Eight Extraordinary Skills

In terms of raw energy output, the Twelve Talismans utterly crushed the Eight Extraordinary Skills. Each of the twelve talismans produced a visually spectacular display of destruction when unleashed.

But this was another world. This was Douluo Continent. Once abilities were converted into soul skills, internal logic might matter more than sheer spectacle.

"If I choose the Eight Extraordinary Skills or the Twelve Talismans as soul skills, will they undergo corresponding changes?"

[Ding! Yes, Host. The system will adaptively convert the chosen ability system, allowing it to perfectly fit the soul skill framework.]

Yang Xing asked another crucial question.

"If I choose the Eight Extraordinary Skills now, will I still have a chance to obtain the Twelve Talismans later?"

[Ding! You will have the opportunity, Host. Every time you accept a qualified disciple in the future, you will receive new mission rewards. There is a very high chance that items the Host desires will appear. At that time, they will no longer take the form of soul skills, but appear as physical items. However, the higher the quality of the disciple accepted, the higher the tier of the reward. If the Host wants high-tier rewards, you must accept disciples of corresponding quality.]

Yang Xing was delighted.

He had thought this disciple-taking system was a one-shot deal. It would slap the cultivation of a level ninety-nine Limit Douluo onto him, then the system would retire after completing its job, leaving him to fend for himself afterward.

He had not expected there to be continuing rewards.

And random rewards at that, fluctuating according to the quality of the disciples he accepted.

Didn't that mean...

The more awesome his disciples were, the stronger he would become as well?

Yang Xing made his decision.

The Eight Extraordinary Skills.

He chose them.

There were three reasons.

First, the Eight Extraordinary Skills possessed an immensely rich system of abilities.

Qi Body Origin Stream governed inexhaustible soul power, converting and stripping away soul power.

Spirit Binding and Command governed the control of soul beast souls, devouring them to grow stronger.

Six Treasury Immortal Thief governed physical enhancement, stealing from nature, and immortality.

Heaven-Piercing Talisman governed talismans and powerful attacks.

Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements governed artifact refining and forging.

Twin Complete Hands governed reviving the dead, restoring flesh and bone, controlling souls and life.

Wind Empress Qimen governed arcane arts and controlled all things in the world.

Great Luo Insight governed dimensional observation and interference with fate.

The eight abilities covered every aspect of combat, support, daily life, and reconnaissance. They were far more comprehensive than the Twelve Talismans, which leaned more toward pure energy output.

Second, many skills within the Eight Extraordinary Skills could be taught. Heaven-Piercing Talisman and Wind Empress Qimen both had established inheritances. When he accepted disciples in the future, he could directly teach them a few of the Eight Extraordinary Skills. That would be more effective than any Titled Douluo's signature technique.

Third, he could save the Twelve Talismans for later and obtain them as physical items through accepting disciples. The core of the Twelve Talismans was their energy output, and they would be even more powerful as physical objects.

For example, twelve solid talismans would be more effective than turning them into soul skills.

Having thought it through, Yang Xing made his choice without hesitation.

"I choose the Eight Extraordinary Skills."

The system panel flashed.

[Ding! Please assign the Eight Extraordinary Skills to their corresponding soul ring slots in sequence. The seventh soul ring is fixed as Martial Soul True Body and cannot be assigned.]

Yang Xing barely hesitated.

First soul ring—Qi Body Origin Stream.

Second soul ring—Spirit Binding and Command.

Third soul ring—Six Treasury Immortal Thief.

Fourth soul ring—Heaven-Piercing Talisman.

Fifth soul ring—Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements.

Sixth soul ring—Twin Complete Hands.

Seventh soul ring—Martial Soul True Body.

Eighth soul ring—Wind Empress Qimen.

Ninth soul ring—Great Luo Insight.

The eight abilities fit perfectly into the eight soul ring slots.

[Ding! Soul skill assignment complete. Cultivation infusion will now begin. Confirm?]

Confirm.

The next moment—

A surge of power flooded into Yang Xing's body.

There was no lightning striking his body, no heavenly phenomenon, no radiant golden light.

That power silently poured into his limbs and bones, like a warm river filling a dried-up riverbed. Yang Xing's body had clearly been that of an ordinary person who had never cultivated, yet at this moment, it was like a vessel tailor-made for this purpose, swallowing every bit of that immense power without the slightest discomfort.

All he felt was the satisfaction of gradually being filled.

Like someone starving for three days finally getting a meal.

Ten seconds.

The power infusion was complete.

Outside, there was neither wind nor disturbance. The alley was still the same alley, the broken wall was still the same broken wall, and Ning Rongrong's footsteps still sounded rhythmically five meters behind him.

But the moment Yang Xing opened his eyes, he knew he had changed.

Deep in his eyes, within those utterly ordinary black pupils, something imperceptible had appeared. It was difficult to describe in words.

If he had to compare it to something, it was like several distant stars suddenly reflecting at the bottom of a pitch-black well.

Within his body, nine soul rings rested quietly.

He could clearly sense their existence. He could feel that every soul skill was as instinctive as something he had been born with.

Whenever he wished, he could summon and unleash them.

Qi Body Origin Stream, Spirit Binding and Command, Six Treasury Immortal Thief, Heaven-Piercing Talisman, Divine Mechanism Hundred Refinements, Twin Complete Hands, Martial Soul True Body, Wind Empress Qimen, Great Luo Insight.

Eight extraordinary techniques from another world.

They were now all in his grasp.

Yang Xing was itching to test them out.

He remembered from his memories that soul masters on Douluo Continent had one prerequisite for using soul skills: they had to release their soul rings.

But he did not feel that restriction at all. It seemed that as long as he wanted to, he could act with a casual gesture.

And he seemed to have discovered a loophole.

The one-minute limit on using the cultivation of a Limit Douluo.

It seemed he could use Great Luo Insight and Wind Empress Qimen to activate it moment by moment.

Normally, he possessed only the cultivation of an ordinary Titled Douluo.

But at the moment he attacked, he only needed to activate the Limit Douluo cultivation for that instant.

That meant that as long as his timing was precise enough—

That one minute would be enough for him to strike thousands upon thousands of times.

At that moment, Yang Xing felt like a child who had just received a new toy. His hands itched unbearably.

But Ning Rongrong was still following behind him. If he displayed it now, the effect would be halved.

He needed to find the best possible opportunity to give this young miss a resounding wake-up call.

At that thought, the corners of Yang Xing's mouth lifted of their own accord. His eyes curved slightly, and his body even swayed twice.

It was the kind of smugness he simply could not suppress.

"Hey!"

Ning Rongrong's voice came from behind him, thick with disdain.

"Why are you swaying around? Can't you even walk properly?"

Yang Xing did not turn around.

Ning Rongrong's gaze swept over his swaying back, and her lips curled in contempt.

"I knew you were a big liar."

Her tone was certain, as though delivering the final verdict.

"If you were really as impressive as you bragged, how could you possibly live in a dump like this? Titled Douluos might not need luxurious places to live, but at the very least, they should have a decent courtyard, right?"

Pinching her nose, she looked around.

"A place even rats would despise... it obviously belongs to some poor loser who can't scam anyone out of money."

Yang Xing walked ahead, completely ignoring her.

He was now a level ninety Titled Douluo. His perspective had broadened. He could not be bothered to argue with a child.

Seeing that he would not respond, Ning Rongrong fell silent for a few seconds before speaking again. There was less hostility in her tone now, and more curiosity.

"Liar, how old are you?"

"Eighteen."

Ning Rongrong's steps paused.

"Eighteen?"

She tilted her head and did the math. He was six years older than her.

"Only eighteen?" Her tone was full of surprise. "Then how do you already have a wife and children? Isn't that way too young?"

The more she thought about it, the more wrong it seemed. She muttered, "Getting married and having children at eighteen... were you really that desperate in whatever village you came from? Just as I thought, you're some shameless, lecherous country bumpkin..."

Yang Xing stopped walking.

He turned around.

Ning Rongrong instinctively took half a step back and stared at him warily.

Then she saw Yang Xing raise his right hand.

That hand was clenched into a fist.

Not a threatening fist.

It was... shaped like a cat's paw.

His five fingers curved slightly, the back of his hand facing forward, like a cat holding up its paw.

Yang Xing held that cat-paw fist toward Ning Rongrong and spoke with an extraordinarily serious expression.

"About what I said earlier about having a wife and children—"

He wiggled the cat paw.

"I was joking. Don't take it seriously."

Ning Rongrong stared at that cat paw.

Then at Yang Xing's completely solemn face.

Her expression went blank for two seconds.

Not because she was moved.

She had been struck speechless.

This guy...

A dignified eighteen-year-old man was using such a cutesy gesture to tell her, "I was just messing with you"?

A layer of frost appeared on Ning Rongrong's face.

She was not angry because she had been deceived.

In fact, she had calmed down by now. She was no longer in the emotionally unsteady state she had been in after being repeatedly provoked at the stall.

The usual Ning Rongrong had always been calm and shrewd.

She merely frowned and stared at Yang Xing with a scrutinizing gaze.

"You say it was fake. How am I supposed to know whether it was true or not?"

Her lips twisted with disdain.

"I think you probably noticed that I was very resistant to the idea of you having a wife and children, and that I didn't want to become your disciple, so you changed your story on the spot and claimed it was fake, didn't you?"

"Isn't your goal just to make me give up on that? So you can keep trying to make me your damn disciple?"

Yang Xing looked at her, smiled, and offered no further explanation.

Ning Rongrong waited two seconds without hearing a rebuttal, then snorted disdainfully and stopped pursuing the matter.

It did not matter whether she believed him or not.

She had no intention of becoming this liar's disciple anyway.

Yang Xing turned back and continued walking.

This time, they did not go far.

A minute later, the two stopped before a one-story house built of wood.

Calling it a house was giving it too much credit.

It was an old wooden shack one story high. The cracks in the door could fit three fingers through, and the holes in the windows looked as though stones had smashed them open and no one had bothered to repair them. The entire structure radiated the precarious air of something that could collapse at any moment.