Chapter 5: The First Soul Ring

Chapter 5: The First Soul Ring

Ding! Congratulations to player Wang Si on obtaining his first soul ring. Soul power limit has broken through to level 20.

Ding! Congratulations to the player for reaching level 10 in the Soul Guru level gift pack.

Along with these two crisp prompts, Wang Si withdrew his consciousness from his martial soul.

He breathed a heavy sigh, lifting his head to check the time. The sun had long set.

Glancing at the time on the game panel, it was now 10 in the evening.

Starting the absorption of the soul ring from 4 in the afternoon, he had actually spent six hours! Sitting cross-legged for that long, it was a wonder his body hadn't gone numb.

Wang Si struggled to his feet, his movements also catching the attention of Xue Qinghe and the elderly man beneath the tree nearby.

"To think that a five-hundred-year soul ring would be absorbed in just six hours. That's faster than most soul gurus."

The old man couldn't help but feel a sense of emotion, and also a bit of sigh. Normally, it should take over four hundred years to obtain the first soul ring.

He had originally intended to trick this young man by killing a soul beast over five hundred years old, but he hadn't expected him to successfully absorb it. It was just a pity that the conversion rate of soul power was a bit low, and absorbing this soul ring only brought him to level 11!

Xue Qinghe quickly walked over to Wang Si. He felt a bit envious of this peer who had just awakened his martial soul and obtained a soul ring.

"Wang Si, what's your first soul skill? Let me see quickly."

Xue Qinghe was eager to see what the first soul skill of this guy, who was only two years younger than him, was!

Wang Si nodded slightly.

Without even going through the process of his martial soul possessing his body, a yellow soul ring appeared directly beneath his feet.

"First soul skill, Harden!"

The yellow soul ring shone with a yellow light, but to Xue Qinghe's expectant gaze, nothing happened.

Wang Si rubbed his nose awkwardly.

"Ahem... my first soul ring is an amplifying skill. It can increase the hardness of my skeletal structure by 30%, and every time I level up, my skeletal hardness will also increase somewhat."

Xue Qinghe didn't have much of an impression of this skill, but when the old man heard this skill description, he raised his eyebrows.

He walked directly to Wang Si and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"Use your first soul skill again."

Wang Si felt a bit awkward being held by the old man, but his first soul ring still lit up.

After feeling the hardness of Wang Si's skeletal structure post the use of his first soul ring, the old man raised his eyebrows.

"If this soul ring were a ten-thousand-year soul ring, it would be a divine skill for any soul guru. It's a bit of a pity that it's only a five-hundred-year soul ring."

The old man shook his head regretfully.

Aside from auxiliary-type soul gurus, it could be said that for most strong offensive martial souls, it was best to have an offensive skill in the early stages. This was because it could be used as a transition.

In the middle stages, one should choose an amplifying skill. Under the amplification of this skill, the first few soul skills could be used to exert the greatest power.

Only in the later stages should one aim for high-burst soul skills.

For a strong offensive soul guru, if the first soul ring were an amplifying skill, it would be a bit... regrettable. Although the skeletal strength would increase slightly with each level, how much could a hundred-year soul ring increase it by?

Wang Si's attention wasn't on the old man's word of "regrettable," but rather on the phrase "if it were a ten-thousand-year soul ring."

His soul ring's age could be increased, which also meant that one day, his soul ring would become a ten-thousand-year soul ring.

Upon hearing the old man's words, Xue Qinghe also felt a bit of regret.

"It really is a pity. If we had known, we could have chosen a different soul beast to absorb the soul ring from."

Wang Si rubbed his nose.

His soul ring could be detached at will, and if the soul skill wasn't suitable, he could simply change it.

But this involved his true secret, which wasn't something he wanted to expose to everyone.

"Let's rest for the night. Tomorrow, come with us back to Heavenly Fighting City. Also... the Royal Academy holds a special training session every year. If you're interested, I can arrange for someone to send you there directly.

That evening, Xue Qinghe and Wang Si slept in the same tent.

Xue Qinghe quickly dozed off, but Wang Si remained awake.

Although the other man introduced himself as "Xue He," someone as astute as Wang Si could easily guess his true identity: the Grand Prince of Heaven Dou, Xue Qinghe.

However, at this point, the Grand Prince was probably not yet aware of his connection to the Spirit Hall's Qian Renxue.

How should he put it? At the moment, he felt a bit guilty. The whole undercover agent thing was just a gimmick.

He had no interest in anything other than immortal grass, but if things went wrong and the Grand Prince was replaced, his unintentional butterfly effect could ruin Qian Renxue's disguise.

In that case, Qian Renxue, protected by two Title Douluos, would likely be fine, but he would be in deep trouble.

When he was assigned to share a tent with Xue Qinghe, Wang Si suspected that his cover had been blown and that the other man was testing him.

Wang Si felt helpless about the situation, as his appearance was indeed very abrupt and coincidental.

It was likely that the Spirit Hall hadn't taken the time to properly fabricate his undercover identity, and even if they had, it seemed they hadn't done a good job.

As for why Xue Qinghe and the elderly man hadn't killed him, Wang Si speculated that it might be because of his martial soul or that they wanted to use him as bait.

Having been bait once before, he was all too familiar with that feeling.

Of course, Wang Si felt that the most important factor was his age and the fact that he had been very "well-behaved" so far.

His age was his greatest cover.

With some time to kill, Wang Si opened the tenth-level Soul Guru level gift pack that he had received after absorbing the soul ring.

[Ding! Player has obtained the following: Ten-year Left Arm Bone1, Ten-year Soul Ring Experience Orb3, Basic Cultivation Technique Manual: Hundred Refining Bones.]

[Item: Left Arm Bone

Age: Forty years

Equipment Effect: Increases left arm bone hardness by 10% and resilience by 5%.

Bone Skill: Shockwave

Shockwave: Consumes soul power to infuse the next attack with a shocking effect that ignores partial armor.]

[Item: Ten-year Soul Ring Experience Orb

Effect: Using this experience orb can increase the quality of a soul ring by ten years.]

[Item: Hundred Refining Bones

Effect: Can refine one's bones using soul power or other high-quality energy.

Note: This technique allows the host martial soul to undergo a Black Iron-level awakening.]

The three items that the level gift pack offered were somewhat within Wang Si's expectations!

He glanced at the ten-year bone, and then he found himself glancing at it again.

If it weren't for the fact that he knew he could detach his bone freely, he wouldn't even bother looking at this ten-year bone.

Fortunately, the bone skill was quite useful.

The experience orbs were for increasing the age limit of soul rings.

In addition to using experience orbs, increasing the age limit of soul bones and soul rings required the soul power he cultivated.

In other words, while others' cultivation only enhanced their soul power, his cultivation not only enhanced his soul power but also increased the age of his soul rings and soul bones.

The effect of his first soul ring was to permanently increase a certain proportion of his attributes every time he leveled up.

In the early stages, this increase wasn't very high, but once this soul ring reached a hundred thousand years, each level-up would result in a multiple increase in his physical attributes.

In Xue Qinghe and the old man's eyes, his first soul ring wasn't ideal.

But Wang Si wanted to say: its potential far exceeded their imagination.

At the moment, his situation was quite awkward. If they said he was from the Spirit Hall, then there was only one teacher in the Spirit Hall with whom he had a master-disciple relationship.

If they said he was clinging to Xue Qinghe's coattails... he estimated that it wouldn't be long before he would be found out, and he didn't even know what Xue Qinghe thought of him!

Before truly confirming his stance, it was better to play it safe!

At that moment, he wished his system had consciousness and could give him tasks or force him to do something.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end