Treasure-Dropping Coin's First Soul Ring

After sprinting a hundred li, Zhao Ming stopped in a deserted valley. Even if Tang Hao discovered the stolen soul bone now, there was no way he could track him here.

With a thought, Zhao Ming vanished from the valley and entered the Mustard Seed Space.

The Mustard Seed Space remained as idyllic as ever.

The sky was a flawless blue, white clouds drifted leisurely by, distant mountains gleamed lush green beneath the sunlight, and a nearby stream babbled softly, peaceful and serene.

Zhao Ming had no mood to admire the scenery. He walked straight to the grassy bank beside the stream, sat down cross-legged, and opened the heavy lead box.

Surging life force burst forth once more, tinting the surrounding grass with a faint blue glow.

The Blue Silver Emperor right leg bone lay quietly within the box. Its crystal-clear surface shimmered with an enchanting radiance, while golden patterns flowed slowly within like living things, each movement releasing intoxicating waves of energy.

Zhao Ming took a deep breath, removed the soul bone from the box, and held it in both hands, feeling the immense, nearly tangible life energy surge through his palms.

By his estimation, after absorbing this soul bone, his soul power should naturally break through to rank thirty, and his physical constitution would improve drastically as well.

Then, if he prepared a piece of Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue as insurance, absorbing a ten-thousand-year third soul ring would be a sure thing.

Zhao Ming pressed the soul bone against the outer side of his right calf, closed his eyes, and circulated Nine-Breath Qi Absorption, preparing to guide the soul bone's energy into his body.

Yet the instant the soul bone touched his skin, an incredibly clear sense of rejection rose from deep within his dantian.

The rejection came suddenly and fiercely, like a hand forcefully pushing him away and preventing him from fusing with the soul bone.

Zhao Ming abruptly opened his eyes, looked down at the soul bone in his hands, then at his right leg, utterly bewildered.

He quickly confirmed that the rejection came from Nine-Breath Qi Absorption.

This cultivation method, which he had practiced for years, had always been his most dependable foundation. Whether in tempering his body, accumulating soul power, or strengthening his spiritual power, Nine-Breath Qi Absorption had been flawless.

Yet now, it was clearly telling him not to absorb this soul bone.

Why? Zhao Ming furrowed his brow, unable to make sense of it.

The Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone was a hundred-thousand-year treasure. The energy it contained was pure and vast; absorbing it was an enormous opportunity for any soul master. Why would Nine-Breath Qi Absorption reject it?

Could it be an incompatibility of attributes? No. Nine-Breath Qi Absorption was an orthodox Daoist cultivation method, while the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone contained life-attribute energy. Logically, there should not have been any rejection.

Just as Zhao Ming was struggling with the question, a sudden change occurred.

A golden light suddenly lit up between his brows. It was warm and bright, like a tiny sun blooming upon his forehead.

Then, a winged copper coin flew out of the light and hovered before him. It was his second martial soul, the Treasure-Dropping Coin.

The instant the Treasure-Dropping Coin appeared, the Fortune-Gathering Domain automatically unfolded.

A golden aura spread outward from the copper coin, enveloping Zhao Ming, the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone, and the Blue Silver Emperor plant he had casually thrown onto the grass.

Then, an indescribably mysterious aura slowly drifted out from the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone. Like wisps of smoke, like a thin mist, it appeared especially distinct within the golden glow of the Fortune-Gathering Domain.

At the same time, the Blue Silver Emperor plant he had uprooted began to tremble violently. The blue glow on its blades flickered madly as an equally mysterious aura was drawn from its body. It merged with the aura drifting from the soul bone and gathered around the Treasure-Dropping Coin.

That aura was impossible to describe. It was neither soul power nor spiritual power, much less life energy.

It was more ethereal than soul power, more profound and mysterious than spiritual power, and more primordial and pure than life energy.

A thought suddenly popped into Zhao Ming's mind. Could this be the Blue Silver Emperor's fortune?

Zhao Ming's thought was quickly confirmed.

The auras emerging from the Blue Silver Emperor and the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone met and fused within the Fortune-Gathering Domain. The Treasure-Dropping Coin absorbed, transformed, and condensed them without end.

The golden patterns on the coin's surface slowly began to light up. The glow grew brighter and brighter, more and more intense, until the entire coin was wrapped in dazzling golden light.

Zhao Ming felt incomparably comfortable. It was not physical comfort, but something deeper, as though something deep within his soul had been filled in and perfected.

He subconsciously sat cross-legged and circulated Nine-Breath Qi Absorption, entering a mysterious state of cultivation.

He remained seated for three days and three nights.

The sun, moon, and stars within the Mustard Seed Space followed their predetermined paths, and day and night alternated three times.

When Zhao Ming opened his eyes again, he felt like a different person.

More precisely, he had not become another person. Rather, something within his body had completed a transformation. The feeling was difficult to describe, as if his level of life had unknowingly risen by a step, changing even the way he viewed the world.

The first thing he checked was his soul power. Soul power far denser and purer than before surged through his meridians.

He had broken through to rank twenty-eight. And not merely the initial stage of rank twenty-eight, but the peak of rank twenty-eight, only one step away from rank twenty-nine.

But what shocked Zhao Ming even more came next.

He lowered his head to look at the Blue Silver Emperor Soul Bone in his hand. The hundred-thousand-year soul bone, once crystal-clear and suffused with a blue glow, had now completely changed.

The blue glow on the bone's surface had vanished entirely, as had the golden patterns within. The entire soul bone had turned a lifeless grayish white, like a dry bone weathered for a thousand years in the desert that would crumble to dust at the slightest touch.

The surging life force within the soul bone was gone, and so were the golden patterns unique to a hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor soul bone.

He instinctively looked toward the Blue Silver Emperor plant beside him, and the corner of his mouth twitched again.

The Blue Silver Emperor was gone as well. Only a single seed remained on the grass, a bean-sized seed that was entirely azure blue, lying quietly among the blades.

A faint blue glow flowed across the seed's surface, and he could vaguely sense a trace of weak life within it.

The hundred-thousand-year soul bone appeared ruined, and the Blue Silver Emperor had become a seed.

The culprit behind all this was hovering before him, smugly spinning in circles.

Zhao Ming raised his head and looked at the Treasure-Dropping Coin, then froze.

The Treasure-Dropping Coin was still a winged copper coin, but around its outer edge, there was now unmistakably a soul ring.

The color of that soul ring was extraordinarily peculiar. It was neither white, yellow, purple, black, nor red, but a deep, pure azure blue.