The Ten-Thousand-Year Heavenly Dragon Horse

Early the next morning, Chen Tianyuan waited for Zhang Lexuan at the East City Gate.

Before long, a figure flew out of the Inner Court and landed directly in front of Chen Tianyuan.

It was none other than Zhang Lexuan. Today, she wore a black dress with a belt around her waist, giving it a fitted look. As for why she had chosen black, perhaps it hid dirt well.

After meeting up, Zhang Lexuan took Chen Tianyuan with her and flew toward the Star Dou Great Forest.

Soul masters without a flight-type martial soul needed either a Flying Soul Tool or a soul skill with a flight effect to fly. Otherwise, they could only fly once their cultivation reached the Soul Saint level.

Even Soul Saints could only fly for brief periods. Truly sustained flight required reaching Soul Douluo or above.

On the way, Chen Tianyuan relayed what Mu En had told him yesterday to Zhang Lexuan.

As an assistant instructor in the Inner Court, Zhang Lexuan naturally knew far more soul beast species than Chen Tianyuan did.

She said, "Following the development path Mu En laid out for you, your first choice would naturally be a soul beast with both dragon blood and the light attribute. But such soul beasts are as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns."

"And the Heavenly Dragon Horse is the only soul beast meeting both conditions recorded in the academy's library collection."

"Finding a Heavenly Dragon Horse of the right age in the Star Dou Great Forest would be like fishing a needle out of the ocean, so we should focus on light-attribute soul beasts instead, such as the light unicorn and the Holy Light Soaring Phoenix..."

After entering the Star Dou Great Forest, the two did not linger in the Outer Area for even a moment, heading straight for the Mixed Area.

Of the Star Dou Great Forest's three regions, the Mixed Area was the largest and had the greatest number and variety of soul beasts. Of course, danger also lurked on every side.

As they walked, Chen Tianyuan recalled how he had accidentally entered the Mixed Area last time and been attacked by a ten-thousand-year soul beast. Fortunately, Nebula Douluo Manyi had intervened, or he might have died.

The two walked through the Mixed Area one behind the other. Like a teacher, Zhang Lexuan explained each soul beast's species, habits, and how to determine its age whenever they encountered one.

It made Chen Tianyuan feel as though he were attending a lesson.

Chen Tianyuan hurriedly interrupted her. "Stop, stop, stop! Sister Lexuan, please stop reciting."

Chen Tianyuan and Zhang Lexuan searched the Mixed Area for two days straight without catching so much as a glimpse of a light-attribute soul beast. They did find quite a few lesser dragon soul beasts, including a ten-thousand-year Golden Earth Dragon. Before this, Chen Tianyuan would certainly have chosen it for his fourth soul ring.

What if it also carried the bloodline of the Light Dragon Clan, and Chen Tianyuan was lucky enough to inherit it?

Of course, that was only Chen Tianyuan's fantasy. Though his luck had always been good, he would not stake his future on a gamble.

Neither of them had brought much dry food, and they had finished it yesterday. Today, they could only roast soul beast meat to eat.

Zhang Lexuan's cooking was much better than Cai Mei'er's. Even without many seasonings, the Soft Bone Rabbit meat she roasted was neither too salty nor too gamey...

After lunch, the two continued searching the Mixed Area. Chen Tianyuan truly envied Huo Yuhao's Spiritual Detection. With a radar always at his side, he could tell exactly what soul beasts were nearby.

At that moment, Chen Tianyuan was considering whether to add mental-attribute soul rings to his body martial soul in the future, completely failing to notice that Zhang Lexuan had stopped ahead of him.

Caught off guard, Chen Tianyuan bumped into her back.

Zhang Lexuan did not even turn her head, remaining motionless where she stood.

Just as Chen Tianyuan was about to speak, Zhang Lexuan raised a hand and gestured for silence.

Chen Tianyuan carefully leaned sideways, poking half his head out to follow Zhang Lexuan's gaze.

A little over twenty meters ahead of them, a soul beast resembling a fine horse stood watching them. Its entire body was white, with a pair of pure white wings growing from its back.

At the sight, Chen Tianyuan's pupils contracted sharply, and towering waves surged through his heart. A Heavenly Dragon Horse!

The soul beast before him looked exactly like the description from the academy's library collection that Zhang Lexuan had mentioned earlier.

The Heavenly Dragon Horse was a mixed-blood soul beast with a pure dragon bloodline and a highly pure light attribute. Once its age surpassed ten thousand years, a pair of wings would grow from its back...

Chen Tianyuan did not even dare pull his head back. He could only hold that extremely uncomfortable position, terrified of startling the ten-thousand-year Heavenly Dragon Horse into fleeing.

The entire Mixed Area seemed to fall silent at that moment. Chen Tianyuan could even hear Zhang Lexuan's faint breathing.

Perhaps it had never seen humans before, or perhaps it had mistaken them for plants. The Heavenly Dragon Horse actually lowered its guard and bent its head, leisurely nibbling at the blue silver grass on the ground.

Seeing this, Zhang Lexuan struck without hesitation. A Silver Moon Phantom appeared behind her, and eight soul rings-yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, and red-emerged beneath her at once. Soul Douluo-level soul power erupted in an instant.

The immense surge of soul power bore down on the Heavenly Dragon Horse, rendering it immobile. Mercilessly, that power crushed the bones throughout its body, producing a constant series of muffled cracks.

Zhang Lexuan withdrew her soul power at the right moment. Looking at Chen Tianyuan, she asked with some concern, "This Heavenly Dragon Horse should be around thirteen thousand years old. Can you withstand it?"

Chen Tianyuan rubbed his stiff neck and said, "No problem. All that ten-thousand-year whale glue I ate wasn't for nothing."

Zhang Lexuan nodded, then remembered something. She grabbed the Heavenly Dragon Horse with one hand and took Chen Tianyuan with the other, flying swiftly toward the Outer Area.

This time, she flew even faster than she had on their journey to the Star Dou Great Forest.

Zhang Lexuan set the Heavenly Dragon Horse, which had only a breath left in it, on the ground. She looked at Chen Tianyuan and said, "Absorb the soul ring here. I'll keep watch over the surroundings."

Chen Tianyuan murmured his agreement, then approached the Heavenly Dragon Horse with a dagger in hand. Only then did he clearly see its miserable condition. Blood constantly seeped from its once-pristine white body, and he could even make out its crushed ribs.

He sighed inwardly and ended the Heavenly Dragon Horse's life with one clean thrust.

A black soul ring slowly drifted out of the Heavenly Dragon Horse's corpse, hovering silently in midair.

Chen Tianyuan sat cross-legged on the ground and used his own soul power to draw the soul ring over his body.

Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings were not as easy to absorb as hundred-year soul rings or Thousand-Year Soul Rings. Every soul master who absorbed a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring faced the same problem: a soul beast's resentment after death would merge into its soul ring and seek revenge on the soul master.

If their spiritual power was too weak, the fusion would fail. At best, they would suffer grievous injuries and damage to their foundations; at worst, their soul would be annihilated, and they would die on the spot. This was a hurdle no soul master had been able to avoid for ten thousand years, unless they delayed absorbing a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring until later.

That was the simplest method, and many unaffiliated soul masters in the soul master world had no choice but to do just that.

A sizable gap in combat strength would open up between soul masters with the optimal soul ring configuration and those without it. As a result, unaffiliated soul masters were very rare on the continent, with most seeking refuge in major powers or sects.