Night fell quietly.
The sky overhead was like a velvet curtain, studded densely with stars that flickered in and out.
Moonlight filtered through the clouds and spilled across the roof of the only thatched cottage in Holy Soul Village.
Inside, a young man sat cross-legged on a wooden bed.
His breathing was steady, as if he were asleep.
Suddenly, without warning, the young man opened his eyes. A faint silver-blue Soul Power could be seen swirling in their depths.
He sensed something unusual in his right leg.
The 100,000-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone had replaced the bones originally in his lower leg, fusing perfectly with the surrounding muscles, meridians, and blood.
It radiated a warm energy that made Lin Jing feel quite comfortable.
He withdrew his gaze, waved his hand, and silently said, "Panel," in his mind.
The next second, a personal status panel that only he could see unfolded before his eyes.
[Host: Lin Jing.] [Martial Souls: Dark Blue Silver Emperor, Vast Sea Glazed True Dragon.] [Soul Power: Level 18.] [Cultivation Method: None.] [Current Quest: Absorb a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone (Completed).] [Task Points: -9.]
Lin Jing skimmed through it, then fixed his gaze on his Soul Power Level.
Level 18?
That couldn't be right.
It had only gone up five levels?
Lin Jing's brows furrowed little by little.
He was clearly dissatisfied with the increase in Soul Power.
His ambition was far greater than that.
He had already planned to go out and hunt for his Second Soul Ring. But now he hadn't reached level 20. Wasn't that awkward?
"How could it have only gone up five levels?"
Then he realized that most of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's hundred-thousand-year essence was stored in its Spirit Ring. The Soul Bone contained much less.
But that raised another question: he was only a tiny Soul Master at level 13.
Even a tiny bit that leaked through the fingers of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast should have been enough to push him past level 20...
Just as he was racking his brains over it, the system spoke in an unhurried voice.
[Host, the moment the 100,000-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone fused with your right leg, an energy as vast as the sea burst forth.] [However, your meridians were too fragile to withstand such a massive torrent of energy.] [To put it another way: your meridians are like a small stream.] [The energy contained in that Soul Bone, meanwhile, is a flood surging up from the depths of the ocean.] [How could a small stream possibly withstand the ocean's flood?] [So most of the energy dissipated the instant it burst forth. What you absorbed was only an insignificant fraction.]
Lin Jing understood what the system meant, and the corner of his mouth twitched.
In human terms, the system was saying: "It's not that the Soul Bone didn't have enough energy. It's that you failed to make the most of it."
"Damn it!"
He nearly leapt straight off the wooden bed.
"System, did you do that on purpose?"
"Why didn't you tell me something this important sooner?"
"If you'd told me earlier, I wouldn't have absorbed it right away!"
Lin Jing spoke with righteous indignation.
"And that quest of yours—damn it, you definitely did it on purpose!"
"Do you know how much I've lost because of this?"
As he spoke, Lin Jing clutched his chest.
His expression was stricken with grief, as if he'd just missed out on a billion.
Of course, he wasn't really angry. He had enough control over his emotions for that.
This was all just an earnest performance for the system.
Maybe he could fleece it for something again.
[Host, I'm not a sheep. I don't have that much wool for you to fleece.]
There was a hint of disdain in the system's voice.
Lin Jing: "..."
His expression froze. A moment later, he awkwardly lowered his hand.
"Why can't I stop this mind of mine from running wild?"
He lightly patted his chest twice.
The wool-fleecing plan was officially a failure.
But Lin Jing's thick skin had been tested in practice.
He quickly adjusted his mood and changed the subject as if nothing had happened.
"Oh, right, System. Your explanation of that Fragment function earlier didn't seem very complete."
[That's because the host interrupted me.]
The system's voice was icy.
"Don't get hung up on the little details. Being a system is just like being a person—you shouldn't get too fixated on things."
"That fragment of yours is 1/50. What happens if I collect 50?"
He looked at the system expectantly.
[Just as the host suspects.]
The system replied.
[If you collect fifty of Emperor Jing's fragments, the system can manifest Emperor Jing's complete physical body.]
"Physical body?"
Lin Jing seized on the key phrase.
[That's right, host.] [You can refine Emperor Jing's body into your own clone.] [Then, by splitting off a wisp of your soul, you can control the clone in battle.]
Lin Jing nodded thoughtfully.
This Fragment Roulette was incredibly tempting.
What would a body like Emperor Jing's mean?
If he could really put that level of combat power to use...
Wouldn't that mean he could...
Just imagining the scene made his heart race.
But in reality,
those fifty fragments wouldn't be easy to collect.
Lin Jing quickly calculated in his head.
Even if he never used a single fragment, he'd still have to spin the Fragment Roulette fifty times.
And every prize he drew would have to be a fragment of the same person.
That was impossible.
Unless he was the incarnation of the God of Luck in the mortal world.
Otherwise, he could forget about it.
Maybe even when Lin Jing became a god, he still wouldn't have unlocked a clone like that.
"System, is there another quest?"
Lin Jing sprawled lazily on the wooden bed. Through the gaps in the thatch, he could see strands of moonlight.
[Ding!]
The system's crisp notification rang out.
[Quest issued: Righting Wrongs.] [Quest Details: In the Spirit Awakening Hall, Tang San bullied your underling, Lin Hu. As the big brother, you must stand up for your underling and get him justice.] [Quest Reward: 2 Task Points.]
"Righting wrongs?"
"I like the sound of that."
Lin Jing gave a wicked grin. Before, he hadn't dared to put Tang San in his place in front of Tang Hao.
But things were different now.
Tang Hao definitely wouldn't attack him.
As long as Tang San and the Clear Sky Sect still existed, Tang Hao would never pick a fight with Lin Jing.
In Tang Hao's heart, Ah Yin might have mattered more than the Clear Sky Sect, and more than Tang San.
But the Clear Sky Sect together with Ah Yin's own flesh and blood would definitely outweigh Ah Yin, who was no longer of this world.
After confirming the quest, Lin Jing shifted his gaze to the mini version of himself on the panel.
The white dot on mini Lin Jing's right leg had turned the color of Blue Silver Grass.
He reached out and tapped it. The instant he touched it, a pop-up appeared.
[Right Leg Bone: 100,000 years (Blue Silver Emperor).] [First Soul Skill: Flight (an extremely powerful mobility skill; low Soul Power consumption).] [Second Soul Skill: Wildfire never dies; with the spring breeze, it rises again (an extremely powerful healing skill; its effect doubles in the Blue Silver Domain or in an environment with abundant Blue Silver Grass).]
"The Soul Skills haven't changed much, but this Blue Silver Domain..."
Come to think of it, Lin Jing really did have a Blue Silver Domain, whose full name was the Blue Silver Devouring Domain.
He had gained it when his Martial Soul evolved into the Dark Blue Silver Emperor.
"Would it work in the domain of Dark Blue Silver Grass, too?"
As he wondered, Lin Jing got up, planning to head to the hills behind Holy Soul Village and test it out under cover of night.
Before you continue