Thanks to Ma Hongjun's hard work, Huo Wu finally refined the hundred-thousand-year-old torso soul bone.
The fire energy of the hundred-thousand-year-old soul bone was too strong, and through Huo Wu's body, a portion was transferred to Ma Hongjun's body.
This further enhanced the fire energy within Ma Hongjun.
Currently, Ma Hongjun's cultivation level is insufficient, and the sudden burst of fire energy has left him unable to control it.
Now, even his breath is exhaling flames.
If he were to unleash a dragon's breath like a fire dragon, Ma Hongjun feels that his current breath would be even stronger than the breath of a hundred-thousand-year-old dragon.
The fire energy within his body is too restless, and Ma Hongjun needs to find a way to suppress it.
Or rather, it's not so much about suppressing it.
To completely control this fire energy without depleting other powers, Ma Hongjun needs to improve his other strengths to achieve balance,
or supplement with energy corresponding to the fire element, like the yin and yang cycle.
In short, he needs to temporarily leave the Fire Domain.
Ma Hongjun initially came to the Fire Domain under the guidance of the Martial God with the purpose of improving his strength.
Xiao Chi conveyed the Fire God's arrangement: Ma Hongjun would accompany Huo Wu through the Fire God's trials as her successor.
However, he would only gain abilities, not divine status.
Huo Wu couldn't take the trials yet; she needed to reach at least the Soul Saint level and achieve the ultimate purity of fire.
Therefore, Huo Wu still had a long way to go in her development.
Ma Hongjun would leave temporarily, returning to accompany her after about a year when Huo Wu was ready to undergo the trials.
Xiao Chi had no objections, as Ma Hongjun's actions didn't violate the Fire God's arrangements.
It helped Ma Hongjun open the teleportation gate to the lake.
Ma Hongjun unfurled his Fire Feather Wind Wings and flew out of the Fire God's small world.
Oasis, desert!
Ma Hongjun reappeared in the outside world.
He hovered above the lake, releasing his aura to
sense its surroundings. Sure enough, he could sense spatial fluctuations within the seemingly calm lake.
Besides the lake surface, deep in the southern desert, what appeared to be an endless expanse of sand contained strong fire-elemental energy fluctuations that Ma Hongjun could sense.
That should be the Fire Domain, the area isolated by the God of Fire.
Ma Hongjun's current strength is already at the peak of the Douluo Continent's combat power. Although he's only level 80 on the surface, his true strength is estimated to be comparable to, or even more than, a Super Douluo.
Without real combat experience, Ma Hongjun doesn't know his level among Title Douluos.
However, even against Sword Douluo Chen Xin, Ma Hongjun is confident he can fight.
He even dares to challenge the strongest Limit Douluo.
In terms of power, Ma Hongjun is definitely not weak; his only concern is the control of that power.
Currently, the power within Ma Hongjun's body is too diverse and fragmented, with fire energy dominating.
If it weren't for the numerous soul bones helping to maintain his body, the clash of these energies would be enough to overwhelm him.
Ma Hongjun's next goal is to develop his first martial soul, the Martial God Spear.
He needs to upgrade the Martial God Spear's soul rings to close the gap with fire energy.
He also needs to add an eighth soul ring to his first martial soul.
And this eighth soul ring should ideally be the opposite of fire attribute.
Therefore, ice attribute becomes the best choice.
Speaking of ice-attribute spirit rings over 100,000 years old,
there's only one place in the Douluo Continent that possesses one: the far north.
The Southern Fire Desert is located in the far south of the Douluo Continent.
For Ma Hongjun to reach the far north, he would need to traverse the entire Douluo Continent,
passing through the Star Dou Great Forest .
What follows will be a long journey.
However, for Ma Hongjun, this isn't just a simple journey.
At least he can gather information about the spirit rings and spirit beasts of the first martial soul along the way.
This time, Ma Hongjun chose the north, the opposite direction from where he came.
With a flap of his Fire Feather Wind Wings, Ma Hongjun instantly transformed into a streak of light, his Vermilion Bird Feather trailing a long fiery tail.
His flight speed was now extraordinary.
Moreover, the seven Vermilion Bird Feather spirit bones, each over 200,000 years old, that he had fused with allowed his Fire Feather Wind Wings to store terrifying energy, requiring very little spirit power.
In just one hour, Ma Hongjun arrived at the territory of the former Sanghuang Sand Salon.
This was a journey that Ma Hongjun had taken nearly a month to complete just a few months ago.
One can imagine how terrifying his progress in the Fire Domain must have been during that time.
Upon arriving at the territory of the Mourning Yellow Salon, Ma Hongjun didn't rush to leave.
He had a target here.
His sixth spirit ring came from the Yellow Sand Salamander, but it was only at the 50,000-year level.
Ma Hongjun began searching the Yellow Sand Salamander's territory, where it was rumored to be home to a 100,000-year-old level creature.
Ma Hongjun was determined to find it and absorb its spirit ring.
The endless yellow sand made it impossible to see any living thing in the air.
Ma Hongjun's sensory abilities were now very strong; he could even sense the Fire Domain space isolated by the God of Fire. Although this was partly due to their shared elemental affinity, it was undeniable that this ability improved with increased strength.
However, there were difficulties here.
The daytime temperature was too high, and the Yellow Sand Salamanders rarely came out.
They were all buried under the yellow sand, which had a strong insulating effect. Sensing spirit beasts underground through the sand was no less difficult than sensing them through the Fire Domain barrier.
With no other option, Ma Hongjun had to stay another night.
At nightfall, the sand scorpion swarm began to emerge.
Ma Hongjun could finally unleash his full power.
Powered by his Fire Feather Wind Wings, he flew close to the ground like a fiery meteor.
At this moment, a radius of a hundred miles above the ground was within Ma Hongjun's sensing range.
Wherever a large swarm of sand scorpions or a soul beast over ten thousand years old appeared, Ma Hongjun rushed over.
Any sand scorpion over fifty thousand years old was Ma Hongjun's target.
They all died under his gun, merging into his sixth soul ring.
The strong are destined to walk a path of slaughter.
There is no mercy or pity!
This is the law of the jungle.
At this moment, his temper was flaring, and Ma Hongjun transformed into a ruthless killing machine.
Ma Hongjun's goal was clear: to upgrade his sixth soul ring.
Few soul masters ventured into the desert, even those hunting teams that made their living in the Southern Fire Domain rarely entered.
Especially for the territory of the sand scorpions, it was practically a no-man's land.
Therefore, the sand scorpions here thrived.
It was perfect for Ma Hongjun to harvest some "leeks."
Before even encountering a hundred thousand-year-old sand scorpion, he had already hunted down fifteen over fifty thousand years old.
The number of sand scorpions was overwhelming. Scorpions are insect-type creatures, reproducing very quickly, and sand scorpions can draw energy from the yellow sand to survive.
In places like the Southern Fire Domain Desert, a Sand Scorpion Kingdom has formed.
The base number of Sand Scorpions is at least in the hundreds of millions.
With so many Sand Scorpions, even if the chance of mutation is small, a large number of Mighty Yellow Sand Salamanders can still emerge.
Therefore, considering all these reasons,
it's not surprising that Ma Hongjun encountered so many powerful Mighty Yellow Sand Salamanders.
After absorbing the spirit rings of fifteen Mighty Yellow Sand Salamanders that were over 50,000 years old, Ma Hongjun's sixth spirit ring of the Martial God Spear Martial Soul was upgraded to the 100,000-year level.
It turned an incomparably bright red.
This kind of fusion and superposition of spirit rings from the same spirit beast is not a simple superposition of years.
It's not like fusing two 50,000-year spirit rings will become a 100,000-year spirit ring just like five plus five equals ten.
Spirit rings over 10,000 years old are like Title Douluo, with huge differences between each level.
Based on Ma Hongjun's experience in fusing spirit rings,
for the same type of spirit beast, the spirit power of a 100,000-year spirit ring is roughly equal to the sum of the spirit power of fifteen to twenty 50,000-year spirit rings.
This is difficult to calculate precisely.
A 100,000-year spirit ring, being the number one treasure on the Spirit Master's Dream Ranking, is naturally incredibly precious.
Ma Hongjun's ability to accumulate and upgrade his spirit rings is nothing short of divine.
The power of a 100,000-year spirit beast far surpasses that of countless 50,000-year spirit beasts.
It's like a person who can kill many 50,000-year spirit beasts, but cannot defeat a single 100,000-year spirit beast.
That's the difference.
(End of Chapter)