The next day, just as dawn was breaking, Lin Yuan had barely emerged from his cultivation state when he heard his father’s surprised voice coming from outside the cave.
“Strange.
Could it be my imagination?
Why does this Lone Bamboo seem taller and thicker than it was yesterday?
Am I seeing things?”
Lin Yuan walked out of the cave.
His father was standing there, stroking his chin thoughtfully as he stared at the center of the bamboo forest.
There stood a straight, dark-green bamboo stalk nearly fifteen meters tall.
Lin Yuan couldn’t help laughing as he spoke from behind him.
“It must be your imagination.
How could this bamboo possibly grow so much overnight?”
His father nodded and didn’t think too much about it.
He turned around and looked at his son seriously.
“Ah Yuan, I just estimated its age.
Even if it hasn’t reached 600 years, it should be over 500 years old.
Are you sure you want to absorb its soul ring?”
The age of a Lone Bamboo was very easy to distinguish.
A 10-year-old Lone Bamboo looked no different from ordinary bamboo.
Its height was less than ten meters.
A 100-year-old Lone Bamboo was dark green, with faint, dark patterns appearing across its stalk.
Its height was ten meters, and every additional meter represented another 100 years of cultivation.
This bamboo was already more than fourteen meters tall.
It was clearly a soul beast with a cultivation exceeding 500 years.
Lin Yuan smiled.
“Dad, did you forget what Mom has been feeding me over the past year?”
“I have confidence in myself now.”
“That’s true.”
Only then did his father remember that his wife had secretly been feeding their son dissolved whale rubber for more than a year.
That was precisely why their family had been forced to leave Nuoding City and relocate.
Fortunately, every sacrifice came with a reward.
In his father’s eyes, his son had gone from awakening his martial soul to reaching rank 10 in just one year and three months.
On average, he had increased his soul power by one rank every two months.
Such a terrifying cultivation speed was more than enough to make up for everything they had lost.
The only unfortunate one was Lin Tian.
They still didn’t know whether his death had truly been an accident or if someone had secretly murdered him.
The poor child had simply vanished from this world.
Even now, Lin Yuan’s father still felt guilty toward him.
With a sigh, his father took a short blade from his clothes and handed it to Lin Yuan.
He then looked toward the Lone Bamboo.
“A 100-year-old Lone Bamboo doesn’t possess intelligence.
It only has a very primitive instinct that allows it to sense danger around it.”
“Normally, as long as you don’t unleash a large amount of soul power, it won’t resist.”
“At the same time, it possesses the ability to harden its body and launch bamboo spikes.
Among soul beasts of the same cultivation level, it’s considered extremely easy to hunt while still possessing excellent abilities.”
“Most rank 10 soul masters who aren’t capable of hunting other 100-year soul beasts will choose a 100-year-old Lone Bamboo when they encounter one. This chapter is updated first at g.com.
It’s a very cost-effective choice.”
“All you need to do is cut through the stalk and then sever its roots.”
“And precisely because of this, the number of 100-year-old Lone Bamboos has become extremely small.”
“Stand farther away for now.
I’ll use my soul skills, and when the opportunity arises, you can come over and deliver the finishing blow.”
As he spoke, two soul rings rose from beneath his feet.
One white.
One yellow.
“First Soul Skill: Harden!”
“Second Soul Skill: Bamboo Sword Thrust!”
His father shouted twice.
His two soul rings lit up one after another, and several sharp bamboo spikes condensed in front of him.
They floated in midair like the Thousand Hands Manipulation Force used by Chiyo in Naruto, their tips gleaming with a strange, hardened sheen.
At the same time, he suddenly spread both arms.
The sharp bamboo spikes shot forward at high speed, covering the nearly 600-year-old Lone Bamboo.
If it had been any other Lone Bamboo of the same level, it naturally wouldn’t have been able to withstand these bamboo spikes without activating its hardening ability.
But the Lone Bamboo before them seemed far fiercer than ordinary ones.
It was almost comparable to an animal-type soul beast of the same level.
The instant Lin Yuan’s father activated his soul skills, it actually took the initiative to harden its own body.
Clang!
Clang!
Clang!
Amid a series of harsh metallic impacts, the bamboo spikes were all deflected.
The enraged Lone Bamboo completely went berserk.
Its branches whipped through the air like snakes, violently sweeping toward them.
“Not good!
This Lone Bamboo has mutated!
Ah Yuan, run!”
His father was horrified.
Seeing that there was no time to dodge, he instinctively raised both arms and shielded himself.
At that very moment, Lin Yuan moved.
At some point, he had already drawn the short blade.
Faint blue arcs of lightning flickered across its edge.
The moment he drew it, Lin Yuan had already rushed in front of his father.
Left slash.
Right slash.
Every single strike landed precisely on the branches whipping toward them.
His father’s eyes were dazzled by the sheer speed.
Before long, the branches had been hacked apart and lay scattered across the ground.
A flash of lightning appeared in Lin Yuan’s eyes.
He burst toward the nearly 600-year-old Lone Bamboo at a speed surpassing Bolt’s hundred-meter sprint.
The Lone Bamboo swung its remaining branches and fired dozens, even hundreds, of thick bamboo stalks toward him in an attempt to intercept him.
But Lin Yuan dodged them all with nimble footwork.
Occasionally, when he couldn’t avoid one, the blade surrounded by blue lightning simply sliced through it. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
As danger drew closer and closer, the Lone Bamboo instinctively gathered its remaining branches together, merging them into a massive bamboo club.
Then, like a cannonball, it hurled the weapon toward Lin Yuan.
“Too slow.”
Lin Yuan performed a sliding tackle and avoided the incoming bamboo club.
Then he flipped through the air like a hawk and landed directly in front of the Lone Bamboo.
Gripping the short blade with both hands, he poured all the power of the Five Thunder Heavenly Heart Art within his body into the weapon.
Then he brought the blade down.
Crack!
The blade shattered.
At the same time, the Lone Bamboo lost all ability to resist.
Its thick body was severed in half at a point one meter above the ground and sent flying.
By now, Lin Yuan’s father was completely dumbfounded.
He opened his mouth several times but couldn’t figure out what to say.
After struggling for a long while, he finally managed to squeeze out a single sentence.
“Ah Yuan…
how did you become so strong?”
“Oh, you mean that?”
Lin Yuan turned around.
“One hundred push-ups, one hundred sit-ups, one hundred squats, and ten kilometers of running every day.
Keep training, and eventually you’ll end up like this.”
His father continued questioning him.
“Then what were those blue arcs of lightning just now?”
“That was a martial soul mutation.”
Lin Yuan walked toward the bamboo stump and began digging around its roots.
“Actually, the martial soul I awakened back then wasn’t Lone Bamboo.
It was Thunder Bamboo.”
Hearing the words “martial soul mutation,” Lin Yuan’s father became even more confused.
Before he could ask anything else, however, Lin Yuan had already dug something out from beneath the roots of the bamboo stump.
It was a palm-sized, translucent left leg bone emitting a faint cyan glow.
At the same time, a relatively deep yellow soul ring slowly emerged and floated above the bamboo stump.
Lin Yuan’s eyes lit up slightly.
“There really is a soul bone.”
He didn’t know whether this was a special ability of the Plastic Palm Heaven Bottle or simply a coincidence.
But a soul bone from a nearly 600-year-old soul beast was extremely valuable in this era, when even Titled Douluo could hardly obtain a soul bone.
It could probably be sold for one or two hundred thousand gold soul coins.
That would solve his current problem of not having enough money to purchase high-year whale rubber.
“Quick!
Put it away!
Hurry and put it away!
Don’t let anyone see it!”
His father had completely forgotten about questioning his son’s bizarre combat ability.
He hurried forward, took off his own coat, and wrapped the soul bone inside it, looking as though he were a thief trying to hide stolen goods.
Lin Yuan smiled and ignored him.
He simply sat cross-legged beside the soul ring, summoned his Lone Bamboo Martial Soul, and began absorbing his first soul ring.
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