A Simple Soul Ring

Eight minutes had passed. The Yin Five Thunders gathered beneath the Kraken were enough, but this was Mo Lin's first time controlling such a massive amount of Yin lightning. It was an enormous test of both his spiritual power and his control over soul power.

The vast Yin lightning began to float upward, taking the shape of a carnivorous flower as if it were about to swallow the Kraken whole.

The leader of the Spirit Dolphins was the first to notice the Yin lightning, but instead of retreating, it continued attacking to draw the Kraken's attention.

The Kraken's attention was indeed drawn to the dolphin pod. It focused entirely on them, trying every possible way to clear away these annoying little fish.

After another minute of entanglement, one Spirit Dolphin let out a cry. All the dolphins immediately stopped attacking and retreated toward Mo Lin's ship.

Once the dolphin pod had withdrawn, the Kraken also realized something was wrong. It was clearly the one at a disadvantage, so why was the other side retreating?

Mo Lin suddenly accelerated the Yin lightning. The enormous black curtain instantly surrounded the Kraken, leaving only the space above it for the Kraken to escape through.

Only then did the Kraken realize that this black substance was not ink it had released itself. It immediately rammed into the Yin lightning, trying to break free.

But the moment its tentacles touched the Yin lightning, the Kraken felt as though its soul power and physical strength were being sucked away. It hurriedly pulled them back. Looking around, it saw that only the area above had yet to be covered by Yin lightning. It could only swim upward with all its might, hoping to cross over the Yin lightning before it rose to the sea surface.

But it was already too late. In the end, the Kraken once again poked its huge head above the water. Looking at the strange black liquid around it, it had no choice but to wait for it to engulf it.

Before long, the Yin Five Thunders completely enveloped the Kraken. Trapped within, it could only feel everything it possessed being steadily worn away. It had neither the strength nor the will to resist.

Although he had successfully trapped the Kraken, Mo Lin still had another problem to solve: how to kill it.

The Kraken had no particularly special abilities. It merely possessed a massive body far beyond that of soul beasts of the same age, along with an incredible regenerative ability. However, this Kraken was clearly starving, which had affected its regeneration speed. According to the records, Spirit Dolphins were not part of a Kraken's usual diet.

So it must have only attacked Spirit Dolphins, a soul beast it had never fought before, because it truly could not find anything else to eat. But clearly, it had picked the wrong target.

Yet even a hungry, weakened Kraken was basically impossible for a soul master to kill by repeatedly attacking its nonfatal areas.

As he thought, Mo Lin suddenly remembered something.

"My external spirit bone can use flames that burn the soul! Wouldn't it be over if I just burned it with those?"

Mo Lin stopped releasing the Yin Five Thunders and leaped out of the water. A pair of dragon wings instantly spread behind his back and shifted into their soul form, white flames igniting across them.

Without hesitation, Mo Lin fired the flames at the Kraken like bullets.

Completely covered by the Yin Five Thunders, the Kraken had no thought of resisting. Faced with an attack that targeted the soul, it simply accepted it all without resistance.

However, this was soul-burning, not instant soul destruction. The lifeless Kraken suddenly regained its "vigor," leaping and flailing wildly as it stirred up wave after wave and even small tsunamis. If the dolphin pod had not shielded Mo Lin's ship, the waves would probably have overturned it outright.

After several minutes of thrashing, the Kraken finally calmed down and left this world forever, leaving behind only a black soul ring to tell the world that it had once existed.

Mo Lin returned to the ship and sensed the soul power within his body. Sure enough, after controlling such a massive amount of Yin Five Thunders and keeping Qi Body Origin Flow active for so long, his soul power had successfully broken through to Rank 40. He could now absorb a soul ring.

Mo Lin drew the soul ring over and returned to the cabin. He guessed that the Spirit Dolphins would divide up the Kraken as food and linger in these waters for a while. So, in order to absorb the soul ring peacefully, he planned to keep the ship here and let the Spirit Dolphins guard him.

Since this Kraken's traits had little in common with the remaining Eight Extraordinary Skills, which skill he would obtain was entirely like a lottery draw. Mo Lin did not think much about it. He simply sat down cross-legged, entered meditation, and began absorbing the soul ring.

Although the age gap of this soul ring was even greater this time, Mo Lin had already completely absorbed the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Blazing Apricot Delicate. And now, with Double Full Hands, he did not need to worry about his body or soul being injured by the impact of soul power. This absorption was actually easier than the previous ones.

Mo Lin allowed the soul power within the soul ring to rampage freely through his body and soul. The instant it caused even the slightest damage, it immediately recovered. Mo Lin even began using this method to temper his body and soul.

The entire process was extraordinarily pleasant. There were no illusions, no pain. The only thing it consumed was time.

Mo Lin opened his eyes within his inner vision, and all sorts of talismanic characters appeared around him.

"Looks like I obtained Heavenly Talisman this time."

Although Heavenly Talisman was also one of the Eight Extraordinary Skills, its aura and presence in Under One Person were undeniably at the bottom. It had seemed pretty impressive when Old Master Lu of Dragon Tiger Mountain first used it, but as the other Eight Extraordinary Skills came to light, and as Old Master Lu and the Little Martial Uncle consecutively vanished from the story for long stretches, by the later parts, one could practically forget that the Eight Extraordinary Skills even included this technique.

However, upon closer study, one could still discover how terrifying this skill truly was.

Talismans came in countless varieties and were mainly divided into innate and acquired types. Functionally, they could attack or defend, assist or support, prolong one's life, summon ghosts, and call forth gods. Their only two drawbacks were that acquired talismans took a long time to produce and required a medium. But after mastering Heavenly Talisman, one could instantly write any talisman out of thin air, combine them to grant them shared properties, and even preserve them like ordinary talismans. Not only did this completely solve those two weaknesses, it also retained the talismans' original advantages. By accumulating and storing written talismans, one could even achieve the effect of killing opponents above one's level.

Mo Lin opened his eyes in reality. Outside, a bright moon hung high in the sky.

"Eee-ooo—Eee-ooo—"

The voices of the Spirit Dolphins came from outside the window. Mo Lin was rather surprised that they had not left yet, so he went outside to see what was happening.

The moment he opened the door, a white object was tossed onto the ship. Mo Lin picked it up and saw that it was actually a spirit bone, presumably the Kraken's.

Spirit bones were of no use to soul beasts that had not taken human form, so the Spirit Dolphins had given this to Mo Lin as thanks.

Mo Lin walked to the side of the ship and expressed his gratitude. The dolphins cried out a few times in response, but they still did not leave.

"Are these guys planning to escort me all the way to land?"

Mo Lin released the puppet again and continued sailing in the direction indicated by the compass.