In the very next moment, he seemed to hear a crisp shattering sound. Immediately after, that surge of heat frantically spread apart, then merged — merged into a milky-white current. The original winding stream instantly became a river, flowing with a gentle murmur. Wherever it passed, the searing pain had vanished, replaced by nothing but warm, soothing comfort.
He had succeeded. Ecstasy washed over him once more. That feeling of shattering was something Tang San knew all too well — it was unmistakably the sensation of the first bottleneck of the Mysterious Heaven Skill breaking open. His internal energy had fused with the power of the Soul Ring, becoming a single, far more powerful force. In a brief span of time, it rapidly spiraled along the meridians in his body several times over before slowly flowing into his dantian.
Just as Tang San had guessed, since arriving in this world, his Mysterious Heaven Skill had formed a strange and seamless compatibility with the Soul Power of a Soul Master. Each level of the Mysterious Heaven Skill corresponded to one Soul Master rank. With the acquisition of this first Soul Ring, he had finally broken through the bottleneck of the first level of the Mysterious Heaven Skill.
Of course, his power now was far from simply the Mysterious Heaven Skill advancing to the second level. He also possessed the Martial Soul power that the Tang Sect had never had, along with the skill granted by his first Soul Ring.
The euphoric feeling that came after absorbing a Soul Ring was beyond the power of words to describe. It was as though he were floating among the clouds, weightless and free, or as though he had reached the pinnacle of bliss. Every one of the thirty-six thousand pores across his entire body had opened wide, greedily breathing in the wonderful air. The qualitative transformation had set strange and marvelous changes in motion throughout Tang San's body.
Tang San did his best to calm the excitement within his heart. The breakthrough of the Mysterious Heaven Skill, aided by the Soul Ring, had shown him the direction his future development would take. He knew that, no matter what, his life in this world could never again be separated from his Martial Soul. Soul Power was the Mysterious Heaven Skill's internal energy, and internal energy was Soul Power. He was destined to walk the path of a Soul Master. And he was a Soul Master who belonged to the Tang Sect.
When Tang San slowly opened his eyes, the sky had already brightened considerably. The vibrant vitality of the new day seemed to be calling out to his body.
Tang San looked down at himself and discovered that his body appeared to have undergone some changes from acquiring the Soul Ring as well. His originally small and thin frame seemed to have grown a bit taller, his shoulders had broadened somewhat, and his skin now carried an additional layer of lustrous sheen.
Moving his hands and feet, he felt a comfortable sense of lightness brimming with power. He didn't need to deliberately test it to know that his internal energy hadn't merely broken through a bottleneck — every aspect of his body's capabilities had received a dramatic enhancement from the Soul Ring of the Hundred-Year Mandala Snake.
"Teacher." The first thing Tang San thought of upon regaining full awareness was the Great Master. He was eager to tell him that the Great Master's Soul Beast mimicry theory was a success. Throughout the entire fusion process, though he had endured considerable pain, there had been no sensation of conflict whatsoever.
When his gaze found the Great Master, however, he was stunned.
The Great Master lay collapsed on the ground, his body seemingly rigid, completely motionless. Around him and Tang San, a circle had been drawn with sulfur powder, just as it had been at the campsite before.
"Teacher, what happened to you?" Tang San's heart lurched with alarm. He quickly rolled over, hurried to the Great Master's side, and lifted his body upright.
Seeing the Great Master's face, Tang San blurted out, "Poison."
Black qi coiled across the Great Master's originally rigid features. His breathing was ragged — more air flowing in than out — and his body was stiff, having lost all sensation.
"How did the Teacher get poisoned?" Puzzled, Tang San suddenly noticed something abnormal about the Great Master's body and hastily pulled back the sleeve on his right arm.
The Great Master's right arm had swollen to more than three times its normal size, the skin stretched taut and turned a shiny purple. Fortunately, a strip of cloth had been tightly bound around the base of the upper arm — clearly an emergency measure the Great Master had taken after discovering he had been poisoned. Even so, with most of the toxin still having spread, he had lost consciousness. That alone spoke to how formidable this poison was.
A flash of insight struck Tang San's mind, and he suddenly understood the reason for the Great Master's poisoning. Earlier, when he and the Great Master had been pursued by the Mandala Snake, the Great Master's Martial Soul Luo Sanpao had been bitten by the creature — right on its right front leg. The Great Master had recalled it swiftly at the time. A Beast Martial Soul was one with its host, and that held true even for the Great Master's mutated variant. If the Martial Soul was poisoned, it was tantamount to the host being poisoned as well. Yet the Great Master had been singularly focused on helping him absorb the Soul Ring, giving no thought to his own safety. Once Tang San had entered his cultivation state, the Great Master's Soul Power could no longer suppress the toxin, and the poison had flared.
By comparison, Artifact Martial Souls held a certain advantage in this regard — if an Artifact Martial Soul came into contact with poison, it would not affect the host directly.
"Thank goodness the Teacher managed to stop the toxin from spreading, or there would have been nothing I could do." After checking the pulse on the Great Master's left wrist, Tang San quietly breathed a sigh of relief. The poison had not yet reached the heart — there was still time to save him.
Having been born into the Tang Sect, Tang San knew better than anyone how to handle poisoned wounds. Right now, he could no longer worry about whether the fire might attract Soul Beasts. He quickly gathered some dry branches and leaves from the surrounding area, struck a flame with his fire starter, and built a campfire. Then he tore the sleeve clean off the Great Master's right arm, used the short sword the Great Master had given him to dig a small pit in the ground, and drew out clear water to wash the blade clean.
As the campfire gradually blazed to life, Tang San held the short sword over the flames, heating it repeatedly. Only then did he drag the Great Master's body over to the edge of the pit, positioning his right hand so it hung over it.
Taking a deep breath, Tang San flipped his wrist and delivered three swift cuts — one at the pulse point of the wrist, one at the crook of the elbow, and one beneath the armpit.
Immediately, three streams of dark purple blood, carrying a thick, pungent odor and a faint tea-like fragrance, shot out like three small rivers flowing into the pit he had dug.
(End of Chapter)