"The second choice." Lin Xuanchen gave a cold laugh, ignoring the ink jade divine bamboo's question. Then he held up a finger and said, "Death!"
"You need to understand that you're in no position to bargain with me. Either sacrifice yourself or die," Lin Xuanchen said coldly. "If you sacrifice yourself now, you'll still have a chance to be resurrected in the future. Otherwise, I'll kill you right now."
"You humans are despicable! You'll stop at nothing to get what you want!" Hearing Lin Xuanchen's threats, the ink jade divine bamboo couldn't help snarling in fury.
"Don't say I never gave you a chance. And don't even think about being shattered jade rather than an intact tile, because you won't get that chance," Lin Xuanchen said with a faint smile.
At those words, the ink jade divine bamboo fell silent.
It had indeed just considered fighting until the fish died and the net broke, taking this human brat down with it. But Lin Xuanchen's words had reminded it that such a feat was impossible.
He had an ice-attribute ferocious beast backing him. Killing Lin Xuanchen was simply impossible.
The fates of the aromatic silk beauty and the infernal delicate apricot were still vivid before its eyes. Both had been killed without even a chance to resist. What could it possibly do?
Do I really have to sacrifice myself to him and gamble on that chance of becoming a god? It seems... there's no other way out...
The ink jade divine bamboo remained silent for a long time, a battle between heaven and man raging in its mind as it pondered whether sacrificing itself to Lin Xuanchen could let it become a god, and how great that possibility was...
After a long stretch of deliberation, the ink jade divine bamboo spoke. "What if you go back on your word? You humans are the most dishonest and cunning creatures of all."
The ink jade divine bamboo had finally thought things through. Since it could neither escape nor hide, it might as well sacrifice itself and use the opportunity to see whether it could reach the threshold of the divine level alongside this human brat.
Hearing that the ink jade divine bamboo had finally yielded under his coercion and intended to sacrifice itself, Lin Xuanchen couldn't help letting a smile slowly spread across his handsome face.
"Simple. I'll swear on my martial soul," Lin Xuanchen said with a faint smile.
"I, Lin Xuanchen, swear on my martial soul that if the ink jade divine bamboo sacrifices itself to me, I will resurrect it after becoming a god. Otherwise, may my Divine Core shatter, my soul be annihilated, and I never be reborn for all eternity!"
"Fine, then this bamboo will trust you just this once! If you really become a god and don't resurrect me, I'll... I'll..." The ink jade divine bamboo's threat stopped halfway through, because it couldn't seem to think of anything it could use to threaten Lin Xuanchen.
"Hmm? Finished? If you're finished, go ahead and sacrifice yourself. I've already sworn on my martial soul." Finding its tongue-tied state rather amusing, Lin Xuanchen spread his hands and smiled.
"Hmph!" With no threat left to make, the ink jade divine bamboo simply snorted coldly. "Remember what you said!"
With that, a layer of dark purple light slowly lit up along the ink jade divine bamboo's eleven segments.
Boom!
In the span of a single breath, the ink jade divine bamboo's eleven segments dissolved into specks of purple-black light. They then condensed into a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, scarlet as blood, which slipped around Lin Xuanchen.
"Whew."
Seeing this, Lin Xuanchen drew a deep breath, hurriedly sat cross-legged, and began merging with the ink jade divine bamboo's Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.
Time slowly passed... Within a little over ten minutes, Lin Xuanchen's fusion with the ink jade divine bamboo's soul ring entered its final stage.
Just as Lin Xuanchen was about to finish merging with the ink jade divine bamboo's soul ring, a soul bone glowing with a purple-black halo broke out of the ground where the bamboo had stood.
The purple-black soul bone radiated dense fluctuations of soul power. It paused briefly in midair, then flew straight to Lin Xuanchen's left leg, stopped, and pressed against it.
Hum!
After pressing against Lin Xuanchen's left leg, the soul bone trembled slightly, then turned into a pool of purple-black liquid and merged into his leg. The entire process flowed like drifting clouds and running water, as silky smooth as Dove chocolate.
As the energy of both the soul ring and the soul bone was fully absorbed, Lin Xuanchen's aura gradually rose...
"Level 41!"
"Level 42!"
"Level 43!"
"Level 44!"
"Level 45!"
"Level 46!"
"Level 47!"
"Level 48!"
"Level 49!"
"Level 50!"
"Finally, level 50!" Lin Xuanchen slowly opened his eyes. Feeling the abundant, vast soul power within him, he couldn't help breaking into a grin.
Lin Xuanchen rose from the ground. With a slight stirring of his will, blue-gold stalks of Blue Silver Emperor burst out of the earth around him, and immense soul power swept out from his body.
At the same time, purple, purple, black, red! Four perfectly ordinary soul rings rose from beneath his feet, finally hovering quietly around his waist and radiating heart-quivering fluctuations of soul power.
"Not a single yellow soul ring. Pretty good." Lin Xuanchen looked down at the four ordinary soul rings hovering around his waist, a trace of pride quietly flashing through his clear, bright azure eyes.
At his age, absolutely no one else could reach level 50!
Not even that walking cheat Huo Yuhao from the original story!
Meanwhile, after absorbing the ink jade divine bamboo's soul ring and soul bone, Lin Xuanchen's physical constitution had once again taken a tremendous leap forward.
Lin Xuanchen was confident that when it came to his fifth soul ring, he could absorb a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring entirely on his own, relying on his physical constitution without any outside assistance!
With that thought, Lin Xuanchen turned to glance at Wang Dong'er, only to find that she was still absorbing the medicinal power of the Soul Restoration Pill and had yet to wake up.
"Hmm..." With a slight stirring of Lin Xuanchen's will, his powerful spiritual power swept outward from his forehead like a vast net, probing for the other hundred-thousand-year immortal herbs within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Before long, a light-attribute hundred-thousand-year immortal herb appeared within his perception.
It was a lotus, pale gold all over, with bright golden sun patterns running across its petals. It looked quite beautiful and was no larger than a palm.
With something so small, an ordinary person might truly have failed to notice it. Moreover, the lotus was hiding in a spot quite far from the center of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well's spring.
Had Lin Xuanchen's spiritual power not already reached the level of a Titled Douluo, he probably wouldn't have discovered this immortal herb.
"Light attribute... and a hundred thousand years old, too. It seems this is the only one in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well." Lin Xuanchen narrowed his azure eyes slightly and quickly locked onto the immortal herb.
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