Observing Talents, Black Tortoise Bloodline?

Not long after Lin Qingchen sat down cross-legged, he opened his eyes again, but his Soul Rings had not changed at all. Ye Lingling blinked. She had wanted to ask whether something had gone wrong with absorbing the Soul Ring, but after some thought, she could not bring herself to ask.

Dugu Yan, however, was not as quiet as Ye Lingling. She asked directly, curious, "Qingchen, did you fail? Why do you still have only two Soul Rings?"

She was not the only one. Everyone else, including Qin Ming, also looked at him curiously.

As Qin Ming saw it, since Lin Qingchen had been able to kill his opponent in an instant, there should have been no chance of him failing to absorb the Soul Ring.

Besides, Lin Qingchen looked to be in excellent condition, with no sign that he had suffered a backlash from absorbing the Soul Ring.

Lin Qingchen had naturally prepared an explanation for this long ago.

He said, "It has to do with my Martial Soul. My Martial Soul is a Mutated Martial Soul called the Five Elements Qilin. It can control all five elements-metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—but that also means I need all five elements when absorbing Soul Rings. I've only absorbed an earth-attribute Soul Ring for now. I still need to find four more Soul Rings before I can successfully advance. Of course, in the end, I'll actually only get one Soul Skill."

Anything could happen in the Soul Master World these days anyway. Even a Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon had turned into a pig halfway through its evolution, so what was the big deal about him absorbing a couple of extra Soul Rings?

After hearing Lin Qingchen's explanation, Qin Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good. I thought something had gone wrong. They're only Soul Rings, and Soul Beasts are the one thing the Star Dou Great Forest has no shortage of. But no wonder your Soul Skills are so powerful. It turns out you have to absorb five Soul Rings. It seems great power always comes at a price."

"Exactly, exactly! Qingchen, it's just four Soul Rings. Whatever you want, we'll all help you get them." Yu Feng also came over at this point, thumping his chest as he made his promise.

Looking at Yu Feng, Lin Qingchen was actually rather curious.

After all, in the comic version's setting, Yu Feng seemed to be Bai Chenxiang disguised as a man.

But from Lin Qingchen's observations, Yu Feng had plenty of masculine bearing. He had confirmed that Yu Feng definitely had a dick.

Besides, there was a world of difference between a Wind Chime Bird and a Sharp-Tailed Swift. He was not so stupid that he could not tell them apart.

But with Yu Feng's social-butterfly personality and his handsome looks, if he really were a girl, who knew how many Xiao Chunans he would have captivated, becoming their white moonlight on the spot.

"Qingchen, why are you staring at me? Why do I feel a little chilly?" Yu Feng suddenly felt a chill down his back.

Osler pulled him back. "Hmph, you birdman, you keep sticking yourself in front of him every day, and you still have the nerve to ask why Qingchen keeps staring at you? Have some shame, will you?"

Yu Feng said angrily, "Leopard! You got a problem? Once we get back from this Soul Hunting trip, do you dare fight me one-on-one? Huh?"

Osler answered with a sneer. "Heh, someone really has no shame. A flying-type Soul Master wants to fight a ground-based Soul Master like me one-on-one. Why don't you go challenge Lingling instead?"

"Hmph! You think I'm like you, chasing after the other team's Auxiliary System Soul Masters in team battles?"

Osler glanced sideways at him. "It's called tactics, got it? Since you like going head-to-head with the other side's Power Attack System fighters, why don't you try the boss? Or wait until Qingchen breaks through to three rings and try him? Could you last three minutes?"

"You..."

Though Yu Feng was deeply unconvinced by Osler, he had to admit, sadly, that everything Osler said was true. He really was no match for their boss, Yu Tianheng, and most likely could not even last three minutes against him.

As for Lin Qingchen...

Yu Feng considered his own scrawny arms and legs. If he ran into Lin Qingchen's second Soul Skill, he would probably be sent straight to his funeral banquet with a single strike, right?

Better forget it, then.

Listening to Yu Feng and Osler, that pair of bickering frenemies, Qin Ming could not help shaking his head. Still, he did not object to the two talking back to each other.

He even personally felt that having a pair of bickering frenemies like them on a team helped strengthen its cohesion.

Lin Qingchen looked at the two strangely. One was handsome with short blond hair, while the other had a face more feminine than a girl's, and yet wore his golden hair long and even had a somewhat effeminate air.

Tsk...

Why did he suddenly feel like he had arrived in Chengdu?

Fortunately, Qin Ming gave the two no more time to act up. He clapped his hands and instructed, "All right, it's completely dark now, and it wouldn't be wise to move around. We'll make camp here."

"Yes."

Soon, they had their tents set up.

The Shi Brothers shared one tent, Yu Feng and Osler stayed together, the two girls, Ye Lingling and Dugu Yan, shared one, and Yu Tianheng stayed with Qin Ming. That left Lin Qingchen to sleep alone.

That night, Lin Qingchen could not sleep. He was using the Book of Talents to examine the talents of the Imperial Fighting Team members.

Unexpectedly, he really did find some rather interesting talents.

[Black Tortoise Bloodline] (from the Shi Brothers): An unactivated bloodline of the divine beast Black Tortoise. Slightly increases the user's strength, defense, and recovery. Once fully activated, the Martial Soul will evolve directly into the Black Tortoise, increasing all attributes while enormously increasing strength, defense, and recovery, and greatly improving water-control ability; grants the Black Tortoise Domain.

Tsk, tsk. Now that was what he called a bloodline.

Compared with Tang San's Blue Emperor Bloodline, this Black Tortoise Bloodline could be said to crush it on an entirely different level. Not only did it come with an Innate Domain, it also greatly increased basic abilities.

Even Lin Qingchen was tempted when he saw it, and he almost chose it on the spot. But considering he had only one slot left, he looked at the others' talents as well.

[Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Bloodline] (from Yu Tianheng): A type of True Dragon Bloodline. Increases all attributes and grants affinity for the lightning attribute. It will evolve again once its owner reaches the god level.

Compared with the Black Tortoise Bloodline, this Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Bloodline was not quite as good. Though it did not need to be activated, it did not even have an Innate Domain, and the quality of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul it bestowed was not fixed, either.

Of course, this was not actually the first time Lin Qingchen had seen this talent.

[Mutated Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Bloodline] (from Yu Xiaogang): A mutated Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Bloodline, but the mutation did not succeed. In its half-finished state, it has lost the characteristics of a True Dragon Bloodline and is no different from an ordinary creature. At the same time, it continuously consumes its owner's Soul Power to stimulate the bloodline's mutation. However, when stimulated by other dragon bloodlines, it can briefly display the form of a true dragon.

To be honest, Lin Qingchen had almost laughed out loud when he saw this thing.

But looking at it now, this thing really did deserve a great deal of credit for Yu Xiaogang breaking through to age fifty at level twenty-nine.

Normally, a person's Martial Soul mutated at birth. The possibility of a mutation appearing afterward was extremely small, and it usually only happened under intense stimulation.

That was Yu Xiaogang's situation now. His Innate Soul Power had been too low, causing his bloodline's mutation to fail, but the half-mutated bloodline continued to crave Soul Power, slowing down Yu Xiaogang's already extremely slow cultivation even further.

The key was that most of the energy from all the heavenly treasures he had consumed had probably been absorbed by his bloodline too. That was why Yu Xiaogang had taken who knew how many medicines and still had not broken through to level thirty.

"What a shame. If only I could see the mutation's progress."

Lin Qingchen really wanted to eat this melon.