If You Can't Change Events, Change People!

The shock on Grandmaster's face left Qin Chao a little embarrassed, but a flash of inspiration suddenly struck him a moment later.

Although he had failed to stop Tang San from obtaining a soul ring, perhaps there were other ways to earn luck value...

By now, the Mandala Snake's body had gradually stiffened. However tenacious its vitality, a devastating wound to a vital spot had made death inescapable.

Faint yellow motes gathered above the Mandala Snake's corpse. Even without touching them, one could feel the immense power they contained.

"Little San! We've found your soul ring!" Grandmaster's eyes suddenly lit up. "This Mandala Snake had nearly four hundred years of cultivation, putting it just below the limit for a first soul ring. With your strength, you should have no trouble absorbing it!"

When discussing his martial soul theory, Grandmaster's eyes shone with confidence. Unfortunately, although his theories had helped advance martial soul theory to a certain extent, they were ultimately still inaccurate...

After some discussion between master and disciple, Tang San finally decided to absorb the Mandala Snake's soul ring.

He took a deep breath, raised his right hand, and used his soul power to draw the hundred-year Mandala Snake soul ring toward him.

Qin Chao lightly bit his lower lip, watching Tang San nervously alongside Grandmaster. Since arriving on the Douluo Continent, this was his first time seeing someone else absorb a soul ring.

After all, he came from another world and carried too many secrets he could not reveal, so he had to figure out many things on his own. Now that he had a chance to observe, he naturally would not let it slip by.

"Sit cross-legged and focus your mind on your martial soul." Grandmaster's hoarse voice rang out, trembling with excitement he could not conceal.

Drawn by Tang San's soul power, the yellow ring of light soon reached the space above his head. Before he had any chance to react, it abruptly contracted to the size of a bracelet and slipped directly over the Blue Silver Grass martial soul in his right palm.

The instant the soul ring shrank, Qin Chao keenly sensed the difference between a natural soul ring and the growth-type soul rings provided by the system.

If the power contained within a growth-type soul ring was fierce and domineering, then the energy within a soul ring obtained through hunting was a savage force bent on destroying everything. It felt like a dying person desperately trying to destroy everything in sight.

Qin Chao suddenly remembered what Xiao Wu had said in the Star Dou Great Forest-

"...There's no resentment in your soul rings..."

Resentment... could that be the secret hidden behind a soul ring's age?

A bold conjecture suddenly arose in his mind. Perhaps the limit for absorbing a soul ring was connected to this resentment.

Absorbing a growth-type soul ring was painful too, but that was merely the energy within the ring testing how much the host's body could withstand. Qin Chao's instincts told him that as long as he did not court death by trying to exceed his body's limits, absorbing a soul ring would not kill him.

Compared with Qin Chao's experience, however, Tang San's absorption process was far more perilous.

The energy surging out of that soul ring did not test him at all. It opened with its most brutal killing move, clearly intent on putting Tang San to death. If he could withstand that onslaught, he would naturally be able to claim the soul ring's power for himself. But if he could not, that power would tear him to pieces...

No wonder absorbing soul rings was always so perilous in the novel. Qin Chao had initially thought the author was exaggerating, never imagining that such a secret lay behind it.

The discovery delighted Qin Chao, but it also brought a measure of guilt.

He had thought his soul rings far surpassed ordinary people's in age because he had worked hard enough. Now, however, it seemed that most of what he had gained had come from the system.

Leaving aside his twin martial souls and innate level 20 soul power, the system's soul rings alone were already much easier to absorb than other people's. Moreover, their ages could continue to increase with the host's strength.

Undeniably, his strength already far surpassed that of the protagonist, Tang San. But that was not enough. He could have done better.

Qin Chao knew that if he wanted to live a splendid life in this world, he could not do without the system's assistance. But the system alone was not enough either. He had to cultivate his own soul power and acquire knowledge through his own studies. There was still so much he needed to do...

Thud...

The sound of something heavy hitting the ground rang out. Qin Chao turned toward it and found Grandmaster lying on the ground. His body was somewhat stiff, and his lips had turned a faint purple. He had clearly been poisoned.

"What's wrong with Grandmaster?" Hu Liena asked worriedly. "Could it have been that Mandala Snake? Its venom is extremely potent..."

Qin Chao's mind raced, the events from the novel appearing clearly in his memory.

It had been Luo Sanpao. While helping Grandmaster and Tang San escape, Luo Sanpao had used his body to block an attack for them. That was when Sanpao had been poisoned. A martial soul and its host were one, so poisoning the martial soul naturally meant poisoning the host as well.

Qin Chao quickly rolled up Grandmaster's right sleeve. His right arm was swollen and tinged bluish-purple, with a strip of cloth tied tightly around its base to slow the spread of the poison.

"The poison hasn't reached his heart. Thank goodness!"

Seeing Grandmaster's condition, Qin Chao breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, they had noticed in time, and Grandmaster's condition was nowhere near as serious as it had been in the novel.

Qin Chao used a small knife to drain the poisoned blood from Grandmaster's arm, then found some common detoxifying herbs and fed them to him. After a moment's hesitation, he finally took out the aromatic silk beauty he had won in the prize draw.

He reached out and gently brushed the purple center of the flower, then spread all the pollen on his palm over Grandmaster's wound.

Once he had finished, the swelling in Grandmaster's arm had already begun to subside. His skin gradually returned to its normal color, and even his breathing grew much stronger.

Seeing Grandmaster improve, Qin Chao let out a long breath of relief.

He could have done nothing at all. Once Tang San woke up, he would naturally save his own master. If Qin Chao wanted to be a little more wicked, he could even have untied the cloth around Grandmaster's arm while he was unconscious and sent him straight to the grave.

Yet he had still treated Grandmaster's poisoning.

The Mandala Snake's death had made him realize that this world seemed to have rules of its own. Tang San's protagonist halo remained powerful. Even if Qin Chao desperately tried to change the plot and gain luck value from it, some events ultimately could not be changed.

If I can't change events, I'll change people instead.

Several attempts had taught Qin Chao that he could alter the protagonists' thoughts and thereby guide them into making different choices. Perhaps those changes would only be temporary, but he could still gain luck value from them.

People's hearts were fickle, and this was only the beginning. If the protagonists' thoughts and understanding could change with Qin Chao's arrival, would this story still end the same way as before?