As one of the soul beasts with the finest bloodlines, even a hundred-year-old dark gold terrorclaw bear had a higher chance of yielding a soul bone than an ordinary ten-thousand-year soul beast.
A twenty-thousand-year-old dark gold terrorclaw bear was practically guaranteed to yield a soul bone, just like a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, unless your luck was so rotten you could get hit by a truck just stepping outside.
Otherwise, a ten-thousand-year-old dark gold terrorclaw bear was already guaranteed to yield a soul bone.
And as a top-tier soul beast, the soul bone it produced would likewise be the finest of the finest.
Mu En was eager to find out. What sort of soul bone would this dark gold terrorclaw bear yield? Could it give Ye Qing an even greater boost?
When Mu En examined it and discovered that all its remaining soul power fluctuations had gathered in its right arm, excitement crept onto his face. The dark gold terrorclaw bear's most formidable weapons were undoubtedly its pair of sharp claws.
As long as the soul bone appeared in either arm, its accompanying soul skill was certain to be an immensely powerful offensive skill. It might even yield an external soul bone...
Dark Gold Dreadclaw!
That feeling of opening a mystery box stirred a flicker of anticipation even in Mu En, an old man over two hundred years old.
Without any apparent effort, he simply flattened his hand into a blade and gently swept it through the air. The dark gold terrorclaw bear's right arm severed at the shoulder, without so much as a drop of blood flowing from the wound.
With another wave, he released several streams of soul power that enveloped the dark gold terrorclaw bear's right arm. A complete right arm bone tore through the flesh of the severed limb and slowly floated out.
A right arm bone, but without the hand.
"Just the right arm..." Mu En was a little disappointed.
Although a Right Arm Soul Bone was also precious, its value was far lower than that of an external right claw soul bone. Even knowing that external soul bones were rarer than soul beasts yielding soul bones in the first place, Mu En had still held out a little hope.
Now that his hopes had fallen through, disappointment was only natural.
"Little Ye Qing already has a right arm bone. This dark gold terrorclaw bear right arm bone... I'll leave it for Bei Bei to absorb." After a moment's consideration, Mu En placed it in a box and put it away.
It was not that Mu En was so biased that he only left Bei Bei things Ye Qing could not use. Rather, this soul bone had dropped during Ye Qing's soul hunting expedition. Only when the same soul master absorbed both the soul ring and soul bone produced by a single soul beast could their effects be brought out to the fullest.
But considering that Ye Qing already had a right arm bone, and that this soul bone truly was exceptional, Mu En had to save something good for his own great-grandson.
Mu En had taken Ye Qing soul hunting so quickly that he brought the dark gold terrorclaw bear back in less than a day. As a result, Bei Bei, who was also preparing to go soul hunting, had not even set out yet.
At this point, if Bei Bei could absorb a twenty-thousand-year-old dark gold terrorclaw bear soul bone, the maximum age of the soul rings he could absorb would increase by roughly two thousand years, from four thousand to six thousand.
Then, once Bei Bei underwent training similar to Ye Qing's at the Soul Elder stage, he would also be able to absorb a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring as his fourth soul ring.
Although he could not absorb a twenty-thousand-year soul ring as his third like Ye Qing, his fourth ring would still be black. With two purple and four black rings, Bei Bei's configuration would be better than Mu En's when comparing their first four soul rings alone.
How could Mu En truly not care about this great-grandson of his?
In the original story, Bei Bei himself had chosen to coast along, leaving Mu En no choice but to let him be. Now that Bei Bei had shown a strong desire to cultivate, Mu En would naturally give him as much support as possible.
Besides...
They had obtained this soul bone on a private soul hunting expedition. It was not the academy's property, so Mu En could decide how to distribute it himself, just like the Light-Breaking Soul Bone.
After confirming that Ye Qing's soul ring absorption had entered a stable phase and that nothing would go wrong, Mu En quietly vanished. He stopped Bei Bei just as he was about to set out and handed him the soul bone.
The Sea of Consciousness.
The seemingly mighty and imposing remnant soul of the dark gold terrorclaw bear was currently taking a one-sided beating from Ye Qing.
When it came to physical strength, the dark gold terrorclaw bear was indeed incredibly powerful. But this creature was just like the Golden Dragon King: all muscle and practically no brains.
Its cerebrum was underdeveloped, and its cerebellum had not developed at all.
Under those circumstances, the dark gold terrorclaw bear's spiritual power and soul naturally could not be very strong either. Faced with Ye Qing's spiritual manifestation, it was beaten so badly that it had no idea how to fight back.
Every punch Ye Qing landed blasted a shower of light from its soul body. More importantly, he discovered that his Sea of Consciousness actually took the initiative to absorb the showers of light spilling from the dark gold terrorclaw bear.
With every punch, the dark gold terrorclaw bear's remnant soul weakened, while Ye Qing's Sea of Consciousness grew stronger as he absorbed the light.
He could clearly feel his Sea of Consciousness expanding at a tremendous rate.
Even when consuming treasures of heaven and earth and training his spiritual power in the Fear Demon Dragon's cultivation chamber, it had never grown this quickly.
The change in his Sea of Consciousness made Ye Qing even more enthusiastic. He no longer looked at the dark gold terrorclaw bear's remnant soul as an enemy, but as a delicious feast.
No, this really was a delicious feast!
It had barely been any time at all, and his Sea of Consciousness had already expanded by at least a fifth. If he devoured the entire dark gold terrorclaw bear, wouldn't his spiritual power skyrocket?
With that thought in mind, Ye Qing chased the dark gold terrorclaw bear's remnant soul with swinging fists and pounded it mercilessly. He beat it until it howled, and finally, with a bang, it burst into pure soul energy, which he absorbed completely.
Just as Ye Qing had expected, after he completely devoured the dark gold terrorclaw bear's remnant soul, his Sea of Consciousness expanded by at least 50% from its original size.
"No wonder a soul master's strength takes a massive leap with every additional Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring. Soul Shock actually has benefits like this." Ye Qing gazed at his Sea of Consciousness with delight.
In reality, however, other soul masters' Soul Shock had no such effect. They could only passively endure the attacks of a soul beast's remnant soul until its power was completely exhausted.
His ability to devour the remnant soul's power came entirely from a certain Evil God Tiger's formidable devouring ability.
The end of Soul Shock also meant that Ye Qing had passed every trial involved in absorbing a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring. Now, he only needed to finish refining the remaining soul power within the ring to successfully absorb it and advance to Soul Elder.
Time slowly passed.
Once he had completely refined the last trace of soul power within the soul ring into his own strength, the deep-colored ring circling him quietly merged into his body.
Absorption successful!
The bottleneck at rank thirty abruptly shattered, and three soul rings-yellow, purple, and black-appeared around him in succession.
Soul Elder!
P.S. A twenty-thousand-year-old dark gold terrorclaw bear is guaranteed to yield a soul bone, but having it produce an external soul bone would make his luck seem ridiculously good and rather unrealistic. Soul bones from other body parts would be too young, and even if Ye Qing thought them beneath him, Mu En would make him absorb one.
All things considered, it was better to give him a right arm bone, which he already had. That preserved the dark gold terrorclaw bear's prestige while keeping the protagonist from absorbing this Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone with an age of twenty thousand years.
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