Just as Fang Yuan remembered, this Man Faced Demon Spider had indeed dropped an External Soul Bone.
This External Soul Bone was contained within the Soul Ring produced by the Man Faced Demon Spider. Whenever someone absorbed this Soul Ring, they were actually absorbing both the Soul Ring and the Soul Bone at the same time.
The energy contained within the Soul Rings of Man Faced Demon Spiders was already inherently violent, and the Soul Bone was naturally no less so.
The difficulty of absorbing both a Soul Ring and a Soul Bone at once was easy enough to imagine.
According to the original timeline, even Tang San had no idea how many tricks he had relied on before successfully making both the Soul Ring and the External Soul Bone his own.
Others, lacking the protagonist's plot armor, naturally had only one outcome: exploding to death.
Using the excuse of helping Meng Yiran, Fang Yuan had separately drawn the Soul Bone out of the Soul Ring's energy and hidden it within the Supreme Immortal Aperture.
As for the Man Faced Demon Spider's Soul Ring, although it had become Tang San's third Soul Ring in the original work, Fang Yuan had already made better preparations for the present-day Tang San. There was naturally no need to collect everything.
Once he had finished fishing in troubled waters, Meng Yiran, who sat cross-legged on the ground, had completely stabilized as well.
Most of the energy from the Man Faced Demon Spider's Soul Ring had been absorbed by her body, while a small portion entered her Martial Soul.
This allowed her body to bear such a burden.
After a while, Meng Yiran slowly opened her lovely eyes.
Three Soul Rings—two yellow and one purple—danced up and down around her body, shining brilliantly.
The appearance of the purple Soul Ring meant that she had successfully absorbed the Man Faced Demon Spider's Soul Ring.
Her eyes blinked, but rather than immediately looking toward Meng Shu or Chao Tianxiang, she looked at Fang Yuan.
"Were you the one who helped me just now?" Her tone was full of doubt.
Fang Yuan merely stood to the side with a smile on his face, saying nothing.
"Yiran, how do you feel now?" Chao Tianxiang had long been frantic with worry. Unable to restrain herself any longer when she saw Meng Yiran open her eyes, she hurriedly asked about her condition.
Meng Yiran lowered her eyes and sensed herself for a moment before saying, "Grandma, I feel very good now. At first, the energy contained in that Soul Ring was vast and ferocious. It was like scalding hot water, tearing through my body.
"But just as I was about to fail, I suddenly felt outside help. It reduced part of that energy, allowing me to refine it successfully."
After she finished speaking, Meng Shu, Chao Tianxiang, and Meng Yiran all turned their eyes toward Fang Yuan at the same time.
Meng Shu spoke. "Sir... no, little brother Fang Yuan, how did you do that just now? Given my granddaughter's condition at the time, what method did you use to stabilize her?"
Although probing into another person's methods was somewhat impolite, Meng Shu was too stirred up to care about such minor details.
For some reason, Fang Yuan's attitude toward Meng Shu was rather warm. He smiled and replied:
"It is truly an honor to be called little brother by Senior Duke Long. The method I used was actually quite simple. It was my fourth soul skill, Adaptation Gu.
"If someone tried to swallow an enormous pancake in one bite, he would surely choke to death. But if he adapted and ate only half while holding the other half in his hand, he would fill his stomach while also saving food for later.
"My fourth soul skill, Adaptation Gu, can achieve that effect. I divided the energy of that Man Faced Demon Spider Soul Ring into two portions. One portion was absorbed by your granddaughter to become her Soul Ring, while the other was stored in her Martial Soul. Once her physical constitution becomes strong enough, she can absorb it and increase the age of her Soul Ring."
Fang Yuan's explanation was simple and easy to understand. After hearing him, all three of them came to a sudden realization.
However, their expressions were all somewhat strange.
Chao Tianxiang muttered, "I've lived for so many years, yet I've never heard of a Soul Ring with such a peculiar ability. It truly is unheard of."
Meng Shu, meanwhile, suddenly understood. "Could it be that you stopped us and had my granddaughter quickly absorb the Soul Ring because you saw that the Man Faced Demon Spider's age was too high and wanted to help protect her?"
At Meng Shu's words, Chao Tianxiang and Meng Yiran also looked enlightened. The way they looked at Fang Yuan softened considerably.
So this young man had noticed something was wrong from the start. His seemingly rude and baffling actions earlier had been an act of helping others?
Fang Yuan was slightly taken aback, then smiled. "It was merely a small effort. The two of you helped me greatly before. How could I possibly stand by and do nothing?"
Upon hearing this, Meng Shu immediately realized Fang Yuan was referring to how he and Chao Tianxiang had used their Martial Soul Fusion Skill to stop the fleeing Myriad Beast Demon Spirit.
However, now that Fang Yuan had helped their granddaughter absorb her Soul Ring and they knew he bore no ill intent, Meng Shu no longer found the matter quite so terrifying when he thought back on it.
He laughed heartily. "Little brother Fang Yuan is truly righteous. A drop of kindness need not be repaid with a gushing spring. Your temperament suits this old man very well. If our ages were not so far apart, I would have wanted to become sworn brothers with you!"
Chao Tianxiang smiled as well. "Yes, my old man likes loyal and righteous people most. How old are you now?"
They could tell that Fang Yuan was probably not very old, but they did not dare make a rash guess as to his exact age.
Among Soul Masters, quite a few had ways of preserving their youthful appearance. Judging age by outward looks was not necessarily reliable.
Fang Yuan smiled faintly. "I am only twenty-five this year. I truly am quite a bit younger than you, Senior."
There was a calm and carefree air in his laughter, but the only response was the faint rustling of wind through the forest.
Meng Shu and the other two stood dumbfounded, utterly silent.
After a long while, Meng Shu's dry voice sounded again. "You... are twenty-five?"
Fang Yuan turned his gaze toward him. "What is it? Is there a problem?"
Meng Shu's voice became somewhat strange. "And at twenty-five, you killed a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast earlier? Then absorbed its Soul Ring?"
Fang Yuan smiled. "Just luck."
The three of them swallowed in unison.
What did he mean, just luck? Talking like that made it sound as if he liked cutting things close!
After a while.
Fang Yuan stood alone to one side with his eyes lightly closed. In the distance, Meng Yiran held her Serpent Cane Martial Soul as she tested her new soul skill.
Meng Shu and Chao Tianxiang, who had only just managed to accept this fact, now looked at Fang Yuan very differently.
The two quietly drew close together. Not only did they avoid Fang Yuan, they even made sure to keep their granddaughter Meng Yiran out of earshot.
"Old man, what do you think of this young fellow? Would he be a good match for our Yiran?"
Chao Tianxiang cast meaningful glances in Fang Yuan's direction as she asked Meng Shu.
Meng Shu's voice carried unmistakable frustration. "Old woman, your habit of matchmaking has flared up again. What we should be considering is whether Yiran is worthy of Fang Yuan.
"He is only twenty-five, yet he already has the cultivation of an eight-ringed Soul Douluo on par with mine, and his eighth Soul Ring is a terrifying hundred-thousand-year one. At this rate, he will almost certainly become a Title Douluo before forty. What terrifying talent is that?"
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