Under normal circumstances, an ordinary soul master would take anywhere from half an hour to several hours to fuse a soul ring.
The stronger the soul master’s physical fitness, the more their meridians can withstand the majestic energy within the soul ring, shortening the fusion time.
The Silver-Scaled White Whale proactively becoming Xu Zihuang’s soul ring equated to a perfect fusion, without a single drop of energy spilling over.
The most direct result was that Xu Zihuang didn’t suffer any pain; instead, he felt exceptionally comfortable.
Additionally, he didn’t even need to carefully comprehend the soul skill granted by this ring.
Everything seemed deeply etched into his mind, flowing naturally and perfectly.
It was precisely because he knew the effects of his first soul skill that Xu Zihuang was almost certain of the Silver-Scaled White Whale’s identity as an Auspicious Beast.
Moreover, when he touched foreheads with the whale earlier, not only did his spiritual power skyrocket, but he also seemed to gain a special ability.
Given the current situation, Xu Zihuang suppressed the urge to enter a meditative state to thoroughly examine it.
He would have plenty of time once the area was secure; there was no need to rush.
In the battlefield a few hundred meters away from the warship, the five Evil Orcas had been completely suppressed by Wang Xiao’s team.
Aside from the one exceeding twenty thousand years of cultivation still struggling furiously, the other four were floating weakly on the surface.
One of them, which had just reached the ten-thousand-year mark, had been killed under the siege of the Imperial Dragon soldiers.
A profound black soul ring condensed over its massive corpse.
The fierce, terrifying aura unique to the Evil Orca still faintly permeated the air, making even Xu Zihuang’s heart palpitate.
As expected of an oceanic overlord.
Even though this was a soul ring barely reaching ten thousand years, the vast majority of Soul Kings likely couldn’t withstand absorbing it.
While the age of a soul ring is important, the species of the soul beast it comes from matters just as much.
Through the powerful vision of his Golden Eyes, Xu Zihuang clearly saw the full appearance of the Evil Orcas.
Compared to the Silver-Scaled White Whale, these were true behemoths.
The one with around a thousand years of cultivation was nearly twice the size of the Silver-Scaled White Whale.
Its body was extremely thick, lacking any streamlined beauty, but it exuded a sense of pure, raw power.
Entirely grayish-black, its head was abnormally large.
When it opened its mouth, it revealed terrifying, sword-like teeth.
The two Evil Orcas above the ten-thousand-year level were over twenty meters long.
This was another reason Wang Xiao couldn’t let them get near the warship.
With such massive bodies, even without using soul skills, their sheer physical strength would be enough to capsize the ship.
Large amounts of seawater were dyed red with Evil Orca blood.
Evil Orcas are inherently bloodthirsty.
The smell of blood seemed to trigger the primal cruelty of the leading Evil Orca.
It opened its massive jaws and actually began tearing into the corpse of its fallen mate—the ten-thousand-year Evil Orca—to replenish its own exhaustion.
Its giant dark-red eyes filled with a crazed frenzy.
“Buzz, buzz, buzz—”
As its massive body thrashed, the sea’s surface began to tremble.
Countless dark red water blades shot into the sky like a continuous downpour, causing the soul barriers of the Imperial Dragon soldiers to ripple violently.
The massive impact and pressure from these dark red water blades made it impossible for the crew to spare any focus on controlling their flying soul tools.
Immediately after, a wave of rippling red light instantly enveloped all the Imperial Dragon soldiers in the air.
Only Wang Xiao, possessing the highest cultivation, managed to escape the area of effect in time.
This was the Evil Orca’s other powerful innate soul skill: Evil Orca Demonic Stun .
The greatest characteristic of this skill is that physical defense is entirely useless.
Once flesh touches the red ripples it generates, regardless of how strong the target is, they are forced into a stun for one second.
Only those with exceptionally powerful spiritual power can shorten the stun duration.
Energy barriers can resist it, but any soul skill energy that touches it causes the user’s soul power to drain three times faster while the skill is active.
If it were a hundred-thousand-year Evil Orca, the forced stun could last up to three seconds.
It is a crowd-control skill—an extremely overbearing one.
The forced stun ability was something even a top-tier Soul Douluo like Hai Xiao would deeply fear.
Even with an energy barrier, once touched by the Demonic Stun, one’s soul power would plummet rapidly.
Facing such a skill puts the defender in a dilemma: defending drains your energy, but not defending gets you instantly stunned.
The Evil Orca’s status as one of the three supreme ocean overlords was heavily tied to this broken innate soul skill.
Unable to sustain their soul barriers against the energy impact of the Demonic Stun any longer, the barriers shattered with a loud boom, and everyone fell into a stunned state.
Following this, another barrage of dark red water blades shot toward the stunned soldiers.
“It seems this Evil Orca is making its final desperate attack.”
Monitoring the situation constantly, Yao Yang’s seven soul rings began to pulse rapidly.
He prepared to forcefully interrupt the Evil Orca’s skill.
But at that moment, Xu Zihuang suddenly stepped forward to the edge of the deck.
His brilliant golden eyes gazed indifferently ahead, and the single purple soul ring around him bloomed with a luxurious halo.
“First Soul Skill, White Whale’s Chant.”
The melodious whale song from earlier echoed once more.
A phantom of the Silver-Scaled White Whale appeared out of thin air behind Xu Zihuang, happily swimming around him.
His mid-length black hair blew without any wind, and his cloak fluttered.
Bizarre spiritual fluctuations gave Xu Zihuang an ethereal, otherworldly presence.
The stunned soldiers felt their spirits jolt, instantly snapping back to their senses.
Seeing the dark red water blades right before their eyes, they hurriedly gathered their soul power and redeployed their soul barriers to protect themselves.
Wang Xiao, who was flapping his black wings and preparing to use a soul skill to shield his men, froze momentarily.
He then decisively changed direction and dive-bombed the Evil Orca.
His speed was visibly much faster than before.
Activating his Fourth Soul Skill again, his tiger claws plunged deep into the Evil Orca’s massive head, tearing the grayish-black skin apart as cyan-black wind blades shredded its insides.
Already heavily injured, the massive Evil Orca’s struggles gradually weakened.
“Lin Long!” Wang Xiao shouted deeply.
A tall, thin middle-aged man in mid-air, about the same age as Wang Xiao, instantly understood.
Pulling a soul spear from his soul tool, he plunged it heavily into the Evil Orca’s blowhole, dealing the finishing blow.
Lin Long had luckily broken through to rank seventy not long ago.
The group had dragged the fight out this long specifically to help him acquire this precious Evil Orca soul ring.
Standing on the Evil Orca’s corpse, Wang Xiao breathed a sigh of relief.
But feeling the dense darkness and wind elements swirling around his wings, he couldn’t help but look at Xu Zihuang on the deck.
“Is this the Young Master’s First Soul Skill?!”
Even with his vast experience, he found it hard to believe.
Xu Zihuang’s soul skill reminded him of a powerful sect on the Douluo Continent with tens of thousands of years of heritage: the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, renowned as the number one auxiliary tool martial soul sect in the world.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School has a core skill: Attribute Amplification.
However, their amplification merely boosts a certain attribute to increase the power of soul skills.
Xu Zihuang’s skill, on the other hand, felt more like a sublimation of the martial soul’s origin, elevating the wind and darkness attributes of his Overlord Xiao martial soul to an entirely new level.
One was a quantitative change, the other a qualitative change.
The difference between the two was self-evident.
Even though the degree of Xu Zihuang’s amplification couldn’t match the raw numbers of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School.
Wang Xiao wasn’t the only one thinking this; Yao Yang, standing next to Xu Zihuang, shared the exact same thought.
It was no exaggeration to say that Xu Zihuang’s soul skill instantly turned the tide of the battle.
Though, of course, even without his intervention, Wang Xiao and Yao Yang had the strength to handle the situation.
Xu Zihuang retracted his martial soul and smiled, explaining to everyone: “This is my First Soul Skill, White Whale’s Chant.
It’s a domain-type soul skill.
Centered on me, the radius is nearly a hundred meters.
It can dispel all negative status effects while simultaneously boosting the spiritual power and martial soul attributes of allies by ten percent.”
No more needed to be said.
The classification “domain-type soul skill” alone proved its sheer power.
Although the boost wasn’t huge, the soul power consumption was correspondingly low.
Once his cultivation increased, the cost of this skill would be negligible.
Most importantly, the amplification effect was the same regardless of the target’s cultivation level, and Xu Zihuang’s soul power consumption wouldn’t increase.
In other words, even though his current soul power was only rank twenty, it was fully capable of supporting Titled Douluo-level soul masters.
This was the broken nature of domain-type soul skills.
This soul skill had no crowd control or attack power, but it destined him to become the core of any team he joined.