"You should be able to condense a soul ring now, right?"
"With your physical fitness, you can easily withstand the energy of a thousand-year soul ring."
"Today, I'll help you condense a thousand-year second ring!"
Even though Xiao Wu had already prepared herself mentally, and Ning Rongrong had long since grown accustomed to Lu Xuan's ability to create miracles, both girls still looked shocked at his words.
Seeing this, Lu Xuan explained with a smile:
"No need to be surprised!"
"If I proposed this, I certainly wasn't shooting without a target."
"As far as I know, the age of a soul ring a soul master can withstand isn't fixed. It increases as their physical fitness improves."
"Nearly twenty pieces of whale rubber and two soul bones have already brought about a qualitative transformation in your body's strength."
"By my estimate, your second ring can be at least around thirteen hundred years old."
Lu Xuan rested his large hands on Xiao Wu's shoulders and met her eyes.
"Xiao Wu, if you trust me as your teacher, condense a purely offensive skill at that age."
"No special mechanics. Just single-target burst damage!"
"Do you understand what I mean?"
After nearly a month together, Xiao Wu already trusted Lu Xuan unconditionally. She immediately nodded firmly, her gaze resolute. "I understand!"
Seeing this, Lu Xuan's gaze turned equally earnest. "Good! Are you confident?"
Xiao Wu replied, "Yes!"
At that moment, the resolve in the girl's beautiful eyes made her look as though she were about to join the Party. It was rather adorable.
Lu Xuan patted her shoulder.
"Then begin! I'll monitor your physical condition the entire time, so you don't need to worry about what might happen if your body can't withstand the soul ring's energy."
"Let me make this clear: even if you die today, I can bring you back to life!"
Xiao Wu replied, "Okay!"
Ning Rongrong: "..."
Ning Rongrong clearly didn't believe Lu Xuan could resurrect the dead. A flicker of speechless disbelief crossed her beautiful eyes.
Still, disbelief aside, she had plenty of questions she wanted to ask him.
For instance, why could Xiao Wu condense soul rings? How exactly could whale rubber be compressed into little balls? Could she absorb a thousand-year second ring herself? And so on...
The girl ventured, "Um... Teacher, may I ask you a few questions?"
Lu Xuan glanced at her. "Whatever it is, wait until Xiao Wu finishes condensing her soul ring!"
With that, Lu Xuan stopped paying attention to Ning Rongrong and summoned his Blue Silver Emperor martial soul, preparing to stand guard over Xiao Wu.
Seeing this, Ning Rongrong pursed her lips, unwilling to let it go.
"Hmph!"
"Fine, ignore me!"
As the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, she had always been cherished like a treasure cradled in everyone's palms. No one in the entire sect dared give her the cold shoulder.
Yet after coming here, her new teacher only cared about looking after other people. That left the Little Demoness feeling thoroughly disgruntled.
But that wasn't the end of it...
Just as Ning Rongrong was quietly nursing her grievances, Lu Xuan suddenly looked at her and said:
"Right, don't just stand around either. Go keep watch at the entrance and stop anyone who comes looking for me from entering."
Those words instantly piled the hurt in Ning Rongrong's heart to its peak.
She wanted to cry. As a little princess, she had never been treated this way before. But then she remembered Ning Fengzhi's instructions before he left, along with the hopeful looks Chen Xin and Gu Rong had given her.
Ning Rongrong couldn't bear to disappoint them.
In the end, after a long silence and a fierce battle between opposing impulses in her heart, the girl finally nodded, looking utterly aggrieved.
She murmured an "Okay" and walked to the entrance alone.
In the evening, the girl crouched pitifully at the entrance with her arms around her knees, like a little girl who had come home from school without her keys and couldn't get inside because her parents were out.
She really did look rather forlorn.
A few scattered figures passed by. Some seemed inclined to approach and strike up a conversation, but once they remembered that Lu Xuan lived in the villa, they all shrank back.
Meanwhile, inside the house.
As a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, Xiao Wu could expend the soul beast origin she had possessed before taking human form to condense soul rings. Naturally, she could freely control how much of that origin she infused, thereby increasing the ring's age.
However...
A Soft Bone Rabbit was still only a Soft Bone Rabbit. As a creature at the very bottom of the food chain, even though Xiao Wu's martial soul possessed a heaven-defying survival mechanism, its overall strength was hardly outstanding, and the boost it gave her physical fitness was extremely limited.
A thirteen-hundred-year second ring! For Xiao Wu, this was a truly grueling trial.
Soon, pain appeared on the girl's pretty face.
Yet at this point, her soul ring's age had only risen to nine hundred years.
Seeing this, Lu Xuan held nothing back and immediately intervened.
[Second Soul Skill: Life Tide] [Third Soul Skill: Psychic Tide]
"Hold on. There's still a long way to go before we reach the target."
The infusion of additional vitality and mental power eased Xiao Wu's expression slightly, and her slowly forming second soul ring successfully turned purple.
Time ticked by, second after second.
The process of Xiao Wu condensing her soul ring was also a process of gradually releasing the seal on her origin from before she took human form.
Infusing a large amount of that origin was bound to put a strain on her meridians.
During this time, Lu Xuan even used [Soul Bone Skill: Revival].
Finally... after an unknown amount of time, the second soul ring beneath Xiao Wu's feet approached thirteen hundred years, reaching twelve hundred and ninety years.
The girl clenched her teeth tightly. Feeling the meridians inside her repeatedly crack and then instantly mend, she steeled herself, and a tremendous surge of soul power poured out.
Thirteen hundred years. Success!
The soul ring took its final form in an instant, its dazzling purple light illuminating the entire living room.
Even Ning Rongrong, crouching by the entrance a short distance away, had her gaze drawn to it.
The next second, Xiao Wu completed her Soft Bone Rabbit martial soul possession.
Two soul rings, one yellow and one purple, slowly rose beneath her feet, pulsing in an interwoven rhythm.
The girl had also grown at least ten centimeters taller, though it was unclear whether that was from eating whale rubber or from condensing her second ring.
In any case, compared with earlier that day, before she had consumed the whale rubber, Xiao Wu now looked noticeably more youthful and vibrant.
"Teacher, I did it!"
With Lu Xuan there, Xiao Wu didn't collapse unconscious the instant she successfully condensed her soul ring. On the contrary, the girl was still bursting with energy.
This was no joke-Lu Xuan's talk of "bringing the dead back to life" wasn't just empty words!
The first thing Xiao Wu did after standing up was throw herself toward Lu Xuan.
"Teacher! I really did it! A thousand-year second ring!"
Lu Xuan smiled. "Well? I didn't lie to you, did I? With me here, nothing will go wrong. What's your second soul skill?"
At his question, Xiao Wu smiled with particular excitement.
"My second soul skill is Strong Kick!"
"When I use it, I gather soul power in my leg and unleash a single-target burst of Strong Kick damage. The total damage changes according to how much soul power I put into it."
"I can put up to seventy percent of my soul power into it!"
Before you continue