"Greetings, Young Clan Leader!"
Su An, formerly the Su Clan's supreme elder and now the Shu Clan's grand elder, bowed deeply to Su Yun.
At this point, he was utterly convinced of Su Yun's worth.
He was a man whose age had already passed one hundred and sixteen while he was only at Level 86; he had never dreamed of becoming a Titled Douluo in his lifetime.
As for becoming a top-tier Titled Douluo with two yellow, two purple, four black, and one red Soul Ring, that had been completely impossible before.
Absorbing a Five Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring at Level 80 had already put considerable strain on him. Normally, if he were given a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring to absorb, his body would simply explode.
Yet Su Yun had used pills to resolve that very problem.
Under the protection of the Pulse-Protecting Pill, he did not need to worry about his meridians being damaged at all and could devote more of his attention to dealing with the magical beast's remnant soul inside the Magic Core.
With his Level 90 Soul Power and the Head Soul Bone he had purchased, he had easily dealt with the magical beast's remnant soul. Now, he had officially become a Titled Douluo-and not a Level 91 Titled Douluo.
With the boost from the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, he had skipped Level 91 outright and reached Level 92 as a Titled Douluo. Even Level 92 was not his endpoint. With that Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring's support, Level 95 was merely a stage he would inevitably pass through.
With the boost from the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring and the cultivation method Su Yun had given him, he felt that attempting to reach Level 99 might not be beyond him.
With benefits this great, Su An no longer cared at all about his lowered standing within the clan.
After all, the clan's standing was about to rise dramatically.
They were still a little short of that now because the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring could not yet be shown to others. Otherwise, someone coveting the Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone would put the clan in danger.
But once they made a Soul Tool that could conceal the colors of Soul Rings and he displayed his Titled Douluo cultivation to the world, the clan would no longer be confined to this mere city.
"No need for such formality. What are your Ninth Soul Skills?"
Su Yun helped the grand elder up, then asked about his Soul Skills.
The grand elder sensed them for a moment. "One is Cloud-Transformed Lion King. It can turn clouds into a winged amethyst lion. The other is called Huo Yun Art, a single-target attack Soul Skill. It should be quite powerful."
"Also, because of this Ninth Soul Ring, my Martial Soul seems to have undergone a slight mutation. Besides its normal cloud form, it can also turn into purple fire."
"Purple fire? How hot is it? Can you control it perfectly?" Su Yun asked curiously.
The grand elder raised his hand and tried adjusting the flames' size and power, then nodded. "I can."
At that, Su Yun's eyes lit up.
The flames of a rank-six magical beast were even higher in grade than the flames Su Yun possessed. If the grand elder could wield those flames, he could absolutely follow the path of an alchemist from Battle Through the Heavens.
Su Yun still needed time to grow before he could become a higher-level alchemist, but the grand elder hardly needed that.
With his Titled Douluo cultivation, his spiritual power was not low even though he was not a spiritual-type Soul Master. Moreover, he had a ten-thousand-year Head Soul Bone.
There was no need for him to become an especially high-level alchemist. As long as he could reach the level of a Fourth-Grade Alchemist, that would suffice for ordinary pills.
Once the Su Clan could reliably refine fourth-tier Pulse-Protecting Pills, it would mean far more than simply allowing its members to absorb Soul Rings beyond their level limits. The Su Clan's combat strength would also soar.
Others might not know about Ring Detonation, but how could Su Yun, a transmigrator, possibly not know?
Ring Detonation had two drawbacks. First, it placed very high demands on physical fitness. One misstep, and the surging Soul Power would batter the meridians, causing severe injuries.
Second, without Soul Skills, one could only rely on the Martial Soul itself to attack. It could be said to suit only tool Martial Souls like the Clear Sky Hammer.
But of these two points, the first could be countered with a Pulse-Protecting Pill. As for the second, this was the Sun Moon Empire. Everyone here used Soul Tools.
Generally speaking, a Soul Douluo could not bring out much of a Level 9 Soul Tool's power. But with Ring Detonation, a Su Clan Soul Douluo wielding the same Level 9 Soul Tool could unleash power far beyond even that of a normal Level 9 Soul Engineer.
In other words, the Su Clan's Soul Douluos could even be used as Titled Douluos.
Having several Titled Douluo-level combatants at his command-never mind Huo Yuhao's supposed position as the Sea God Pavilion Master's successor from a later generation.
Even Qian Renxue from Douluo I fell a tier short compared to Su Yun.
None of the Titled Douluos Qian Renxue could order around were above Level 95. But if the grand elder shattered all nine rings at once, even a Level 97 Titled Douluo would probably have to avoid his edge.
And that was based on the grand elder's current strength.
In a few years, the grand elder's cultivation would definitely be beyond Level 95, to say nothing of his strength. Given ten years, Su Yun would not claim too much, but the grand elder would have absolutely no trouble pinning down Shrek's Chicken Leg Douluo and beating him.
"Excellent. Grand Elder, I have some pill formulas here. Take a look and see whether you can refine them. Stay within the Su Clan for the time being. A Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring is too conspicuous and could easily bring the Su Clan unnecessary trouble."
As Su Yun spoke, he handed the grand elder the Pulse-Protecting Pill formula along with several others, as well as the medicinal ingredients the Snake-People Empire had given him.
"Understood. I will follow all your instructions, Young Clan Leader."
"Good. Second Elder, Third Elder, head to the Soul Beast Forest later and capture a twenty-thousand-year Purple Lightning Netherworld Python. Remember, I want it alive. If you can, try not to injure it too severely."
At that, the second and third elders' faces turned bitter.
"Young Clan Leader, capturing a twenty-thousand-year Purple Lightning Netherworld Python is no problem, and neither is taking it alive. That Soul Beast's bloodline may be rather powerful, but ultimately, a twenty-thousand-year Purple Lightning Netherworld Python is only equivalent to a Soul Saint. With two Soul Douluos like us, capturing it alive would only take some effort."
"But if we must avoid injuring that Soul Beast too severely, that would require a Titled Douluo."
"It's fine. I've thought of that, so leave a little later. There's something I need to tell you. Once you've figured it out, your strength will be equivalent to that of Titled Douluos. Perhaps even..."
Su Yun looked at the final Soul Ring on each elder. Both were over eighty thousand years old. Their Eighth Soul Rings could even be said to rival Tang Hao's in Douluo I in age.
And Tang Hao in Douluo I had forcibly defeated a Titled Douluo from Spirit Hall with only eight rings.
Tang Hao had needed to divide his attention to cope with the pain of his Soul Rings shattering and powerful Soul Power flooding his meridians. But with a Pulse-Protecting Pill, shattering Soul Rings and pouring vast amounts of Soul Power into his veins would be a trivial matter.
It was not as though they had to forcibly absorb that Soul Power. They would merely channel it through, with no need to endure the pain of their meridians nearly being torn apart.
"Once you've learned this, your explosive power will even let you kill an ordinary Titled Douluo single-handedly."
"Hiss..."
Everyone sucked in a breath of cold air. They had thought that the Su Clan becoming a clan with a Titled Douluo in such a short time, with strength on par with an ordinary duke's clan, was already the limit.
But now it seemed they had still set their sights a little too low when judging their own clan's position.
With strength like this, they might even be able to cross swords with the Hongchen Family, whose influence blazed like the midday sun.