Although the Raven wasn't particularly outstanding apart from its agility and that flame, he was still only a Great Soul Master, and could easily die if he wasn't careful.
Fortunately, the outcome was good.
Landing in front of the Raven's corpse, Matthew Nuo said, "Delays can lead to complications. I'll protect you while you quickly recover your state and start absorbing the spirit ring."
"Okay."
Li Qing didn't waste words and immediately sat cross-legged to recover.
This was his first time absorbing a spirit ring, and it was an over-limit absorption at that. How could Li Qing dare to be careless? He had to recover to his peak state, as there was no second chance for something like this.
"Grandpa Matthew Nuo, I'm starting."
After recovering his state, Li Qing exhaled heavily, gave Matthew Nuo a heads-up, and then guided the yellow spirit ring to fly towards himself.
Soon, the spirit ring arrived above Li Qing's head.
Without giving him any chance to react, the spirit ring suddenly descended and enveloped Li Qing, a surge of spirit power instantly flooding into his body.
In an instant, Li Qing's internal organs felt like they were burning.
The surging spirit power continuously washed over Li Qing's body. Compared to the martial soul awakening, this baptism was much more violent, and Li Qing immediately put on a face of pain.
Seeing this scene, Matthew Nuo subconsciously clenched his fists.
"Xiao Qing, hold on."
He didn't dare to say more, fearing he might distract Li Qing. He could only offer a brief, strong encouragement. At this moment, it was entirely up to Li Qing himself.
In fact, Li Qing didn't hear his encouragement at all.
Li Qing at this moment felt as if he was in a sea of fire, every inch of his skin, and even every cell, enduring an indescribable burning sensation.
Even with his physique being different from ordinary people, he could only grit his teeth and hold on. How could he possibly hear sounds from the outside world?
"Whoosh!"
After an unknown amount of time, black flames suddenly rose from Li Qing's body. He instantly turned into a black fire human, causing Matthew Nuo's face to change drastically.
This kind of phenomenon wouldn't occur when absorbing a spirit ring.
Matthew Nuo stared intently at Li Qing. His nails had already dug into his palms from clenching too hard, but he didn't notice at all. All he felt was worry for Li Qing.
After an unknown amount of time.
The black flames gradually retracted, drilling into Li Qing's body, replaced by wisps of black smoke, identical to the Raven's initial state.
Seeing this, a trace of joy finally appeared on Matthew Nuo's face.
Although he didn't know why Li Qing's martial soul absorption had such abnormalities, comparing the before and after, it seemed to be developing in a good direction for now.
"Crack!"
In a daze, Li Qing vaguely heard the sound of something breaking. Then, his spirit power began to grow rapidly, breaking through level eleven in the blink of an eye.
"It worked!"
Li Qing was overjoyed, because he knew that with the bottleneck broken and his spirit power starting to grow, it meant his spirit ring absorption was nearing its end.
Level twelve, level thirteen...
Li Qing's spirit power level only gradually slowed down after entering level thirteen. Although there was some lack of momentum, he ultimately succeeded in entering level fourteen.
And took another small step forward before it completely ended.
Li Qing opened his eyes. The spirit ring, martial soul, and even the black smoke enveloping his body all merged into him, and he returned to being that adorable little child.
"Xiao Qing, release your martial soul."
Matthew Nuo spoke impatiently. Regarding the abnormality when Li Qing absorbed the spirit ring, he already had some guesses, but he wasn't entirely sure and needed further observation.
"Okay, Grandpa Matthew Nuo."
Although Li Qing had some doubts, he agreed and got up. As his spirit power surged, he saw a crow martial soul emitting black smoke emerge from behind him.
Besides the evil black smoke, the crow martial soul reflected six colors under the sunlight.
That wasn't a crow martial soul at all; it was clearly a Raven. Li Qing's martial soul had mutated, and it was a beneficial mutation, transforming from a crow into a Raven.
"Good, good, good!"
Matthew Nuo was overjoyed and exclaimed "Good" three times. Li Qing, full of confusion, turned his head to look.
"What the heck?"
How could he not know what his own martial soul looked like? He realized the problem almost instantly and understood why Matthew Nuo was so excited.
His martial soul had actually mutated.
Rather than mutation, it was more like evolution, because even the most ordinary Raven martial soul was incomparable to a regular crow martial soul. A beneficial mutation could be called evolution.
"Martial Soul Possession!"
With a thought from Li Qing, his spirit power surged, and his martial soul merged into his body.
Black wings spread out from his shoulder blades behind him. The wingspan wasn't exaggerated, only about three meters, but it was entirely sufficient to support his small body.
Apart from that, there were no other changes.
No, that's not right, there were also wisps of black smoke.
Li Qing raised his right hand. He could clearly see the wisps of black smoke emerging from under his skin. This was the manifestation of solidified death energy. He wasn't sure if it had any special effects for now.
Constantly emitting black smoke, have I become an evil soul master?
Fortunately, the judgment of evil soul masters in Douluo Continent is based on character, not martial soul. Otherwise, with this appearance, he would definitely be the kind of person everyone wants to beat up, and even if he didn't want to, he would have no choice but to join the evil soul master faction.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh..."
Li Qing spread his wings and shot out at top speed. Just as he was about to hit a tree, his body suddenly did a 180-degree flip.
He successfully avoided the big tree and darted into the jungle.
Li Qing was flying rapidly through the jungle, constantly performing highly difficult maneuvers. However, what he considered high-difficulty actions were easily achievable with his current agility.
His agility had increased.
It wasn't just a normal increase after advancing; a world-shaking change had occurred. If it were the crow martial soul, let alone a Soul Master, even a Soul Venerate might not have this level of agility.
At this moment, he finally understood how vast the gap was between a top-tier martial soul and an ordinary one.
After a simple experiment, Li Qing flew back to Matthew Nuo's side and retracted his martial soul. However, the joy on his face lingered and wouldn't fade.
Matthew Nuo asked, "Xiao Qing, what is your first spirit skill?"
Li Qing grinned and said, "Life Burn, which is the Raven's Underworld Fire. However, I can't use Underworld Fire for self-protection; I can only release it as a spirit skill."
Matthew Nuo said exasperatedly, "You're still not satisfied with this?"
"Hehe!"
Li Qing grinned.
Life Burn could definitely be considered a divine skill because its power was determined by Li Qing's spirit power level. This meant his first spirit skill would never be outdated.
In the future, it might not be inferior to ten-thousand-year or even hundred-thousand-year spirit skills.
Moreover, with the characteristics of Underworld Fire, once it hits an enemy, it's basically over. Even if the opponent doesn't die, it will cause irreversible damage to their lifespan.
However, because of this, he wouldn't dare to use this spirit skill in normal sparring.
The effect of the spirit skill, plus the evil appearance, if he were to add a Human Emperor Banner, wouldn't he be a complete evil cultivator? Although the Raven martial soul isn't too different.