Huo Yuhao watched quietly as the Golden Roc's remnant soul burned to ashes bit by bit, then became nourishment for his sea of consciousness, nurturing it and giving his spiritual power another boost.
The complete disappearance of the soul ring's remnant soul also meant that its absorption was finally nearing its end.
The black soul ring above the Golden Roc's corpse vanished completely as well. Soon, a powerful aura gathered around Huo Yuhao. His soul power soared from rank forty all the way to rank fifty, only to be blocked again by Douluo Star's unique laws, unable to advance even an inch.
Four soul rings slowly appeared beneath his feet: yellow, yellow, purple, and black.
Seeing Huo Yuhao actually accomplish such a feat left Dugu Bo shocked. He had certainly seen people absorb soul beast rings beyond their usual limits, but he had never seen anyone absorb one an entire major tier above their own.
The profession of soul master had existed for tens of thousands of years. Through all those years of exploration and study, soul masters had developed a complete system of cultivation.
This included the limits for soul ring absorption at each rank, though those were general guidelines and did not account for geniuses.
For example, the absorption limit for the first soul ring was four hundred and twenty-three years. This figure applied to every soul master. Whether they were the most worthless soul master or the greatest genius, they could all withstand any soul ring younger than four hundred and twenty-three years.
That figure was merely a benchmark, the most basic standard, rather than an age they absolutely had to reach.
Some geniuses, such as those born with stronger souls or stronger bodies, could withstand older soul rings. But even geniuses chose to play it safe.
After all, an extra year or two of cultivation would not provide a soul master with particularly powerful soul power. Instead, it would introduce unnecessary risks, making it thoroughly unworthy of the gamble.
Whenever news spread through the soul master world of someone absorbing a soul ring beyond their limit, it had to be because they had misjudged its age and rashly absorbed it, certainly not because they had done so deliberately.
Yet Huo Yuhao had not merely absorbed a soul ring beyond his limit. He had jumped more than ten thousand years of cultivation to absorb a twenty-thousand-year soul ring. It was simply outrageous.
And the crucial part was that he had succeeded!
It was utterly unbelievable!
Looking at Huo Yuhao, Dugu Bo let out a heartfelt exclamation.
"You really are a Little Monster."
Huo Yuhao immediately burst out laughing. "I'm a Little Monster, and you're an old poison fiend. We're two peas in a pod."
Dugu Bo nodded. Huo Yuhao's words did seem quite reasonable. Stroking his beard, he laughed heartily. "Interesting. Boy, how many tens of thousands of years do you want for the next one? Let me make this clear first: fighting anything over fifty thousand years is too tiring. I'm not going."
Huo Yuhao immediately scoffed. "You really are a disgrace to Titled Douluos. My grandfather can kill a fifty-thousand-year soul beast with a casual strike, yet a mighty Titled Douluo like you actually struggles!"
"Forty thousand years. No lower. Any lower, and I'm going back to find my grandfather."
Dugu Bo paid no mind to Huo Yuhao's mockery. After all, he was merely stating a fact. Besides, no one had spoken to him like this in a long time, and he actually found it rather refreshing.
"Forty thousand years? Barely enough for this old man to warm up!"
"Tch."
In truth, the soul beasts in Sunset Forest did not have particularly high cultivation. Their quality was nowhere near that of Star Dou Great Forest. Soul beasts older than fifty thousand years were rarely seen, though a few over forty thousand years could still be found.
Forty thousand years was the most suitable target for Sunset Forest. Although the search still took quite some time, everything ultimately went smoothly despite a few scares. Huo Yuhao repeated the same method and quickly absorbed the soul ring.
After just two hours, Huo Yuhao successfully obtained his fifth soul ring, a forty-thousand-year Thunderhawk soul ring.
Thunder likewise symbolized ultimate justice. Once absorbed by the angel martial soul, it could also strengthen its sacred power.
After Huo Yuhao absorbed his fifth soul ring, the soul power he had previously accumulated finally brought him to a stable rank fifty-five.
Dugu Bo once again marveled at Huo Yuhao's monstrous talent. He had become a Soul King before even turning ten. In another dozen years or so, the continent would likely see another powerhouse break the record for the youngest Titled Douluo.
The waves behind truly were driving the waves ahead, slapping the old ones dead upon the shore.
After absorbing the soul ring, Huo Yuhao returned to Sunset Forest with Dugu Bo. The remains of two great Dragon Kings lay here, making the spiritual energy of heaven and earth exceptionally rich. Huo Yuhao planned to cultivate here for the long term.
Moreover, Dugu Bo's inner core could only achieve its greatest effect near Dugu Bo himself, providing Huo Yuhao with the strongest flow of soul power. While staying here, he could also eat a few immortal herbs whenever he had nothing else to do.
Although eating too many immortal herbs offered no additional benefits, even at their least useful, they were still several times more effective than the best cultivation pills on the market. Eating a little now and then could quickly accelerate his cultivation.
Time slipped away in cultivation, and three years soon passed in the blink of an eye!
At the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, a handsome, upright figure sat cross-legged beside the red-and-blue ice and fire springs, meditating diligently. Behind him, three pairs of angel wings shimmered with brilliant golden light.
His eyes also shone with golden light, as though divine fire burned within them, dazzling and radiant.
Most shocking of all, however, was his soul ring configuration. The boy looked no more than eleven or twelve, yet he possessed a full seven black soul rings.
Yellow, yellow, purple, black, black, black, black, black, black, black. His two martial souls had this many soul rings between them.
Ten terrifying soul rings.
In three years, Huo Yuhao had risen from a rank fifty-five Soul King to a rank seventy-five Soul Saint, surging upward by twenty ranks.
Of those, fewer than ten ranks had come from soul power he cultivated himself!
Even with god-level cultivation talent and Dugu Bo's inner core, his cultivation slowed as his rank rose. Some Soul Saints and Soul Douluos could spend years without gaining even one rank of soul power, precisely because the higher the rank, the greater the volume of soul power required.
Still, his progress was already extremely, extremely fast!
The remaining dozen or so ranks of soul power had all come from absorbing soul rings. After breaking through to Soul Emperor, Huo Yuhao had already added three Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings to his Glazed Divine Fire Eyes martial soul to raise his cultivation quickly.
That was precisely how he had increased his cultivation and broken through so rapidly. He estimated that he could become a Soul Douluo in just a few more years.
A Soul Douluo in his teens-unprecedented in the past, never to be matched in the future.
Huo Yuhao had never intended to fill every slot with hundred-thousand-year soul rings. He only needed to become a Titled Douluo. If a Titled Douluo with twin martial souls and a god-level martial soul could not defeat Tang Hao, he might as well slit his own throat.
He had never intended to stay here for very long. He only wanted to complete his mission as quickly as possible and leave. After all, he did not belong here. He had his own world where he ought to be.
The system had once said that the time taken to complete the mission would also greatly influence the allocation of rewards, so he did not want to waste time.
At that moment, a sharp gleam flashed through Huo Yuhao's eyes! The system had said that killing any one of the Three Scourges would grant a corresponding reward. If he got lucky and a powerful magical treasure from the myriad worlds dropped, he could complete his mission immediately.
Now that he had the strength, he immediately set his sights on the weakest of them, Yu Xiaogang.
He hoped this reward would satisfy him. After all, the rewards for killing the Three Scourges were not included in the system's reward allocation. He could take them directly back to his own world.
The thought alone was enough to set his heart stirring!
Before you continue