Drawn by his soul power, the black soul ring slowly settled around Chen Tianyuan and began to descend, finally reaching the same height as his other three soul rings.
But this was only the beginning. The real trial had yet to come.
After the Heavenly Dragon Horse died, all its soul power merged into its soul ring, naturally including the resentment born of its death.
The soul power within the ring surged like a flood, pouring into Chen Tianyuan's body all at once and relentlessly battering his meridians.
Had an ordinary level-40 Quasi-Soul Ancestor tried to absorb this Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, their body would have collapsed before their soul could even be extinguished.
This was also why Soul Masters struggled to absorb soul rings beyond their age limit.
The older a Soul Beast was when it died, the more soul power its soul ring contained. A Soul Master's body was like a dam: if it could hold back that surge of soul power, the absorption would succeed, and they would enter the next realm. If it could not, the dam would collapse, and their meridians would be destroyed...
This was also why beast martial souls were more popular than tool martial souls. Soul Masters with beast martial souls were naturally stronger in physique than those with tool martial souls, and this advantage lasted all the way to the Soul Saint stage.
The stronger their physique, the older the soul rings they could absorb; the older the soul rings they absorbed, the stronger their physique became...
An hour passed, and the absorption reached its final stage: the Heavenly Dragon Horse's resentment struck back.
A Heavenly Dragon Horse formed from pure resentment appeared within Chen Tianyuan's Sea of Consciousness, but he was not worried in the slightest. After all, a mighty god resided there.
Sure enough, sensing the intrusion, Electrolux awoke from his slumber. He was no longer as weak as he had been a few months earlier. Besides, even a starved camel was bigger than a horse. Though he was only a fragment of divine sense, the resentment of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was utterly unqualified to challenge him. The title of Holy Necromancer was not an empty one.
Electrolux was still a hazy humanoid silhouette, but he had become considerably clearer and brighter.
Before Chen Tianyuan could speak, Electrolux had already acted.
A transparent strand of spiritual power, yet possessing definite form and substance, shot straight toward the Heavenly Dragon Horse's resentment.
The instant the two touched, the Heavenly Dragon Horse's resentment vanished like a bursting bubble, without even having time to let out a mournful cry.
With the Heavenly Dragon Horse's resentment dispersed, Chen Tianyuan naturally completed the soul ring's absorption.
Sensing the two currents of soul power within him, one strong and one weak, Chen Tianyuan wore a strange expression.
Absorbing this ten-thousand-year Heavenly Dragon Horse's soul ring had brought tremendous changes to Chen Tianyuan.
First and foremost, the light element within him had grown enormously stronger. Though it still could not match his ultimate lightning, it could now remain constantly present. In other words, his light attribute had become permanent, meaning all of Chen Tianyuan's future soul skills would carry an additional light attribute.
Next was the trace of Light Dragon Clan bloodline he had inherited by chance. Originally, this bloodline could not influence his martial soul. At most, its light attribute would be triggered when he used his third soul skill.
Now, however, things were different. Upon coming into contact with the Heavenly Dragon Horse's pure dragon bloodline, that trace of bloodline had miraculously fused with it. Chen Tianyuan could clearly sense the fused bloodline faintly guiding his martial soul to evolve in some unknown direction.
Chen Tianyuan exhaled a stale breath and slowly opened his eyes. He was somewhat surprised when he noticed the increase in his soul power level.
Seeing this, Zhang Lexuan hurriedly asked, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Chen Tianyuan shook his head. "No, I'm just a little surprised. I originally thought absorbing this soul ring would raise my soul power by one level at most. I didn't expect to jump straight to level 42."
Zhang Lexuan breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at Chen Tianyuan tenderly, she said with a soft laugh, "Ordinary Soul Masters can only absorb a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring as their fifth ring. You absorbed one as your fourth, so a two-level increase in soul power is only natural."
Then she asked, "This Heavenly Dragon Horse was an excellent match for you. What does the soul skill it gave you do?"
In the Soul Master World, asking about someone else's soul skills was extremely impolite. Only people with very close relationships shared that information, and in Chen Tianyuan's heart, Zhang Lexuan absolutely counted as family.
Chen Tianyuan stood up and stretched his body.
Yellow, purple, purple, black-four soul rings exceeding the normal age limits appeared beneath him. He said, "My fourth soul skill is called Purple-Gold Heavenly Thunder Flash. It's a charged attack skill that unleashes a light-and-lightning attack at four times my own power. And every ten levels I gain, that multiplier increases by another one."
"The price is an enormous soul power cost. Using it once consumes nearly half my soul power."
Zhang Lexuan's eyes widened in evident shock, not because of the fourfold burst of power, but because she had heard that this soul skill could actually grow.
Growth-type soul skills were exceedingly rare. There were probably only a handful of people on the continent who possessed them. The only martial soul she knew of with such a growth property was the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect's hereditary martial soul, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. Each time a Soul Master with that martial soul absorbed a soul ring, the attribute boosts they could provide increased by ten percent-far less growth than Chen Tianyuan's soul skill offered.
Chen Tianyuan was now a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor and could unleash four times his own power. Once he reached the Titled Douluo realm, that would become nine times. Zhang Lexuan did not even dare imagine how terrifying his burst of power would be then...
Coming back to her senses, Zhang Lexuan looked at the Heavenly Dragon Horse's corpse beside them and murmured, "At least your death served a purpose."
Meanwhile, after finishing his stretches, Chen Tianyuan had already begun feeling all over the Heavenly Dragon Horse's corpse. Unfortunately, he found nothing unusual anywhere on its body, which meant it had not yielded a soul bone.
Looking at the Heavenly Dragon Horse's corpse, Chen Tianyuan inexplicably thought of Secret-Art Soul Bones. These artificial soul bones were created by slaughtering large numbers of the same species of Soul Beast, gathering their remains, and forcibly condensing them with a secret art. Though Secret-Art Soul Bones also came with soul skills, their quality was far inferior to that of genuine soul bones. Most importantly, the method was far too cruel.
This soul-hunting trip had been much easier than Zhang Lexuan expected. She had originally thought they would not be able to return to Shrek Academy for ten days or half a month. Who could have known they would be so lucky as to encounter a compatible Soul Beast of the right age-and an exceedingly rare Heavenly Dragon Horse at that?
Electrolux's voice rang out in Chen Tianyuan's mind.
"I have almost fully recovered. Once we return, find a quiet place, and we can begin purifying that Spirit-Devouring Carving Knife."
Hearing this, Chen Tianyuan almost jumped for joy. If things really were as he imagined, and the vitality within the gold of life could help extend Mu En's lifespan...
At that thought, he could hardly wait.
Unfortunately, Zhang Lexuan had struck too brutally. The Heavenly Dragon Horse's blood had already seeped into its flesh, making it inedible even after processing. After all, there was still a difference between meat and a Soul Beast's corpse.
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