As Tang San released his martial soul, a grotesque, skin-colored abomination came into view. Tang Yin was so repulsed he instinctively shut his eyes, as if willing his brain to delete the memory before it was burned into his soul forever.
"Ahh!!" Yu Xiaogang gasped, his face turning pale. He stumbled backward and nearly collapsed to his knees, muttering in horror, "What have I done? No… it must've been the venom. Yes! That's it! Xiao San, this teacher is sorry for you..."
But the one most heartbroken was Tang San himself. His beloved Blue Silver Grass, once brimming with vitality and elegance, now resembled a mutated disaster from a dark realm. If he ever released this martial soul in front of an enemy, they'd die—not from his power, but from pure, unfiltered disgust.
Even Tang Hao, the battle-hardened father and former Title Douluo, was horrified. There wasn't even a shadow of resemblance between Ah Yin's graceful Blue Silver Grass and the abomination slithering from his son's palm.
"Abominable Yu Xiaogang! What have you done to my son?!" Tang Hao growled, gritting his teeth. The fury in his eyes could melt steel. He hadn't hated someone this much in years.
Tang San, too, felt doubt creep into his heart. Is Master really as wise as he claims? Could he have done this... intentionally? But with a shake of his head, he shoved those thoughts aside.
"Teacher, don't blame yourself," he said with a forced smile. "It must be the venom still lingering in your system. Let's head back so you can rest." The loyal disciple still chose to forgive his master.
Yu Xiaogang, shameless as ever, sighed dramatically. "Xiao San, it must be that the heavens sent me such a disciple to reward me for saving the world in my past life!"
Tang Yin rolled his eyes so hard they nearly fell out. Hypocrite…
Instead, he focused his thoughts. If Tang Hao leaves to see Ah Yin again, I should seize the opportunity to get my second soul ring.
Tang Hao had been persistently stalking Tang Yin and Xiao Wu ever since discovering that Xiao Wu was a soul beast. As a result, Tang Yin hadn't had a chance to acquire a second soul ring in over a year.
(Soul Masters can continue to cultivate even after reaching a bottleneck; this was something Tang Yin had discovered from Yu Xiaogang's memories. The accumulated cultivation would take effect once a new soul ring was absorbed—so Tang Yin wasn't in a rush.)
As expected, after they reached the gates of the Soul Hunting Forest, Tang Hao veered off in the direction of Holy Spirit Village. Controlling the master-disciple duo with telepathy , Tang Yin slipped into the deeper, more dangerous core area of the forest.
Using his telepathy, he began scanning the forest for a suitable soul beast. Luck was on his side. Barely half an hour into his search, he found a century-old Cloud Vine—a rare plant-type soul beast with terrifying devouring properties. Its vines were tough as steel and could absorb soul power by wrapping around an enemy like a dumpling and stabbing into their nervous system.
(It looked exactly like the Cloud Vine from the Swallowed Star donghua.)
Wasting no time, Tang Yin launched a mental assault through telepathy, instantly rendering the Cloud Vine brain-dead. After safely storing the body away, he continued his search for a high-aged soul beast to push the vine to its limit.
Eventually, he found two aquatic soul beasts near the same lake where he had obtained his first soul ring. Both were around 500 years old. To conserve soul power for later absorption, he immediately blitzed their minds with telepathy, killing them in seconds.
As two rich yellow soul rings hovered above the fallen beasts, Tang Yin extended both hands and absorbed their soul power energy. Once done, he returned to the Cloud Vine and began channeling soul power into its core.
The Cloud Vine grew rapidly, its vines thickening and becoming even more flexible and durable. It neared the threshold of 950 years.
Tang Yin immediately halted and purged the remaining soul power from his body. The vine floated in the air—thin, ethereal, and ghostly elegant, drifting like it was suspended in a dream. It curled and danced on invisible currents, veiled in a misty vapor that made it look like a living cloud.
Sensing the perfect moment, Tang Yin took a breath and merged with the Cloud Vine, sacrificing it as his second soul ring.
A divine light flashed within the forest's core, and a brilliant yellow soul ring rose above his Blue Silver King. Tang Yin sat calmly as the soul ring flowed into him, the process so comfortable it felt like sleeping on clouds.
Once the absorption was complete, detailed knowledge of the Cloud Vine's abilities flooded his mind. His expression remained still and unreadable. Silently, he began scanning the corpse for the soul bone—and found one: a right hand bone. He carefully stored it in his belt.
Then came the true test.
He quickly located a Datura Snake—the same type that had given Tang San his first soul ring—and approached it without hesitation.
With a breath of focus, he raised his hand.
"Blue Silver King, release!"
A burst of bluish-silver light exploded from his palm. The elegant, deadly vines of his martial soul surged forth like serpents. At the same time, two golden-yellow soul rings rose beneath his feet, rotating faster and faster as they lit up his figure in a glowing aura.
"Second soul skill—Cloud Vine Binding!"
The vine cracked through the air like a thunderous whip. Before the Datura Snake could slither away, the Blue Silver King surged forward and sealed it up like a dumpling, each vine folding in with surgical precision.
The coils pulsed—not just with strength, but with an insatiable hunger, tightening with every heartbeat as if savoring its prey's final struggle.
The snake hissed and thrashed, but every movement only made it worse. The vines burrowed into its nervous system and began devouring its soul power, growing thicker and tighter like a predator feeding on its prey.
Tang Yin raised his palm casually and muttered, "Weakling."
With a final squeeze, he commanded the vines to crush the snake.
The forest fell silent.