Chapter 188: Soul Bone Abilities, Tang Hao Revealed
As soon as Han Li spoke, the entire basin fell silent. Even Xiu'er looked at him strangely.
Just over a month ago, Han Li had only just reached level 69. Now, not only had he obtained an unprecedented million year seventh soul ring, but he had also jumped eight levels in one go. His soul rings and soul bones had all improved significantly, yet here he was, acting pitiful in front of them. That was a bit too much.
Even Xiu'er, usually tolerant, found it hard to accept this time.
Just as the group was gearing up to beat Han Li senseless, a voice suddenly sounded behind them.
"I heard someone calling me. Do you need something?"
Turning toward the voice, they saw a white, winged dragon like soul beast flying toward them.
"You're Tianmeng?" Guang Ling raised an eyebrow at the transformed soul beast.
"Yep! I'm Ice Dragon Tianmeng now."
The dragon, now the size of an adult human, puffed out its chest proudly.
"Alright, got it. No one was calling you. Since you're awake, go build yourself a nest."
Guang Ling gave the creature a once over, noting its current thousand year level aura, then dismissively waved it away.
Regardless of how much Tianmeng had helped, it was still a soul beast. A deal was a deal, and positions were positions those two things couldn't be mixed. If it weren't for Han Li's involvement, Guang Ling wouldn't have minded killing the creature on the spot. He hadn't forgotten that Tianmeng had tried to manipulate them into using the Spirit Hall's power to wage war against the fierce beasts in the Star Dou Forest's core region.
With that kind of scheming, it wouldn't matter if Tianmeng were a soul beast or a human Guang Ling would never accept it.
"Go ahead, but make sure your nest is big. At your current growth rate, you won't fit in the stone chamber for long. From now on, you're the guardian of this place. My promise still stands."
Han Li smiled warmly at Tianmeng, but his tone made his stance clear.
Guang Ling had spoken, and Han Li wouldn't contradict his teacher. If it came down to choosing between Guang Ling and Tianmeng, there was no contest.
Tianmeng blinked, glanced at Guang Ling, then nodded before flying away.
"He did help Han Li. You should ease up a bit."
Once Tianmeng was out of sight, Dugu Bo looked at Guang Ling with a sigh. He wasn't as bound to Spirit Hall and didn't care much about the politics of it.
"What do you know? Do you have any idea how many people Spirit Hall loses every year dealing with soul beast uprisings?"
Guang Ling shot back, immediately shutting Dugu Bo up.
"As long as human soul masters need soul rings, there will never be true peace between the two sides."
Qing Luan added. He wasn't as hot tempered as Guang Ling, but he also didn't have any goodwill toward Tianmeng.
Han Li listened to the discussion and shook his head. This wasn't a problem he could solve right now.
Technically speaking, in the future, soul beasts could be considered his people too. But at the end of the day, he was still human, with a natural bias.
Oh well, no point overthinking it now. Future me, good luck dealing with this mess.
Pushing the thought aside, Han Li decided to change the subject to lighten the mood.
"Teacher, Elder, do you remember my theory about the origins of the Ice Fire Yin Yang Well?"
"You mean the one about it being the resting place of high level dragon type soul beasts, possibly even a fallen deity?"
Dugu Bo responded quickly, glancing at the distant Tianmeng.
"Exactly. During this process, I took a deeper look and confirmed that there were indeed two dragon skeletons down there. I also managed to obtain two soul bones."
As he spoke, Han Li extended both arms, and red and white light radiated from them. Two massive dragon projections emerged, wrapping around him protectively.
"What level are these soul bones? They feel even more powerful than the one from Tianmeng."
Dugu Bo instinctively took a step back, sensing the overwhelming dragon might emanating from them.
"I'm not sure, but they're definitely stronger than Tianmeng's skull."
Han Li was well aware that he was being watched and avoided mentioning the Ice Fire Dragon Kings. He wasn't supposed to know about them.
"So these arm bones, along with Tianmeng's skull, are like your Blue Silver Emperor leg bone? They come with extra abilities?"
Guang Ling looked at Han Li's arms enviously before a thought struck him.
"Yes, but not just two extra abilities there are four."
Han Li nodded lightly and then casually dropped another bombshell.
"Holy "
The temperature in the Ice Fire Yin Yang Well suddenly spiked.
"You've got more soul abilities on your own than the rest of us combined. And you still have a bunch of self created techniques!"
Guang Ling stared up at the sky, utterly speechless. He swore that if Han Li weren't his direct disciple, he would have killed this little monster on the spot.
Using Han Li's own joking words: This kid is too dangerous to let live. If left unchecked, he'll become a disaster in the future.
"Even with more abilities, a lot of them overlap in function. It's not as big of an advantage as it seems just a boost in amplification effects."
Han Li tried to downplay it, but the grin tugging at the corner of his lips betrayed his amusement.
Han Li shook his head. The commotion he had caused this time was too big. To ensure everything went smoothly, he hadn't had the time or energy to customize and modify his soul bone abilities one by one as he had before. But this was within his expectations. After all, augmentation techniques and skill applications only had so many variations, so overlaps weren't surprising.
"The soul ring simulation from before counts as a new ability. It can also be used for creating illusions and deceiving enemies. My mental detection and attack capabilities have also improved significantly. But the biggest gain is actually mental sharing, which compensates for the previous limitation of my antennae well, now they should be called dragon horns only allowing one way communication."
A pair of small red and white dragon horns appeared on Han Li's forehead. Instead of adding to his majesty, they somehow made him look cuter. The sparkle in the eyes of the three girls was undeniable proof of that.
His mental power spread across their surroundings as he activated mental sharing, synchronizing the effect into their minds.
"How's this encrypted communication? Pretty good, right?"
Han Li's voice simultaneously echoed in everyone's minds, and the entire basin was projected seamlessly into their consciousness.
"Just this ability alone is absolutely worth it. If I had something like this, I'd be confident I could beat your Uncle Golden Crocodile."
Guang Ling's voice was the first to ring out, full of confidence.
Han Li's mental sharing was different from Huo Yuhao's. Due to his soul bones being partially linked, his mental sharing didn't just provide simple sensory synchronization.
His mental sharing displayed the enemy's soul power flow, predicted their attack trajectories, and even included an elemental vision mode.
It was like having a highly advanced tactical computer, providing detailed countermeasures. Under these conditions, fighting opponents above one's level became basic practice.
At that moment, they all shared the same experimental target: poor Tianmeng, who was still dutifully working on building his nest.
Unaware of his fate as a test subject, Tianmeng diligently continued his construction work, while the group analyzed his every movement.
"Well, now we can finally head back to Spirit City with peace of mind."
Guang Ling glanced at Han Li, then deliberately sneaked a look at Dugu Bo with a knowing smile.
He was now completely certain that Dugu Bo was no longer a match for Han Li.
"Hmm?"
Han Li hadn't turned off the mental sharing yet, so Dugu Bo immediately caught on. He felt insulted. Sure, he had a hunch he'd lose if they fought, but did Guang Ling have to be so obvious about it?
"Uh… sorry, my bad. No offense."
Guang Ling, realizing his mistake, gave an awkward smile. He was so used to provoking Dugu Bo that he had forgotten they were still mentally connected, making him lose face in front of the juniors.
Dugu Bo shot him a glare but let it slide.
He understood Guang Ling's personality well this was just his way of expressing closeness.
"What about the arm bones?"
Qing Luan changed the topic.
"Actually, the biggest improvement from my twin arm bones is in physical enhancement."
Han Li let out a wry chuckle.
His mastery of ice and fire elements had already been maxed out. So while others would receive an immense power up from these bones, for him, it felt a bit redundant.
"Of course, they also each come with two powerful offensive skills one for single targets and one for area of effect attacks."
"There are still some augmentations. They cut my elemental energy consumption by 50%, triple my attack power, and the domains they come with have significantly enhanced my Yin Yang Domain though I haven't fully tested it yet, the power should have at least doubled."
"From now on, any soul master using ice or fire elements will be lucky if they can even exert 50% of their strength against me."
Han Li was quite satisfied with this. He had essentially become the worst nightmare for ice and fire type soul masters.
Guang Ling's expression darkened the more he listened. By the time Han Li finished, his face was completely black.
Why did it feel like Han Li's new abilities countered him ten times more than they did Dugu Bo?
"Haha, stronger is better! The stronger, the better! You know, if there were a real fight, somebody might already be weaker than their own disciple."
Unlike Guang Ling, Dugu Bo's eyes gleamed with excitement. He even laughed as he spoke.
'So you like using me as the benchmark, huh?'
'Well then, let's see you laugh now, Guang Ling!'
Seeing that the two were about to start bickering again, Han Li immediately shut down the mental sharing, forcibly cutting off their argument before it could escalate.
"By the way, when I was breaking through, did anyone take notice?"
"There was a small beast tide, but thankfully, not many soul masters have been visiting recently, so nothing major happened."
"There was, however, a black robed figure who seemed to be a high level soul master. He lingered in the area, but when I released my aura, he backed off immediately. That said, it's possible he might return to investigate later."
Qing Luan answered the question. Since both Guang Ling and Dugu Bo were too well known, he had taken charge of security at the perimeter, using disguises to avoid exposing his identity.
"I'm certain he wasn't a Titled Douluo from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. He also seemed to be injured not lightly, either."
Qing Luan added after thinking for a moment.
"Is that so? Well, now that's interesting."
Han Li and Guang Ling exchanged a glance, both breaking into identical smiles.
They had a very good guess about who it was.
Given the timing, the location, and Qing Luan's description, there was a very high chance that the black robed figure was Tang Hao.
(End of Chapter)
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