Lin Yuan and His Cheats

Zhu Zhuqing felt extraordinarily conflicted.

If she said she resented them, they had saved her.

But if she said she did not resent them...

Someone had seen her completely naked. It would have been fine if it had been a woman, but if it had been a man, she truly would have wanted to cry but had no tears.

Still, who exactly had saved her?

Zhu Zhuqing surveyed her surroundings. Aside from rubble and ruins, she was alone in the cave, and the only exit left was that ventilation opening.

In her current condition, she certainly could not go out to investigate.

With no other choice, she took a clean set of clothes from the Storage Soul Tool she carried and changed into them.

Then she sat cross-legged, restoring her Soul Power while using it to accelerate the healing of her injuries.

Soul Masters all recovered at an astonishing rate.

Early the next morning, Zhu Zhuqing's injuries had healed somewhat, and she could barely move around. She immediately leaped through the ventilation opening to investigate outside.

What she saw nearly frightened her to death.

At the foot of the mountain, a group of Ten-Year Soul Beasts were scrambling to gnaw on corpses.

Although the corpses had been chewed beyond recognition, she could vaguely tell from their clothes that they were the people who had pursued her with her older sister, Zhu Zhuyun, last night.

Even more shocking was the familiar, tattered robe she spotted among them.

She recognized that robe. Only Soul Emperor-level stewards of the Zhu Family were qualified to wear it.

"What on earth happened last night?"

Zhu Zhuqing murmured, fear in her eyes as she scanned the surroundings. Aside from the Ten-Year Soul Beasts at the foot of the mountain, there was not a single person in sight.

Clearly, whoever had saved her last night had left afterward.

Meanwhile.

In another cave far away from Zhu Zhuqing.

Lin Yuan looked at the Martial Soul in his hand, identical to the Ten-Thousand-Year Golden Thunder Bamboo, and grinned so broadly that he could not close his mouth.

He had just discovered this after absorbing the Ten-Thousand-Year Golden Thunder Bamboo's Soul Ring.

Over the past six years, the Heavenly Vial's accelerated growth had raised the quality of his original Lone Bamboo Martial Soul to roughly that of bamboo over twenty thousand years old.

Allowing for rainy days when he could not collect Green Liquid, as well as the Green Liquid spent growing the Lone Bamboo for his First Soul Ring and the Thousand Illusion Bamboo for his Second Soul Ring, the Lone Bamboo's quality had increased by an average of three to four thousand years each year.

Counting the enhancements his first three Soul Rings provided to his Martial Soul, his Lone Bamboo Martial Soul's quality had been roughly equivalent to thirty-thousand-year-old Lone Bamboo.

Yet after absorbing this Ten-Thousand-Year Golden Thunder Bamboo Soul Ring, it had actually evolved directly into Golden Lightning Bamboo identical to Han Li's true form.

Although its age had decreased.

There was no doubt that the quality of his Martial Soul had improved to an unprecedented degree.

After all, Lone Bamboo could never compare to Golden Lightning Bamboo.

Never mind thirty-thousand-year-old Lone Bamboo-even Hundred-Thousand-Year Lone Bamboo fell far short of this ten-thousand-year-old Golden Lightning Bamboo.

The most immediately apparent manifestation was the change in his first three Soul Skills.

His First Soul Skill had changed from Lone Bamboo Throw into the Evil-Breaking Spear!

It was about three meters long!

Its entire body was emerald-gold. The original bamboo staff now had a spearhead resembling the blade of a Bamboo Cloudswarm Sword, but one-third thicker and shorter.

The shaft retained its natural bamboo-node patterns, with a warm, jade-like texture rather than the cold feel of metal.

Fine golden lightning patterns covered the spear. When he was not activating the Five Thunder Heavenly Heart Formula, its lightning remained contained; when he activated it, golden Evil-Exorcising Divine Thunder roamed and leaped along the shaft, crackling arcs coiling around the spear.

Along with that, its original fifty-percent strength enhancement and attack-power enhancement had both risen to one hundred percent.

It had brought Lin Yuan improvements in every respect.

His Second Soul Skill had changed from Bamboo Forest Mirage into Bamboo Forest Illusory Sea.

Not only had its suppression of the enemy's spiritual power and enhancement of his own spiritual power risen from roughly ten percent to twenty percent, but Mirage's maximum coverage had also surpassed three hundred meters in diameter.

It was enough to open up a battlefield suited to Lin Yuan.

He believed that once he reached Soul Sage, exceeding a thousand meters in diameter should be no problem.

Most crucial of all were the Clones created by its Mirage.

They were no longer mere illusions, but tangible forms capable of attacking.

He could create up to four Clones, each possessing roughly one-tenth of his own strength.

Lin Yuan currently had four Soul Rings. For each additional Soul Ring he gained in the future, the number of Clones would increase by one, and their strength would rise as well.

He could create a maximum of nine Clones capable of attacking.

The Clones' strength could reach, at most, one-third of his own.

His Third Soul Skill, Golden Shadow Formula, had not changed in form, but it could now be released instantly without charging.

Moreover, the bamboo spikes and leaves it released were on an entirely different level in both sharpness and toughness.

After he absorbed the Ten-Thousand-Year Golden Thunder Bamboo Soul Ring, the effects of the Black Jade Divine Bamboo he had previously refined within his body finally manifested, allowing his Soul Power to break through to rank forty-five.

At the same time, it granted him a Fourth Soul Skill called Azure Origin Possession.

While increasing Lin Yuan's attack power, speed, defense, and strength by two hundred percent and granting immunity to all negative statuses, this skill combined the advantages of Han Li's Azure Essence Sword Shield and Giant Sword Technique, not only giving Lin Yuan exceptionally formidable defense.

In this state, he could also pour Evil-Exorcising Divine Thunder into the Evil-Breaking Spear created by his First Soul Skill, making it gigantic.

This greatly amplified its killing power.

At the same time, Lin Yuan finally understood how Han Li had discovered him and evaded his spiritual probing earlier.

After absorbing Han Li's Soul Ring, Lin Yuan had obtained a domain identical to Han Li's.

It was called the Azure Origin Domain.

Within the domain, all vegetation would become Lin Yuan's eyes and ears.

Han Li had discovered him through the bamboo at the entrance of that earlier cave.

And the reason Han Li had been able to evade his probing.

Was the Azure Origin Domain's basic skill, Breath Concealment.

Its ability rivaled Old Devil Han's Qi Concealment Formula.

It could perfectly conceal the fluctuations of Lin Yuan's own Soul Power.

As long as Lin Yuan wished, he could disguise his aura as that of an ordinary bamboo stalk, a Soul Scholar, a Soul Master, a Grand Soul Master, or a Soul Elder.

If he deliberately hid, even a Titled Douluo intentionally releasing spiritual power to probe would have no way to find him.

If he combined it with his Second Soul Skill, Bamboo Forest Illusory Sea, to conceal one or two Soul Rings, even standing right before that Titled Douluo, they would be unable to discover that he was a rank forty-five Soul Ancestor.

"This Breath Concealment skill is stronger than the way my Supreme Sacred Heaven and Earth Technique and Five Thunder Heavenly Heart Formula conceal my aura by suppressing my own Soul Power fluctuations."

"The latter still need to work together with Bamboo Forest Illusory Sea. Even then, if a Titled Douluo deliberately probes, there's still a risk of exposure. Breath Concealment, on the other hand, is different. It can truly withdraw my aura without being discovered."

"It really is perfectly suited to a hunter like me who walks in the darkness."

There were only two or three days left before Shrek's term began. Xiao Wu and Tang San should already have arrived in Suotuo City.

This round of Shrek admissions.

Would inevitably be a battle royale of Transmigrators.

Originally, Lin Yuan had not planned to join the commotion as he had when Meng Baichuan, Meng Yiran, and Dai Mubai enrolled last time.

Now that he had the Azure Origin Domain, however, he could disguise himself as a Soul Master ranked somewhere in the teens and investigate, to see which Transmigrators were there.