In terms of pure energy-level performance, the Twelve Talismans overwhelmingly surpass the Eight Strange Arts.
Each of the twelve talismans unleashes visually spectacular destructive power.
But this is a different world.
This is Douluo Continent.
After abilities are transformed into Soul Skills, logic may be more important than visual impact.
“If I choose the Eight Strange Arts or the Twelve Talismans as my Soul Skills, will they undergo corresponding changes?”
[Ding!
Yes, host.
The system will adaptively transform the selected ability system to perfectly fit the framework of Soul Skills.]
Yang Xing asked another crucial question.
“If I choose the Eight Strange Arts now, will I have a chance to obtain the Twelve Talismans in the future?”
[Ding!
There is a chance, host.
Each time you accept a qualified disciple in the future, you will receive new mission rewards.
There is a high probability that the items you desire will appear.
At that time, they will no longer be in the form of Soul Skills but will appear as physical objects.
However, the higher the quality of the disciple you accept, the higher the level of the reward.
To obtain high-level rewards, you must accept disciples of correspondingly high quality.]
Yang Xing felt a surge of joy in his heart.
He had originally thought this disciple-accepting system was a one-time deal.
Once the cultivation base of a Level 99 Limit Douluo was bestowed upon him, the system would retire, and from then on, he would have to rely on his own abilities.
He hadn’t expected there to be continuous rewards afterward.
And they were random, fluctuating rewards based on the quality of the disciples he accepted.
Wasn’t this equivalent to…
The more formidable the disciples he accepted, the stronger he himself would become?
Yang Xing made his decision.
The Eight Strange Arts.
Choose them.
There were three reasons.
First, the eight abilities of the Eight Strange Arts possess an extremely rich and logical system.
Origin of Qi governs infinite Soul Power, as well as the transformation and stripping of Soul Power.
Spirit Binding and General Command governs the manipulation of soul beast spirits and devouring them to grow stronger.
Six-Treasury Immortal Thief governs physical enhancement, stealing from nature, and achieving immortality.
Heaven-reaching Record governs talismans and powerful attacks.
Divine Mechanism Hundred-Refinements governs forging and artifact crafting.
Dual-Perfect Hands governs reviving the dead, regenerating flesh and bone, and controlling souls and life.
Wind-Queen’s Mystic Gate governs mystical evasion and controlling all things in the world.
Great-Void Insight governs dimensional observation and fate interference.
These eight abilities cover all dimensions: combat, support, daily life, and reconnaissance.
They are far more comprehensive than the Twelve Talismans’ pure energy output.
Second, many skills within the Eight Strange Arts can be taught.
Heaven-reaching Record, Wind-Queen’s Mystic Gate, and others have established inheritance settings.
In the future, when he accepts disciples, he can directly teach them one of the Eight Strange Arts.
This would be far more effective than any Titled Douluo’s signature skill.
Third, he would save the Twelve Talismans to obtain as physical objects later when accepting disciples.
The core of the Twelve Talismans lies in their energy-level performance.
Making them into physical objects— such as twelve physical talismans—would allow them to exert their power more effectively than being transformed into Soul Skills.
Having reasoned this through, Yang Xing decisively made his choice.
“Choose the Eight Strange Arts.”
The system panel flashed.
[Ding!
Please assign the Eight Strange Arts in order to the corresponding Soul Ring slots (The seventh Soul Ring is fixed as Martial Soul True Form and cannot be assigned).]
Yang Xing hesitated almost not at all.
First Soul Ring — Origin of Qi.
Second Soul Ring — Spirit Binding and General Command.
Third Soul Ring — Six-Treasury Immortal Thief.
Fourth Soul Ring — Heaven-reaching Record.
Fifth Soul Ring — Divine Mechanism Hundred-Refinements.
Sixth Soul Ring — Dual-Perfect Hands.
Eighth Soul Ring — Wind-Queen’s Mystic Gate.
Ninth Soul Ring — Great-Void Insight.
Eight abilities, perfectly integrated into eight Soul Ring slots.
[Ding!
Soul Skill assignment complete.
Cultivation Base infusion will commence shortly.
Confirm?]
Confirmed.
The next moment—
A surge of power flowed into Yang Xing’s body.
No lightning strikes, no celestial phenomena, no golden light radiating for miles.
That power silently poured into his limbs and bones, like a warm river filling a dried-up riverbed.
Yang Xing’s body was clearly just an ordinary mortal physique that had never cultivated, yet at this moment, it was like a tailor-made vessel, swallowing the immense power whole without the slightest discomfort.
All he felt was a gradually filling sense of satisfaction.
Like someone who had starved for three days finally getting a meal.
Ten seconds.
The power infusion was complete.
Outside, there was no wind or waves.
The alley was still the same alley, the broken wall was still the same broken wall, and Ning Rongrong’s footsteps were still rhythmically sounding five meters behind him.
But the moment Yang Xing opened his eyes, he knew he had changed.
Deep within his eyes, within the originally ordinary black pupils, something faintly imperceptible had appeared.
It was difficult to describe in words.
If he had to put it into words, it was like a few distant stars had suddenly appeared reflected at the bottom of a pitch-black, deep well.
Inside his body, nine Soul Rings lay quietly coiled.
He could clearly sense their presence, feeling as though every Soul Skill was an innate instinct.
Whenever he wished, he could summon and release them at will.
Origin of Qi, Spirit Binding and General Command, Six-Treasury Immortal Thief, Heaven-reaching Record, Divine Mechanism Hundred-Refinements, Dual-Perfect Hands, Martial Soul True Form, Wind-Queen’s Mystic Gate, Great-Void Insight.
Eight extraordinary techniques from another world.
Now all within his grasp.
Yang Xing was itching to try them out.
He remembered from his memories that Soul Masters in the Douluo Continent had a prerequisite for using Soul Skills: they had to release their Soul Rings.
But he didn’t feel that way.
It was as if now, as long as he wanted, he could perform them effortlessly.
Moreover, he seemed to have discovered a loophole.
The one-hour time limit for using Limit Douluo Cultivation Base.
It seemed he could use it moment by moment through Great-Void Insight and Wind-Queen’s Mystic Gate.
Under normal circumstances, he would have the Cultivation Base of a normal Titled Douluo.
But the moment he attacked, he only needed the Cultivation Base of a Titled Douluo.
This meant that as long as he controlled his timing precisely, this one hour would be enough for him to strike countless times.
In that instant, Yang Xing felt like a child who had just gotten a new toy, his hands itching uncontrollably.
But Ning Rongrong was still following behind him, and if he used his skills now, their effectiveness would be halved.
He needed to find the perfect moment to give this young lady a shocking blow.
Thinking of this, Yang Xing’s lips unconsciously curled upward, his eyes crinkling, and his body even swayed slightly.
It was an irrepressible sense of triumph.
“Hey!”
Ning Rongrong’s voice came from behind, thick with disdain.
“What are you swaying for?
Can’t you even walk properly?”
Yang Xing didn’t turn around.
Ning Rongrong’s gaze swept over his swaying back, her lips curling in disdain.
“I knew you were a big liar.”
Her tone was firm, as if delivering a final verdict.
“If you were really as amazing as you claim, how could you possibly live in such a rundown place?
Titled Douluos might not need fancy accommodations, but at least they’d have a decent courtyard, right?”
She pinched her nose, looking left and right.
“A place even rats would disdain…
it’s obvious only penniless losers who can’t scam anyone live here.” Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
Yang Xing walked ahead, turning a deaf ear.
He was now a level-90 Titled Douluo.
His perspective had broadened; he wouldn’t stoop to arguing with a child.
Ning Rongrong saw that he wasn’t responding.
After a few seconds of silence, she spoke again.
Her tone had lost some of its sharpness, replaced by a hint of curiosity.
“Liar, how old are you?”
“Eighteen.”
Ning Rongrong’s footsteps paused.
“Eighteen?”
She tilted her head and did the math.
Six years older than her.
“Only eighteen?” Her voice carried surprise.
“Then how do you already have a wife and children?
That’s way too young, isn’t it?”
The more she thought about it, the more it felt off.
She muttered under her breath, “Married and having kids at eighteen—were you in such a hurry in that village of yours?
No wonder you’re such a shameless, lecherous ruffian…”
Yang Xing’s footsteps stopped.
He turned around.
Ning Rongrong instinctively took half a step back, eyeing him warily.
Then she saw Yang Xing raise his right hand.
That hand formed a fist.
Not a threatening fist.
It was… shaped like a cat’s paw.
His fingers curled slightly, the back of his hand facing forward, like a cat raising its paw.
Yang Xing held this cat-paw pose toward Ning Rongrong, his expression deadly serious as he spoke:
“That earlier thing about me having a wife and kids—”
He wiggled the cat paw.
“Was a joke.
Don’t take it seriously.”
Ning Rong stared at the cat paw.
Stared at Yang Xing’s utterly earnest face.
Her expression went blank for two seconds.
Not because she was moved.
She was thunderstruck.
This guy…
A full-grown eighteen-year-old man, using such a cutesy gesture to tell her, “I was just messing with you”?
A layer of frost settled over Ning Rongrong’s face.
She wasn’t angry about being deceived.
In fact, she had already regained her composure, no longer in the emotionally overwhelmed state she’d been in earlier at the stall.
The usual Ning Rongrong was always calm and shrewd.
She simply furrowed her brows, scrutinizing Yang Xing with a critical gaze.
“You say it’s fake, but how do I know if it’s true or false?”
Her lips curled in disdain.
“I bet it’s mostly because you realized this young lady is very resistant to you having a wife and kids, unwilling to become your disciple, so you hastily changed your story and said it was fake, right?”
“All just to make this young lady give up?
So you can keep having me as your so-called damn disciple?”
Yang Xing looked at her, smiled faintly, and offered no further explanation.
Ning Rong waited two seconds without a rebuttal, then snorted disdainfully and dropped the subject.
Believing or not didn’t matter anyway.
It wasn’t like she actually planned to become this liar’s disciple.
Yang Xing turned back around and continued walking.
This time, they didn’t go far.
A minute later, the two stopped in front of a single-story wooden house.
Calling it a house was generous.
A single-story, dilapidated wooden shack.
The cracks in the door were wide enough to fit three fingers, and the holes in the windows looked like they’d been smashed by stones and never repaired.
The entire structure gave off a precarious, on-the-verge-of-collapsing vibe.