Compared to the reckless Erming, Daming was relatively wise.
He understood the immense power required to instantly kill the Emperor Golden Lion Beast, and recklessly approaching it would likely cost him his life.
Thus, he specifically warned other soul beasts not to venture too close to that area, allowing only a few scout soul beasts with both stealth and reconnaissance abilities to investigate the edges of that region.
Only the strongest scout soul beast managed to see a manifestation of You Chen from a distance, confirming his identity as a Soul Master before relaying the information back.
Erming was rushing over at full speed, but although the core area was not large, it was already on the edge of the core zone. Even at full speed, it would take at least half an hour to arrive.
And half an hour?
For You Chen, who had already absorbed a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring, this absorption process was even more effortless than the last time.
In just about twenty minutes, You Chen successfully completed the absorption of the Spirit Ring.
With the addition of this fourth ring's hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring, the overall age of You Chen's second body surpassed that of the first body, while the soul power level of the second body in its normal state reached level 50.
You Chen glanced at the corpse of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast; the Spirit Bone drop rate of such top-tier soul beasts was extremely high. Just like the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear, it would definitely drop an external Spirit Bone, and the Emperor Golden Lion Beast was no exception.
A gleaming golden left palm bone appeared among the remains.
You Chen did not absorb it on the spot; instead, he stored it along with the corpse and then dismissed all manifestations, using the Aura Concealment Art to hide himself again.
By the time Erming arrived, he had long since vanished without a trace.
...
During the process of self-formulating soul skills, You Chen noticed that, unlike before, the energy from the hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring was abundant enough to condense two soul skills. However, there was also an option to concentrate all the energy into a single soul skill, which would grant it greater strength.
Yet, the latter option felt somewhat elusive.
As You Chen was condensing the soul skill, he realized that before the Spirit Ring's age broke through the hundred-thousand-year mark under the system's items, perhaps due to insufficient compatibility, the interference of his self-formulated soul skill secret method was somewhat weakened, causing this Spirit Ring to naturally begin condensing into a single soul skill.
However, after breaking through the hundred-thousand-year mark, it naturally inclined towards giving birth to a second soul skill rather than continuing to enhance the first one.
It seemed that the world's rules favored the emergence of two relatively weaker hundred-thousand-year soul skills rather than a single stronger one, close to the power of a ferocious beast's Spirit Ring soul skill.
Thus, this natural development occurred.
Fortunately, at the beginning, this Spirit Ring was only a ninety-thousand-year Spirit Ring, which had already taken the first step towards generating the first soul skill, making it easier for You Chen to guide the outcome towards generating just one soul skill.
Ultimately, under You Chen's deliberate interference, from the various possible soul skills that could be born from the Emperor Golden Lion Beast, he nurtured the only hundred-thousand-year soul skill, "Emperor Golden Body."
This was a soul skill completely constructed from the Spirit Ring itself, without involving or calling upon You Chen's Martial Soul attributes.
In other words, this was a soul skill that did not tap into the power of the Martial Soul itself but directly inherited the abilities of the soul beast.
Generally speaking, such soul skills would be noticeably inferior to the effects exhibited by the soul beast during its lifetime.
After all, it was unlikely that a counterfeit soul skill, completely unrelated to one's own Martial Soul, would outperform the original.
However, perhaps because You Chen used a time card to elevate the Spirit Ring's age to a hundred thousand years and supplied all the energy that should have birthed two soul skills to this one, in terms of effect, this soul skill was already on par with the performance of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast itself.
Using this soul skill would enter the Emperor Golden Body state, granting immunity to attacks below divine level for 5 seconds, with a massive amplification of power during the 5 seconds of invincibility and the 10 seconds following the end of invincibility. It could be used a maximum of 3 times per day.
The bloodline of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast far surpassed that of the trashy Soft Bone Rabbit, so the original effect of the Emperor Golden Body was much stronger than that of the Invincible Golden Body.
However, You Chen speculated that if the Emperor Golden Body had been generated according to the initial dual hundred-thousand-year soul skill steps, it would likely have only 3 seconds of invincibility, with the additional effects being merely enhancements.
Moreover, the duration of the power amplification state and the number of times the Emperor Golden Body could be used daily might not be as many as they were now.
Aside from the soul skill, You Chen also felt that the Stardust Dragon Martial Soul, much like the Starlight Dragon Martial Soul absorbing the fourth, fifth, and sixth Spirit Rings of the first body, had its Martial Soul essence strengthened.
Due to the higher age of the Spirit Ring, reaching a full hundred thousand years, and the Emperor Golden Lion Beast being a top-tier soul beast corresponding to a Soul Master with a super-level Martial Soul, even the super Martial Soul experienced a noticeable enhancement.
Perhaps this was also because the Stardust Dragon Martial Soul had only recently entered the super domain and still had significant room for growth.
You Chen felt the most noticeable improvement was in strength, followed by resilience.
Overall, You Chen could not be more satisfied with this result.
The greatest gain was indeed acquiring the invincibility skill.
Among all the soul skills, its priority was likely only beneath time and space-type skills.
Space skills were manageable, but time-type skills, even after scouring the records of the Martial Soul Hall, only the "Dark Demon Evil God Tiger" soul beast possessed such power.
However, although the fourth, fifth, and sixth Spirit Rings of You Chen's second body did not pursue or care about enhancing the power of the Martial Soul essence, the Spirit Rings that would conflict with it were another matter.
As the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger possessed extreme evil power, its conflict with You Chen's Stardust Dragon Martial Soul was even above the realm of slaughter.
Even for the fourth, fifth, and sixth Spirit Rings, which had relatively minor impacts on the Martial Soul, You Chen did not intend to choose the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.
If it weren't for the attribute conflict, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger would undoubtedly be a significant consideration for the seventh ring in his plan to evolve the Stardust Dragon into the Meteor Dragon. You Chen could absorb the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger's Spirit Ring to achieve the sublimation of his Martial Soul while using the insight gained from the power of time to glimpse the ultra-rapid speed that transcends human intelligence in that moment.
Though it was regrettable, You Chen would not take such a gamble.
After leaving the core area and returning to the mixed internal zone, You Chen quickly took out the left palm bone of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast.
There was nothing more to say; the value of this additional external Spirit Bone was higher than that of a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone for You Chen. He swiftly absorbed it, and during the integration into his palm, he also affixed a ten-thousand-year Spirit Bone age to it, enhancing the strengthening of his Martial Soul as much as possible.
The enhancement of the Spirit Bone to the Martial Soul was still beneath that of the Spirit Ring; more importantly, it improved the Soul Master's own attributes.
Thus, the enhancement of the Martial Soul was minimal, while You Chen's own attributes were already formidable. Even a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone could only be considered an embellishment, primarily enhancing the destructive power of his left hand.
After completing the absorption, You Chen quickly grasped the information about this Spirit Bone.
This "hint," somewhat reminiscent of game mechanics, led You Chen to lean more towards understanding it as a "world rule" rather than criticizing this simple and crude approach.
Also an external Spirit Bone leaning towards the metal attribute, if the characteristic of the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear's right palm bone was shattering, then the Emperor Golden Lion Beast's was sharp and penetrating.
The accompanying Spirit Bone skill was "Emperor Golden Sword," which concentrated the utmost sharpness of gold in the left hand, launching a penetrating attack that could break through anything, or maintaining it as a weapon soul skill without releasing it.
You Chen did not directly test the power of this move here, but just from the "utmost sharpness of gold" and "hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone skill," it was clear that this move's power was extraordinary.
It could serve as a supplementary killing move during the "shooting sonic speed" cooldown phase, or be used to increase the margin of error in close combat.
Like all external Spirit Bones, this left palm bone also had means to increase its age.
In fact, all Spirit Bones would increase in age with the nurturing of the Soul Master's soul power (as per the original setting), meaning that aside from the inseparable external Spirit Bones, the more times a Spirit Bone was inherited, the longer its age would become.
However, the age enhancement of normal Spirit Bones did not have the additional means of external Spirit Bones, requiring a long time to accumulate. For the original work's typical plot of only two to three decades, this effect was nearly negligible for the protagonist.
The method for increasing the age of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast's left palm bone was very simple: absorbing different precious metals. Each type of precious metal had an upper limit for enhancement, meaning that after consuming a certain amount, the left palm bone would become picky and stop accepting more.
As the behind-the-scenes big boss of Beast Soul Commerce, You Chen had no problem collecting precious metals, but some rare precious metals were indeed priceless and in short supply.
'Anyway, I'll let Greys and Dugu Bo worry about that later. I'm not pursuing how many years of age; if it can reach two hundred thousand years and attain the level of a ferocious beast Spirit Bone, I'll be satisfied. The harvest from the Emperor Golden Lion Beast is just that; next, it's time for the eighth Spirit Ring of the first body.'
A hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring naturally pushed You Chen's soul power level to the 80-level bottleneck.
The ninth ring of the first body still pursued a breakthrough in life level, but the eighth ring had almost no restrictions.
This time, You Chen's goal was also very clear.
Stardust Power, relying on the fusion of wind, stars, and holy powers, naturally, improving control over these three powers would also assist in the cultivation of Stardust Power.
Among these three powers, the wind power that had accompanied You Chen from the beginning was undoubtedly the one he had the highest control over. Based on the grading of entry-level to perfection, You Chen had already reached the late stage of great accomplishment in wind power control.
The star power followed closely; the first three rings of You Chen's second body could be said to be related to star power, and over the past few years, he had poured considerable effort into refining the Starlight Avatar, making significant progress in this area as well. While it was not as strong as his wind power, it could at least be considered early-stage great accomplishment.
As for the holy power, You Chen was quite lacking…
The Starlight Avatar and the Starlight Path, although both involved a bit of holy power, were primarily based on star power.
The Sacrificer's Sanctuary could be said to integrate the three powers without distinction.
In the past six months, You Chen had also specifically set aside a project for field research, allocating more time accordingly.
But…
It was too profound.
The concept of a field can be practiced and honed through feeling, becoming increasingly proficient.
But to fully transform that feeling into something one understands?
At least over the past six months, You Chen could say he had made little progress.
Even for a weakened version of a thousand-year Spirit Ring soul skill that was inferior to a talent field, You Chen had yet to make any progress on "self-formulated soul skills."
Relying on his proficiency and intuition with the Sacrificer's Sanctuary, he could naturally gain some inspiration for the fusion of the three powers, but to gain insight into one of those powers alone? That was quite difficult.
You Chen's control over holy power, let alone reaching small accomplishment, could only be described as barely entering the door.
After all, he was not a deity, and since he had not spent much time studying it before, his proficiency level was naturally not high.
However, You Chen had clearly realized that his low control over holy power was significantly affecting his mastery of Stardust Power.
Thus… this most lenient eighth ring would naturally be used to enhance his control over holy power.
Using Spirit Ring soul skills as a teacher, You Chen had taught Yan this way, and he certainly would not abandon it himself.
He knew that a significant reason he had not improved his control over holy power was that he lacked a soul skill primarily based on holy power, making the cost-effectiveness of learning and enhancing it too low, which was why he had not touched this aspect for so long.
Then, a new problem arose.
Like star power, soul beasts that could control holy power were also extremely rare.
At least based on the information You Chen collected through Beast Soul Commerce, even in the Star Dou Forest, there were no holy-type soul beasts at the eighty or ninety-thousand-year level.
None below eighty or ninety thousand years, with the highest being only at fifty thousand years.
But… You Chen could not accept a Spirit Ring below a hundred thousand years.
Spending an additional fifty thousand years on a time card meant he would need to undertake more tasks to compensate for the most perfect seventh ring of his plan for the second body.
'Forget it, there are still plenty of unharvested "Destined Ones" (high-fate individuals) left on this continent. If even Xue'er's hundred-thousand-year time card isn't enough, I can always take on more tasks if I really need to make up for some years.'
After gaining strength, You Chen's mindset was no longer so urgent.
A ten-thousand-year time card, if not for harvesting destined individuals, would probably come out every six months or so.
This amount of time was completely within the margin of error. After all, he still had a lot of cultivation content to work on, and he could easily intersperse some tasks during that time.
However, missing out on a Spirit Ring would be hard to make up for.
This time, You Chen's goal was not to generate just one soul skill like the Emperor Golden Lion Beast.
To better utilize the Spirit Ring to learn and master holy power, given his current level, a super-model hundred-thousand-year soul skill was far inferior to two ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul skills.
And the soul skills of the Spirit Ring were determined during the generation of the Spirit Ring.
Not stacking a hundred-thousand-year age during the Spirit Ring's generation meant missing out on a holy-type soul skill.
Holy power, although he had not systematically trained in it, was not unfamiliar to him due to having a disciple of the Angel Spirit around.
He didn't even need to sift through the memories in his mind; You Chen could easily find many suitable targets.
The soul beast You Chen aimed for this time was called the Holy Spirit Bird.
As the name suggests, the Holy Spirit Bird was regarded as an auspicious and holy being among soul beasts and in the eyes of humans in the past.
This Holy Spirit Bird was not fond of killing; instead, it preferred peace and nature. Clearly belonging to the quasi-top-tier soul beast echelon like the Wind Conquering Dragon, it was powerful yet willing to protect weaker beings.
Because it did not kill, merely absorbing the essence of heaven and earth for cultivation, the Holy Spirit Bird could quickly reach a ten-thousand-year cultivation level through its bloodline, but there were few that broke through a hundred thousand years.
Thus, although it was only nominally auspicious and did not possess the effects of the Emperor Auspicious Beast, any non-evil attribute soul beast would naturally feel a sense of closeness to the Holy Spirit Bird and would rarely oppose it.
There are even ancient records indicating that humans in the past had a history of worshiping and sacrificing to the Holy Spirit Bird.
However, You Chen naturally did not care whether this soul beast was benevolent or a sage among beasts; he only cared about its usefulness to him.
With You Chen's current perspective, anything less than a quasi-top-tier soul beast was not worth his attention.
And the Holy Spirit Bird was precisely a target that aligned with his intentions.
This five-thousand-year Holy Spirit Bird also resided within the core area.
Not long after You Chen re-entered the core area, he discovered its whereabouts.
However, unlike the Emperor Golden Lion Beast, this non-combative Holy Spirit Bird had early on chosen to submit to Daming and Erming.
Daming and Erming were also very friendly towards such a non-aggressive soul beast, allowing it to live in their vicinity.
You Chen was unaware of the reasons behind this; he merely analyzed the phenomenon and concluded—waiting for this Holy Spirit Bird to wander to the edge of the area far from Daming and Erming would likely be very difficult.
You Chen did not plan to wait for a Holy Spirit Bird for a month in this valley.
Continuing to wait was not a solution; if Daming and Erming really came to the rescue, he would try to hold them off with Starlight Avatar, and if that didn't work… he had a backup plan.
With determination, You Chen quickly began to take action.
The Holy Spirit Bird was like a social butterfly among soul beasts, often accompanied by other soul beasts.
This was the second trouble.
Fortunately, You Chen was no longer the same as before; a few soul beasts at the tens of thousands of years level combined posed no threat to him.
According to the laws of the Martial Soul Hall, Soul Masters should avoid killing non-target soul beasts as much as possible, but You Chen had no such concerns.
To prevent these creatures from causing trouble once he began absorbing the Spirit Ring, he killed them all.
There was no need for excessive description; even the strongest among them, the Holy Spirit Bird, was merely a five-thousand-year quasi-top-tier soul beast, possessing combat power at the level of a top-tier Soul Douluo.
Under the onslaught of Starlight Avatar, You Chen did not let a single one escape, eliminating all the ten-thousand-year soul beasts caught in the scene.
Then, with six manifestations guarding the surroundings, he began the absorption of the Spirit Ring.
With the enhancement of the Spirit Ring age card, this Spirit Ring quickly transformed into a blood-red color.
Compared to the Emperor Golden Lion Beast, the attribute-compatible Holy Spirit Bird clearly had a much higher compatibility.
For every tenfold increase in Spirit Ring age, there was a qualitative change; even though the Holy Spirit Bird was only a quasi-top-tier soul beast, under high compatibility, the enhancement it brought to You Chen was not inferior to that of the top-tier bloodline of the Emperor Golden Lion Beast.
In contrast to the overwhelming vitality he could only feel when absorbing the Emperor Golden Lion Beast, this time, there was more of a surge of holy and pure power.
You Chen carefully contemplated the changes brought about by absorbing the Spirit Ring while also dividing his focus to begin interfering with the nurturing of the Spirit Ring soul skill.
Since the goal was to strengthen and train his control over holy power, the skills he chose were naturally those that were as unrelated as possible.
One of them was, of course, the "healing" power, which was the most representative of holy power.
Healing was naturally a major skill of the peace-loving Holy Spirit Bird, and You Chen felt that the process of self-formulating the soul skill flowed as smoothly as liberation after ten days of constipation.
Though he had not truly begun to use it, You Chen already sensed a vague understanding during the process of self-formulating the soul skill.
For the other soul skill, You Chen chose a damage skill that was the complete opposite of healing.
Holy power in terms of damage often focused on purification and dissolution.
The former was more about the fusion of light and holy power, while the latter was more about the fusion of fire and holy power.
Perhaps due to this innate compatibility, the holy power with strong damage potential often manifested more prominently in soul beasts or Martial Souls that possessed both holy and fire attributes or holy and light attributes, further highlighting its characteristics of "purification" or "dissolution."
But You Chen's divine power had nothing to do with flames or light.
Moreover, in this world, there were no soul beasts that combined the powers of stars and divinity, or wind and divinity.
It was for this reason that he specifically chose the Holy Spirit Bird, a soul beast that, while using divine power as an attack method, did not possess a fire attribute.
During the process of nurturing this soul skill, You Chen quickly felt the majestic side of divine power revealing itself.
The grandeur of encompassing evil and darkness, then utterly crushing it, as well as the ruthless majesty of purifying everything equally like a deity.
He realized that divine power was different from his previous inherent understanding.
Suddenly, You Chen raised his eyebrows slightly.
The Starlight Avatar placed outside had already sensed the approach of living beings.
'So they really came.'
If he were inclined towards "peaceful coexistence," You Chen would not have hesitated to slaughter other unrelated ten-thousand-year soul beasts, just to prevent their subsequent interference and simultaneously intimidate other soul beasts.
When he made this choice, he had already foreseen this situation.
...
'Hmph! That stubborn lion is one thing! But to repeatedly kill soul beasts in the core area, and this time directly slaughter so many of our companions!'
Er Ming's eyes turned crimson, filled with rage, as he charged towards You Chen with even faster and more violent movements than before.
The earthquake, which seemed to signify the earth's anger, sent countless surrounding soul beasts scattering in all directions.
Er Ming had a poor relationship with that Emperor Golden Lion Beast, but the other soul beasts were different.
Although they had not yet reached the level of "companions," they were all loyal little brothers in his heart!
With his little brothers being slaughtered, how could Er Ming not be furious!
Especially that Holy Spirit Bird, which Er Ming particularly enjoyed playing with, treating it as his favorite pet!
In just a few minutes, Er Ming saw You Chen's avatar placed hundreds of meters away from his main body.
"Human…!!!"
He roared, emitting a somewhat muffled and angry human voice.
Some soul beasts could speak normally with just tens of thousands of years of cultivation, and the hundred-thousand-year Titan Giant Ape was no exception.
He deliberately spoke to convey his anger accurately.
This thunderous voice echoed in the forest for a long time, seemingly successfully conveying the master's intent.
You Chen's six Starlight Avatars had already sensed Er Ming's movements in advance and were converging towards him.
A great battle was about to break out.
(End of chapter)