Lin Li, having successfully absorbed his first Soul Ring, stood up excitedly.
At the same time, he felt a wave of soreness and swelling throughout his body, along with a slight itching sensation on his left wrist.
It was very uncomfortable.
However, he was also recovering at a very rapid pace.
Lin Li knew that as long as his Martial Soul was active, Mahoraga’s terrifying regenerative power would slowly heal his body.
After all, Mahoraga could recover even after having its head cut off.
Lin Li didn’t expect to survive a decapitation, but regenerating a severed limb should be possible, right?
“Student Lin!
It’s so good that you’re alright!”
Seeing Lin Li wake up, Director Su rushed to his side in excitement to examine him.
He only felt relieved after confirming there were no permanent injuries.
This touched Lin Li slightly; after all, when had he ever seen such a scene before?
In the mid-level feudal society of the Douluo Continent, the only conflicts were between nobles and commoners, or between Soul Masters.
It wasn’t like his past life, where conflicts could arise between every single person.
“I’m fine, Director Su.”
“It’s good that you’re fine.
How is your Soul Skill?”
Director Su relaxed upon seeing Lin Li was okay, and became curious about what Lin Li’s Soul Skill was.
“It’s a passive enhancement; I can’t actively use a Soul Skill.
After absorbing the Soul Ring, I feel that my strength, speed, and reaction time have all increased by fifty percent.”
Though he said this, the improvements were actually more than that, including recovery speed and Soul Power.
He didn’t tell the whole truth simply because he was afraid of scaring Director Su.
After all, even the enhancement Lin Li mentioned was shocking enough.
“Fifty percent!”
Sure enough, Director Su cried out in surprise upon hearing Lin Li’s words, clearly finding it hard to believe.
Lin Li could understand.
Even the third Soul Ring of a top-tier Martial Soul like Dai Mubai’s wasn’t as strong as his own.
If there was anything more powerful than a percentage-based Soul Skill, it was a passive percentage-based one.
Although he lost the fun of using active Martial Soul Abilities, the boost to his basic attributes gave Lin Li peace of mind.
This way, he wouldn’t have to worry about failing to react and release a skill when being ambushed.
At the same time, Lin Li also had some expectations for a hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring.
According to the setting, a hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring must have two Martial Soul Abilities.
If one was a basic attribute boost, the other Soul Skill would allow Lin Li to experience the unique skill-casting of the Douluo Continent.
“As expected of an eight-hundred-year Soul Ring, it’s even more powerful than I imagined!”
“What?”
Lin Li looked at Director Su in confusion, and the latter explained that the Soul Ring he had absorbed was actually an eight-hundred-year one.
“I see.”
Lin Li calculated in his head.
If he continued absorbing Soul Rings like this, his second Soul Ring could reach a thousand years, and his fourth could reach ten thousand years…
He should be able to adapt to the mental shock as well, right?
If it were truly possible, then perhaps he could absorb a hundred-thousand-year ring for his seventh Soul Ring!
Lin Li immersed himself in his fantasies while walking out of the Soul Hunting Forest with Director Su.
Subsequently, at Lin Li’s request, Director Su dropped him off at the entrance of the Spirit Hall and went back first.
The benefits and treatment at Spirit Hall were quite good; once one became a Soul Master, they could receive a subsidy of one gold coin every month.
Lin Li then successfully entered the Spirit Hall.
After testing his Soul Power to be at rank thirteen, he was stubbornly held back by Ma Xiunuo, who wouldn’t let him leave.
In the end, Lin Li only managed to leave smoothly by saying he was already eight years old.
Just after Lin Li left, Ma Xiunuo wanted to check Lin Li’s awakening records, and as a result, he saw Lin Li’s name at the very top of this year’s Martial Soul awakening information.
Immediately, Ma Xiunuo was so angry his beard fluttered and his eyes glared.
“This kid actually came to trick an old man like me!”
“No martial ethics, just trickery!
I must make him stay next time!”
On the other side, Lin Li was unaware of Ma Xiunuo’s plans and was simply strolling through the city.
One gold coin a month!
You have to know that when he was storytelling, with so many people supporting him, he only earned a few silver coins at a time, even though part of that was skimmed off by the tavern owner.
But this still illustrated how good the benefits of Spirit Hall were, making Lin Li almost feel won over for a moment.
After finally buying some delicious food he usually couldn’t afford, Lin Li returned to the dormitory to begin cultivating.
Just before cultivating, Lin Li could still clearly feel a slight itching sensation at his left wrist.
He had originally thought it was an injury caused while absorbing the Soul Ring, but now that the wounds on his body had long since healed, that feeling remained.
Lin Li raised his hand to observe closely and found a silver scale the size of a fingernail on the palm side of his wrist.
Looking at this familiar shape and color, Lin Li made an uncertain guess: “Could this be…
a Soul Bone?”
Although it wasn’t a bone inside the human body, it was indeed very similar to the scales on the Crypt Beast, just much smaller.
If one had to say, this should be a type of exoskeleton…
On the Douluo Continent, it should be called an External Soul Bone!
Lin Li didn’t expect his luck to be so good, actually obtaining a Soul Bone on his very first hunt—and an External Soul Bone, which was second only to a hundred-thousand-year Soul Bone.
He tried to circulate his Soul Power to touch the scale on his wrist.
After some attempts, he was pleasantly surprised to find that this scale could extend and grow; at this stage, it could even completely wrap around Lin Li’s palm!
Since External Soul Bones possessed the ability to grow, Lin Li didn’t regret that the scale couldn’t cover his whole body yet, because that was something that could be achieved sooner or later.
With the desire to quickly become stronger, Lin Li immediately sat cross-legged and began to cultivate.
The days passed like this one by one, until the day school was about to start approached.
In these past few months, Lin Li felt that it was truly boring!
Although Director Su would come to chat with him from time to time, Lin Li still longed for a child of similar status to play with.
After all, Director Su’s tone was still very preachy when he spoke, which Lin Li found a bit hard to bear.
As for those noble children, they were generally divided into two categories.
One type didn’t know Lin Li and looked down on him.
The other type had heard Lin Li’s storytelling and wanted to take him under their wing as a kept talent.
What a joke, was Lin Li the kind of person who would be corrupted by money?
“Clink, clink!”
The sound of gold coins clashing rang out as Lin Li walked out of the dormitory area where the noble students lived.
He wasn’t doing it for the money, but for the unity among students.
During this time, Lin Li told another story about ‘A Mortal’s Journey to Immortality,’ which ignited the passion for cultivation in those noble children with poor talent.
After their parents found out, Lin Li received some additional financial sponsorship.
Now, among the noble children of Notting Academy, there was only one kind of person: those who wanted to support Lin Li financially.
It was just that Lin Li wasn’t interested in males, and he had no interest in those girls who hadn’t even matured yet.
Today was the official day for school registration.
Early in the morning, just as Lin Li got out of bed, he saw the door to Dormitory Seven being opened, and then a group of teenagers wearing coarse cloth clothes with patches walked in.
The two sides looked at each other, both somewhat puzzled.
“Hello everyone, I’m a new student this year.
My name is Lin Li.”
“Hello, I’m Wang Sheng.”
Finally, the one at the very front of the teenagers stood out and asked Lin Li: “Classmate, are you a work-study student?
I see the clothes you’re wearing…”
Hearing this, Lin Li looked down and noticed that his clothes were very different from the others.
One couldn’t say it was like heaven and earth, but it was very obvious they weren’t from the same class.
“Well, I’m an orphan.
I earned all this money myself.”
Lin Li’s words were very plain, but they didn’t sound that way to Wang Sheng and the others.
They had initially thought it was some new trick from the nobles to mock them, but they didn’t expect him to be a resilient child who was self-reliant…
They had even been thinking about how to teach Lin Li a lesson; how despicable of them!
A sudden, inexplicable protective urge welled up in Wang Sheng’s heart, and he said to Lin Li:
“I’m the boss of Dormitory Seven.
You can call me Brother Sheng or Brother Wang.
I’ll look out for you from now on!”
Wang Sheng gestured for everyone to go set up their bedding, then prepared to show some concern for Lin Li’s situation.
Part of it was also that he was curious about how Lin Li earned money, which made him quite interested as well.
Lin Li didn’t think he necessarily had to fight Wang Sheng to become the boss; that was too childish.
If Wang Sheng had brought it up, he could have accepted it, but taking the initiative to demand it seemed inappropriate.
Faced with Wang Sheng’s attempts to get close, Lin Li also felt a bit uncomfortable, so he said he would go for a walk.
Unlike these work-study students who were returning to school today, he had arrived long ago, so he didn’t need to put on covers or tidy up his bed.
And if Lin Li remembered correctly, there was a good show to watch today.
Thinking this, Lin Li walked toward the main gate.
After greeting the guard, he sat down in the small room where the guard usually rested.
Because Lin Li would give the guard a silver coin every time he entered or exited, he had become the person the guard respected most.
In the guard’s heart, Lin Li’s status was even higher than the academy’s principal!
How much salary did that principal pay every year?
Could he compare to this little ancestor?
The guard bowed and scraped as he escorted Lin Li to his seat, then returned to his post to begin waiting to check the records of returning and registering students.
Not long after, two figures one old and one young appeared in Lin Li’s field of vision.
They matched the images from the anime perfectly, with character models distinct from the background characters.
Old Jack and Tang San.