A five-thousand-year second soul ring

"Once you've settled your emotions, start absorbing the Earth Dragon Golden Melon!"

Whatever Dugu Yan had been thinking about, the burning heat in her cheeks gradually subsided before long.

"Mm!"

Dugu Yan nodded lightly, picked up the Earth Dragon Golden Melon, and slowly brought it to her lips.

As she swallowed the Earth Dragon Golden Melon, her Jade Phosphorous Serpent martial soul possessed her body uncontrollably.

At the same time, a phantom Jade Phosphorous Serpent appeared above Dugu Yan.

Her crossed legs transformed into a snake's tail, coiling into a circle to support her upper body.

A diamond-shaped green snake scale appeared between her brows. Paired with her sharp green eyes, it gave her a distinctly cold air.

A short while later.

The medicinal power of the Earth Dragon Golden Melon began to be refined and absorbed.

The phantom Jade Phosphorous Serpent overhead began to tremble.

Its once-light body gradually took on a sense of weight, while its thin, diamond-shaped scales became orderly and distinctly layered.

Two bulges appeared on the phantom serpent's head, and its belly writhed as though something were about to grow out of it.

"Dragon Transformation has begun!"

Gu Ping'an took in every change in Dugu Yan. His gaze fell on her coiled snake tail, and a flicker of regret passed through his eyes.

No more snake girl!

Changing in tandem with the Jade Phosphorous Serpent overhead was Dugu Yan below.

The scale between her brows gradually faded away, while two small bumps rose on either side of her forehead.

Dragon horns were about to grow.

Her short, deep-purple hair lengthened and turned black.

Under Gu Ping'an's regretful gaze, her emerald-green snake tail turned insubstantial and became legs again.

The snake tail was gone!

What a shame!

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Halfway through her martial soul evolution, her physical body also began to change, driven by both her martial soul and the medicinal power of the Earth Dragon Golden Melon.

Already a head taller than Gu Ping'an, she grew a little taller still.

Soul power boiled from the inside out.

Martial soul evolution!

Physical strengthening!

Increased soul power!

An enhancement on every front.

Gu Ping'an's eyes flickered.

Dugu Yan now more or less possessed the potential of a Second-Level God. Aside from Tang San, she was no worse than the Shrek Seven Devils after they had consumed immortal herbs in the original story.

An hour later.

Dugu Yan's aura gradually stabilized.

By now, not a trace of her Jade Phosphorous Serpent martial soul remained visible on her.

Her short, deep-purple hair had become long, flowing black hair.

Her once-emerald eyes had transformed into majestic, earthy-gold slit pupils.

On either side of her forehead, a pair of small jade-gold dragon horns poked out through her hair.

Several tiny jade-gold dragon scales faintly appeared on her fair cheeks, gleaming with a soft metallic sheen in the sunlight.

Her hands remained slender, but her fingertips now faintly resembled dragon claws.

A jade-gold dragon tail swayed slowly behind her.

It looked long and powerful, and the marks it swept across the ground left no doubt about its strength.

Her formerly aloof, somewhat sinister air had become majestic yet aloof.

"My soul power is at rank thirty!" (I checked, and Dugu Yan is roughly seven years older than Tang San, so I'm adjusting this.)

Dugu Yan cried out in delight, her majestic, aloof bearing vanishing in an instant.

She looked every bit like a lively little dragon hatchling.

After absorbing the Earth Dragon Golden Melon, the first change Dugu Yan noticed was the increase in her soul power.

"How much did your soul power increase?" Gu Ping'an asked softly.

He had also refined an Earth Dragon Golden Melon, but because his soul power had reached a bottleneck, he could not tell how much it had increased.

"I broke through from rank twenty-seven to rank thirty."

Dugu Yan hid nothing, explaining her condition while hopping around to adjust to her evolved martial soul.

"Rank thirty?"

Gu Ping'an felt it should be higher than rank thirty; the increase simply could not be seen once she reached the rank-thirty bottleneck.

He estimated that she might be around rank thirty-three or thirty-four.

After Dugu Yan absorbed her third soul ring, her soul power should reach roughly rank thirty-five or thirty-six.

Tang San had only been around rank twenty-nine at twelve. Dugu Yan was thirteen now, so she could just barely be considered to have caught up with the original Tang San.

"Not bad." Gu Ping'an nodded slightly in approval.

He then analyzed his own condition based on what had happened when Dugu Yan consumed the Earth Dragon Golden Melon.

After refining the Blue Silver Emperor soul bone, his soul power had probably reached rank twenty-two or twenty-three. With the Earth Dragon Golden Melon added, it might be around rank twenty-seven or twenty-eight.

Once he finished absorbing a second soul ring beyond the age limit, his soul power would likely reach rank thirty.

That was about six years faster than Tang San.

Hidden nearby, Dugu Bo saw that Dugu Yan had truly completed her martial soul evolution and finally set his mind at ease. In a flash, he sped beyond the poison miasma.

He had said he was going to capture soul beasts, so he had to bring something back!

Otherwise, would a grand Titled Douluo not become a laughingstock if he went out for two to four hours and returned empty-handed?

Gu Ping'an did not notice Dugu Bo's actions.

First, there was no blue silver grass within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

Second, blue silver grass struggled to survive in the poison miasma.

Without blue silver grass serving as his eyes, Gu Ping'an still found it difficult to detect a hidden Titled Douluo.

"Hahaha!"

"Boy, I'm back!"

Laughing heartily, Dugu Bo dropped out of the air with a green vine over his shoulder that kept twisting and curling into a ball.

"Boy, here's the Thousand-Leaf Clone Vine you wanted. Five thousand years old. Take it."

With a flick of his hand, he tossed the Thousand-Leaf Clone Vine, restrained by his soul power, in front of Gu Ping'an.

"Yanyan, how are you feeling?"

Without so much as a glance at Gu Ping'an, Dugu Bo ran toward Dugu Yan on the other side.

He took hold of Dugu Yan and gave her a thorough examination.

Her martial soul had evolved!

The poison backlash really was gone!

"Hahaha!"

Dugu Bo's laughter, filled with both sorrow and joy, echoed throughout the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

"What an awful laugh!"

Muttering to himself, Gu Ping'an took a long saber from his Storage Soul Tool and chopped the Thousand-Leaf Clone Vine to pieces.

A purple soul ring gradually rose above the shattered Thousand-Leaf Clone Vine.

The Blue Silver Emperor's Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone!

The Earth Dragon Golden Melon!

Body tempering through ice and fire!

Gu Ping'an roughly calculated the enhancements to his physique. His gaze sharpened, and he raised a hand to draw the Thousand-Leaf Clone Vine's soul ring onto himself.

"Hm?"

"Boy, have you lost your mind?"

In the distance, Dugu Bo noticed Gu Ping'an's actions, and his expression changed abruptly.

He had never expected that Gu Ping'an had asked him to capture a soul beast so he could absorb its soul ring.

Judging by his appearance, Gu Ping'an was only six or seven.

Even with innate full soul power, stretching that estimate to seven or eight, his soul power could be no higher than rank twenty.

Wasn't a second soul ring absorbed at rank twenty usually only six or seven hundred years old?

Even if someone beat him to death, he would never have imagined that Gu Ping'an wanted to absorb the ring of a five-thousand-year Thousand-Leaf Clone Vine.

Wasn't that like lighting a lamp in a latrine—looking for shit, or rather, death?

Dugu Bo flashed in front of Gu Ping'an and raised his hand to interrupt the absorption.

Halfway through raising his hand, Dugu Bo recalled how strange Gu Ping'an was and hesitated again.

After some thought, Dugu Bo silently stepped aside.

He planned to interrupt immediately the moment something went wrong with the absorption.

Time trickled by.

Dugu Bo's brows gradually knitted into a knot.

Aside from some pain when he first began absorbing the soul ring, Gu Ping'an actually grew calmer and calmer afterward.

That meant he had successfully absorbed a five-thousand-year second soul ring.

Dugu Bo stared motionlessly at Gu Ping'an, his mouth hanging wide open.

"A five-thousand-year second soul ring."

Those words looped endlessly through his mind.

There was nothing normal about this for a soul master.

"Hahaha!"

"It worked! It worked!"

Having finished absorbing the soul ring, Gu Ping'an burst into laughter.

He had guessed correctly.

Soul-Devouring Thorn!

Its primary ability was to devour other soul beasts' vitality and soul power to strengthen and heal itself.

His blue silver grass had inherited its devouring ability, while the soul skill he obtained was self-healing.

Thousand-Leaf Clone Vine!

It could produce countless vines identical to its main vine to attack.

There had been two possibilities for the skill he would obtain after absorbing its soul ring.

One: his blue silver grass could produce enormous numbers of blue silver grass vines.

Combined with its devouring ability, as long as an opponent's soul power did not exceed his by too much, those vast masses of vines could crash down and suck them straight into dried meat.

Two: a clone skill.

He had been lucky enough to obtain the clone skill.

"Boy, just what soul skill did you get to make you so happy?"

Dugu Bo was utterly baffled. Wasn't it just a second soul skill?

Even if it came from a five-thousand-year ring, surely there was no need to be this happy?

"You don't understand!"

Gu Ping'an looked at Dugu Bo and shook his head disdainfully.

With a clone skill, he could put many dangerous ideas to the test.

He had also obtained a Meditation Method involving the meridians from Yu Xiaogang's book collection.

Since it was something belonging to Yu Xiaogang, he did not dare practice it lightly.

With the clone skill, he could try it without restraint, and even improve it.

What made Tang San strong?

Aside from Asura backing him, wasn't it his cultivation method?

Once his Blue Silver Grass martial soul was crippled, would Asura still think highly of him?

A cultivation method?

In the future, he could experiment endlessly. Who was to say he could not create a cultivation method that surpassed the Mysterious Heaven Skill?

Without Asura's backing or the advantage of his cultivation method, what would Tang San have left?

Wouldn't he be able to pin him down and beat him effortlessly?