Psionic Energy

The concept of killing wild beasts to trigger the eruption of glowing rings immediately made Leng Xiyue think of the Douluo Continent. Such a distinct characteristic left almost no possibility of it being any other world, though she had no idea which era she currently found herself in.

However, this was clearly not the time to dwell on such matters. Watching the radiance of those soul rings gradually dim, Leng Xiyue forcefully endured the pain in her body, climbed up from the ground, and hurried over.

"Xiao Bai, how should I absorb these soul rings?"

Gazing at this pile of soul rings ranging everywhere from ten years to a thousand years, Leng Xiyue felt a bit intimidated. She was currently just a little kid who didn't even have a martial soul; would even the weakest Ten-Year Soul Ring be enough to burst her apart?

"Rest assured, although the system hasn't activated yet, it has already strengthened the mental space in your mind in advance, which is also my dwelling place. Accommodating these energies is naturally not a problem, so you just need to touch them, and you can leave the rest to me." Xiao Bai patted her chest, appearing completely confident about this matter.

With that, her figure vanished from sight.

"Xiao Bai?" Seeing her little companion suddenly disappear, Leng Xiyue panicked a little.

"Don't worry, I've always been here. I need to return to your mental space to complete the conversion process, so hurry up and absorb them."

Hearing the familiar voice, Leng Xiyue finally set her mind at ease. For some reason, clearly the two of them had just met, yet it felt like they were long-acquainted good friends whom she could trust completely and without reservation.

Without hesitation, Leng Xiyue went straight into the pile of soul rings, first located the purple soul ring, and reached out to touch it.

The moment she came into contact with it, that soul ring was sucked into her body, yet it seemed like nothing more than a projection, having not the slightest impact when it touched her flesh. Following closely was a series of warm currents that gradually flowed through her entire body, feeling exceptionally comfortable. Even the wounds all over her body seemed to hurt less, and her physique appeared to be slowly repaired. She figured this must be the power of psionic energy she spoke of gradually taking effect.

"Continue. For a ring of this grade, you'll probably need to absorb about fifty more before you can reach the upper limit of the level your current physique can improve by. Constrained by a certain rule set by this world for humans, you must go through certain events in order to continue improving to a higher rank."

"Let's speed up. The only reason this place got wiped out is because they had the bad luck to run into me and got casually eliminated. There are higher-level ones outside, which I figure should be enough for you to use."

Hearing Xiao Bai's words, Leng Xiyue was momentarily stunned. The purple soul ring from just now had a lighter color, and its age was estimated to be around one thousand years. If she needed fifty such rings, that meant the total amount needed to reach level ten would be fifty thousand years?

Fifty thousand years of cultivation-ordinary soul emperors would probably find it difficult to combat. Such a high demand could actually only barely saturate this ordinary human body of hers?

Since she didn't have a martial soul right now, would this tier become her innate soul power rank?

Although she didn't know whether psionic energy and soul power coexisted or replaced each other, or where the boundary between the two lay, this was still no time for idle chatter, so she simply had to speed up and make her way along by touch.

Soon, the soul rings in the cave were swept clean, but aside from that purple soul ring, the rest were all white and yellow soul rings, adding up to at most around four thousand years.

Neither too much nor too little, and as for how much strength these soul rings had brought her, she didn't really feel much, but at least the injuries on her body were mostly healed.

Without the soul rings, the cave was devoid of even a shred of light. Leng Xiyue was just preparing to feel her way along the wall when Xiao Bai's figure appeared once more, taking her hand and walking in front.

"Follow me."

Perhaps because the other party resided within her own mental space, Leng Xiyue was able to touch her. This was a very wondrous sensation, as if the other party seemed to be speaking aloud while in reality feeding it directly back into her mind, and she only needed to respond with her consciousness.

Did Xiao Bai's existence perhaps resemble Johnny Silverhand from Cyberpunk? Yet that didn't quite fit either; Xiao Bai clearly possessed her own soul body and senses independent of her, making her somewhat resemble an old soul master like Yao Lao, yet she couldn't detach herself from the vicinity of her own body-perhaps a wondrous form intermediate between the two.

With a guide, Leng Xiyue soon reached the cave exit, stepping out into the blinding sunlight.

Transitioning all at once from darkness into the bright sunlight, Leng Xiyue couldn't help but close her eyes, adapting for a moment before opening them a short while later.

Gazing at the distant snow-clad, breathtaking forest scenery, and then looking at the landscape of crisscrossing gullies spanning several hundred meters right in front of the cave entrance that resembled a wasteland, Leng Xiyue was dumbfounded.

Above the wasteland, a large expanse of yellow and white soul rings floated in the air, and amidst them lay a single, deeply colored black soul ring.

Aside from the soul rings, not a single soul beast corpse existed on the ground, and the large trees on this patch of land had long since been reduced to ashes. Only the black particles on the ground that had not yet been blown away by the wind could barely reveal the trace that they had once existed.

"This... Xiao Bai, did you do all this?"

Leng Xiyue was shocked. Was this the commotion caused just to save one's life?

Xiao Bai looked at the wasteland before her and helplessly spread her hands. "I couldn't help it either. Within your physique, I couldn't control my residual power. Once the psionic energy leaked out, the commotion really was a bit large."

"But based on my deduction, this degree of power should be attainable by quite a few people in this world, so it shouldn't attract too much attention, right?"

"However, compared to this, you should be more worried about why a high-level beast that shouldn't have appeared here specifically came to kill the original owner of this body. Most of those low-level beasts around were just caught in the crossfire; on such a cold day, none of them had much desire to fight. If not for that, I wouldn't have needed to make a move."

Indeed, although she didn't know which forest this was, at a glance it was clearly the outer perimeter, filled only with ten-year and hundred-year soul beasts. Those able to live in the cave behind could be considered experts of this region, yet their highest strength was merely a bit over a thousand years. For a ten-thousand-year soul beast to appear here was truly strange.

Judging by that black soul ring, its color wasn't shallow either, estimated to be two to thirty thousand years old, which made it even more baffling.

The pity was that the original owner hadn't left behind any memories, and all these strange events would probably have to rely on the two of them to find the answers themselves.

While walking toward that black soul ring, Leng Xiyue asked, "Speaking of which, why can't I feel the cold? Is this the power of psionic energy?"

A piercing cold wind blew past from time to time, and just listening to the sound made one feel frightened. Yet when it blew against Leng Xiyue, it merely felt like a spring breeze brushing across her face, which made her feel quite magical.

"Mhm, psionic energy improving one's physique is only the most basic thing. Powerful psionic users crossing the void is no problem at all. Once we understand the rule system of this world, we can make further use of it."

Seeing that Leng Xiyue still had doubts on her face, Xiao Bai continued to explain, "Don't look at my human-like appearance; this is merely an anthropomorphic form. Because of racial barriers, the methods we and humans use for psionic energy are completely different. A human's physique is far too frail, and teaching you to use my skills would harm you instead."

"You can only use psionic power by employing the ability-manipulation methods of the humans in this world, or... see if that system can give you any special assistance."

"I see."

Leng Xiyue understood. Hearing Xiao Bai put it this way, psionic energy should exist to replace soul power, which meant that wanting to learn skills or make breakthroughs in rank still required soul rings. It was just that the quality of psionic energy would be far stronger than soul power.

Similarly, the soul skills she used would also utilize psionic power, and their might would naturally increase greatly.

Leng Xiyue told Xiao Bai everything she knew, and Xiao Bai also roughly understood the operating laws of this world.

Chatting as they went, the two quickly arrived before the ten-thousand-year soul ring, and Xiao Bai returned to the mental space.

"Let's begin."

Practice makes perfect. Leng Xiyue touched it without the slightest hesitation. Just like before, almost instantly, this black soul ring was absorbed into her body. That wondrous sensation from earlier appeared once more, and Leng Xiyue didn't dawdle, continuing to absorb the other soul rings.

With the continuous strengthening of psionic energy, the most intuitive sensations were the enhancement of her strength and physical constitution. Originally, this body would have been exceptionally frail even without injuries, making even walking a few steps a struggle. Now she could be said to be flying like the wind, and in no time at all, she had absorbed all the soul rings in this area.

These soul rings were quite numerous; just the hundred-year ones numbered in the dozens or hundreds, ranging from one hundred to seven or eight hundred years. They were probably huddled together hibernating when their underground home was directly blown away.

"Alright, my work here will take another minute or two. You go explore your surroundings first. With your current strength, utilizing that small dagger on your body to deal with soul beasts under two hundred years old won't be a problem at all. That knife is quite sharp, and it's definitely enough for self-defense."

"Okay." Leng Xiyue also felt that this place was no place to linger long, so she picked a direction and slowly felt her way forward.

Although she didn't know why the original owner had run to this place, as long as she found a way outward or encountered other humans hunting for soul rings, she should be able to get out.

Thinking of this, Leng Xiyue pulled out the dagger on her body.

The moment it met the sunlight, a flash of cold light immediately swept across the blade of this dagger. At a glance, it looked incomparably sharp and felt exceptionally comfortable to hold. In the center of the dagger was embedded a purple gemstone, which looked rather superfluous yet didn't affect the grip.

A dragon pattern wound around the hilt, looking majestic and extraordinary. She had no idea what it represented, perhaps some symbol of power and status.

This knife appearing on her person was definitely no coincidence. The clothes she wore were filthy, but their material still showed them to be quite expensive; perhaps her original self was some destitute scion of a wealthy family.

No wonder Xiao Bai said this original owner was being targeted. Carrying a treasure like this, it would be strange if she weren't targeted.

Though its grade was unknown, no matter how one thought about it, it was a weapon used by the level of a soul emperor or soul king. Why on earth could a dagger like this attract experts capable of driving ten-thousand-year soul beasts?

She certainly didn't believe the appearance of this ten-thousand-year soul beast was just a coincidence.

Just as Leng Xiyue was pondering what method to use to investigate the secrets within, violent tremors suddenly echoed from several hundred meters away.