Paranormal Item: Human-Skin Mask

After absorbing the soul ring, it was nearly evening.

Ning Chen grabbed a quick bite to eat, then hurried toward the exit of the Star Dou Great Forest.

Although the Azure Wood Puppet was fairly strong, it was ultimately still a puppet. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's augmentation soul skills had no effect on it whatsoever.

Now that Ning Chen's Soul Power had reached the Grand Soul Master level, his strength had grown again, and he was faster than before.

With the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's second soul skill and the Wind-Chasing Boots, the Azure Wood Puppet could not keep up when he traveled at full speed, so he directly recalled it into the spatial barrier.

He activated the Wind-Chasing Boots, summoned the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, used its second soul skill to enhance himself, and raced at full speed toward the Star Dou Great Forest's exit.

At this point, Ning Chen's speed was no less than that of a Soul Ancestor.

There were rarely ten-thousand-year soul beasts in the outer regions of the Star Dou Great Forest. At Ning Chen's current speed, aside from speed-type soul beasts like the Phoenix-Tailed Cockscomb Snake—

Among thousand-year soul beasts, few could catch up to him. With the Nine Yang Divine Skill running at full force to heighten his senses, he encountered no danger along the way.

By the time night fell, he had left the Star Dou Great Forest.

The market outside was still bustling. Ning Chen found an inn and stayed the night, then headed for Soto City early the next morning.

The Star Dou Great Forest was roughly five hundred kilometers from Soto City, but traveling at full speed, Ning Chen reached Soto City in less than a day.

When he arrived at Soto City, the sun had not yet set. Ning Chen entered the city directly.

Now that he was in the city, he naturally needed to find a place to stay.

While there was still daylight, Ning Chen strolled through Soto City as he searched for a suitable inn.

"Wait, this is..."

Not long after entering Soto City, Ning Chen suddenly spotted a distinctive hotel by the roadside.

The hotel was three stories tall and not particularly large, but its exterior was decorated like a blooming rose, making it extremely eye-catching.

"Rose Hotel?"

Ning Chen raised a brow. He recognized this famous love hotel in Soto City, the place that had also served as Dai Mubai's love nest for a long time after he joined Shrek Academy.

But at this point in time, Dai Mubai should only have been around ten years old and had not yet come to Soto City.

The Rose Hotel was far too ostentatious, so Ning Chen naturally had no intention of staying there. In the end, he found a clean little inn and settled in.

The night passed without incident.

Early the next morning, Ning Chen washed up and checked out of the inn.

Although he had obtained his second soul ring, Ning Chen had no plans to return to Barak City.

He had only been temporarily staying in Barak City and had never intended to remain there for long. Now that he had come to Soto City, he decided to settle down here instead.

After breakfast, Ning Chen began looking for a house to rent in Soto City.

He still had over two thousand gold soul coins in his soul tool, so money was not an issue. In the end, he rented a two-story house with a courtyard in Soto City's prosperous eastern district.

Two gold soul coins a month would have been a huge sum for ordinary commoners, but to Ning Chen, it was pocket change.

Thus, Ning Chen was considered settled in Soto City.

Over the following days, Ning Chen returned to the life he had led in Barak City, cultivating while refining artifacts.

Several months passed in the blink of an eye.

Ning Chen had already been away from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School for a year, and his physique had undergone a dramatic transformation.

Unlike the thin, frail boy he had been at the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, Ning Chen had now grown tall, lean, and athletic.

Though he was only nine years old, he was already as tall as a boy of fourteen or fifteen.

Not only that, Ning Chen's strength had reached an astonishing level thirty-six!

What did level thirty-six at the age of nine even mean?

Even the Sea God, who had dominated the seas and eventually become a god twenty thousand years ago, could not possibly have possessed such strength at the age of nine!

If word got out, every soul master sect on the continent would be driven mad!

This was absolutely unparalleled talent and strength, a peak that soul masters of the same age on Douluo Continent could never surpass!

Furthermore, over these past few months, Ning Chen had thoroughly mastered Heavenly Craft Pavilion's Introductory Guide to Dao Refining.

He had also spent nearly all his wealth to forge a complete set of fourth-grade artifact tools at the level of soul tools.

A fourth-grade Fierce Slash Blade, fourth-grade Earthguard Armor, and fourth-grade Wind-Chasing Boots.

Using the remaining materials, he had also forged several immensely powerful one-use artifact tools: Azure Flame Pearls.

They could be considered enhanced versions of Thunderfire Thunderbolt Bombs, but according to the Introductory Guide to Dao Refining, their power was sufficient to break through the defenses of a defense-type Soul Ancestor.

If he had enough of them, they could even blow a Soul King-level expert to death.

Unfortunately, after forging the fourth-grade Fierce Slash Blade, Earthguard Armor, and Wind-Chasing Boots, Ning Chen's gold soul coins had been depleted, leaving him with only around two hundred.

He no longer had the money to buy materials to make Azure Flame Pearls.

By this point, Ning Chen was also planning to leave Soto City.

Originally, he had wanted to remain in Soto City for six years, waiting until Ning Rongrong ran away from home and came to Shrek Academy, then finding an opportunity to ambush and kill her.

But the more Ning Chen thought about it, the more foolish it seemed to stay in Soto City for six years just to wait for an uncertain chance at revenge.

Besides, Soto City was huge. Even if Ning Rongrong truly came to Soto City, would he definitely run into her?

After she enrolled at Shrek Academy, Flender and Zhao Wuji, two high-ranking Soul Sages, would be openly present.

There might even be an unnamed Super Douluo hidden in the shadows, leaving Ning Chen with even less chance to act.

After considering it from every angle, he decided to head to Heaven Dou City instead.

Although the Myriad Realms Roulette had drawn almost nothing useful to Ning Chen over the past few months—

Just last month, however, Ning Chen had obtained an exceptionally useful item.

It was a paranormal item from a bizarre world known as the Human-Skin Mask.

It looked like a mask made from human skin, but once worn, it naturally merged with his face and transformed it into an entirely unfamiliar, fixed appearance.

Moreover, after expending a large amount of Soul Power, he could control the Human-Skin Mask to temporarily alter his physical state. The duration depended on how much Soul Power he supplied.

And because the rules of that bizarre world differed, although the Human-Skin Mask had been adapted for this world and could be activated using only Soul Power—

The bizarre laws within it, which formed the source of its abilities, had been preserved to the greatest possible extent.

As a result, although the Human-Skin Mask was not especially high-grade, due to the differing world rules, even if a Title Douluo personally examined the face and body it altered, they would never discover anything abnormal.

What else could Ning Chen say? Only one phrase—holy shit—could express his amazement at the Human-Skin Mask's heaven-defying effects. It was simply an indispensable divine tool for home, travel, murder, and arson!

The Human-Skin Mask's only side effect was that if it altered his physical state for more than half an incense stick's worth of time, his body would undergo irreversible changes.

Those changes could be beneficial, or they could be some extremely ugly form of mutation.