Ye Lingling looked at Chen Zhuo with complicated emotions in her eyes, tears glimmering in their depths.
Before, she had simply been ignorant.
But after meeting Dugu Yan, Meng Yiran, and Qian Renxue, who was posing as His Highness the Crown Prince, she had come to understand exactly how much she was worth.
The family background she took pride in, her talent-none of it amounted to anything before this man.
Even in beauty, she could not compare to Qian Renxue, who seemed like a deity descended to earth.
"Heh, women."
"Just accept what your husband gives you."
Chen Zhuo folded his arms across his chest. His youthful air and exaggeratedly affected tone and manner made Ye Lingling laugh.
"But why don't you use this soul bone yourself, husband?"
By the end, Ye Lingling's voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz, and her oval face had turned completely red.
Sure enough, trying to act as shamelessly as Chen Zhuo was still far too difficult.
"You think I don't have one?"
Chen Zhuo activated his Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Soul Bone Skill. A pair of illusory blue-green wings formed from soul power appeared behind him, and he flew a lap around the courtyard.
Ye Lingling froze for a moment, but she still refused to give up. She wanted Chen Zhuo to absorb that hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape Left Arm Bone himself.
"I'll be entering this year's Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament."
"Little wife, you wouldn't want to hold your husband back, would you?"
Originally, Chen Zhuo had absolutely no interest in competing in any tournament.
You're saying a high-level Soul King with a soul ring configuration of three black and two red should join a bunch of three-ring Soul Elders and Four-Ring Soul Ancestors in a team game that amounts to children playing house?
Not only had the championship prize of three soul bones already been earmarked for someone else, but he did not think much of it anyway.
He truly had no desire whatsoever to compete.
The reason he had changed his mind was the letter Qian Renxue had left him when she departed the Worship Hall.
Since even Qian Daoliu was paying attention to this tournament...
He might as well play along.
When the time came, if Tang Hao failed to recognize what was good for him, Chen Zhuo believed Qian Daoliu would be very interested in Tang Hao's head.
He could also use the opportunity to weaken Tang San's fortune once again.
Ye Lingling finally stopped resisting.
"Your Saint Heart Begonia only has two soul skills, and it has no offensive power of its own."
"But what if I equipped you with a set of Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones-"
"Tell me, wouldn't you become the first combat-support soul master in Douluo's history?"
Chen Zhuo's words made Ye Lingling tremble.
"A combat-support soul master?"
"Exactly. Who says support soul masters can't have ways to attack?"
Ye Lingling was exceptionally perceptive, and naturally understood what the man before her meant.
She could also read the boyish nature and mischievous humor hidden in the unconscious upward curl of Chen Zhuo's lips.
Just imagine.
During an actual match, the opposing power attack and agility attack soul masters would surely prioritize taking out a healing support soul master like her, someone with 'no fighting ability.'
Then, when they charged up to her and discovered that this 'lamb waiting for slaughter' could instantly unleash offensive power even more terrifying than a power attack soul master's...
How spectacular would their expressions be?
Just imagining that scene was enough to make him so excited he pitched a tent!
So, no matter how precious the hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape soul bone was, Chen Zhuo had made up his mind to give it to Ye Lingling.
The hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor soul bone would give her room for error.
The hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape soul bone would deal damage.
Neither could be left out.
"Hurry and absorb these two soul bones."
"We'll know whether it works once we try."
Chen Zhuo stayed beside Ye Lingling, watching her fuse with the two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones.
Soul bones were called Blood River Treasures not only because they provided soul masters with additional soul skills, but mainly because absorbing them was not difficult.
Most soul bones, even hundred-thousand-year ones, could be successfully absorbed by someone with only rank-one soul power.
He kept watch through the night.
By the time the sun stood high in the sky, Ye Lingling had successfully finished absorbing both Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones.
"How was it? What skills did that Blue Silver Emperor soul bone give you?"
Chen Zhuo already knew the Titan Giant Ape Left Arm Bone's two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Skills from the original timeline.
As for this soul bone produced by the Blue Silver Emperor, Ah Yin, after her second rebirth, its abilities were unknown.
"This hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone gave me two skills."
"The first soul bone skill is called Blue Silver Domain. It's a domain-type soul skill."
"The second soul bone skill is called Wildfire Never Dies. It's a kind of super regeneration that can even regrow severed limbs."
Just as Chen Zhuo had expected, even a domain had appeared.
This soul bone was even stronger than the one he had originally fused with!
Domain-type soul skills were extremely rare. Only soul bones dropped by ferocious beasts at least two hundred thousand years old would reliably provide a domain.
Some hundred-thousand-year soul beasts had not even comprehended domains themselves, powers that touched upon laws.
Yet one of the soul bone skills in his hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone was something as commonplace as "flight."
Once soul masters became Titled Douluos, they could fly steadily using their own soul power, without activating any soul skills.
That was all a hundred-thousand-year soul bone skill could do? What a waste of a skill slot.
Compared to our Sister Xiao Wu's soul bone skill, Teleportation, flight was downright trash.
As for the second soul bone skill, both bones came from the Blue Silver Emperor and shared the same roots and origin, so they granted the same ability.
Fusing with two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones had undoubtedly given Ye Lingling an enormous boost.
Both her physique and her soul power had improved dramatically.
The two Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones had raised her soul power by five ranks in a row.
Ordinarily, fusing with a soul bone did not increase a soul master's soul power level, unless the bone's attributes were exceptionally compatible with their own.
But the energy and life essence contained in Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones were simply too immense.
The younger the soul master, the more pronounced the increase in soul power naturally became when fusing with soul bones of this caliber.
"There are less than three months left."
"But reaching rank fifty shouldn't be a problem!"
Ye Lingling's eyes shone. She ate only a simple lunch before throwing herself into cultivating her soul power.
Dugu Yan was also working extremely hard, cultivating diligently all day long.
Much like the Golden Generation trio, they all wanted to astonish everyone with a single brilliant performance at the coming grand event.
They wanted to pull ahead of their peers.
Two months later, Dugu Yan was the first to break through, reaching rank fifty in soul power.
Ye Lingling also emerged from secluded cultivation, though she was still a little short of becoming a Soul King.
But that final hurdle only required a few more weeks of patient, steady effort. Then everything would naturally fall into place, like water flowing into a completed channel.
They traveled together to the Sunset Forest to hunt the soul beasts each of them needed.
Chen Zhuo found tracking, screening, and capturing soul beasts one by one far too inefficient.
Besides, the older a soul beast was, the more cunning it tended to be.
Ten-thousand-year soul beasts were all quite intelligent, and naturally knew how to seek good fortune and avoid danger.
They did not have that much time to waste on this.
He had already thought of a solution.
Chen Zhuo took an immortal herb from the Wishful Hundred-Treasure Pouch.
A faint fragrance quietly spread through the miasma, actually driving all the surrounding poisonous mist three feet away.
This large, pale pink flower without any leaves was called the aromatic silk beauty, the bane of every poison in the world.
Besides neutralizing all toxins, the fragrance of the aromatic silk beauty held a fatal attraction for soul beasts as well.
That was exactly the result Chen Zhuo wanted.
Before you continue