It was the height of summer, scorching midday under a blazing sun.
Throughout the continent, except for the extreme north, the climate was blisteringly hot.
Heaven Dou Royal Academy – Volcanic Mimicry Training Ground
"Hongjun, it's already midsummer. If this volcano's temperature goes any higher, even I-a Soul King—can't stay here for long,"
At the mouth of the volcano, a broad-shouldered, muscular man spoke to the red-haired boy beside him:
"We'll scale back your training intensity for the next few months. Once autumn cools the volcano, we'll resume."
Blistering waves of magma heat surged from the crater like a natural sauna.
In the time it took to say just a few sentences, the man had already wiped the sweat from his forehead four times.
"Hot? I feel fine!" said the red-haired boy cheerfully.
Standing on the edge of the crater, a purple-red glow radiated from his body. His long hair flowed in the heat waves like flames. His features, while not exactly handsome, were clean-cut and healthy. With his lean and toned figure, no one would ever believe this was the same fat and awkward Ma Hongjun from the original story.
"Uncle Xu, have you forgotten my martial soul is Fire Phoenix? I'm naturally adapted to extreme heat."
"It might be unbearable for you, but I feel great."
The guard, Xu Pan, scratched his head sheepishly and said:
"You're right. I got so caught up thinking of you as just a low-level Soul Master, I completely forgot your martial soul was Fire Phoenix."
As he spoke, envy inadvertently showed in his expression.
Fire Phoenix—a top-tier beast-type martial soul. Even with flaws, it far outclassed his own ordinary Rock-Horned Bull martial soul.
Xu Pan hadn't reached Soul King until he was over forty. For him, Soul Emperor might be the ceiling.
But this boy, Ma Hongjun, could very likely reach the legendary realm of Titled Douluo one day.
Xu Pan couldn't help but wonder—how did the Duke know someone in the Barak Kingdom would awaken with the Fire Phoenix?
As he pondered, he stood near the crater a bit longer, but the heat became unbearable. So he moved farther away, found a spot to sit, and forced himself to ignore the sweltering air to enter a meditative state.
The volcano's extreme heat made the natural energy of the area incredibly active. For those who could withstand the temperature, meditating here greatly enhanced soul power cultivation.
That vitality, combined with the mimicry effect of the terrain, was one of the key reasons Ma Hongjun could increase his soul power at a rate of nearly three and a half levels per year, even with only innate Level 9 soul power.
Three days ago—
Ma Hongjun had broken through peak Level 16 and reached Level 17, leaving only three more levels before reaching Level 20.
He was confident: within the year, he would break through.
"I'm currently seven years and seven months old. In five months, I'll turn eight. Breaking through to Grandmaster level before eight is already out of the question."
"If only I had met Uncle Xu on the day I awakened…"
He had awakened his martial soul at six years and two months.
If he had met Xu Pan the day he turned six, there might've been the slightest chance of reaching Level 20 by age eight.
"Now that I've hit Level 17, I wonder how that lord is progressing…"
A quiet courtyard—
Beneath a pavilion, Lin Rong leaned lazily against a railing, occasionally tossing pastries from a porcelain dish into the pond. Schools of koi fish swarmed in delight.
As he fed the fish, he asked casually:
"Grandpa Yu, any leads on my second soul ring?"
The old steward, sitting nearby, looked ashamed as he replied softly:
"…This old servant has failed. We still haven't received any news."
Lin Rong turned to him and smiled warmly.
"Don't blame yourself, Grandpa Yu. It's not your failure—it's that my requirements are too strict."
"Space-attribute soul beasts are already incredibly rare. And I'm asking for a plant-type with spatial attributes on top of that."
"If nothing turns up, I'll lower the standard slightly."
"Originally I asked for a soul beast between 900 and 1,000 years old—let's revise that to 800 years and up."
"If we still don't find anything, I'll head to Star Dou Forest myself and try my luck."
What Lin Rong needed for his second soul ring was a plant-type soul beast with space attributes.
Plant types were best suited for his Nine-Curved Vine Dragon, and with the martial soul's innate tier and the right soul beast, there was a high probability that the resulting soul skill would be a powerful life-saving technique.
That's exactly what Lin Rong needed to safely execute his next stage of plans.
His first soul skill—Transplanting Flowers, Grafting Trees—was too powerful to use casually. Its cooldown period was too long, making it a last-resort trump card.
Unless it was a matter of life or death, he wouldn't use it.
In the world of soul beasts, those with innate space attributes were exceedingly rare.
Only a few types were born with them; the rest were typically mutations developed later.
While plant-type soul beasts came in a wide variety, no species with innate space affinity had ever been discovered.
So far, only two categories—bamboo and gourd vine types—have been recorded to possibly mutate into space-attributed species over time.
Furthermore, the higher the soul beast's cultivation, the greater the chance for this spatial mutation to appear.
But Lin Rong's requirement that the ring be under 1,000 years made that already slim chance even lower.
That's why even after extended searching, his shadow guards still hadn't found a suitable candidate.
Lin Rong knew his demand was rather ambitious, but he had no choice.
In the Soul Master system, a full soul ring set consists of nine rings.
Of these, the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th are especially critical.
The 1st and 9th mark the beginning and end of a soul master's journey.
The 3rd and 5th are usually the first millennium and first ten-thousand-year rings, serving as key transition points.
And the 7th ring is the one that activates the martial soul avatar—perhaps the most crucial of all.
So the 3rd ring, which acts as a bridge, should ideally be obtained from a soul beast closely related to the user's martial soul.
Lin Rong's Nine-Curved Vine Dragon was a fusion mutation of Dragon Soul Vine and Thousand-Leaf Banyan.
His first ring, drawn from a Thousand-Leaf Banyan, had granted him a top-tier awakening-type soul skill.
So it would be best if his third soul ring came from the Dragon Soul Vine.
However, Dragon Soul Vine was itself a mutated martial soul and extremely unlikely to exist as a soul beast in the wild.
Therefore, Lin Rong had set his sights slightly lower: if not Dragon Soul Vine, then its base form—Skyblue Vine—would also be acceptable.
With the third ring already planned—
If Lin Rong didn't obtain a space-type soul skill in the second ring, he would have to wait until the fourth to try again.
And that would delay all of his strategic plans.
To avoid compromising the larger picture, he had to secure a space-attribute soul skill for his second ring.