Preparing to exploit a bug: a Soul Elder absorbs a sixty-thousand-year Emerald Swan Soul Ring

After a brief sigh of emotion, Lin Yan immediately brought his attention back to the matter at hand.

"Let's leave that aside.

These Soul Beasts were chasing you, and I stepped in and subdued them. How they're dealt with now is up to me, right?"

"Of course it's up to you, boss."

What a joke. After witnessing Lin Yan's earth-shaking, ghost-and-god-moving strength, how could they dare harbor the slightest ill intent?

If they dared, out here in the wilderness, dealing with them would probably be no different for Lin Yan than dealing with these Soul Beasts. He could suppress them with a raised hand.

They were all shrewd old hands, thousand-year-old foxes. Naturally, they weren't stupid.

"Good, then. I'm going to let them go."

"All right-what?"

Ning Fengzhi thought he had misheard. "Boss, did you say you're going to let them go?"

"Of course. Do you think I'm joking?"

"But boss, these are all top-tier Soul Beasts. Especially those two hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts-they're guaranteed to drop Soul Bones."

Lin Yan chuckled, putting on an exceptionally lofty and grandiose act.

"I have nine Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings. Do you think I'm short of hundred-thousand-year Soul Bones?

You were the ones at fault today. Your wanton slaughter of Soul Beasts caused the beast tide. They were merely driving out you cruel poachers. They're innocent."

Blech. Lin Yan nearly threw up at his own words.

If he could lay a hand on these Soul Beasts, he would have had a completely different speech.

"You evil Soul Beasts dare to harm humans! You've already given me reason to kill you!"

He certainly had the art of double standards figured out.

Damn system. All this money, and I can only hand it over and let them run away. This is infuriating.

Still, Lin Yan singled out one ten-thousand-year Soul Beast among them. It was none other than a ten-thousand-year Emerald Swan.

Emerald Swans lived in the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest and excelled at supporting Soul Beasts. It was perfectly normal and entirely reasonable for one to come help during a beast tide.

Any Emerald Swan that managed to cultivate to the ten-thousand-year level had overcome considerable difficulty. Her innate reserves were formidable, and she possessed terrifying life energy. Naturally, Lin Yan wouldn't miss this opportunity.

In fact, he had been somewhat surprised when he saw this Soul Beast. It was practically a pie falling from the sky.

An Emerald Swan, at the ten-thousand-year level-and judging by her aura, she was at least fifty thousand years old.

This was one of the Star Dou Great Forest's finest healing Soul Beasts, with terrifying vitality, a source of supreme support-type Soul Rings.

After his Azure Snake Martial Soul fused with the Blue Silver Emperor's Soul Bone, it had long since changed from a poison attribute to a life attribute with healing abilities. Now, it counted as having dual poison and healing attributes.

Of his previous two Soul Rings, one had come from absorbing a Mandala Snake and was a poison-attribute Soul Ring. For the other, he hadn't copied the homework, because it was simply too awful.

He wasn't about to copy something supplied by that idiot Yu Xiaogang.

Tang San had obtained his first Mandala Snake by sheer accident and happened to acquire Blue Silver Entanglement. That was what had made Lin Yan itch to try it himself.

After all, Tang San's mother was right there on him. Talk about doubling the bonus.

As for the Second Soul Skill, it had been entirely guided by Yu Xiaogang. It was also universally acknowledged by readers as Tang San's most useless skill, bar none.

If Gangzi made it, it was guaranteed trash.

That was his reputation.

How had he even come up with Parasitism? Gangzi's imagination truly belonged to a god.

Lin Yan had wanted to suit his own Martial Soul, while also considering the direction of his breeding.

His First Soul Skill came from a crawling snake, and for his Second Soul Skill, he had chosen a Blackwater Mysterious Tortoise. Didn't a snake plus a Turtle equal Xuanwu?

But that hadn't been Lin Yan's line of thought. He had simply figured a Turtle ought to be pretty good for breeding.

Just like his own case: a snake had mutated into a dragon, so shouldn't a Turtle mutate into a divine beast too?

Of course, he hadn't thought that far ahead at the time. He had merely wanted to diversify the species of Soul Beasts behind his Soul Rings.

The breeding rules:

A breeder and Lin Yan's blood could produce offspring possessing Lin Yan's Martial Soul. The offspring could also awaken the Martial Soul of a Soul Beast associated with one of Lin Yan's Soul Rings, provided, of course, that Lin Yan configured it himself.

Previously, Lin Yan had always selected his innate snake Martial Soul. He hadn't considered choosing the Mandala Snake. After all, his Martial Soul could evolve infinitely, making it far more valuable than a Mandala Snake.

He hadn't considered the second one, the Blackwater Mysterious Tortoise, either. Surely he wasn't going to give his own daughter a Turtle Martial Soul? That would cheapen things far too much.

The system stipulated that children ordered by female customers defaulted to girls, while those ordered by male customers defaulted to boys. This prevented certain unpleasant things from happening. Everyone knew perfectly well what those things were.

Women could customize their orders to have boys, but men couldn't customize theirs to have girls.

It wasn't discrimination. Rather, even if a mother had some outrageous idea, she would still have to wait until the child reached adulthood. Once he was an adult, who would come out worse for it was anyone's guess.

Naturally, the system had no qualms. Besides, customizing the sex cost twice as much. Only a pigheaded fool would turn down money.

With his first and Second Soul Rings already chosen, he could indeed choose a bird for his third. Perhaps someone might order an avian Soul Beast later. In any case, anything with wings could mutate. Maybe it could even mutate into a phoenix.

What if it did?

Wouldn't that be invincible?

Besides, an Emerald Swan Soul Ring really was damn amazing!

As it happened, he needed a genuine support-type Soul Skill now.

That whole business of my Martial Soul being an animal-type venomous snake, yet having support abilities.

His first two Soul Skills were both poisonous healing, with exceptionally fierce attack power, both poisonous and healing. Making his third a pure healing-type Soul Skill would be good too.

He was very pleased with this Soul Ring.

Thus, Lin Yan singled out this Emerald Swan of over fifty thousand years and bound her tightly, then released all the other Soul Beasts from their restraints.

"I'll spare your lives. Take these Soul Beasts and leave. If you don't know what's good for you, I wouldn't mind spilling your blood right here."

The moment Lin Yan said this, Da Ming and Er Ming understood.

Watching him warily, they confirmed that Lin Yan truly intended to let them go. Surprised as they were, they quickly led the Soul Beasts in a bedraggled retreat, not daring to look back.

The only Soul Beast left in the entire forest was the restrained Emerald Swan.

Only then did Lin Yan look toward Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo. "I have a use for this ten-thousand-year Soul Beast, but I don't feel like lifting a hand anymore. Subdue her for me. Just knock her unconscious."

As he spoke, Lin Yan also released the Emerald Swan's restraints. The moment she was freed, she struggled to spread her wings and fly away.

But in the next instant, two powerful figures charged at her and unleashed a joint flurry of blows.

She had barely broken free and hadn't yet flown back into the sky's embrace before they beat her until even her own mother wouldn't recognize her. Finally, she passed out, and the two brought her to Lin Yan.

"Boss, we've fulfilled your request."

"Thanks."

"We wouldn't dare take credit. It's our honor to serve you, boss."

Looking at this ten-thousand-year Emerald Swan, Lin Yan could no longer bother with the system's repeated warnings that he was breaking the rules.

Catching just one brought repeated violation warnings, and it was about to electrocute him. If he caught them all, wouldn't it electrocute him to death?

"Then it's time for me to absorb this Soul Ring," Lin Yan said slowly.

What? Absorb a Soul Ring?

Everyone froze at Lin Yan's words.

Wait, are you kidding?

You have nine Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings. Aren't all your Soul Ring slots full?

Besides, they had only ever seen people choose higher-level Soul Rings, never downgrade.

He already had Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings, yet instead of pursuing another hundred-thousand-year one, he wanted a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring.

They didn't understand.