"Are you planning to absorb this Soul Ring?" Gu Yue Na sensed danger and quickly dissuaded him:
"This is a Soul Ring close to 490,000 years old, containing too much energy. Your body won't be able to handle it."
She knew that Yun Ze's second Martial Soul still had an empty Soul Ring slot, and she was worried that he might choose to absorb this particular one.
Yun Ze shook his head and explained, "I just want my Soul Spirits to absorb the energy from this Soul Ring."
He wasn't very interested in this Soul Ring. Firstly, the energy was indeed too massive for him to bear.
Secondly, the quality of the Fire-Scaled Golden Python didn't meet his standards. Even if he could bear it, he wouldn't absorb it.
"Phew, you scared me to death." Gu Yue Na sighed in relief, genuinely afraid that Yun Ze would insist on absorbing the Soul Ring.
Yun Ze released his Fiery Nine-Headed Bird, Lava Monarch, and Nine-Tailed Flaming Fox.
The Soul Spirits expanded to their normal sizes. The Lava Monarch, standing over fifteen meters tall, was the largest.
"Chirp..." The Fiery Nine-Headed Bird circled above the Soul Ring, its nine heads slightly shaking, emitting a cry similar to that of a phoenix.
Under the influence of Yun Ze's bloodline, the Fiery Nine-Headed Bird's bloodline had undergone significant changes, and its quality had noticeably improved.
Its physique became well-built, and its heads became majestic, gaining a certain noble air compared to before.
As soon as the three Soul Spirits appeared, they began following Yun Ze's command, starting to absorb the energy from the orange Soul Ring.
The Fire-Scaled Golden Python's Soul Ring attribute was fire. Being of the same origin, the energy was absorbed highly efficiently.
The other three Soul Spirits were still in slumber and couldn't be released, thus missing out on this benefit.
"What are these?" The Five Elements Qilin asked Di Tian, looking at the three suddenly appearing Soul Spirits with curiosity and surprise.
"Soul Spirits..." Di Tian gave the Five Elements Qilin a brief explanation of what Soul Spirits were, his expression not looking good.
Mentioning Soul Spirits reminded him of events from ten thousand years ago, and he was deeply remorseful. He truly shouldn't have listened to that brat Huo Yuhao's nonsense back then.
If he hadn't supported Huo Yuhao's Soul Spirit experiment and his development of the Spirit Pagoda, the current situation wouldn't exist.
The emergence of Soul Spirits not only failed to alleviate humanity's hunting of Soul Beasts, but the Spirit Pagoda's research on Soul Spirits actually worsened the situation.
Over the past ten thousand years, the Spirit Pagoda has captured at least a million Soul Beasts for research. The first step in researching Soul Spirits is to extract the Soul Beast's soul and origin.
This first step means the Soul Beast must be killed. Any Soul Beast taken for research has no hope of survival.
Not only that, the Soul Spirits formed from these Soul Beasts would likely be wasted, meaning they died for nothing.
Previously, Soul Beasts were only hunted by humans. After the advent of Soul Spirits, Soul Beasts not only faced being hunted but were also treated as experimental subjects, suffering a miserable fate.
"Huo Yuhao, don't let me ever run into you again, or I will definitely slaughter you." Hatred soared in Di Tian's heart.
He felt deceived. When the Spirit Pagoda was founded, Huo Yuhao solemnly guaranteed that the few of them, the great fierce beasts, would always be core members of the Spirit Pagoda.
But what was the result?
They were not only kicked out of the Spirit Pagoda but were also kept in captivity and treated as prey.
Core members? Core prey was closer to the truth.
Huo Yuhao clearly never took those promises to heart. Otherwise, after he became a god, he could have easily made his presence known and emphasized the matter.
At that time, with his god-level strength, if he had simply brought it up, would those humans dare to disobey?
Every time he thought of this, he regretted his actions deeply. Ten thousand years ago, his brain must have truly been kicked by a donkey to have been persuaded by Huo Yuhao and even actively helped and protected him. He was truly stupid!
If he had the chance to do it over, even if Huo Yuhao possessed the Destiny of the Auspicious Beast, he would not hesitate to kill him.
After all, keeping the guy around would eventually mean he'd take the Destiny of the Auspicious Beast to the God Realm anyway. Instead of that, it was better to just kill him directly.
That way, he wouldn't have ended up in this situation—neither retaining the Destiny of the Auspicious Beast nor helping to create the calamity that is the Spirit Pagoda.
"What's wrong?" The Five Elements Qilin sensed Di Tian's killing intent and, seeing his dark expression, couldn't help but ask.
"Nothing, I just recalled some unpleasant experiences and feel angry." Di Tian worked hard to calm his emotions.
He constantly reassured himself: "With the Young Master here, I should have a chance to become a god in the future. When that time comes, I'll go and slaughter him."
"It's a pity we don't have the materials to make a Soul Ring Storage Device," Gu Yue Na said regretfully, looking at the Soul Rings.
A Soul Ring Storage Device, as the name suggests, is a Soul Tool used to store Soul Rings.
With such a thing, they could store these seven Soul Rings and slowly absorb them later, preventing them from dissipating and being wasted.
After the emergence of Soul Spirits, this type of Soul Tool was no longer sold on the market. If one wanted it, they had to make it themselves.
A Soul Ring can only exist for one hour, which is two hours, so the time left for the Soul Spirits to absorb is not much.
Counting the time they wasted just now, the actual absorption time for the three Soul Spirits was short of two hours by slightly less than twenty minutes.
The orange Soul Ring dissipated, and the three Soul Spirits were forced to end their absorption, letting out dissatisfied cries of still wanting more.
The effect of the absorbed energy was immediate; the three Soul Spirits gained significant increases.
Yun Ze sensed carefully and determined their improvements:
The Fiery Nine-Headed Bird's age increased by over 28,000 years, the Lava Monarch's by over 30,000 years, and the Nine-Tailed Flaming Fox's by over 50,000 years.
This was a substantial increase. The Fiery Nine-Headed Bird, which now had the lowest cultivation age, possessed over 30,000 years of cultivation.
The three Soul Spirits shrunk and bounced around Yun Ze, making excited calls.
At the same time, they complained somewhat, asking why the Soul Ring disappeared so quickly, saying their gains would have been greater if it had lasted longer.
Indeed, if the orange Soul Ring had persisted and they had absorbed all its energy, the three Soul Spirits would definitely have crossed the hundred-thousand-year threshold.
"All four of your Soul Rings should be at the ten-thousand-year level now, right?" Gu Yue Na smiled.
In front of Yun Ze, she lost her usual air of cold majesty and looked just like an ordinary little girl, often smiling.
Yun Ze shifted his gaze to Gu Yue Na and nodded. He didn't even need to release his Soul Rings; he understood the changes in them.
He was clearly aware of all the changes within himself; nothing could be hidden from him.
As the Soul Spirits' cultivation age increased, his body also benefited, with improvements in all aspects.
"Come back for now," Yun Ze thought, and drew the three Soul Spirits back into his body.
He didn't let them absorb the energy from the remaining Soul Rings. Those seven Soul Rings were not fire-attributed, so the absorption efficiency would be very low.
They were about to disappear in a little more than ten minutes. The energy absorbed in that short time would only increase their age by a few hundred years, making it unnecessary.
After collecting all the Soul Bones, Yun Ze and Gu Yue Na led the group away from the mountain range and settled in the nearest city.