Second Spirit Ring, Soul Shock!

Hello, everyone. I was a Void-Devouring Hou with nearly eight thousand years of cultivation.

First, I needed to make something clear: I had never provoked anyone. At first, I had simply been diligently absorbing the fragmented energy of space to improve my cultivation.

I had wanted to rely on my own efforts, along with the strange jade I had obtained from the shattered space before, to break through to ten thousand years and reach a realm no member of my clan had attained in all these years.

Then I would find my father, who had been missing for many years, rule the entire Void-Devouring Hou clan, marry my beloved Xiaomei, and have a whole litter of cubs.

After that, I would head farther up the mountain. There had to be spatial rifts there with even richer energy, and I could use them to cultivate to one hundred thousand years, five hundred thousand years, and then become a god.

But my grand ten-thousand-year plan had been ruined by an old man. I had only been absorbing energy there. I hadn't gone looking for trouble with you.

Was it just because I was a soul beast?

Did soul beasts deserve to die?

I was captured by that powerful old man and brought before him and a little child. I instinctively tried to escape, but the old man raised his hand and blasted me with black soul power. I felt like I was going to die.

My ten-thousand-year cultivation, my father, my Xiaomei... it all seemed to be slipping away from me.

In the end, I saw that human child take out a dark-blue steel tube. Its pitch-black opening was aimed at me, and then a beam of light pierced through my skull.

My consciousness gradually sank into darkness.

I was so unwilling...

Streams of light rose from the Void-Devouring Hou's fallen body. In the end, they gathered together and formed a magnificent purple Spirit Ring.

Seeing this, Xu Tianchen immediately sat cross-legged before the Spirit Ring. The Purple Radiance Annihilating Heaven Dragon martial soul possessed him, and he used his own soul power to draw the still-floating Spirit Ring down onto himself.

Once the Spirit Ring settled around him, Xu Tianchen felt a surge of soul power crash into him. Fortunately, his body was powerful, and he easily withstood the first wave.

Then something Xu Tianchen had not expected happened.

"Roar~~~"

The Void-Devouring Hou's roar suddenly echoed through Xu Tianchen's Sea of Spirit, stirring wave after wave across its once-calm surface.

This was...

Soul Shock!

Xu Tianchen's spiritual body looked at the Void-Devouring Hou roaring within his Sea of Spirit. Its limbs were powerful, its hooves resembled a horse's, and its claws resembled a lion's. He had never expected absorbing this Void-Devouring Hou's Spirit Ring to trigger Soul Shock!

This wasn't scientific—ah, no.

This wasn't spirit-masterly!

Under normal circumstances, Soul Shock only occurred when a Spirit Master absorbed a ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring. But this Void-Devouring Hou was at most eight thousand years old. How could it have caused Soul Shock?

Xu Tianchen couldn't understand it. Could it be because this soul beast possessed powerful spiritual power?

Or had it eaten some heavenly treasure?

Xu Tianchen didn't know, but he had to deal with this sudden Soul Shock first. If he let the Void-Devouring Hou continue wreaking havoc in his Sea of Spirit, who knew what kind of damage his Sea of Spirit would suffer.

The next moment, Xu Tianchen manifested a body within his Sea of Spirit and, drawing on the Sea of Spirit's support, collided with the Void-Devouring Hou.

In truth, this level of Soul Shock was entirely manageable for the current Xu Tianchen. He had been a transmigrator to begin with, so his spiritual power was naturally strong. Then the Plane Spirit had helped him open up his Sea of Spirit, strengthening his spiritual power yet again.

His first Spirit Ring had come from a Mutant Evil Eye, and he had also gained an External Soul Bone. Since increasing one's soul power rank could also improve spiritual power, all those factors combined meant Xu Tianchen's spiritual power was at least on par with an ordinary Soul Emperor, if not a Soul Sage. If his physical constitution had been a little better, he would have wanted to absorb a ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring directly.

So dealing with this was still easy.

At first, he had merely been mentally unprepared and got caught off guard.

But after Xu Tianchen adjusted, he immediately began beating the Void-Devouring Hou down, hitting it so badly that it lost all sense of direction.

More importantly, Xu Tianchen discovered that every blow he landed scattered part of the Void-Devouring Hou's spiritual phantom. Each time it scattered further, he felt his own spiritual power grow stronger and more solid.

He could feel his Sea of Spirit gradually expanding as the Void-Devouring Hou dispersed. Wasn't this a feast delivered right to his door?

In this era, spiritual power was difficult to improve. Among Spirit Masters, aside from spiritual-type Spirit Masters, most could only passively improve their spiritual power as their soul power increased.

No wonder Spirit Masters improved so much after absorbing ten-thousand-year Spirit Rings. It seemed Soul Shock was both tempering and reward.

Meanwhile, Long Xiaoyao, who was standing guard for Xu Tianchen outside, was expertly poking at the Void-Devouring Hou's corpse.

That was right, he was poking it with a wooden stick he had found somewhere. He started by probing its torso.

With one poke, he struck something rather hard. Long Xiaoyao instantly put down the book in his hand. He first pried the object out, then waved his hand, and the thing he had extracted flew directly into his palm.

One was a transparent jade stone as thick as an index finger, with a stream of black air circulating within it.

The other was a torso bone, but perhaps because of its age, it was badly incomplete and nowhere near as good as the right arm bone Xu Tianchen had absorbed before.

Long Xiaoyao took a look and found both items unremarkable. He set them aside and continued reading the book in his hand. Long Xiaoyao loved reading; reading made him happy.

Before long, as Xu Tianchen drew the Spirit Ring into his body, it marked the successful completion of his second Spirit Ring absorption.

Xu Tianchen slowly opened his eyes. As sunlight fell upon his pupils, a faint gleam flashed through them. He stretched his body, stiff from sitting so long while absorbing the Spirit Ring, and felt wonderful. As his gaze shifted, he spotted the two items on the ground.

"This..."

Xu Tianchen had not expected another Soul Bone to drop, and it was even a torso bone. Unfortunately, it was only a thousand-year Soul Bone. There was no way he would absorb it; his goal was to gather a full set of at least one-hundred-thousand-year Soul Bones. He would keep it for now. At the very least, it had some collector's value.

"Mm, both of those items came from that Void-Devouring Hou. But don't even think about absorbing that torso bone!"

When Long Xiaoyao saw Xu Tianchen awaken, he hurriedly put away the book in his hand and warned him.

"Then what is this?" Xu Tianchen asked Long Xiaoyao, lifting the jade beside him.

Long Xiaoyao shook his head. "I don't know either. Anyway, I didn't sense anything unusual from it. This thing isn't dangerous. If you want it, just keep it."

Xu Tianchen nodded, but as he looked at the jade, he felt as though he had seen it somewhere before. He simply could not remember where.

"Master, Soul Shock only appears with ten-thousand-year Spirit Rings, right?" Xu Tianchen asked Long Xiaoyao after placing the jade into his soul tool.

"Yes. For soul beasts, ten thousand years is an important dividing line, far beyond ten years or a hundred years. Normally, when soul beasts reach ten thousand years, they awaken intelligence. After they die, remnants of their souls remain within their Spirit Rings and cause Soul Shock. Ten-year and hundred-year soul beasts don't have that because their spiritual power is too weak to leave behind lingering thoughts in their Spirit Rings."

Long Xiaoyao gave Xu Tianchen a detailed explanation.

"Are there no special cases?"

"Hm? Why do you ask? Did you encounter one? That shouldn't be possible, should it? This Void-Devouring Hou isn't a soul beast that specializes in spiritual power. Did it injure your spirit? That kind of injury is difficult to treat. Let me take a look, quickly!"

When Long Xiaoyao heard Xu Tianchen ask that, he immediately grew anxious. Afraid that something might be wrong with him, he hurried over to examine him.

Although they had not known each other for long, Xu Tianchen was talented and had a temperament that suited Long Xiaoyao's tastes. On top of that, Long Xiaoyao believed he had no descendants, while Xu Tianchen was his only disciple. He truly regarded Xu Tianchen as his own child.

Xu Tianchen could see Long Xiaoyao's concern, and he was deeply moved. After all, such an instinctive reaction could not be faked. It proved that Long Xiaoyao truly cared about him.

"I'm fine, Master. You know my spiritual power has always been strong."

Though Xu Tianchen said so, he still let Long Xiaoyao examine him. Otherwise, Long Xiaoyao would not have been reassured.

After finishing the examination, Long Xiaoyao let out a sigh of relief and said to Xu Tianchen, "There is another possibility, though it is rare. It usually occurs with spiritual-type soul beasts. As I said before, Soul Shock is caused by a powerful soul beast soul. So long as a soul beast's spiritual power reaches the level of a ten-thousand-year soul beast, it can cause Soul Shock."

Xu Tianchen nodded at the side, indicating that he understood.

"Oh, right. You can sense your soul power rank. There's a surprise."

After saying that, Long Xiaoyao watched Xu Tianchen with the corners of his lips curling up slightly, waiting for his disciple to show a surprised expression.