Thunder Soul Ring

The rain stopped.

The Purple Thunder Spirit Sword hovered before Su Chen, the thunder patterns on its blade pulsing with a rhythmic light.

Hu Liena crouched nearby, staring at the sword for a long time.

"Will this sword suddenly strike people?"

"It will."

"Then stay away from me."

Su Chen raised his hand and gripped the hilt.

"If it strikes anyone, it'll strike you first. Who told you to keep crowding so close just now?"

Hu Liena stood up immediately and took two steps back, though her mouth remained defiant.

"I was checking your injuries."

"Are you done looking?"

"There are scorch marks on your palms. Are your meridians alright?"

"Senior sister, when did you learn to care about people?"

"Don't get cocky."

Bibi Dong did not join their bickering, her gaze remaining fixed on the Purple Thunder Spirit Sword.

The ordinary iron sword had been tempered by two bolts of heavenly lightning and had already transcended its original state.

Su Chen's soul power level remained at ten, and the pale purple energy within his body did not belong to ordinary soul power.

"Su Chen."

"Teacher."

"You said the soul ring hasn't appeared yet. What do you plan to do next?"

Su Chen laid the sword across his knees, closing his eyes to sense the changes within.

Thunder entered the sword, and it entered his body.

The Purple Thunder Spirit Sword carried a portion of the thunder's intent, but more of the thunder-attribute laws remained scattered between his meridians and his dantian.

The purple energy circulated slowly around his dantian; every time it completed a cycle, the thunder patterns on the sword would light up in response.

What did a soul ring require?

The age of a soul beast, soul power, attributes, and the law imprints left behind upon death.

Ordinary soul masters absorbed soul rings by incorporating external power into their martial souls.

But the path he had to walk could not simply be stuffing thunder into a sword.

He had to make the Purple Thunder Spirit Sword and the thunder arts truly become one.

"First, condense the seal."

Bibi Dong's gaze sharpened.

"What seal?"

"The seal of the thunder laws."

Hu Liena did not understand.

"Isn't a soul ring a circle? How did it become a seal?"

"The circle is just what it looks like from the outside; its essence is the law of power."

Su Chen raised his hand, and a wisp of purple electric light floated above his palm.

"After a soul beast dies, its soul power dissipates, but the attribute laws remain due to the attraction of the martial soul. Since a soul beast can leave them behind, the thunder laws can be left behind as well."

Bibi Dong remained silent.

She wanted to refute him, but the thunder patterns on the Purple Thunder Spirit Sword were right before her eyes.

Su Chen had not used a soul beast to test the sword, nor had he absorbed a soul ring, yet he had already caused an ordinary iron sword to undergo a thunder-attribute transformation.

This child was using facts to force her to re-evaluate the soul master system.

"What are you going to do?"

"Draw out the thunder intent within my body and strike it into my martial soul."

"And if you fail?"

"The thunder intent dissipates. At worst, it's all for nothing."

Bibi Dong looked at the scorch marks on Su Chen's palms.

"Just all for nothing?"

"With Teacher nearby, it won't be easy for me to have a major accident."

Hu Liena immediately chimed in.

"I'll be watching this time, too. If you dare to push yourself, I'm going to find Elder Ju."

Su Chen glanced at her.

"What are you going to find Elder Ju for?"

"To have Elder Ju tie you back up."

"I'm six years old, senior sister. Don't you think saying that is like bullying a child?"

Hu Liena opened her mouth, suddenly realizing she truly had no way to refute him.

A hint of a smile flashed in Bibi Dong's eyes as she raised her hand to set up a soul power barrier around the high platform.

"Begin."

Su Chen sat cross-legged.

With the Purple Thunder Spirit Sword resting on his legs, the Supreme Guidance Art began to circulate slowly.

The residual moisture between heaven and earth had not yet dissipated, and the thunder-attribute energy in the air was much more active than usual.

Those minute forces followed his breathing into his body, not merging directly into his dantian but flowing along his meridians.

One cycle.

Two cycles.

Three cycles.

The purple energy in his dantian was slowly stirred.

Su Chen sank his mind into it, the process of drawing the lightning from just moments ago appearing in his mind.

The sword drew the might of heaven.

When the heavenly lightning fell, the Purple Thunder Spirit Sword bore the form of the thunder.

When his meridians circulated, his body bore the intent of the thunder.

What was missing now was to combine the form and the intent.

[Ding!]

[Observing the thunder patterns of the Purple Thunder Spirit Sword, comprehending the circulation of your own thunder intent.]

[Combining the Violet Firmament Thunder-Attracting Art with the origin of your martial soul, enlightenment successful.]

[Self-created soul ring condensation method: Thunder Seal Ring Method.]

A new technique flooded his mind.

A soul ring was not fabricated out of thin air; it was forged bit by bit, using one's own martial soul as the root, the laws of heaven and earth as the material, and the soul master's mind as the hammer.

Without the support of a soul beast's soul power, he would supplement it with spiritual energy.

Without the interference of a soul beast's lingering thoughts, he could make the soul ring closer to the origin of his martial soul.

Su Chen raised both hands, his ten fingers resting on either side of the sword.

"Violet Firmament as the guide, thunder seal becomes the ring."

The thunder patterns on the sword began to swim.

Hu Liena held her breath.

The purple patterns that had originally been distributed only along the spine of the sword were now being pulled by some force, slowly detaching from the blade and floating before Su Chen.

One line.

Two lines.

Dozens of tiny thunder patterns intertwined.

Bibi Dong's gaze grew increasingly profound.

She could feel that those thunder patterns were not mere soul power, but genuine thunder-attribute laws.

Compared to a soul beast's soul ring, this power lacked bestiality and the sense of impurity.

It was clean to the point of being unbelievable.

The thunder patterns contracted continuously, gradually condensing into a pale purple ring.

The ring was very faint at first, as if a gust of wind could blow it away.

Su Chen frowned slightly, accelerating the circulation of spiritual energy within his body.

"It's still missing a little."

Hu Liena was somewhat anxious.

"Missing what? Can I help?"

"If your Demon Fox soul power gets mixed in, this ring will turn pink."

"What's wrong with pink? It looks quite nice."

"A pink ring hanging on a sword? Are we girls fighting?"

"Su Chen!"

Bibi Dong raised a hand to stop them.

"Quiet."

Hu Liena immediately shut her mouth, though her fists clenched tighter.

Su Chen did not borrow from the external thunder again.

He could draw heavenly lightning once, but he couldn't rely on the heavens' favor every time.

To condense his own soul ring, he had to use the thunder intent he had left behind.

The purple energy in his dantian was drawn out bit by bit; his meridians felt a slight stinging pain, and the thunder patterns on the sword dimmed a fraction.

Su Chen did not hesitate, sending all the purple energy into that faint ring.

The next moment, the ring suddenly solidified.

A pale purple light unfolded in mid-air.

The ring lacked the white of an ordinary hundred-year soul ring, nor did it have the purple of a thousand-year soul ring; instead, it was deep purple with silver-white thunder lines. Each thunder line seemed to extend from the sword, slowly rotating around Su Chen.

A mutated soul ring hovered above the Purple Thunder Spirit Sword.

Hu Liena's eyes widened.

"It really came out..."

Bibi Dong did not speak immediately.

She had seen countless soul rings.

Ten-year white rings, hundred-year yellow rings, thousand-year purple rings, ten-thousand-year black rings.

The age of a soul ring represented the time a soul beast had accumulated, and it also signified the upper limit of the power a soul master could withstand.

But this soul ring before her could not be measured by age at all.

It had no lingering soul of a beast, no resentment left by slaughter, and none of the conflicts common when absorbing a soul ring.

It came from Su Chen himself, and it had borrowed the thunder of heaven and earth.

"Teacher, how many years does this count as?"

Su Chen opened his eyes and looked at it for a while.

"There's no way to calculate it."

"How can there be no way to calculate it?"

"However long a soul beast lives is how many years it has, but this isn't a soul beast."

Hu Liena walked halfway around the soul ring.