Obtaining the External Soul Bone was indeed above his expectations as Hun Tiandi tried to control his External Soul Bone, the Eight Spider Lances, for a bit, realizing that he could control them like his arms or legs.
It felt entirely natural, like they had always been part of his body. After playing with the Eight Spider Lances for some time, Hun Tiandi recalled the External Soul Bone back to his body, as they disappeared as if they had never been there in the first place.
Also, now that he had obtained his 1st Soul Ring from the Man Faced Demon Spider onto his Bloodviolet Seven Star Fiend Sword Martial Soul. He instinctively knew the Soul Skill that he obtained from the Man Faced Demon Spider, which was called Fel.
It was rather a peculiar thing because it didn't really provide any direct increased attacking power or anything. Instead, the Fel acted like a Poison, which caused a devastating, corrupting effect on the infected target.
Depending on the amount of the Fel Poison used in the attack, it could cause anything from a physical mutation to agonizing death and a berserker reaction that causes the target to lose all judgment and rationality and be replaced with a desire to kill.
The Fel was a rather useful ability and was pretty versatile... one could even use the Fel Poisoning in the long term because the Fel apparently had the ability to latch onto the Soul Power and devour the host's Soul Power as the fuel of the self-replication.
When he finished the absorption of the Soul Ring and found out what his new Soul Skill was, he went to the Golden Crocodile Douluo and Chrysanthemum Douluo, who were already waiting for him, together with Hao Yue, as the detached Martial Soul was looking around everything with curiosity, especially at the different species of the Soul Beasts.
Sometimes, it was rather hard to forget that Hao Yue was actually a Soul Beast because the Martial Soul Austin Griffin had an almost unnatural degree of intelligence that was no less than that of a human.
It was even surprising how intelligent the Martial Soul was, so sometimes Hun Tiandi wondered if it was really just a simple Martial Soul. Nevertheless, he could see that both of the Titled Douluo who were accompanying him to the Great Star Dou Forest were very surprised by his gains.
In fact, he was too, because he never predicted that he would get an External Soul Bone from the Man Faced Demon Spider, as he understood that the External Soul Bones were probably as rare as the 100,000 Years Old Soul Rings.
"Congratulations are in place... who would have thought that you would obtain External Soul Bone. Even, this old man is a bit envious of this."
Jin Eyu stated that he couldn't really marvel at the luck of the young one this time. The chances of Soul Bone dropping after the death of the Soul Beast were already abysmally low.
The possibility of the External Soul Bone dropping among all possible Soul Bones was even lower, so the chances were extremely close to zero. One really needed to be beloved by the world itself to be able to pick up the External Soul Bone as Hun Tiandi did right now.
It seemed like it was really too easy.
"It seems that I was lucky this time... who knows, maybe even you will pick up some External Soul Bone someday, old man."
Hun Tiandi said as the Golden Crocodile Douluo started laughing because it was indeed laughable to a certain extent. Only Hun Tiandi would say something like that, though Jin Eyu thought that it would be nice to obtain some External Soul Bone for himself.
Even the Spirit Hall had a severe lack of External Soul Bones, and when they obtained some, it didn't mean that anyone was compatible with them. The chances actually were rather high that the Titlted Douluos of the Spirit Hall wouldn't be compatible with the External Soul Bone obtained by the Spirit Hall.
That was also the reason why most of the Titled Douluos of the Spirit Hall, be it the ones from the Supreme Pontiff Palace or the Douluo Consecration Hall, didn't have External Soul Bones.
It was very hard to even fight a single External Soul Bone, much less said about the one that was compatible with them.
"So what ability did you obtain from that Man Faced Demon Spider?"
Jin Eyu asked him as Hun Tiandi proceeded to explain the properties of the first Soul Ring that he had obtained, and it was rather surprising to hear that he had obtained such a powerful Soul Skill as his first one.
Not that it seemed that Hun Tiandi was thrilled by that really much, but that was something that everyone had already gotten used to because everyone among the Titled Douluos who had a chance to interact with the future Holy Son of the Spirit Hall knew that he wasn't one who was overreliant on the Soul Skills stemming from the Soul Rings.
Rather unusual approach considering the nature of the Soul Master Profession in the Douluo Continent. But at the same time, it also made sense because one couldn't be using the Soul Skill indefinitely, and they needed "recharge".
If the Soul Master was caught precisely during the recharge, then his combat prowess would be dropped down considerably, and logically speaking, the most experienced Soul Masters would take care that such a situation never happened.
Those who could and had enough talent for it would supplement their Soul Skills with martial arts or some weapon mastery, but there were not many of those. Obviously, the Golden Crocodile Douluo was one of such people, who, because of his Martial Soul, the Golden Crocodile King had an unnaturally strong physique.
As such, he learned many types of Martial Arts to supplement his Soul Skills and thus became a force of nature to reckon with.
"So, where shall we be going right now, young master?"
Yue Guan asked with his typically creepy smile, as they already obtained one Soul Ring, but they still had three to go.
At least one was already guaranteed because the location of the Pit Demon Spider was already confirmed by the scouts of the Spirit Hall, as the Pit Demon Spider was another Soul Beast that Hun Tiandi chose for the Bloodviolet Seven Star Fiend Sword Martial Soul.
Even Hun Tiandi didn't know why he had chosen the Archnid-type Soul Beasts for his Martial Soul, but he felt that they were the most suitable for the Bloodviolet Seven Star Fiend Sword, and his guts really paid off.
Just the Fel Soul Skill that he obtained from the 1st Soul Ring on the Bloodviolet Seven Star Fiend Sword really paid off. And right now, he had similar feelings about the Pit Demon Spider that he may obtain some Soul Skill that would complement the 1st Soul Skill, the Fel.
His aim was to obtain such Soul Rings that would create a chain of complementary abilities.
Due to his experience and age, he wasn't going for quantity in terms of Soul Skills but rather quality, preferably evolving the already existing skills to the ultimate level. He knew that a few properly developed abilities were far more powerful and worthy than many having many abilities and skills that were not properly developed.
"Your 1st Soul Ring is indeed troublesome just from the description... care to use it on me?"
The Golden Crocodile Douluo Jin Eyu asked as he looked at the future Holy Son of the Spirit Hall, and after some time of contemplation, Hun Tiandi decided to agree to the proposal because even he was rather interested in the effects of the Fel on the Soul Master in real combat.
"As you wish..."
Hun Tiandi stated as he summoned the Bloodviolet Seven Star Fiend Sword Martial Soul and used the Fel on the Golden Crocodile Douluo Jin Eyu. The appearance of Fel was of a greenish color that gave off an ominous appearance that penetrated into Jin Eyu's body.
At the same time, Jin Eyu felt something foreign entering his body, and even though he managed to notice the Fel inside his body and could dispose of it if he wished, he let it be for some time, as he wanted to observe the behavior of the Soul Skill for some time.
It was fascinating that it could affect even the Titled Douluo because the Fel that had entered his body was already slowly spreading and latching onto his Soul Power like a leech and devouring more and more of it.
And of the Soul Power it devoured, the stronger the Fel inside his body became; it was a rather peculiar ability. He knew that if someone wasn't Titled Douluo or at least Soul Douluo, then it would be very hard to deal with the Fel inside one's body.
Especially if the Fel managed to spread through the entire body unnoticed because it behaved in a rather particular way.
It didn't really show itself or create any side effects right after the insertion, but on the contrary.
Starting from the moment when the Fel was inserted into the one's body, it was acting stealthily and trying to be as much unnoticed as possible. It was growing, attempting to seed itself in the target's body and leech on the Soul Power of the host, and getting stronger and stronger.
Only when the Fel was strong enough would all of the negatives hit the host at the same time, in one strong and powerful hit. With enough time passed, Jin Eyu purged the Fel from his body in one go because, for someone like him, it wasn't really that problematic.
One of the greatest weaknesses of the Fel was that, if someone had utmost control over his body and Soul Power, then purging the Fel was easy.
Also, if the Soul Master noticed the Fel Seed in his body, either due to the superb control of the Soul Power, because then one could notice that something was leeching on the Soul Master's Soul Power, or due to some other power, then purging the Fel Seed was even easier.
When the Fel wasn't strong enough and was still in the form of the Fel Seed, then it wasn't really problematic to purge the seed from the Soul Master's body.
It could be done rather easily.
But the situation changed drastically when the Soul Master failed to notice the Fel Seed in his body, allowing it to grow in power and spread through the network; that was when the real trouble started.
"You got really nasty ability, that is for sure..."
The Golden Crocodile Douluo said as he purged the Fel from his body, noting that it was a really troublesome ability. Just the fact that it was able to leech on the Soul Power of the Titled Douluo was already a considerable achievement on its own.
His first Soul Skill was pretty troublesome to deal with, even right now, when it wasn't considerably powerful, so he didn't even want to think about how strong the Fel would be once the ability had been strengthened several times over and when the Soul Ring was much older.
At that time, Jin Eyu predicted that not even the Titled Douluos would be able to escape the corruption and corrosive nature of the Fel, and their only choice would be some sort of Soul Skill or to use overwhelming power to dispose of the Fell from their bodies.
However, considering the resistance that the Fel was putting up even right now, when it was weak, that was going to be a real problem later on.
"I know, and due to that, I plan to develop that Soul Skill to the extremes; preferably, I would choose my next Soul Rings to complement the Fel. Its versatility is huge, and just having something like the Fel Magic in my disposition makes it a very powerful Soul Skill, especially if properly developed."
Hun Tiandi planned to develop Fel as the centerpiece of his future skillset. However, that would require a careful selection of the Soul Beasts for his Soul Rings. Of course, he could go rather a different way and not really continue developing the Fel through the interconnected Soul Skills that would be supplementing each other, but that wasn't something that he was going for.
The experiences of someone who had lived through many and many years, he had already learned that it was way better to properly develop certain skills to the extreme and have quality above quantity.
At the same time, he just needed some more years, and he would be able to start adjusting the Dou Techniques from his old world to the standards of the Soul Power Cultivation System and recreating some of them.
In the Douluo Continent, he already noted that there were some things that were similar to the Dou Techniques, but again, because everyone was so focused on the Martial Souls and their development, it wasn't really working that well.
"So, can we already go to search for the Pit Demon Spider?"
Hun Tiandi asked as he had already noticed that Hao Yue was rather impatient, as the small lizard-looking Martial Soul was running around the place, sniffing everything, and looking around the entire place curiously because this was the first time that he was outside of the Spirit City.
"Yeah... the scouts reported that the Pit Demon Spider, which was around 4,000 years old, was spotted several days from our current location."
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan said as Hao Yue climbed onto Hun Tiandi's shoulders, ready to go and search for the Pit Demon Spider.
They already had some preliminary locations where the Pit Demon Spider could be located, as the Spirit Hall was carrying out the search for suitable Soul Beasts for Hun Tiandi that could become his Soul Ring.
The Pit Demon Spider is another top-tier arachnid Soul Beast. Although it wasn't very powerful, it was extremely cunning and used the terrain to its advantage. Its spider web is not poisonous, but it can assume any shape, and it uses it to bury its prey alive.
He chose the Pit Demon Spider because it was very well complementing the abilities of the Man Faced Demon Spider, and he felt that the two Soul Skills obtained from adding the Soul Rings from these Soul Beasts would go very well together with the Bloodviolet Seven Star Fiend Sword.
After this was done, then the only thing that they needed to do was to find a potential Soul Ring for Hao Yue, as the Austin Griffin Martial Soul was far more troublesome than it seemed because of its high sentience.
That would be rather troublesome to solve because even right now, it was more than clear that Hao Youe, as a Martial Soul with an almost unnatural degree of sentience, would be essentially choosing the Soul Rings on his own, depending on his own needs.
***
Great Star Dou Forest, several hours later
Locating the Pit Demon Spider, though, proved to be a little more problematic than they had initially anticipated, because the Pit Demon Spider was a Soul Beast that lived in the deep pits under the ground.
Thus the name, Pit Demon Spider.
Because of this particular ability of the Pit Demon Spiders, it was rather hard to monitor the movement of the Pit Demon Spider without having some sort of Soul Skill to help the one to do that or any other particular method.
In the end, Hun Tiani, Guan Yue, and Jin Eyu walked in circles for several hours without any particular result as they were searching for the Pit Demon Spider that was reported to be present or at least somewhere in the vicinity by the scouts of the Spirit Hall that were responsible for this task.
Some part of Hun Tiandi had already started getting bored with this entire ordeal because there was no fighting or anything interesting, aside from searching for that damned spider.
As he thought over it, Hun Tiandi swore that once they found the Pit Demon Spider, he would give the Soul Beast a very good beating before killing it to relieve his frustration a bit.
Unfortunately, neither of the three of them was good at tracking, and even though Hun Tiandi had very strong Spiritual Power, in his past life, he wasn't really a tracker and could track someone only when he latched on the target's Soul Power.
"We should have taken more people with us."
Chrysanthemum Douluo has already started complaining, though if it is coming from...
Hun Tiandi found it a bit hilarious because even though they were walking in circles and without results, only Guan Yue obtained some benefits because, within these few hours, he managed to get his hands on a few precious herbs for his Immortal Herb Garden that he was cultivating within the Spirit City and Sunset Mountain Range.
"Having more people would make us a better target for the Soul Beasts... that's not really the best idea in our current situation. We don't need to attract the attention of the Great Soul Beasts from the inner areas of the Great Dou Star Forest."
Jin Eyu chimed in because the last thing they needed was a conflict with the Great Soul Beast from the inner areas of the Great Dou Star Forest. There were many Soul Beasts that crossed the age of 100,000 Years, not to mention the Beast God.
A Soul Beast that was rumored to be approaching the age of 1 Million Years Old.
They would probably be killed faster than they could blink.
Such a level of power was already standing at the limits of mortality.
Fortunately enough, right as they began to grow restless, Hao Yue jumped off Hun Tiandi's shoulder and started running somewhere.