field I have never set foot in. From today onward, every breakthrough you make will help me understand this world anew."

An indescribable sense of guilt rose in Tang San's heart. He clenched his fists and nodded solemnly.

"Teacher, I won't let you down."

Grandmaster patted him on the shoulder, and a long-lost, heartfelt smile appeared on his face.