After the aftermath of the Imperial Family Inspection Team incident had been cleaned up, Jing Hongchen wasted no time and headed straight for the Trial Grounds.
He knew Lu Ren was there.
Sure enough, he spotted several figures gathered in the center of the Trial Grounds from afar.
Lu Ren sat cross-legged at the edge of the arena. Ji Juechen stood opposite him, his longsword resting across his knees. Jing Ziyan crouched nearby with her cheek propped on her hand, while Meng Hongchen sat beside Lu Ren, cradling her chin in both hands.
All their gazes rested on Lu Ren.
"So what exactly is a Binding Vow?" Ji Juechen asked in a low voice, with a trace of stubbornness. "Can we learn it?"
Lu Ren glanced at him.
There was no greed in this sword fanatic's eyes, only pure curiosity and pursuit.
He was not looking for a shortcut. He wanted to understand greater power, then surpass it in his own way.
"No." Lu Ren shook his head, his tone decisive. "Binding Vows are tied to my Martial Soul. Without my Martial Soul, you can't do it."
Ji Juechen fell silent for a moment, tightened his grip slightly on his sword, then abandoned the idea.
Jing Ziyan refused to give up, however, and leaned a little closer.
"Then what if we substituted something like a Soul Power contract? Isn't your Binding Vow just swearing an oath with Soul Power? Couldn't we just swear one too?"
"It's different," Lu Ren explained patiently. "The core of a Binding Vow is an equal exchange of cost and reward, while an oath sworn with Soul Power is merely a one-sided restriction. They're fundamentally different."
"My Martial Soul can sense the weight of the price and convert it into power. Without that perception, even the weightiest oath is just empty words."
An ability governed by rules like Binding Vows relied on Cursed Energy to work.
Soul Power and Cursed Energy were completely different, so naturally, Soul Power could not accomplish something like a Binding Vow.
Deflated, Jing Ziyan leaned backward and lay down on the ground.
Disappointment appeared on Meng Hongchen's pretty face.
She had been thinking how wonderful it would be if, like Lu Ren, she could sacrifice her first few inconsequential Soul Skills in exchange for a permanent boost to all her attributes.
A constant sixty-percent boost was far stronger than any first or second Soul Skill, and even stronger than some Hundred Thousand Year Soul Skills.
That was a sixty-percent boost! Once used in a battle between opponents of the same level, it would make someone invincible among their peers.
"Your Martial Soul controls blood, doesn't it?"
A steady voice came from the entrance to the Trial Grounds.
They all turned their heads at once.
Jing Hongchen approached with his hands behind his back, his gaze settling on Lu Ren.
"That's right." Lu Ren did not conceal it. "My Martial Soul is called Blood Manipulation. It lets me control my own blood."
He was telling the truth. Although he had long since traded his actual Martial Soul for a Binding Vow, Blood Manipulation could indeed be explained as a Martial Soul.
Jing Hongchen walked up and looked him over.
"Although you control blood, I noticed extremely intense fluctuations in your spiritual power while you were fighting. To be honest, you feel more like a Spiritual System Soul Master to me."
Something stirred in Lu Ren's mind.
This was already the second person to mistake Cursed Energy for spiritual power.
Xuan Ziwen had said the same thing.
It seemed that in this world, Cursed Energy condensed from negative emotions manifested in a way very similar to spiritual power.
That made for a rather good disguise.
"Could you tell me more about how Binding Vows work?" Jing Hongchen pressed, his eyes intent. "I've never heard of such an ability. I can say with certainty that not even Shrek Academy has mastered a similar power."
He was telling the truth.
If everyone could exchange their first few, weakest Soul Skills for percentage-based boosts like Lu Ren, the entire Soul Master system of the Douluo Continent would be overturned.
Such power defied the heavens too much. It could not possibly become widespread.
Lu Ren thought for a moment, then reorganized his explanation using the Douluo Continent's system.
"It's essentially like swearing an oath on your own Martial Soul."
Jing Hongchen's brows rose slightly.
"The most sincere transaction between Soul Masters is to swear an oath to heaven on their Martial Souls."
"If they break it, the lighter consequences are a decline in Soul Power and the birth of inner demons. In severe cases, their Martial Souls shatter. Binding Vows work on a similar principle. Using the Martial Soul as a medium, you forge an absolute contract with your own Soul Power, exchanging an irreversible price for an equivalent reward."
"Irreversible?" Jing Hongchen seized on the key word.
"Yes." Lu Ren nodded. "Once you establish a Binding Vow, you can never go back on it. Of course, you can try if you want, but what awaits you afterward is a terrifying punishment of an unknown nature. That punishment could very well torment you for the rest of your life, or lead you to your death in a way you never expected."
"The price of going back on it is extremely heavy."
"And I permanently lost the right to use my first and second Soul Skills. What I received in exchange is the constant enhancement you've seen."
"From the moment that deal is struck, it's best never to even entertain the thought of backing out."
"So, can you understand now why I was able to gain so much in return?"
"What matters most to a Soul Master? Their Soul Rings and Soul Skills, of course. Can you imagine a Soul Master paying the price of losing their own Soul Skills? That's one of the heaviest prices a Soul Master can pay."
"If I didn't have my own Self-Created Soul Skills, what use would even the greatest attribute boost be? Unless I could crush people to death with Soul Power alone." Lu Ren shrugged.
"So now you know both the advantages and the disadvantages. It's a very balanced arrangement."
Was it really balanced?
Honestly, it was not. At the very least, Lu Ren had exploited a bug and cheated.
He had given up the power of his Martial Soul and Soul Skills in direct exchange for an enormous enhancement to his own Cursed Techniques. To him, that little price was no more than a scratch.
He had Cursed Techniques aplenty, and could develop even more moves from them. Not to mention that, in the future, Malevolent Shrine and Blood Manipulation would not be his only two Cursed Techniques...
Thus, being unable to use his Martial Soul and Soul Skills was no price at all for Lu Ren, yet it brought him numerical boosts that utterly defied the heavens.
The Trial Grounds fell quiet for a moment.
Jing Ziyan sat up from the ground and counted on her fingers, her eyes widening further and further.
"You're a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor now, but with a constant sixty-percent boost to all your attributes... wouldn't that put your Soul Power right on the heels of a Soul Emperor's?"
"Subtract another ten percent," Lu Ren corrected. "It's roughly equivalent to rank fifty-nine."
"Why subtract ten?" Meng Hongchen asked blankly.
Ji Juechen picked up the thread.
"I imagine it has something to do with his last two Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings. Could you give us a brief explanation?"
The corners of Lu Ren's mouth lifted slightly, and he shook his head.
"It's a secret. You'll find out later."
He had not lied. He had also placed a self-imposed Binding Vow on his third Soul Ring.
In exchange for permanently losing the ability to use his third Soul Skill, he had obtained a special ability: under normal circumstances, all his attributes were reduced by ten percent, but once a battle lasted longer than five minutes, he could unleash two hundred percent of his combat strength.
The inspiration for this self-imposed Binding Vow came from Kento Nanami, a Grade 1 Jujutsu Sorcerer from the Jujutsu world.
However, Kento Nanami's self-imposed Binding Vow was nowhere near this extreme and only granted a limited increase in his abilities.
Lu Ren's self-imposed Binding Vow was harsher. After all, he had permanently sacrificed a Soul Skill of around ten thousand years.
Overall, he normally used only ninety percent of his strength, exchanging that missing ten percent for a burst of double strength after five minutes.
No matter how he calculated it, the deal was no loss. Moreover, the constant ten-percent boost from his First Soul Ring perfectly filled that missing ten percent.
Thus, for him, this Binding Vow effectively had no side effects.
This was the path he had chosen.
In the future, he would also collect Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bones, absorb them, then use them to establish Binding Vows in exchange for even more terrifying abilities.
Then, starting with his fifth Soul Ring, every ring would be at the hundred-thousand-year level. Each would be a new bargaining chip, used to establish a self-imposed Binding Vow, sacrifice its Soul Skill, and gain an even stronger ability in return.
By then, he would possess unrivaled stats, along with unrivaled mechanics.
With both stats and mechanics on his side, who could possibly beat him at this game?
Before you continue