There was no soul skill granted, rather, it manifested as a type of innate talent.
Explosion Lv3 (Innate Talent, channels soul power into the right foot, delivering a kick as if shattering the heavens, the sound echoing across the land. It deals unimaginable explosive damage to enemies.)
This talent revealed several useful insights:
- Soul skills granted by soul bones are categorized as innate talents.
- A soul bone from a thousand-year-old beast provides a Level 3 talent—one tier higher than a century-old soul bone.
- This confirmed Fang Ling's previous theory, comparing it to the soul ring system.
- The description revealed that the One-Eyed Giant-Horned Antelope had a kick-based explosive ability.
- It was likely capable of using this ability with all four hooves.
Thinking about this, Fang Ling couldn't help but feel a bit of lingering fear.
Fortunately, he had instinctively chosen to flee when facing such a powerful soul beast.
In the end, he hadn't given it a chance for a desperate counterattack.
Had he been kicked by that thing, he might've really died on the spot...
Pushing aside those what-ifs, Fang Ling focused again on his talents.
The number of talents was growing.
Some existing ones had also undergone changes.
Perhaps it was because the One-Eyed Giant-Horned Antelope was extremely stubborn—or maybe that stubbornness was just in a goat's nature.
It had chased Fang Ling for several hundred kilometers just because he looked at it the wrong way in the woods.
Eventually, he lured it into a crevice in the mountain and killed it, but not without resistance.
The frustration of being powerful yet helpless, of a dragon stuck in shallow waters dying to an ant, it was easy to imagine how agonizing that must've felt.
Because of this, a trace of resentment remained within the soul bone.
During the absorption process, that lingering resentment caused chaos.
Fang Ling hadn't yet opened his spiritual sea and wasn't capable of consciously using spiritual power.
But with sheer determination and through the bridge of soul power, he fought a fierce internal battle in his right leg, the battlefield.
It was dangerous, but also a rare opportunity. His mental strength and willpower were tempered like never before.
After winning, the "Warrior's Will" talent unexpectedly leveled up.
Warrior's Will Lv3 (Innate Talent: A resilient combat will born from intense life-or-death battles. Allows temporary immunity to pain's physical effects. A firm heart capable of enduring solitude. Increases internal soul power circulation speed by 15%.)
Ever since acquiring this talent, its progress had always come suddenly and unpredictably.
But it could be seen as a mental transformation, a strengthening of willpower.
Fang Ling fell into thought.
Perhaps in the future, to upgrade "Warrior's Will" again, he'd have to deliberately challenge the limits of his mind?
In plain terms: seek death.
Push himself to the edge, as long as he didn't actually die.
Fang Ling frowned, he wasn't thrilled with that idea.
It contradicted the principles that had kept him alive up to this point.
Better to wait until he truly hit a bottleneck.
If that time came, he'd have no choice.
But by then, he figured his strength would be absurdly high.
Even if he took risks, it wouldn't be easy to kill him.
As Fang Ling advanced from Soul Master to Grand Soul Master, a change occurred in the talent section of his status panel.
A special hidden talent at the bottom, previously gray and nearly invisible, brightened slightly, and three new words appeared:
Special Talent → Special Talent (In the process of fusion):
That's right, it ended with a colon, trailing off.
Everything else remained unclear. It likely required a higher level before fully unlocking.
The phrase "in the process of fusion" implied that some unknown force was merging with Fang Ling or his scythe martial soul.
It sparked the imagination.
He let his thoughts wander for a moment, then shook his head.
There wasn't enough information to draw conclusions.
Even if it eventually evolved into something game-changing, that was a matter for the future.
No need to dwell on it now.
A clear heart knows no worry.
Brushing aside unnecessary thoughts, under the bright moonlight and using his upgraded Weakness Detection-enhanced vision, Fang Ling scanned his surroundings carefully.
Seeing no soul beasts lurking in the dark, he finally allowed himself to fall into a light sleep.
At times like this, getting proper rest and maintaining sharpness was more crucial than ever.
In the Star Dou Great Forest, even a moment's negligence could mean life or death.
The next morning...
Fang Ling casually hunted two reckless century-old soul beasts that attacked him.
With increasingly refined control over his polearm war scythe, he rewarded each beast with a curse blade strike, filling in the final four points.
Then, he immediately upgraded his martial soul to Level 4.
The panel changed rapidly:
Martial Soul: Polearm War Scythe (Lv4, 0%) (A scythe martial soul that has undergone one evolution… A slightly below-average mid-tier martial soul)
Talents:
- Sharpness Lv4 (Martial Soul Innate Talent: The enhanced edge can now cut through fine iron armor. Finally starting to resemble a true combat weapon.)
- Toughness Lv4 (Martial Soul Innate Talent: Durability and flexibility are moderately improved. It is no longer easily damaged by enemy martial souls.)
The moment his martial soul leveled up, the lingering strange sense of weakness faded away like a spring breeze.
The "pseudo" tag at Lv3 had disappeared.
Gripping the scythe's long handle again, Fang Ling felt a newfound weight and substance.
It was as if he could feel every subtle pulse of the weapon, like it was connected to his very bloodstream.
A powerful impulse surged within him: to face off head-on against thousand-year soul beasts.
He felt like he could do it again.
They say power leads to arrogance, and it really does.
Although Fang Ling was pleased, he wasn't fooled.
He wasn't stupid. This was just an inflated sense of confidence from a rapid increase in power.
If he could suppress the urge to immediately use his soul bone, resisting this was nothing.
The descriptions of the two martial soul talents weren't particularly special.
But they gave him more confidence in fighting other powerful martial souls.
With that, his journey in the Star Dou Great Forest had come to its end.
It had been a massive success.
He not only advanced to a two-ring Grand Soul Master, but also evolved his soul from a farming sickle into a double-bladed polearm war scythe.
He gained the high-damage soul skill Curse Blade, and the Absorption and Weakness Detection talents.
His Warrior's Will, which affected casting speed, had been boosted by 15%.
Most importantly, he acquired an external soul bone:
The Right Foot Bone of the One-Eyed Giant-Horned Goat!
The explosive kick skill suited his high-speed, burst-style combat perfectly.
He couldn't be greedy, it was time to return.
His teacher and others had likely left the forest and were probably worried about him.
Fang Ling understood that too much ambition leads to failure.
He couldn't, and shouldn't, stay any longer.
On the way back, he could casually deal with any foolish beasts that crossed his path.
He wouldn't touch thousand-year soul beasts, but taking down a few century-level ones would be easy.
As long as no one saw, the environment would naturally consume the soul beast corpses quickly.
Even if someone did, he was only defending himself.
No one could hold that against him.
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