Chapter 7: Six Hundred Years of Azure Vine
Star Dou Great Forest, mixed area.
Mu Ci followed Mu Changsheng, looking around, alert to any soul beasts that might appear. Even though he was following a Soul Douluo, he couldn't help but feel a little fear towards this vast world of soul beasts.
Now he is in the mixed zone, not far from the core area. No one knows better than him how many terrifying creatures are hidden in that place.
Even the weakest one among them would be in a deadly situation if he was encountered by them while strolling out.
In the boundless ancient forest, ancient trees with a diameter of several meters rise into the sky. The huge treetops block out the sun, making the space below extremely dim, as if it has already entered evening.
The dim and dense jungle is simply a paradise for predators. Compared with it, the Soul Hunting Forest that Mu Ci once passed by is like the difference between a ten-year-old wind baboon and a hundred-thousand-year-old Titan ape.
As the two continued to move forward, Mu Ci saw more and more soul beasts, including the thousand-year-old earth explosive bears fishing in the river, groups of god-killing wind baboons, and shadowy wolves with green eyes but no visible bodies in the gloomy jungle.
Everything he saw and heard gave Mu Ci a more real perception of the world.
His original understanding of this world was nothing more than the words in the novels of his previous life.
Even though he had traveled here, everything except the family he lived with day and night seemed unreal to Mu Ci.
However, at this moment, the uniqueness of the Star Dou Great Forest broke into Mu Ci's five senses.
What you smell in your nose is an ancient scent that has been deposited for thousands of years, and what you see with your eyes are plants and animals that can subvert your entire cognition of the previous life.
The vastness and diversity of the world gave Mu Ci a preliminary understanding of the concepts of life and abundance.
Inside Mu Ci's body, the Abundant Jianmu tree glowed faintly, barely perceptible.
After following Mu Changsheng for about half a day, they arrived at a forest covered with green vines.
Thousands of green ribbons hang down, and the swaying branches are like giant green pythons, catching prey that comes here. The corpses of soul beasts underneath are piled up like mountains, emitting an unbearable smell.
Mu Changsheng and Mu Ci stood down, and an ancient green tree appeared behind them. The aura of an 88-level Soul Douluo burst out, and the majesty of the Eternal Heaven Tree intimidated the entire Azure Ivy Forest.
Compared with animal soul beasts, the difference in the quality of plant bloodlines is more serious.
If Mu Changsheng's cultivation level were converted into that of a soul beast, he would be a plant king of at least 80,000 years old.
Mu Changsheng saw that the vine forest showed no signs of movement under the pressure of his soul, so he said to Mu Ci.
"This forest of Azure Ivy was discovered by your great-grandfather's generation. There was originally an Azure Ivy King that was over 50,000 years old, but your great-grandfather hunted it down to make his eighth spirit ring. The remaining Azure Ivy, which is thousands of years old, was left behind."
"The Azure Ivy has strong vitality and is very tenacious, making it a perfect tree for our family's Eternal Heaven Tree."
Mu Changsheng looked around the Azure Ivy Forest, which had long since surrendered, for a soul beast of the right age.
After a while, Mu Changsheng found a 400-year-old Azure Ivy among the many Azure Ivy. With a flick of his finger, a ray of green soul power blasted its roots, revealing its fragile core.
"Xiao Ci, use the weapon you have prepared to cut off its roots and absorb its spirit ring."
"This one is just the right age. The age of an Azure Ivy can be judged by its diameter. Over a thousand years, its diameter increases by one centimeter every hundred years, and this one is exactly four centimeters."
Mu Ci listened to his grandfather's explanation, but shook his head and pointed to another tree nearby and said, "Grandpa, I think this one that's over 600 years old is more suitable for me."
"Nonsense, absorbing a spirit ring is no small matter. The first spirit ring of around 400 years old is the best age recognized by all soul masters over the past thousands of years. Don't be too ambitious. It's not that there were no soul masters who wanted to absorb spirit rings of higher ages in the past, but most of them exploded and died."
When Mu Changsheng heard that his grandson actually had the audacity to want to absorb soul rings beyond the limit, his gray brows immediately frowned and he scolded him.
Mu Ci was not surprised to hear his grandfather's objection, but for the sake of his own future, he was still prepared to persuade him with reason.
"Grandpa, I have read the books in your study, and I also know the precautions for absorbing spirit rings."
"I remember the records above, that the absorption of spirit rings under ten thousand years old is similar, and the main thing is to withstand the impact of the soul power from the spirit ring."
"And this is clearly written in the book. The stronger the soul master's physical fitness at each stage, the longer the spirit ring age he can absorb."
"This can also be proven by the fact that powerful beast Spirit masters always need to absorb more years than fragile weapon Spirit masters."
Mu Ci saw that his grandfather's expression had relaxed a little, as if he had thought of something. He was delighted and continued, "Grandpa, ever since I read that book, I have been working hard to train my body. Everyone has seen it."
"If you don't believe me, you can test it yourself. It's definitely not inferior to a level 20 Great Soul Master."
After saying that, Mu Ci stretched out his arm towards his grandfather, waiting for him to examine his body.
This is not because Mu Ci is confident in his training methods. Three years of hard training have only made him slightly stronger than his peers. Absorbing a soul ring that is over 500 years old is the limit.
He was mainly confident in the whale glue he ate before leaving. It was high-quality whale glue that he had asked the Seven Treasure Chamber of Commerce to buy with his pocket money over many years. It was at least three or four thousand years old, and it was definitely more than enough to increase the absorption limit by a hundred years.
Mu Changsheng still frowned, reached out and pulled his grandson over, and the green soul power began to fluctuate up and down in Mu Ci's body.
The more he examined, the more surprised Mu Changsheng's face became. He found that what his grandson said was right. His physical fitness was no worse than that of a quasi-Great Soul Master who had not yet absorbed the second soul ring.
Mu Changsheng had a lot of thoughts in his mind. Could it be that after a few years of training, his physical fitness would be able to catch up with that of a Great Soul Master, or was it that his grandson's training method was more effective?
"Well, your body is indeed as you said, no worse than that of a Great Soul Master. I can let you try."
"But let me be frank. If you have any questions, I will interrupt you immediately. I would rather you get hurt than anything happen to you."
Mu Changsheng finally agreed with his grandson's idea. He had also calculated in his mind and found that absorbing the six hundred year old soul ring was risky, but worth a try.
Once successful, the first soul ring of six hundred years will definitely be far superior to all known soul masters, and the future path will be visibly bright.
If I can find a soul bone for Mu Ci before he reaches the second ring, I might as well give the second ring of the millennium a try.
Mu Changsheng made up his mind, turned around and waved his hand towards the six hundred year old Azure Ivy. The huge soul power light made its roots explode like its fellow clansmen.
Mu Ci nodded solemnly to his grandfather, and with a serious expression, he swung the knife at the exposed root core.
His life was threatened, and even in a subdued state, its body began to twitch, trying to gain a chance of survival.
But with Mu Changsheng around, how could there be any accidents when hunting a hundred-year-old soul beast? Under the powerful soul pressure, let alone a hundred-year-old Azure Ivy, even a thousand-year-old one would be unable to move.
In less than a moment, the Azure Ivy stopped twitching and its breath dissipated.
Intense soul power emanated from the corpse, swirling and condensing in the sky, forming a deep yellow soul ring.
Mu Ci looked at the soul ring hovering in the air, took a deep breath, and sat cross-legged in front of it.
He raised his hands and summoned the Abundant Jianmu Spirit. A faint cyan-gold light floated in his palms, forming a small tree the size of a palm.
Mu Ci stared at the soul ring not far away and began to use meditation to pull the soul ring, so that it could be connected with the Spirit.
Under the pull of the Spirit, the soul ring began to move to the top of Mu Ci's head, slowly moving up and down.
At the same time, Mu Ci only felt a huge amount of soul power injected into his meridians, like boiling magma, and the bones all over his body made crackling sounds under the pressure of the soul power.
However, although the soul power of six hundred years was huge, it was still within the tolerable range. In less than a moment, the scorching soul power began to cool down, and as the Spirit instinctively circulated around the body, the body began to grow under the promotion of the soul power.
Mu Changsheng stared at his grandson's body intently, not daring to be careless in the slightest.
He found that Mu Ci's panel turned red immediately after absorbing the energy, which scared him so much that his whole body flashed with green light and he wanted to interrupt the absorption directly.
But he calmed down after a moment. It only looked scary. After carefully observing Mu Ci's face and expression, he found that it was far from unbearable. Then he slowly restrained his soul power.
He walked aside and sat down, his huge spiritual power covering an area of one kilometer in radius, alerting him to any danger.
Although Mu Changsheng had absolute confidence in his own strength, and his level 88 soul power was enough for him to move freely in this area, he still had to be extremely alert just in case.
[end of the chapter]