Improvements in his soul power cultivation, Soul Spirits, and spiritual power were only one part of it. Over those three years, Ji Yang had also come up with a few other tricks for himself.
Those were Soul Bones, which he had never absorbed before.
After taking two suitable Soul Bone Pills, he absorbed a Phoenix-type Soul Beast's Soul Bone into his left arm and a dragon-type Soul Beast's Soul Bone into his right. Through the Soul Blood Pills he had taken, he also transformed them into pure Phoenix and True Dragon Soul Bones.
He also acquired an External Soul Bone shaped like Phoenix wings and palm External Soul Bones shaped like dragon claws, then elevated those as well.
Of course, what he elevated was not just their "purity," but also their age.
By now, those Soul Bones he had absorbed were all at the two-hundred-thousand-year Ferocious Beast level, just like his Soul Spirits.
Ji Yang had originally wanted to get Xiao Wu a few Soul Bones too, but she had yet to reach maturity and still retained her Soul Beast traits, making it difficult for her to absorb Soul Bones. He had put the idea aside for now.
As for Ye Lingling, he had arranged the same for her, choosing Soul Bones that combined offense, defense, and support effects.
With that, aside from her Soul Spirit's offensive abilities, Ye Lingling herself also gained considerable combat prowess.
He still remembered the day she came to the Star Dou Great Forest to absorb her Soul Bones. Ye Lingling had been beside herself with excitement, and by the end, even the way she looked at Ji Yang carried a different sort of affection.
Although Xiao Wu could not absorb Soul Bones yet, her progress in soul power cultivation was hardly any worse than Ji Yang's.
She had fulfilled the "Soul King in three years" strategy Ji Yang had set for her three years earlier with relative ease, reaching level fifty-four as a Soul King.
Had Ji Yang not enjoyed the advantage of the soul power increases granted by his Soul Bones, Xiao Wu might well have overtaken him.
Ye Lingling was in a similar situation. Ji Yang and Xiao Wu really were on the verge of overtaking her.
She had clearly been several levels ahead of them before, yet now she was only one level ahead of Ji Yang, standing at level fifty-six as a Soul King.
That was partly thanks to the soul power increase from the Soul Bone Pills Ji Yang had given her. Otherwise, he would already have overtaken her completely.
All he could say was that Ye Lingling had been at something of a disadvantage when it came to pills.
Although she had often visited them in the Star Dou Great Forest over those three years and collected her share of pills from Ji Yang along the way, she still received somewhat less.
Fortunately, Ye Lingling no longer cared much about that.
As for the two girls' Soul Spirits?
Xiao Wu's first Soul Spirit was still a Soft Bone Rabbit, unchanged in any way.
The main reason was that her Soft Bone Rabbit Soul Spirit meant a great deal to her, and she did not want to alter her "little bunny" too much.
For her second Soul Spirit, however, she had ultimately followed Ji Yang's advice and chosen a relatively powerful Soul Beast.
Although that Soul Spirit was also a rabbit, it was a Dragon Rabbit with a True Dragon bloodline.
That Soul Beast had a dragon's head and a rabbit's body, making for a very peculiar appearance. It was stronger than most lesser-dragon Soul Beasts, with fearsome Soul Skills and combat prowess.
Judging by her choice of a Dragon Rabbit, Xiao Wu had finally accepted the fact that Soft Bone Rabbits were weak, "trash" Soul Beasts.
Thus, she decided to follow Ji Yang's earlier advice and take the path of the True Dragon bloodline.
Still, she was unwilling to abandon her rabbit form, so the path she ultimately chose was a "Dragon Rabbit path."
Ye Lingling, by contrast, had not thought so much about it.
She dutifully followed Ji Yang's advice, evolving and absorbing the appropriate Soul Spirits.
By now, her first Soul Spirit, the Life Sunflower, had evolved into a Life Sunflower King.
Her second Soul Spirit was a Thunderclap Infernal Prison Vine, which combined life and destruction.
The Sky Azure Bull Python had discovered that one by chance while searching for Soul Beasts suitable for himself.
He had originally wanted to use pills refined from the Thunderclap Infernal Prison Vine to enhance his lightning attribute. But since Ji Yang and Ye Lingling needed the vine, he generously yielded it to them and went off to find other Thunderclap Infernal Prison Vines.
It was precisely because she had gained this immensely powerful Soul Spirit that Ye Lingling's combat prowess underwent a qualitative transformation.
At least, that had been the case before she absorbed her Soul Bones.
As for their Soul Spirits' ages, both Xiao Wu and Ye Lingling had hundred-thousand-year Soul Spirits.
Unlike Ji Yang's, however, theirs were not two-hundred-thousand-year Ferocious Beast Soul Spirits, but "ordinary" hundred-thousand-year Soul Spirits.
Their spiritual power was also only around the level of someone who had just entered the Spirit Abyss Realm.
Even so, Xiao Wu and Ye Lingling could not have been more satisfied.
"At the peak of level fifty-five. Level fifty-six isn't far off!"
That day, after finishing his daily cultivation.
Ji Yang nodded in satisfaction, acknowledging his progress.
At this rate, he would definitely break through to the Soul Emperor realm within a year.
By then, he would be an eleven-year-old Soul Emperor.
That was simply terrifying.
But in all fairness, that pace was not especially fast for him.
In fact, had he wanted to, he could have become a Soul Emperor long ago during those three years.
The main reason was that he had given a large number of Soul Power Pills to the Sky Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape for their cultivation, helping them advance further.
On top of that, during the following year or two, the Sky Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape had focused on their breakthroughs, greatly reducing how often they went hunting. Even the number of "evil Soul Masters" they brought back had dwindled, naturally leaving him with fewer pills better suited to his needs.
Not to mention that he had shared a considerable portion of the pills he kept with Xiao Wu and Ye Lingling.
All those factors together!
Naturally, the speed of his soul power cultivation had slowed a little.
Otherwise, with the aid of abundant Soul Power Pills and the enormous increases granted by Soul Rings and Soul Bones, breaking through to the Soul Emperor realm would have been a breeze.
His soul power cultivation would also have left Xiao Wu and Ye Lingling far behind.
Even so, Ji Yang did not care too much. His current soul power level was already quite good.
Had he still been in Nuoding City, without all those Soul Beasts brought back by the Sky Azure Bull Python and Titan Giant Ape, he could never have improved so dramatically.
"Brother Yang-"
Seeing Ji Yang finish his daily cultivation, Xiao Wu, who had been sitting on a nearby rock looking bored, immediately came over.
Ever since breaking through to Soul King and meeting Ji Yang's requirement, she had lost much of her enthusiasm for cultivation.
If Ji Yang had not still been constantly pushing her to work hard at it, she would have wanted to slack off for a while.
Another thing worth mentioning was that her way of addressing Ji Yang had changed considerably, just as her call a moment ago showed.
Their becoming even closer over those three years of intimate companionship was one reason.
Another was that they had both grown a great deal over those three years.
The Martial Soul system of the Douluo Continent had one distinctive feature: whenever Soul Masters broke through to a new realm, their physical development would rapidly leap forward, making them look considerably "older than their years."
Ji Yang and Xiao Wu were perfect examples. Their bodies should actually have been those of a ten-year-old and a nine-year-old, but after breaking through to the Soul King realm, their appearances looked little different from those of a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old boy and girl.
The same was true of Ye Lingling. When Ji Yang met her, she had looked twelve or thirteen, but she had actually only just turned ten.
Now only thirteen, Ye Lingling looked much like a young woman in her early twenties, in the bloom of youth, after her cultivation broke through to Soul King.
Precisely because of those enormous changes in appearance, Xiao Wu had naturally changed how she addressed Ji Yang.
If her earlier form of address had sounded more like one child addressing another of the same age, her current one leaned more toward addressing a "beloved older brother."
Of course, Ye Lingling, who was a few years older than Ji Yang, could not possibly address him that way. She would have found it unbearably embarrassing.
Her name for Ji Yang was the simple "Ah Yang."
Even that was enough to make her a little bashful when she said it aloud.
That touched upon the complex shifts in feelings deep within her heart.
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