A Thousand-Year Soul Ring Right from the Start, and a Slap in Yu Xiaogang's Face!

Su Chen advanced instead of retreating. Deep in his sea of consciousness, his Chaos Ancestral Dragon Martial Soul gave its scales a slight shake.

He raised his right hand, curling his five fingers into a claw. Pure Yang Dragon Emperor Aura surged through his widened meridians.

Dark-gold dragon scales spread from his fingertips to his elbow, and a majestic dragon's roar rang out through the air.

The charging Horned Dragon shuddered at the roar, its massive body going rigid.

The thin trace of sub-dragon blood in its veins seemed to freeze solid. Its charging momentum dropped by thirty percent in midair.

In a flash, Su Chen thrust out his scaled right claw and clamped it firmly around the Blood-red Horn the sub-dragon took such pride in!

Crack... A sharp, piercing snap rang out.

The spiral horn of blood-red crystal, capable of piercing refined iron with ease, fractured inch by inch in the grip of the pure-gold dragon claw.

Su Chen dropped his arm, seized the momentum, and wrenched hard! Ten thousand jin of force drove straight through the base of the horn and into the sub-dragon's skull.

The Dark-Armored Bloodhorn Dragon let out a shrill wail. Its six-meter body was swung through half a circle and slammed heavily into the rock wall.

Before it could struggle to its feet, Su Chen descended through the air like a phantom. He stamped down with his right foot, sending pure Dragon Qi through its body and shattering its sea of consciousness and life force.

From the first strike to the killing blow, the entire fight took fewer than ten breaths.

In the mud, Tang San slumped to one side, his broken arm hanging loose and his face deathly pale.

That fearsome thousand-year beast, which neither his Tang Sect Hidden Weapons nor his Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track could handle, had not survived a single exchange with Su Chen.

Blood and qi churned in Tang San's chest. The pride and confidence he had built over two lifetimes shattered in that instant.

Su Chen flicked a trace of scorch mark from his fingertips and turned around, his expression composed.

He did not mock Tang San as an ordinary victor might. He did not even spare him another glance.

He simply stepped over the broken stones and walked up to the dead beast.

That near-total disregard struck Tang San's fragile, sensitive pride like a hammer.

Above the Dark-Armored Bloodhorn Dragon's massive body, pale-purple motes of light rapidly gathered.

Within a few breaths, a crystalline, deep-purple ring quietly took shape. It hovered in midair, radiating violent energy.

A Sub-Dragon Soul Ring from three thousand years of cultivation.

As Tang San stared at that rich purple glow, a twisted light rose in his desolate eyes.

He pressed a hand hard against his chest, his hoarse voice edged with urgency and obsession.

"Su Chen... Don't tell me you're planning to absorb that Soul Ring? Grandmaster's core theory of Martial Souls cannot be wrong! The absolute limit for a Soul Master's First Soul Ring is four hundred and twenty-three years! No matter how strong your body is, you can't defy the capacity of your meridians! The violent energy and soul impact in a three-thousand-year Soul Ring would be enough to burst even a Soul Grandmaster's meridians and blow his body apart!"

To Tang San, Yu Xiaogang might have revealed his cowardly, despicable nature at a critical moment, but the ironclad age limit he had drawn from the experiences of countless Soul Masters could not possibly be false.

If Su Chen dared touch that Soul Ring, he would be courting death!

At those words, Su Chen finally stopped and cast him a cool sideways glance.

"For mortals to measure a miracle by iron laws drawn from the mediocre is folly."

Su Chen's voice was indifferent.

"Yu Xiaogang is stuck at level twenty-nine, so his vision reaches no farther than the mire of level twenty-nine. If you take the rules of that mire for eternal truths, then you're doomed to keep struggling in it."

With that, Su Chen said no more.

His white robe billowed as he sat cross-legged before the dragon's corpse and beckoned through the air.

Drawn by his aura, the deep-purple Soul Ring gave a clear hum. It became a concentrated halo of violet light and descended over his head!

Boom...

The moment the violent dragon energy entered his body, it turned into molten lava, rampaging through every acupoint.

An ordinary child who had just become a Soul Master would have flushed red and bulged with veins absorbing even a four-hundred-year Soul Ring.

And this was a top-tier Soul Ring containing three thousand years of cultivation and a sub-dragon's remnant soul.

The fierce surge of energy raised a visible ring of air around Su Chen, three feet out from his body.

Tang San stared at him, his dry lips pressed together, his eyes full of anticipation. He waited to see Su Chen's meridians snap and his body burst apart.

Then something strange happened...

Faced with a torrent of energy powerful enough to destroy a Soul Grandmaster's meridians, Su Chen's innate level-twenty divine-grade Soul Power and Chaos Ancestral Dragon Art began circulating at full speed.

In his sea of consciousness, the phantom Chaos Ancestral Dragon slowly narrowed its eyes.

The three-thousand-year sub-dragon's remnant soul, still trying to stir up a storm, gave a mournful cry. The supreme Ancestral Dragon's pure yang fire purified and annihilated it completely.

At the same time, a system panel flared to life in his sea of consciousness:

[Ding... Host has completely shattered Tang San's faith in the Tang Sect's ultimate techniques and Grandmaster's theories, reducing the Child of Destiny's fortune by 3,500 points]

[Host detected absorbing a three-thousand-year dragon Soul Ring above his level. Divine critical reward triggered: Ancestral Dragon Body-Tempering Divine Marrow]

A pure golden radiance dissolved out of the divine marrow and swiftly seeped into every part of Su Chen's body.

Tempered by the divine marrow and assimilated by the Ancestral Dragon's source power, the violent energy of the three-thousand-year Soul Ring became the purest nourishment, washing through his sinews, bones, skin, and flesh again and again.

A soft, pale-gold divine glow spread over Su Chen's skin. His muscles and bones underwent an even more fearsome transformation and reconstruction in silence.

After half an incense stick had burned, the violent vortex of Soul Power around him had completely subsided.

Hum...

With a low resonance of energy, the deep, regal purple Soul Ring settled into place, pulsing gently as it circled beneath Su Chen's feet.

The violet-red lightning and fire coursing over the Soul Ring had been completely assimilated by the pure-gold Dragon Emperor Astral Qi. It radiated a terrifying pressure from a higher order of being!

His First Soul Ring—a three-thousand-year purple ring—was complete!

Su Chen opened his eyes. The divine light in his Purple-Gold Double Pupils receded, and his bearing grew steadier and more commanding.

"Impossible... This is absolutely impossible..."

In the mud, Tang San stared blankly at the deep-purple ring circling Su Chen.

The ironclad limit of four hundred and twenty-three years had become a ridiculous illusion.

Yu Xiaogang's teachings, the confidence Tang San drew from two lifetimes, and all the schemes he had counted on to turn things around were crushed by that purple Soul Ring, which had defied the age limit. Not even ashes remained.

His blood and qi surged backward. Tang San tasted blood and coughed up a mouthful of it. He collapsed into the muddy pit, panting rapidly, his face filled with despair and bewilderment.

Su Chen stood, calmly drew in his Soul Power, and headed toward the edge of a swamp deeper in the Soul Hunting Forest.

With the abundant foundation of innate level-twenty Soul Power, the place for his Second Soul Ring had already opened up and was waiting for him once he had fully stabilized his First Soul Ring.

The faint glow of his Divine Pupils pierced layer upon layer of forest and locked onto a four-hundred-year Mandala Snake curled beneath a rotting log several miles ahead.