'Level 30!' Cheng Tian vibrated in excitement as he felt his power jump again when his rings finally stabilized and returned to his body.
However, as much as he was feeling great about leveling up and further developing his black and white fan, Cheng Tian felt something wrong in his body.
'What is it?'
'This feeling... I got stuffed!' His eyes widened as he realized that he had gone a bit over his limit. 'It feels like I have to absorb a spirit ring or increase the characteristics of my constitution fast so...'
'Oh?' He looked toward the right index finger of the leader of this now nearly exterminating group.
"The External Spirit Bone will help me fulfill such a purpose!" Then, he walked towards that dead body, where he quickly picked up some weapons in the outskirts and began to remove that precious item from it.
Besides absorbing that bone, Cheng Tian could find a spirit ring to solve his current problem. But since this second option involved a hunt for suitable beasts, he chose to absorb that Soul Bone.
While in this outermost area of the Star Dou Great Forest, where powerful beasts were infrequent, Cheng Tian decided to absorb that bone right then and there.
He still had the Giant Earth King to protect him, and only one person from the enemy group had survived. But this person happened to be completely exhausted and seriously injured.
On the other hand, since he did not know if he could wait for long, right after removing the yellowish bone from his opponent's corpse, he sat in a meditative position and began to absorb it.
By his estimates, that should be an External Soul Bone generated by a beast of 3,000~5,000 years old, which was also the average age indicated for the 4th spirit ring of cultivators.
Since the previous group's leader seemed not talented, Cheng Tian judged such a spirit bone was closer to the first limit, similar to the age of his current rings.
Thus, he should have no problem absorbing it, even considering he was only at level 30!
The bone in question then floated in front of Cheng Tian, slowly approaching the index finger of his right hand.
After this, Cheng Tian began to feel a special connection to that bone, while his right index finger seemed to be endlessly being destroyed and rebuilt.
Then, he began to tremble in pain, pressing hard on his jaw while strange sounds left his throat.
That went on for more than an hour, by which time that bone had disappeared from the surroundings, successfully fused with Cheng Tian's right index finger!
Sensing that he had overcome this challenge, the black-haired young man finally realized the previous feeling of gorging began to subside.
'This is...' He continued with his eyes closed but moved his face toward where that bone had lodged, his right hand half-open upwards, resting on his knee.
'Is this spirit bone evolving?' He wondered after feeling a similar sensation in that External Spirit Bone to the one he felt in his rings when absorbing other people's powers.
Realizing that this was indeed the situation, it did not take long for Cheng Tian to notice the previous feeling in his body pass. He soon realized that the age of his rings had increased, with the same happening in that newly absorbed bone.
'Both my External Spirit Bone and my spirit rings have gone up a few more steps in their evolution... Hmm... That was because of the energy remaining from the absorption of Tian Heng's rings!'
"Perfect!"
'I was worried before, but now that I can confirm the possibility of my ability increasing the age of my Spirit Bones, I won't need to worry about their age in the future.'
'Any bone compatible with me will be good enough!'
As he considered this, excitement arose in this young man's heart, with him already imagining a future where he would have 27 spirit rings and 7 spirit bones, all of which would be at least 100,000 years old.
He smiled for a moment and then opened his eyes, seeing the half-destroyed scenery of the surroundings, with several corpses overturned and bloodstains here and there.
After searching the place for valuable items, he decided to leave.
'Time to go!'
'With these corpses here, it won't be long before a bunch of beasts shows up to devour them.'
'On the other hand, I'm close to Soutuo City. It's risky to continue here and run the chance of one of the teachers from the academy finding me.'
With that in mind, he went towards the giant scorpion waiting for him, with a human still breathing in its mouth.
'Gou He, huh?' Cheng Tian laughed that this was the only survivor.
'I will let you live for a few more hours. But you, my friend, will have a fate worse than that of your companions...'
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He closed his eyes and murmured. "You will live until I absorb my third spirit ring. After that..."
'It will be your turn to help me nurture my powers!'
He jumped on the scorpion's back and ordered it to move on.
Now he wanted to escape that area to avoid unwanted encounters and find a suitable spirit beast to hunt.
The beast in question did not need to be of advanced age, as he had his methods of solving this problem. As such, he was only concerned with finding something useful to his current condition, to bring him the best possible results!
...
After more than an hour of wandering around the outermost areas of Star Dou Great Forest, Cheng Tian passed many beasts, but due to the presence of Giant Earth King, he had no problems.
Most of the beasts in the outer areas of this great forest were not powerful. Thus, in the presence of that thousand-year-old being, many simply play dead or run away.
On the other hand, despite the number of different beasts in the path of the three traveling companions, none of those had characteristics compatible with Cheng Tian.
He had even found several of them that could be compatible with his second martial soul. But since he had to cultivate until he was at least a Titled Douluo to start adding spirit rings to his other martial souls, he ignored those beasts.
"Cough! Cough!"
"Ahh, what a pain!" Gou He commented in a weak tone, finally regaining some of his consciousness.
"Oh? You woke up?" Cheng Tian laughed as he observed that man in the mouth of the scorpion he was riding.
"What? Giant Earth King? You!" Cheng Tian's victim realized his situation and felt a wave of uncertainty and fear in his heart.
"You, how? What happened? We were... No, you killed Tian Heng!" He remembered the fight's final moments, understanding part of Cheng Tian's actions.
Cheng Tian looked at that person coldly and said. "We were enemies. You tried to enslave me. So what? Do you think I couldn't have acted? Only you people could?"
"Humph!"
"Damn, brat!"
"Thanks for the compliment. But don't waste your strength. I don't want you to die now..."
"You'll pay for the..."
"Shh!" Suddenly Cheng Tian spotted an insect of his interest and ordered his beast to silence Gou He.
As he looked more closely in the direction of the plants near the ground, he saw a pig-sized insect similar to those of the arachnid group.
This creature was green, like the leaves in its surroundings, with many hairs around its rounded body.
'Monstrous Mite!' He identified that creature as he remembered its characteristics. 'That kind of spirit beast has incomparable parasitic abilities.'
'In fact, they are so challenging that even beasts of this group that are only 100 years old can kill others of over a thousand years of cultivation with their parasitic action alone!'
His eyes sparkled in excitement as he saw that insect gently waiting for him there. 'Perfect!'
'That beast will be perfect to become my 3rd spirit ring!'
'It should be around 500 years old, so I'll have no problem absorbing it... As for killing it, that shouldn't be difficult either.'
'The power of this class of beast lies in its parasitic action, not in its brute nor defense power. Then I should be able to eliminate it!'
He jumped off the back of that scorpion, grinning from ear to ear. 'Hehe, this world is kind of fun...'
As he quietly walked around with his Sharingan activated, Gou He watched everything in silence, not understanding why Cheng Tian seemed interested in the Monstrous Mite.
'It's a good beast, but at just that age, it's not suitable for the 3rd spirit ring... So what is this fellow trying to do? To destroy his future?'
...