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"A Spirit Ring... turned into a Thousand-Year Soul Ring?"

Xu Sanshi's eyes went wide. He stared in shock at the Hundred-Year Soul Ring behind Jiang Nannan. Its yellow had completely changed to the purple of a Thousand-Year Soul Ring. The color was even, its aura steady, with none of the instability common to newly acquired Spirit Rings.

A genuine Thousand-Year Soul Ring!

"What the hell?"

Xia Liang was watching the "livestream" of the outside world too. When he saw Jiang Nannan's Hundred-Year Soul Ring evolve, he was dumbfounded. Wait, that was what experience meant? It was literally experience?

"Snow Empress?"

Xia Liang looked at Little Snow Empress, who was eating berries beside him. Since this involved Twilight Forest, he had called her over to watch. He had not expected to see this.

The next moment, Snow Empress's true body, far away in the Extreme North, sent Little Snow Empress a special message.

After receiving the message from her true body, Little Snow Empress gave Xia Liang an even stranger look.

"Inside the Extreme North Spirit Pagoda's Twilight Forest, something unusual has happened to a Soul King whose fifth Spirit Ring was a Thousand-Year Soul Ring. It turned into a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring."

Xia Liang pressed a hand to his forehead when he heard her.

The Spirit Pagoda was really going to become famous now.

"Just my luck."

Xia Liang knew that, in a sense, the Spirit Pagoda now stood against the entire continent. Soul Spirits and Twilight Forest alone would have been one thing. Both were built on the existing Soul Master system and had caused no real upheaval. But Spirit Rings growing older was beyond anything Douluo Continent had imagined.

It had already dealt the Soul Master system a tremendous shock. The Extreme North Spirit Pagoda was probably the focus of the entire world's attention now.

"More than a dozen Super Douluo have reached the Spirit Pagoda, from all sorts of factions. I'll subdue them first. You figure out what to do."

Snow Empress sighed. The Spirit Pagoda was full of informants from different factions. In the short time since that Soul King's fifth Spirit Ring had grown older, the news had spread, and more than a dozen Super Douluo had arrived at the Pagoda's entrance. Unless something changed, there was bound to be a fight.

"Can you kill them all?"

Xia Liang sounded a little helpless as he answered Little Snow Empress.

"Do as you like."

"Fine."

Hearing the anger in Snow Empress's reply, Xia Liang suspected the world was about to gain a dozen or so Douluo with broken arms and legs. Or would they all end up dead?

But why?

Xia Liang was puzzled too. Why could absorbing experience increase the lifespan of Jiang Nannan's Spirit Ring?

He lowered his head and conjured a zombie in his hand. After crushing it with one finger, a Hundred-Year Soul Ring appeared. He then directed experience into the ring. It did change slightly after absorbing the experience, but showed no sign of growing older.

"Is it because it's just a Spirit Ring?"

Xia Liang conjured a villager, embedded the Spirit Ring in the villager's body, and infused it with experience again. Still, nothing changed.

"Could it be missing a converter?"

Electrolux spoke up. Clearly, something was needed to convert experience into power that could increase a Spirit Ring's lifespan.

Still, the timing was remarkable. Snow Empress had operated the Spirit Pagoda's Twilight Forest for so long, yet this had happened there only today.

"Possibly. I'll go take a look outside."

There was a ready-made example right in front of him.

Outside, Ma Xiaotao was giving Jiang Nannan a thorough examination. Crouching before her with one hand on her wrist, she had already swept Soul Power through her body three times.

There was nothing wrong inside Jiang Nannan's body. Her meridians were clear, her Soul Power flowed smoothly, and her newly increased Soul Power Level was stable. There was virtually no trace of strain or instability.

"Nothing's wrong with you, and your Soul Power Level even went up by one. What exactly happened?"

Ma Xiaotao was almost in Jiang Nannan's face. She was simply too curious. A Spirit Ring growing older? She had never even heard of such a thing.

"I don't know either."

Jiang Nannan edged back from Ma Xiaotao's face. She had no idea what had happened.

"Training is over. Leave this place at once, and don't tell outsiders about the Spirit Ring."

As they puzzled over what had happened to Jiang Nannan, Xuan Zi finally appeared before them.

"Xuan Zi, what exactly is—"

Before Ma Xiaotao could finish, Xuan Zi shook his head. "I don't know either. But you must leave now. Afterward, go to the Sea God Pavilion."

This was an increase in a Spirit Ring's lifespan. Among the Sea God Pavilion's closely guarded secrets, there was one way to accomplish that: a God Trial!

He knew it probably had nothing to do with a God Trial. But what if it did?

Xuan Zi had lived long enough to fear that possibility. If it really was a God Trial, Shrek stood to gain enormously.

"Before you go, let me take a look."

A voice came from the sky. Huo Yuhao recognized it and looked up as Xia Liang slowly descended.

"Sir World."

Everyone spoke in unison, their voices equally respectful. Ma Xiaotao unconsciously took half a step back.

Xuan Zi looked at Jiang Nannan with concern. Had Xia Liang come to take her away?

"A Spirit Ring growing older was beyond my expectations too. Let me have a look."

Xia Liang turned to Jiang Nannan. She had been lucky, and so had he. He had happened to be here when it occurred.

"Yes, senior."

Jiang Nannan activated Martial Soul Possession, and four Spirit Rings rose around her: one yellow and three purple.

Hmm...

In Xia Liang's eyes, Jiang Nannan had something strange inside her besides her Martial Soul and Soul Power.

"Hm? I didn't expect that."

Xia Liang understood. The Spirit Ring converter Electrolux had mentioned was Twilight Forest's World Origin.

Twilight Forest had been a complete world from the moment it was created, so naturally it had an origin of its own.

Increasing a Spirit Ring's lifespan required some of Twilight Forest's World Origin. Xia Liang had never paid attention to it back then, so he had not made the World Origin acknowledge him as its master.

As a result, the World Origin drifted randomly through Twilight Forest, with a chance of attaching itself to a human or monster.

Jiang Nannan had evidently happened upon a wisp of it. But Xia Liang could tell that the Twilight Forest World Origin inside her had been drained. That meant increasing a Spirit Ring's lifespan consumed World Origin.

And consuming World Origin would inevitably affect Twilight Forest.

Xia Liang reached out and sensed Twilight Forest's power. Sure enough, it was weakening, and the decline was obvious. What a terrible bargain...

So much of Twilight Forest's World Origin had been spent just to increase the lifespan of one Hundred-Year Soul Ring. No matter how he looked at it, the cost was too high. If its origin ran dry, Twilight Forest would disappear. He was counting on the spoils from those bosses to absorb the world's authority. This ran directly against his interests.

"Senior World, is something wrong?"

Jiang Nannan's voice held a trace of nervousness. Xia Liang had stood silently for several breaths. His expression was not stern, but his thoughtful silence alone was enough to unsettle her.

After all, her situation was far too unusual. If word got out that her Spirit Ring had grown older, she feared she would be taken away.

"It's nothing. Just something I hadn't considered."

Xia Liang waved a hand. It was only a little World Origin. He could hardly demand that she pay him back.

"Would you be interested in working for the Spirit Pagoda? You'd have weekends off, fifty Gold Soul Coins a month during your probationary period, and three hundred once you're a full employee. There are benefits for Spirit Rings too. You're a special case, and I'm recruiting you personally, so all your Spirit Rings would be covered. If you reach Level 90 and can absorb a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, I'll arrange one for you. The Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone would be yours as well."

Jiang Nannan: "???"

Jiang Nannan's breath caught. She froze, and everyone behind her was stunned by Xia Liang's offer. Silence fell over the area.