The day after returning from the Soul Hunting Forest.
Lin Yang went alone to the hill behind the school, where he often practiced his sword techniques, casually found a patch of level ground, and sat cross-legged.
He raised his left hand, and the Demon Blood Martial Soul silently appeared in his palm.
Ever since the Demon Blood Martial Soul had absorbed the soul ring's power a few days earlier, he had vaguely sensed that something seemed to be gestating deep within the Demon Blood.
During class that day, he had clearly felt the Demon Blood Martial Soul begin to stir.
So as soon as class ended, he had come alone to the hill behind the school.
Sure enough, under Lin Yang's gaze, the Demon Blood in his palm began undergoing drastic changes.
At first, it expanded and contracted rhythmically, like a heart.
Then countless fine blood spikes suddenly sprouted from its surface, making it resemble a bizarre, blood-colored sea urchin.
The next instant, the blood spikes softened and lengthened, turning into writhing thorny vines...
As time passed, the Demon Blood Martial Soul's transformations grew faster and more frequent.
Suddenly, all the changes stopped.
It returned to its original form as a ball of blood, but its already bewitching crimson now shone brilliantly.
Then a sight that made Lin Yang hold his breath appeared.
A distinct, pale-yellow soul ring silently condensed above the Demon Blood Martial Soul, rotating slowly and giving off steady fluctuations of Soul Power.
"A Martial Soul condensing a soul ring on its own... isn't that something that only happens when a hundred-thousand-year soul beast starts cultivating anew?"
Although he had already been prepared for it, the sight still left him utterly shaken.
Had he become a hundred-thousand-year soul beast?
No, he hadn't!
Lin Yang slowly shook his head and soon grasped the key: it was because of Demon Blood's unique nature.
In the Demon Slayer world, any being that became a demon could grow stronger by continually devouring flesh and blood. The stronger they became, the greater their chance of awakening their own unique Blood Demon Art.
But in the Douluo World, the rules of the world had turned Demon Blood into the Demon Blood Martial Soul.
Its fundamental nature, however, had not changed.
Whether it devoured flesh and blood or absorbed power, as long as it had enough, it would awaken a Blood Demon Art.
No, he should call it a Soul Skill instead.
Lin Yang closed his eyes, quieted his mind, and sensed the information about the Soul Skill within the soul ring.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, a trace of surprise showing in them.
"My first Soul Skill is actually... Invisibility?"
Invisibility, Yushiro's Blood Demon Art.
The figure who adored Tamayo so deeply and cherished her like a treasure immediately surfaced in his mind.
During the final battle, without Yushiro and Tamayo, Hashira like them probably would not even have known where the Demon King's true body was hiding.
Yushiro's Blood Demon Art, in particular, could be called a strategic-level support skill.
Visual manipulation, shared vision, distortion of the five senses, creating illusions...
As long as they were developed properly, every one of those abilities could play an enormous role.
But these changes in the Demon Blood Martial Soul had completely disrupted his plans for cultivating his Martial Souls.
Generally speaking, Twin Martial Souls offered advantages far beyond those of Soul Masters with a single Martial Soul.
The most important reason was that a Soul Master with Twin Martial Souls could focus on cultivating one Martial Soul first.
Once they became powerful, they could then add older soul rings to their other Martial Soul.
That would create a monster with an exceptionally high-grade Soul Ring Configuration.
But Lin Yang's Twin Martial Souls were completely different.
His Demon Blood Martial Soul inherently possessed the ability to grow. As his Soul Power Level rose, it would "grow" on its own.
He had no way to stop that growth unless he stopped cultivating for the rest of his life.
Not to mention that it would even produce soul rings on its own.
So now, he could only accept the fact that he would cultivate both Martial Souls simultaneously.
Still, he had a vague feeling.
The age of this self-condensed soul ring was not fixed; it might increase as his strength grew.
After all, if it could produce its own soul rings, surely increasing their ages automatically was only natural.
The prerequisite was that he could supply it with sufficient power, providing the "nutrients" for its growth.
Of course, that was only a feeling. The actual situation would need to be verified later.
All kinds of news spread extremely quickly within the academy.
The news that Lin Yang had obtained a hundred-year soul ring soon stirred up a modest wave in the academy.
No one even paid attention to Zhao Bufan's graduation.
Lin Yang was surrounded by looks of envy, jealousy, and resentment. Quite a few older female students even began frequently hovering around him.
The bolder ones even wanted to get handsy.
Anyone with eyes could see that, with Lin Yang's talent, his future achievements would certainly be considerable.
And he was handsome, too. If they did not find a way to build a good relationship with him now, what chance would they have later?
"This is utterly ridiculous."
After learning what these girls were thinking, Lin Yang could hardly muster the strength to complain inwardly.
He was only six, and even the oldest students at the school were no older than twelve.
In his life before last, that was the age for watching Balala the Fairies and drinking nothing but juice at banquets.
Yet in the Douluo World, they were already thinking about dating and marriage.
Was that normal?
The Romance Continent-so everyone really does have nothing but romance on the brain!
Pestered beyond endurance, Lin Yang simply pulled out his large saber.
He singled out a sixth-year female student on the spot, and after a full-on Soul Fighting match in front of everyone,
The girl covered her face and ran away crying.
The results were outstanding!
Everyone harboring all sorts of ideas about Lin Yang lowered their flags and stilled their drums.
Lin Yang gained the glorious title of "Cold-Faced Swordsman."
Whenever the female students saw him, they gave him a wide berth.
Who had ever seen a guy drag a girl into a duel and beat her until she cried?
What a turnoff.
Lin Yang seemed entirely unaffected, continuing to attend classes, cultivate, and spend his days in the library.
The only unhappy person was probably Yu Xiaogang.
Having lost face in front of Lin Yang, he now simply treated him as thin air whenever he saw him.
Even when they passed face-to-face, he acted as though he had not seen him.
Lin Yang cared even less about any of that.
If not for Yu Xiaogang's complicated background, which also involved that madwoman Bibi Dong, he would not even have bothered keeping up appearances.
Life at the academy continued. With the money from selling the Soul Bone, Lin Yang outsourced his work-study duties.
He told the others that he was receiving a stipend from Spirit Hall.
That was already common knowledge among all Soul Masters, so no one suspected anything.
In private, however, Lin Yang began purchasing whale rubber and various medicinal herbs through all sorts of channels in Nuoding City.
During the Douluo I era, no one had discovered whale rubber's true effects yet.
It was only treated as a tonic for arousal and virility, so collecting whale rubber went fairly smoothly.
However, most of it was only ten years old. Hundred-year whale rubber was rare, let alone thousand-year whale rubber or ten-thousand-year whale glue.
Especially in a small place like Nuoding City.
Still, by paving the way with Gold Soul Coins, he had already gotten the merchant association to keep an eye out for older whale rubber on his behalf.
Besides that, his purchases of various medicinal herbs were also preparations for his daily training.
As the Kocho Sisters' husband, he had served as a test subject for all kinds of medicines many times and knew some basic pharmacology.
Preparing a body-tempering medicinal bath could not have been simpler.
He had used the most primitive methods to train his body before because he had been poor.
Now that he had money, if he still slogged away with primitive methods, wouldn't that make having money pointless?
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