A few hours later.
Yang Yunhai followed Chang Gong Ao to a sunken valley.
The sound of rushing water could already be faintly heard before they even got close.
"That green one is it," Chang Gong Ao said, lifting his chin slightly as he spoke and summoned his martial soul.
In the next second, his gaze turned sharp. He raised his longbow, soul power surged around him, and in the blink of an eye, a long arrow formed on the drawn string.
Whoosh! The arrow shot out like a meteor.
Immediately after, his movements were fluid and continuous. In just a single breath, seven arrows flew in succession like a sudden storm, shooting rapidly toward the front.
Thud thud thud! Each arrow embedded itself into the roots of the emerald green vine about a hundred paces away.
Rustle rustle rustle! Leaves trembled violently, dirt flew from the ground, and thick vines twisted and surged out.
Damn, Yang Yunhai felt his scalp tingle as he watched the vines writhing out from the soil.
A vivid scene flashed in his mind, someone walking along a path suddenly being grabbed and dragged away by a vine.
It was his first time witnessing the attack method of a soul beast like the Skygreen Vine. This was truly an eye-opener.
To be safe, he silently made a vow: if he ever encounters a plant-type soul beast again, he'd attack from a distance and never engage in close combat.
Plant-type soul beasts might have expansive root systems and far-reaching vines, but very few could move on their own. That was their biggest weakness.
In addition, plant-type soul beasts were generally weak to lightning, which worked to his advantage.
It was the same for soul masters, staying nimble and cautious was the safest strategy. Thinking of Tang San's many techniques, he added another silent note to himself.
As he thought, Chang Gong Ao put away his martial soul and said confidently, "Yunhai, it's done. Go ahead."
As captain of the patrol team, no one knew the weaknesses of the soul beasts in this Soul Hunting Forest better than he did, nor had more experience in hunting them.
"Alright, thank you, Uncle Ao," Yang Yunhai replied, snapping back to focus. He looked ahead, the vines now lay trembling weakly on the ground, occasionally twitching feebly. Though plant-type soul beasts of a hundred years had already developed hunting instincts, they were still far from being truly intelligent. Normally, only those that had reached the ten-thousand-year mark could develop consciousness.
This was also why soul shock only occurred when absorbing ten-thousand-year soul rings.
So, the Skygreen Vine before him couldn't possibly be playing dead. Every action it made was purely instinctive.
With this in mind, Yang Yunhai grabbed his spear and strode forward.
Chang Gong Ao had originally prepared a bow for him, but since Yang Yunhai had no training with it, he opted for a standard spear instead.
He had, after all, practiced throwing spears.
Tap tap tap,his footsteps quickened, and once within six meters, Yang Yunhai raised his spear and threw it.
Thud! The tip struck the wound at the root precisely.
Rustle. The ground vines trembled weakly, then went completely still. A yellow soul ring floated up.
"Pretty accurate!" Chang Gong Ao was surprised. Yang Yunhai had told him before he'd trained with spears, but he hadn't really believed it.
A Blue Silver Grass user? Why would he practice spears?
While Chang Gong Ao pondered, Yang Yunhai had already sat down cross-legged and summoned his martial soul to draw in the soul ring.
Seeing this, the previously calm Chang Gong Ao couldn't help but tense up. His face showed visible concern.
His eyes widened slightly as he stared at Yang Yunhai, visibly nervous.
Drawn by the martial soul, the soul ring floated quickly above Yang Yunhai's head, then shrank rapidly to the size of a golden bracelet and descended to fuse with the Blue Silver Grass on his abdomen.
In the next moment, Yang Yunhai's body trembled violently.
Seeing this, Chang Gong Ao's fists clenched almost instantly. He murmured, "The soul ring's energy has entered his body. Yunhai, hang in there!"
On the other side, heat, that was Yang Yunhai's first sensation. A surge of energy as scorching as molten lava rushed into his body. Part of it spread through his limbs, while the rest flooded his meridians like a wild horse running loose.
Agony. It felt like his meridians would melt and explode at any moment.
Absorbing a soul ring above one's level is definitely not as easy as I imagined,Yang Yunhai gritted his teeth, enduring the pain.
He had practiced lightning tempering on his body, which sounded cool, but wasn't as effective as expected. Noting City had about 60–80 rainy days a year, similar to southern cities in his previous life. Each time he could only endure two lightning strikes, and then needed four days to recover. That meant a maximum of 20 lightning sessions per year, totaling 40 strikes.
Over two and a half years, that was less than 100 strikes.
And that didn't include days he missed due to accidents.
Even if actively absorbing lightning energy during cultivation was slightly more efficient than passive absorption, he didn't feel it made a huge difference.
After all, he came from an ordinary background. His parents likely didn't have lightning-attributed martial souls.
So, he had long suspected that his martial soul's lightning attribute came from his soul crossing over after being struck by lightning in his previous life, a sort of acquired trait.
This meant his body hadn't inherited any lightning-type bloodline like the Thunder Hell Vine.
As a result, his martial soul and body weren't perfectly compatible, in fact, they clashed. This might be why his innate soul power was so low.
His body lacked affinity with lightning and had low natural resistance. Plus, the Blue Silver Grass itself was inherently weak.
So even though he could attract lightning, the energy he could absorb each time was pitifully small. And each time left lingering damage that needed long recovery.
Sigh... Bloodline really does set a baseline. These past years, he had basically been building lightning resistance from scratch.
As for why he hadn't died from the lightning yet, it was likely because he had lightning energy in his body, making him a sort of human lightning rod. The electricity simply passed through him and into the ground, with only a tiny fraction remaining in his body, far from fatal.
Naturally, this meant limited improvement to both cultivation and physical conditioning.
Besides, he barely got struck a few dozen times per year.
In the original story, the Shrek Seven Devils at least had Yu Xiaogang's medicine baths for assistance. But him? A poor commoner. No money, no formula. Even villages with multiple soul masters couldn't afford it, how could he?
No cultivation method either. As for soul bones? Forget it.
In the end, I'm just a regular kid who's only cultivated for two and a half years, Yang Yunhai thought bitterly.
If this were any other poor kid without lightning training, no matter how hard they worked out, they might not even survive absorbing a "perfect-age" soul ring.
Let alone absorbing one above their level.
Two and a half years of training, trying to absorb a 400-year-old soul beast's ring, how could that possibly be easy?
And he even wanted to go above that. It felt absurd in hindsight.
Still, if I succeed in absorbing it, my physical foundation will no longer be as weak. With this first soul ring, even if cultivating gets harder with progress, it should be easier than before, right?
With that hope, his will surged.
After enduring so much lightning pain, would I still be afraid of the energy from a less-than-500-year soul ring? He gritted his teeth and pushed his soul power harder.
Time passed. Who knew how long.
"Huh?" His mind suddenly lit up. Strangely, Yang Yunhai seemed to see himself immersed in a sea of fire.
And at the center of this sea, a tender Blue Silver Grass swayed in the flames, looking lively.
"Internal vision!?" Yang Yunhai immediately recalled how Tang San had experienced this when absorbing his first soul ring.
Tang San had also awakened the ability to view his internal state at that moment.
Could this be an ability granted to all soul masters who successfully obtain their first soul ring? he wondered.
Looking closer, under the fire's heat, the Blue Silver Grass began to change. Its once-thin leaves elongated and thickened. Through the smooth surface, you could vaguely see dense inner fibers. The light blue color deepened into a bluish green.
The pale markings on the surface remained, though they stretched longer and finer.
Time ticked by, and the surging heat inside him gradually faded.
Soon, fifteen minutes passed.
The heat completely disappeared, leaving behind a warm, soothing sensation.
"I did it!" Yang Yunhai couldn't contain his joy and slowly opened his eyes.
"I knew it!" Not far away, Chang Gong Ao's face lit up with excitement as he rushed over, laughing:
"Yunhai, congratulations! I knew you could do it! Haha, you nearly scared me to death just now. Your skin even started cracking from the pressure."
"Then I was really lucky. It hurt a lot during the process," Yang Yunhai said with a smile, then bowed deeply.
"Uncle Ao, thank you. If you hadn't helped me hunt and stood guard for me, I wouldn't have obtained this soul ring."
"Haha, it was nothing!" Chang Gong Ao grinned. "So? How much did your soul power rise? What soul skill did you get?"
"Level 11, and not far from 12," Yang Yunhai replied cheerfully.
Unlike Tang San, he didn't have Xuan Tian Gong or built-up inner power before awakening his martial soul. And since the soul ring wasn't excessively high in age, he was very satisfied with this improvement.
"As for the soul skill..." he said, raising his right hand to summon his martial soul. Channeling soul power, he gave it a light flick.
In the next moment, the Blue Silver Grass shot out at incredible speed, transforming into a bluish-green vine that flew over 60 meters to wrap around a giant tree.
Thud! It coiled like a snake up the trunk.
Within a few breaths, the vine had tightly wound up more than ten meters of the tree's height.
"That long? Just like a real Skygreen Vine," Chang Gong Ao said in amazement.
Yang Yunhai nodded. "My first soul skill is called Stretch. As long as I have enough soul power, it has no length limit."
"Because my martial soul is Blue Silver Grass, and the ring came from a Skygreen Vine of decent age, the energy cost is low. Plus, the vine's toughness is outstanding."
With that, he clenched his fingers and tugged the vine hard.
_Crack!_ The bark shattered, and even the thick trunk caved slightly.
Binding, do I need a soul skill for that? Isn't that a basic trait of all vine-type plant soul beasts? Didn't my martial soul just inherit that? If Tang San were here, Yang Yunhai would've said it aloud.
Obviously, Blue Silver Grass and Skygreen Vine were both plants, a perfect match.
So in this fusion, his martial soul nearly perfectly inherited the Skygreen Vine's qualities.
The Skygreen Vine was famous for its toughness and stretchability, hunting by binding.
After absorbing the soul ring, toughness was inherited passively, while stretchability became an active soul skill requiring soul power.
As for binding, all vine-type plants naturally coil around obstacles as they grow. As soul beasts, this evolved into instinctive hunting behavior, etched into their genetic code like a built-in feature.
So, he inherited it passively.
Tang San, on the other hand, had a plant-type martial soul but absorbed a snake-type soul ring. Snakes are long, flexible, venomous, and rely on constriction to kill prey. So Tang San's soul ring fused with Blue Silver Grass to create an active soul skill.
Because the soul ring came from an animal, which lacks high extendability, Tang San's first skill had a release range of only 50 meters.
In short, Tang San inherited animal traits; Yang Yunhai inherited plant traits.
Since both his martial soul and soul ring were plants, Yang Yunhai could fully inherit all the Skygreen Vine's excellent qualities, including binding. But Tang San couldn't, snake fangs, scales... these were exclusive animal traits and had no overlap with plants.
Animals are animals. Plants are plants. Different species entirely.
Of course, this was all Yang Yunhai's theory based on his own feelings after gaining the first soul skill.
"Such power! Looks like your physical strength also increased a lot," Chang Gong Ao said in amazement.
"Well, it was a higher-level soul ring after all," Yang Yunhai chuckled.
"Haha, true." Chang Gong Ao laughed heartily, then looked at the sky. "There's still some time before sunset. If we hurry, we can return to the outpost tonight and won't have to camp out. Let's go."
"Okay," Yang Yunhai nodded and followed.
Time passed, and by late night, they finally arrived at the outpost.
They ate and drank heartily, then went to sleep.
The next morning, Yang Yunhai said goodbye to Chang Gong Ao, left the forest, and headed to the station to retrieve his small yellow horse.
Mounting it, he set off on his journey home.
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