Mu En's wager

Although he badly wanted that Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's soul ring and claws, whether he could even find it was another matter. The Star Dou Great Forest was enormous, and this was still several years ahead of the original timeline.

It wasn't an NPC that respawned at a fixed location, waiting there whenever he decided to visit.

So Ye Qing ultimately gave it up with a heavy heart. The merciful Buddha believed in letting fate take its course, and this little bear probably wasn't destined to cross his path.

After spending two or three days researching soul beasts, Ye Qing finally settled on an old acquaintance.

-the light elemental spirit.

Mu En's sixth soul ring had come from a seventy-thousand-year light elemental spirit, and that Light-Breaking Right Arm Bone had dropped from the same creature.

That light elemental spirit's soul ring had also allowed Mu En to develop the Radiant Sacred Dragon Combat Technique: Dragon Emperor Domain-Shaking Realm.

Extra effective against evil soul masters!

Light elemental spirits were difficult to find, but Mu En happened to have hunted one before. He had also located other light elemental spirits and marked their locations.

Ye Qing could practically reap the rewards without lifting a finger. There was no need to wander around trying his luck; he could simply search the area Mu En had marked.

Soul beasts were highly territorial creatures and rarely changed territories without good reason. Their current territory also provided the environment best suited to light elemental spirits, so under these circumstances, they might not move even after hundreds or thousands of years.

As for the Light Attribute spirits' abilities, those were straightforward too. One look at Mu En's Dragon Emperor Domain-Shaking Realm made it clear that this species specialized in light-attribute attacks taken to the utmost extreme.

Absorbing their soul rings and soul bones would greatly enhance Ye Qing's light attribute. Combined with that Light-Breaking Right Arm Bone from the same species, it would undoubtedly maximize the increase in his combat power.

After all, he already had Holy Radiance Protection for defense. He needed some offensive abilities too.

The light elemental spirit was Ye Qing's first choice for his second soul ring.

"Grandpa, I've decided. I'll choose a light elemental spirit for my second soul ring!" Ye Qing went to find Ye Feng.

Naturally, Ye Feng had no objections. "Then a light elemental spirit it is. However, since you've settled on a light elemental spirit for your second soul ring, you should absorb this Light-Breaking Soul Bone as well."

Ye Feng took the box containing the Light-Breaking Soul Bone out of his soul tool and handed it to Ye Qing.

"When you obtained your first soul ring, the limitations of both your body and martial soul meant you could only absorb a seven-hundred-year light unicorn soul ring. But now, not only have you obtained your first soul ring, you've also absorbed an external soul bone. Your body's capacity to withstand strain has increased considerably."

After ten thousand years of development, Yu Xiaogang's "soul master limit soul ring theory" had naturally been overturned. His theory of soul ring limits had been redefined as the optimal soul ring ratio, while a soul master's true limit depended on each individual's capacity to endure.

Fortunately for Yu Xiaogang, he had trained the Douluo Continent's own Radiant and Grand Tang Buddha. That alone had saved him from being branded an attention-seeking clown after his theory was overturned.

Otherwise, his laughable "ten core competencies of martial soul" alone would have been enough to nail him to the pillar of shame and make him a laughingstock among every scholar of soul master theory.

But what could anyone do? He was Tang San's teacher.

Even now, the name of Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang still circulated throughout the Douluo Continent.

More absurdly still, Ye Qing had even seen Yu Xiaogang's book, Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul, in Shrek's library. Shrek actually treasured that worthless book...

In short, utterly outrageous.

Meanwhile, the limits of the soul rings individual soul masters could withstand were gradually being explored and uncovered.

The Body Sect was the best example.

Their early soul rings might have been unremarkable, but once their body martial souls had been developed to the utmost, with blood and vital energy flowing like mercury and bodies like golden statues, every one of them could push their soul rings' ages beyond the optimal soul ring age limit.

Du Busi, for instance.

His first six soul rings followed the perfectly normal arrangement of two yellow, two purple, and two black, but from the Soul Saint stage onward, he had acquired a full three Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings.

Ten thousand years ago, that soul ring ratio would have been utterly beyond a soul master's reach without the help of divine trials.

The Body Sect could discover the limits of soul rings, and Shrek, as the continent's foremost academy, could do the same. Mu En was another powerhouse with three Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings, and his fourth soul ring was also a ten-thousand-year beyond-limit soul ring.

As Mu En's disciple, Ye Qing naturally benefited from their most rigorous research into soul ring combinations.

In Mu En's calculations, if Ye Qing absorbed that Light-Breaking Right Arm Bone before absorbing a light elemental spirit soul ring from the same species, he could raise his soul ring age limit by at least another two thousand years beyond his existing limit.

In other words.

Ye Qing's current limit for his second soul ring was roughly three thousand years. Once he fused with the Light-Breaking Soul Bone, it could strengthen his body enough to absorb a four- to five-thousand-year soul ring.

If he then absorbed a light elemental spirit's soul ring, that age limit could rise by another two thousand years, reaching six or even seven thousand years.

The further a soul master developed, the less their age and martial soul constrained their body.

With soul power nourishing him, large quantities of heavenly treasures strengthening his constitution, and soul bones serving as external support, Ye Qing's second soul ring could essentially reach ten times the age of his first.

Of course, that was all theoretical.

The actual Soul Ring Age Limit would depend on how much Ye Qing's constitution improved after absorbing this Light-Breaking Soul Bone, and how much affinity for the light element it granted him.

But even by a conservative estimate, after absorbing the Light-Breaking Soul Bone, Ye Qing would be able to absorb a five-thousand-year light elemental spirit soul ring as his second soul ring.

Mu En's ambitions were considerable. He wanted to raise Ye Qing into an unprecedented prodigy whose third soul ring would already be ten thousand years old!

My days are numbered, and Bei Bei's talent falls far short of Little Ye's. For the academy's future, there must be someone who can shoulder its main beam before long and become its supporting pillar!

That was Mu En's thinking.

As long as he raised Ye Qing to his full potential, Shrek Academy could remain safe and secure for three hundred years!

If Ye Qing truly achieved the feat of a hundred-year first ring, a thousand-year second ring, and a ten-thousand-year third ring, Mu En had no doubt that he would become another Limit Douluo after him and succeed him as Sea God Pavilion Master!

If necessary, he would even give Ye Qing the Dragon Core he had prepared for Bei Bei without hesitation.

Because in Mu En's eyes, Ye Qing was Shrek Academy's future.

A future as radiant as his martial soul!