Golden Dragon Rampage, now this was the top-tier soul skill a top-tier Martial Soul deserved
Listening to his parents talk, Nan Zhuliu felt inexplicably guilty.
Only he knew that this had nothing to do with any so-called spirit fruit or surge of strange power. The Golden Dragon King had simply purified the Golden Dragon King Bloodline within him.
Though they had gotten the entire process wrong, it was enough that they had reached the right conclusion.
Star Dou Great Forest.
It was not that the Dou Ling Empire had no soul-hunting forests. Rather, without the Martial Soul Hall to restrain them over the past ten thousand years, soul masters had begun slaughtering soul beasts without restraint to obtain materials, causing the soul-hunting forests to gradually dwindle. Even where soul beasts remained in those forests, most were ten-year soul beasts, with pitifully few hundred-year soul beasts.
And Nan Zhuliu's target for his first soul ring was a thousand-year soul beast. If he wanted a suitable first soul ring, he could only travel the long distance from the Dou Ling Empire to the Star Dou Great Forest at the junction of the three great empires.
The Star Dou Great Forest was the largest primeval forest among the few major soul beast habitats still remaining on the Douluo Continent. Its terrain was complex, and it had the greatest variety of soul beasts, so many soul masters chose to come here to acquire suitable soul rings.
Based on the general movement patterns of soul beasts of different ranks, soul masters divided the Star Dou Great Forest into four major areas.
The outermost region was called the Outer Area, where ten-year, hundred-year, and some weaker thousand-year soul beasts usually roamed.
Beyond the Outer Area was the Mixed Zone, where groups of hundred-year soul beasts and thousand-year soul beasts were active.
The Core Area was the territory of powerful thousand-year and ten-thousand-year soul beasts, with hundred-thousand-year soul beasts occasionally appearing.
Finally, there was the Land of Great Ferocity, home to Di Tian and the other fierce beasts, as well as most of the Star Dou Great Forest's hundred-thousand-year soul beasts. For this reason, soul masters also called it a forbidden zone for human life.
The thousand-year soul beasts in the Outer Area were not only scarce but also weak, so Nan Zhou and his wife took Nan Zhuliu straight through the Outer Area and into the Mixed Zone.
As an agility attack-type soul master, Nan Zhou took the lead and scouted their surroundings. If he encountered danger, he could also rely on his speed to disengage quickly.
As a power attack-type soul master, Jiang Jingyan stayed close to protect Nan Zhuliu. This was also how the couple had worked together for many years, allowing them to avoid quite a few dangers.
"A thousand-year Thunderbird. Outstanding speed, with lightning attributes coming second. Better suited to an agility attack-type soul master. No."
"A nine-hundred-year Mountain-Pushing Beast. A top-tier strength-type soul beast, but its cultivation falls a little short. No."
Seemingly having discovered something, Nan Zhou returned to Nan Zhuliu in a few swift bounds. "There's a lightning-attribute lesser dragon up ahead, a Golden Thorn Dragon. Its attributes and cultivation are both very suitable for you. Its soul skill, Golden Strike, is also a very good offensive skill among thousand-year soul skills. Want to consider it?"
Nan Zhuliu had felt hopeful as he listened to the first part of Nan Zhou's description, but the moment he heard it was an offensive soul skill, he shook his head.
Although the power of offensive soul skills granted by soul rings increased as a soul master's soul power rose, the age of the soul ring also limited how much they could improve.
So even though the soul skills granted by soul rings were random, Nan Zhuliu still wanted to avoid acquiring offensive soul skills early on as much as possible.
For his first few low-age soul skills, he preferred versatile enhancement or utility skills.
Nan Zhuliu explained his thoughts to his parents.
Nan Zhou and Jiang Jingyan were a little surprised, but they still nodded. "All right."
On their seventh day in the Star Dou Great Forest.
A tremendous commotion suddenly came from ahead, followed by Nan Zhou's shout. "Honey!"
Jiang Jingyan immediately raced over with Nan Zhuliu.
They saw Nan Zhou, flames rising all over his body and five soul rings-two yellow and three purple-surrounding him, facing off against a Thunder Tiger at least five meters long. It had black fur with purple stripes, and fierce lightning likewise crackled over its body. Its crimson eyes were especially striking.
Sensing their arrival, Nan Zhou said without looking back, "There's something very strange about this beast. Its cultivation is only just over a thousand years, but after it unleashed its innate soul skill, its strength skyrocketed. It's no weaker than a soul beast with four thousand years of cultivation. Even I'm having trouble keeping it suppressed, but it's just right for Zhuliu's first soul ring."
"I'll handle it. Keep Zhuliu safe."
Without hesitation, Jiang Jingyan released her Thunder Dragon Martial Soul. Her soul ring configuration was the same as Nan Zhou's: two yellow and three purple.
As Jiang Jingyan charged toward the thousand-year Thunder Tiger, she activated her soul ring skills.
Facing a human Soul King with only a thousand years of cultivation, the Thunder Tiger showed no fear at all. Instead, it took the initiative to meet Jiang Jingyan head-on.
Dragon claws collided with tiger paws. The Thunder Tiger swayed, retreating only a short distance. No wonder it was so confident, daring to fight the two human Soul Kings, Nan Zhou and Jiang Jingyan, one after another.
But as a power attack-type soul master, Jiang Jingyan was far stronger in a head-on fight than the agility attack-type Nan Zhou. With just a little extra effort, she firmly suppressed the Thunder Tiger.
With his Prison-Subduing Dragon Martial Soul possessing his body and his right hand transformed into a golden dragon claw, Nan Zhuliu immediately stepped forward and ended the Thunder Tiger's life with a single spear thrust.
As the thousand-year Thunder Tiger died, a faint layer of purple light slowly appeared over its muscular body, finally condensing above it into a purple ring of solid radiance.
As though drawn by an unseen force of attraction, the purple ring slowly drifted toward Nan Zhuliu.
Jiang Jingyan told Nan Zhuliu, "Follow the method we taught you earlier to absorb the soul ring."
Nan Zhuliu nodded, sat cross-legged, and released his soul power to establish a connection with the soul ring.
When the thousand-year Thunder Tiger's soul ring slipped around him, a powerful surge of soul power immediately slammed into him.
This soul power was still within what Nan Zhuliu could withstand, so he did not find it particularly uncomfortable.
Only when they saw Nan Zhuliu's composed expression did the hearts of Nan Zhou and his wife finally settle back into place.
Time passed, minute by minute and second by second. The powerful soul power fluctuations emanating from the thousand-year soul ring gradually became peaceful, while Nan Zhuliu's presence grew increasingly powerful.
Several hours passed. The thousand-year soul ring slowly shrank, ultimately merging into Nan Zhuliu's body. Having broken through the level-ten bottleneck, his soul power also stabilized completely at level thirteen.
Then Nan Zhuliu opened his eyes and stood up.
The next second, he released his Prison-Subduing Dragon and soul ring in succession.
The surging lightning around Nan Zhuliu grew even fiercer, and his presence abruptly climbed at an astonishing speed. His surroundings seemed to sink into a lightning marsh of oppressive might.
Golden Dragon Rampage, the Prison-Subduing Dragon's first soul skill.
Its effect was to send Nan Zhuliu into a berserk state and increase all his attributes, as well as his lightning power, by one hundred percent.
If he did not stop it himself, Golden Dragon Rampage would remain active until his soul power was exhausted.
In this respect, it was somewhat similar to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul's Thunder's Fury. But Golden Dragon Rampage's one-hundred-percent boost to all attributes was far more generous than Thunder's Fury's stingy attribute boosts of fifty percent to soul power and one hundred percent to lightning power.
This was the top-tier soul skill a top-tier Martial Soul deserved, rather than having the most extreme numerical values yet granting only a pitifully low attribute boost.