"Crack!"
The shell shattered instantly, and golden-red liquid splattered everywhere. The Sun Sacred Beetle showed no reaction at all; the next moment, it transformed into a streak of golden-red light and shot toward the ground not far from Xu Yang.
Boom!
The ground shook violently, and dust rose, obscuring the entire sky.
Xu Yang nearly lost his balance and fell to the ground.
"That was fast! So violent! Is this really the Madam I know?!"
Xu Yang couldn't believe it. Madam Ning usually presented herself as a refined and elegant lady in the sect, embodying the demeanor of a noblewoman who seemed unaccustomed to battle. How could she be so ruthless against an opponent now, showing no mercy at all, like a female war god?
"What? Don't you recognize your Madam anymore?" Madam Ning slowly landed beside Xu Yang, teasing him with a smile.
"No, it's just that I didn't expect Madam to be this powerful!" Xu Yang shook his head and replied seriously.
"What's there to be surprised about? Before Fengzhi met Uncle Sword and Uncle Bone, I was the one protecting him. It wasn't until I broke through to Soul Douluo that I felt I couldn't break through to Title Douluo, so I started to restrain myself and focused on being your Madam Ning."
Madam Ning smiled as she ruffled Xu Yang's hair and continued, "Speaking of which, I have to thank you—Yang'er, you gave me confidence and allowed me to enjoy the thrill of battle once again."
"I see now!" Xu Yang nodded, recalling the marriage customs of Seven Treasures Glazed Tile School's successors—spouses must be battle soul masters. How could someone capable of protecting the sect leader of Seven Treasures Glazed Tile School be weak?
"Yang'er, go hunt for your soul ring! That Sun Sacred Beetle is still alive!" Seeing that Xu Yang understood her point, Madam Ning pointed at the Sun Sacred Beetle struggling in the dust.
At this moment, the Sun Sacred Beetle was in a dire state; more than half of its lower body was gone, and even its proud long horns were broken off nearby. The entire beetle was embedded in the ground, struggling painfully.
If it weren't for the soul beast's strong vitality and Madam Ning's restraint, that kick could have easily taken its life.
To end its suffering, Xu Yang took out a Tang knife from his storage ring and stabbed it directly into its lower body wound until he reached the brain, ending its life.
A purple-black soul ring began to slowly condense and hovered above the Sun Sacred Beetle.
Just from the color of the soul ring, it was evident that this Sun Sacred Beetle chosen by Madam Ning was on the verge of becoming a ten-thousand-year soul beast—she had picked it right at its limit for her choice of soul ring.
"How is it?! This Sun Sacred Beetle is suitable, right?! This was the strongest among that group of beetles earlier; if it weren't for my keen perception, it might have escaped!" Madam Ning said proudly.
"Thank you, Madam!"
Xu Yang smiled in response before sitting cross-legged beside the beetle's corpse. He summoned his Solar Martial Spirit and began to draw in and absorb the soul ring.
As the soul ring entered his body, a powerful surge of soul power impacted Xu Yang's physique.
This soul ring had an age of nine thousand eight hundred years; it was situated at the boundary between thousand-year and ten-thousand-year rings—quite special. Such rings often possessed some characteristics typical of ten-thousand-year rings: namely mental impact.
However, compared to the mental impact from a true ten-thousand-year soul beast, this one—being at a boundary—was relatively weaker. This was also why Madam Ning chose this particular beetle; she wanted Xu Yang to adapt in advance to mental impacts as preparation for his future ten-thousand-year fourth ring.
Xu Yang realized this issue as well; absorbing this soul ring required not only absorbing internal soul power but also dealing with mental impacts.
He could sense the intense resentment emanating from the Sun Sacred Beetle; this resentment continuously bombarded his mind, making it difficult for him to concentrate on controlling his internal soul power.
"No wonder absorbing a ten-thousand-year soul ring requires such high standards. When lacking sufficient mental strength and facing mental impacts afterward, one can't even control their internal soul power and can only let the soul power carried by the ring continuously impact their body—ultimately leading to death by explosion."
Fortunately for him, having lived two lives allowed him to place emphasis on cultivating mental strength. Coupled with his ability to multitask through distraction control made absorbing this ten-thousand-year soul ring manageable!
Realizing he needed to focus on utilizing the dissipated energy from the soul ring while honing his physique! With this thought in mind, he fully activated his distraction control technique. Xu Yang began multitasking—using one part of his focus to resist mental impacts, another part to control internal soul power, and yet another part to operate his body tempering technique while absorbing the dissipated energy from the soul ring.
Soul masters cannot completely absorb all of a soul ring's power; a significant portion is wasted during absorption. Thus when absorbing a ring, their bodies would emit corresponding colors of soul power as they released light.
With his ability to multitask and using Gu Rong's developed body tempering secret technique allowed Xu Yang to utilize this dissipated energy for personal growth.
Suddenly a tingling sensation spread throughout his body—a sign that his cells were absorbing soul power and becoming stronger.
Having experienced absorbing two soul rings before allowed Xu Yang to discover that the essence of absorbing a soul ring was actually about transforming one's own soul power; it didn't inherently contain much power itself but served merely as a vessel for techniques. Therefore using techniques consumed not just power from within the ring but rather from the soul master themselves.
This seemed more like an issue related to world mechanics. Soul beasts could allow their own powers to undergo transformations repeatedly—from white to yellow, purple, black, and even red levels of power.
Humans could achieve similar transformations too; however, most people faced difficulties living long enough for over a hundred years—accumulating sufficient internal soul power made it hard for them to trigger qualitative changes through quantitative ones. Thus they had no choice but to rely on external forces for their powers' transformations.
Of course, this was merely Xu Yang's speculation; he wasn't entirely sure whether it was correct or not.
Meanwhile outside, Madam Ning focused her energy as she watched Xu Yang absorb the soul ring's reactions closely. If he couldn't handle it, she would immediately step in to interrupt him.
Once a soul master reached Soul Douluo level or higher, they could directly see through a soul beast's essence. This ability also allowed Soul Douluos post-breakthroughs to easily identify disguised transformed beasts. They could use this ability accurately interrupting a master's absorption process while causing only minor injuries—allowing them time afterward to recover without facing death from an overwhelming absorption experience.
As time passed by steadily, Xu Yang's aura of soul power continuously strengthened. After two hours had passed, a purple-black soul ring had already hung around him.
At this point in time, he was only one step away from fully absorbing this soul ring.
Madam Ning—who had been guarding him all along—let out a sigh of relief just then when suddenly from within one of the broken horns of the Sun Sacred Beetle emerged a burst of golden energy that shot directly into Xu Yang's forehead. Immediately after that golden light began radiating from between his brows.
Madam Ning's expression changed; just as she intended to reach out and stop it she froze in place instead—stunned as she exclaimed: "This is an external attached spirit bone..."
(End of Chapter)