The golden dragon shadow swam within Ma Hongjun's body, guiding the power of the soul ring and circulating it along the meridians of the Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix Scripture.
Finally, it took away a portion of the soul ring's power, exiting from Ma Hongjun's right hand and merging into the Dragon Soul Spear. The
remaining soul ring power was within Ma Hongjun's tolerance, and he continued to refine and control this remaining power.
An hour later, Ma Hongjun opened his eyes.
His clothes were wet again.
Ma Ping and the other man both breathed a sigh of relief.
Ma Ming removed the Green Bamboo Sound Serpent from the Dragon Soul Spear and placed it into his soul tool.
This was a nine-hundred-year-old soul beast corpse, which could fetch a good price. The Green Bamboo Sound Serpent was excellent food, not only delicious but also nutritious, beneficial to a soul master's cultivation.
"Hongjun, how is it? What soul skill did your first soul ring give you?"
Ma Hongjun put away the Dragon Soul Spear, looked at his palm, clenched his fist, then released it, feeling his own power.
"I feel great now, full of power. Although my soul power hasn't increased, my body has become stronger.
My first soul ring skill comes from the strongest attack of the Green Bamboo Sound Serpent, called
'Extreme Shadow Flying Dragon Spear.'
It's an explosive soul skill that can instantly increase speed by 50% and attack power by 30%."
After listening to Ma Hongjun's words, Ma Ping and the other person thought for a second before coming back to their senses.
"A 50% speed boost!"
Ma Ping said in surprise, seemingly afraid he had misheard and wanting to confirm it again.
As a Soul Master, he knew very well how strong a 50% increase was—an increase only a thousand-year-old soul beast soul ring could provide.
Not to mention that Ma Hongjun's soul ring also had a 30% attack power boost.
It seems that this Green Bamboo Sound Serpent is indeed a top-grade soul beast with very high talent, which also proves that it is very suitable for Ma Hongjun's martial soul, the Dragon Soul Spear, to perfectly accept its soul skill.
To give the two people a direct experience, Ma Hongjun also wanted to test the power of his first soul skill.
Entering the bamboo forest, Ma Hongjun targeted a bamboo stalk that was approximately three hundred years old.
The Dragon Soul Spear appeared, a yellow halo illuminating it.
"Extreme Shadow Flying Dragon Spear!"
The Dragon Soul Spear was held level in Ma Hongjun's hands, shoulder-high. With a flash of yellow light, his left hand left the shaft, joining his right hand to grasp the spear's end. The spear spun between his hands, its tip flashing a sliver of blue light.
The Dragon Soul Spear shot straight out. Ma Hongjun leaned forward, his feet pushing off the ground, propelling him into the air.
The spear tip tore through the air, creating a series of explosive sounds.
Along the straight line of his flight, the immense speed left behind afterimages, which vanished as the Dragon Soul Spear pierced the bamboo.
Ma Hongjun was now standing on the ground, his right hand holding the spear's end level, the other end, the spear tip, already piercing the bamboo.
"A flash of cold light arrives first, then the spear strikes like a dragon!"
At this moment, Ma Hongjun truly understood the meaning of this phrase; it was the best interpretation of his first soul skill.
Countless green bamboo leaves drifted down from the sky, and the bamboo stalk seemed to feel pain, its body swaying.
A leaf grazed Ma Hongjun's back, sharp as a blade, gently tearing open his clothes, making a rubbing sound against the silk armor underneath.
"Explode!"
Ma Hongjun shouted sharply, flicking the Dragon Soul Spear in his hand, and the green bamboo exploded from the inside, its body split in two, while the falling bamboo leaves became ordinary and powerless.
"Too strong, I can't do that kind of destructive power."
Ma Ming exclaimed.
"Yes, just in terms of this soul skill alone, it has already caught up with most thousand-year soul skills. With this soul skill alone, I estimate that there are few among the Great Soul Masters who can match Hongjun."
Ma Ping agreed, looking at Ma Hongjun as if he were looking at a monster, knowing that although he was now a Soul Venerable, he did not yet have a thousand-year soul ring.
Ma Hongjun did not put away the spear; he was sensing the change in his soul power. Using this soul skill just now only consumed one-third of his soul power, it seems that after obtaining the first soul ring, the Dragon Soul Spear consumed less soul power.
A yellow spirit ring floated up from the fallen bamboo.
"What a pity for this hundred-year spirit ring,"
Ma Ming sighed. The conflict between spirit masters and spirit beasts was irreconcilable; it was determined by cultivation and couldn't be changed unless you didn't want to become stronger.
As the number of spirit masters increased and their realms grew stronger, the need for spirit rings grew, and the consumption of spirit beasts increased.
However, there was a dependency between the two, and spirit beasts grew slowly. With this ebb and flow, one day spirit beasts would become extinct, and the profession of spirit master would disappear.
Of course, that was still far off; Ma Ming certainly wouldn't live to see that day. But this sense of crisis was something most spirit masters had considered.
Therefore, in the spirit master world, except when spirit rings were needed, spirit beasts were generally not killed indiscriminately. There were no rules against it; it was more like an agreement, and most spirit masters subconsciously followed this natural rule.
Because when you kill a spirit beast, see a precious spirit ring rise, and can't use it, only watching it dissipate in the air, you feel a pang of heartache.
It felt like he'd missed out on a hundred million gold soul coins.
Just as Ma Ming was lamenting, Ma Hongjun, holding the Dragon Soul Spear, approached the hundred-year soul ring. He placed the spear tip into the center of the soul ring.
He had a hypothesis he wanted to verify.
A miracle occurred: the yellow soul ring shrank, fitting around the spearhead.
The golden dragon shadow reappeared, first in Ma Hongjun's mind, then appearing from his right hand. The dragon's head spiraled upwards along the spear shaft, its body coiling around it. Reaching the
soul ring, the dragon opened its mouth, and the soul ring, transformed into yellow light, was absorbed, like a stream of air, sucked into the golden dragon's mouth.
"Hongjun, what are you doing!"
Ma Ping exclaimed in surprise. He and Ma Ming couldn't see the golden dragon; they only saw the yellow soul ring radiating light on Ma Hongjun's silver spear, being absorbed into his silver spear spirit.
He assumed Ma Hongjun was absorbing the green bamboo's soul ring as the silver spear's second soul ring, since Ma Hongjun was only at the twentieth level of the Innate Realm, and his second soul ring hadn't been attached yet.
"Third Grandfather, don't worry. I'm testing my Silver Spear Martial Soul, not absorbing it as my second Soul Ring. I'll explain later. My Silver Spear Martial Soul seems a little different."
Hearing Ma Hongjun's serious reply, Ma Ping and the other man calmed down. A mutated Martial Soul is a miracle in itself, with many uncertainties, and they dared not disturb it.
The power of the Soul Ring was automatically about to flow from Ma Hongjun's right hand into his body, but Ma Hongjun blocked it and didn't absorb it. He understood that if he absorbed this Soul Ring, it would become his second Soul Ring.
Finally, the power of the Soul Ring was completely absorbed by the Dragon Shadow and merged into the Dragon Soul Spear, and the Dragon Shadow disappeared.
Ma Hongjun wielded the Dragon Soul Spear again, and he found that the Dragon Soul Spear's consumption of Soul Power had decreased.
Ma Hongjun looked at the two men and asked, "Third Grandfather, Father, what did you just see?"
After their answers, Ma Hongjun realized that it seemed only he could see that golden dragon shadow.
Thus, Ma Hongjun had to offer a different explanation: "My Silver
Spear Martial Soul seems to be able to transform; it can absorb the power of spirit rings and apply it to itself. Just now, when I absorbed the spirit ring of the Green Bamboo Sound Serpent, my body couldn't handle it, and the excess spirit power was absorbed by the Silver Spear.
I just tested it again with the Green Bamboo spirit ring, proving my hypothesis that the Silver Spear can absorb the power of spirit rings."
This shattered their understanding; it could be considered a miracle in the history of Martial Souls. They couldn't figure out the reason and could only attribute it to a mutated Martial Soul.
"After absorbing it, what difference did you feel?" Ma Ming immediately asked, as this was his main concern. "
It felt great. The Silver Spear became slightly more solid, and the consumption of spirit power decreased."
This answer reassured the two; whatever the change, as long as it was good, that was fine.
Ma Hongjun felt it most deeply and drew the following conclusion:
Dragon Souls should possess sentience, more like spear spirits; legend has it that divine artifacts possess weapon spirits.
The Dragon Soul Spear itself is full of wonder, so this explanation makes sense.
Being able to absorb the power of spirit rings and grow seems quite good.
Ma Hongjun couldn't help but smile, looking up at the bright, sunny sky. " What
a beautiful day!" (End of Chapter)