Thousand-Fold Energy

Because the Beast Tide had already begun, they no longer needed to proceed as cautiously as they had before entering. Every second counted, so they unleashed their speed and raced onward.

Li Ming led the way. Although his Soul Power was far inferior to that of a Spirit Emperor or Spirit Saint, his physical capabilities were not weak, and he did not hold the group back while running.

In the blink of an eye, more than an hour passed.

They successfully escaped to the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, but the atmosphere within the team grew increasingly strange. Everyone remained silent, communicating only through their eyes.

Who would have believed that, amid a Beast Tide, they would leave the perilous Star Dou Forest so smoothly?

They had not seen a single Soul Beast along the way.

At first, they had even suspected the Beast Tide was fake. But they had seen countless corpses along the road—both Soul Beasts and Soul Masters lay scattered everywhere.

The Soul Beasts had been attacking both Soul Masters and one another.

Li Ming sensed the confusion and questions in their gazes, yet he merely kept a cold face and offered no answer.

Even he found the matter exceedingly strange and could not explain it.

In the end, they emerged from the Star Dou Great Forest completely unscathed.

"Finally escaped that damned place. Beast Tides still break out there from time to time now. I'm never coming back.

"This work is truly deadly. Even a team like ours can't guarantee we'll get out in one piece.

"Once we get tangled up, who knows how many Soul Beasts will appear.

"They may attack each other too, but when it comes to Soul Masters, we're their first priority.

"We saw an awful lot of dead people on the road!"

Having narrowly escaped death, the rough-looking man finally relaxed completely after leaving the Star Dou Great Forest. He sprawled directly onto the ground without a care for his image.

"Hmph, did it kill you? You didn't even lose a single hair on the way, so where did all this nonsense come from?"

Guli had a fiery temper. She immediately snapped at him, walked over, and kicked him up from the ground.

"Little brother, the route you led us along was rather extraordinary."

Zhu Qing spoke probing words. Even though he understood the importance of being cautious with his words and knew Li Ming was his employer, making it inconvenient to ask too much, he still could not suppress his curiosity. This was simply too astonishing.

And it was not merely luck. Along the way, they had seen that the route this little brother chose had not been straight. He had taken many turns, clearly deliberately avoiding something.

"Mm. It's just one of my Soul Skills. Nothing remarkable."

Li Ming had long prepared an excuse and answered blandly.

When everyone heard this, they were only half-convinced, yet it made Li Ming seem even more shrouded in mystery.

Still, no one intended to delve deeper. After all, it was someone else's secret.

But they suddenly realized why he had said earlier that absorbing a Soul Ring was not the main purpose of this trip. The main purpose had been to assess them.

Looking at it this way, without some real skills, where would he get the confidence to assess a group of Spirit Saints and Spirit Emperors like them?

"Little brother, what did you think of our performance this time?"

After getting up, the rough-looking man hurried over to Li Ming, revealing a fawning smile as he rubbed his hands together and asked.

"Not bad. I'll report what I observed.

"As for whether you'll be selected, that isn't something I can decide."

Li Ming answered at once.

The moment they heard that, everyone revealed knowing smiles. This assessment was already quite good.

If this matter truly worked out, their income might rise to a whole new level.

Though they were not weak and their fees were not low, that did not mean they earned much. They did not have missions waiting for them every time, much less one like this, where someone had hired so many of them at once.

Before long, the group returned to the small town. Li Ming did not linger and immediately bid them farewell, hiring a carriage back to Heaven Dou City.

As for the commission, Purple Heaven City would settle it directly.

As soon as he left the town, he sat in the carriage compartment and immediately opened the Satellite Panel.

He first checked the locations of everyone in Zhu Qing's team. Only after confirming that they had all remained in the town and were not following him did he relax.

He had the Satellite AI assess the safety of the route and determine whether anyone was tailing him. Only then did he begin examining the anomaly that had happened to him.

First were the Soul Bones. He was certain they had undergone a transformation; otherwise, his spiritual power would not have surged so dramatically. The increase was incomparably greater than when he had fused with the Skull Bone.

The Left Leg Bone and Right Arm Bone were the same.

Although his Soul Power level had not skyrocketed, he felt that the quality of his Soul Power had improved immensely. At first, his body had been like an ashtray, but now it was like a porcelain bowl. The space at the bottom had increased, allowing it to integrate more Soul Power.

And that was at the same level.

Naturally, this was an enormous blessing, but no matter how he pondered it, he could not figure out why the mutation had occurred.

Could it be because he had fused with a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring at Level 30?

Since he could not understand it, he decided not to think about it for now. At least it was a good thing.

What concerned him more were the changes brought about by this mutation.

Since the Soul Bones had been upgraded, the Soul Skills would naturally improve as well.

Although he was currently in a carriage, that did not mean he could not conduct tests.

He immediately called up the camera feed of a satellite in the sky.

First came Planetary Devastation and Swift Wind Thrust.

He used one satellite's camera to observe another satellite.

The next moment, the satellite shot forward, trailing a faint afterimage as it crossed a full two hundred meters at terrifying speed.

Boom!

Watching the silent explosion, the dazzling sparks, and the visible burst of Soul Power, Li Ming automatically supplied the sound in his mind.

Sparks flew everywhere, and its power was clearly on a completely different level from before.

Soon, a value calculated by the Satellite AI appeared beside the image.

The explosive power was roughly twenty times greater than before.

Li Ming could not help raising his eyebrows. Both Swift Wind Thrust and Planetary Devastation had been strengthened.

With the two combined, his self-destructing attack would be very difficult to evade.

Previously, dealing with that five-thousand-year Soul Beast had required more than a dozen satellites. Now, one was probably more than enough.

He would not even need to use Dream to hold the opponent back. With a sudden acceleration over two hundred meters, the opponent might not be able to dodge in time.

If more satellites self-destructed, the damage would be even more terrifying.

He had not expected such a huge surprise immediately after breaking through to Spirit Elder.

The corners of Li Ming's mouth curled upward.

Next came the Soul Skill he had just acquired.

Scorching Beam.

Li Ming was extremely satisfied with this Soul Skill.

Not only was it an offensive Soul Skill, it also had a special use for him.

This Soul Skill could store sunlight energy and then release Scorching Beams. At the same time, it could also be directly cast using Soul Power.

But its ability to store sunlight energy was an enormous enhancement for Li Ming.

His Satellite Spirit did have a means of storage, but it relied on those solar panels, and the energy they could hold had a limit.

But now that he had this Soul Skill, it meant that all of his thousand-plus satellites could store more solar energy.

One satellite meant one share. A thousand satellites meant a thousand shares.

This Soul Ring was a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring, so it could already store a great deal of solar energy. Now, with the thousandfold boost, the sunlight energy he could control had clearly reached an entirely new scale.

But that was not the key point.

Most importantly, the satellites could cast Soul Skills using stored solar energy, and the thousand satellites were essentially one entity. Solar energy could be transferred between them directly.

In other words, when he cast Scorching Beam, he had Thousand-Fold Energy to fuel it!