First Soul Skill: Blood Rage!

Star Dou Forest.

Morning light filtered through gaps in the canopy, casting mottled shadows across the ground.

Qian Daoliu walked at the very front. His pace was not fast, yet every step carried him more than ten meters, forcing the four children behind him to jog to keep up.

The four little ones had already been running for two hours straight.

Bibi Dong panted heavily, her cheeks flushed red, but her mouth still would not stop. "Junior Brother, what kind of soul beast do you think we'll find?"

"Senior Sister, I haven't even seen a soul beast's shadow. How would I know what soul skill I'll get?"

Luo Jiuyou carried the Asura Demon Sword on his back. His steps were steady, his breathing even, and he was in far better condition than his three senior sisters.

Qian Renxue chuckled beside him. "Idiot."

Bibi Dong immediately puffed out her cheeks. "Who are you calling an idiot? You're the idiot!"

"Whoever answers is the one I mean."

"Damn it!" Bibi Dong lunged straight at Qian Renxue. The two girls began roughhousing behind Qian Daoliu, one pinching while the other tugged.

As they tussled, both grew short of breath and stumbled off course, crashing right into Ye Guyi beside them.

After running for two hours, Ye Guyi's legs had already gone weak. Knocked by them, she tripped and pitched forward.

Luo Jiuyou reacted quickly, grabbing her wrist and pulling her steady, carrying her two steps forward in the process.

"Be careful."

Ye Guyi froze for a moment. She lowered her head to look at the wrist he had grabbed, then raised her eyes to his back.

Seeing that he said nothing else, merely pulling her back into the group before releasing her hand.

Once Ye Guyi regained her footing, she softly said, "Thank you."

Luo Jiuyou nodded and continued running ahead.

Ye Guyi followed beside him, her gaze lingering on him briefly before quickly withdrawing.

Qian Daoliu walked at the front. Though he did not turn around, he heard every bit of commotion from the four children behind him.

Bibi Dong and Qian Renxue bickered and played around, Ye Guyi quietly followed at Luo Jiuyou's side, and though Luo Jiuyou spoke little, he never hesitated when it was time to lend a hand.

The corners of Qian Daoliu's lips lifted slightly, but he did not look back.

Getting along well was the best thing of all.

After another hour and a half or so, Qian Daoliu stopped before a stretch of volcanic terrain.

He took out a parchment scroll from his sleeve and unfurled it.

It was densely covered with the names, ages, habitats, attributes, and ability traits of several hundred soul beasts.

Elder Jiang had spent more than half a month compiling this soul beast sequence based on the traits of Luo Jiuyou's martial soul.

Based on the bloodlust and killing intent around Luo Jiuyou, Elder Jiang had selected the several most suitable sequences for him from among hundreds of compatible soul beasts:

First sequence: Bloodfiend Earth Dragon

Second sequence: Blood-Red Baboon King

Third sequence: Demonfiend Bear

Fourth sequence: Rakshasa Wolf

Qian Daoliu put away the parchment and led the four little ones into the volcanic region.

Dark red rubble lay everywhere. White smoke rose from cracks in the earth, and the air was filled with an unshakable scent of blood and sulfur.

After searching for quite a while, Qian Daoliu finally discovered a soul beast coiled within a depression—the Bloodfiend Earth Dragon.

Its entire body was covered in dark crimson scales, its limbs thick and powerful, like the ancient remains of something that had crawled out of a pool of blood.

Qian Daoliu frowned slightly. "Six thousand three hundred years. That exceeds the age you can safely withstand at present."

Bibi Dong immediately panicked. "Then... then what do we do? Junior Brother, let's keep looking. It doesn't have to be this one."

Qian Renxue nodded as well. "An extra thirteen hundred years is too risky."

Luo Jiuyou stared fixedly at the Bloodfiend Earth Dragon. The Asura Demon Sword on his back suddenly trembled violently, the dark crimson demonic patterns on its blade flashing nonstop as red light surged swiftly down its spine.

"Grand Worshipper, I can feel it. The Asura Demon Sword... craves it."

"Junior Brother, thirteen hundred extra years is too dangerous." Ye Guyi hurriedly tried to persuade Luo Jiuyou.

Qian Daoliu's brow furrowed as his gaze moved back and forth between him and the earth dragon.

"Even with those extra thirteen hundred years, although you previously absorbed the Seventy-Thousand-Year Soul Bone and ten-thousand-year Whale Rubber, making your physique far stronger than others your age, the excess is still a real burden. Your body will still have to endure considerable pressure."

Bibi Dong tugged at Luo Jiuyou's sleeve. "Junior Brother, listen to Grandpa Qian. We don't need those thirteen hundred years."

Qian Renxue pressed her lips together, looking at Luo Jiuyou with concern. "A soul ring that exceeds the limit by more than a thousand years could cause a Soul Power rampage if you cannot endure it."

Luo Jiuyou looked back at them, then turned toward Qian Daoliu again.

"Grand Worshipper, the path of cultivation for a soul master is, by nature, a struggle against heaven and earth.

"If I cannot even show courage and determination when absorbing a soul ring, how can I compete with others?"

Qian Daoliu looked deeply at him.

Especially with the red light on the Asura Demon Sword behind him flickering faster and faster, as though urging something on.

He fell silent for a moment, then looked once more into Luo Jiuyou's calm eyes and slowly nodded.

Perhaps this was once again the guidance of that god.

He said nothing more. With a casual lift of his hand, the six-thousand-three-hundred-year Bloodfiend Earth Dragon seemed to be crushed beneath a mountain. It did not even have room to struggle before being smashed directly before the four children.

Luo Jiuyou did not hesitate. Gripping his sword with both hands, he stepped forward and thrust fiercely into the earth dragon's eye.

Dragon blood gushed out. The earth dragon struggled twice before falling completely silent.

A purple soul ring slowly rose from the earth dragon's corpse.

The three girls widened their eyes at the same time, staring eagerly at that purple soul ring.

But Qian Daoliu's gaze fell upon the Asura Demon Sword in Luo Jiuyou's hand.

The red light on the blade was still flashing. The earth dragon's blood was being quietly devoured by its edge, like a vicious beast savoring its prey.

Qian Daoliu narrowed his eyes slightly.

What a ferocious weapon.

It could actually devour the blood of living beings.

It seemed to be tempering itself.

Luo Jiuyou sat down cross-legged, extended a hand, and drew the purple soul ring toward himself.

The instant the soul ring entered his body, a violent aura of bloodfiend energy slammed into his physique.

He focused his mind, feeling that power rampage wildly through his body.

His flesh, bones, and skeleton were all being reforged. Amid the pain, his physique expanded bit by bit, becoming tougher and more solid.

Suddenly, Bibi Dong cried out, "Look!"

Blood gushed crazily from the Bloodfiend Earth Dragon's corpse, drawn by some unseen force into a dark crimson stream that flowed toward Luo Jiuyou.

The blood wrapped around his entire body, forming a dark crimson blood cocoon that continued to pulse.

Qian Renxue and Ye Guyi's expressions changed at once, and they wanted to step forward to inspect him.

Qian Daoliu raised a hand to stop them. "Don't move."

That mass of blood continued pulsing, like a living creature.

Qian Daoliu could sense that what lay within was not rampaging Soul Power, but the Bloodfiend Earth Dragon's power attempting to merge with Luo Jiuyou's body.

Inside the blood cocoon, Luo Jiuyou's left hand turned bright red, dark crimson patterns surfacing across his skin and spreading like a spiderweb.

Blood continuously poured into his body, tempering his muscles, bones, and meridians alongside the soul ring's power.

Soul Power surged madly within him. With no second soul ring attached, it could only continuously temper his physique.

The blood cocoon lasted for about the time it took to drink a cup of tea before finally shattering and dispersing.

Luo Jiuyou opened his eyes. The dark crimson patterns on his left hand were slowly fading, and his breathing was steady.

Bibi Dong was the first to rush over. "Junior Brother! How are you?!"

Luo Jiuyou flexed his fingers. "I'm much sturdier than before."

Ye Guyi stood a little farther back, her hands clasped before her chest. The worry in her eyes finally faded. "It's good that you're all right."

Qian Daoliu stepped forward and sent a thread of Soul Power into him. After confirming that his physique was unharmed, he withdrew his hand.

"What is the soul skill?"

Luo Jiuyou closed his eyes and sensed the information appearing in his mind.

The purple soul ring surfaced around Luo Jiuyou's body.

As he sensed the information on his first soul skill, his expression became extremely strange.

Then—

The bloodlust around him suddenly surged madly and erupted.

Qian Daoliu frowned, only to see blood energy roiling before Luo Jiuyou and condensing into another Asura Demon Sword formed from blood energy.

Luo Jiuyou spoke.

"First soul ring skill—Blood Rage.

"Activates one's own blood energy and controls it, using blood energy to condense another weapon. Attacks become dual-wielding, and blood energy can form attacks that cause struck enemies to bleed.

"Sacrifices part of defense to increase attack power, strength, speed, and abnormal status resistance by two hundred percent. Consumes one percent blood energy per second.

"For every ten percent decrease in blood energy, attack power, strength, and speed increase by another twenty percent. Killing an enemy plunders their blood energy and restores one's own."

The more Luo Jiuyou spoke, the stranger his expression became.

Blood Rage.

Did this just mash together the Berserker's Blood Rage, Frenzy, Blood Awakening, and Bloodthirst skills?

Isn't that completely overpowered?

Bibi Dong's mouth had already fallen open.

"Y-Your first soul skill..."

Bibi Dong counted on her fingers. "A base increase of two hundred percent... and another twenty percent stacked for every ten percent of blood energy lost... that can stack nine times..."

"Then wouldn't that mean..." Qian Renxue continued, "that once fully stacked, the boost would be nearly four hundred percent?"

Bibi Dong sucked in a sharp breath. "And this is only a first soul skill? Are god-tier martial souls really this terrifying?"

"Second Senior Sister, neither your first nor second soul ring seems this terrifying."

Qian Renxue: "...If you know how to talk, then talk more."

Ye Guyi was silent for a moment. "What it consumes is blood energy—his own life force. The price of this soul skill is far greater than it appears on the surface.

"If he cannot kill his opponent in time and receive blood energy in return, then although his strength will increase, he will also place himself in danger."

Qian Daoliu stood to one side, his gaze burning as he looked at Luo Jiuyou.

"Blood energy is your life force. Exchanging life force for power, this soul skill is exceedingly dangerous. But—"

His tone shifted. "If you can control this power well, your future will be limitless."

Luo Jiuyou nodded. "This disciple understands."

Bibi Dong leaned over and poked his left arm. "Your left hand turned red again just now! Exactly the same as last time!"

Luo Jiuyou looked down. The dark crimson color on his left hand had indeed not completely faded, and faint blood-colored patterns seemed to flow beneath his skin.

He clenched his fist. "It will probably take some time to fade after using the soul skill."

Qian Daoliu did not interrupt their conversation. Only after Luo Jiuyou's condition had fully stabilized did he slowly speak.

"The soul ring has been obtained. There is still the second soul ring to hunt. According to the sequence, the next target is a nine-thousand-year soul beast."

Bibi Dong immediately cheered with delight.

"Junior Brother's second soul ring will be nine thousand years old. That's incredible."

Taking the chance, Qian Renxue pinched Bibi Dong's cheek. "It feels like you're even more excited than he is."

"Damn it, you secretly pinched Eldest Senior Sister's cheek again."

Bibi Dong immediately pounced on her again, and she and Qian Renxue began pinching each other.

Ye Guyi helplessly shook her head.

Then she moved behind Luo Jiuyou, preventing herself from being caught in the crossfire again.