Fourth Soul Skill, Blindness

Sure enough, without the Lucky Card's boost, the efficiency was terrible.

The two of them searched the area where the outer region of the Star Dou Great Forest bordered the inner region for two days, yet failed to find a suitable target.

Ye Chen's requirements for his fourth soul ring were not particularly high.

Although he could withstand a fourth soul ring of ten-thousand-year age, if he encountered one that suited him, a lower age would not matter much.

After all, he could use Soul Ring Age Upgrade Cards to increase a soul ring's age.

Two days later, with the Gold Soul Coins his cheat's own son had dutifully offered, plus the leftover change from before, totaling over a million, Ye Chen immediately used a Lucky Card.

The Lucky Card truly worked well. Less than half a day later, Ye Chen found a suitable target.

Looking at the clump of entirely black vegetation before him, blooming with equally black flowers, Ye Chen nodded in satisfaction.

It was a Dark Spirit Flower around ten thousand years old. Its Innate Soul Skill could temporarily blind people, making it a powerful control-type soul skill that was perfectly suited to Ye Chen.

Spirit Masters did not rely solely on their eyes to observe their surroundings. If it were merely ordinary blindness, it might not greatly affect an expert's combat strength, since they could rely on their considerable Spiritual Power to perceive the area around them.

But if it were paired with the Third Soul Skill, God Restriction, then it would be different. Using both soul skills together would absolutely turn Ye Chen's future opponents into completely helpless "blind men with their eyes open"!

Although a powerful expert who lost both vision and spiritual perception could still rely on hearing to judge the situation, in the midst of intense combat, how could hearing possibly be as useful as vision and Spiritual Power?

Still, since he had found a suitable target so quickly, Ye Chen was certain that there was no way he would encounter another stroke of luck like obtaining an External Soul Bone.

After that, it was the same old routine. Ye Chen directly threw a White Phosphorus Incendiary Bomb at the Dark Spirit Flower in the distance.

"Boom—"

Firelight flared, thick smoke billowed, and blazing flames engulfed the Dark Spirit Flower, which had no small amount of cultivation.

But it was, after all, a soul beast with considerable age. When the flames died down, no soul ring appeared, clearly indicating that a single White Phosphorus Incendiary Bomb had not killed the Dark Spirit Flower.

Ye Chen immediately threw another one.

This time, the Dark Spirit Flower, which had been barely clinging to life, could no longer hold on and collapsed into the sea of flames.

Countless golden motes floated out from the remains, gradually condensing into a deep purple soul ring that was almost black.

"Not ten thousand years?"

Looking at the color of the Dark Spirit Flower's soul ring, Ye Chen raised his brows. He had not expected this Dark Spirit Flower to have not yet advanced to the ten-thousand-year level. Still, it looked extremely close—probably only several dozen years, or less than a hundred years, short.

When judging a soul beast's age, determining it precisely down to the tens or even single years was truly no easy task.

Moreover, even soul beasts of the same species varied from individual to individual. Even piglets from the same litter came in fat and thin varieties.

Ye Chen wondered how that Grandmaster Yu had determined that the Limit Year of a first soul ring was 423 years. Could it be that he had cheats too?

Being slightly short in age was no big deal to Ye Chen. A yellow Hundred Year Soul Ring Age Upgrade Card only cost him the savings from less than half a day anyway.

Then, Ye Chen released his martial soul and began drawing in the soul ring.

The moment the Dark Spirit Flower's soul ring was drawn by his martial soul, it descended onto Ye Chen's body and rapidly shrank. A deep-purple ring tinged with black wrapped itself around the Black Jade Divine Bamboo Staff.

In an instant, Ye Chen felt a vast surge of Soul Power, carrying a faint dark Aura, begin pouring into his body.

Speaking of which, Dark Spirit Flowers truly were rare dark-element plant-type soul beasts. Fortunately, the Black Jade Divine Bamboo Staff martial soul did not follow the path of elemental manipulation. Otherwise, it really would not have been suitable for absorbing this dark-element soul ring.

Time gradually passed. More than half a day later, Ye Chen finally finished refining the Dark Spirit Flower's soul ring. His Soul Power level rose directly from level 40 Quasi Soul Elder to level 45 Soul Elder, and he was already more than halfway toward the Soul Power needed to advance to level 46 Soul Elder.

The reason for such a tremendous increase was naturally that Ye Chen's fourth soul ring was nearly ten thousand years old, as well as the massive amount of Soul Power he had accumulated after upgrading his Soul Ring Configuration earlier.

A soul ring nearly ten thousand years old was enough to raise a level 40 Quasi Soul Elder to level 42 Soul Elder. Furthermore, Ye Chen had previously upgraded his soul rings by a total of twenty-five thousand years, so such a huge increase was only normal.

At once, Ye Chen checked the changes to the offerings his cheat's own son made to his precious little darling each time.

When Ye Chen had been a Three-Ring Soul Grandmaster, he had received six Gold Soul Coins from his own son each time. Now that he had advanced to a Four-Ring Soul Elder, it had become eight Gold Soul Coins each time.

Although the increase was not particularly large, over the course of a year, Ye Chen would be able to save more than two and a half small targets' worth of Gold Soul Coins.

He just wondered whether Ye Chen's current rate of saving money had surpassed Ning Fengzhi of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

It should have, right?

Ye Chen thought to himself.

After all, Ning Fengzhi was merely the sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, and the sect had no shortage of disciples. Its annual income did not all go into Ning Fengzhi's pocket.

Besides, could the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect earn enough in a year to buy two 100,000 Year Soul Bones? Ye Chen would never believe it, even if beaten to death!

But Ye Chen could do it. As long as he went to major auction houses and spent money on two extremely low-age, worthless soul bones, he could pour money into upgrading them to the 100,000-year level.

Although 100,000 Year Soul Bones whose age had been upgraded afterward only came with one 100,000 Year Soul Bone Skill, they were still not bad at all.

Afterward, Ye Chen spent money on a yellow Hundred Year Soul Ring Age Upgrade Card and raised the age of his fourth soul ring to the black ten-thousand-year level.

Since the age increase this time was not great, his Soul Power level did not change much. Ye Chen merely felt a slight improvement, nothing particularly obvious.

Attribute Panel

Host: Ye Chen

Soul Power: Level 45

Martial Soul: Black Jade Divine Bamboo Staff

Soul Rings: Black, Black, Black, Black

First Soul Skill, Bind

Second Soul Skill, Chaos

Third Soul Skill, God Restriction

Fourth Soul Skill, Blindness

Soul Bone: Creation Green Lotus (External Soul Bone)

As expected, it's a blind man's soul skill!

As expected, Ye Chen's Fourth Soul Skill was the Dark Spirit Flower's Innate Soul Skill: Blindness.

After thinking for a moment, Ye Chen looked at Xiao Wu beside him.

"Xiao Wu, how about trying out my Fourth Soul Skill?"

"No way!"

Xiao Wu felt that she had been stupid before to actually try out Ye Chen's soul skill effects.

Although Ye Chen's soul skills had little offensive power, their effects were truly disgusting, and the method of activation—smacking someone on the head with a Bamboo Staff—was also extremely humiliating.