Violent Madam Ning

Crack!

The shell shattered in an instant, golden-red liquid spraying out. The Sun Sacred Beetle had no time to react at all, and in the next moment, it turned into a streak of Golden-Red Flowing Light and shot toward the ground not far from Xu Yang.

Boom!

The earth shook at once, dust billowed everywhere, and the entire sky was blotted out.

Xu Yang nearly lost his footing and fell flat on his backside.

"So fast! So violent! Is this really the teacher's wife I know?!"

Xu Yang could hardly believe it. In the sect, his teacher's wife had always seemed like a young lady of a great household—an elegant, dignified noblewoman. No matter how one looked at her, she did not seem like someone skilled in battle. How was she anything like she was now, ruthless toward her opponent, showing no mercy at all, just like a war goddess?

"What? You don't recognize your teacher's wife anymore?" Madam Ning slowly landed beside Xu Yang and teased him with a smile.

"No, I just didn't expect you to be this powerful!" Xu Yang shook his head and said in a low voice.

"What's so special about that? Before Feng Zhi met Uncle Sword and Uncle Bone, I was always the one protecting him. It wasn't until later, after I broke through to Soul Douluo and felt I had no way to reach Titled Douluo, that I toned things down and focused on being Madam Ning."

Madam Ning smiled and patted Xu Yang's head, then continued, "Speaking of which, I have to thank you, Yang Er. You gave me confidence and let me feel the thrill of enjoying battle again."

"So that's how it is!" Xu Yang nodded. Only then did he remember the marriage system for heirs of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Whoever married them had to be a Battle Soul Master, and how could a Battle Soul Master capable of protecting the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Sect Leader possibly be weak?

"Yang Er, go take your soul ring! I left that Sun Sacred Beetle with one breath!" Seeing that Xu Yang understood, Madam Ning cheerfully pointed at the Sun Sacred Beetle appearing within the dust.

At this moment, the Sun Sacred Beetle could not have looked more miserable. More than half of its lower body was gone, and even the proud long horn on its head had snapped off to the side. Its whole body was embedded in the ground, struggling with difficulty.

If not for the tenacious vitality of soul beasts, along with Madam Ning holding back, that kick just now would have taken its life outright.

To spare it further suffering, Xu Yang took a Tang Blade from his Storage Ring and stabbed directly upward through the wound in its lower body, all the way into the Sun Sacred Beetle's brain, ending its life.

A purple soul ring tinged with black slowly condensed, hovering above the Sun Sacred Beetle.

Judging from the color of the soul ring alone, it was clear that the Sun Sacred Beetle Madam Ning had chosen was only one step away from becoming a ten-thousand-year soul beast. She had selected this soul ring exactly at the limit of what he could bear.

"How is it? This Sun Sacred Beetle is suitable, right? It was the strongest one among that swarm of sacred beetles earlier. If my perception hadn't been decent, it might really have gotten away!" Madam Ning said smugly.

"Thank you, teacher's wife!"

Xu Yang smiled in response, then sat cross-legged beside the sacred beetle's corpse, summoned his Sun Martial Soul, and began guiding the soul ring over to absorb and refine it.

As the soul ring entered his body, powerful soul power battered Xu Yang's frame.

The age of this soul ring had reached nine thousand eight hundred years. It was right on the boundary between a thousand-year and Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, making it extremely special. Soul rings like this often possessed some of the main traits of a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, namely Mental Shock.

However, compared to the Mental Shock of a ten-thousand-year soul beast, this one at the boundary was much weaker. This was also the reason Madam Ning had chosen this sacred beetle. She wanted Xu Yang to adapt to Mental Shock in advance, so as to lay a foundation for his ten-thousand-year fourth ring.

Xu Yang also realized the problem. Absorbing this soul ring did not only require him to absorb the soul power in his body; more importantly, he had to deal with the Mental Shock.

He could sense the Sun Sacred Beetle's deep resentment. That resentment kept battering his mind, making it impossible for him to focus on controlling the soul power inside his body.

"No wonder the requirements for absorbing a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring are so high. When Spiritual Power is insufficient, once someone is struck by a Mental Shock, they can't even control the soul power in their body. They can only let the soul power carried by the soul ring keep battering the Soul Master's body until they ultimately explode and die."

"Fortunately, I've lived two lives, I've paid attention to cultivating Spiritual Power, and with Heart Separation Control's multitasking, absorbing this Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring shouldn't be much of a problem!"

The instant he felt the Mental Shock, Xu Yang reacted and understood why Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings were so difficult to absorb.

"Since the problem isn't big, I'll use the soul power spilling out from the soul ring to focus on tempering my physique!" Once the thought came to him, he acted. He fully activated Heart Separation Control, and Xu Yang began splitting his focus three ways: resisting the Mental Shock, controlling the soul power in his body, and circulating the Body Tempering Art to absorb the soul power spilling out from the soul ring.

When Soul Masters absorbed soul rings, it was impossible to completely absorb all the soul power within the soul ring. A large portion of it was wasted, which was why, when Soul Masters absorbed one, light corresponding to the color of that soul power would bloom from the surface of their bodies.

But Xu Yang, who possessed four-way multitasking and the Soul Power Body Tempering secret method developed by Gu Rong, could use this escaping energy to help himself grow.

At once, a tingling numbness spread through his entire body. This was the effect of his body's cells absorbing soul power and becoming stronger.

With the experience of absorbing two soul rings, Xu Yang was surprised to discover that the essence of absorbing a soul ring was actually to transform one's own soul power. The ring itself did not contain much soul power; it was merely the carrier of the Soul Skill. Therefore, what was consumed when using a Soul Skill was not the soul power inside the soul ring, but the Soul Master's own strength.

This was more like a matter of the world's mechanics. Soul beasts could transform their own soul power again and again, from white to yellow, purple, black, and even red soul power.

Soul Masters could actually do it too. It was just that most humans had difficulty living even a hundred years, and the amount of soul power accumulated in their bodies was insufficient, making it very hard for quantitative change to cause qualitative change. So they could only rely on external force to transform their own soul power.

Of course, this was only Xu Yang's own guess. As for whether it was correct, even he was not sure.

In the outside world, soul power gathered in Madam Ning's eyes as she fixed all her attention on Xu Yang's reaction while absorbing the soul ring. If Xu Yang could not endure it, she would immediately intervene and interrupt the process.

After a Soul Master's cultivation reached Soul Douluo, they could directly see through a soul beast's origin. This was also why, after reaching Soul Douluo, they could see through a Shaped Soul Beast's disguise at a glance. Through this same ability, they could precisely interrupt the process of a Soul Master absorbing a soul ring. It would only leave the Soul Master somewhat injured, and with a little time afterward, they could recover. At least they would not explode and die from absorbing a soul ring they could not withstand.

As time passed, the aura of soul power on Xu Yang's body continued to grow stronger. Two hours later, the purple soul ring tinged with black had already hung around him.

At this point, he was only one step away from completely absorbing the soul ring.

Madam Ning, who had been guarding him at the side all along, also let out a sigh of relief. Just then, from within the Sun Sacred Beetle's large horn that had snapped off to the side, a mass of golden energy suddenly surged out. It directly sank into Xu Yang's brow, and then golden light began to bloom from the space between his eyebrows.

Madam Ning's expression changed. She had just reached out to stop it when she froze in place, saying in shock, "This is an External Soul Bone..."