Little Junior Brother, Have You Lost Your Mind?

"Whew."

Yue Guan landed on the ground, retracting his Martial Soul Avatar. Fine beads of sweat dotted his forehead.

Subduing two Titan Giant Apes at once, one of them with ten thousand years of cultivation, had not been easy even for him.

"All right." He looked at Yang Jian on the cliff. "Come down."

Yang Jian climbed down along the cliff face, his movements steady.

Hu Liena followed closely behind, her gaze falling on the restrained female ape as her heart pounded.

An eight-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape.

Was Elder Ju really going to let her little junior brother absorb this soul ring?

She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but when she saw Yue Guan's solemn expression, she swallowed the words that had reached her lips.

Yue Guan walked over to Yang Jian and looked at the eight-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape, drawing a deep breath.

"An eight-thousand-year first soul ring. No one has ever achieved that, throughout all of history."

"But with your current physical strength, it's worth trying."

"I'll watch from the side. If anything goes wrong, I'll stop the absorption immediately."

"Although there will be backlash, at least it won't cost you your life."

Hu Liena finally could not hold back any longer.

"Elder Ju!"

"Are you really going to let Little Junior Brother absorb an eight-thousand-year first soul ring?"

"How is that any different from seeking death?"

She hurried over to Yang Jian and grabbed his shoulders.

"Little Junior Brother, have you lost your mind?"

"Eight thousand years!"

"Do you know how terrifying the energy contained in an eight-thousand-year soul ring is?"

"Your body..."

"Senior Sister." Yang Jian interrupted her.

Hu Liena froze, looking into Yang Jian's unusually calm eyes.

"Trust me."

That was all he said. Then he turned and walked toward the two restrained Titan Giant Apes.

Hu Liena wanted to pull him back, but Yue Guan stopped her.

"Let him try." Yue Guan's voice was low and firm. "I believe in him."

Hu Liena stood there blankly, watching Yang Jian's small figure walk step by step toward the two Titan Giant Apes. An indescribable feeling welled up in her heart.

Did this guy really have confidence, or was he simply throwing his life away?

Yang Jian stood before the two Titan Giant Apes and silently looked at them.

The male and female apes had both had their limbs broken by Yue Guan. They lay on the ground, unable to move, their bodies covered in dirt and blood. The ferocity in their eyes had been replaced by the weariness of a final struggle.

The female ape struggled to raise her head. Its clouded eyes looked at Yang Jian as a low whimper escaped its throat.

Yang Jian glanced at it, but his gaze did not linger.

He turned toward the ten-thousand-year male ape. With a flick of his right hand, the Three-Point Double-Edged Saber appeared in his palm.

The saber lengthened in the wind, becoming over three meters long in an instant. Its three pointed blades glinted with cold silver light beneath the sun.

Without hesitation.

Yang Jian gripped the hilt with both hands, aimed at the male ape's eye, and drove the blade down viciously.

The blade pierced its body with almost no resistance.

The Three-Point Double-Edged Saber was far sharper than an ordinary weapon Martial Soul, and an eyeball's defenses had always been weak. This strike went straight through, effortlessly shredding the male ape's brain.

The male ape's enormous body convulsed violently a few times before going completely limp, never moving again.

A vast surge of energy rose from the male ape's corpse and slowly gathered above it.

A pitch-black soul ring floated silently in the air, radiating a heart-pounding pressure.

A ten-thousand-year soul ring.

Yang Jian glanced at the soul ring, then immediately sat cross-legged where he was, placing his hands on his knees as he began to circulate his soul power.

As if drawn by some force, the black soul ring slowly descended and settled around him.

The entire process flowed without a hitch.

"Yang Jian! What are you doing?!"

Yue Guan's expression changed drastically. In a flash, he appeared before Yang Jian and reached for his shoulder.

But his fingers stopped three inches away.

It was already too late.

The soul ring had begun to merge into Yang Jian's body. A faint black glow shone from within him, enveloping his entire body.

If the process were forcibly interrupted now, he would suffer ruined meridians and become crippled at best; at worst, his soul power would go berserk and he would explode to death on the spot.

Yue Guan's hand hung in midair, unable to come down.

His face turned green, then pale, his eyes filled with regret and fury.

"This brat... this brat..."

His voice trembled.

A ten-thousand-year soul ring.

Yang Jian had kept saying, "Subdue these two Titan Giant Apes first," so Yue Guan had naturally assumed he had his eye on the eight-thousand-year female ape.

Who could have imagined that this brat had been after the ten-thousand-year soul ring from the very beginning?

Recalling Yang Jian's calm expression at the time, Yue Guan finally realized that he had been deceived.

Yang Jian had deliberately refused to make it clear, just so Yue Guan would lower his guard.

"I was too careless..."

Yue Guan drew a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He stared fixedly at Yang Jian's face, watching every shift in his expression, ready to forcibly interrupt the absorption at the first sign of trouble even if he had to endure the backlash himself.

Hu Liena stood nearby, completely dumbfounded.

Her mouth hung open and her eyes were wide as she stared at Yang Jian, seated cross-legged on the ground and shrouded in the black glow of the soul ring. Her mind was completely blank.

A ten-thousand-year soul ring.

His first soul ring was ten thousand years old.

How was that possible?

She had entered Spirit Hall at the age of six and spent six full years studying soul master theory.

Every textbook stated in unmistakable black and white: the maximum age for a first soul ring was four hundred and twenty-three years.

This had been an unbreakable iron law of the soul master world for countless years. No one had ever broken it.

Yet now, right before her eyes, a six-year-old child was absorbing a ten-thousand-year soul ring?

"He really has lost his mind!"

Within Yang Jian's sea of consciousness, a storm was raging.

A blurry phantom condensed within his mind. It was the lingering will of the ten-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape.

The phantom threw back its head and roared, the sound shaking his entire sea of consciousness. A pair of blood-red eyes stared fixedly at Yang Jian, filled with resentment and hatred.

"Human!"

The giant ape's lingering will let out a deafening roar.

Then, an incomparably savage spiritual shockwave erupted from the phantom and surged toward the source of Yang Jian's soul like a tidal wave.

Yang Jian felt a violent stabbing pain deep within his soul, as though countless needles had pierced his mind at once.

The pain was impossible to describe. It felt as if his entire consciousness was about to be torn apart, crushed to pulp, and erased completely.

The source of his soul trembled violently under the impact, seeming as though it might dissipate at any moment.

An ordinary person would likely not last even a second beneath this wave of spiritual assault.

But Yang Jian was no ordinary person.

The Eight-Nine Mysteries began to circulate. A gentle yet resilient force rose from the depths of his soul's origin, like an invisible suit of armor protecting his soul firmly within.

Although this top-tier body-tempering cultivation art of the primordial world focused mainly on the physical body, its ability to temper the soul was no less remarkable.

After three months of cultivation, the strength of his soul had long surpassed that of his peers. It was even stronger than that of many Soul Kings.

Wave after wave of spiritual attacks came crashing down. Yang Jian gritted his teeth and desperately maintained the clarity of his mind.

His body trembled violently. Veins bulged on his forehead, beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his cheeks, and the clothes on his back had already been soaked through.

But he endured.

One incense stick's time.

Two incense sticks' time.

No one knew how long had passed before the ferocious spiritual assault finally began to weaken.

After failing again and again, the Titan Giant Ape's phantom gradually dimmed. In the end, it let out an unwilling roar and completely dispersed within Yang Jian's sea of consciousness.

The mountain weighing upon his soul had finally vanished.

Yang Jian felt as though a great burden had been lifted. He let out a long breath.