Tang Shuo's Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring! Qian Renxue's Shock! Tang San, Worlds Apart!

Qian Renxue's beautiful golden eyes were filled with horror.

What had she just seen?

An imperial phantom, a divine bell.

One toll of the bell, and souls were suppressed.

One strike of the bell, and all was annihilated.

That had been a fifty-thousand-year soul beast! A terrifying creature with formidable defense, lethal poison, and immense strength!

And just like that... it was gone?

Reduced to ashes.

What kind of technique was that?

Just recalling that imperial might and the bell's chime made Qian Renxue feel her soul tremble.

She slowly turned her head and once again scrutinized the youth walking toward the Spirit Ring, as though she were looking at a monster.

This man...

Who exactly was he?

Tang Shuo slowly walked to the center of the clearing and stopped before the purple-black Spirit Ring.

He did not absorb it immediately.

Instead, he crouched down, extended a hand, and made a grasping motion toward the ground that had been crushed into powder.

Buzz—

Strands of black mist, darker than ink, were forcibly drawn from the dust and gathered in his palm. They eventually condensed into an ink-black poison pearl the size of a longan.

Nine tiny protrusions covered the poison pearl's surface, identical to the poison sacs on the Nine-Heart Toad's back.

This was the essence of the fifty-thousand-year Nine-Heart Toad's deadly poison.

Tang Shuo casually took out a jade bottle and stored the poison pearl inside.

Only after finishing all this did he turn his gaze toward the Spirit Ring radiating an ominous aura.

Then, under Qian Renxue's astonished gaze, he sat down cross-legged.

"Have you lost your mind?"

Qian Renxue finally came back to her senses and cried out.

"You're going to absorb the Spirit Ring here?"

Tang Shuo raised his head and glanced at her, answering as though it were only natural.

"What else? If a Spirit Ring remains separated from its body for too long, its energy will dissipate."

Qian Renxue felt dizzy.

"This is a fifty-thousand-year Spirit Ring!"

"And it's only your second Spirit Ring!"

"Your body will explode!"

This completely defied every piece of Soul Master knowledge she knew.

The limit for a first Spirit Ring was four hundred and twenty-three years.

The limit for a second Spirit Ring was seven hundred and sixty-four years.

These were ironclad rules established by Spirit Hall after expending countless resources and manpower!

Tang Shuo's first Spirit Ring being ten thousand years old was already a miracle.

And now, he intended to absorb a fifty-thousand-year Spirit Ring as his second one?

This was not genius. This was suicide!

"My martial soul is somewhat special."

Tang Shuo merely replied indifferently.

The instant he finished speaking, he reached out and grabbed the Spirit Ring.

"Roar—!"

The moment it was touched, the Spirit Ring erupted with fierce resistance!

An invisible roar of a toad exploded within the spiritual realm. A torrent of violent, resentful, and crazed will surged toward Tang Shuo's sea of consciousness.

Qian Renxue's face turned pale. Even the aftershock of that Mental Shock made her mind shudder.

Yet Tang Shuo, seated on the ground, did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.

"Vile beast."

"You're dead, yet you still dare act so recklessly?"

Behind him, that hazy yet majestic golden imperial phantom appeared once more.

The imperial phantom merely opened its eyes faintly, and an unsurpassable majesty capable of suppressing eternity came crashing down.

"Croak... croak..."

Like a mouse seeing a cat, that torrent of violent will instantly collapsed. It let out a mournful cry and transformed into the most docile energy.

The Spirit Ring, which had been struggling violently, immediately fell quiet as well. Like a tame lamb, it willingly slipped over Tang Shuo's body.

Qian Renxue was completely speechless.

She could only watch as the purple-black Spirit Ring representing fifty thousand years of cultivation obediently fused into Tang Shuo's body without the slightest obstruction.

What a Demon Prodigy!

Just over level twenty, yet he was absorbing his second Spirit Ring.

His first ring was ten thousand years.

His second ring was fifty thousand years!

If word of this got out, every Soul Master on the continent would think it was a fantasy.

As the Spirit Ring fused with him, Tang Shuo's body began to tremble violently. Veins bulged beneath his skin as immense energy rampaged through his body.

His Soul Power Level began soaring at a frenzied pace visible to the naked eye.

Level twenty-one!

Level twenty-two!

Level twenty-three!

At last, the surging momentum slowly came to a halt at level twenty-five.

Tang Shuo suddenly opened his eyes.

Two Spirit Rings rose from beneath his feet.

No, that second Spirit Ring was pure black, gleaming with darkness, and seemed to faintly carry a trace of ominous dark red.

This was the mark of a Spirit Ring far beyond an ordinary Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Ring.

Tang Shuo slowly raised his right hand.

With a thought—

His second soul skill activated.

A translucent black ghost claw made entirely of Soul Power abruptly appeared in the air three meters before him.

The ghost claw lightly raked toward the ground.

Not a sound was made, yet the grass and trees in that area visibly withered and died, as if their life force and souls had been drained away in an instant.

Soul-Devouring Hand.

What a tyrannical ability.

Tang Shuo nodded in satisfaction and rose to his feet.

Meanwhile, at Shrek Academy.

The setting sun cast long shadows across the training field.

"Move! Move! Start running! Did none of you eat?"

Master Yu Xiaogang stood at the edge of the field with his arms folded, his expression blank.

On the field, seven figures carried heavy stone baskets as they struggled along the track.

Sweat had soaked through their clothes, and exhaustion was written across every face.

This was the new special training devised by the master: no Soul Power was allowed, and they had to rely entirely on physical strength to run twenty laps while carrying weights.

Tang San ran near the front of the group.

He regulated his breathing, his strides steady and powerful. Though he too was drenched in sweat, he was clearly in much better condition than the others.

His stone basket held the most stones, and the largest ones.

He had even taken some stones from Ning Rongrong's and Xiao Wu's baskets to share their burden.

The training ended.

Everyone collapsed onto the ground, gasping for breath.

Tang San sat cross-legged and silently sensed the changes in his Mysterious Heaven Skill.

After this period of special training under the master, he felt that both his physical condition and Soul Power had improved significantly.

He was already level twenty-nine.

He was only one step away from level thirty.

At that moment, another figure suddenly appeared in Tang San's mind.

His older brother, Tang Shuo.

Tang San inexplicably found it amusing.

What could he possibly use to compete with me?

Six years had passed. The other man had probably long accepted his fate in Holy Soul Village.

Perhaps he was still working in the fields with Grandpa Jack.

And I was already one of the Shrek Seven Monsters, renowned throughout Suotuo City, a level-twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster about to obtain my third Spirit Ring!

The gap between us would only grow wider and wider.

"Little San."

Dai Mubai, panting heavily, dropped down beside Tang San and gave him a thumbs-up.

"You really are a monster."

Dai Mubai looked at Tang San with clear admiration in his eyes.

"You train twice as much as we do every day, help Xiao Wu and Rongrong carry their share, and still finish first every time."