Having finished absorbing the Soul Bone, Lin Yang slowly stood up. The bones throughout his body immediately crackled and popped, making crisp sounds like bones being crushed.
He moved around a little, feeling as though he had shaken off a suit of iron clothing that had bound him. A wave of comfort washed through his entire body.
The Soul Bone's enhancement of his constitution was extremely apparent.
At the very least, Lin Yang felt his constitution had more than doubled in strength. Otherwise, even with the effects of whale rubber, he could never have withstood a five-thousand-year second Soul Ring.
Just then, Lin Yang noticed that he had grown considerably taller.
After absorbing his first Soul Ring, he had been around 1.3 meters tall. Now, he was at least 1.4 meters tall.
He no longer looked like a seven-year-old child, but rather a boy of around ten.
Still, the most obvious benefit of growing taller was that when he held his saber, he no longer looked like a child raising a huge blade, an incongruous sight.
After briefly familiarizing himself with his body, Lin Yang left the cave.
Only once he was outside did Lin Yang discover that absorbing the Soul Bone had taken an entire day.
The darkness was now receding, and a gentle fish-belly white was spreading across the horizon.
The sun was slowly rising, its golden morning radiance pushing back the lingering curtain of night bit by bit.
"The timing is perfect."
Gazing at the morning sun that was about to rise, Lin Yang murmured,
"I'll take this opportunity to eliminate my Martial Soul's weakness completely."
As the sun climbed higher and noon approached, golden light spilled across the entire hillside.
Lin Yang hesitated no longer. He opened his left hand and summoned his Demon Blood Martial Soul.
"Martial Soul, possess me!"
The mass of Demon Blood, now the size of an infant's head, instantly sank into Lin Yang's body.
A feeling of abundant strength immediately coursed through his limbs and bones, filling his entire body.
Along with it came that familiar, vigorous vitality and brimming sense of strength.
Yet before the sun, this power seemed utterly illusory, like a castle in the air.
Lin Yang could even feel the Demon Blood Martial Soul's instinctive fear-its fear of the sun.
Whether they were Lower Ranks, Upper Ranks, or the Demon King Muzan Kibutsuji, no matter how many years they had lived or how powerful their Blood Demon Arts were.
So long as they were demons, they could never bathe in sunlight.
What Lin Yang intended to do was break that taboo.
Without madness, there could be no survival.
Lin Yang stamped down hard, and his body shot out like a cannonball. In an instant, he was completely exposed beneath the blazing sun.
Almost the moment the sunlight struck him, wisps of white smoke rose from Lin Yang's skin as though it were being scorched by intense heat.
His skin and flesh blackened and carbonized at a visible speed, then slowly began crumbling like ash.
"Aaargh!"
A heart-rending howl tore from Lin Yang's throat, only to stop abruptly.
His throat had already been burned through by the sunlight, leaving him unable to make any sound at all.
The Demon Blood's extraordinary regeneration was utterly useless now.
An intense sense of suffocation and burning surged at him from every direction like a tide, nearly driving Lin Yang mad.
It hurt. It hurt so much!
It was as though every cell in his body were being peeled away bit by bit, starting deep within his marrow.
Compared to this, the so-called death by a thousand cuts was as feeble as a little girl from Chengdu-laughably so.
The Demon Blood's instincts drove Lin Yang into a desperate urge to flee the sun.
But Lin Yang's eyes were scarlet. With hands that had been reduced to bare bones, he clutched the ground tightly, overpowering his survival instinct with sheer will.
He knew very well that once he chose to flee, he would never again have the courage to step forward.
"Heal!"
Lin Yang roared, activating the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone's Soul Bone Skill.
Wildfire cannot burn it all away; with the spring breeze, it grows again!
At that moment, this powerful healing Soul Skill began to take effect. Streams of blue-gold light continuously repaired Lin Yang's ravaged body.
Although it soon turned to ash again, it still gave Lin Yang a little room to breathe.
His body of Demon Blood constantly broke down under the sun's pressure, only to be reborn through the Soul Bone Skill.
As this cycle repeated, the Demon Blood Martial Soul underwent thousands of changes every second.
It was adapting. It was evolving.
Demon Blood was the source of a demon's power.
And now, beneath a massive millstone called the "sun," Lin Yang's Demon Blood Martial Soul Origin was being ground down bit by bit and blended into his entire body.
Every bone, every strand of muscle, every hair, and even every cell was filled with the Demon Blood Martial Soul's origin.
The sun gradually sank toward the west.
Where Lin Yang had been, only a pitch-black lump of charcoal remained, giving off the acrid stench of burning protein.
Crack!
With a barely audible sound, a fissure suddenly appeared on the surface of the charcoal.
It seemed to mark the beginning.
A series of cracking sounds suddenly rang out. The charcoal's outer layer rapidly peeled away, revealing the flesh wrapped beneath it.
A strong, steady heartbeat thudded within that flesh.
Then the flesh suddenly twitched and rapidly expanded.
Bones as white as jade grew with extraordinary speed. Threadlike muscles clung to them, stretching and growing on their own.
Within a few breaths, the torso, limbs, and head had taken shape.
A perfect body, completely naked, with long, sleek lines and brimming with strength, gradually appeared before his eyes.
Lin Yang gazed at this perfect body and clenched his fists.
The agony of being burned and the lingering dread now turned into heartfelt ecstasy. Unrestrained laughter rang out across the bottom of the valley.
His voice brimmed with exhilaration, excitement, agitation, and a host of other emotions.
He had succeeded!
He could stand in the sunlight. His Martial Soul would no longer have any weakness.
After venting his feelings to his heart's content, Lin Yang looked at his naked body, and his face involuntarily reddened.
He had been so happy that he had forgotten he was now like a primitive man, without a stitch covering him. Fortunately, no one else was here, so he did not have to worry about embarrassing himself.
With a thought, the flesh on his body writhed and instantly transformed into a set of clothes, covering him.
A demon's flesh could turn into clothing. Not only could it be freely controlled, but it also possessed strong defensive capabilities.
It even allowed one-click outfit changes!
Then Lin Yang tried to summon his Demon Blood Martial Soul, only to discover that it had vanished.
Instead, two Thousand-Year Soul Rings rose beneath his feet.
Lin Yang fell silent. After carefully sensing what had happened, he understood the reason.
Previously, his Demon Blood Martial Soul had been a special external Martial Soul like Luo Sanpao, yet it could also possess him like a Beast Martial Soul!
He and his Martial Soul had been connected, yet independent of one another.
Now, beneath the sunlight, the Demon Blood Martial Soul had been broken down and rebuilt. Its Martial Soul Origin had completely merged with him, leaving no distinction between them.
His second Martial Soul had thus become himself.
The Martial Soul was him, and he was the Martial Soul-in other words, a Body Martial Soul.
This Martial Soul really does change a lot.
Lin Yang gave a self-mocking chuckle, then thought that calling his second Martial Soul the "Demon Blood Martial Soul" was no longer quite appropriate.
After a brief moment of consideration, Lin Yang said,
"I'll call it the Demon God Body Martial Soul!"
In his current condition, he could live for thousands or even tens of thousands of years without cultivating.
This already encroached upon the realm of gods and touched upon their authority.
Calling it a "demon god" was no exaggeration at all.
To step into the realm of gods with a demon's body-this was Lin Yang's vision for the Demon God Body Martial Soul.
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