Dragon Soul Awakening!

Lin Rong unleashed his Nine Bend Vine Dragon Martial Soul. At the same time, a deep yellow spirit ring appeared beneath his feet and pulsed, its light flashing soon after.

First Spirit Skill: Dragon Soul Awakening.

As its name implied, this was a buff-type spirit skill. Its effects were:

Martial soul toughness increased by 100%, strength increased by 50%, speed increased by 50%, and martial soul sharpness increased by 50%. For every Soul Power Level gained, the buff effects increased by an additional 1%. At the same time, all attacks carried Dragon Might.

Dragon Might effect: the pressure of a true dragon caused opponents to feel fear and lose their fighting spirit. The lower the opponent's strength, the more obvious the effect. Its effect doubled against dragon-type martial soul possessors and spirit beasts.

Lin Rong's current Soul Power Level was fifteen. Therefore, Dragon Soul Awakening's buffs were:

Martial soul toughness increased by 115%; strength, speed, and martial soul sharpness increased by 65%.

The Nine Bend Vine Dragon was a Plant System Martial Soul rather than a beast martial soul. After using the buff-type spirit skill, Lin Rong could not experience the exhilarating sensation of his strength surging dramatically.

Thus, as Lin Rong looked at the scattered Thousand Leaf Banyan saplings on the ground around him, an idea came to mind.

More than ten Vine Dragon Tree Roots suddenly emerged amid the sparse grass on the ground.

The Vine Dragon Tree Roots spread in all directions and, under Lin Rong's control, swept toward the Thousand Leaf Banyan saplings scattered across the ground.

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

More than ten loud explosions rang out from every direction. The ground seemed to tremble several times, and dust flew everywhere.

Once the dust settled, the Thousand Leaf Banyan saplings that had covered the ground had already been smashed into wood chips by the Vine Dragon Tree Roots.

Lin Rong was extremely satisfied with this.

"Very good. This is the power a top-tier martial soul should possess."

"With such power, it is no worse than the second spirit skill of an ordinary Soul Grandmaster." At the side, the Old Butler praised him before asking, "Young Master, although this first spirit skill provides a powerful buff, how much does it consume?"

"Consume?" Lin Rong's expression turned strange after sensing the state of his soul power.

"Almost nothing. Just like the name Dragon Soul Awakening suggests, it seems to awaken an ability that the Nine Bend Vine Dragon Martial Soul already possessed, which is why it consumes almost no soul power."

"Moreover, due to my martial soul's traits, I can recover soul power on my own without entering meditation. My soul power recovery speed is even greater than its consumption speed."

"If I hadn't carefully sensed it just now, I wouldn't even have known that any soul power had been consumed."

Those words truly stunned the Old Butler. Having lived to such an age, he had never witnessed such an extraordinary spirit skill.

However, the Old Butler quickly figured it out. The main reason for this was the Young Master's martial soul being inherently powerful, while the second reason was the exceptionally high compatibility between the Thousand Leaf Banyan and the Nine Bend Vine Dragon.

"Dragon Soul Awakening—what a Dragon Soul Awakening!" The Old Butler stroked his beard and praised, "As a buff-type spirit skill, it would not become obsolete as one's cultivation increased. Not to mention its powerful enhancement and nearly nonexistent soul power consumption."

"Grandpa Yu, don't be in such a hurry to be amazed." Lin Rong smiled calmly before continuing. "I've only shown you the spirit ring's spirit skill. I haven't even mentioned the spirit skill of my External Soul Bone yet!"

After hearing this, the Old Butler no longer carried the usual imposing demeanor of the Duke Mansion's chief steward. He nodded repeatedly and said, "Right, right, right! There's also the External Soul Bone. In all my years, I have only heard legends about External Soul Bones. This is the first time I've ever seen one in person!"

Seeing the expectant look on the Old Butler's face, Lin Rong did not keep him in suspense and introduced it directly.

"This External Soul Bone came from the Thousand Leaf Banyan. It currently has two spirit skills, though both are passive effects."

"The first spirit skill is called Life Pulse. Aside from increasing my total soul power by 50%, it also increases my soul power recovery speed by 100%."

"Unfortunately, this spirit skill cannot grow stronger as the age of the External Soul Bone increases."

"The second spirit skill is called Flower Transfer, Wood Grafting. When suffering fatal damage, a false body condensed from the soul bone takes the hit, while the true body instantly teleports to a location designated in advance."

"After it activates, it cannot activate again for ten years. However, as the age of the External Soul Bone increases, its cooldown will shorten as well."

This time, the Old Butler was not surprised after hearing it. Instead, he wore an expression as though it were only natural.

"As expected of an External Soul Bone that exists only in legends. No wonder it is praised as a treasure second only to a Hundred Thousand Year Spirit Ring!"

"Uh..."

Lin Rong was rather speechless. He wanted to tell Grandpa Yu that not every External Soul Bone possessed such powerful skills.

The reason the Heart of the Banyan Wood was so powerful ultimately lay in the Nine Bend Vine Dragon's own strength, which was why it had produced such extraordinary spirit skills.

Whether it was Tang San's Eight Spider Lances, Hu Liena's Fox Tail, or Bibi Dong's Six-Winged Violet Light Wings, under the same age conditions, none could compare to the Heart of the Banyan Wood.

But explaining that would be too troublesome, so he decided to forget it.

"Hm? Eight humans' life force signatures are approaching this place. Were they drawn here by the loud noise I made just now?"

Lin Rong frowned and turned toward the valley entrance. Within his Life Sense, those eight people had already arrived three hundred meters outside the valley.

Seeing the Young Master like this, the Old Butler stepped forward, shielding Lin Rong behind him. He released the Star Disc, and eight spirit rings appeared beneath his feet in sequence, pulsing with light.

Before long, a group appeared at the valley entrance.

At the front of the group was unexpectedly a little girl. She looked at Lin Rong and the Old Butler and demanded, "Hey, did you make that commotion just now?"

Among the seven people behind the girl, the leader recognized Yu Yuan's martial soul and spirit rings and identified the two before him. He then stepped forward and greeted them.

"Gu Feng, captain of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's elite guard, greets Duke Lin Rong!"

Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect?

Lin Rong thought, At that age, with that attitude... then this disrespectful girl before me must be Ning Rongrong.

Ning Rongrong was a few months younger than Tang San. She had Innate Soul Power of rank nine, and given this young lady's personality of not diligently cultivating, it was perfectly normal for her to take a few months to reach rank ten.

"Duke?" After hearing her guard captain's words, Ning Rongrong pointed at Lin Rong and asked, "You're Lin Rong, the one who inherited the title of Duke before you were even born?"

Without waiting for Lin Rong to answer, Ning Rongrong continued, "I'm so jealous of you. You were the head of your family from the moment you were born. No one could stop you from doing whatever you wanted. How great is that!"

"..." Lin Rong had no response to that.

"Wait, that's not right. You should have only turned six a few days ago. What are you doing in the Soul Beast Forest?"

Ning Rongrong spotted another issue and pressed on, "Could it be that you have Innate Full Soul Power?"

"Hehe, as expected of Sect Leader Ning's only daughter. You truly are exceptionally clever." Lin Rong answered Ning Rongrong's question indirectly.