A Toothpick Stirring a Vat, Nothing Happened

"So, my next task is to use my limited daily Imprint attempts to obtain as many practical skills as possible from Millennium Soul Beasts. And when choosing soul rings from now on, I need to focus on maximizing my spiritual power. After all, only with sufficiently strong spiritual power can I Imprint more skills. It'll also be easier to comprehend and learn those skills in the future."

"Besides, spiritual power is linked to perception, which will help me gain an advantage in actual combat."

"As for improving my bloodline and physical body, the cultivation technique and Little White feeding on Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and nourishing me in return will be enough."

"At least for the early stages."

Thinking of this, Zhu Wu suddenly felt as though his life had gained direction.

Smiling, he continued sorting through his gains.

Aside from Imprinted skills, Little White had inherited another innate ability from the Silver Eagle Beast: Bloodthirst.

It was a rather unusual innate ability. Its effect was to stimulate the blood and qi within the body to enhance one's attributes, with the degree of enhancement depending on how intensely the blood and qi were stimulated. If activated lightly, it greatly enhanced one's sense of smell, especially the ability to smell blood, while also slightly boosting all basic attributes. But if the blood and qi were deeply stimulated or even burned, it could greatly enhance one's attributes. That was the kind of move one used when risking one's life.

Of course, if Little White used it after leaving his body, what burned would not be blood and qi, but Soul Power. The consumption rate of Soul Power would increase drastically.

"Good thing I threw enough explosives at once and hit an important spot."

If the Silver Eagle Beast had found the chance to use that move to flee, he felt that he really might not have been able to catch up. And if he had not possessed the soul bone flight skill that the Silver Eagle Beast could not copy, he might very well have been caught and slapped to death on the spot.

Ah Yin's soul bone was really useful!

"My Soul Power went up two levels. Not bad, I suppose." Muttering to himself, he dusted off his backside and stood up.

Turning around, he raised a foot and kicked. The Silver Eagle Beast's corpse was sent flying and rolled away.

"No soul bone. Looks like I really am unlucky!" Shaking his head, he raised a hand and summoned Little White.

"Sure enough, absorbing the essence of the sun and moon while taking medicine to evolve is the proper path." Looking at the Little White in his palm, whose appearance had not changed much, Zhu Wu sighed inwardly. The thousand-year Silver Eagle Beast soul ring was indeed of high quality and greatly strengthened his physical body.

But it did little for his bloodline.

It was like stirring a huge vat with a toothpick—nothing much happened.

"Little White, possess me!" His expression turned serious as he spoke at once.

The Scale on his brow flashed with seven-colored light, and Little White's plump body instantly merged into his palm.

The next second, Zhu Wu felt the muscles all over his body writhing, swelling, and hardening. His vision filled with a hazy crimson tint. His ten fingers instinctively tensed and spread apart, while something poked out from the sides of his head.

He could clearly feel the strength throughout his body rising!

Soon, the changes settled, and Zhu Wu's face was filled with shock.

"This sense of strength is at least twice that of my original body. That's insane!"

Lowering his head and raising a hand, he saw a palm covered in Scales. What grew from its fingertips were not nails, but beast claws. Reaching up to touch the sides of his head, he found them hard. Sharp horns had grown beside both ears. He flicked them with a fingertip. They were rock solid.

A glance from the corner of his eye showed that his hair had turned white and grown longer as well.

Looking down again, he saw that even his shoes had burst apart. Clearly, his body had grown considerably larger.

"So this is the difference between a heavily armored warrior and a fragile mage?" At that moment, he truly understood.

The next moment, with a thought, white light flashed over his body, and he instantly shifted into beast form—a four-meter-long, two-meter-tall, silver-armored giant wolf.

"Damn, my strength has increased by another thirty percent!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Zhu Wu began to run. His four limbs raced and leaped, wind gathering beneath his feet as he moved at incredible speed. In just a few blinks, he had already covered several hundred meters.

His hind legs kicked off hard, and one claw lashed at a large tree half a meter in diameter beside him, smashing it to pieces on the spot.

Bang! Bang! Bang! He charged straight ahead, crashing through everything in his path. Wherever he passed, huge trees lost great strips of bark, while the Scales on his body remained as steady as stone.

"With this strength, I'm probably no weaker than high-level strength-type Soul Beasts of the same age. And among agility-type Soul Beasts, my speed is among the very best. Most importantly, the defensive power these Scales provide is also high. This is too strong—practically a pentagonal warrior with no weaknesses. Could it be a hybrid with Dragon Clan blood?" Aside from dragons, he truly could not think of any bloodline that could grant this Silver Eagle Beast such strength and defense. The Silver Eagle Beast was clearly a spiritual-attribute agility-type Soul Beast.

"Very good. From now on, I should be able to swagger around the outskirts of this Millennium Soul Beast Living Area."

"It's time to find a new opponent." His crimson beast eyes flashed as he raced deeper into the forest.

Then, then he ran out of mana.

Zhu Wu had no choice but to end his exhilarating trial and find a place to sit down and recover.

Two hours later, his mana bar was full. Zhu Wu did not possess Little White and transform into a Silver Eagle Beast again. Instead, he used his soul bone flight skill and traveled with Little White, who had transformed into a small bird. As expected of a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone, its performance was maxed out while its energy consumption was low, allowing him to fly for long periods.

"Azure Wind Wolf!"

Soon, the first Millennium Soul Beast that caught his interest appeared in his field of view, and it was alone.

Zhu Wu quickly landed and fought the Azure Wind Wolf with his physical body.

He had already studied quite a few wolf-type Soul Beasts and had plenty of combat experience. Even without possession, he could fight one.

Before long, seeing that it was losing, the Azure Wind Wolf threw back its head and howled. As it called for companions, it activated a skill. Faint Azure Light spread across its body, and its fur rose and fluttered. It suddenly raised its right forepaw, azure light gathering at the tips of its claws. With a fierce swipe, sharp wind blades burst forth.

"Chirp!" Little White cried sharply from atop Zhu Wu's head, signaling that the skill had been copied.

The more basic a skill was, the more potential it had for development, and the easier it was to comprehend. That was what Zhu Wu believed.

"Farewell!" Pushing off with his feet, he soared into the air and fled with Little White.

"..." The Azure Wind Wolf stood there in a daze, unable to understand why the human before it, who could clearly suppress it, had not beaten the old wolf senseless.

Zhu Wu did not look back. He continued searching for Soul Beasts to duel and temper himself with, while also completing his daily Imprint task.

"Three-Tailed Fox. Skills: Fox Fire, Fox Tail Needles, Hypnotic Mist. The Three-Eyed Demon Fox is also a fox, so I can Imprint it and give it a try. Lightning Rabbit—it has the Teleport skill. I have to get it, absolutely have to get it. It's actually Heaven Shaking Roar. Heaven Shaking Roar is ridiculously powerful."

"Little White, turn into a Silver Eagle Beast and go test it first!"

"Good thing I didn't go myself. That was fierce. Copy the skill and run—so thrilling!"

Whenever he encountered an opponent he could fight, he fought. Whenever he encountered one likely to kill him instantly, or one he did not recognize, he sent Little White out first. Then, after Imprinting the skill, he ran. Zhu Wu resolutely followed this rule of action.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, three months passed.

"I have delayed my cultivation somewhat." Sitting cross-legged among the branches of a towering tree, Zhu Wu sighed inwardly.

In his view, gaining only one level in three months was indeed a little slow. If he had focused solely on cultivation, he definitely would have progressed faster.

But there was nothing he could do about it.

Searching for Soul Beasts in a place like the Star Dou Great Forest, with its complex terrain and dangers lurking everywhere, naturally took time and effort. Then, after fighting Soul Beasts, the first thing he had to do was recover his Soul Power and remain in peak condition, lest nearby Soul Beasts attacked while he lacked the strength to resist—especially flying-type Soul Beasts. In addition, he had to remain alert for approaching Soul Beasts whenever he practiced his cultivation technique in the morning and evening.

All of this inevitably delayed his cultivation.

Of course, he did not regret it, because he had gained far more than mere increases in Soul Power.

Mental Shock came from the Three-Eyed Demon Ape. Hypnosis and Illusion Weaving came from the Illusion Fox. Although he had only Imprinted three spiritual-type soul skills, and every one of them had made him suffer, he was already satisfied. After all, spiritual-attribute Soul Beasts were rare to begin with. Encountering two in three months even made him wonder whether his luck had turned around. As for other soul skills, there were many—several dozen of them.

Fire-breathing, Fireball, earth spikes, hardened earth armor, wind balls, dark mist, binding. Most were basic skills.

In fact, the vast majority of Soul Beasts possessed very few innate abilities. Most were merely basic applications of their own attributes, relying entirely on instinct in battle. That was easy enough to understand. Just like humans, not everyone could be born into good circumstances or possess great talent. Geniuses had always been only a tiny fraction; the overwhelming majority were ordinary people. Soul Beasts were the same. Those with high-level bloodlines were exceedingly rare.

Furthermore, Soul Beasts needed to reach ten thousand years of cultivation before they developed intelligence, making the odds of high-quality skills appearing on low-level Soul Beasts even lower.

That was why, toward the end, he was purely Imprinting skills to complete his daily task and train his spiritual power. Why did he call it training spiritual power? Because he discovered that whenever he used the Imprint skill while in Silver Eagle Beast possession form, the skill information flooding into his mind would rapidly drain his spiritual power and cause mental fatigue. Yet after meditating to recover, his spiritual power would increase slightly.

It was not obvious after one or two times, but after enough time and enough repetitions, he noticed it.

Reading truly did make one wiser!

Also, to his delight, he had learned the Mental Shock skill. It was simply using willpower to compress spiritual power and release it outward. The principle was rather simple. After Imprinting the skill, he figured it out after repeatedly practicing in his Martial Soul Possession state for a while.

As for Hypnosis, Illusion Weaving, Charm, and so on... he still did not understand them very well and would need to comprehend them further.

"One step at a time." Shaking his head, he looked up at the sky. "Time really flies. I've grown another year older, haven't I?"

"I've spent so long tempering myself by dueling Soul Beasts. I wonder what level my close-combat ability would be at outside now, and whether I'd be stronger or weaker than Tang San. Still, let's leave it at that for now."

"It's about time to switch things up. From here on, my cultivation will focus on experiencing beast form."

"Perhaps using beast form to comprehend human form and learn Soul Beast skills is a better path."

"Next, let me try becoming a real Soul Beast." With that thought, he slowly stood up and jumped directly to the ground. Then he turned to look at his shoulder.

"Little White, possess me!"

Light flickered, and the sturdy body of a Silver Eagle Beast appeared where he stood, raising its head sharply.

Roar! A berserk roar suddenly rang through the Dense Forest.

Meanwhile, on the other side, in Holy Soul Village.

Clang! Clang! From the leftmost of three mud-brick houses, rhythmic hammering rang out in succession.