Powerful fluctuations of soul power suddenly surged forth. Once the bottleneck barring him from becoming a Soul Elder broke, Ye Qing's soul power level began climbing rapidly.
A twenty-thousand-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear soul ring ought to give me a few extra levels, right?
Just as Ye Qing eagerly anticipated how many levels he would gain, the crisp sound of shattering barriers rang out only twice before folding its banners and falling silent.
Two... two levels?
The mighty slap of an ultimate attribute had finally landed squarely on Ye Qing's face.
He had originally thought that even if the three big shots inside him split off a considerable amount of the soul ring's energy, it would at least raise his soul power by three levels, bringing him to level thirty-four. Instead, he had barely reached level thirty-three, without even the momentum to inch any higher.
If the Wings of Light's age hadn't increased to at least two thousand years, and his darling little Light Spirit wife hadn't advanced from six or seven hundred years to the thousand-year tier, Ye Qing really might have suspected that the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's soul ring was just that pathetic.
The facts proved that the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's soul ring was damn impressive.
The external soul bone, which had absorbed only a small portion of its power, had reached the two-thousand-year tier. The Light Spirit, which had likewise absorbed only a small portion, had advanced into a thousand-year soul beast.
Meanwhile, Ye Qing, who had absorbed most of the soul power, had gained only two levels after breaking through his bottleneck.
Well, then.
Now I finally know why the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger keeps devouring everything to increase its age, even though its talent is no worse than any other soul beast's. With cultivation progressing this slowly, it might as well take the shortcut and devour, devour, devour.
Does this mean that I, Lord Ye Qing, Pure and Spotless, will also have to grab things and refine them in an instant to increase my soul power?
His expression shifting uncertainly, Ye Qing sat there without a word for a long time.
With his soul power now at this level, he had naturally discovered his innate talent for devouring. Whatever the energy was, as long as he swallowed it, he would digest it at an astonishing speed.
That was true of the Golden Tree's tea leaves.
That was true of the heavenly treasures and whale rubber that strengthened his body.
That was equally true of the various treasures that increased his spiritual power.
He had even eaten the Pearl meant to be worn as an aid for training spiritual power, just to verify whether he possessed a devouring talent.
The result was that the Pearl turned into a pile of dust, while Ye Qing's spiritual power increased enormously.
That proved he actually had the potential to become an Immortal Venerable.
It was just that old Mu was still alive, and while Ye Qing was at Shrek, he didn't really dare use that talent.
How could Ye Qing dare gamble on whether they would shield him the way they shielded Ma Xiaotao? Ma Xiaotao's evil fire could be resolved, but his devouring ability was an innate talent. There was no getting rid of it.
What if they label me an Evil Soul Master and finish me off?
There was simply no guessing how Shrek's bunch of old geezers thought, because it was utterly impossible to fathom their thought processes with a normal person's mind.
They were practically Schrödinger's Senior Elders.
50%: "This boy belongs to Shrek, and his martial soul has the light attribute. How could he possibly have a devouring talent? His digestion is simply a little stronger!"
50%: "I thought you were a light-attribute Soul Master, yet you actually possess an ability that heaven itself cannot tolerate! You inherently evil little Evil Soul Master brat, I shall personally..."
...I can't even.
Forget it. I'll stick to honest cultivation for now.
Ye Qing sighed inwardly, then turned to look at the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's corpse nearby. Aside from its right arm, which had been cut off and dissected, all its flesh lay there intact.
It looked as though the soul bone had been taken away, and judging by the state of the corpse, it had probably dropped a right arm bone.
Neither of its paws showed any signs of dissection. Only its right arm had been opened with an incision roughly the length of a human arm.
Ye Qing looked around again but found no sign of Mu En or Ye Feng. By the look of things, Mu En had probably gone to find Bei Bei after removing the soul bone. Ye Qing could more or less guess what Mu En was thinking.
He himself had absorbed the Light-Breaking Demon soul bone before absorbing his second soul ring. Only then had he been able to absorb the 6,800-Year Soul Ring of the Light Spirit as his second soul ring.
Now that this Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear had dropped a top-grade right arm bone, letting Bei Bei absorb it would likewise greatly increase the Soul Ring Age Limit of his third soul ring, laying the groundwork for him to absorb a ten-thousand-year fourth soul ring.
Ye Qing had nothing much to say about that.
First, he already had a right arm bone. Getting another would be of little use except to give it to old geezer Ye Feng, and selling it would be outrageously wasteful.
Second, Mu En had been the one to take him out to kill this bear in the first place. Aside from sightseeing, he hadn't contributed any effort whatsoever. If Mu En didn't give it to him, he had nothing to complain about.
Let Bei Bei have it, then.
If Bei Bei is too weak, knocking him down won't give me any sense of accomplishment. That would cost me my emotional satisfaction.
Of course, since Mu En had already taken the soul bone, Ye Qing would happily help himself to the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's corpse.
In the original story, Huo Gua had roasted Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear meat, and the prose had gone on and on about how delicious it smelled. It had tasted so good that Xiao Xiao had almost swallowed her tongue, and the bear's two paws were said to be rare delicacies.
Since it had been described as so delicious, he absolutely had to pocket it for himself.
Hmm... at most, once it's cooked, I'll give old geezer Ye Feng and Mu En a little "filial offering" as a token gesture.
When Mu En returned, he saw Ye Qing stuffing the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's corpse into his soul tool. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, he pulled over the right arm he had cut off earlier and put it into his own soul tool.
"You can take the other parts, but you must leave one bear paw for this old man. Chances to eat Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear paws don't come along often."
Caught pocketing the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, Ye Qing showed no embarrassment. He simply changed the subject and told Mu En he had reached level thirty-three.
"Level thirty-three..." Mu En murmured softly.
"That's right, Teacher. Improving an ultimate attribute is just too difficult. A twenty-thousand-year soul ring only gave me two levels of soul power." Ye Qing sounded a little helpless as well. "Doesn't our academy have a cultivation method for ultimate attributes? Could you teach me?"
"I figure that at my current cultivation speed, it'll take five or six months to gain a level. At this rate, who knows what year of the ox or month of the horse it'll be before I become a Soul Saint?"
On average, that meant five levels every two years, or one major rank every four years. Given that Ye Qing was currently at level thirty-three, he would have to be around twenty-five at the earliest before breaking through to Soul Saint.
That was already based on his own cultivation talent being sufficiently strong. Of course, being at Shrek, he had no shortage of cultivation resources, which would probably shorten the time needed to reach Soul Saint by another year or two.
But he would still have to be around twenty-two at the very least.
Before you continue