Not long ago, Xiao Yan had reached the bottleneck at rank forty and urgently needed a new Soul Ring to break another layer of the Emperor Flame's seal. At the same time, Yan had broken through to the Soul King level, becoming the last of the three to reach the Soul King realm. Both needed new Soul Rings, and when Bibi Dong learned of it, she decided to make this Soul Hunting Operation a trial for the Golden Generation: the four youths would rely on their own strength to hunt two Soul Rings from Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts. The four took their written orders and came to the Star Dou Great Forest. As luck would have it, they had barely entered when they found a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast perfectly suited to Xiao Yan, and so began a heart-stopping chase.
"Little Junior Brother, you're always so polite. How adorable." Hu Liena smiled and patted Xiao Yan on the head. She had treated him this way since he was little. Before she knew it, he had grown taller than her, and whenever she thought that one day she might no longer be able to pat his head, an inexplicable sense of loss came over her.
"Little Yanzi, go absorb the Soul Ring. We'll guard you here." After laughing, Xie Yue turned serious. "The first half of this trial has been a great success. His Holiness the Pope will surely be very pleased." As soon as he finished speaking, Xiao Yan nodded in agreement, then sat cross-legged on the ground and began absorbing the Soul Ring. The other three also began resting as quickly as they could, so they could recover to their best condition.
"That kid has only reached the four-ring realm, yet he's already absorbed two Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings. What a bizarre talent..." Yan sighed. He, too, was a man whose ambitions soared higher than the heavens, but ever since they met Xiao Yan, the youth had shown their group of so-called geniuses what a true genius was.
"Hasn't there been enough that's bizarre about Little Yanzi? Never mind his Twin Martial Souls that can appear at the same time and share Soul Rings, or his countless breathtaking Self-Created Soul Skills. The mutated colors of his Soul Rings alone are enough to boggle the mind. It's only the colors of his Soul Rings that differ from other people's each time. You haven't actually forgotten how old his Soul Rings are, have you?"
After saying this, Xie Yue sighed as well. Faced with such a genius, anyone would have found it hard not to feel ashamed of their own inadequacy. But he was not a jealous person. After six years together, day and night, he had long regarded the boy with neither father nor mother as his own little brother. Besides, anyone with eyes could see that his own younger sister had secretly given Xiao Yan her heart. At that thought, Xie Yue couldn't help glancing at Yan, who had never concealed his feelings for Hu Liena either. He sighed inwardly. I'm afraid the future won't be peaceful...
Hearing this, Yan suddenly remembered that probably none of the kid's current Soul Rings were normal. When Xiao Yan broke through to his second ring, he had absorbed another Thousand-Year Soul Ring, but the color it ultimately took was the lowest-grade white, with a translucent quality to it-the color of a Ten-Year Soul Ring. The Pope had been troubled by this for quite some time, burying herself in the library every day, but even after half a month she still couldn't figure out why. Moreover, apart from its changed color, the Soul Power fluctuations the Soul Ring produced were still at the thousand-year level. She could only regard it as a mutation of Xiao Yan's wondrous Martial Soul and give it no further thought. When Xiao Yan absorbed his third ring, the situation became even more bizarre. Xiao Yan had insisted he could absorb a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, and Bibi Dong, unable to sway him, had been forced to agree. In the end, the Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring had turned the very purple they had wanted to see when the second ring had given them such headaches. Yan still remembered the Pope's expression at the time; the beliefs she had held all her life had probably been trampled underfoot. Thinking of it, he could barely hold back his laughter.
Xiao Yan had never taken long to absorb a Soul Ring. In the time it took half a stick of incense to burn, powerful Soul Power fluctuations spread out. The three turned to look and saw his fourth Soul Ring shining brilliantly as it spun around him.
The three stared at it for a long time, making sure their eyes weren't playing tricks on them. The Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring had an earthy yellow sheen. Though it was clearly a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, a closer look would probably lead people to mistake it outright for a Hundred-Year Soul Ring.
The three offered Xiao Yan their silent condolences. His Soul Ring configuration was clearly one to be proud of, yet on him it looked like the haphazard setup of some lone cultivator. But when they thought of the expression His Holiness the Pope would make upon seeing it after they returned to Spirit Hall, they all found it hilarious.
Xiao Yan scratched his head and smiled awkwardly. His Martial Soul was not a Martial Soul in the true sense and could not be fitted with real Soul Rings. For a long time, he had used all the Soul Rings he hunted as a source of energy to break through the Emperor Flame's seal. His apparent Soul Rings, meanwhile, were formed using a little fire-control trick Yan Xiao had taught him. Each time he broke a seal, he shaped the energy of the new Heavenly Flame whose power he recovered into a ring and attached it to his Martial Soul, barely giving it the appearance of a Soul Ring. The colors of these Soul Rings were the original colors of the Heavenly Flames that formed them, something Xiao Yan could not change. His teacher had always done her utmost to investigate the cause, but Xiao Yan, who knew the reason, could only awkwardly play dumb and muddle through.
Xiao Yan coughed lightly and composed his embarrassed expression, prompting the three who were snickering to control their expressions as well. Then he said, "Next is Yan's Soul Ring."
The other three nodded. The second objective of their Soul Hunting Operation was to hunt Yan's fifth Soul Ring. The four youths then headed deeper into the Star Dou Great Forest. They could not have known that this very decision would completely change their futures.