After discovering that this external-attached head soul bone wasn't as dangerous as he had imagined, Xiao Lin still did not hand it over to Tang San.
He didn't even tell Tang San about his research results.
On one hand, he believed that as the Son of Fortune, Tang San could ignore the evil within an external head soul bone.
On the other hand, Xiao Lin also worried that Tang San might end up like a "Douluo II-style" abstract mess.
He had to see if there was a better method of purging the evil first.
If there was no way to purge it, then one could only inherit the evil.
As far as Xiao Lin knew, the God Realm did indeed have an Evil God.
And that Evil God's strength seemed to be of the same level as the Asura God.
Moreover, in Peerless Tang Sect, it was said that Tang San originally wanted to stay on the Douluo Continent a while longer, but was tricked into ascending by some wager between Good and Evil.
Unable to descend afterwards, Tang San then devised an entire bundle of boring (neurotic) plans.
But from the descriptions alone, that Evil God didn't seem all that evil.
However, Xiao Lin could not gamble his safety on another's supposed goodness.
According to his research, the power of evil stemmed from the darkness attribute, but also surpassed it.
Its "evil" nature lay in this—most evil-attributed soul beasts grew stronger by devouring the lives of other soul beasts.
Such power was unacceptable in the soul beast world, and equally rejected in the soul master world.
If Tang San could control the evil, then fine.
If not, he would become a true fiend—constantly absorbing others' spiritual power—ending up as a lunatic even crazier than Bibi Dong.
Shaking his head to cast away these wild thoughts, Xiao Lin widened his eyes once more to carefully observe the external head soul bone.
If anyone looked closely at Xiao Lin's eyes just then, they would notice golden flames blazing within them.
This was Xiao Lin's Fiery Golden Eyes.
However, his Fiery Golden Eyes were still inferior to Tang San's Purple Demon Eyes.
It was only in the past few days, after obtaining the cultivation method of the Purple Demon Eyes from Tang San, that Xiao Lin had forged his own path through training.
Tang San had felt things were unsettled lately, so he wanted to strengthen their self-protection.
He even passed the Purple Demon Eye method to Xiao Wu and Tang Ni.
But after receiving the cultivation method, only Xiao Lin and Tang Ni progressed quickly.
Tang Ni had the foundation of the Eye of Destiny, so her progress was swift. Xiao Lin, on the other hand, simply modified the method of the Purple Demon Eyes with the help of the Two Dragon Kings.
He made it far more violent, unlike Tang San's original, which was more gentle.
Thus came the origin of Xiao Lin's Fiery Golden Eyes.
Where the Purple Demon Eyes absorbed a wisp of violet qi each morning, Xiao Lin's Fiery Golden Eyes absorbed the power of the sun.
If he didn't possess Extreme Fire, he would never have been able to absorb solar power.
Moreover, after absorbing the sun's force, Xiao Lin had to use the Well as eyedrops, to protect his vision.
Perhaps the Extreme Cold gave him some cooling relief—otherwise, he felt his eyes would burn blind.
After all, who directly absorbs the sun's power?
In any cultivation world, solar energy was an extraordinary force.
Even in the "sewer tier" of fantasy, could Xiao Lin really just absorb it casually?
At first, Xiao Lin was about to curse out the Two Dragon Kings, but they didn't mind. They simply released two beams from their eyes, scaring Xiao Lin into obedience.
The Two Dragon Kings explained: this was the most ordinary way of releasing soul power through the eyes.
Almost every Dragon King had such a technique.
It was only that Xiao Lin's eyes were far too fragile.
If he wanted his eyes to release beams, then his eyes would need the toughness of a Mighty Dragon's horn, or the flexibility of fingers and precise meridian control.
It was precisely this brutal method of strengthening his eyes that allowed Xiao Lin to advance so quickly.
With the help of the Fiery Golden Eyes, he could even see the distribution of soul power inside the external head soul bone.
Though it still appeared as a mosaic-like pattern for now, Xiao Lin believed that one day it would become crystal-clear, like high-definition Blu-ray.
After examining the external head soul bone, Xiao Lin took out the Fusion Right Leg Bone.
Compared to the complex soul power distribution of the external head soul bone, the distribution within the Fusion Right Leg Bone was much clearer.
Under Xiao Lin's Fiery Golden Eyes, the soul power was concentrated mainly at the top of the soul bone, not its center.
This made him suspect that unlocking a soul bone's secrets might depend on understanding the distribution of its soul core.
In other words, the soul core's rotation might not necessarily be a perfect circle.
It could very well be an eccentric circle.
If that were the case, then Xiao Lin couldn't strengthen a soul bone simply by cracking its "password."
The possibilities wouldn't be in the hundreds, but in the thousands, even tens of thousands.
Xiao Lin thought to himself—whoever loves research can research it.
He wasn't a professional scientist, full of meticulous and unyielding spirit.
If he had cheats and still didn't use them, he'd be a fool.
Yet precisely because of this new discovery, Xiao Lin had a new idea.
If the soul core's rotation could be eccentric, could it also be elliptical?
An ellipse had two focal points. Xiao Lin even still remembered the formula for its area.
If a soul core were elliptical—would that count as two cores, or as a "double-yolk soul core"?
Would its difficulty differ much from condensing two separate soul cores?
With this odd thought, Xiao Lin immediately consulted the well-traveled Two Dragon Kings.
Inside the spiritual space, upon hearing Xiao Lin's description, the Two Dragon Kings fell into silence again.
Why was this Xiao Lin always coming up with baffling ideas, making things complicated for them too?
With their guidance, Xiao Lin's future as a God-King level powerhouse should have been smooth sailing. But no—he had to mess with weird, convoluted notions.
Still, in their countless years of experience, they had indeed encountered soul cores similar to Xiao Lin's description.
A soul beast's cultivation was basically contained in its soul core and soul bones.
If the soul core energy was drained, then even if the beast died, no soul bone would drop.
"I once saw a Hydra. Its soul core was very complex—somewhat like what you're describing. Only, it was more like a three-yolk egg."
The Fire Dragon King's face showed a trace of memory. Back then, it had fought that Hydra for three full years before finally defeating it and absorbing its soul core energy.
That left a deep impression.
"At the time, that Hydra had no extreme attributes, and its cultivation was far below mine. But it still managed to fight me to a standstill for three days before falling behind."
Hearing this, Xiao Lin was stunned.
There was actually such a thing?
Why hadn't the Fire Dragon King saved the Hydra's soul core for him?
Xiao Lin couldn't help but feel greedy, since that soul core wasn't just strong—it was abnormally strong.
In this dragon-dominated world, if a non-dragon creature could rival a Dragon King's might, it was either gifted beyond reason or had seized a fortuitous treasure.
Honestly, Xiao Lin really wanted to see a three-yolk soul core for himself.
Just as Tang San always said: copy it first, then talk.
If he could have a three-yolk soul core, his power would surely skyrocket.
"Speaking of Hydras, I also once encountered a Three-Headed Flood Dragon. Its soul core was special too—it was a double-yolk egg soul core."
"And its two yolks would constantly shift—when one grew larger, the other shrank, then vice versa, in endless cycle."
"That Three-Headed Flood Dragon also kept shifting forms—sometimes speed-type, sometimes power-type. I too spent great effort to take it down."
The Ice Dragon King nodded heavily, even scratching at one of his scales, as though that spot still throbbed faintly from an old wound.
"All right, I get it. You two are amazing. Then tell me—what do your soul cores look like?"
Xiao Lin asked speechlessly, turning directly to the Two Dragon Kings.
(End of Chapter)