Douluo Continent: I possess astonishing wisdom as I control energy!

Chapter 78 Unraveling the Ring

"Different? How are they different!" Hyotei fumed, her scorpion tails standing on end. "They're all despicable bastards! Did he pay any price?"

Before she could finish speaking, the Snow Emperor flicked her wrist and silently took out more than twenty strands of Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Marrow. The pure energy emanating from them, though faintly glowing, seemed dazzlingly bright.

"..."

what?

Hyotei blinked, the curse words that followed instantly stuck in her throat, and even her golden eyes cleared a little.

Unconsciously, she reached out and touched the Ten-Thousand-Year-Old Profound Ice Marrow before her, feeling the pure, unadulterated extreme cold energy within it. With a hint of disbelief, she looked back at the Snow Emperor, trying to confirm.

To this, the Snow Empress nodded slightly.

The Ice Emperor was silent.

Seeing Hyotei's expression, Yuki-tei's gaze remained calm, but her tone became even more serious:

"Do you understand now? He really is different from other humans."

The Ice Emperor looked at the pile of ten-thousand-year-old mysterious ice marrow, then at the Snow Emperor's serious gaze, gritted her teeth, and still found it hard to believe.

How could humans be so generous? That's absolutely wrong; humans must have some ulterior motive!

She stood up, her golden eyes filled with determination and a touch of stubbornness:

"I don't believe it! Unless I see the Snow Emperor with my own eyes and take you with me to see him! I want to see what kind of bewitching potion this human has given you!"

Snow Emperor: "..."

Didn't you clearly explain things properly to Hyotei and tell them not to worry?

But why does Hyotei still want to go with her?

Xue Di lowered his eyes, a possibility inexplicably arose in his heart—could this also be within his expectations?

Xue Di fell into deep thought. After a long while, she sighed, her tone becoming serious:

"Okay, but Bing'er, you are not allowed to lay a hand on him or do anything to hurt him, do you understand?"

"What if he tries to hurt me?" Hyotei's tone was full of resentment.

"He won't hurt you, but..."

Perhaps they will "take action" against you?

Xue Di pursed her lips, ultimately not uttering the rest of her words. After a brief pause, she stood up and calmly said:

"I can't describe what he looks like, but you'll understand when you see him. Now, Bing'er, protect me."

Hyotei, who had been somewhat indignant, was taken aback.

"Protector?"

"Yes, I also need to undergo the Heavenly Tribulation," the Snow Empress said softly, "to undergo my seven hundred thousand year Heavenly Tribulation."

This was one of the boy's instructions to her.

After all, compared to other places, undergoing tribulation in the far north would eliminate any possibility of failure for her.

He seemed to want to prevent any problems from happening to her?

Beneath Xue Di's cool gaze, a faint smile flickered.

……

……

Mingdu, deep within the Hall of Offerings, is the laboratory.

Within the cold, imprisoning magic circle, a hunched-over, ferocious-looking evil spirit master was struggling frantically.

"My lord, my lord! Please, please let me go! I'm innocent. I'm truly innocent! They forced me to do this! Please!"

Witnessing the slow, methodical deaths of several of his "colleagues," this evil psychic's psychological defenses crumbled completely; his eyes bloodshot and filled with madness.

Kong Ming'an ignored this, his eyes calm yet carrying a hint of impatience.

He felt that in the future, after confirming that something was "material," he should first cut off the "tongue" of the "material," which might make it easier to "process" it later.

Slightly rousing himself, Kong Ming'an gently patted the "Ten Thousand Souls Banner" he had captured beside him. Instantly, the "Ten Thousand Souls Banner" moved without any wind.

A hazy beam of light shot out from it, then entered the evil spirit master's body, precisely extracting his soul and drawing it into the banner.

The begging for mercy stopped abruptly.

Kong Ming'an raised his hand, and a dark blue thread formed from the mixture of spiritual and soul power extended. Using the method of controlling the undead provided by Elder Yi, the dark blue thread temporarily replaced the soul, taking over the still-active body.

The evil spirit master's body stiffened instantly, then he stood up rigidly like a puppet on strings.

Beneath his feet, seven spirit rings—two yellow, three purple, and two black—emerged under Kong Ming'an's control. At the same time, the chaotic and evil spirit power inherent to evil spirit masters also surfaced within his body.

With a slight thought, Kong Ming'an manipulated this body to directly activate the Martial Soul True Body. The next moment...

"Ouch——!"

A savage wolf howl rang out, and the body instantly swelled and deformed, transforming into a terrifying giant wolf with a huge body, dark red fur, and bloodthirsty red eyes. A strong smell of blood and evil permeated the air.

The Bloodthirsty Soul Wolf is a martial soul that can rapidly grow by devouring flesh and souls; without a doubt, it is an evil martial soul.

The fact that he was able to cultivate to the level of Soul Saint clearly indicates that this evil soul master was not as innocent as he claimed.

Kong Ming'an calmly gazed at the terrifying giant wolf before him, a faint blue light gleaming in his eyes.

After observing for a moment, a pure, icy-blue luster appeared on his body, indicating that he had entered an "elemental" state.

The extreme cold naturally spread to the surroundings. He raised his hand, and the energy of extreme ice and snow quickly condensed in his hand into a small and exquisite scalpel.

The next moment, he raised his hand.

The scalpel, formed from condensed ice crystals, transformed into streaks of cold light too sharp for the naked eye to see, precisely "dissecting" the energy structure of the Martial Soul True Body.

Immediately, the faint "sizzling" sound of the ice blade cutting through energy began to echo in the laboratory.

However, a moment later, the massive Bloodthirsty Soul Wolf Martial Soul was covered with countless fine yet perfectly straight ice-blue lines, as if it had been cut by the most precise instruments, resembling a kind of "death by a thousand cuts" on an energy level.

However, under Kong Ming'an's mental manipulation and the maintenance of the energy threads, this martial soul's true form still maintained a strange "activity".

Standing before his own work, a hint of confirmation flashed in Kong Ming'an's eyes.

"The findings are largely consistent with previous discoveries. It can be confirmed that the Martial Soul True Body, 'Elementalization,' and 'Blood Qi Transformation' share commonalities and have the potential to combine with each other."

He murmured softly, silently noting down his findings, and then began the next step. The dissection was merely incidental; it was not the purpose of his experiment.

With a slight bend of his finger, the dark blue threads trembled slightly, and instantly, the evil soul master's soul power began to impact those soul rings in a peculiar way.

It's not the kind of violent "ring explosion" that directly destroys the spirit ring to release energy.

Instead, it's a more refined and gentler method, similar to releasing the constraints of the spirit ring on the energy it contains, allowing the vast amount of spirit power stored within the spirit ring to flow back into the spirit master's body in an orderly fashion, like a floodgate being opened.

This is considered a milder version of "ring explosion," which Kong Ming'an calls it.

"Unraveling the loop".

Chapter 79 No, what happened to my bounty?

A massive amount of chaotic soul power with varying attributes surged into the meridians, merging with the already mixed soul power of the evil soul master, which was imbued with resentment and bloodlust, immediately producing a strong reaction.

The evil soul master trembled, his body suddenly swelled up, and his meridians and bones were crushed bit by bit under this enormous soul power, his body cracking inch by inch.

Kong Ming'an didn't pay attention to this, since it was a disposable consumable, and it was enough to maximize its performance.

The azure threads began to forcefully guide the liquid soul power within the evil soul master's body, slowly compressing it and transforming it from a liquid to a solid state. It then slowly rotated, autonomously absorbing and purifying energy.

Clearly, Kong Ming'an is attempting to condense a soul core.

For other Soul Masters, condensing a Soul Core is an extremely dangerous and delicate process. If they are not careful, the Soul Core structure will be damaged, and it will explode, leaving no trace of their bodies!

However, for Kong Ming'an, the process of condensing the soul core did not involve much risk. After all, while others might experience a backlash and loss of control over their soul power when constructing a soul core, he would not.

None of the energy creations he constructs will ever "go out of control".

With a gentle push, the solidified soul energy naturally began to rotate steadily.

The evil soul master's own soul power, the spiritual power that still exists after the soul is extracted by the Myriad Soul Banner, the enormous soul power after the ring is broken, and even the energy to construct the true body of the martial soul.

Kong Ming'an used everything the evil soul master possessed as fuel within the soul core, accelerating the condensation process.

After an unknown amount of time, the rapidly spinning, forcibly compressed solid mass of soul energy finally reached a critical point, collapsing inward with a sudden intensification of its light, gradually becoming stable.

Finally, a tiny crystal, only the size of a fingernail and roughly a quarter the size of a normal Title Douluo's soul core, with a strange mix of various colors, slowly floated in the spot where the evil soul master had been.

—The Soul Core is complete.

Kong Ming'an dispelled his elemental transformation, returning to his original state. He sighed softly, a hint of weariness showing in his eyes.

He reached out, his palm covered with a layer of pure soul power devoid of any elemental affinities, and gently grasped the newly formed soul core.

A faint blue light flickered in his eyes once more as he carefully examined the state of the soul core, his brows furrowing slightly.

"The energy structure is fine, but the energy itself is impure and difficult to mobilize, posing many hidden dangers. Most importantly, the improvement in quality is about the same as before."

"Is there an upper limit to the improvement of soul power quality by a single soul core? Without a reference, I'm not sure, but at least it can't assimilate and merge a failed product of different types of energy."

He shook his head, casually sealed the failed product away, and tossed it onto the "failure display shelf" next to him.

There, several similar containers had already been placed, and inside each container were soul cores of varying sizes and colors.

He rubbed his temples, glanced at the empty "materials" shelf beside him, but lost all interest in continuing his research.

Turning around and looking into the distance, Kong Ming'an easily spotted Miss Meng, who was asleep, slumped over her workbench.

He paused, then slowly walked forward.

Light footsteps sounded, and Meng Hongchen seemed to sense something. Her eyelashes trembled slightly, and then she sat up with a yawn.

"it's over?"

"Yes, it just ended." Kong Ming'an came to Miss Meng's side.

Miss Meng rubbed her sleepy eyes, then leaned against Kong Ming'an, hugging him tightly and nuzzling her head against him, her voice still drowsy:

"I'm still a little sleepy, let me hold you for a while."

As he spoke, he closed his eyes again.

Kong Ming'an lowered his eyes and didn't speak. He simply picked up the girl and carried her to the sofa where they were resting.

He lay down first, then hugged Miss Meng in his arms.

Sensing that the environment seemed to have changed, Miss Meng didn't open her eyes. She groped around for a bit and then skillfully found a comfortable position in Kong Ming'an's arms before going back to sleep.

Kong Ming'an remained silent, simply holding Miss Meng's waist gently and observing her quietly.

Although Miss Meng was wearing the moon-white school uniform of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Master Academy, the well-fitting uniform accentuated her beautiful curves, and paired with white stockings covering her legs, she exuded a rare radiance.

Now that she's asleep, she looks even more adorable, making it hard to look away.

In short, it's very good-looking.

Miss Meng was accompanying him on his experiments; after all, spending all his time in the lab was bound to cause problems sooner or later.

Fearing something might happen to him, Miss Meng simply came over to be with him, and also took the opportunity to return to her original job as an "assistant".

However, Miss Meng wasn't a spirit beast like Xue Di, who could go without sleep for decades without any problems. She was a human, and her cultivation level wasn't particularly high.

So after several days of this, I couldn't stay awake any longer and started to feel sleepy.

Looking down at Miss Meng's sleeping face, Kong Ming'an rubbed his temples, feeling a little tired.

He hasn't reached the point of being inhuman yet; one or two months of continuous research would still be a considerable burden for him.

So taking a nap now seems quite reasonable.

Kong Ming'an quickly convinced himself, adjusted his posture slightly, embraced Miss Meng, and then slowly closed his eyes.

I'll take a nap first.

……

……

A few hours later, at the dining table in the rest area,

Having regained consciousness and in a rather good mood, Miss Meng pushed the food in front of Kong Ming'an, then sat down beside him.