Douluo Continent: The Holy Evil Emperor

Mu En looked at Ye Qing with a strange expression, and after a long silence, asked, "Why did you have this problem?"

"As a Soul Master, learning more about the Soul Master profession will help you understand the world better," Ye Qing replied.

With his knowledge of over two hundred years, Mu En could obviously tell that Ye Qing was talking nonsense, but since Ye Qing had already raised the question, as his teacher, he didn't mind explaining it to Ye Qing.

"You can absorb spirit rings even if you haven't reached the bottleneck, but the essence of spirit rings is to help spirit masters break through a bottleneck of a certain stage. The premise of breaking through the bottleneck is that you have already reached the bottleneck and you need a spirit ring slot."

“It’s not like no Soul Masters have tried before to absorb Soul Rings before reaching a bottleneck. After all, each Soul Ring contains most of the Soul Beast’s Soul Power, which allows Soul Masters to obtain a huge amount of Soul Power at once to break through their current level. Even if they don’t need the Soul Ring, they can use the Soul Power in the Soul Ring to grow quickly. But this raises another problem.”

"An empty Soul Ring slot?" Ye Qing naturally grasped the key point.

Mu En nodded: "If you force a soul ring into your body when there is no available soul ring slot, it will certainly give you a lot of soul power. However, this extra soul ring will also be forcibly integrated into your martial soul if there is no available slot. In the end, there will only be one outcome, which is that your martial soul will shatter."

"Unless you can accurately calculate the total amount of soul power in the soul ring, and make sure that it reaches the next level ten precisely when it helps you break through your soul power level, ensuring that your martial soul has an empty slot to absorb the soul ring."

"But we don't actually advocate this method. Firstly, the more perfect one's cultivation is at a certain stage, the deeper the nourishment of the soul power to the body becomes. When reaching a bottleneck, the soul rings that can be absorbed will be of a higher age, and the degree of fusion with the soul rings will naturally be higher."

"The second reason is why Soul Masters basically don't use this method to break through. If you forcibly absorb a Soul Ring before reaching your bottleneck, the Soul Power in the Soul Ring will be several times more violent than in a normal absorption state. The damage to your meridians will be devastating. Even if you are lucky enough to absorb the Soul Ring, the violent Soul Power will cause the Soul Master to enter a long period of recuperation. It will also take several times longer to completely refine the violent Soul Power."

In conclusion, it was a losing proposition.

Over the years of development in Douluo Continent, there have naturally been a few extremely rebellious contestants who wanted to do something unconventional, and absorbing spirit rings before reaching their bottleneck was one such unconventional tactic.

As it turns out, it is indeed possible to absorb a spirit ring before reaching the bottleneck. However, the spirit ring will also burst the spirit. At best, one will lose their spirit and become an ordinary person. At worst, one's life will be restarted on the spot.

Moreover, the violent energy in a spirit ring is meant to break through bottlenecks, not to increase levels. If you forcibly attach a spirit ring, all the energy in the spirit ring will be used to increase levels. When breaking through a bottleneck, the tempering effect of the spirit ring on the spirit master's body will naturally become worse.

Moreover, it takes a lot of time to completely master these soul ring energies that were originally intended to break through bottlenecks but were instead used to increase levels.

The time spent on this back and forth is actually less than the benefits that could be obtained through normal cultivation and acquiring a soul ring.

Far from being as good.

"So don't try anything new. Our predecessors have already taught us these things with bloody lessons. The only right path is to cultivate diligently step by step. Rebellious cultivation is unacceptable." Mu En earnestly instructed Ye Qing before drifting away.

Beibei is already ruined. Mu En certainly doesn't want his exceptionally talented disciple to die because he suddenly wants to do something naughty.

If someone else asked this question, Mu En would at most assume that the person was just curious about knowledge. But if it were Ye Qing, Mu En would probably really think that Ye Qing was dissatisfied with the cultivation speed of the ultimate attribute, and that his strength would leap forward every time he obtained a soul ring, so he wanted to take an unconventional approach.

Soul Masters who haven't reached the bottleneck before absorbing a Soul Ring may be lucky enough to break through to the next bottleneck, just enough to meet the minimum requirements for absorbing a Soul Ring.

If you're unlucky, it explodes on the spot.

"Come on, let's take this spirit ring!"

……

After that conversation with Mu En, Ye Qing finally understood why Zhang Lexuan could absorb a spirit ring before reaching the Soul Douluo level, and also why she stayed at level 82 for so long.

She was indeed only level 73 at this point, but it wouldn't be long before she broke through to level 74.

In this way, she only needs to absorb a 100,000-year-old soul bone to raise herself by three levels, and then absorb a 100,000-year-old soul ring to reach the bottleneck of level 80. This will allow her to perfectly accommodate these two treasures that soul masters dream of.

But then again, how could doing this be without any risk?

If the soul power of her 100,000-year-old soul ring and soul bone isn't enough to push her to level 80, then her best fate would be to become a cripple. Even if she succeeded in the original story, she still had to stay in bed for a year to recover, and it took her another four or five years to barely reach level 82.

This is the price she paid for forcibly absorbing a 100,000-year-old soul ring, and it's also the reason why her cultivation level seemed to be abnormal in the original work.

Of course, taking such a risk as Zhang Lexuan would be completely worthwhile for an ordinary Soul Master. With a 100,000-year Soul Ring and Soul Bone within reach, it's unlikely that any Soul Master would give up such immense wealth.

Even though she spent a year in bed and wasted several more years, the quality of the 100,000-year soul ring and soul bone completely made up for the gap in her cultivation during that time, giving her a much richer reward than normal cultivation.

"Hey, Sister Lexuan, it seems you can't absorb this 100,000-year spirit ring. If you do absorb it, how am I supposed to use the spirit ring in a reasonable way?"

Using the lives of your classmates to allow you to absorb a 100,000-year-old soul ring and soul bone later in life should be reasonable, right?

Ye Qing was determined to kill the Golden Hawksbill Turtle, after all, he coveted the Life Gold inside it. As for ordinary 100,000-year soul rings, Ye Qing no longer cared much about them. He might as well use one of his own 100,000-year soul beast slots to exchange for the life of this Golden Hawksbill Turtle.

When the time comes, the Gold of Life will be taken out and given to Brigitte. Brigitte can choose whether to use the Gold of Life herself or return it to the Lake of Life.

The soul rings and soul bones were to be absorbed by Zhang Lexuan.

For the sake of the stolen Spirit Gold, if Bi Ji were to keep it herself, she would most likely not tell Di Tian about it. And if she were to return it, Di Tian would make an exception and allow Ye Qing to give his Soul Ring quota to someone else.

A stolen piece of Living Gold is far more valuable to Di Tian than a 100,000-year-old soul beast, especially since it was stolen by the traitorous ninja Golden Tortoise, and Ye Qing was using the quota that was rightfully his.

As for whether the Golden Tortoiseshell's spirit rings and spirit bones are a good match for Zhang Lexuan?

Being able to absorb a soul ring and soul bone of this level is already quite good; wanting to be picky is pointless. The 100,000-year-old soul beast that Zhang Lexuan killed in the original story might not have been suitable for her.

And to be honest, if I gave Zhang Lexuan a 100,000-year-old soul beast to kill, and gave her a 100,000-year-old soul ring and a 100,000-year-old soul bone for free, she would probably offer herself to me on the spot...

"Hehe, let's keep the good stuff in the family, shall we take it?"

Chapter 113 Xuanzi: This child is terrifying beyond measure and must not be allowed to live!

For the sake of his own Five Rings Grand Tour, Ye Qing could only try to shorten his stay in Star Luo City. As soon as he returned to Shrek Academy, he couldn't wait to go find Zhang Lexuan.

To be fair, hiding his strength was a last resort. After all, his cultivation speed was indeed unreasonable, and showing his strength would expose many of his secrets, and he might even be targeted by Tang Buddha.

But he didn't really want to hide the color of his spirit rings. Why hide the strength he could obtain under reasonable circumstances?

He just didn't want to expose the secret, not that he wanted to play dumb to take advantage of others!

Be wild when you should be wild, and hide when you should hide!

Ye Qing really didn't want to keep such a cool thing as a 100,000-year spirit ring hidden away. With Shrek Academy as his background, even if he showed off his fifth 100,000-year spirit ring, Ye Qing wouldn't have to worry about being targeted.

Ye Qing also wanted to experience the awe-inspiring feeling of other transmigrators displaying their 100,000-year soul rings in front of others.

Just as Ye Qing excitedly returned to Shrek City, preparing to go to the inner courtyard to talk to Zhang Lexuan about their relationship, he saw them directly at the school gate.

"Uh, Sister Lexuan, are you guys going out to do a mission?" Ye Qing appeared next to Zhang Lexuan in a flash and asked with a curious expression.

But in reality, Ye Qing breathed a sigh of relief. Besides Zhang Lexuan, there were eight other inner court disciples present. With Ye Qing's spiritual power, which had reached the level of Boundless Ocean, he could easily sense their auras.

Of the eight inner court disciples, half had reached a bottleneck state, so it was obvious where they were going.

'Luckily, I didn't stay in Star Luo City for too long, otherwise I would have missed it!'

"Huh? It's you, Ye Qing." The sudden voice startled Zhang Lexuan, but a smile appeared on her face after she saw that it was Ye Qing.

Over the course of the year, Ye Qing and Zhang Lexuan's relationship naturally grew closer, so she became somewhat accustomed to Ye Qing's quiet appearances and understood that it was the effect of one of his soul skills.

"Yes, I just got back from outside." Ye Qing nodded. He had made some more gold coins during his trip to Xingluo City. Combined with what he had acquired before, he now had over 200 million. Xu Jiawei naturally bought as many rare medicinal herbs as he could, easily helping him reach his two small goals.

"I see." Zhang Lexuan smiled gently, her tone tinged with apology. "But I won't be able to play with you this time. I'm going to hunt souls with my classmates. If you have something to do, you should leave now."

Upon hearing Zhang Lexuan's words, a barely perceptible glint flashed in Ye Qing's eyes.

Sure enough!

Looks like I came back just in time!

"Sister Lexuan, what a coincidence!" Ye Qing feigned extreme surprise, then leaned closer to her with a grin. "I've also reached a bottleneck and need a spirit ring. Would you mind if I hitched a ride with you?"

"Huh?" Zhang Lexuan was slightly taken aback, her face showing a hint of difficulty.

She knew Ye Qing's spirit ring configuration, of course: one yellow, one purple, and two black. His third and fourth spirit rings were 20,000 and 30,000 years old, respectively. Based on this kind of leap, his fifth spirit ring would be at least a 50,000-year spirit ring.

This is just the minimum standard. If you really want to calculate it, Zhang Lexuan would believe Ye Qing even if he said he could absorb a 70,000-year soul ring.

But here's the problem: they can't defeat a soul beast of this level!

They might risk their lives, but they're there to hunt souls, not to self-destruct and die. They simply can't do anything about Ye Qing's soul rings!

At this moment, a sweet-looking senior from the inner court squeezed in next to Zhang Lexuan: "Sister Lexuan, since your brother is going to hunt souls together, why don't you take him along? Anyway, helping an outer court brother hunt souls won't take much time."

"Jingjing, stop making a fuss." Zhang Lexuan helplessly pressed her head down and patiently explained her previous thoughts.

"So for my brother's fifth spirit ring, he needs to acquire at least a 50,000-year-old one, and it must be from a top-tier light-attribute spirit beast. Are you sure you can defeat a spirit beast with that kind of combat power?"

The girl called 'Quiet' was immediately speechless. She had originally thought that adding a handsome younger brother wouldn't be a big deal, but she never expected Ye Qing to be so extraordinary!

It's true that Ye Qing often went to the inner courtyard to see Zhang Lexuan, but they only knew that Ye Qing was Zhang Lexuan's younger brother, and they didn't know Ye Qing's specific soul ring configuration. Just like when Huo Yuhao was causing trouble in the outer courtyard, basically no inner courtyard students knew him.

Inner court disciples rarely concern themselves with outer court affairs, especially since Ye Qing is extremely low-key.

"So, you'll have to go back and ask Dean Yan to take you on. We don't have the ability to help you hunt souls." Zhang Lexuan turned her head, her tone tinged with apology.

Sigh, I can't play with my younger brother, nor can I help him hunt for souls. What a pity.

Ye Qing blinked, and in a flash, she found an excuse: "Wait a minute, don't you guys have teachers protecting you when you go out to hunt souls? Who's the teacher in charge this time? Why don't I just ask that teacher if I can hitch a ride?"

Genji, secretly drinking: ...

"This kid." Xuanzi put down his wine gourd, his expression changing.

(Xuanzi: If we bring this kid into the team and let the soul beasts kill him, I believe the Holy Church will lose a huge obstacle in the future. Such a young Soul King with extreme attributes, this kid is terrifying and must not be allowed to live. He must be eliminated!)

Since you've delivered yourself right to my doorstep, don't blame me for increasing my sales targets, hehehehe~

"Take him with you."

The four light words reached Zhang Lexuan's ears, and Zhang Lexuan, who was almost persuaded by Ye Qing's relentless pestering, immediately relaxed.

Of course, Xuanzi didn't want to kill Ye Qing. He felt that he was strong enough to protect them, and helping Ye Qing obtain a spirit ring would be a piece of cake. That's why he readily agreed.

He was also quite curious to see just how capable this promising young talent, whom Elder Mu believed was destined to become a Limit Douluo, really was.

“Alright, since you’re coming, let’s come together. Our team leader this time is Elder Xuan, and he’s already agreed to take you along,” Zhang Lexuan said to Ye Qing. The sweet girl who had been mute next to her also lit up.

And so, Ye Qing smoothly entered the Soul Hunter team, successfully taking his first step towards the Fifth Ring Grand Tour.

"Hello everyone, my name is Ye Qing, a third-year student in the outer academy, with a soul power level of 50. I am a light-attribute power attack type soul master and I need my fifth soul ring." After joining the team, Ye Qing introduced himself with a smile.