As the minutes and seconds slipped by, the Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear was the first to falter, showing signs of defeat.
It had already been wounded by the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, and had only gained its current strength by overdrawing its own soul power. It clearly could not keep going much longer.
Seeing the Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear falter, Tang Hao immediately unleashed what little power remained in his body from Ring Detonation.
Boom!
The Clear Sky Hammer knocked the Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's massive claw aside, then smashed into its forehead without losing momentum.
After a deafening crash, the Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's headless corpse slumped to the ground.
Thud!
Tang Hao watched the fallen Ten-Thousand-Year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, his breathing growing somewhat short from physical exhaustion.
He still had soul power left, but not enough to smash the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's body apart with one blow of his hammer.
What was more, the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's body was inherently tough. Even at his peak, shattering its completely undefended body with one hammer blow would have taken considerable effort, let alone now, when he was somewhat spent.
He staggered a few steps, picked up Yu Xiaogang and Tang San, one in each hand, and swiftly left. On his way out, he found a dying hundred-year Lone Bamboo.
Only then did he remember that Tang San had yet to find a suitable soul beast, so he simply took the hundred-year Lone Bamboo along as well.
Meanwhile, Tang Mo, who had returned to the Spirit Hall Branch in Nuoding City before nightfall, began examining his first soul skill.
Ma Xiunuo did not see Su Yuntao and muttered a curse about that lazybones, then stopped dwelling on why Su Yuntao had not accompanied Tang Mo.
After all, he only needed to ensure that Tang Mo did not leave the Spirit Hall Branch or get lured away before the important figure from Spirit City arrived. Nothing else mattered.
Inside his room, Tang Mo summoned his first martial soul. Looking at the illusory figure that looked exactly like his previous-life self, he murmured, "Possess."
Tang Mo's martial soul drifted onto him and merged with him. He abruptly grew several centimeters taller, while his basic attributes, including speed and strength, increased by ten percent.
Beyond that, he felt that his understanding of the Tang Sect Secret Arts had deepened somewhat. He even had the feeling that practicing the Tang Sect Secret Arts under Martial Soul Possession would provide a certain boost.
His purple first soul ring flashed, and his first soul skill activated. Dark golden light abruptly covered his hands, forming a pair of gauntlets resembling the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's massive claws.
His first soul skill was quite unusual. Every time he executed a move, a mark would appear on the gauntlets.
The more moves he made, the more marks appeared, and the more marks there were, the greater the burden on his body.
In theory, he could keep stacking marks until his body could bear no more, then turn them all into a giant claw-shaped shock wave and launch it from his hands in one burst.
Its effective killing range was ten meters. Beyond ten meters, its power decreased by ten percent for every additional meter.
In other words, the shock wave could travel at most twenty meters. Once it traveled beyond twenty meters, it would disperse.
After all, this was only a thousand-year soul ring. Trading killing range for sufficiently powerful force was not unacceptable.
More importantly, this soul skill was highly compatible with Instant Strike. The two made an exquisite combination.
Moreover, the external soul bone, Dark Gold Dreadclaw, could further amplify his first soul skill. In a sense, this soul skill suited him very well.
He glanced at his hands and felt that he should spend somewhat more time practicing Instant Strike in the future. He had too many things to train in each day, and always felt short of time.
Even though he was doing this all over again and already had cultivation experience, muscle memory was not so easily developed.
The following afternoon, Tang San walked through the entrance of the Spirit Hall Branch with white cloth wrapped around his head, giving off the air of someone who enjoyed eating curry.
When he had awakened in the early hours of the morning, he had discovered that he and Yu Xiaogang were already back in Yu Xiaogang's room at Nuoding Academy, with a dying hundred-year Lone Bamboo beside him.
"May I ask which senior saved us?" Tang San supported his somewhat feeble body and stood up, cupping his fist in salute toward an empty space.
As he saw it, a senior must have happened to pass by and brought him and Yu Xiaogang back to safety, even catching a hundred-year soul beast for his first soul ring along the way.
Although he knew that he was currently worth nothing in the eyes of the powerful, and that no powerful figure would scheme against him, his disbelief in free lunches still made him wary. He kept feeling that some scoundrel wanted to harm him.
"Cough, cough, cough..." Just then, the gravely wounded Yu Xiaogang awoke coughing. After looking around, he said to Tang San, "Xiaosan, I know the senior who intervened from the shadows. You needn't be so wary. Absorb the soul ring first. Although this Lone Bamboo hasn't reached the theoretical first soul ring limit of 432 years, it's enough to make you a One-Ring Soul Master."
Although Yu Xiaogang wanted Tang San to absorb a soul ring produced by a beast-type martial soul, he was gravely wounded at the moment and had no way of accompanying Tang San on another trip to the Soul Hunting Forest.
On top of that, this brush with death had left him somewhat haunted, so he could only have Tang San kill the hundred-year Lone Bamboo already at hand and obtain his first soul ring.
Hearing this, Tang San still harbored some doubts. But since Yu Xiaogang had solemnly assured him that the senior who had acted from the shadows meant no harm, he accepted this kindness. At worst, he could repay the debt once he had grown stronger.
After he split the hundred-year Lone Bamboo apart, the plant, with its tenacious vitality, finally died completely. A pale yellow soul ring appeared above it.
With a beckon of his hand, the soul ring slipped over his Blue Silver Grass. Perhaps because the Lone Bamboo was only just over a hundred years old, he completely absorbed the soul ring within a few breaths, and a hundred-year soul ring appeared beneath his feet.
After absorbing the soul ring, he broke through the Mysterious Heaven Skill bottleneck that had troubled him for three months and successfully reached its second level, yet he felt as though he had lost something.
A Mandala Snake over four hundred years old had instantly become a Lone Bamboo barely over a hundred years old. Tang San had not lost much, but it was enough that he would have to spend more time making up for that three-hundred-year difference in soul ring age.
"Xiaosan, try your first soul skill." Seeing Tang San absorb his first soul ring so easily, Yu Xiaogang immediately spoke up, telling him to test it.
"First soul skill: Blue Silver Ground Spikes!" Tang San shouted in a low voice. His yellow soul ring flashed and vanished, and soul power poured from his body. Blue Silver Grass seeds sank into the floor beneath his feet, then spikes formed from Blue Silver Grass shot up from beneath the floor a short distance in front of him, breaking through it.
Crash, crash, crash...
Judging purely by appearance, the Blue Silver Grass now looked somewhat like sharpened bamboo, with a certain edge to its tips.
Tap, tap, tap...
He walked over to the Blue Silver Grass and knocked on it, confirming that it was now more than twice as hard as its original form.
Moreover, using his first soul skill did not consume much soul power. As long as he wished, he could expand the area covered by the Blue Silver Grass spikes even further.
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