Douluo Continent: Awakening the Original Martial Soul at the Start.

Chapter 68 An Unexpected Gain—Melting Rings and Exploding Rings

Back in his dormitory, Li Fei was unaware of Meng Shenji's thoughts. He continued to comprehend the mysteries of Qi and blood. As time passed, he felt the growth of Qi and blood slow down. Moreover, each time he circulated the power of Qi and blood, a virtual blood-colored soul ring appeared, and it became increasingly solid.

"It seems that the growth of Qi and blood is also constrained by the Soul Ring. I need to hurry up and successfully condense this Qi and blood Soul Ring. But why does it always collapse at the last step? Is it because I don't have enough Qi and blood or some other reason?"

Feeling the Qi and Blood Soul Ring enveloping him collapse once again, Li Fei frowned. This was the thirtieth time already. Each time it collapsed just as it was about to solidify, always falling short by just one step. No matter what he did, it was difficult to succeed.

His situation was completely different from Tang Wulin's. Tang Wulin's blood and qi were sealed within him, guided by the bloodline of the Golden Dragon King, and formed by the condensation of a large amount of blood and qi. However, he himself needed to proceed step by step and could not use the same method.

"No! Each time I freeze, I only consume less than a third of my Qi and blood. It shouldn't be a lack of Qi and blood! It's just that I haven't found the right method!"

Feeling the surging energy of blood and qi within his body, Li Fei felt that it was due to the method he used, not a lack of blood and qi.

Realizing the reason, he pondered the condensation of spirit rings. It seemed that apart from spirit beasts, humans did not understand this thing, and there was no record of condensing spirit rings in the books of the Spirit Hall.

"Looks like I still need to go to Sunset Forest and observe some spirit beasts carefully!"

Li Fei had sensed his own spirit ring countless times and had indeed discovered many mysteries, but he still hadn't solved the problem of the final step of solidification. Now, he could only pin his hopes on finding the answer during the spirit ring formation process after killing the spirit beast.

After packing their things and buying some necessities for Dugu Bo in Tiandou City, they headed towards Sunset Forest.

"Old monster, do you know if there are any small, gregarious soul beasts like the Thousand-Pound Ant in the forest?!" Li Fei asked, handing the purchased supplies to Dugu Bo.

"Why are you looking for a soul beast like the Thousand-Pound Ant?! They can only provide soul rings, not even soul skills." Dugu Bo was a little puzzled. As the most widely distributed and numerous soul beast on the entire continent, the Thousand-Pound Ant can be found in any forest if you want to.

Apart from the queen ant, there are very few that are over a hundred years old, and their status is comparable to that of the blue silver grass among plants.

"I want to study the mysteries of spirit rings. The Thousand-Pound Ant is the most suitable spirit beast. Not only are they numerous, but their spirit rings are also the most basic ten-year level," Li Fei explained with a smile.

"I see!" Dugu Bo said with a look of realization, then changed the subject, "However, I don't know the activity area of ​​the Thousand-Pound Ants either, you'll have to go find them yourself!"

"Alright! I'll go find it myself!"

Li Fei understood that with Dugu Bo's cultivation level, it was impossible for him to pay attention to a useless soul beast like the Thousand-Pound Ant. He turned around and left the poison array, then activated his perception soul skill to search the entire Sunset Forest.

He easily found several nests of Thousand-Pound Ants, blocked one of the entrances, and began catching them. He easily caught dozens, tied them up with rope, threw them aside, and started killing them one by one.

With each kill, Li Fei focused intently, unleashing his Fiery Eyes, Perception Soul Skill, and Wisdom Skull to the fullest extent, not missing a single detail of the Soul Ring's condensation, his mental power simulating the process.

At this moment, Li Fei was also grateful that he had absorbed the wisdom skull of spiritual condensation, which allowed him to accelerate his thinking three times and quickly analyze the mysteries of the soul ring.

After studying for a full twenty days, with thousands of corpses of Thousand-Pound Ants piled up around him, Li Fei was disheveled and reeked of a foul stench. He seemed to be in a trance, single-mindedly observing the process of the white soul ring condensing in front of him.

"What's wrong with this brat?! It's been three days, and he's been studying his spirit rings without eating or drinking, ignoring me no matter how much I call him!" On a nearby tree, Dugu Bo looked worriedly at the girl in the distance—a girl with blond hair, a youthful face, and spirit power emanating from her—"And that girl, isn't that Xue'er you mentioned before? She looks younger than you, but her strength is probably no weaker than yours!"

"Sister Ying, how could Li Fei be so obsessed?!"

Qian Renxue casually waved her hand, and a golden-red sword aura flew out, killing an insect that wanted to get close to Li Fei. She asked worriedly.

Young Master, do you need to be so careful?! It's just a worm!

Yingjie's lips twitched, and she mentally complained before respectfully saying, "Young Master, you know Li Fei too. He has never given up his theoretical research on Soul Masters. He must have discovered something extraordinary and wants to explore it further, which is why he's in this state!"

"Hmm!" Qian Renxue nodded, looking at Li Fei in his crazed state, and then observed the surrounding environment: "Sister Ying, there are no more Thousand-Jun Ants around Li Fei. Go and catch some more for him!"

"yes!"

Yingjie's mouth twitched even more violently. "You've been here for three days for Li Fei's sake, and you've even forgotten your role as Xue Qinghe. You actually need my help to catch a low-level soul beast like the Thousand-Pound Ant. It's outrageous!"

Her body disappeared, and soon Sister Ying carefully placed hundreds of bound Thousand-Pound Ants beside Li Fei, before returning to Qian Renxue's side.

"The formation of a spirit ring requires the presence of a spirit beast's mark. When a spirit master absorbs a spirit ring, they imprint their own mark on top of that, making the spirit ring truly their own. The formation of a blood spirit ring should follow the same principle. To form a blood spirit ring, I must imprint my own mark within it at the very last moment!"

After thousands of perceptions, most of the mysteries of the spirit rings were revealed to him, allowing him to understand the essence of spirit rings. The essence of spirit rings is a crystallization of spirit power with spirit beast skills. Spirit beast skills are skills formed by combining the innate abilities of the spirit beast's soul imprint within the spirit ring with the imprint of the spirit master's own martial soul.

This is why a Soul Master can instantly know what their Soul Skill is after absorbing a Soul Ring—it's the information carried in the imprint.

Having grasped the essence of spirit rings, Li Fei was absolutely confident in successfully condensing his bloodline spirit rings. Without needing to kill the Thousand-Pound Ants to comprehend the spirit rings, he simply sat up cross-legged, and five spirit rings, one purple and one black, lit up.

The first spirit ring, in particular, shone even brighter, its purple light turning Li Fei's surroundings purple. Dugu Bo and Qian Renxue, standing in the distance, both wore expressions of surprise, as this was the first time they had ever seen such an unusual spirit ring.

(End of this chapter)