First Soul Ring, Fifteen Thousand Years

"Explosive Step." Xiao Changge used Explosive Step to evade the Golden-Winged Fire Crane's attack.

It had to be admitted that this Golden-Winged Fire Crane Soul Beast was indeed formidable. But it also had to be admitted that Xiao Changge had worked incredibly hard. More than half an hour had passed, yet he had not been defeated. Both sides had expended a great deal of stamina.

(My stamina is severely depleted. If this continues, I'll completely run out of strength and collapse to the ground—or end up sprawled there. I have to finish this quickly.)

Xiao Changge understood the limits of his stamina. After all, he was only a Soul Master who had just become capable of absorbing a Soul Ring. Although he possessed a top-tier Martial Soul—or rather, a Divine Beast Martial Soul, and a top-tier one at that, the legendary Vermilion Bird Martial Soul—his cultivation had been crippled for a full three years.

He had only just begun to recover. How could he possibly deal with a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast so easily?

Therefore, if he wanted to defeat this Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, he needed skill.

"Roar!" The Golden-Winged Fire Crane charged at him, but this time, Xiao Changge did not dodge. He met the blow head-on, shocking Electrolux as well.

"What are you doing?" Electrolux roughly guessed his intentions. Soon after, Xiao Changge used Eight Extremities Collapse to smash the Golden-Winged Fire Crane to the ground. It could no longer evade. Xiao Changge had clearly used himself as bait to lure it in. At such close range, the creature would not be able to escape even if it wanted to.

"Aaargh!" Xiao Changge truly could not hold on much longer. Though he had trained his body, without Soul Power to aid its growth, his physical development had still been slow. At best, he was merely sturdier than an ordinary person.

Surviving an attack from a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was already impressive enough.

"Alright, now I'll help you obtain this Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's Soul Ring."

Electrolux spoke in his mind.

Before a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast died, its intelligence had already awakened. Its remnant soul would linger and condense into Soul Shock, surging into the absorber's sea of consciousness.

Thus, to absorb a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's Soul Ring, one either had to have reached the level of a Soul King, be a cheat like Tang San, or receive help from a powerful expert. Otherwise, it was simply impossible.

"Now, let me help you."

"Alright."

Xiao Changge immediately began absorbing the Ten-Thousand-Year Golden-Winged Fire Crane.

"Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!"

The Golden-Winged Fire Crane's remnant soul began attacking Xiao Changge's consciousness, but with Electrolux present, he easily neutralized it before helping Xiao Changge steadily absorb the Soul Beast's power.

Soon, some time passed.

"I succeeded! I'm level 19 now!" Xiao Changge said excitedly. After absorbing a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast's Soul Ring and its Soul Power, he had directly reached level 19. This was far too easy. At this rate, he would soon be able to absorb his second Soul Ring and gradually reclaim his former brilliance as a genius.

"This can only be considered a starting point for you. You should have been a genius, but Shrek destroyed you. So you must become even stronger if you want revenge against Shrek and reclaim what you lost. But remember: do not harm innocent people. Do not drag innocents into this, or you will regret it for the rest of your life."

Electrolux was not merely preaching. He was also warning his disciple not to do anything he would regret, based on the life he had once lived.

"I understand."

[ Ding! Congratulations, Host, for completing the mission. Reward: Earth Tier Dou Technique—Flame Splitting Wave Ruler ]

(Great, I finally got it. An Earth Tier Dou Technique in the Douluo World could already be considered a divine skill—or perhaps an even more formidable technique than a divine skill. After all, the Dou Qi Continent itself is of a higher level than all the planes of the Douluo Universe combined.)

Xiao Changge did not say it aloud. This was too important to reveal now. He needed to be wary of anyone nearby.

"Changge, I've examined the age of this Soul Ring. It is at least fifteen thousand years old. That means this Soul Beast had only recently become a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, so its combat experience and intelligence were not yet particularly advanced. Otherwise, you could never have won."

Electrolux said this because he knew his disciple had used a fight-fire-with-fire style of combat, nearly ending in mutual destruction.

At the time, Electrolux had truly thought something might happen to his disciple. He had nearly believed that his newly accepted precious disciple was going to die. Fortunately, Xiao Changge's body had been sturdy enough to withstand it. Otherwise, Electrolux would not even have had a place to weep.

"I understand, Teacher. I won't do that again. Mainly, I wanted to obtain that Soul Ring, and I didn't want to trouble you too much. I wanted you to see that I was becoming stronger, so I wouldn't have to rely on you so much."

Those were his true feelings. He genuinely wanted to become stronger and not trouble Electrolux too much.

After all, Electrolux was his teacher.

"You still need to learn slowly and grow stronger step by step. Don't push yourself too hard."

Electrolux comforted Xiao Changge, mainly because he felt that he himself had placed too much pressure on his disciple.

"Anyway, let's leave quickly and see if we can find somewhere to stay for a while. We haven't found a place to rest properly all this time, and there's nothing good to eat around here either."

"Anyway, get some proper rest now."

As master and disciple made their way away, three people—or rather, three figures—were secretly observing them from behind.

"A mysterious powerful soul entity, and a top-tier genius at the Soul Master level who dared to challenge a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast alone—this is too absurd, isn't it? An ordinary human used a Self-Created Soul Skill to fight a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast despite having no Soul Skill and being only a level-ten Soul Master. He even defeated a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and obtained its Soul Ring. This is ridiculous, isn't it?"

"I can hardly believe it either. That man had only been a level-ten Soul Master, yet he defeated a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast with a Self-Created Soul Skill. He even dared to fight by trading injury for injury—and he won. This is utterly absurd. More importantly, we have no confidence that we can deal with that soul expert."

"When did the Douluo Continent gain such a powerful soul entity? I have never heard of any top-tier expert retaining their soul after death. At least as far as I know, the souls of those top-tier experts should not remain after they die. They should reincarnate instead. So why did this man's soul remain? And why was he found by a young boy, then took residence in that boy's spiritual world? This is too absurd."