"Can I go get my soul ring now?" Ye Qing asked.
He knew perfectly well what the training was for. The importance of a soul ring's age to a soul master went without saying. Older soul rings not only made a soul master stronger than others, but also increased their potential.
Wasn't there a rule on the Douluo Continent?
Only soul masters with a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring had a chance of breaking through to the Limit level.
Ye Qing wasn't a spiritual-type soul master, so he had no way to snatch the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm out from under someone else's nose. Nor did he have any other means of increasing his soul rings' ages.
If he wanted stronger soul rings, his only option was to strengthen his body as much as possible so he could absorb older ones.
As for how he would upgrade his soul rings in the future, he would leave that to his future self.
"Yes. Given your current condition, this is already the limit of how much you can strengthen your body. It's time to get your soul ring." Ye Feng nodded.
Bei Bei had undergone the same training.
But martial souls differed in quality, too. Bei Bei had also trained for three months, yet his absorption of the medicine and the resulting physical improvements had fallen far short of Ye Qing's. He had only raised the age he could withstand for his first soul ring from the standard 432 years to a little over five hundred.
Besides, a suitable soul ring wasn't that easy to find.
The soul ring Bei Bei had finally absorbed was only just over five hundred years old.
At that rate of improvement, he could absorb a soul ring a little over nine hundred years old for his second at most. Even that was thanks to his Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon martial soul; dragon-type martial souls provided substantial boosts to physical strength.
Any other soul master would have had a tough time managing it.
Perhaps that was why he hadn't exceeded the standard soul ring colors.
Even with an ultimate martial soul, Ye Qing could only push his first soul ring to seven or eight hundred years. Those with weaker martial souls hardly bore mentioning.
"Rest for a day. Tomorrow, Grandpa will personally take you soul hunting in the Star Dou Great Forest!"
The next day.
Once Ye Qing had packed his supplies, Ye Feng took him flying into the largest soul beast habitat on the Douluo Continent-the Star Dou Great Forest.
With a Titled Douluo taking him there, Ye Qing naturally didn't have to trudge along on his own two feet.
Shrek City stood on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest to begin with, bearing the responsibility of monitoring the forest and guarding against beast tides. On top of that, Ye Feng was an agility-type Titled Douluo whose speed was through the roof.
The two had set out before dawn, and the sun had only just risen when they reached the forest's outskirts.
"The Star Dou Great Forest is just ahead. Since you don't have a soul ring yet, Grandpa won't assign you any training missions. Once you've obtained two soul rings and have some basic combat ability, you can start gaining practical experience," Ye Feng explained to Ye Qing.
Letting a rank-ten Soul Scholar without a soul ring wander around the Star Dou Great Forest for training-and a six-year-old child who had awakened his martial soul only three months ago, at that.
What sort of fucking idiot would make a decision like that?
Ye Feng's words clearly told Ye Qing that he didn't need to fight; his grandfather would take him to find his soul ring.
Ye Qing was happy to take it easy and nodded to show he understood.
As for which soul beast he should choose for his first soul ring, they had naturally discussed that already. But there were only a handful of well-known, top-tier light-attribute soul beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest. Whether they could encounter a suitable one was anyone's guess.
After all their deliberation, it came down to playing things by ear.
If they really couldn't find a light-attribute soul beast, they would consider a strength-oriented one.
When discussing their choice of soul beast, Ye Qing hadn't mentioned that his martial soul possessed other attributes.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger possessed six attributes: evil, darkness, time, space, wind, and lightning.
Ye Qing's dual-form martial soul seemed somewhat different. He had tried switching forms when no one was around, sensing each of his two martial souls in turn.
The Sacred Radiance Heavenly God Tiger's attributes were ultimate holiness, light, time, and lightning.
The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's attributes were ultimate evil, darkness, space, and wind.
The attributes seemed to have been divided between the two forms, just as supreme evil, which should have been a god-level attribute, had regressed into the ultimate attributes of holiness and evil.
Even the innate domain was gone.
He didn't know whether he would have to wait until he had five soul rings to unlock the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's Evil God Domain.
Light and darkness could transform into each other, but Ye Qing wasn't yet sure whether wind and lightning could do the same. Under these circumstances, raising the interchangeable light and darkness to the ultimate attribute level first would naturally yield greater benefits.
That way, he would only have to improve one attribute to gain two ultimate attributes.
A light-attribute soul ring naturally became his first choice.
Unfortunately, light-attribute soul beasts were genuinely scarce in the Star Dou Great Forest. Even when they found one, it belonged to a weak species. Forget raising his light attribute to a higher level by adding a soul ring from such a weakling-even the soul skill he gained would probably be as meager as a chicken rib, hardly worth keeping yet a pity to discard.
Grandfather and grandson spent ten-odd days roaming the Star Dou Great Forest without finding a single soul beast suitable for Ye Qing.
They did, however, find a Sacred Light Rainbow Butterfly that was nearly two thousand years old. Though it was a butterfly soul beast, it possessed extremely powerful elemental attack skills, and its light attribute was outstanding as well.
It would make a very suitable soul ring for Ye Qing.
It was simply too old. Ye Feng marked its territory, intending to keep this Sacred Light Rainbow Butterfly as a candidate for Ye Qing's second soul ring.
After another week of searching, grandfather and grandson still had nothing to show for their efforts.
The reason remained the same: they couldn't find a suitable one.
Either the species was too weak, or the age was wrong.
A light-attribute soul beast around eight hundred years old, from an exceptional species with a powerful bloodline, was truly far too difficult to find.
Ye Qing hadn't even grown impatient yet, but Ye Feng had already begun comforting him.
"My dear grandson, don't worry. This is how soul hunting works for us soul masters. If you want to find a soul beast that suits you, you generally have to prepare yourself for a long search through its habitat," Ye Feng said.
"Ordinary soul masters don't need to go to all that trouble. They can just find something close enough and make do. But you're a genius, my dear grandson. We must find the one that suits you best!"
Ye Feng was brimming with determination.
The Ye Family's rise to greatness rests on my dear grandson. Even if I have to spend another month in the Star Dou Great Forest, I'll find him the most suitable soul beast!
"Grandpa, would that one work?" Ye Qing suddenly asked, pointing toward a nearby stream.
There, a soul beast was drinking by the stream. It resembled a deer, but instead of antlers, it had a single spiral horn growing from its forehead. Its coat was as white as snow, and its eyes shone a brilliant gold.
Ye Feng froze, then turned to look where Ye Qing was pointing.
"A Light Unicorn?!"
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