Chapter 16: Leaving the Far North, Meeting Zhang Lexuan by Chance.
During the fusion process, Lin Qinghan's sense of time gradually weakened. After an unknown amount of time, the fusion was finally complete.
At this point, Lin Qinghan's appearance had slightly changed. His facial features, which had previously been a bit immature, had grown more refined, and his temperament was now far beyond that of his peers. Even at his young age, he could be considered a handsome young man.
Lin Qinghan slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing that caught his attention was the cave environment, which had become lush with vegetation.
Plant seeds that had been buried in the cave for who knows how long had grown, nourished by the living power leaking from Lin Qinghan.
The body of the Ice Emperor, which had been nearby, was gone, leaving only a turquoise crystal and a human trunk bone.
It was the 400,000-year-old soul bone—the Ice Emperor Scorpion trunk bone.
"It seems the fusion took longer than expected."
Lin Qinghan didn't rush to absorb the Ice Emperor soul bone. Instead, he opened his spiritual stand to check his situation.
First, he noticed that his soul power had increased significantly, though it now felt quieter, indicating he had reached the bottleneck of level 40.
In addition to the original spiritual attributes, the soul power now contained an extreme ice attribute.
Lin Qinghan released the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion Martial Soul, and its characteristics immediately appeared on his body. A bright red soul ring with four golden lines appeared around him.
Clearly, the Ice Emperor soul ring had officially evolved from nearly 400,000 years to 400,000 years during the fusion process.
Although the difference was only a few decades, it made a substantial difference in quality and strength.
"Qinghan, come to the sea of spirit."
Just as Lin Qinghan was about to test his new martial soul, the Ice Emperor called out to him.
With a thought, Lin Qinghan's consciousness entered the sea of spirit.
At this point, the sea of spirit had changed slightly. On the other side of the nine golden light balls left by the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm, there were now two additional green light balls.
"Your fusion with me was very successful. Your spiritual sea is quite strange. It's so tolerant that it can even accommodate non-spiritual forces."
The Ice Emperor appeared next to Lin Qinghan's consciousness, looking a little tired.
"I've retained more power than planned. This way, your spiritual power won't be slowed down before level 70 by the extreme attribute."
"The soul bone outside is the one left by my soul beast. I purposely turned it into a trunk bone. However, your body is currently a bit saturated. Try absorbing it after you obtain your fourth soul ring."
The Ice Emperor looked exhausted. After giving the instructions, he didn't wait for Lin Qinghan to ask any more questions and floated to the side of the Sun of Life. There, he extracted some power from the emerald light ball, formed a small ice crystal palace, and entered it.
The spiritual sea fell silent again. Lin Qinghan tried calling the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm but received no response.
"It seems I'll have to find my way out of the Far North on my own."
Lin Qinghan felt a bit helpless. The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm had fallen asleep, and now there was no one to guide him.
Returning to his body, Lin Qinghan stored the Ice Emperor Soul Bone and walked out of the cave.
The outside world was still covered in snow, just as it had been before. The biting cold wind blew against Lin Qinghan, but with the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion Martial Soul now fused with him, he felt no cold despite wearing only thin clothes.
Lin Qinghan moved step by step in the direction of the wind. He used his spiritual projection, and his figure gradually dissipated into the air, leaving no footprints behind.
Under normal circumstances, the wind in the Far North blows from the center outward. Since he had come here against the wind, Lin Qinghan knew that as long as he moved forward with the wind, he could leave the Far North without trouble.
He quickly moved out of the core transition zone and reached the outskirts of the Far North, traveling several times faster than when he had entered.
Once he noticed that the wind had slowed considerably, Lin Qinghan confidently flew up and quickly left the Far North.
He did not stop at the border town this time as he had before. Instead, he chose to leave directly.
Lin Qinghan had now reached the bottleneck of level 40. Though his soul power continued to grow, the rate of growth had slowed down considerably.
This was uncomfortable for Lin Qinghan, who had been used to rapid growth. He decided to head directly to the Xingdou Great Forest to hunt for soul rings.
---
Five Days Later: Xingdou Great Forest
Lin Qinghan had been wandering the Xingdou Great Forest for a while but had not yet found a suitable soul ring.
During this time, he had been fully familiarizing himself with the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion Martial Soul, learning how to use it in conjunction with his Bioelectric Martial Soul and Brain Wave Martial Soul.
He had also begun to understand the two skills granted by the Ice Emperor Soul Ring.
These skills were not much different from the original abilities. The soul ring skills were:
Ice Emperor's Turtle: This skill could form an ice crystal armor around both arms, enhancing strength and providing a defensive effect.
Ice Emperor's Wrath: A straightforward, ice attribute attack that could be used alone or in a group.
Lin Qinghan was now looking for a soul ring around 50,000 years old, which he was capable of hunting. However, he was alone, and he didn't dare venture into the mixed areas of the Xingdou Great Forest, where dangerous soul beasts over 60,000 years old could be attracted.
The cost of caution was that most of the soul beasts he encountered were either incompatible with his attributes or too young.
Lin Qinghan had never experienced such a time-consuming task before. He had spent the fusion process with the Ice Emperor focused on cultivation, so his sense of time had weakened.
The initial excitement of entering the deep forest alone had worn off, and now Lin Qinghan found himself questioning the purpose of his hunt for soul beasts.
It was late at night again. Lin Qinghan found a relatively flat open area and quickly set up a tent.
He planned to spend the night here.
To conserve energy, Lin Qinghan reduced the accuracy and range of his spiritual stand and began to rest.
---
Suddenly, there was a burst of explosions and the roar of soul beasts.
Lin Qinghan immediately exited his meditation state and expanded his spiritual stand to detect the source of the noise.
"A 100,000-year-old soul beast, and people from Shrek Academy? How did I run into them this time?"
The scene where the sound originated was quickly fed back to Lin Qinghan's mind.
As expected, a battle was taking place. A giant, blood-colored wolf-like soul beast was fighting a young female soul master surrounded by a huge crescent moon.
Although both sides exuded powerful auras, careful observation revealed that both were strong on the outside but weak on the inside, and it was clear that the soul beast was in worse shape. The battle was nearing its end.
The female soul master was very fierce. Despite only having seven soul rings, she had managed to force a 100,000-year-old soul beast into a desperate situation.
"A 100,000-year-old soul beast, Shrek Academy, Moon Martial Soul... That must be Zhang Lexuan. What a coincidence!"
Lin Qinghan observed that the blood-colored wolf soul beast was on its last legs, but it was trying to maintain a facade of strength. Zhang Lexuan, however, didn't seem to notice this.
"That soul beast no longer poses a threat to her. Should I step in and help?"
As Lin Qinghan contemplated whether to get involved, Zhang Lexuan seemed to have noticed something and quickly brought the battle toward his locatio.
(End of this chapter)