As she spoke, a faint multicolored halo rippled from the Treasure Beast and drifted toward Ling Tianchen.
Ling Tianchen instinctively released his spiritual power and connected to that wisp of divine consciousness.
At once, he felt his Spirit Sea shake violently, churning like storm-tossed waters. Then, the halo of divine consciousness belonging to the Phoenix God King, stationed within his Spirit Sea, trembled and drew in that wisp of the Treasure Beast's divine consciousness.
Ling Tianchen's spirits lifted. He could sense every emotional and energy fluctuation from the Treasure Beast at any time. Moreover, with a single thought, he seemed able to make the Treasure Beast die completely.
What an overbearing slave contract!
This thing no longer existed at all; it was an especially ancient type of contract. This showed just how long ago the Treasure Beast had come into being.
With the slave contract in place, Ling Tianchen finally relaxed and released his suppression over the Treasure Beast's divine consciousness. It quickly returned to reality.
"Master, the sacrifice is about to begin."
Golden flames erupted from the Treasure Beast's body, burning it completely to ashes before it transformed into a streak of golden light and flew into Ling Tianchen's Spirit Sea.
An invisible spiritual fluctuation spread outward from the Treasure Beast. Its terrifying spiritual power almost instantly covered every corner within a hundred-li radius.
Ling Luochan and the others had only just awakened from the illusion and had yet to open their eyes and understand the situation around them when they were affected by this spiritual fluctuation again, temporarily losing the ability to think.
At that moment, the sky, which had been incomparably clear just a second ago, suddenly darkened. A thunderous boom rang out high above, and in that instant, the sun's light was completely swallowed by darkness. An immense pressure that made it hard to breathe descended from the heavens.
A stream of gray air fell from the sky as though pulled by some immense force, about to burrow into Ling Tianchen's Spirit Sea.
"Master, I'll stop him! A divine consciousness even more broken than mine actually wants to possess you!"
"Xiao Bao, stop. Let him in. He can be considered an old friend of mine. Don't assume everyone is like you."
Without the Treasure Beast's interference, the gray airflow smoothly entered the back of Ling Tianchen's head.
"With the sun and moon in my grasp and stars within my reach, there is no one in this world like me. I never expected that I—"
The elderly voice came to an abrupt halt before it could finish.
Hm? Why are there two strands of divine consciousness in this Spirit Sea stronger than mine?
Never mind. I'll sleep first.
The gray airflow transformed into a gray bead no larger than a soybean, then fell silent.
At last, the absorption was complete. Ling Tianchen slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath of foul air, feeling lighter than ever throughout his body.
He clenched his fist, and a string of crisp crackles immediately rang out from between his bones.
His Spirit Sea, already ten times broader than before the attempted possession, expanded another tenfold. His spiritual power had soared in a single step, reaching the late stage of Form Without Substance.
Ling Tianchen happily whistled.
Spiritual power at Form Without Substance could suppress ultimate Soul Power and envelop it for cultivation. This meant that the weakness of ultimate martial souls—their slow cultivation speed from level thirty to level seventy—was gone. His future cultivation would be smooth sailing.
A brilliant golden soul ring slowly rose beneath his feet before floating behind him.
A million-year soul ring!
An enormous amount of information flooded into his mind as well.
His first soul ring had granted him four soul skills in total.
Spiritual Detection and Sharing needed no explanation.
Myriad Transformations allowed him to completely imitate his own or a target's aura, Soul Power, martial soul, and even appearance, so long as he had sufficient spiritual power. However, he could only display his original strength. With the assistance of the Genesis Godhood, even a God King would find it difficult to see through his transformation.
Treasure Seeking allowed him to sense the approximate locations of spiritual treasures in the surrounding world, while also granting him an exceptionally strong ability to seek fortune and avoid calamity.
Illusory Binding could instantly pull an enemy's consciousness into an illusion, where they would undergo all kinds of tortures at his whim, leaving them unable to move. The duration depended on the disparity between their spiritual powers.
The million-year Treasure Beast head soul bone, meanwhile, possessed only two soul skills: Spiritual Domain Time Reversal and Spiritual Reflection Shield.
Time Reversal could currently only turn back time by two or three seconds, and it could not affect anything beyond his own strength.
Spiritual Reflection Shield could reflect all physical, energy, and spiritual attacks. If the opponent was weaker than him, the attack would be reflected in full. If the opponent was stronger, only part of it would be reflected, while the Treasure Beast would bear the remainder.
Moreover, all six of these soul skills had room to grow and would continuously strengthen as Ling Tianchen's power increased.
Aside from Treasure Seeking being a little underwhelming, the rest could all be called god-tier skills. At the very least, they were far stronger than the Spiritual Interference and Spiritual Shock that Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had given him.
Yet after carefully sensing the changes in his Soul Power, Ling Tianchen could not help frowning, his expression turning strange.
"Soul Power... level fifteen?"
A Treasure Beast that had once possessed god-level strength had sacrificed itself, along with a million-year head soul bone, yet it had only raised him from level ten to level fifteen?
He had just secretly rejoiced that his Soul Power would no longer suffer from the slow cultivation of an ultimate martial soul. Why was this happening to him now?
"What is going on, Xiao Bao? Why did my Soul Power only rise by five levels? You'd better give me a reasonable explanation!"
The Treasure Beast immediately put on an expression as though it were about to cry.
"Master, this really isn't Xiao Bao's fault!"
"Although Xiao Bao is a divine beast, I am severely injured now. In truth, I am only equivalent to an ordinary Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast on the Douluo Continent."
"To keep Master's current body from being unable to bear it, Xiao Bao followed your instructions and divided my origin into ten portions. Only the first and second portions have truly fused so far. The other eight are temporarily sealed in Master's Spirit Sea. As Master's strength rises, they will gradually be unsealed and fused. Once they are fully absorbed, Master's spiritual power can easily break through to the Divine Origin Realm."
Having said that, it hurriedly added another sentence.
"Also, Master's martial soul is simply too overbearing. The stronger a martial soul is, the more Soul Power it can contain. Not to mention that the True Phoenix Bloodline within Master's body also suppresses your cultivation speed."
"Because of all these factors combined, for the same increase of one level, the Soul Power Master needs to accumulate far exceeds that of an ordinary soul master. So although you are only level fifteen on the surface, in terms of total Soul Power alone, you are likely no weaker than a Soul Grandmaster in their twenties. The only reason you could rise five levels at once was because Xiao Bao's million-year head soul bone helped immensely."
By the end, it covered its eyes with its two front paws and began fake crying pitifully.
"Wuwuwu... Xiao Bao has already given everything I can to Master..."
Ling Tianchen's mouth twitched slightly as he shot it an irritated glance.
"Why did you not say so earlier?"
"And why are you crying like this? Do you expect me to apologize to you?"
Upon hearing that, the Treasure Beast immediately wiped away its tears. Its pitiful little face instantly filled with a fawning smile.
"Master, you jest! Being able to follow Master is a blessing Xiao Bao has cultivated for several lifetimes! If Master tells Xiao Bao to go east, Xiao Bao will never go west. If Master tells Xiao Bao to chase dogs, Xiao Bao will never catch chickens!"
Watching the Treasure Beast make such a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree change, Ling Tianchen was rendered speechless.
"You should stop calling yourself a Treasure Beast. How about Chameleon?"
"Thank you, Master, for granting me a name! From this day onward, Xiao Bao shall be Master's most loyal Chameleon!"
The Treasure Beast skillfully lay beneath the feet of his spiritual body and gave him a clean, resounding kowtow.
Fine. At the very least, people—or soul beasts—should not be this shameless...
Before you continue