Puzzled, Xiao Yan gently lifted the Grandmaster's clothes and examined him carefully, only to discover that his backside had swollen to more than three times its normal size.
"Hahaha, what kind of teacher gets taken down by a Soul Beast on his very first trip to help a student hunt for a Soul Ring? Now that's a rare sight." Xiao Yan shook his head with a wry laugh.
Seeing the Grandmaster's purplish-black backside, Xiao Yan recalled the information about martial souls he had recently read. A beast martial soul was one with its host; once the martial soul was poisoned, its host would be poisoned too. Tool martial souls had a relative advantage in this regard.
Poison contaminating a tool martial soul would not affect the host.
"The poisoning isn't too severe yet. Since we've never been enemies, I'll save your life this once." Xiao Yan checked the pulse at the Grandmaster's left wrist. The poison had yet to reach his heart, so he could still be saved.
Xiao Yan prepared to guide his heavenly flame into the Grandmaster's body and purge the poison!
Xiao Yan sat cross-legged and raised a finger on his right hand slightly. An extremely faint wisp of Green Lotus Core Flame curled upward, and the surrounding temperature instantly soared.
He propped up the Grandmaster, who lay on the ground, with one hand and lightly patted his shoulder with his left. Slowly extending his right middle finger, he let a wisp of green flame coil around its tip.
A formidable surge of spiritual power extended out of his body and enveloped the faint green flame. He worked hard to suppress its scorching heat, then gently touched his finger to the Grandmaster's back.
With a soft puff, the green flame slipped into the Grandmaster's body. Although the poison had already rendered him unconscious, his body suddenly shuddered.
Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes, using his immense spiritual power to control the wisp of green flame as it swiftly traveled through the Grandmaster's main meridians and blood.
How could a mere Mandala Snake's venom possibly contend with a heavenly flame? In moments, the heavenly flame had purged every trace of venom from the Grandmaster's body, and his complexion gradually changed from bluish-purple to its usual pallor.
However, the Grandmaster remained unconscious.
Seeing that Tang San was still absorbing his Soul Ring, Xiao Yan gathered some dry branches and leaves nearby, lit a campfire with a fire striker, and dragged the Grandmaster over beside it.
"Hiss, hiss!"
"What was that sound?" Hearing the strange noise, Xiao Yan whipped his head around, only to see the snake vine flower coiled around a tree trunk.
The snake vine flower did not look particularly conspicuous. It drew attention only because it was surrounded by tall trees rather than snake vines. Its body swayed gently, the snake vines upon it undulating softly.
"Wait! This snake vine flower is alive!" Xiao Yan extended his spiritual power out of his body and onto the snake vine flower, discovering a heart beating inside it.
The next moment, one of the snake vine flower's vines actually moved. A dark green, triangular snake head emerged from within, its tiny, ruby-like eyes fixed on Xiao Yan. Perhaps because of the heavenly flame on him, it did not attack.
"So it's a Mandala Snake that only recently shed its skin. That's when they're at their most vulnerable. This one is clever, hiding among the snake vine flowers and using the real thing to impersonate an imitation. No wonder I didn't notice it earlier," Xiao Yan said in a low voice.
The Mandala Snake glanced at the corpse of the other Mandala Snake on the ground. A red light instantly flared in its eyes. Its body rose upright, then bent and sprang forward, hurtling toward Xiao Yan.
"A Mandala Snake, huh? I'll use you to test my Green Lotus Core Flame!"
Facing the Mandala Snake's sudden attack, Xiao Yan showed no fear. He slowly raised his palm, upon which a green flame flickered gently.
Heavenly flames were substances of supreme yang, capable of suppressing snake venom and all other cold, sinister things.
The Mandala Snake raised its triangular head high and spat a cloud of foul-smelling purple poison mist at Xiao Yan.
Xiao Yan remained utterly unafraid. Raising his hand, he controlled the Green Lotus Core Flame to form a barrier of fire before him, instantly neutralizing the Mandala Snake's attack.
His control over the heavenly flame was as effortless as moving his own arm and fingers, astonishing even Xiao Yan himself.
Perhaps wary of the heavenly flame in Xiao Yan's hand, the crafty Mandala Snake slithered from side to side without daring to approach him. Yet it refused to leave and abandon its revenge for its mate.
After circling for a long while, the Mandala Snake struck as swiftly as lightning. Its intent this time was obvious: to kill Xiao Yan with a thunderbolt strike before he could even cover his ears.
"Explosive Step!"
Xiao Yan gathered the Green Lotus Core Flame around his fist, then stamped his foot down hard. With a violent explosion of energy, his figure abruptly became a thin streak of light, closing in on the Mandala Snake in barely a breath.
"Eight Extremes Collapse!"
Xiao Yan clenched his fist, green energy swirling around it, and swung a heavy punch at the Mandala Snake. At that moment, faint sonic booms actually rang through the air.
"Bang!"
With a low, muffled impact, Xiao Yan's fist, carrying the heavenly flame, slammed viciously into the Mandala Snake's head.
The Mandala Snake was blasted more than a dozen meters away and crashed heavily to the ground. The moment its iron-hard scales touched the Green Lotus Core Flame, they melted like snow doused with boiling water.
Its nearly four-meter-long body rolled on the ground in agony.
My martial soul can obtain Soul Rings by absorbing heavenly flames? Then can I also obtain Soul Rings by hunting Soul Beasts, like everyone else? With these questions in mind, Xiao Yan slowly approached the Mandala Snake.
A short while later, the Mandala Snake's body gradually stopped moving. A faint yellow glow hovered above its corpse before finally condensing into a yellow Soul Ring.
Xiao Yan slowly extended his left hand and gathered his soul power in his palm. With the release of a black halo, a pitch-black giant ruler covered in strange patterns appeared in his hand, looking rather mysterious.
This was Xiao Yan's second martial soul, the Heavy Xuan Ruler!
"I'll see whether I can absorb it, as long as I can interrupt the process."
With a gentle beckoning motion of his hand, the hundred-year Mandala Snake's Soul Ring slowly drifted toward Xiao Yan. Soon, the yellow Soul Ring began to shrink, attempting to settle around him.
Startled by this sight, Xiao Yan hastily withdrew his soul power and abandoned his attempt to absorb the hundred-year Mandala Snake's Soul Ring.
I can obtain Soul Rings by absorbing heavenly flames, and I can also obtain them by hunting Soul Beasts. That can only mean one thing: in this world, it seems impossible to condense Soul Rings through one's own cultivation. They can only be obtained through external things.
A Soul Ring is nothing more than a medium for storing energy. It's just like the Clear Sky Sect's Great Sumeru Hammer and its Ring Detonation: once a Soul Ring is detonated and shattered, a Soul Master can unleash all the power within it.
If someone could create a special Ring Condensation Method, wouldn't everyone be able to cultivate and advance without hunting Soul Beasts-a method resembling that of evil cultivators?
But the question is, how would one obtain a medium capable of storing energy?
This is the martial soul theory that this world ought to be researching!
Xiao Yan pondered silently.
P.S. Please send monthly votes and recommendation votes.
There'll be another chapter later tonight. Please send monthly votes, or recommendation votes if you don't have any. I'm pushing hard this month, so I hope everyone will support me!
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