Pain.
That was the first thing Longyu understood.
Not pressure.
Not heat.
Pain.
The energy of the Soul Ring entered his body like a current far too large trying to force its way through channels far too small.
“GH…!”
Longyu gritted his teeth.
The yellow ring floated around his body as streams of energy surged through his meridians.
For the past three days, he had measured his physical endurance.
He had recorded his recovery.
He had studied his meridians.
He had compared absorption cases.
He had classified the risk.
Low.
Moderate.
High.
Extreme.
He had even argued about how absurd it was to imagine that there was some perfect boundary between a five-hundred-and-ninety-nine-year Soul Ring and a six-hundred-year one.
All of that had been very interesting on paper.
Now it felt as though someone were trying to fill his veins with fire.
Longyu quickly reached a conclusion.
Theory hurt considerably less.
“Pulse accelerating,” Mu Qinghe said.
He sat only a few meters away from Longyu.
His Jade Spirit Lotus floated before him, releasing a gentle green light.
He was not healing him.
Not yet.
Interfering with the absorption of a Soul Ring could be dangerous unless it was absolutely necessary.
For now, he watched.
Qianjun remained to Longyu’s right.
Jiangmo stood to his left.
Both appeared calm.
But neither took their eyes off him.
Renxue, Jin Yue, Luoyue, and Lingyu stood farther back.
Lingyu had stopped watching the Soul Ring.
She was watching Longyu.
“His circulation is accelerating.”
Mu Qinghe nodded.
“That’s normal.”
Lingyu frowned.
She did not look convinced.
Longyu heard none of their conversation.
All of his attention was focused inside his body.
The energy continued pouring in.
Longyu tried to do exactly what he had practiced.
Control his breathing.
Keep his circulation stable.
Do not allow the pain to disrupt the flow of Soul Power.
It worked.
For approximately ten seconds.
Then something different arrived.
A dark current entered alongside the Soul Ring’s energy.
Longyu felt it immediately.
His own Soul Power trembled.
The circulation he had managed to stabilize fell into disorder once again.
Longyu’s eyes opened slightly.
The interference.
The same property they had observed in the Ruinclaw Dragon Lizard’s claws.
It had not disappeared with its death.
It was part of the Soul Ring.
Longyu tried to analyze it.
Only for an instant.
The pain that tore through his right arm reminded him that perhaps this was not the best time.
“NGH!”
Lingyu stepped forward.
“His right arm!”
Mu Qinghe was already moving.
“What do you feel?”
Longyu barely managed to answer.
“Pressure…
meridian…
right.”
Mu Qinghe raised a hand over his arm without touching it.
The light of the Jade Spirit Lotus swept across the area.
His expression changed slightly.
“Too much energy is accumulating there.”
Qianjun looked at Longyu.
“Do we intervene?”
Mu Qinghe did not answer immediately.
That silence was worse than an answer.
Longyu also knew what the problem was.
He had made a mistake.
He was trying to control all of the energy.
Every time a current deviated, he tried to force it back onto the path he considered correct.
It worked with his normal Soul Power.
But this was not his normal Soul Power.
It was an amount of energy several times greater than anything his body was accustomed to handling.
And more was still entering.
I can’t control all of it.
An obvious conclusion.
A little late.
Another wave slammed into his meridians.
Longyu gritted his teeth.
His first reaction was to resist.
Then he remembered one of the exercises he had practiced with Qianjun.
When receiving a strike from a staff, blocking all of the force head-on was the worst possible choice if the opponent was physically stronger.
Redirect.
Distribute.
Transfer.
Longyu stopped trying to halt the current.
He allowed it to advance.
But he changed its path.
Part toward his chest.
Part toward his abdomen.
Another current toward his left arm.
Legs.
Back.
It was not elegant.
He did not even know whether it was correct.
But the pressure on his right arm decreased.
Mu Qinghe raised an eyebrow.
“It’s dropping.”
Lingyu felt it too.
“He’s distributing it.”
Qianjun watched carefully.
“Instead of containing it.”
Mu Qinghe nodded.
“It seems so.”
Longyu could not hear their words.
But he could feel the result.
It hurt.
A lot.
Except now the pain was distributed throughout his entire body.
Longyu almost wanted to laugh.
A questionable improvement.
Still, his meridians no longer felt as though they were about to rupture.
That was enough.
The Soul Ring descended a little farther.
Then the world changed.
Longyu stopped feeling the forest.
He stopped hearing his breathing.
For an instant, he even stopped feeling his own body.
Darkness.
Before him appeared the Destruction Coiling Dragon Staff.
It floated within that undefined space.
The dragon coiled around the staff had its eyes open.
Longyu studied it.
Ever since his awakening, he had tried to understand exactly what that creature was.
A representation of his Martial Soul?
Some kind of spirit?
The evolved remnant of the Break-Evil Dragon associated with the Coiling Dragon Staff lineage?
He had no answer.
And he was not going to invent one.
Then he heard another roar.
ROAR!
The silhouette of the Ruinclaw Dragon Lizard appeared before the staff.
It was not truly the Soul Beast.
At least, Longyu did not think it was.
It was probably a spiritual imprint or essence preserved within the Soul Ring.
Probably.
Even within his own mind, Longyu refused to turn an assumption into a fact.
The Ruinclaw advanced.
The dragon on the staff raised its head.
Two pairs of violet eyes met.
Longyu expected violence.
A struggle.
Perhaps resistance.
Nothing happened.
The Ruinclaw roared.
The dragon answered.
The dark violet energy surrounding the Ruinclaw began to separate from its body.
It slowly entered the staff.
The scales of the coiled dragon became more defined.
Its limbs.
Its claws.
Four of them in particular.
Longyu watched, fascinated.
The Martial Soul was changing.
Not radically.
It was still the same staff.
The same dragon.
The same destructive essence.
But there was a difference.
As though a blurry image had gained a little more definition.
Then the erosive energy appeared.
The same energy that had interfered with his Soul Power.
It came into contact with the violet energy of the staff.
Both reacted.
Longyu immediately felt that they were not identical.
The Soul Beast’s energy was more primitive.
Brutal.
Its purpose seemed simple.
Weaken.
Penetrate.
Break.
The energy of the Staff was different.
Deeper.
More difficult to understand.
Destruction.
When the two came into contact, the first began to change.
It did not disappear.
It did not completely become Destruction.
But it was influenced by it.
Longyu felt something click into place.
Then a thought occurred to him.
Until now, he had mainly considered one direction.
Soul Ring → Martial Soul.
The Soul Ring modified the Martial Soul.
But this suggested another possibility.
Martial Soul → Soul Ring.
The nature of the Martial Soul could also alter the way a Soul Beast’s characteristics manifested after absorption.
Longyu wanted to analyze it.
The dark world shattered.
“Longyu!”
His eyes opened.
The pain returned.
“How inconvenient…”
Lingyu blinked.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Mu Qinghe almost looked annoyed.
“Focus.”
Longyu nearly smiled.
Fair enough.
Research could wait.
Survival was slightly more urgent.
The process continued for nearly an hour.
Energy entered.
Longyu distributed it.
His body absorbed it.
Some strengthened his muscles.
Some flowed through his meridians.
Some integrated into his Soul Power.
Gradually, the violence subsided.
The pain became pressure.
The pressure became warmth.
And finally…
calm.
Longyu breathed.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The yellow Soul Ring stopped resisting.
For the first time, he felt that it truly belonged to him.
Then something new appeared within his mind.
Not words.
Understanding.
Instinct.
He knew how to activate it.
He knew what the ability wanted to do.
Longyu opened his eyes.
The yellow ring shone.
The Destruction Coiling Dragon Staff appeared before him.
And Longyu knew the name of his first Soul Skill.
Ruin Dragon Strike.
No one spoke for several seconds.
Longyu looked at his hands.
Then his arms.
Finally, he looked at the yellow Soul Ring slowly revolving around his body.
He had succeeded.
His first Soul Ring.
He had officially entered the rank of Soul Master.
Jin Yue broke the silence.
“Finished?”
Longyu moved his right shoulder.
“I think so.”
Jin Yue smiled.
“Then test it.”
Lingyu turned toward her.
“He just absorbed a Soul Ring!”
“Exactly.”
Jin Yue pointed at Longyu.
“We need data.”
Longyu looked at her.
“For once, I agree with you.”
“For once?”
“No.”
Mu Qinghe did not raise his voice.
He did not need to.
Longyu and Jin Yue looked at him.
“Just one test,” Longyu said.
“No.”
Jin Yue raised a hand.
“A small one?”
“No.”
Jiangmo began laughing.
“I like him.”
Mu Qinghe ignored the comment.
“You will sit for at least another hour.
Then I’ll examine your meridians.
You’ll eat.
You’ll rest.
And if I decide your body is in suitable condition, then you can perform your test.”
Longyu sighed.
“Understood.”
“And no experimenting with your circulation while you rest.”
Longyu remained silent.
Mu Qinghe stared at him.
“Longyu.”
“Understood.”
Jiangmo laughed even harder.
The examination took place nearly two hours later.
Mu Qinghe took his time.
Far too much time, in Longyu’s opinion.
The Jade Spirit Lotus swept repeatedly over his arms, back, and chest.
Lingyu remained beside him.
She watched every movement.
“There is mild inflammation in several meridians,” Mu Qinghe explained.
“The right one suffered more stress than the others.”
Longyu nodded.
That matched what he had felt.
“Permanent damage?”
“No.”
Longyu relaxed slightly.
“But that does not mean what you did was safe.”
“I never said it was safe.”
“Good.”
Mu Qinghe looked at him.
“Because it wasn’t.”
Longyu remained silent.
The Soul Sage continued.
“Your body endured the absorption.
The compatibility between the Soul Ring and your Martial Soul appears to have helped considerably, but it did not eliminate the physical burden.”
Longyu extended a hand.
“My notebook.”
Qianjun looked at him.
“Seriously?”
“This is important.”
Luoyue tossed it to him.
Longyu opened it.
His hands were still trembling slightly as he wrote.
High compatibility appears to improve integration.
He stopped.
Crossed out improve.
Then wrote:
High compatibility may improve integration.
More cases required.
Below it, he added:
It does not eliminate the physical burden caused by the Soul Ring’s age and energy.
Mu Qinghe looked over his shoulder.
“That’s better.”
Longyu looked up.
“Can I test the ability now?”
Mu Qinghe sighed.
Qianjun chose the location.
An open area containing several rock formations.
Longyu had expected to simply strike a stone.
His grandfather had other plans.
“If you want to study an ability, you need a comparison.”
Longyu smiled.
“Control and variable.”
Qianjun did not use those terms.
But he understood the idea.
He pointed toward two rocks of similar size.
“First, strike that one without your Soul Skill.”
Longyu took hold of the staff.
His arms were still tired, so Qianjun forbade him from using Dragon Shakes the Earth.
They wanted to measure the Soul Skill.
Not the combination of two techniques.
Longyu assumed a basic stance.
He breathed.
Then struck.
BANG!
The surface of the rock cracked slightly.
Jin Yue approached.
“Not bad.”
Longyu looked at the crack.
“That almost sounded like a compliment.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
Luoyue was already writing.
Qianjun pointed toward the second rock.
“Now use the ability.”
Longyu felt a spark of excitement.
This time, he did not completely suppress it.
His first Soul Ring appeared.
Weng.
The yellow circle lit up.
Soul Power flowed out of his body.
Longyu immediately felt the consumption.
It was not small.
The energy entered the Destruction Coiling Dragon Staff.
But instead of covering it evenly, it began to concentrate.
Toward the end.
Toward the point of impact.
The silhouette of a dragon appeared around the staff.
Black.
Violet.
Still faint.
Four claws were particularly distinct.
Longyu instinctively understood how it worked.
Concentration.
Impact.
Breaking.
And that fourth property.
Erosion.
Longyu stepped forward.
“First Soul Skill: Ruin Dragon Strike!”
He struck.
BOOOOM!
The rock split.
It did not explode.
It did not disappear.
It simply fractured from the exact point of impact.
A deep crack ran through almost its entire structure.
Jin Yue’s eyes widened.
“Again.”
Mu Qinghe spoke immediately.
“No.”
“I wasn’t even asking you.”
“It’s still no.”
Renxue approached the rock.
“The force increased significantly.”
Longyu studied the damage.
“Yes.”
Qianjun shook his head.
“But this doesn’t prove the most interesting part.”
Longyu looked at him.
His grandfather was right.
A rock had no Soul Power.
They could not measure the erosive property.
“We need a Soul Power defense.”
Qianjun raised a hand.
“Exactly.”
He positioned himself in front of Longyu.
“Attack me.”
Longyu looked at him.
“That seems like a bad idea.”
Jiangmo burst out laughing.
“Finally, you say something intelligent.”
Qianjun ignored his brother.
“I’ll create a defense weak enough for you to affect.”
A layer of Soul Power appeared in front of his body.
It was nearly transparent.
Longyu could sense that to Qianjun, it represented absolutely nothing.
But to him, it was a barrier.
“First without the Soul Skill,” Qianjun said.
Longyu struck.
BANG!
The staff stopped.
The barrier trembled.
It did not break.
Qianjun allowed the defense to disappear.
Then he recreated it.
“Approximately the same amount of Soul Power.”
Longyu nodded.
This was the important test.
His yellow Soul Ring appeared.
It shone.
Longyu once again felt the considerable consumption of Soul Power.
The dragon around the staff opened its eyes.
Dark violet energy concentrated at the tip.
“First Soul Skill: Ruin Dragon Strike!”
BOOM!
The staff struck the barrier.
This time, Longyu clearly felt the difference.
First came the impact.
Then the concentration of force.
something entered the defense.
The barrier cracked.
“Don’t repair it!” Longyu shouted.
Qianjun stopped.
Everyone approached.
Tiny violet lines remained around the point of impact.
They lasted less than a second.
Then they began to disappear.
Qianjun fed more Soul Power into the barrier.
The lines reacted.
The energy around the damaged point fluctuated before stabilizing.
Longyu’s eyes widened.
“Again.”
Mu Qinghe:
“No.”
Longyu ignored him for the moment.
He looked at Qianjun.
“I didn’t penetrate your Soul Power through force alone.”
“No.”
“The structure lost stability.”
“Momentarily.”
“How long?”
Qianjun thought.
“Less than a second.”
Jin Yue frowned.
“That’s barely anything.”
Longyu smiled.
“It’s enough.”
She looked at him.
“For what?”
Longyu pointed at the barrier.
“To hit it.”
Jin Yue understood.
Renxue did too.
It was not an ability that weakened a defense first and then waited several seconds to exploit the opening.
Everything happened almost simultaneously.
The impact landed.
The erosive energy interfered with the defense.
And while that defense was slightly destabilized…
the concentrated force of the same strike attempted to break through it.
Jiangmo crossed his arms.
“So it really is claws that break things.”
Longyu remained silent for two seconds.
“I hate to admit it, but yes.”
Jiangmo smiled in satisfaction.
Longyu opened his notebook.
He slowly wrote:
First Soul Skill — Ruin Dragon Strike.
Below it, he began a provisional list.
1.
Significantly increases impact force.
He stopped.
He did not know the exact percentage yet.
He would need instruments, more tests, and better methods of comparison.
For now, he wrote:
Initial estimate: approximately 40%.
Unconfirmed.
He continued.
2.
Concentrates physical force and Soul Power at the point of impact.
3.
High effectiveness against defenses.
4.
Introduces temporary erosive interference into Soul Power defenses.
5.
The interference does not ignore defenses and appears to depend on the difference in power between the user and the target.
6.
Considerable Soul Power consumption.
Longyu closed his eyes for several seconds.
He had used the ability twice.
He could already clearly feel the difference in his reserves.
He calculated mentally.
“Four.”
Renxue heard him.
“Four what?”
“Maybe five.”
“Longyu.”
“Uses.”
He looked at his staff.
“In my current condition, I think I could use Ruin Dragon Strike four or five times in combat before the consumption seriously affects my performance.”
Qianjun nodded.
“Then don’t waste any of them.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
Jin Yue pointed at the notebook.
“And how much stronger was it?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“You just wrote forty percent.”
“It’s an estimate.”
“Then you do know.”
Longyu shook his head.
“An estimate and a measurement are two different things.”
Luoyue immediately nodded.
Jin Yue looked between the two of them.
“I should never have let you two meet.”
Longyu looked at his Martial Soul again.
Now that he could study it calmly, the differences were obvious.
The dragon coiled around the staff had slightly more defined scales.
Its claws were clearer.
Its eyes remained open.
The violet energy seemed deeper than before.
Small changes.
Nothing spectacular.
No complete evolution.
But changes nonetheless.
Longyu remembered that strange experience during the absorption.
The Ruinclaw.
The dragon.
The two energies coming into contact.
He looked at his first Soul Ring.
He had chosen that beast because he believed its characteristics could contribute to the future of his Martial Soul.
Power.
Dragon.
Breaking.
And perhaps…
Destruction.
Now he possessed a Soul Skill that expressed all of those characteristics in some way.
But there was something else.
His Martial Soul itself had changed.
Only slightly.
But it had changed.
Longyu wrote one final observation.
Minor modifications to the physical manifestation of the Martial Soul were observed after absorption.
Below it:
This does NOT prove the Theory of Cumulative Martial Soul Evolution.
Jin Yue looked over his shoulder.
“Why did you write ‘NOT’ so big?”
“To remind myself.”
“Wasn’t this exactly what you wanted to prove?”
Longyu closed the notebook.
“Yes.”
“Then you just proved it.”
“No.”
Jin Yue looked genuinely confused.
Longyu pointed toward his staff.
“I have one case.”
“So?”
“One case can prove that something happened once.
It cannot prove that it always happens, why it happened, or what conditions caused it.”
Luoyue added:
“We need more observations.”
Longyu nodded.
“Many more.”
Jin Yue looked at Renxue.
“I regret asking.”
Renxue smiled.
“I learned years ago.”
Later, as they prepared to return, Longyu remained seated near the cave entrance.
His body was exhausted.
His meridians ached.
His Soul Power reserves were far from recovered.
And yet…
he felt different.
Stronger.
Not merely because of the Soul Skill.
His body had also benefited from the absorption.
Longyu closed his fist.
That was normal.
Absorbing Soul Rings strengthened a Soul Master.
But now that he had personally experienced the process, one variable in his assessments carried far more weight than before.
The body.
His constitution had been one of the reasons Mu Qinghe had allowed the absorption.
If he had been weaker…
the outcome might have been different.
Longyu looked at his hands.
Then a new question appeared.
An extremely simple one.
What would happen if they deliberately strengthened the body before every Soul Ring?
Not through ordinary training alone.
They were already doing that.
Nutrition.
Medicine.
Natural materials.
Recovery methods.
Substances capable of strengthening muscles, bones, and meridians.
Longyu became still.
Something surfaced among the memories of his previous life.
Not a complete method.
Not a formula.
Only a concept.
A product obtained from certain marine Soul Beasts.
Something that, in later eras, Soul Masters would value precisely for its ability to strengthen the body.
Longyu narrowed his eyes.
Whale Glue.
He remembered that it was useful.
He remembered why.
But he did not remember how to process it correctly.
Nor the dosages.
Nor which species produced the best material.
Nor which ages yielded superior quality.
He did not even know how much knowledge about it existed in this era.
Longyu slowly smiled.
Renxue noticed from several meters away.
“Why are you smiling like that?”
Longyu looked at her.
“I remembered something interesting.”
Jin Yue immediately appeared.
“A combat technique?”
“No.”
She lost interest almost instantly.
Lingyu, however, raised her head.
“A plant?”
“Not that either.”
Longyu looked toward her.
“Something medicinal.”
Now he had her full attention.
Longyu picked up his notebook again.
His first Soul Ring slowly revolved around him.
The theory he had begun with was still far from proven.
But for the first time, he possessed something he had not had before.
A real case.
A real absorption.
A real ability.
Data obtained from his own body.
And, as was happening with increasing frequency…
a new question.
At the top of a blank page, he wrote two words.
Whale Glue.
Below them, he added:
Can it be used to increase the body’s Soul Ring absorption capacity in a controlled manner?
Longyu stared at the question for several seconds.
Then he closed the notebook.
His first Soul Ring had answered some questions.
And created many more.
Exactly as good research should.