Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring

With the three heavenly treasures laid out before him, Li Hanche did not hesitate for long.

He first picked up the Spirit-Concentrating Jade Marrow. The thumb-sized jade felt warm and smooth to the touch. The instant it touched his forehead, a cool, springlike ripple surged from between his brows into his sea of consciousness.

His spiritual power, somewhat fatigued from the fivefold-gravity training, seemed to be gently brushed by a tender hand. Every stray thought was soothed away, leaving his sea of consciousness clear and tranquil.

He hung the Spirit-Concentrating Jade Marrow around his neck. Pressed against his chest, it continuously nourished his sea of consciousness without pause.

Then came the Nine-Jointed Spirit-Nurturing Bamboo.

Chen Xin split open the bamboo joints, and nine drops of Innate Spirit-Nurturing Liquid slid out. Each drop was crystal-clear, like liquid starlight.

Li Hanche sat down cross-legged and swallowed the nine drops of Spirit-Nurturing Liquid one after another.

The liquid melted the moment it entered his mouth. A vast yet gentle force rushed from his throat straight into his sea of consciousness, like nine clear streams pouring into an already sizable lake. In that instant, his sea of consciousness abruptly expanded.

It was not inflation, but a leap in quality.

Frost Eyes activated on their own. The icy-blue glow in his pupils grew ever deeper, and he could even "see" Qingluo and Baiwei hanging laundry in the neighboring courtyard through the wall.

The Spirit-Concentrating Jade Marrow's nourishment and the Innate Spirit-Nurturing Liquid's qualitative transformation combined, raising his spiritual power to an unprecedented level.

Chen Xin gave a slight nod from the side.

Xue Qinghe stood with his arms folded, leaning against the back of the sofa. For once, that usual look of disdain was absent from the corner of his lips.

He quietly watched Li Hanche absorb the final drop of Spirit-Nurturing Liquid before speaking.

"Absorb the skull bone while you're at it. Better safe than sorry."

Li Hanche took the jade box from his soul storage ring and opened its lid.

He pressed the soul bone to his forehead and sent his soul power into it.

The absorption process went far more smoothly than he had expected. The heavenly treasures had reinforced his sea of consciousness to a degree strong enough to withstand the impact of a ten-thousand-year soul bone.

And Qian Daoliu's Angel Holy Light had cleansed away the residual impurities within the soul bone, leaving behind only the purest origin soul power.

There was no agonizing pain or violent impact—only a warm current flowing in through his brow.

He could clearly feel his spiritual power undergoing some fundamental transformation.

Stronger, deeper, more capable of enduring outside impacts.

Three days later, in the Far North.

Chen Xin, Ning Fengzhi, and Xue Qinghe gazed through the curtain of swirling snow at the soul beast corpse lying on the ground.

It was a massive Ice Abyss Dragon Lizard, its entire body covered in dark-blue scales, each one as thick as armor.

Judging from its size and soul power fluctuations, its cultivation was between twelve and thirteen thousand years.

This was the target Chen Xin had personally selected: ice-attributed, bearing dragon bloodline, and highly compatible with Li Hanche's Dark Nether Ice Soul Spear martial soul.

With the strength of a Titled Douluo, capturing a ten-thousand-year soul beast alive was not difficult. The difficult part was what came after.

Li Hanche sat cross-legged on the frozen earth.

The Dark Nether Ice Soul Spear lay across his knees as the second level of the Frost Heaven Record circulated through his body at full speed.

The omnipresent frigid aura of the Far North surged toward him from every direction, seeping through the pores across his body into his meridians, converging in his dantian, and merging with the soul power generated by the cultivation method itself.

The breath he exhaled condensed into white mist in the air, with tiny ice crystals whirling through it.

After absorbing the Spirit-Concentrating Jade Marrow, the Nine-Jointed Spirit-Nurturing Bamboo, and the head soul bone, his spiritual power had undergone a complete rebirth.

His sea of consciousness was as stable as a bell cast from refined iron—silent and solid.

A black soul ring rose from the Ice Abyss Dragon Lizard's corpse.

It hovered beneath the gray-white daylight, rotating as it radiated a heavy pressure that made the heart tremble.

Li Hanche opened his eyes and raised his right hand, his fingers slightly spread.

Sensing his call, the black soul ring floated up from above the corpse and flew toward him.

The closer it came, the heavier that pressure became.

The instant the soul power in his palm touched the soul ring, a vast, near-violent surge of soul power poured in through his palm and rushed upward along the meridians in his arm.

Li Hanche gritted his teeth, and his body shuddered violently.

The dense soul power tempered by two years of the Frost Heaven Record met that ten-thousand-year soul power head-on. The two forces collided explosively within his dantian. His breathing grew ragged, and a large patch of sweat soaked through the clothes on his back.

He firmly withstood the first step—the soul power impact.

The second step was the true pass between life and death: the soul impact.

The phantom of the Ice Abyss Dragon Lizard's soul condensed into form. The resentment, ferocity, and fury at death accumulated over twelve thousand years of cultivation transformed into an invisible soul shriek that slammed straight into his sea of consciousness.

In that instant, his consciousness felt as though it had been savagely struck by a ten-thousand-ton hammer, and his sea of consciousness shook violently.

The head soul bone showed its power then. Light shone from deep within his skull, forming a solid barrier that forcibly blocked the soul shriek.

The cool power of the Spirit-Concentrating Jade Marrow immediately followed, smoothing away the ripples of the upheaval.

The spiritual foundation laid down by the Spirit-Nurturing Liquid revealed its full value at this moment.

At some point, Chen Xin's hand had already settled on the hilt of the Seven Kill Sword, ready to draw it and interrupt the absorption at any time. Even if it destroyed the soul ring, he could not allow his disciple to become an idiot.

Xue Qinghe's hand clenched into a fist within his sleeve. His face remained expressionless, but his breathing was noticeably quicker than usual.

The Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda resting in Ning Fengzhi's palm was ready to act at any moment.

Li Hanche's body suddenly trembled.

A black soul ring rose from beneath his feet, slowly revolving around him. Every pulse moved in sync with his breathing, in sync with his heartbeat.

At the same time, soul power surged violently through his meridians, climbing all the way from level twenty.

He had reached level twenty more than half a year ago, yet had kept himself from breaking through. The soul power in his dantian had been compressed and refined over and over, like a reservoir filled to the brim but whose floodgates had never been opened.

Now, the power of the ten-thousand-year soul ring blasted those floodgates wide open. The Innate Spirit-Nurturing Liquid left behind in his meridians by the Nine-Jointed Spirit-Nurturing Bamboo became the final thrust, merging with the vast soul power of the ten-thousand-year soul ring and driving his soul power onward even after it shattered through the bottleneck.

Level twenty-six!

Information about the soul skill naturally surfaced in his mind.

He opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid air. Then he rose to his feet, looked toward the three figures, and the corner of his mouth lifted.

Xue Qinghe walked up to Li Hanche, gave him a once-over, then reached out and rapped him lightly on the forehead.

"Level twenty-six. Two thousand years plus ten thousand years—those foundations you built by suppressing your rank for over half a year weren't wasted."

Ning Fengzhi followed close behind, a gentle smile visible at the corners of his lips.

He walked up to Li Hanche and patted his shoulder, carrying the solemnity unique to an elder.

"You should have broken through more than half a year ago. With the foundation you accumulated by suppressing it until now, plus the medicinal power of the Nine-Jointed Spirit-Nurturing Bamboo, reaching level twenty-six is only natural. A second soul ring of ten thousand years, with soul power jumping six levels in succession—throughout however many years to come on the Douluo Continent, I fear there will not be a second such person."

Chen Xin was the last to approach.

The wrinkles on his aged yet sharply defined face seemed deeper than usual. They were not traces of worry, but marks piled up by his smile.

He looked at Li Hanche and spoke.

"A ten-thousand-year second soul ring. You have exceeded this master's expectations by two levels. There is no precedent for this on the Douluo Continent. You carved this path out yourself."

And at the distant other end, Notting City.