The First God-given Spirit Ring

As the God-given Spirit Ring descended, Yuan Yu held his breath without thinking.

He had grown up in Spirit City. Of course he knew what a Spirit Ring was.

Ordinary Soul Masters had to kill spirit beasts to obtain Spirit Rings.

The older the beast, the greater the risk.

Failing to absorb the ring could leave them badly injured—or dead.

But the Spirit Ring before him was different.

It carried none of the resentment left by a dead spirit beast.

Nor did it strike with violent force.

It was like a ring of clear water.

Before settling on him, it seemed to test his body bit by bit.

The Water God said, "A God-given Spirit Ring forms according to the limits of what you can bear. You're still too young for it to reach that limit all at once, but it will grow with the Ten Thousand Manifestations Nine Trials."

Yuan Yu looked up.

"So it can get stronger later?"

"Yes."

"That's a good deal."

The Water God paused.

"You always focus on something different from everyone else."

Yuan Yu was perfectly serious.

"Senior, you have to keep track of what things cost."

The Water God said nothing more.

The Spirit Ring slowly settled around the Sun Wheel Blade.

Watery blue light flowed along the blade's first marking into the hilt, then passed through Yuan Yu's palm and into his body.

Cool.

But it didn't sting.

Yuan Yu's shoulders gave a small shiver.

It wasn't pain.

A new strength had suddenly filled his body, and he wasn't used to it yet.

It was as if he had been walking along just fine when an invisible river suddenly appeared beneath his feet.

The current didn't push against him.

It held him up.

He tried moving his fingers.

A glimmer of water flashed at his fingertips, then quickly faded.

Ling Yuan asked at once, "Can't handle it?"

Yuan Yu shook his head.

"No, I can. It just itches a little."

"Where?"

"Inside my bones."

Ling Yuan frowned.

"The God-given Spirit Ring is changing his constitution," Azure Luan said.

Qian Daoliu nodded.

"Write that down."

The Red Cardinal hurried to resume writing.

He felt that everything he had written today was more outrageous than anything he had recorded in the past year.

The pain left by the earlier illusion gradually eased.

What sharpened most was his perception.

Yuan Yu heard water.

Not with his ears.

He felt it through his body.

The water in the pond outside the hall.

The faint moisture in the air.

Even the sound of his own blood flowing.

All of it had been there before, but never this clear.

He raised a hand.

A strand of water rose from the pond outside the Awakening Hall, passed through the doorway, and circled his fingertip.

Ling Yuan's gaze sharpened.

Azure Luan looked up slightly, too.

He had only just received his first Spirit Ring.

He had only just awakened his water element.

Yet his control was already this precise.

This was no ordinary talent.

Yuan Yu sent the water back to the pond without spilling a drop.

He breathed a sigh of relief himself.

"Good. I didn't get the floor wet."

Chrysanthemum Douluo stared at the Spirit Ring for a long while.

"Little Yuan Yu, that first Spirit Ring of yours doesn't look like a hundred-year ring or a thousand-year ring."

Yuan Yu glanced down at it.

"It looks free."

Chrysanthemum Douluo froze, then doubled over laughing.

Ling Yuan reached out and rapped Yuan Yu on the head.

"You get a God-given Spirit Ring, and all you can think about is that it's free?"

Yuan Yu covered his head.

"I also thought about not having to hunt a spirit beast. That's more serious."

This time, Ling Yuan didn't hit him again.

Qian Daoliu spoke.

"What's its Soul Skill?"

Yuan Yu gripped the Sun Wheel Blade.

His first Spirit Ring lit up.

"Water Element Control."

After saying it, he thought for a moment.

"It's more like I can sense water, draw it toward me, and use Soul Power to shape a little of its flow. I'm stronger when there's water nearby. I can still use it without any, but it won't be nearly as powerful."

The Red Cardinal hurried to write it down.

Halfway through, he stopped again.

A God-given Spirit Ring.

Age unknown.

A Soul Skill that wasn't a fixed move, but control over an element.

If he put that in an ordinary file, no one would understand it anyway.

Qian Daoliu asked, "And that slash just now?"

Yuan Yu held the blade horizontally before him.

"The Spirit Ring didn't give me that on its own."

"The blade taught me."

Bibi Dong looked at him.

"The blade taught you?"

Yuan Yu nodded.

"The Spirit Ring gave me water. The Sun Wheel Blade taught me how to turn it into sword techniques."

It was a simple answer.

But both Qian Daoliu and Bibi Dong fell silent.

The Spirit Ring provided the element.

The Martial Soul provided the method.

This was no ordinary Soul Skill system.

Yuan Yu glanced at the stone pillars in the Awakening Hall.

"Want a demonstration?"

Ling Yuan raised an eyebrow.

"Afraid you'll tear down the Awakening Hall?"

Yuan Yu shook his head.

"Afraid you'll make me pay for it."

Chrysanthemum Douluo laughed. "Go ahead and slash. If anything breaks, the Worship Hall will pay."

Yuan Yu looked at Azure Luan.

"Keep it under control," Azure Luan said evenly.

"Okay."

Yuan Yu dropped the jokes.

He held the Sun Wheel Blade horizontally before him.

His first Spirit Ring glowed faintly.

His breathing slowed.

Moisture stirred in the air and gathered into a thin line of water before the blade's edge.

Yuan Yu held back, using only half the technique.

"Water Breathing: First Form: Water Surface Slash."

The blade swept across.

The line of water shot out level, skimming the stone tiles.

A fallen leaf happened to blow in.

The line of water passed through its center.

The leaf split in two and drifted gently to the floor.

Only a faint mark remained on the tile.

It wasn't deep.

But it was perfectly straight.

The Red Cardinal looked down at the mark.

He suddenly felt that writing "sword technique" had hardly done it justice.

This deserved a page of its own.

And a heavy underline.

The hall fell quiet again.

Yan, Xie Yue, and Hu Liena hadn't arrived yet.

Otherwise, that sight would certainly have shut Yan up on the spot.

Ling Yuan looked at the mark, her eyes brightening.

"Good control."

Yuan Yu looked up.

"Could you praise me another way? Maybe call me a peerless genius?"

Ling Yuan gave a cold laugh.

"Say one more word, and I'll have you scrub every floor tile in the Awakening Hall."

Yuan Yu immediately sheathed his blade.

"Good control sounds great."

Bibi Dong asked, "What about the other techniques?"

Yuan Yu reached for the knowledge held within the Sun Wheel Blade.

Beyond Water Surface Slash, many more names lay submerged.

Water Wheel.

Flowing Dance.

Striking Tide.

Blessed Rain After the Drought.

But they were only shadows.

He could see them, but he couldn't grasp them.

Yuan Yu answered honestly, "I know their names, but I can't use them yet."

Bibi Dong nodded.

"That's more like it."

Yuan Yu muttered, "Teacher, I was normal to begin with."

Ling Yuan glanced at him.

"You and normal have very little to do with each other."

Yuan Yu bristled.

He was about to retort when the Soul Power inside him suddenly stirred.

With the first trial complete, a portion of the Soul Power sealed by the nine markings was released.

Level eleven.

Level twelve.

Level fifteen.

Level eighteen.

Finally, it surged back to the threshold of level twenty.

Yuan Yu looked up.

"So I can prepare for my second Spirit Ring?"

No one answered at once.

The second marking on the Sun Wheel Blade was heating up.

A flash of crimson-gold fire flickered across it.

It was small.

Yet the temperature in the hall rose a fraction.

Ling Yuan frowned.

As a fire-attribute expert, she was especially sensitive to such fluctuations.

"Don't touch it."

Yuan Yu immediately hid the blade behind his back.

Ling Yuan narrowed her eyes.

"What are you hiding?"

Yuan Yu gave her a guilty smile.

"The blade's a little hot. I didn't want anyone to get burned."

Bibi Dong glanced at him.

"From today onward, the Sun Wheel Blade, the Ten Thousand Manifestations Nine Trials, and God-given Spirit Rings are all classified as top secret."

Qian Daoliu nodded.

"Under the Worship Hall's highest protection protocol."

Yuan Yu blinked.

"Does the highest protection protocol include wine?"

Ling Yuan grabbed him by the back of his collar.

"It includes hangover soup."