Beside the corpse of the Mirror Beast,Dongfang Jing crouched down to carefully examine its size and features.
"Indeed, it has two thousand years of cultivation. Things are different now. This age limit, I can handle it now!"
He slowly clenched his fists, his eyes flashing with determination.
Since that near-death experience in the Sunset Forest,Dongfang Jing had never slacked off.
He repeatedly entered the Hall of Ten Thousand Mirrors, pushing his physical body and spirit to their limits.
Moreover, he had already absorbed a thousand-year soul ring once; the resilience of his meridians and the capacity of his soul power had already surpassed the norm.
To make an analogy—it's like an inflated balloon; after deflating, it will shrink back, but it can never regain its initial tightness.
It will always be looser than before, and its capacity will subtly expand.
Or, like a originally soft and narrow passage, forcibly widened... cough cough.
In short, Dongfang Jing had full confidence.
This time, he would never face such a near-death experience again.
Hao Te approached, his rugged face showing worry: "Little Mirror, are you really going to absorb this soul ring? Your talent is truly unparalleled in my life, and the first soul ring in a thousand years is unheard of, but this is after all two thousand years. Are you really sure?"
Dongfang Jing gave him a reassuring smile: "Thank you for your concern, Brother Hao Te. I'm ninety percent confident. Please protect me, Brother."
"Sigh, since that's the case, I won't try to persuade you any further. Absorb it with peace of mind. With me here, I won't let anything disturb you!"
After saying that, Hao Te didn't go far.
Instead, he turned around and stood firmly behind Dongfang Jing like a mountain.
Seeing this, the young man felt a warmth in his heart. He then calmed his mind and stopped thinking about it.
He summoned his Shattered Mirror Martial Soul and used his soul power to guide the purple soul ring that was floating above the Mirror Shadow Beast's corpse.
Just as Dongfang Jing was concentrating on absorbing the soul ring,the others in the team were resting and treating their injuries not far away.
The dark-faced man, who had previously argued with Haote, stared intently at Dongfang Jing's seated figure, his eyes filled with undisguised envy and jealousy.
The other teammates whispered amongst themselves, their voices tinged with envy.
"Sigh, it's so frustrating to compare yourself to others. Some people break through to level 20 soul power before they're even seven, while I'm over thirty and haven't even touched the threshold of Soul Master."
"Who says otherwise? Besides, that kid's first ring is a thousand years old. If he succeeds with the second, he'll be unstoppable!"
"Damn, I'm so envious! My first ring is only ten years old!"
Hearing the surrounding discussions, the black-faced man's resentment grew stronger.
His eyes darted around, and he lowered his voice, saying, "Hey, do you guys think that kid might be hiding some secret technique that allows him to absorb soul rings beyond his level? A thousand-year first ring—even the direct descendants of the three upper sects probably can't do that, right?"
The others exchanged glances, and after a moment, they all nodded in silence.
"Perhaps...maybe? He might be a member of some reclusive family."
"But if he really is a family member, why would he need our help to absorb the soul ring? Doesn't his family provide him with a powerful protector? Or is it..."
"He's not from a noble family at all! He just got incredibly lucky and stumbled upon a fortuitous opportunity!" The dark-faced man's voice suddenly turned sharp.
The air instantly fell silent.
All eyes were focused on the silver-haired youth who was absorbing the soul ring with his eyes closed.
Deep within everyone's heart, a seed called "greed" had quietly sprouted and was growing wildly.
After a long while,one of the people in the group suddenly rubbed his eyes, pointed at Dongfang Jing, and whispered, "Look! What's wrong with that kid? He looks like he's in a lot of pain?"
Hearing this, a gloating and mocking expression immediately appeared on the faces of the others.
"Serves him right! He dared to absorb two thousand years of soul power on the second ring, just wait for his body to explode and die!"
"Exactly, he got lucky the first time, how could he do it again? God is too unfair."
"Wait a minute, the way he looked, it didn't seem like his soul power was bursting, it was more like... he was enduring something else?"
Several people stood up one after another, their minds filled with doubts.
"Holy crap! A soul bone!"
Someone exclaimed in shock.
Instantly, everyone's breathing became heavy and rapid, their chests heaving violently because they all clearly saw…the mask on Dongfang Jing's face shatter into dust amidst streaks of light.
But they had no time to be surprised by the excessively young face beneath the mask.
All eyes were fixed on the boy's suddenly opened eyes!
Those pupils were bursting with dazzling, ever-changing seven-colored light, illuminating the surrounding snow with extraordinary beauty!
"This…this is a soul bone?!"
"It should be, but why eyes? Shouldn't soul bones appear on the corpses of soul beasts?"
"Brothers, this is just a thousand-year-old soul beast! Isn't it said that only ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts have a very small chance of producing soul bones? "
"Where did you hear that nonsense? What if there's an exception?"
They discussed intensely, their eyes wide, their hearts pounding as if they would burst from their chests.
The dark-faced man abruptly interrupted them, his voice hoarse and shrill with excitement: "Stop arguing! What do we do now? We killed the soul beast together, and that brat already got the soul ring. Does he have to take this soul bone too?"
His cold gaze swept over his teammates.
His sharp, knife-like gaze made the others afraid to look directly at him.
Yet their eyes remained fixed on the alluring "soul bone."
Seeing their hesitation, the dark-faced man grinned maliciously, giving them one last dose of madness:
"Haote's soul power was almost completely depleted killing this soul beast! Let's join forces to take him down first, then deal with that brat and gouge out his eyes! We can get the soul bone and force him to reveal his secrets! As for the soul bone, we can split it evenly afterward!"
Haote, who was wholeheartedly protecting Dongfang Jing and keeping watch on their surroundings,also saw the dazzling light. Haote didn't know much about soul bones, only that they were treasures coveted by soul masters.
Now, witnessing it firsthand and feeling the heart-pounding energy fluctuations, a flicker of infatuation and fanaticism involuntarily flashed in his eyes.
A priceless treasure, capable of drastically increasing one's strength—who wouldn't be tempted?
"Captain, how do we divide this soul bone?" A voice, clearly harboring ill intent, jolted Hao Te from his brief daze.
He whirled around to see the black-faced man leading the group, with several teammates slowly approaching in a semi-circle, subtly surrounding him and Dongfang Jing. "Hao Te," the black-faced man cracked his neck, closing in step by step, "this kid got a thousand-year soul ring for free, we can't let him keep this soul bone all to himself, can we?"
Boom!
Hao Te took a heavy step forward, his aura surging forth with overwhelming force. He stood before Dongfang Jing like an ice wall, his eyes sharp as an eagle's.
"What are you trying to do? Can't you see that this soul bone is about to fuse with the little mirror?"
"Hehehe, simple." The black-faced man chuckled sinisterly. "That soul bone is an eye. We'll just dig it out. It won't kill him." "That's right, Captain Haote. We risked our lives to kill this Mirror Beast. There should be some tangible benefit, right?"
"Hmph!" Hearing his former teammate's words, Haote laughed angrily. "Benefit? Aren't those scales on its body beneficial? Why covet someone else's opportunity and commit such a robbery!"
"Bah! Why waste words with him!" The black-faced man's face turned completely gloomy. He said ruthlessly, "Kill them both! All the treasures will be ours, right? Brothers, activate your martial souls!" As soon as he finished speaking, the two Soul Masters and the three Great Soul Masters summoned their martial souls at the same time!
The black-faced man's soul ring configuration was the standard yellow, yellow, and purple optimal configuration. The other Soul Master had white, yellow, and yellow rings.
The remaining three Great Soul Masters all had white and yellow rings.
Haote's brows furrowed deeply, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles cracked. He truly hadn't expected that these guys, who usually called him brother, could actually be so ruthless as to commit murder and robbery!
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