The Concept of Soul Cores

Boom!

Ice Seal's control lasted only an instant before the tall, thin man burst straight through the ice, sending shattered fragments flying in every direction.

Although Shui Bing'er's Ice Seal soul skill had the advantages of instant casting and guaranteed hits, its weaknesses were just as obvious.

As long as one's soul power rank exceeded Shui Bing'er's, or one was a beast spirit Soul Master of the strength type, one could quickly break free from Ice Seal's control.

Moreover, the duration of Ice Seal's control depended entirely on the strength of her martial soul.

If Shui Bing'er's martial soul were an Ice Phoenix with ultimate ice, then her Ice Seal soul skill would not have been so easily broken.

After the tall, thin man broke free from Ice Seal, the leopard woman quickly followed suit.

However, her face was slightly blue, and her teeth chattered nonstop. Clearly, the chill carried by Shui Bing'er's soul skill had frozen her badly.

After being enhanced by her second soul skill, Shui Bing'er's ice attribute could already produce an ultra-low temperature of minus one hundred degrees.

Such an extreme cold was not far from ultimate ice. (Note 1)

"Hurry and circulate your soul power to dispel the cold inside your body, then use soul power to insulate yourself from it," the tall, thin man hurriedly reminded her.

"But if I do that, my soul power will be consumed very quickly," the leopard woman hesitated.

"Then end this quickly!"

With that, the tall, thin man swung his arm wide. His towering body suddenly arched backward like a fully drawn bow, and he hurled the enormous bone axe in his hand at Jiang Lan and Shui Bing'er.

The huge bone axe spun as it flew toward Jiang Lan and Shui Bing'er, accompanied by a shrieking rush of wind.

Seeing this, Jiang Lan immediately stepped forward. His second soul ring flashed, and he reached up to grab the incoming bone axe, forcibly bringing it to a halt. The impact force carried by the axe was completely transformed into soul power and flowed through his meridians.

The next instant, the converted soul power erupted from Jiang Lan's palm, blasting the bone axe in his hand into powder.

At this moment, taking advantage of Jiang Lan and Shui Bing'er's attention being drawn to the thrown bone axe, the tall, thin man and the leopard woman rapidly closed in on them.

"First soul skill, Ice Seal!"

Shui Bing'er raised her Ice Phoenix Staff again and lightly swept it forward, instantly casting her first soul skill twice more.

The two advancing figures immediately came to a halt, frozen inside solid ice once again.

Bang!

Ice Seal shattered again, but the tall, thin man's figure did not pause in the slightest as he charged straight toward the two of them.

"Senior Sister, leave this big guy to me. Just focus on controlling that agility-attack Soul Master," Jiang Lan said urgently.

"Alright!" Shui Bing'er nodded, directly ignoring the tall, thin man who had charged before them and turning her attention to the leopard woman instead.

The instant the leopard woman broke free from Ice Seal, Shui Bing'er's first soul ring flashed in succession. Her control followed seamlessly, freezing the leopard woman once more.

"Damn it!" The leopard woman was growing increasingly agitated.

Whether resisting the cold or breaking through Ice Seal required a considerable amount of soul power.

If this continued, her soul power would soon be exhausted, leaving her at the mercy of others.

At this moment, the tall, thin man had already rushed before them. He raised his remaining huge bone axe and viciously chopped down at Shui Bing'er.

Jiang Lan stepped forward, his indigo dragon claw extending from beneath his black robe as he raised a hand and caught the tall, thin man's descending bone axe.

Pfft!

The axe blade landed in Jiang Lan's palm with a soft pfft.

"What?!" The tall, thin man's expression changed. He felt as though his axe had struck some hard metal. No matter how hard he tried, he could not move his opponent in the slightest.

The force carried by the bone axe was completely absorbed by an invisible shield and converted into a large amount of soul power that flowed through Jiang Lan's meridians.

Jiang Lan could neither absorb this converted soul power nor use it for cultivation.

If he did not release the converted soul power, it would eventually slowly dissipate.

"Not bad strength. But it's time to end this."

As Jiang Lan spoke, he slowly raised his free hand, then struck out with his palm.

All the converted soul power poured forth at once. The bone armor on the tall, thin man's chest instantly exploded, sending bone fragments flying everywhere. His towering body was sent flying backward, crashing into the frozen leopard woman.

Crack!

The leopard woman broke out of the ice, but before she could react, the tall, thin man's flying body slammed into her. He knocked her away with him, and the two of them landed beneath the Soul Fighting Platform.

"Bone Shatter Team is out of bounds. The winners of this soul fight are the Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix Team!" the middle-aged host immediately announced.

After winning the two-on-two soul fight, Jiang Lan and Shui Bing'er left the sub-arena together, returned backstage to register their points, and collected their prize money.

After the two left the two-on-two soul fighting area, Shui Qinghan approached them from the front, a light blue veil covering the lower half of her face. She praised them, "You performed very well. Among two-ring Great Soul Masters, there should be no one who can defeat you."

"Come on. We'll continue cultivating soul power there tonight."

With that, Shui Qinghan grabbed one of them in each hand and took them out of the Great Soul Arena. They quietly headed for the cold spring in the Far North Mountains. Under the protection of Jiang Lan's innate domain, the three of them once more dived into the spring's source and entered the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Marrow Cave.

A night passed in the blink of an eye.

Jiang Lan and Shui Bing'er both gained greatly. One night of cultivation was equivalent to several days of their usual results.

Crack!

Shui Qinghan sat cross-legged before a pure white ice pillar. As the final drop of liquid within the pillar was absorbed by her, the white ice pillar collapsed into powder, scattering across the ground.

"Peak Rank 89!" Shui Qinghan slowly opened her eyes. Her soft, rosy lips parted slightly as she gently exhaled a breath of cold air, and delight could not help but flash through her eyes.

She was only one step away from breaking through to Rank 90 and becoming a quasi-Titled Douluo.

In less than half a month, she had risen all the way from Rank 85 to Rank 89.

Not only was her soul power not unstable in the slightest, but even the origin of her martial soul had become much stronger.

If she broke through to Titled Douluo, the temperature of her soul power would become even lower, perhaps even reaching the level of the Ice Extreme Divine Crystal Mine.

Just as Shui Qinghan planned to press on and use the effects of the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Marrow to break through the Rank 90 bottleneck, Jiang Lan suddenly stopped her. "Teacher, please wait."

"Lan'er, what is it?" Shui Qinghan turned back to look at Jiang Lan and asked.

"Teacher, have you heard of dragon cores?" Jiang Lan asked abruptly.

"Dragon cores?"

"Yes. My bloodline memories tell me that condensing a dragon core is an extremely important step for true dragons. Every true dragon condenses a dragon core within its body when it is about to break through the hundred-thousand-year threshold, using it to surpass that limit. I was thinking, if humans could condense a similar core bead, would it help Teacher break through to Titled Douluo?" Jiang Lan explained the concept of soul cores to Shui Qinghan by calling them dragon cores.

"Core bead?" Upon hearing this, Shui Qinghan immediately thought of the renowned Poison Douluo.

It was said that His Excellency Poison Douluo possessed an emerald-green core bead and could use it to unleash deadly poison.

Could it be that His Excellency Poison Douluo's breakthrough to Titled Douluo was related to that core bead?

That made sense. The Jade-Scaled Serpent was also one branch of dragonkind. It seemed perfectly normal for Poison Douluo to condense a core bead similar to a dragon core.

But her martial soul was the Water-Congealing Flying Luan, a phoenix-type martial soul, not a dragon species.

Could those who were not of dragonkind also condense core beads similar to dragon cores?