As the night passed, Tian Lin opened his eyes to greet the morning sunlight. He stretched out his left hand, and the Holy Spirit Pearl floated quietly above his palm, encircled by a platinum-colored halo rotating around it.
At first glance, it looked no different from a ten-year soul ring. But who could have imagined that this was an unprecedented million-year soul ring on the continent?
"Xiao Tian, your soul power stabilized completely in just one night. Your meditation technique is truly amazing," Skyream Ice Silkworm said.
"Of course it is. This is the meditation technique from the Nuwa clan. Oh, right, you probably don't know who Goddess Nuwa is, do you? Let me tell you, she's an incredibly powerful deity," Tian Lin said with a smile.
Skyream Ice Silkworm didn't reply. Not only did it know who Nuwa was, but it had even met one of her descendants. However, it couldn't reveal this now. To avoid accidentally slipping up, it quickly changed the subject. "By the way, Xiao Tian, what abilities did my soul ring and soul bone give you?"
Tian Lin was speechless. "Brother Skyream, you don't know what abilities your own soul ring and soul bone provided me?"
"Of course not! I can guess the soul bone's abilities, but the soul ring's abilities depend on the person's martial soul. How could I predict that? Don't keep me in suspense. Just tell me already."
"Alright. Your million-year cultivation is indeed remarkable. Both your soul ring and your soul bone provided me with four skills each, and they're all incredibly useful," Tian Lin said, no longer teasing.
"First, the million-year skull soul bone gave me four abilities: Soul Reading, Mind Control, Mental Interference Domain, and Future Sight.
"Soul Reading is even more domineering than mind reading. While mind reading lets you know what your opponent is thinking, Soul Reading allows you to access their entire life's memories. You can even alter their memories. However, this skill can only be used when the opponent's mental state is weak; otherwise, their resistance lowers the success rate.
"Mind Control, as the name suggests, is a skill that controls the opponent. Anyone hit by this will become my puppet for a short time. The Mental Interference Domain is a large-scale support skill. Within this domain, opponents will suffer mental instability, causing their attacks to lose accuracy.
"The last one, Future Sight, is arguably the most terrifying. It has two uses. The first is as its name implies: predicting future events and preparing for them in advance. The second use is setting attacks in the future. For example, I can set my magic sword's first skill to activate at a specific location three days from now. When the time comes, the attack will occur automatically. Using both functions together maximizes its power. However, this skill has a weakness—it cannot be used consecutively. After one use, it requires a long cooldown, depending on the scope of the prediction."
After hearing this, Skyream Ice Silkworm stared at Tian Lin, stunned. All four abilities were support-oriented, much like itself, but these abilities were overwhelmingly powerful.
"Haha, as expected of my million-year soul bone. It's amazing!" Tian Meng Ice Silkworm said proudly. Excited, it continued, "Don't stop there. Tell me, what abilities did my soul ring give you?"
Tian Lin nodded. "The soul ring unlocked my celestial arts. Although it's not the Five Elemental Immortal Arts, it unlocked something even more precious due to your mental attributes: the Yin-Yang Immortal Arts. Physical attributes correspond to the Five Elements, while mental attributes are divided into Yin and Yang. Brother Skyream, since your mental power is Yang, I've unlocked the Yang Immortal Arts.
"The first is Holy Breath Healing, a large-scale healing soul skill. Its healing ability surpasses even that of Nine Heart Begonia. At this rate, Senior Sister Ye Lingling might as well retire.
"The second is Five-Elemental Purification, a skill that expels evil energy and suppresses evil soul masters.
"The third is Breath of Rebirth, which allows resurrection. It can revive someone who has recently died, and the only price is my soul power.
"The fourth isn't an immortal art but a summoning technique: Summon Martial God. Legend has it that Goddess Nuwa once subdued a Martial God and sealed its power within the Holy Spirit Pearl. This skill temporarily unseals that power using your soul ring. The Martial God's strength scales with mine. At my current level, I can summon a Martial God with power at least one major rank higher than me, around the Soul Emperor level. As I grow stronger, so will the Martial God's strength."
Once again, Skyream Ice Silkworm was speechless. Four more overpowered skills! It could accept the first two, but what was with that resurrection skill? That defied the world's natural laws!
Even gods had to pay a tremendous price to resurrect someone. But Tian Lin's skill only required his soul power as the cost.
And that Martial God summoning skill—it practically doubled Tian Lin's combat power in an instant.
Now, Skyream Ice Silkworm fully believed the descendant of Nuwa. The power of Goddess Nuwa must exceed that of a God King by countless times. Even a single artifact she left behind surpassed this world's so-called super divine artifacts.
"So the key to unlocking the Five Elemental Immortal Arts is the Holy Spirit Pearl. How could I have forgotten? Among the Three Sovereigns of Immortal Sword, Goddess Nuwa's mastery of magic was undoubtedly the strongest," Tian Lin thought, blaming himself for his oversight. Now that he had found the method to unlock celestial arts, Tang San's Buddha Fury Tang Lotus seemed far less significant.
After all, the truly important things were the ordinary hidden weapons. As long as there was money and materials, a group of blacksmiths could mass-produce them. However, talismans could only be created by Tian Lin himself. He couldn't devote all his time to this. Once he unlocked more Five Elemental Immortal Arts, he would focus only on crafting high-level talismans.
"Alright, Brother Skyream, now you understand my soul skills. Let's leave the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. Thanks to your help, I've broken through level 50. I'll find a fifth soul ring for my magic sword here in Sunset Forest. What do you think my limit is now? My Holy Spirit Domain, while still powerful, doesn't seem as overwhelming as before!" Tian Lin asked.
Skyream Ice Silkworm was speechless. "Of course! That was because Nuwa's descendant was boosting your power. Now it's just back to normal. Xiao Tian, even though your Holy Spirit Domain isn't as dominant as before, don't forget—you absorbed my million-year skull. Even though 90% of its power was used to support the million-year soul ring, the remaining 10% is enough to let you absorb high-level soul rings without the risk of your body exploding."
"In my opinion, you can easily absorb soul rings from 40,000 to 60,000-year-old beasts now. No problem at all!"
After their discussion, Tian Lin left the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, satisfied. He didn't need anyone's help now. Ordinary ten-thousand-year soul beasts were no match for him, and there weren't any hundred-thousand-year beasts in Sunset Forest. Here, he could roam freely.
...
At the same time, in Suoto City, the Shrek Academy staff and the seven monsters had packed their belongings and were preparing to leave.
Qin Ming had arrived not just to see his teachers but to guide Flender toward a new path. Since Shrek Academy couldn't participate in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Tournament, Qin Ming suggested they join another academy. Otherwise, the young monsters would lose this valuable opportunity for growth.
However, this time, Qin Ming didn't invite them to join Heaven Dou Royal Academy. Even if they entered, they would only serve as a secondary team and be directly promoted to the finals. This would defeat the tournament's purpose: to help young soul masters grow through battle.
Flender agreed. The chance to skip straight to the finals wasn't appealing at all.
Following Qin Ming's suggestion, Flender decided to take the young monsters to Heaven Dou City and try their luck at finding an academy willing to accept them.