First Soul Ring

Li Mingzhu shook his head, clearing the distracting thoughts from his mind.

He was almost at his soul hunting destination. He had better not let his mind wander and risk making a mistake.

As he drew closer to the void netherstone ruins, more and more enormous rocks lay exposed across the surrounding ground.

Looking at the bare earth and the badly shattered rocks, Li Mingzhu could hardly imagine how terrifying that spatial storm a thousand years ago had been! (It was introduced in earlier chapters.)

While traveling earlier, Li Mingzhu had already spotted plenty of space-attribute soul beasts, but they were too young to meet his soul hunting requirements.

Li Mingzhu suppressed his aura as much as he could and continued following the ancient traces of destruction.

He passed through a concealing thicket, and suddenly, an entirely new landscape appeared before his eyes!

Li Mingzhu flew up onto an ancient tree. Before him, a low basin lay amid the sea of forest, with no mountains enclosing it. Towering trees surrounded it on every side, and the depression sank deep into the dense woods.

The basin covered a vast area, and the void netherstone half-buried in its soil had irregular shapes.

Fragments of void netherstone littered every part of the basin, but the largest lay half-buried at its center. Its exterior was dull gray and utterly lusterless, making it difficult to distinguish from ordinary rocks.

Many soul beasts lived in the basin, mostly moving around the void netherstone. The spatial storm a thousand years ago had stripped away every last trace of the energy and effects contained within it, leaving only the shells that had once held that energy.

Though it no longer served any purpose, its inherent spatial fluctuations still made it popular with many soul beasts.

Some Thorned Vines, for instance, grew wrapped around fragments of void netherstone, while rift butterflies rested on them.

With so many spatial soul beasts here, it seemed Li Mingzhu was certain to find his target on this soul hunting trip.

However, the soul beasts before him were either too young or too old. Not a single one suited him.

Left with no other choice, Li Mingzhu began searching along the basin.

Awooo-!

At the sound of the howling, Li Mingzhu's eyes lit up, and he hurried toward its source.

When he arrived, he saw a group of Netherclaw Beasts sharpening their claws against the void netherstone. Scanning the beasts, Li Mingzhu was delighted to discover that one was over nine hundred years old, just right for his first soul ring.

Several Netherclaw Beasts in this group had already reached the thousand-year level. Li Mingzhu had no intention of charging straight in.

Having made up his mind, Li Mingzhu quietly waited for the nine-hundred-year-old Netherclaw Beast to go foraging.

Hidden in the shadows, Li Mingzhu studied the Netherclaw Beasts' appearance. The descriptions he had read had not left much of an impression, but seeing them up close, they looked exactly like oversized Agumon!

After an hour of waiting, the Netherclaw Beast seemed to have tired of sharpening its claws and headed out of the basin to forage.

Li Mingzhu focused his attention and followed close behind!

The Netherclaw Beast kept stopping and starting, leaving Li Mingzhu utterly speechless as he trailed it. "If you can't even show some enthusiasm for eating, what can you do?"

Only after dawdling for half an hour did it reach a patch of berry bushes.

That was right! Despite its highly aggressive appearance, the Netherclaw Beast was a vegetarian.

Sharpening its claws was merely a hobby. It was normally docile and disinclined to fight. Of course, if someone picked on it, those claws were every bit as sharp and deadly!

Watching the Netherclaw Beast gorge itself on berries, Li Mingzhu scouted the surroundings.

After confirming there were no other soul beasts nearby, Li Mingzhu could not be bothered to wait any longer and stepped directly in front of the Netherclaw Beast.

But the Netherclaw Beast was entirely absorbed in eating and did not even glance at him.

Li Mingzhu's mouth twitched, a cloud of exasperation hanging over him. Regardless of its reaction, he immediately activated Martial Soul Possession and spread his domain.

Within the domain, the Netherclaw Beast froze in terror at the draconic might emanating from Li Mingzhu.

It abandoned its meal and dropped straight to the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

Li Mingzhu walked up to the helpless Netherclaw Beast. He did not burn it with Dragon Flame; that would have been far too painful.

He took out his spear, aimed at a vulnerable spot, and thrust, giving it a quick death.

The Netherclaw Beast's body twitched one last time, then it stopped breathing altogether.

The next second, a yellowish soul ring tinged with faint traces of purple slowly rose from its corpse, emitting a soft glow in the sunlight.

Li Mingzhu took a deep breath and sat cross-legged beside the Netherclaw Beast's corpse. Closing his eyes, he drew the soul ring toward himself. (Guys, I mentioned this earlier: he has no backing in the early stages, so he gave up on a thousand-year first soul ring to avoid attracting too much attention. Later, with divine trials, he can upgrade it as much as he likes.)

The instant the soul ring touched his body, a warm current of energy poured into him and slowly flowed through his meridians.

The energy contained in a soul ring over nine hundred years old was enough to burst other one-ring soul masters, but it was insignificant to Li Mingzhu. Thanks to the formidable physique granted by his Ancient Void Dragon martial soul, the energy within him behaved like subjects bowing their heads, quietly awaiting their king's acceptance.

Before long, under his guidance, the soul ring slowly merged into his body, the light on its surface gradually dimming.

About three minutes later.

Li Mingzhu suddenly opened his eyes, a flash of purple-gold light flickering through their depths.

He let out a long breath and slowly rose to his feet.

With a thought, a yellow soul ring slowly rose from beneath his feet and revolved around him.

Li Mingzhu clenched his fists, clearly sensing the newfound power surging within his body.

Combined with the benefits of the whale rubber he had refined earlier, his soul power had leaped straight to level fourteen!

He then closed his eyes and carefully examined the information about his newly acquired soul skill.

A moment later, Li Mingzhu opened his eyes, a glimmer of delighted surprise flashing within them.

First soul skill: Void Space Claw

It coated his dragon claws with spatial power, enhanced all attributes by twenty-five percent, strengthened piercing damage, and ignored defense!

"Holy moly!"

"What do you mean, it ignores defense? How are defense-type soul masters supposed to play against that?"

Feeling the outrageously powerful effects of his first soul skill, Li Mingzhu was in excellent spirits.

Granted, when playing games in his previous life, he had hated this sort of shameless mechanic more than anything.

But now that he had it himself-ah, it tasted sweet!

He searched the Netherclaw Beast's corpse, but no soul bone dropped this time.

Li Mingzhu had a vague feeling: if this Netherclaw Beast had also dropped a claw external soul bone, the power of his first soul skill would surely have risen another notch!

Still, he did not dwell on it. Gaining it would be his good fortune; missing it was simply his fate! This soul skill alone had already made his soul hunting trip a complete success.

At worst, he could hunt a few more dark gold terrorclaw bears in the future. Those were popular soul beasts for dropping external soul bones in Douluo fanfiction.

Li Mingzhu sighed softly at the Netherclaw Beast's corpse. "Alas! There was no grudge between us. I killed you only to follow this world's rules of cultivation. Once I achieve success, I will rewrite Douluo's established rules!"

Whether he was hunting the man-eating flower before or today's Netherclaw Beast, all he had ever sought, from beginning to end, was to "grow stronger"!

Li Mingzhu dug a pit and properly buried the Netherclaw Beast's corpse.

This was his first soul ring, and it held extraordinary significance. Since the beast had also given him such a powerful soul skill, he would never leave its corpse exposed in the wilderness.

With all the minor matters handled, it was finally time to address his most important question!

Just what was that mysterious thing that could stir his Ancient Void Dragon martial soul?