Ye Chenxing smiled faintly, then sat down cross-legged and nodded to Saber beside him.
Understanding his meaning, Saber planted her sword upside down in the ground and stood guard over him.
Seeing Ye Chenxing begin absorbing the soul ring, Di Tian hurried over to the Auspicious Beast and examined her anxiously.
"How do you feel, Auspicious Beast? Are you uncomfortable anywhere?"
Anything involving the Auspicious Beast required Di Tian to be exceptionally cautious.
"I'm fine." The Auspicious Beast shook her head. Not only was she not weakened in the slightest, but her golden eyes had become even brighter. "If anything, after that bead was extracted, I feel like my mind has become much clearer!"
At those words, Di Tian's eyes narrowed instantly, and an uncontrollable, terrifying killing intent erupted from the Beast God.
The human soul inside the Auspicious Beast had clearly been forcibly planted there by someone!
Combined with that ten-year-long feeling of being watched...
Those lofty gods of the God Realm had not only sealed off the soul beast race's path to godhood, but had now shamelessly set their sights on the Auspicious Beast as well. They intended to use that human soul as a vessel to steal the final vestiges of fortune belonging to the Star Dou Great Forest—and even the entire soul beast race!
If Ye Chenxing had not intervened today, the future of the soul beast race might truly have been buried without anyone realizing it.
A wave of lingering fear washed over Di Tian as he looked at Ye Chenxing, who was sitting cross-legged and absorbing the golden soul ring. His gaze was incomparably complicated.
He could not see through this boy.
How had he done it? Absorbing the Golden Tree's power, summoning a Martial Soul with ultimate combat strength, and even casually undoing the gods' tampering with the Auspicious Beast.
The shock Ye Chenxing had brought him today was simply too great.
At the same time, Di Tian found himself faintly anticipating what other surprises Ye Chenxing might bring him.
"However..."
Di Tian drew a deep breath and looked toward the depths of the Lake of Life.
"It seems today's events have completely exceeded my control. I must awaken my lord and report everything to her."
While Di Tian's mind was in turmoil, the Auspicious Beast had already curiously approached Saber and struck up a conversation without any guard.
"Who are you? You're so strange. You're obviously human, so why do I feel such a familiar aura from you?"
Saber remained on guard. Hearing the Auspicious Beast's question, she pondered for a moment before answering calmly.
"Because Master used your fur as the medium during the summoning ritual that brought me into this world. I was able to manifest through the Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Light that share the same origin as you."
The Auspicious Beast tilted her head and blinked, seeming to understand but not quite.
Not only was the human before her beautiful, but she also carried an aura that made her feel close to her.
Even Saber herself did not know that she had already left a deep impression in the Auspicious Beast's heart.
Soon after, the Lake of Life fell into a brief silence.
Suddenly, a sacred and vast aura surged powerfully from Ye Chenxing's body.
A golden soul ring surrounded by a blue-pink halo slowly appeared beneath his feet.
His first soul ring had been fully absorbed.
Bathed in that immense energy, Ye Chenxing's body underwent a visible transformation. His originally delicate yet slightly childish features lost some of their youthful immaturity, his body grew several inches taller, and his entire aura became deeper and more inscrutable.
"It's finally over."
Ye Chenxing slowly opened his eyes and let out a long breath of stale air.
Compared to the increase in his abilities, this slight change in appearance was hardly worth mentioning to him.
The most immediate gain was the tremendous surge in his Soul Power—an entire ten levels!
That was right. Without any instability whatsoever, his Soul Power had been forcibly raised by ten levels, directly reaching the threshold of a Soul Grandmaster. As long as he absorbed another soul ring, he could break through at any time.
His physical strength had reached the level of a beast Martial Soul Soul Ancestor. In other words, if Ye Chenxing's spiritual power was also sufficient, he could directly absorb a soul ring more than nine thousand years old.
If one spoke purely of his capacity to withstand soul ring absorption, Ye Chenxing's spiritual power could no longer be measured by common sense.
When the Fantasy Tree within his body successfully awakened, his sea of consciousness had transformed into a Mind Star Sea.
From then on, he would be permanently immune to mental attacks of any level and able to withstand soul rings of any level. Even if Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's million-year spiritual power were poured into his Mind Star Sea, it would be like a mayfly trying to shake a tree.
It was only that, for now, he possessed capacity without matching strength. His spiritual power was merely at the unremarkable level of a high-ranking Spirit Emperor.
And this was merely the passive enhancement brought by this unprecedented soul ring.
The Hall of Heroes Martial Soul allowed Ye Chenxing to perform a Heroic Spirit Summoning every time he broke through a bottleneck. The identity of the summoned Heroic Spirit would be related to the medium and the soul ring absorbed during that breakthrough.
But if it could merely summon Heroic Spirits, its strength among the Martial Souls of countless transmigrators would only be considered above average.
Its true power lay in allowing Ye Chenxing to use all the summoned being's abilities unconditionally, while retaining the soul skills granted by the soul ring itself.
This "three-in-one" soul ring, formed from the Auspicious Beast, the Six-Winged Angel, and a fragment of the God King's daughter's soul, had granted him soul skills that were practically cheats.
First was the ability of a Master.
The current Ye Chenxing could unconditionally use all of Saber's skills as though they were his own soul skills.
That was right—all of them.
Ye Chenxing sank his consciousness into the Mind Star Sea and took a brief look: Angel Assault, Angel Roar, Angel Judgment, Angel True Form, Angel Phantom, Angel Sacred Fire, Angel Light, Divine Judgment, Angel Domain, Angel Blessing... In an instant, the dense array of skills was enough to dazzle the eye.
How was this merely giving him a first soul skill? It was practically serving a god-level Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul right onto his table.
One had to know that Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's million-year soul ring had only given Huo Yuhao an empty Martial Soul slot in the original story.
As for Ye Chenxing's empty slots, excluding the Martial Soul Avatar, he still had seven full slots remaining.
Second was the same soul skill Huo Yuhao had not obtained until his sixth ring in the original story—Deprivation of Fate!
Its effect was simple and brutal: it directly dissolved all of the opponent's defenses on the level of fate. This meant that once struck by this move, all of Ye Chenxing's subsequent attacks would deal true damage with every blow!
Watching Ye Chenxing complete his transformation from afar, Di Tian could not help but sigh inwardly.
Humans truly were the darlings of heaven. Merely absorbing a soul ring could bring about such a drastic change.
And this young man's talent was unprecedented even among those favored children of heaven. There would likely never be another like him.
Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, Di Tian tactfully avoided the subject of soul skills and asked in a low voice, "The god who left his scheme within the Auspicious Beast probably will not let this go. You have ruined his plans this time. How do you intend to deal with it?"
Before you continue