In an instant, Chu Chengzhou shifted his footing, moving his body sharply several meters to the right. At the same time, a brilliant blue soul power glow erupted around him, forming a transparent blue soul shield.
What were the most obvious weaknesses of an archer? One, lack of close combat skills; two, slow movement; and three, weak defenses.
Archers excelled at ranged attacks, and close combat was simply not their forte. Mastery in all eighteen martial arts styles was impossible; specialization was key. As the old saying goes: Jack of all trades, master of none.
Chu Chengzhou had never considered compensating for his lack of close combat ability. Having chosen to be an archer, he didn't plan on becoming a frontline fighter.
Moreover, with summon abilities that allowed him to freely pair different types of summons, this weakness existed but wasn't a problem.
However, his slow movement speed and weak defenses needed addressing.
To solve the issue of speed, he had used his AFK leveling system to acquire a Movement skill, aiding in both retreats and kiting enemies.
As for defense, Chu Chengzhou knew that relying solely on his powerful physique from body training was insufficient. He had also acquired a defensive skill through his AFK leveling system.
Previously, due to weaker opponents, this skill had remained unused as a last resort. Now, in a critical moment, it finally found its purpose.
Of course, if given a choice, Chu Chengzhou hoped he'd never need to use this skill.
After all, using it meant that he, a part-time summoner-archer, was in grave danger.
Dodging and activating the shield happened almost simultaneously.
The next second, scorching Phoenix Flames descended from the sky, engulfing Chu Chengzhou's previous position.
However, the Phoenix Flames of the large phoenix far surpassed those of the smaller one in terms of power and coverage.
Though Chu Chengzhou had dodged immediately, he hadn't avoided it completely.
The scorching Phoenix Flames still engulfed half his body.
The soul shield Chu Chengzhou had formed had a defensive strength comparable to a thousand-year defensive soul skill. However, against the intense flames of a thirty-thousand-year-old Fire Phoenix, it was like paper, offering little resistance.
In an instant, the soul shield was incinerated.
Still, the soul shield wasn't entirely useless. It bought Chu Chengzhou a sliver of survival. After all, even paper could withstand something for a short while, right?
Keep in mind, Chu Chengzhou was still using his movement skill!
Even though the soul shield on his body only provided him with a brief moment, it was enough for him to escape the coverage of the Phoenix Flames.
Just as the large phoenix prepared to launch another attack on Chu Chengzhou, a massive owl encased in an orange-golden light shield charged down like a meteor, directly colliding with the large phoenix.
BOOM—!
A loud collision rang out. Under the powerful impact, the already injured large phoenix was sent crashing toward the ground below.
Meanwhile, the giant owl spun backward in midair for over ten meters before stabilizing itself.
Then, flapping its wings, the owl dove down, extending its talons to scoop up the fleeing Chu Chengzhou and the distant small phoenix corpse before ascending rapidly into the sky, flying northwest at top speed.
By the time the large phoenix, nearly concussed, regained its senses and flew back into the air, the giant owl had long disappeared.
Unabsorbed soul rings remained attached to the soul beast's corpse. As long as the corpse was taken away, the soul ring followed.
With the small phoenix's soul ring now secured, the top priority was finding a safe place for Chu Chengzhou to absorb the soul ring and advance to a three-ring Soul Elder.
Since Flender didn't need the large phoenix's soul ring, there was no reason to continue fighting or hunting it.
Under the True Body state, the flying-type Soul Sage's speed was incredibly fast. Moreover, they weren't deep within the inner core of the Great Star Dou Forest. Flying northwest, it took less than twenty minutes for Flender to reach the outer edge of the inner region.
Sensing no high-level soul beasts nearby, Flender descended from the sky with Chu Chengzhou and the small phoenix's corpse into the forest below.
The giant owl then dissipated, revealing Flender's figure.
"Principal Flender, are you alright?"
Seeing Flender's somewhat pale face, Chu Chengzhou couldn't help but ask.
While the True Body significantly boosted a soul master's strength, it wasn't without drawbacks. Most soul masters experienced a period of weakness after using it.
The length of this weakness and the extent of the strength reduction depended on the soul master's soul power level, the quality of their martial soul, and the age of their seventh soul ring.
For example, Zhao Wuji, a seven-ring Soul Sage, would experience a 50% reduction in attributes after using his Vigorous Vajra Bear True Body and would need seven days to recover.
Of course, this referred to ordinary soul masters. On the continent, talented individuals always existed, including exceptions.
For instance, Tang San at the seven-ring level, with his top-tier Blue Silver Emperor martial soul and a hundred-thousand-year divine-bestowed seventh soul ring, wouldn't even feel the effects of the True Body's weakness. What weakness? Did it have anything to do with him?
"I'm fine. You should absorb the soul ring first. I'll keep watch."
Waving his hand, Flender pointed to the purple soul ring hovering above the small phoenix's corpse.
The weakness after using True Body? A true man like me won't care about such things.
If they were deep within the inner or core regions of the Great Star Dou Forest, Flender would have fled as far as possible.
After all, the Great Star Dou Forest housed countless powerful soul beasts, and a seven-ring Soul Sage wasn't particularly impressive.
But here, near the outer edge of the inner region, high-level soul beasts were rare. At most, there might be a few newly ten-thousand-year-old ones. Even if Flender wasn't at full strength, safety wasn't a concern.
Nodding slightly, Chu Chengzhou manifested his True Spirit Flag martial soul and approached to guide the Fire Phoenix soul ring.
Once the soul ring was drawn by the True Spirit Flag martial soul, it transformed into a purple circle, enveloping Chu Chengzhou's body.
Perhaps because the Fire Phoenix was fire-elemental, Chu Chengzhou's body radiated a dense crimson glow, enveloping him entirely.
At the same time, the vast energy contained within the soul ring, like finding an outlet, surged into Chu Chengzhou's body through the True Spirit Flag martial soul.
Among soul rings of the same age, auxiliary and healing-type soul rings were relatively easier for soul masters to absorb, while bloodthirsty evil soul beasts or rings from soul beasts with strong bloodlines were more difficult to absorb.
The violent fire attribute and the Fire Phoenix's top-tier bloodline made its soul ring one of the more difficult ones to absorb.
Chu Chengzhou felt a massive surge of heat flood into his body. Before he could begin refining it, the heat began burning his body like blazing flames.
The Fire Phoenix, capable of incinerating all things, ensured that its soul ring energy was extraordinarily violent. However, the powerful physique Chu Chengzhou had gained from diligent body training allowed him to endure the trial of absorbing a five-thousand-plus-year-old Fire Phoenix soul ring.
Of course, enduring some pain was inevitable.
After all, this Fire Phoenix soul ring was beyond what even a typical Level 40 soul master could absorb, let alone him, a mere Level 30 pseudo-Soul Elder.
But as the saying goes, "Sharp swords are forged through grinding, and plum blossoms bloom in bitter cold." Which great person hadn't undergone countless trials and hardships to become truly strong?
All suffering and trials were merely nourishment on the path to becoming stronger!
Time passed imperceptibly. Night fell, dawn broke, and then night fell again.
When the first rays of dawn dispelled the darkness, Chu Chengzhou, sitting cross-legged in the forest and refining the Fire Phoenix soul ring, experienced a sudden surge in soul power, which quickly returned to calm.
[Attribute Panel]
[Host: Chu Chengzhou]
[Soul Power: Level 33 Soul Elder]
[Martial Soul: True Spirit Flag]
[Soul Rings: Purple (1000), Purple (1108), Purple (5268)]
[First Soul Skill: Summon – Azure Tree]
[Second Soul Skill: Summon – Light Lion]
[Third Soul Skill: Summon – Fire Phoenix]
[Skills: Meditation (Black), Body Training (Black), Spirit Training (Black), Archery (Purple), Movement (Purple), Control (Purple), Defense (Purple), Forging (Purple)]
[AFK Slots: 1. Meditation (Black), 2. Archery (Purple), 3. Movement (Purple), 4. Empty]
Looking at the information displayed on the attribute panel, Chu Chengzhou nodded in satisfaction.
Ordinary Level 30 soul masters who added their third soul ring to advance typically reached the Level 31 Soul Elder.
However, the Fire Phoenix soul ring, with over five thousand two hundred years, had directly boosted Chu Chengzhou's soul power from the early Level 30 to the early Level 33 Soul Elder.
He hadn't compressed his soul power artificially. A third soul ring of over a thousand years could raise a soul master from Level 30 to 31, so advancing to Level 33 with a five-thousand-two-hundred-year-old soul ring was normal.
Staring at the third soul skill for three seconds, Chu Chengzhou learned about the Fire Phoenix summon.
Third Summon: Fire Phoenix, offensive-type summon, wielding innate soul skills: Phoenix Flames, Rebirth in Flames.
Innate Soul Skill: Phoenix Flames, the Fire Phoenix's signature ability, capable of incinerating all things.
Innate Soul Skill: Rebirth in Flames, an enhancement-type skill that boosts the power of its own flames.
The Azure Tree was a healing-type summon, and the Light Lion was an auxiliary-type summon; combat wasn't their forte.
As the main combat force among the current three summons, the Fire Phoenix summon had only one offensive-type innate soul skill, leaving Chu Chengzhou somewhat dissatisfied.
However, upon learning the effects of the innate soul skill Rebirth in Flames, Chu Chengzhou immediately became satisfied. This skill could enhance the power of Phoenix Flames.
Compared to flashy innate soul skills, Chu Chengzhou believed that as long as his Fire Phoenix summon could spew fire and its flames were powerful enough, it was sufficient.
If he were a lone wolf, having only one move wouldn't work, as it would be easy for others to find a counter.
But his summons weren't lone wolves. Once his soul power level increased, his summons could form a team with no obvious weaknesses.
For a team, unless you were the leader, having a member proficient in everything was clearly inferior to specializing in one area.
Additionally, after advancing to a three-ring Soul Elder, his AFK leveling system secretly upgraded!
Not only did an additional AFK slot appear, but the efficiency of AFKing also greatly increased.
Staring at the first three AFK slots for three seconds, Chu Chengzhou discovered that the upgrade ratio remained the same as before.
Upgrading a Purple-tier skill to Black-tier previously required 300 days of AFKing, but now only 100 days were needed, tripling the efficiency.
The Meditation skill, which originally required eight months to upgrade to Red-tier, now only needed eighty days.
The Purple-tier Archery and Movement skills, upgrading to Black-tier, now required less than two months and eighty days, respectively.
The only regret was that no external soul bone dropped?
Didn't they say that when a protagonist hunted a soul beast with disproportionately high years at Level 30, they'd get a precious external soul bone?
Why did so many protagonists get one, but not him?
A pair of flashy Phoenix Wings external soul bones became nothing but a dream...
After silently complaining with resentment, Chu Chengzhou glanced at the True Spirit Flag martial soul displayed on the attribute panel.
Staring at it for three seconds, Chu Chengzhou's face darkened, and he quickly looked away.
Perhaps God-tier martial souls shouldn't exist in the world. Previously, at the two-ring level, the top-tier True Spirit Flag martial soul required 5,000 days of AFKing to evolve further.
Over a decade was too long for Chu Chengzhou to wait, so he temporarily abandoned the idea of upgrading his martial soul through AFKing.
Unexpectedly, after advancing to a three-ring Soul Elder and the AFK system upgrading, upgrading his martial soul still required 2,500 days of AFKing.
Nearly seven years, though halved compared to before, Chu Chengzhou felt it was still too long to wait.
Fortunately, the top-tier True Spirit Flag martial soul was sufficient for now. Among his peers, only Qian Renxue could surpass him in this aspect, so his pursuit of a God-tier martial soul wasn't overly urgent.
Subsequently, without hesitation, Chu Chengzhou transferred the third soul ring into the fourth AFK slot.
Currently, the AFK system's efficiency for soul rings was an increase of 40 years per day. With the third soul ring at 5,268 years, it would take less than four months for his third summon, the Fire Phoenix, to reach ten thousand years.
A ten-thousand-year Fire Phoenix would undoubtedly rank among the top five-ring Soul Kings.
Moreover, the most important thing was that the Fire Phoenix summon wasn't just his loyal fighter but also a flashy mount!
"Kid, how does it feel?"
Suddenly, Flender's voice rang out.
"Great, very powerful!"
Chu Chengzhou waved his hand, and the True Spirit Flag martial soul appeared in front of him.
On the flag's surface, which previously bore images of a tree and a lion, a phoenix pattern now appeared.
Shaking the large flag, his third soul ring lit up, and amidst a surge of soul power, a slender, fiery-red-feathered Fire Phoenix summon with elegant, noble posture materialized in the air, shimmering under the morning light.
"Tsk~, how does your summoned Fire Phoenix compare to the earlier small phoenix?"
Examining the Fire Phoenix summon, Flender clicked his tongue and asked Chu Chengzhou.
"In terms of strength, they're probably similar. Plus, my summon is a soul skill construct—it's fearless."
Chu Chengzhou revealed the strongest trait of his summon.
Yes, in his view, the greatest advantage of his summons over soul beasts of the same age was their fearlessness.
Summons were products born from his soul power combined with soul skills. If destroyed, he could simply summon another.
It just couldn't be resummoned instantly after being destroyed.
Similar to Tang Hao's explosive soul rings, destroying a summon caused damage to the soul ring, requiring time to recover.
However, there were differences. If an unrecovered soul ring was destroyed again, there was a risk of permanent damage. But before the soul ring fully recovered, Chu Chengzhou couldn't summon again, so there was no risk of permanent damage.
Hundred-thousand-year soul beasts were undoubtedly terrifying, and eight or nine of them were even more so. But the continent had no shortage of capable individuals, so they weren't truly invincible.
However, eight or nine fearless hundred-thousand-year soul beasts would be a true calamity. Even Qian Daoliu, known as 'Invincible in the Sky,' would surely have a headache, right?
Who knows, could eight or nine fearless million-year soul beasts slay gods?
If facing a newly ascended deity, it should be possible, right?
After all, in the original story, Tang San, who hadn't yet become a god, could severely wound Qian Renxue, who had inherited the Angel God position. There's no reason why million-year summons couldn't surpass Tang San before he became a god.
Subsequently, the two didn't linger in the Great Star Dou Forest. Chu Chengzhou invited Flender onto his new mount to return to Shrek Academy.
The Fire Phoenix had a wingspan of five feet, so carrying two people on its back was no problem.
With soul cultivation enhancing balance far beyond ordinary humans, there was no worry of falling off.
Moreover, the Fire Phoenix mount wasn't just flashy but also fast, rivaling Flender, a flying-type Soul Sage.
The summon's body was composed of soul power, not flesh and blood. As long as Chu Chengzhou's soul power kept up, it didn't need rest and could maintain its fastest flight speed continuously.
Flender, however, wasn't a machine. Flying for too long would tire him, and he couldn't maintain maximum speed indefinitely.
In the afternoon, Shrek Academy.
"CHIRP!"
Suddenly, a loud phoenix cry echoed in the distant sky above Shrek Academy.
"SWISH—"
A figure, not particularly tall but very imposing, appeared atop one of the academy's wooden cabins.
"This phoenix has guts? Daring to come to Shrek and cause trouble?"
Looking at the elegant, fiery-red figure in the distance, Zhao Wuji was utterly astonished.
Though Shrek Academy was located in the southwestern part of the Barak Kingdom, not far from the Great Star Dou Forest, it was still hundreds of miles away. How could a soul beast possibly wander here?
"Vigorous Vajra Bear, possess!"
Without hesitation, Zhao Wuji activated his martial soul, preparing to deal a heavy blow to this reckless red bird.
A wild soul beast appearing in the human world was undoubtedly a significant hazard. For instance, a distant Fire Phoenix, if displeased, could unleash flames on a village, causing heavy casualties.
As the Fire Phoenix flew closer, Zhao Wuji pondered how to strike it down with one mighty blow.
"Old Zhao, what are you planning to do?"
Suddenly, a head popped out from the Fire Phoenix's back in the sky, staring strangely at the restless Zhao Wuji below.
"Huh, Flender?"
Seeing the familiar shoe-shaped face, Zhao Wuji was astonished.
They said "soul beast siege," but this was it?
Soon, the Fire Phoenix landed in the Shrek Academy's courtyard.
"Is this Fire Phoenix your summon?"
Carefully examining the Fire Phoenix, Zhao Wuji asked Chu Chengzhou with a hint of envy.
"This is a phoenix!"
How prestigious would it be to ride it around and show off to friends and family?
Seeing their envious gazes, vanity would skyrocket, right?
"Teacher Zhao, isn't it cool? Want me to let Little Red take you for a spin around Suotuo City?"
Chu Chengzhou joked.
Little Red was the name Chu Chengzhou gave the Fire Phoenix summon. Light Lion was Little Bai (White), and the Sky Azure Tree was Little Qing (Azure)—quite fitting.
Hearing this, Zhao Wuji rolled his eyes and replied, "Forget it~!"
Though tempting, Zhao Wuji wasn't the type to indulge in vanity. Was he looking down on the Immovable Bright King?
Of course, the most important reason was that this phoenix wasn't his.
Cool as it was, riding someone else's mount to show off wasn't satisfying.
At this moment, the door of a nearby wooden dormitory opened.
"Brother, you're back?"
Seeing Chu Chengzhou return from his soul-hunting trip in the Great Star Dou Forest, Xiao Wu, checking the commotion outside, ran over joyfully.
"Mm, did you miss me?"
Ruffling Xiao Wu's rabbit ears, Chu Chengzhou smiled.
Thinking about it, since meeting Xiao Wu, they hadn't been apart for so long—even this trip to the Great Star Dou Forest only took eight or nine days.
"Hmph~, I didn't miss you at all! Is this phoenix your new summon?"
Brushing off Chu Chengzhou's mischievous hand from her head, Xiao Wu's gaze was captivated by the noble, elegant posture of the Fire Phoenix.
The phoenix was the King of Birds, a top-tier avian soul beast, and even in the Great Star Dou Forest, it was rarely seen!
"What do you think? Want me to take you for a ride?"
Proudly lifting his head, Chu Chengzhou grinned.
Buying a Lamborghini and not having a girl in the passenger seat? What a waste!
"Mm, hurry up and take me flying!"
Nodding enthusiastically like a pecking chicken, Xiao Wu leapt onto the Fire Phoenix.
"Hold tight! Little Red, take off!"
"CHIRP—!"
The phoenix spread its wings, carrying Chu Chengzhou, who was picking up girls, and Xiao Wu, who was being picked up, soaring into the clouds.
Flender: "…"
Zhao Wuji: "…"
These youngsters today, don't they know better than to flaunt romance in front of middle-aged single men nearing their destined lifespan?
"Flender, you're not getting any younger. It's time to consider settling down."
Zhao Wuji turned to Flender and remarked.
"Hmph~, shallow!"
Snorting, Flender left without looking back.
In my heart, I only love Erlong. Other women? Just painted skulls and bones!
"Tsk~, simps die alone!"
Watching Flender's retreating figure, Zhao Wuji cursed inwardly.
We've been brothers for decades. Who doesn't know you're a big-time simp?
Simp, simp, in the end, you'll have nothing!
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