Wang Chen sat cross-legged, with the Ice Emperor's soul ring and soul bone not only boosting his soul power but also continuously tempering his physique.
His skin, muscles, fascia, meridians, bones, and internal organs all became tougher and stronger.
A few hours later, a terrifying surge of soul power erupted from Wang Chen's body, causing the surrounding space to tremble.
His right arm bone, due to the fusion of the soul bone, emitted a lustrous emerald-green glow.
With the absorption of the soul ring and soul bone complete, the ice martial soul granted by Tianmeng Iceworm transformed into the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion martial soul.
Wang Chen slowly opened his eyes, carefully assessing his progress.
First, his cultivation had surged to the level eighty Soul Douluo realm, with a significant increase in soul power.
If previously his soul power was merely comparable to a Titled Douluo, now it was no less than that of a level ninety-five Super Douluo.
Not only had his soul power increased dramatically, but its quality had improved as well.
As the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, a super soul beast with an extreme attribute, became Wang Chen's martial soul, he was now an extreme attribute soul master.
The reason extreme attribute soul masters could fight above their level in the early stages was precisely due to the high quality of their soul power.
Although the advantage of extreme attribute soul masters diminished at the Titled Douluo level due to everyone possessing strong martial souls and factors like soul cores, it still existed.
Now, Wang Chen's soul power quality surpassed that of Super Douluos like Yan Shaozhe, at least comparable to a level ninety-seven Super Douluo.
In terms of physical strength, the Ice Emperor, as a top-tier beast martial soul, provided significant enhancements to his physique through its soul ring and soul bone. In contrast, absorbing soul rings from spiritual attribute soul beasts like the Evil Eye greatly boosted mental strength.
With Wang Chen's current physical strength, absorbing a three-hundred-thousand-year ferocious beast soul ring was still slightly beyond his reach, but a two-hundred-thousand-year soul ring posed no problem. His physical strength was fully comparable to a level ninety-five Super Douluo.
Compared to the massive improvements in soul power and physique, Wang Chen's mental strength saw only a small increase.
The Ice Emperor's mental strength was average, only at the mid-stage of the Tangible but Intangible realm, which was negligible compared to Wang Chen's vast mental strength at the Tangible and Intangible realm.
Thus, Wang Chen's mental strength remained at the early stage of Tangible and Intangible, though it had progressed slightly toward the mid-stage.
After absorbing the Ice Emperor's soul ring and soul bone, Wang Chen's base strength had advanced by leaps and bounds.
He could now be considered a Super Douluo.
If he were to fight Yan Shaozhe again, even without using the ring explosion secret technique, defeating him with raw strength would be effortless.
After summarizing his improvements in soul power, mental strength, and physique, Wang Chen began examining the soul skills granted by the Ice Emperor's soul ring and soul bone.
The Ice Emperor's soul ring provided Wang Chen with two soul skills: Ice Emperor's Pincer and Ice Emperor's Protection. The soul bone granted two soul skills: Permafrost Domain and Ice Emperor's Wrath.
The Ice Emperor's Pincer made his hands and forearms extremely hard, with each diamond-like crystal on them possessing powerful refractive abilities, capable of being used as a weapon. It enhanced strength, allowing for massive damage in close combat.
Ice Emperor's Protection covered the body's surface with a layer of ice crystals for defense, offering extremely high defensive capabilities.
Both Ice Emperor's Pincer and Ice Emperor's Protection could be adjusted in power based on the amount of soul power infused.
Permafrost Domain was a domain-type soul skill that amplified the power of ice-attribute soul skills and reduced their consumption within its range.
Ice Emperor's Wrath was the Ice Emperor's strongest offensive soul skill, releasing a super-powerful freezing ability accompanied by immense force, turning enemies into ice sculptures.
The four soul skills granted by the Ice Emperor were all powerful, sufficient even at the Super Douluo level.
Feeling his newly acquired second martial soul, Wang Chen immediately activated martial soul possession to test the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion's soul skills.
After activating martial soul possession, Wang Chen's deep black eyes shimmered with a layer of emerald-green light.
Beneath his level-nine soul tool armor, a massive scorpion tattoo appeared on his back—the true form of the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion.
In addition to the tattoo, his arms were covered in hexagonal diamond-like particles. Under the sunlight, these particles gleamed brilliantly, radiating a dazzling glow, both magnificent and beautiful.
Wang Chen clenched his fist, feeling the powerful enhancement to his body from the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion martial soul, and a smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
As an auxiliary-type martial soul, a weapon martial soul greatly enhanced soul tools but was lacking in physical enhancement.
Wang Chen gripped his right hand tightly and threw a punch into the void. The immense force caused the space to ripple. This punch used no soul skills, secret techniques, or combat skills—just raw physical power. Yet its strength was enough to kill a Soul Douluo.
Wang Chen murmured, "As expected of the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion martial soul—what a powerful strength boost."
Next, a red soul ring with four dazzling golden patterns rose and circled around Wang Chen's body, emitting a radiant glow.
Standing amidst the snowy expanse, Wang Chen resembled the king of this icy world.
As the red and gold soul ring flickered slightly, a layer of ice armor appeared over his soul tool armor—Ice Emperor's Protection.
The next moment, Wang Chen activated the soul bone skill, Permafrost Domain, from his right arm. With his body as the center, terrifying cold instantly spread outward.
In this icy, snow-covered land, a domain of ice spanning dozens of kilometers formed. The extreme cold even turned the air into liquid.
Within the domain, Wang Chen looked at the vast white snow world, feeling an unprecedented closeness and comfort with the cold environment.
In the state of unity with heaven and earth, his connection to this world became even stronger.
With the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion martial soul, if Wang Chen fought in an extremely cold place like the Far North, the power of his ice-attribute soul skills would increase, and his soul power recovery speed would accelerate.
In practical terms, his combat strength would be significantly enhanced. The boost from the environment was not to be underestimated for top-tier soul masters.
After testing the soul skills granted by the Ice Emperor, Wang Chen retracted the domain.
At this moment, within Wang Chen's spiritual sea, the Ice Emperor looked at the red soul ring with four golden patterns on Wang Chen's body and said in surprise, "Strange? What's going on? I haven't survived my fourth tribulation, so it should only have three golden patterns. Why does it have four?"
Tianmeng Iceworm said smugly, "Hehe, during the fusion process, I raised your soul ring's age from three hundred ninety-nine thousand nine hundred years to four hundred thousand years.
As a million-year soul beast, I can elevate ten soul rings to the hundred-thousand-year level. Pretty impressive, right?"
Previously, Tianmeng Iceworm had been fast asleep in Wang Chen's spiritual sea. Now awake, it naturally wanted to show off.
The Ice Emperor scoffed, "That's all you're good for. If I had absorbed the Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Essence back then, I'd have long been invincible in this world, hmph."
Tianmeng Iceworm, feeling rebuffed, turned to Wang Chen and said, "Wang Chen, want me to raise all your other soul rings to the hundred-thousand-year level?"
Wang Chen knew Tianmeng Iceworm could enhance soul ring ages. However, four days ago, after helping him fuse the million-year soul ring, Tianmeng had been so exhausted that it fell into a deep sleep, leaving no chance to enhance the other soul rings.
If it had, his battle with Xuanzi would have been even easier.
After some thought, Wang Chen considered that although his weapon martial soul's first six soul rings were all ten-thousand-year rings, they were of little use against Super Douluo-level opponents and above. It was indeed time for an upgrade.
In reality, as a soul master's cultivation grew stronger, the enhancement effects of weaker soul rings diminished. For example, a thousand-year soul ring could boost attack power by one hundred percent, an effect undiminished at the Soul Elder or Soul Ancestor levels.
But at the Soul King level, the effect might only be fifty percent. At the Soul Sage level, it might drop to twenty or thirty percent, and for Titled Douluos, it was negligible.
Thus, Wang Chen decided to elevate all six of his weapon martial soul's soul rings to the hundred-thousand-year level. The enhancement effects of hundred-thousand-year soul rings remained undiminished even for Limit Douluos.
Wang Chen said, "Tianmeng, raise all six of my weapon martial soul's soul rings to the hundred-thousand-year level."
"Leave it to me," Tianmeng Iceworm replied.
As Tianmeng Iceworm exerted its power, the first six soul rings attached to Wang Chen's weapon martial soul underwent a dramatic transformation. Their color deepened, shifting from black to black with a red tint, and finally turning fully red.
Thus, Wang Chen's weapon martial soul's soul ring configuration changed from six black and one gold to six red and one gold.
This terrifying soul ring configuration greatly boosted Wang Chen's strength once again.
Wang Chen felt that he was now frighteningly powerful. The enhancement effects of hundred-thousand-year soul rings were far beyond those of ten-thousand-year soul rings.
With his current raw strength, surpassing that of a level ninety-five Super Douluo, combined with six hundred-thousand-year soul rings and one million-year soul ring, he could go toe-to-toe with a level ninety-eight peak Super Douluo like Xuanzi without using the ring explosion secret technique—and even win.
If he used the ring explosion secret technique, the results would be earth-shattering.
Wang Chen's soul ring configuration included six hundred-thousand-year soul rings and one million-year soul ring, plus the four-hundred-thousand-year soul ring from his second martial soul, the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion.
That made eight high-quality soul rings above the hundred-thousand-year level.
The only factor limiting Wang Chen's strength was his physical durability, which couldn't fully withstand the terrifying power unleashed by exploding soul rings.
Otherwise, if his body could endure it, exploding all six hundred-thousand-year soul rings and the million-year soul ring at once would produce a combined force that could crush even a Limit Douluo into dust.
It could be said that Wang Chen had taken the ring explosion secret technique to new heights. The more terrifying a soul master's soul ring configuration, the more powerful the technique became.
Wang Chen's soul ring configuration was unmatched in the Douluo Continent.
He thought to himself, "Improving my physical strength is urgent. Otherwise, I can't fully utilize the ring explosion secret technique.
In the future, the eight soul rings attached to the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion should come from ferocious beasts with over three hundred thousand years of cultivation that greatly enhance physical strength.
Additionally, Tang San's book contains recipes for pills that strengthen the physique. Those need to be arranged.
Combined with the Gold of Life, with these three approaches, it won't take long for my physique to reach god-level. At that point, no one in the entire Douluo Continent will be my match."
For a moment, Wang Chen's mood surged with excitement, though he quickly regained his composure.
He knew the most pressing task was to hunt soul beasts, absorb an eighth soul ring, and break through the Soul Douluo bottleneck.
To maximize benefits, he should first refine the immortal herbs and spiritual medicines from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well into pills to enhance his physique. With a stronger body capable of handling higher-age soul rings, he could then hunt soul beasts and absorb the eighth soul ring.
Wang Chen rubbed his chin. Refining pills required a pill furnace, but that was easily solved. He could return to the Sun Moon Empire, gather the necessary rare metals, and craft one.
The objectives of this trip were mostly complete, and it was time to return to the Sun Moon Empire.
On the way back, he could stop by Dragon City in the northern part of the Heavenly Soul Empire to retrieve the Ten Thousand Year Mysterious Ice Essence from the Earth Dragon Sect.
As Wang Chen was deep in thought, the Ice Emperor spoke from within his spiritual sea, "Wang Chen, could you go see Snow Emperor? If I disappear without reason, Snow Emperor will surely worry."
Tianmeng Iceworm said, "Why see Snow Emperor? What if she attacks Wang Chen?"
The Ice Emperor snapped, "With me here, how could Snow Emperor attack Wang Chen? And who asked you to butt in when I'm talking to Wang Chen? Stay out of it."
As Tianmeng Iceworm and the Ice Emperor bickered, Wang Chen's Tangible and Intangible mental strength sharply detected something. He abruptly turned his head to look south.
…
A hundred kilometers away in the sky, two figures—one blue, one yellow—tore through space, rushing toward Wang Chen's location in the Far North at lightning speed.
The blue figure was Song Jie, the High Priest of Sea God Island. The yellow figure was Mu En, the Dragon God Douluo of Shrek Academy.
Guided by the mark of the Sea God's faith, Song Jie's blue eyes locked onto Wang Chen from a hundred kilometers away. Turning to Mu En, he said, "It's him!"
Mu En immediately looked at the imposing man a hundred kilometers away. His intuition told him this man was the one who killed his disciple, Yan Shaozhe.
At this moment, in the God Realm, Tang San's gaze also fixed on the scene. Seeing Mu En and Song Jie only a hundred kilometers from Wang Chen, a smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
"I specifically sent Song Jie to find Mu En. With two Limit Douluos working together, there's no chance of failure. The Child of Destiny will surely be eradicated."
…
Wang Chen looked at Song Jie and Mu En, frowning.
Two Limit Douluos. The one with the radiant aura is Mu En, but who's the other? How did they find me?
The speed of Limit Douluos was astonishing, covering a hundred kilometers in moments.
"Demon, meet your end! Boundless Ocean!" Song Jie's eyes were devout and sharp as he struck with a palm.
A water-blue phantom of the ocean crashed toward Wang Chen with the force of a mountain!
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