"Hm?"
Seeing a streak of light sink into his body, Chu Chengzhou was deeply surprised.
A hundred-thousand-year soul beast is guaranteed to drop a soul bone, and in a sacrifice the soul bone will enter the body directly.
But his six standard soul bone slots—head, torso, left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg—were already full. If he could still accept the soul bone from this Light Holy Dragon, that meant it was the standard kit for a Douluo protagonist: an external soul bone.
This surprise came far too suddenly.
Right now Chu Chengzhou even had the urge to burst into tears and throw back his head to howl. Fortunately, he was already a mature man and forced it down, avoiding any real loss of composure.
At first, Chu Chengzhou had thought he was only hunting a ninety-thousand-year Light Holy Dragon.
He had not expected that this ninety-thousand-year—more precisely, near a hundred thousand years—Light Holy Dragon would possess the ability to sacrifice, and that in the midst of sacrificing it would break through on the spot and advance into a hundred-thousand-year soul beast that drops a soul bone upon death.
And that was not even the biggest surprise. The biggest surprise was that the hundred-thousand-year soul bone he might not have been able to use had become an external soul bone he had always dreamed of yet never reached.
This was not the Goddess of Luck lifting her skirt. This was a ragged, bedroom-eyed Miss Goddess of Luck singing and dancing to entertain him.
Chu Chengzhou: Keep the music playing, keep the dance going.
Then, with a thought, golden light flared over Chu Chengzhou. A faint holy aura spread. A suit of pure white dragon-scale armor traced with golden patterns manifested in full.
Perhaps because it was a hundred-thousand-year soul bone, the dragon-scale armor formed by the Light Holy Dragon's external soul bone was a very complete full set: helmet, breastplate, shoulder armor, arm guards, gauntlets, leg armor, and boots. Aside from his face, Chu Chengzhou was protected from head to toe by dragon-scale armor.
"We'll call it… Holy Light Dragon Armor."
After admiring the dragon-scale armor on his body with great satisfaction, Chu Chengzhou named the Light Holy Dragon's external soul bone.
Except for rare exceptions, hundred-thousand-year soul bones usually come with two 100,000-year soul bone skills. The Holy Light Dragon Armor was no exception.
"Soul Bone Skill: Holy Dragon Shelter."
Without hesitation, Chu Chengzhou activated one of the two 100,000-year soul bone skills attached to the Holy Light Dragon Armor.
A draconic chant seemed to sound. A golden light-dragon phantom soared up behind Chu Chengzhou, then turned into a golden radiance that enveloped him completely.
Bathed in gold, Chu Chengzhou in his Holy Light Dragon Armor looked like a descended holy war god.
Soul Bone Skill: Holy Dragon Shelter. Reduces by 50% physical, energy, and spiritual damage below the divine level. Aside from the need for continuous soul power consumption, there are no usage restrictions.
"Whoa— mm, impressive. As expected of me."
He had wanted to blurt out a curse, but, considering it would sound uneducated, Chu Chengzhou changed it in time.
To be fair, a flat 50% reduction to all damage is absurdly strong. And remember, the Holy Light Dragon Armor is only at a hundred thousand years right now. If it reaches a million years in the future, total immunity is out of the question, but the percentage reduction will certainly be higher.
Of course, the years on an external soul bone rise with a soul master's soul power rank. When a soul master reaches rank 99 Limit Douluo, the external soul bone can rise above nine hundred thousand years. If the soul master becomes a god at rank 100, the external soul bone will be at least a million years. No need for Chu Chengzhou to idle-level it.
He did not know whether this soul bone skill could be applied to summoned spirits or to others, and if so, whether it could be applied to multiple targets.
After a long bout of testing, a trace of regret flickered in Chu Chengzhou's eyes.
As it turned out, he was right, but he had thought too much.
Perhaps thanks to the Absolute Control technique, the soul bone skill Holy Dragon Shelter could be applied not only to himself, but also to summoned spirits and other targets. However, at any given moment, Holy Dragon Shelter could protect only one target.
For example, if he granted Holy Dragon Shelter to the Space Dragon Xiao Yin, he himself could not use it, nor could he cast it on any other summoned spirit.
In addition, after this test, Chu Chengzhou discovered a key point he had overlooked.
Aside from offensive soul bone skills, defensive, support, and healing soul bone skills can likewise be cast on summoned spirits and other targets.
Other soul masters cannot do this? That is a matter of insufficient control.
Soul bone skills attach to soul bones. Once a soul bone is refined into the body, it becomes part of the soul master's own power. Since it is one's own power, in theory, if your control is sufficient, you can direct and use it as you wish.
As for the other hundred-thousand-year soul bone skill on the Holy Light Dragon Armor, it did not disappoint.
Soul Bone Skill: Power of the Holy Dragon. All attributes increased by 150%. Simple and brutal, but very practical.
Moreover, the all-attribute boost from Power of the Holy Dragon is similar to the self-boosting skills many beast-martial-soul soul masters have. Its boost does not conflict with attribute buffs granted by support-type soul masters.
I wonder what tier the divine set formed by seven million-year soul bones will reach when I ascend to godhood.
Chu Chengzhou could not help daydreaming.
After that little fantasy, he pulled himself back and opened the attribute panel.
In an instant, Chu Chengzhou was first startled, then grinned with delight, then fell into thought.
After a long consideration, Chu Chengzhou made some adjustments to the auto-run slots.
[Attribute Panel]
[Host: Chu Chengzhou]
[Soul Power: Rank 91 Titled Douluo]
[Martial Soul: True Spirit Banner]
[Soul Rings: black (14000), black (10000), black (30600), red (100000), black (29050), red (100000), red (130900), red (100000), red (100000)]
[First Soul Skill, Summon: Sky Azure Tree]
[Second Soul Skill, Summon: Light Lion]
[Third Soul Skill, Summon: Fire Phoenix]
[Fourth Soul Skill, Summon: Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear]
[Fifth Soul Skill, Summon: Profound Water Turtle]
[Sixth Soul Skill, Summon: Titan Giant Ape]
[Seventh Soul Skill, Summon: Dark Devilgod Tiger]
[Eighth Soul Skill, Summon: Space Holy Dragon]
[Ninth Soul Skill, Summon: Light Holy Dragon]
[Soul Bones: Crystal Guard Left Arm Bone (63210), Elemental Dominion Skull (74200), Holy Light Dragon Armor external soul bone (100000), Diamond Sea Clam Torso Bone (102500), Golden Hawksbill Left Leg Bone (101900)...]
[Soul Cores: Yin-Yang Complementary Triple Soul Cores (Four Symbols, Space, Time)]
[Skills: Nine Breaths Qi (rainbow), Elemental Fusion (dark rainbow), Indestructible Golden Body (gold), Eternal Thought (gold), Sun-shooting Divine Arrow (gold), Ground-shrinking Golden Light (gold), Void Illusion Realm (gold), Blossoms in an Instant (gold), Absolute Control (gold), Hammer of Creation (gold)]
[Laws: metal (1%), wood (1%), water (1%), fire (1%), earth (1%), wind (1%), thunder (1%), light (1%), darkness (1%), time (1%), space (1%), Four Symbols (0.1%), Five Elements (0.1%)]
[Auto-run: 1. Martial Soul: True Spirit Banner (top-tier), 2. Indestructible Golden Body (gold), 3. Eternal Thought (gold), 4. Sun-shooting Divine Arrow (gold), 5. Void Illusion Realm (gold), 6. Absolute Control (gold), 7. Ground-shrinking Golden Light (gold), 8. Blossoms in an Instant (gold), 9. Elemental Dominion Skull (black), 10. Elemental Fusion (dark rainbow)]
T/N: For 40 chapters ahead on my translations, become a p@tron at [email protected]/LordHipposApostle