Douluo Dalu II: The Peerless Tang Sect

Chapter 163 Yang Zhenzhen's First Soul Ring!

Zhangyangzhuang.

The arrival of Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan greatly excited and delighted Grandma Yang and Yang Zhenzhen. They immediately offered the two the most sumptuous food they could, but the two refused and directly explained their purpose.

"Grandma, I see that Nannan's soul power has reached level ten. We're here to take her to find a soul ring, so we won't stay for dinner," Jiang Nannan said, a smile and a look of satisfaction on her face. The girl really liked this little girl who was also named Nannan.

"Really! Thank you, brother and sister!" Yang Zhenzhen exclaimed happily upon hearing this.

"This... I am so grateful to you both!" The old man said, tears streaming down his face, laughing and crying at the same time.

Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan wasted no time and immediately took Yang Zhenzhen to the Soul Hunting Forest outside Fran City to search for a Soul Ring. On the way, they made a point of inquiring about Yang Zhenzhen's cultivation progress. It turned out that the young girl had reached level ten not long after they visited Zhangyang Village last year, and now, exactly one year later… Throughout this year, Yang Zhenzhen had always remembered Jiang Nannan's words, and even after reaching a bottleneck in her soul power, she hadn't stopped cultivating.

They soon arrived at the Soul Hunting Forest in Fran City. The Soul Hunting Forest is a small forest inhabited by spirit beasts, all of whom are domesticated and destined only to become spirit rings and food. The strongest spirit beasts in the Soul Hunting Forest are no more than a thousand years old. Every so often, high-level spirit masters enter the forest to clean it out, killing or capturing any spirit beasts older than a thousand years.

At this moment, Zhu Ziyang and his two companions arrived at the entrance of the Soul Hunting Forest, where numerous Soul Hunting teams and ordinary Soul Masters were active, all waiting for the opening time of the Soul Hunting Forest.

Zhu Ziyang paid little attention to these people and walked towards the entrance of the forest amidst their curious, doubtful, sarcastic, worried, and silent gazes.

At the forest entrance, a squad of soldiers guarding the forest stood guard. Upon seeing Zhu Ziyang and his companions, the captain immediately stepped forward, stopped them, and said, "Without the city lord's order, no one is allowed to enter the forest!"

Zhu Ziyang didn't speak, but instead took out a token. It was a symbol of identity for a disciple of the inner court of Shrek Academy. With this token, one could freely enter and exit any of the Soul Hunting Forests in the three great empires. The soldier captain in front of him couldn't possibly not recognize it.

As expected, upon seeing Zhu Ziyang's token, the captain immediately put on a fawning smile and said, "It's actually a Soul Master from Shrek Academy! I was blind to your greatness and apologize for disturbing you!"

The soldier captain immediately ordered his men to open the gate to the forest entrance, allowing Zhu Ziyang and his two companions to enter.

Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan immediately led Yang Zhenzhen into the forest. They didn't want to waste time and wanted to find a suitable soul beast for Yang Zhenzhen as soon as possible, so they didn't bother to conceal their presence and just swaggered around flying over the forest, their attitude extremely arrogant.

Despite their arrogance, they were not careless at all. Their eyes scanned every place below where soul beasts might appear. Finally, by a lake, they found a soul beast that was very suitable for Yang Zhenzhen in terms of both attributes and age: a two-hundred-year-old conductive flying squirrel.

Yang Zhenzhen's martial soul is the Thunder Moth, an ordinary lightning-attribute soul beast, suitable for a strong offensive build. The conductive flying squirrel they discovered is also lightning-attribute, making it a perfect match for the Thunder Moth in terms of attribute. Its combat capabilities are also quite impressive, so it can probably provide Yang Zhenzhen with a good soul skill.

After choosing their target, they didn't hesitate. Zhu Ziyang stayed behind to look after Yang Zhenzhen, while Jiang Nannan was responsible for taking down the conductive flying rat. A two-hundred-year-old soul beast wasn't worth the two Soul Kings working together. Jiang Nannan's movements were swift and clean. She accelerated and, before the conductive flying rat could even react, slapped it on the head. The powerful soul energy fluctuation instantly knocked it unconscious.

Jiang Nannan, carrying the conductive flying squirrel, returned to Zhu Ziyang and Yang Zhenzhen, tossed it in front of Yang Zhenzhen, and said, "Nannan, do you remember what your sister told you on the way here? Now it's up to you."

"Yes, I understand!" Yang Zhenzhen's face was resolute as she took out the kitchen knife she always carried with her. Yes, the kitchen knife. It was given to Yang Zhenzhen by her grandmother before they left, and the purpose was self-evident.

The little girl's movements were clean and efficient; she finished off the conductive flying squirrel with a single slash. She remained expressionless, as if she had done something insignificant, which surprised Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan.

"Grandma's hands shake, so I'm the one who cuts all the vegetables at home," the little girl explained stammeringly, her face flushed as she saw the expressions on their faces.

"Hehe, that's impressive!" Jiang Nannan praised with a smile. "Come on, start absorbing your first spirit ring! Good luck!"

"Mmm!" Yang Zhenzhen's face was filled with excitement and anticipation. She immediately followed Jiang Nannan's instructions, sat cross-legged on the ground, and began to absorb the soul ring of the conductive flying squirrel.

Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan stayed by Yang Zhenzhen's side, watching her absorb the spirit ring. Jiang Nannan's face was filled with worry. She understood very well the danger that absorbing a spirit ring posed to a spirit master. She did not consider it a trivial matter just because she or anyone she knew had successfully absorbed a spirit ring.

In fact, every year there are soul masters who fail to absorb soul rings. At best, their cultivation level drops and years of hard work turn to ashes; at worst, their martial soul is shattered, and they die.

Fortunately, although it took Yang Zhenzhen nearly six hours to finish absorbing the spirit ring, she refined it very smoothly, and her spirit power reached level 13. All of her year's accumulation turned into a bountiful harvest.

The little girl was very happy and laughed and was excited all the way back.

Back in Zhangyang Village, Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan dropped Yang Zhenzhen off at the village entrance. Instead of going inside, they said directly to her, "Zhenzhen, you must cultivate diligently! Try to reach a soul power level of 15 before you turn thirteen. If you achieve that, your older brother and sister will take you to Shrek Academy!"

"Yes, yes! Brother, sister, don't worry, Nannan will definitely work hard to cultivate!" Yang Zhenzhen nodded earnestly.

"Alright, we're leaving!" Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan turned and left.

Yang Zhenzhen stood at the village entrance, watching the two figures leave, her eyes shining with determination. She vowed that she would never let down Sister Nannan and Brother Ziyang's expectations!

-

When Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan returned to Anyang City, it was already the fifth day of their holiday.

Back home, Zhu Ziyang put aside all his thoughts and ideas. The unprecedented sense of relaxation made him sleep soundly until the afternoon of the next day.

After regaining consciousness, Zhu Ziyang did not stay at home, but went directly into the far north ice field.

Why did he enter the far north ice plains? The reason is simple: to completely refine the first soul ring of the Heavenly Frost Saint White Dragon.

Zhu Ziyang currently possesses six spirit rings: five from the World-Soothing Scythe and one from the Heavenly Frost Sacred White Dragon. The five spirit rings from the World-Soothing Scythe have all undergone a second refinement, becoming completely his own. However, the first spirit ring of the Heavenly Frost Sacred White Dragon, a red spirit ring worth a staggering 190,000, has not yet been fully refined by Zhu Ziyang.

The life force contained in the 100,000-year soul ring was not something that Zhu Ziyang could easily refine before. Even now, if he wants to steadily refine the life force in the soul ring, he needs to rely on the right timing and location. This is the purpose of his entry into the far north ice plain.

By taking advantage of the frigid environment of the Arctic Ice Plains, Zhu Ziyang was certain that the success rate of completely refining the soul ring of the Silver Dragon Wolf, a mythical beast from the far north, was as high as 99%!

Therefore, without any hesitation or doubt, after informing his parents and Jiang Nannan, he headed directly north and entered the far north ice plains.

The day after Zhu Ziyang entered the Arctic Ice Plains, a bright-eyed young man arrived at the outskirts. If Zhu Ziyang or Jiang Nannan saw him, they would surely be astonished and call out his name: Huo Yuhao!

Huo Yuhao looked at the vast snowfield before him with great excitement and shouted, "Finally here! The far north, I've arrived!"

The boy was tricked into coming by his brother Tianmeng. The twelve-year-old boy had no idea how suicidal it was for him to go alone into the far north. Or rather, he knew but had no other choice. The boy's desperate act was about to change his own fate and the fate of the far north.

A destined transformation is about to begin, an unexpected encounter is about to happen, and an unprecedented species is about to descend.

(End of this chapter)