Soul Hunting Forest.
An old man and a young boy walked side by side through the dense greenery. To an onlooker, they looked just like a grandfather taking his grandson out for a peaceful stroll in nature—harmonious and affectionate.
"Chang'an," said Meng Shenji as they moved forward. With a casual wave of his hand, his soul power surged, parting the thick vines and thorns ahead to clear a path. "You've studied at the academy for over half a year now. What are your own thoughts on your second soul ring?"
"Grandpa Meng," Li Chang'an answered respectfully, "my Martial Soul may possess poisonous traits and some characteristics of a beast-type soul, but at its core, it's still mainly an instrument-type Martial Soul."
"So I think it's best to strengthen the 'sword' aspect of my abilities. Please help me find a soul ring that can enhance sharpness and armor-piercing effects. It doesn't matter if it has no poison."
Over the past half-year at the academy, Li Chang'an had frequently visited the three Education Committee members to learn from them. Thus, they already knew his Martial Soul had two distinct forms.
At first, he had planned to hide this fact. But after reading extensively in the academy library, he discovered that Martial Souls with dual forms weren't as rare as he had imagined. Apart from the Snake Spear Douluo from the original canon, the Tiandou Empire's historical records also mentioned a few Soul Masters with similar traits.
So his Martial Soul, which possessed both beast and instrument forms, wasn't especially extraordinary—and hiding it served little purpose. His true secret, his greatest "cheat," was that his soul beast clone could share power with him. That was the one thing he needed to guard closely. Everything else didn't matter much.
After thinking it through, Li Chang'an decided it was best to specialize in the sword form of his Martial Soul. Instead of dividing his efforts between two forms, he would focus entirely on one!If he tried to balance both the instrument and beast characteristics, he might end up achieving mediocrity in both.
Besides, his snake form's main advantage lay in its poison attacks, and that aspect could be enhanced through feedback from his soul beast clone. But the sword form's attributes—sharpness and cutting power—could not be improved that way.
Therefore, for future soul rings, he decided to focus entirely on the path of the ultimate sword: increasing speed, sharpness, and penetration—to fully unleash the sword's potential.
In martial arts, there is an old saying: "Speed is invincible."When your sword is fast enough and sharp enough, no enemy can withstand a single strike.
Abandon unnecessary abilities, specialize in one path—And the power you unleash will be truly earth-shattering.Besides, with his snake form, he could still adapt to situations where his sword form might be countered.
After listening to Li Chang'an's reasoning, Meng Shenji stroked his long beard and nodded approvingly. He had no objections—this was indeed a wise choice. What remained was to find a suitable soul beast.
Since this was a man-made Soul Hunting Forest designed for raising and containing soul beasts, the distribution of the beasts was well-documented. Such detailed records, however, weren't available to the public. Only high-ranking officials or those with special access—like Meng Shenji—could obtain maps showing the specific habitats of different soul beasts.
He pulled out such a map, studied it for a while, then determined their direction. Leading Li Chang'an, he advanced swiftly through the woods.
After some time, a soul beast appeared before them.
It was a giant mantis, its entire body gleaming gold as if cast from metal. Its carapace reflected dazzling light beneath the sun.
"Chang'an, do you recognize this soul beast?" Meng Shenji turned to him with a smile.
"Yes," Li Chang'an replied, recalling what he had studied. "That's a Goldensteel Mantis. It's the best choice for sword- or blade-type Martial Souls. The soul rings it produces usually grant abilities that enhance sharpness and cutting power."
"Correct," Meng Shenji said, nodding with a grin. "This region is the Goldensteel Mantis's natural habitat. The one in front of us is around a hundred years old—too weak. Let's go deeper and find one of the right age."
Li Chang'an nodded obediently and followed.
When it came to choosing soul rings, there was no strict rule that instrument-type Martial Souls had to absorb rings from plant-type beasts. What mattered most was compatibility with the Martial Soul's inherent traits.
And what are those traits?Take the Goldensteel Mantis, for example—its metallic shell and blade-like forearms clearly showed that its traits aligned with metal and sharpness, making it ideal for sword- and blade-type Martial Souls.
In the original story, Tang San's Martial Soul was Blue Silver Grass, which had strong vitality—a perfect basis for auxiliary or restorative development. If he had absorbed soul rings from powerful plant-type beasts, he could have greatly enhanced the Blue Silver Grass's natural potential, maybe even triggering the awakening of his Blue Silver Emperor bloodline earlier.
Instead, his first soul ring came from the completely unrelated Mandala Snake, giving him a useless binding skill with a bit of poison. His Martial Soul's plant nature didn't gain any enhancement; instead, it was contaminated by a beast-type soul ring.
If not for his later awakening aided by the Blue Silver King and countless Blue Silver Grass plants, his Martial Soul would have been ruined beyond repair.
As mentioned before, the essence of a Soul Master is that of a predator—absorbing soul rings is an act of plunder, seizing a soul beast's natural gifts to evolve one's own Martial Soul. The closer a soul beast's nature matches the Martial Soul's traits, the greater the benefits from fusion.
This, in truth, is the core principle behind Martial Soul evolution.
Yet Tang San in the original work went against that logic completely. What can one even say? No wonder Yu Xiaogang got criticized so much—his so-called theories were full of holes and misled countless students.
He only got lucky because his disciple happened to be the protagonist, Tang San. Anyone else would have been ruined by such terrible guidance.
"That one looks about right," Meng Shenji said at last, pointing to a Goldensteel Mantis over two meters tall not far away.
As his words fell, his body suddenly turned hazy. He transformed into a shadowy black figure, dense mist rising beneath his feet. Two yellow, three purple, and three black soul rings circled around him—eight in total.
Seeing this, Li Chang'an immediately understood why, at his age, Meng Shenji had still not advanced beyond Soul Douluo. His fifth soul ring was only a thousand-year ring, not a ten-thousand-year one. That single difference had weakened his foundation and doomed his chance of ever becoming a Title Douluo.
This clearly illustrated just how crucial soul rings were to a Soul Master's growth.
A single soul ring—one single step of difference—could determine a lifetime's ceiling.
As for why Meng Shenji's fifth ring wasn't ten-thousand-year, Li Chang'an didn't know. Perhaps there had been some particular reason. After all, absorbing a ten-thousand-year soul ring was extremely dangerous, even for a Soul King. It required withstanding the violent shock of the soul beast's spirit, and one mistake could lead to death.
That's why, in this world, Tang San absorbing a ten-thousand-year ring as early as his fourth ring would seem utterly absurd to the locals.
So few bookmarks... Dear readers, please don't just "stockpile" this book!During a new novel's launch, that'll kill it for sure!
(End of Chapter)
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