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Xu Tianzhen's eyes lit up as she stared at the magnificent wings behind Ye Guyi. She thought to herself, I definitely need to get a pair of wing-type external soul bones like that someday.
"Sweet, naive Xu Tianzhen. She thought it was that easy to get soul bones, let alone external, wing-type ones—she'd need a miracle-level stroke of luck for something like that."
"It's called Wings of Heaven. The soul bone ability is Dispel—it can remove both negative effects and buffs," Ye Guyi explained as she gently stroked the pure white feathers, clearly obsessed with her new soul bone and the power it gave her.
She had no intention of keeping it a secret. Everyone here had earned her trust and approval, so there was no need to hide anything.
"Dispel?"
Liu Xing clicked his tongue quietly. The name sounded simple, but the soul bone skill itself was anything but. Honestly, it was practically a god-tier ability.
It was especially devastating against support-type soul masters and evil soul masters.
"Support soul masters typically boosted their teammates with buffs, but with just one Dispel, Ye Guyi could wipe those effects away, turning support types—who already weren't fighters—into useless dead weight in battle."
As for evil soul masters with their weird and nasty tricks—curses, debuffs, and so on—most of those were also useless in front of Dispel.
That said, Dispel wasn't invincible. It had its limits. According to Ye Guyi, the ability consumed a huge amount of soul power. At her current level—soul power rank 13—she could barely pull it off once. Meanwhile, support soul masters could cast multiple buffs, so at this stage, Dispel could only be used at a crucial moment.
Still, that didn't change the fact that it was a game-changing skill.
Take Xu Tianzhen for example: when she activated her first soul skill Power of the Sun to boost herself and clashed head-on with an opponent of equal strength, if Ye Guyi used Dispel at that moment, it would strip away her buff and instantly reset her strength. And since re-casting Power of the Sun mid-fight wouldn't be fast enough, the tide of battle could shift dramatically in an instant.
Luan Yu, who'd seen it all, nodded in approval. "Impressive. No wonder it came from a Celestial Bird soul bone. The effect is totally on another level. If used well, this skill is an absolute trump card."
"So that's the soul bone skill—what about your soul skill? What does it do?" someone asked, and everyone turned their eyes to Ye Guyi again.
"My first soul skill is called Divine Hymn. It's a buff-type soul skill. Pretty decent overall," she replied.
Ye Guyi was thrilled with her soul bone skill, but a little disappointed with her first soul skill. She had hoped for an offensive one—something more in line with her personality.
Liu Xing, noticing her thoughts, smiled and said, "Buff-type is great! Liu Ying and I were actually hoping for that kind of first soul ring. That way, even when we reach Title Douluo level, our first soul skill won't become useless."
"Yeah, but it really hurts our combat ability early on. If we don't have offensive skills, kids our age could totally dominate us in fights," Ye Guyi said, frustrated. She was competitive and hated the idea of being held back just because of her skills.
Luan Yu shook her head. "With your spirit and talent, even without offensive skills, very few of your peers could suppress you. Being ahead early on doesn't mean much—what matters is who wins in the long run."
She glanced over at Liu Ying. Especially that girl—even without offensive skills, she could still crush most of her peers.
"Hehe~ My Power of the Sun is still the best! I can attack and support!" Xu Tianzhen boasted, hands on her hips and grinning with pride.
Liu Xing shook his head with a helpless smile. That girl really was lucky—she just happened to find a soul beast with the Golden Crow bloodline, perfectly compatible with her spirit. Her first soul skill couldn't have been more ideal.
Power of the Sun was truly a powerful soul skill—versatile, useful even at Title Douluo level, and strong enough to carry her through the early stages of her cultivation.
Ye Guyi's Divine Hymn, to be fair, wasn't bad either. Though it was purely support-based, it was a full-spectrum buff, and in terms of raw support power, it was actually better than Power of the Sun.
After all, it came from the top-tier holy-type soul beast, the Celestial Bird. The more focused and pure the effect, the stronger it usually was.
Divine Hymn was simple and brutal: it boosted all attributes, no exceptions.
After absorbing the Celestial Bird's soul ring, Ye Guyi's soul power jumped two levels. On top of that, she gained another level from absorbing the external soul bone—thanks to the perfect compatibility. Normally, a 400-year soul bone wouldn't give that much of a boost unless the match was perfect.
The soul power boost from a soul bone was more like a bonus—nothing compared to the jump from a soul ring. Of course, if the soul bone had a high enough age, that was a different story. But absorbing high-level soul bones required an insanely strong body.
In theory, even a Rank 1 soul master could absorb a 100,000-year soul bone—as long as their body could survive the violent surge of energy. That's the catch.
Even Title Douluos have to prepare carefully before absorbing a 100,000-year soul bone. If a Rank 1 soul master tried it, they'd almost certainly explode on the spot.
Absorbing a soul bone was dangerous business. Plenty of soul masters have been crippled—or outright killed—trying to absorb high-level ones. Arm or leg bones weren't too bad—worst case, you end up disabled. But if it's a torso or head bone, a failed absorption meant certain death.
Still, the power of soul bones—especially high-level ones—was so tempting that soul masters constantly risked their lives to pursue them.
Half a day had passed since Ye Guyi finished absorbing her Wings of Heaven. At the moment, Luan Yu and the others were crouched behind a giant tree, cautiously watching two small flying bugs up ahead, playing and dancing in the air, their bodies blazing with flames.
Ever since their encounter with that evil soul master, Luan Yu had been extra alert in the outer edge of this demonic forest. She had deployed dozens of detection-type soul tools, not even letting an ant sneak by. Every life form that got close was secretly monitored via the soul tools.
It was through this blanket surveillance that they spotted two soul beasts suitable for Liu Xing and Liu Ying—two Blazing Bugs.
Blazing Bugs were a type of energy-based life form. They fed on ambient elemental energy—especially fire—and often consumed rare fire-elemental herbs and treasures to speed up their growth.
Despite being energy creatures, they had distinct sexes. But they didn't reproduce through mating. Instead, the male would transfer energy into the female, and the female would use the combined energy to form an egg inside her body.
Blazing Bugs weren't social creatures. They usually acted alone. Their body flames burned at high temperatures, and their flight speed was insane—most soul beasts stayed far away from them.
Though they didn't have divine beast bloodlines, their energy body structure made them just as powerful as many top-tier soul beasts.
"....."