Taking a risk

Ye Qing's words did not give Ye Feng much cause to hesitate.

"If you want to fight, give it a try. Fighting soul beasts is something you'll have to experience sooner or later anyway. This Light Spirit can't pose much of a threat to you, so it's a pretty suitable sparring partner." Ye Feng nodded, agreeing to Ye Qing's request to fight.

With him watching, nothing would go wrong even if Ye Qing really couldn't beat this Light Spirit.

Shrek only had one Xuan Zi.

Once Ye Feng nodded his approval, Ye Qing charged straight at the Light Spirit without hesitation, protected by Holy Radiance Protection. He didn't know whether physical attacks worked on this thing, but as long as he infused his fists with soul power, he would definitely be able to hurt it.

Having started practicing Soul Power Control long ago, he could already infuse his hands with soul power to increase his attack power as easily as turning his hand.

He could do it on a whim.

Yet this action surprised Ye Feng once again.

Soul Power Enhancement and Soul Power Infusion were not the same concept. Soul Power Enhancement concentrated soul power inside the body to increase the force of one's attacks. Soul Power Infusion spread soul power across the surface of the body, adding its elemental attacks to punches and kicks.

One used soul power to enhance physical damage, something any soul master could do.

The other involved precise control of soul power, something ordinary soul masters couldn't learn. After all, anyone who knew anything about a soul master's ability to control soul power knew exactly how that went.

"Could this be another result of his training? It must be. Shrek's teaching truly is powerful, and my grandson's talent truly is unparalleled!" Ye Feng couldn't help tugging out a few strands of his beard.

Meanwhile.

The Light Spirit was startled by Ye Qing rushing into its face and hurriedly hurled a barrage of light beams at him. But they barely scratched him, failing to even dent Holy Radiance Protection's shield. Then a soul-power-infused punch from Ye Qing knocked it silly.

"Ora, ora, ora!!"

After forcing his way through the Light Spirit's tickling attacks to reach it, Ye Qing launched straight into a flurry of Turtle Fist punches. They did little damage but were deeply insulting. Each punch barely hurt the Light Spirit, yet every blow that landed left it dizzy and seeing stars.

There was nothing he could do about that.

Aside from Holy Radiance Protection, Ye Qing currently only had the healing skill from the Wings of Light. Without an offensive soul skill, his only option was close combat.

Moreover, the Light Spirit's form was different from that of other soul beasts. The combat methods Ye Qing had learned were all meant for dealing with soul masters or various soul beasts. He had never learned how to fight an incorporeal elemental spirit like this.

If his fists hadn't been infused with soul power, they probably would have passed straight through it, dealing even less damage than the Light Spirit's attacks against his shield.

Then it really would have been two chickens pecking at each other.

The Light Spirit was intelligent too. When it realized that its attacks couldn't even scratch Ye Qing's shield, while every punch of his made it suffer terribly...

It...

Ran!

It turned straight into a streak of light and flew away with a whoosh.

See ya, sucker!

Ye Qing almost seemed to hear those words drifting through the air.

"Uh..." He looked down at his fists, which he had swung so hard they were practically smoking, and silently dismissed Holy Radiance Protection.

Ye Feng, on the other hand, burst out laughing. He walked over and patted Ye Qing's shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry about it. Light Spirits are like that. Even if they can't beat you, they can still escape. Unless you forcibly restrain one with overwhelming soul power, it's impossible to stop it!"

What was more, killing a light elemental spirit was extremely difficult. Of all soul beasts, they could be considered the hardest to obtain soul rings from.

If a powerful expert killed a weak Light Spirit, it was naturally very simple. All they had to do was slam it with a high-powered soul skill.

But soul rings had another rule: a soul master could only absorb the soul ring produced by a soul beast they had personally killed.

So, to obtain a Light Spirit's soul ring, you needed an expert several times stronger than the Light Spirit you wanted to hunt. That expert had to help wear it down, forcibly using soul power to weaken it until you could kill it.

Only then could you kill it with your own strength and obtain its soul ring.

It was essentially neutralization.

You used your own soul power to neutralize the Light Spirit's soul power until its health bar had been worn down into your execution range.

Back when Mu En hunted that seventy-thousand-year Light Spirit, he brought no fewer than three Titled Douluos. They took turns using their soul power to grind down its health bar before Mu En could finally kill it.

Of course, Ye Qing's soul ring target was only a Light Spirit around six thousand years old, so Ye Feng alone was enough. Moreover, Ye Feng's darkness-attribute soul power was more effective than other attributes at wearing away a Light Spirit's light-attribute soul power.

After realizing that he really couldn't do much to the Light Spirit, Ye Qing could only abandon his plan to hammer it mercilessly and physically persuade it to become his spirit.

No Banana Pouch, alas.

After that, Ye Qing and Ye Feng generally ignored any Light Spirits they encountered that weren't old enough. Even if a Light Spirit attacked them on its own initiative, Ye Feng merely scared it away at most.

After all, Light Spirits were already few in number. If they slaughtered them indiscriminately, they really might go extinct.

At last, the grandfather and grandson encountered a Light Spirit with a sufficiently high energy level, but Ye Feng hesitated.

"Judging by its energy level, this Light Spirit has about sixty-eight hundred years of cultivation," Ye Feng explained when he saw Ye Qing's puzzled look.

"Mu En said that your second soul ring should ideally be around six thousand years old. Even if it's a little higher, it shouldn't exceed sixty-five hundred years. But this one is already sixty-eight hundred."

After a moment's consideration, Ye Feng decided to pass up this Light Spirit and look for another.

If they really couldn't find a six-thousand-year Light Spirit, they could simply lower their standards and look for a five-thousand-year one. Ye Qing's safety mattered more than anything. Even a five-thousand-year second soul ring would give Ye Qing enough potential to absorb a ten-thousand-year ring for his third.

There was no need to take a risk for such a small difference in age.

Although the benefits of successfully absorbing it would be enormous, the risk was equally great. And if he failed, the consequences were something Ye Feng simply could not accept.

He would rather Ye Qing played it safe than attempted something so close to courting death.

But Ye Qing had his own ideas.

"Grandpa, I think I can give it a try."

P.S. A clarification.

Many people have wondered where the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's devouring talent went. Others have wondered what allows the protagonist to absorb a six-thousand-year soul ring as his second. I'll explain both here.

Actually, these two questions can be considered one and the same. Devouring, put plainly, is digestion. The protagonist can absorb such old soul rings because this talent lets him digest whatever he eats to the fullest, improving his physique to a degree other soul masters simply cannot match.

What he eats could be heavenly treasures, or something he grabs and refines in an instant... It just isn't time for instant refinement yet.