He could feel that this power far surpassed soul power and the qi he had cultivated in his previous life, as though it came from a higher plane.
But this power had yet to fully coalesce, carrying an elusive, ethereal quality, as though it might vanish at any moment.
"The pact is sealed," Tang Mo said to the Azure Sea Killer Whale.
The next moment, the Azure Sea Killer Whale's power poured into Tang Mo without reservation. His first martial soul, Tang Sect Grandmaster, manifested, and his purple first soul ring pulsed continuously beneath his feet.
As the Azure Sea Killer Whale poured her power into Tang Mo without holding anything back, a brand-new black soul ring soon appeared beneath his feet.
Throughout the formation of his second soul ring, Tang Mo felt not the slightest discomfort. Absorbing it was even considerably easier than absorbing a ten-year soul ring.
The Azure Sea Killer Whale's soul controlled her power, feeding it into Tang Mo bit by bit. The instant the black second soul ring finished forming, she realized she still had power left over, so she channeled the excess back into his first soul ring.
Thus, after the second soul ring fully formed, the color of Tang Mo's first soul ring began to deepen, shifting from light purple to dark purple before finally turning black.
Only then had Tang Mo fully absorbed all the Azure Sea Killer Whale's power. Upon realizing this, both the man and the whale felt a jolt in their hearts.
Tang Mo gained an insight: if the Azure Sea Killer Whale wished, she could return to her body and condense her soul power anew.
The soul beast's bloodline power and soul power origin contained within a soul ring were never particularly substantial. At least compared with a soul beast's full power, they amounted to only one or two tenths.
For that reason, even if the Azure Sea Killer Whale took back the vast majority of her power and returned it to her physical body, it would not affect Tang Mo too greatly.
Moreover, Tang Mo himself did not rely much on the soul skills that came with soul rings. To him, soul skills were flowers added to brocade, not charcoal delivered through the snow.
In fact, his situation was not unique. The practice of discarding soul skills was extremely prevalent within the Clear Sky Sect.
Soul skills involved considerable uncertainty. In other words, even hunting down the soul beast best suited to oneself did not necessarily yield a soul skill suited to one's development.
Self-created soul skills and a sect's secret arts had no such problem. Many Clear Sky Sect soul masters, Tang Hao included, preferred using the Clear Sky Sect's secret arts when fighting others.
Leaving aside the Great Sumeru Hammer, a Ring Detonation secret art that only the Clear Sky Douluo could learn, the Clear Sky Sect also possessed secret arts such as the Clear Sky Nine Absolutes, Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer, and Sky-Piercing Strike.
These secret arts were all self-created soul skills developed by the Clear Sky Sect's predecessors, then continually honed and improved by later generations.
Compared with soul skills that might not suit their users, the Clear Sky Sect's secret arts were clearly better suited to the Clear Sky Hammer martial soul.
This was the confidence afforded by having a sect and a clan behind oneself. Even if none of the soul skills granted by one's soul rings were suitable, inherited secret arts could still suppress enemies at the same level, or even allow one to fight above one's level.
The same held true for Tang Mo. He had learned many Tang Sect Secret Arts in his previous life, and even without soul skills, he could easily fight above his level.
Unfortunately, his mastery of the Five Treasures Body Protection Method was still insufficient, leaving him unable to practice Poison Miasma, much less rashly attempt Dan Shi, one of the Tang Sect's supreme arts.
If Poison Miasma was the Tang Sect's sturdiest shield and spear, then Dan Shi was the equivalent of advancing from cold steel to firearms.
Dan Shi's qi circulation route was simple, even carved openly within the Tang Sect's stone forest formation. It could be said that anyone who entered the stone forest formation could obtain the method for cultivating Dan Shi.
Yet not a single outsider had mastered Dan Shi. For one thing, the Tang Sect Stone Forest Formation was riddled with mechanisms and itself amounted to an enormous formation, making it difficult for outsiders to enter.
For another, the process of mastering Dan Shi was fraught with danger. Beyond knowing the cultivation method, preparatory work was also required in the early stages. One had to continually take secret medicines to alter one's constitution, and, beyond that, be able to see through life and death and clear one's mind of all distracting thoughts, thereby knocking upon the profound and mysterious Mysterious Pass, One Aperture.
If even the slightest problem arose while cultivating Dan Shi, the practitioner would suffer a backlash and die in agony so unbearable that death would be a mercy.
After entering another person's body, Dan Shi would continually destroy their meridians from within until all their meridians collapsed and they died. It was an absolute terror that could be called death upon contact.
As for why one could not force Dan Shi out of the body to save oneself, it was because Dan Shi corroded both the body and the energy within it.
The harder someone tried to force Dan Shi out, the faster it would corrode their body. It could even devour the energy within its target, using it as fuel for its own activity.
In other words, unless the enemy was a pure soul, anyone struck by Dan Shi could not escape death.
By rights, since he had already mastered Dan Shi in his previous life, mastering it again in this life should have been a piece of cake.
But first, his constitution had yet to become fully poison-resistant, and second, he needed to find that state of mind that placed life and death beyond consideration.
He had no desire to die before his campaign had even begun, killing himself by recklessly condensing Dan Shi within his body in his haste for success.
Thus, his plan was to obtain five soul rings and cultivate Poison Miasma first, then set off for Slaughter City to find that feeling, and finally find somewhere quiet to condense Dan Shi.
After briefly laying out his plan in his mind, Tang Mo examined his own condition and the ability of his second soul skill, then raised his hand and controlled the Green Pearl Bracer to store the Azure Sea Killer Whale's physical body.
With his second soul ring in place, his soul power broke straight through to rank twenty-eight. Just two more ranks, and he could set off back to Holy Soul Village, steal Ah Yin's original body, and then use it to threaten the Blue Silver King in the Star Dou Great Forest into performing Sacrifice.
Aside from the breakthrough in soul power, the addition of the water-attribute soul ring further strengthened his kidneys. With his kidney-water qi abundant, he could feel that his physical capabilities had suddenly improved considerably, leaving him feeling refreshed and clearheaded.
The contract power brewing within his right lung also stabilized, no longer flickering in and out of existence like a wisp of smoke.
The pact between the ocean and the Azure Sea Killer Whale then surfaced in his mind. Such a pact was not an isolated case.
It could be said that every soul beast living in seawater and every person who lived off the sea would enter into a pact with the ocean.
However, because soul beasts and humans had varying degrees of affinity with the ocean, the terms of their pacts also differed, as did the degree of protection the ocean afforded them.
Simply put, the higher their affinity with the ocean, the more enticing the terms of the pact, and the greater the bonuses humans and soul beasts received while standing by the sea or within its waters.
As a fortunate creature born with an affinity for the ocean, the Azure Sea Killer Whale could naturally enter into a pact with extremely enticing terms.
Benefit one: within the sea, she could achieve near-invisibility, her appearance and aura almost merging with the ocean.
It was only because the Evil Orca King was familiar with the Azure Sea Killer Whale's aura that he had been able to detect her in the sea.
Otherwise, if a soul beast the Evil Orca King had never seen before enjoyed the same benefits as the Azure Sea Killer Whale, he likely would not have detected any trace of its presence.
Benefit two: within the sea, combat power increased by one hundred percent.
Benefit three: the ability to draw upon the ocean's power to a certain extent.
Benefit four: enhanced luck within the sea.
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