Lin Yang lightly closed his eyes. His aura gradually became enveloped in a strange stillness.
The pitch-black spirit ring was absorbed into the Nichirin Blade. The energy fluctuations during the spirit ring refinement process spread outward like waves.
Dugu Bo took a few steps back and narrowed his eyes. A trace of worry appeared in his deep green pupils.
"Boy… absorbing an 80,000-year spirit ring isn't that easy."
At this moment, the Demon God Body was already operating at full power.
Even so, the energy contained within the spirit ring rampaged through his body like a runaway horse.
Feeling the tingling numbness coming from his meridians, Lin Yang slightly furrowed his brows and pushed his Ultimate Gold Soul Core to its limit.
Energy conversion, cutting, refinement — with every rotation of the soul core, a massive amount of energy was refined and gathered into the soul core.
Everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly.
However, at this very moment, a sudden change occurred—
Whoosh!
A deafening roar suddenly rang out inside Lin Yang's mind!
The voice did not come from outside. It directly resounded within his spiritual world, filled with extreme resentment and violence.
The residual power of the 80,000-year-old Red-Feathered Golden Eagle Emperor, which had understood its fate, had remained dormant deep within the spirit ring until its death.
Like a venomous snake lurking in the shadows, it finally chose this moment and unleashed all its power.
Boom!
Lin Yang felt as if his head had been struck hard by a heavy hammer. His consciousness was instantly dragged into his spiritual world.
When he opened his eyes, a spiritual sea shining like a blazing sun floated high in the sky of his spiritual world, pouring down golden light.
Boom!
Another violent tremor followed.
A massive crack instantly appeared in his spiritual world.
The phantom of a golden eagle slipped in through the gap.
Its entire body was composed of intense deep-crimson spiritual energy. Each feather was like a sharp blade.
Its eyes were like two blazing flames, staring at the blazing sun in the sky and the small figure beneath it.
"A mere Soul Emperor—"
An aged, tyrannical, and resentful voice, like the high-pitched sound of metal scraping, echoed throughout the entire spiritual world.
"You want to refine my spirit ring? Then pay with your life!"
The residual image of the Golden Eagle Emperor descended. The storm stirred by its wings seemed as if it would tear apart the entire spiritual world.
Lin Yang looked up. There was not the slightest trace of panic in his eyes.
Suicide?
Wasn't this his home ground?
Did they really think he was just an ordinary Soul Emperor who couldn't withstand their spiritual impact?
"Behave yourself after you're dead!"
He raised his hand.
The sun in the sky suddenly emitted a dazzling light, illuminating the entire spiritual world as if it were daytime.
The phantom of the Golden Eagle Emperor let out a mournful cry.
Its wings flapped violently. The silver storm it stirred melted and disappeared like rain or snow under the scorching light.
The Golden Eagle Emperor's cries echoed for a few seconds under the blazing sun before completely falling silent.
The smoldering resentment twisted, struggled, and shattered under the scorching sun…
In the end, it transformed into countless tiny particles of light and dissolved into the spiritual sea like nutrients.
Outside world.
With the persistent resentment of the Golden Eagle Emperor gone, the refinement of the spirit ring proceeded surprisingly smoothly.
Just one hour later, Lin Yang's unstable aura rapidly stabilized.
When he opened his eyes, a pitch-black spirit ring was already obediently circling around him, emitting a restrained yet heavy aura.
The sixth spirit ring was complete!
The Red-Feathered Golden Eagle Emperor granted him a spirit skill called "Golden Flame Resonance."
Although both were amplification-type skills, because they possessed the two attributes of metal and fire, they produced an excellent synergistic effect.
Metal-Fire Resonance: Greatly amplifies the ultimate metal attribute. In the "Resonance" state, it simultaneously increases the amplification of the fire attribute by three times.
In other words, if Ultimate Gold increased by 10%, fire attribute would increase by an additional 30%.
Lin Yang suddenly had a thought.
Resonance?
Wasn't this basically the Crimson Blade?
If the amplification of Ultimate Gold was sufficient, wouldn't this spirit skill indirectly grant him Ultimate Flame?
Two birds with one stone!
Thinking of this, the corners of his mouth unconsciously curled upward.
"Lin boy, what's wrong?"
Lin Yang's abnormal behavior naturally caught Dugu Bo's attention.
While Lin Yang was absorbing the spirit ring, Dugu Bo had stayed by his side the entire time and never left.
The powerful aura of a Titled Douluo had kept most soul beasts away from this area.
Hearing Dugu Bo's question, Lin Yang couldn't hold back his laughter and grinned from ear to ear.
"It's nothing much. I just obtained a spirit skill that suits me very well."
Dugu Bo became interested and took two steps closer.
"Let me see your sixth spirit skill."
Lin Yang didn't refuse. He drew the flying sword with his other hand.
The moment the blade was unsheathed, an extremely sharp coldness quietly spread. An invisible horizontal line appeared in the air.
Dugu Bo's pupils contracted slightly. He unconsciously avoided the direction the blade was pointing.
Even with his current strength, he would definitely feel fear if that blade were pointed at him.
This kid's knife was becoming more and more terrifying.
He was certain that even a Titled Douluo wouldn't have the courage to face that knife head-on barehanded.
Those struck would die!
Lin Yang took a deep breath. His sixth spirit ring instantly shone brightly.
The Nichirin Blade trembled and let out a low hum.
The sharpness emanating from within the blade seemed ready to separate from the blade and pierce through space at any moment.
This wasn't over yet.
Lin Yang gripped the hilt tightly with both hands. Crimson patterns appeared from his forehead down to his neck.
The powerful grip created an air-explosion-like sound between his palms and the hilt.
In that instant, the pitch-black blade underwent a dramatic transformation.
It was as if magma was erupting from the back of the blade. Deep crimson light rapidly spread from the hilt, crawling along the patterns engraved across the entire blade.
In the blink of an eye, the Nichirin Blade transformed into a flaming blade. Its entire body was dyed crimson and radiated scorching heat.
Boom—
Flames ignited from the blade.
They were not ordinary orange-red flames, but streaks of golden-tinged red flames.
The surrounding air was distorted into wave-like shapes by the high temperature.
The flames on the knife were not violent. They burned quietly, yet carried the possibility of exploding at any moment and burning everything to ashes.
"A spirit skill from an 80,000-year spirit ring is truly extraordinary."
After observing carefully, Dugu Bo suddenly furrowed his brows as if he had realized something.
There was a trace of displeasure in his tone.
"If you keep strengthening it with Ultimate Gold and near-Ultimate Flame like this… Tsk. Your configuration is probably unique across the entire soul master world."
Lin Yang smiled lightly.
The Crimson Blade was a unique effect of the Nichirin Blade.
To activate the "Burning" characteristic of the Nichirin Blade, a strong grip or impact between weapons was required.
The Crimson Blade had indeed been very useful when he was weak.
However, as his strength grew — especially after the ultimate metal attribute of the Nichirin Blade was fully activated — the effect of the Crimson Blade had diminished.
After all, even with Ultimate Gold, enemies that couldn't be defeated wouldn't care about that slight "burning" effect.
However, the appearance of this sixth spirit skill brought a complete transformation to the power of the Crimson Blade.
Through the resonance of metal and flame power, the "burning" effect of the Nichirin Blade was elevated to true lethality.
One swing was both a sharp blade that could cut through everything and fierce flames that could reduce everything to ashes.
...