Wang Yan stood off to the side, dumbstruck by what he had seen. He had watched this little girl awaken her Martial Soul with his own eyes. No matter how gifted she was, she only had rank-ten Soul Power. Leaving aside the grade of that dagger, wasn't her charging speed a little too outrageous?
Although she clearly wasn't very practiced at using that speed, she had only just awakened her Martial Soul and already had such a high ceiling. How fast would she become in the future? He didn't dare imagine it.
Before he could recover from his shock, the girl walked straight over to the black Soul Ring, sat down cross-legged, and reached out. The black Soul Ring plunged directly into her body.
"Holy shit! She's absorbing it just like that?" At the sight, ten thousand horses seemed to thunder through Wang Yan's mind. Unfortunately, he wasn't much of a wordsmith, so that one expression was all he could muster to convey his shock.
Seeing the girl close her eyes and settle down, seemingly beginning the absorption in earnest, he hurriedly circulated his Soul Power to heal his wounds. With the healing medicine he carried on him, injuries that only damaged some flesh weren't too serious.
After drinking a few more bottles of healing medicine and recovering enough to barely lift his blade, Wang Yan stood up and began keeping watch over the surroundings. Whether she really had absorbed that Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring would become clear once she woke up.
Leng Xiyue also knew that the man from Spirit Hall wouldn't do anything to her, and there weren't any other Soul Beasts nearby. She therefore returned to the Soul Space without worry, ready to absorb the Soul Ring.
The moment she returned to the Soul Space, the system's voice rang out. "Congratulations on completing the mission, host. You have received a Storage Space with a volume of one thousand cubic meters, along with a Simulation module, allowing you to adjust your own bearing and the grade of your Soul Rings at any time."
Leng Xiyue rubbed her hands together. Storage equipment was a rare treasure, and one thousand cubic meters was no small amount. Tang San's only held twenty-four cubic meters, after all.
Right now, however, a mere Storage Device clearly wasn't the most important thing. Her immediate priority was turning this Soul Ring into her skill.
The system enveloped the Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring in energy. Before long, the Gale Demon Wolf's soul was extracted and flung onto the ground.
The Gale Demon Wolf looked ferocious, howling incessantly as though it wished it could tear Leng Xiyue into eight pieces.
"This is the Gale Demon Wolf's soul. The souls of this world's Soul Beasts seem to exist through their Soul Rings. Any Soul Beast over ten thousand years old will leave behind a soul like this after death to interfere with the process. You can imagine how difficult that makes absorption."
"But once we extract it, absorbing it with our help naturally won't be a problem."
As she spoke, Xiao Bai extended a hand. A beam of light shot from the crystal atop the palace and struck the Gale Demon Wolf's soul, which instantly vanished.
"Now, you should think about what sort of skill you want. As things stand, this skill can only receive enhancements related to speed. You can also come up with a skill unrelated to speed, of course, but that will greatly lower the maximum power it can achieve."
"Hehehe, of course I've already figured that out." Leng Xiyue rubbed her hands together. In fact, ever since learning that she could choose her own skill, she had thought of plenty of options.
Something related to speed? Then it had to be a sword move. What sword move was both powerful and stylish?
Close in quickly, launch the enemy with one stroke, follow up with four increasingly powerful heavy blows, then finish with a downward slash. Perfect.
As she remembered it, plenty of games had similar moves, but if she had to name the one that left the deepest impression, it was naturally Yasuo's Last Breath.
Although she had never played, she had seen plenty of people charge in to show off, only to feed a kill, then shift the blame and curse their teammates for not knowing how to play. It would have been hard not to remember that.
Replacing the wind knock-up with a direct launching slash shouldn't be much of a problem.
Every sword strike would come from a different position, moving so fast it was almost teleportation, making it difficult to counter. With the enhancement from a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring and Psionic Energy, it should at least be enough to instantly kill opponents of the same rank, right?
After hearing Leng Xiyue's description, Xiao Bai nodded. "Mm, as long as you like it."
Whether the Protoss had already moved beyond such a primitive approach as melee combat or simply lacked variety in their moves, Xiao Bai offered no suggestions whatsoever.
Once Leng Xiyue uploaded the sequence of movements in her mind to the Forge, it began modifying the Soul Ring. Before long, the modifications were complete.
From the outside, the Soul Ring looked no different. Its original skill, however, had now been replaced with a new one.
"Please name this skill, host."
Leng Xiyue thought for a moment. "How about Flash Slash?"
The name didn't matter. She wasn't as melodramatic as the locals, who had to shout out a skill's name whenever they used it.
"Modification complete. Beginning fusion with the host."
As the system spoke, Leng Xiyue felt the Soul Ring slowly merge with her soul. A measure of understanding also surfaced in her mind, giving her a deeper grasp of controlling her speed. The new skill felt as though she had been born with it, though becoming proficient would undoubtedly still take practice.
This move didn't strictly limit the type of weapon she manifested. A hammer or something similar would work too, though it wouldn't handle as smoothly as a blade or sword.
Once the Soul Ring's absorption was complete, she suddenly felt as though some barrier had shattered. Her Psionic Energy, which had previously reached saturation, could now continue increasing.
The system's voice rang out as well. "Congratulations on your breakthrough, host. A new mission has now been activated: raise your Psionic Energy level to 20 and increase your armor's strength to Level Two Metal."
"Required metal reserves: ten metric tons."
"Mission reward: Cognitive Enhancement Component."
Feeling the power brought by the Soul Ring, Leng Xiyue was thoroughly satisfied. The new mission, however, left her somewhat puzzled.
Level Two Metal was essentially refined iron ingots, something akin to refined iron or steel. It still fell within the ordinary category, so collecting it probably wouldn't be difficult.
Later on, though, if she needed to gather higher-quality metals, she would have to rely on luck.
What puzzled her was that this armor left so many places unprotected. Even if the bracers and greaves could be used to block, wouldn't an area attack or a spell still hurt her? If so, what use was increasing the armor's defense?
As though their minds were linked, the moment she became puzzled, Xiao Bai glanced at her and said helplessly, "Dummy, of course your protection isn't limited to those few pieces of armor. It covers your entire body with a layer of armor. Although you can't feel it, it has already merged into your skin, greatly enhancing your body's toughness."
"Think about it. Why didn't you get a single scrape when you crashed into that tree earlier? Without an appropriate way to use it, Psionic Energy can only help your body heal quickly. It won't strengthen your defenses!"
"So that's how it works." After hearing Xiao Bai's explanation, Leng Xiyue understood at once.
This armor couldn't be seen or touched, but in effect, it was as though her skin had been strengthened. She didn't feel any different, and her skin was still soft to the touch, but if someone slashed at an unprotected joint like her wrist or knee, it would be no different from striking the armor itself.
That was probably what copper skin and iron bones amounted to.
In that case, armor that required so much metal to upgrade would offer quite impressive defense against others of the same rank. If she could get a huge pile of high-grade metal early on and raise her armor to a higher level, she would undoubtedly become a cockroach that simply wouldn't die. Soul Masters below her armor's level would basically be unable to penetrate her defenses. Compared with the offensive advantage provided by Psionic Energy, gathering high-quality metals ahead of time to upgrade her armor was the way to rapidly increase her combat strength.
In a place like Spirit City, she figured metals below Level Five could probably be bought easily enough as long as she had money. Nor did the experience needed to cultivate Psionic Energy necessarily have to come from Soul Rings. All sorts of high-quality medicinal herbs and cultivation resources could work too.
All of these required large amounts of money to buy. As for cultivation resources, she could take advantage of the benefits her talent brought her to get some freebies from Spirit Hall. But with the terrifying demands of cultivating Psionic Energy, there was no way she could obtain everything she needed to reach level twenty in one go. She would still have to find a way to buy the rest herself.
With that in mind, her most pressing task was still making money. She needed to use the Forge's capabilities to create things that could bring in cash quickly.
I've changed the protagonist's name slightly. If the earlier chapters still display the old name, try clearing your cache first. Future updates will use the new name.
Before you continue