Uncle Willow looked at Wu Ling in surprise.
"A five-hundred-year Proudbone Swallow?"
Although Uncle Willow had doubts, his movements were not slow. As his yellow Spirit Ring lit up, five long, slender willow branches swayed with the wind.
Of the five branches, two lashed toward the Mandala Snake, two lashed toward the Proudbone Swallow, and one remained ready where it was.
Uncle Willow was only using a yellow hundred-year Spirit Ring, but his opponents were merely two hundred-year Soul Beasts. One Spirit Skill was more than enough.
Before long, the snake and the bird were bound by the willow branches and dragged before them.
"So this Proudbone Swallow was poisoned. No wonder it could not fly quickly.
"Even so, it is still a five-hundred-year Soul Beast. Wu Ling, are you certain you want to absorb it?"
"Yes, Uncle Willow. I am sure."
Wu Ling nodded firmly. After all, if a transmigrator did not obtain a Spirit Ring above the normal level, could he even call himself a transmigrator?
He was not so reckless as to make his first ring a thousand-year or ten-thousand-year one, but with his trained body, a five-hundred-year swallow was within reach.
After speaking, Wu Ling took out a dagger. Uncle Willow had given it to him as a finishing tool. A swallow did not have any powerful defense, so Wu Ling simply cut off its head with the dagger.
After the Proudbone Swallow died, a yellow Spirit Ring appeared above its corpse. Wu Ling used spirit power to guide the Spirit Ring over his Martial Soul and began absorbing it.
Uncle Willow watched Wu Ling absorb the ring in silence, his heart unsettled. He was happy that Wu Ling had finally obtained his Spirit Ring, but the very fact that Wu Ling had obtained it also made him uneasy.
"This child has innate full spirit power. As long as his Martial Soul is decent, he may become a Titled Sage one day. But now, his first Spirit Ring is from an ordinary Proudbone Swallow. Will this really not affect his future?"
No matter what Uncle Willow thought, Wu Ling's absorption of the Spirit Ring was already settled.
Although he was absorbing beyond the conventional age limit, the Proudbone Swallow was one of the lowest-grade Soul Beasts, so the process went extremely smoothly. After the absorption finished, Wu Ling even thought, "That nearly four-hundred-year Mandala Snake would probably have been harder to absorb than this."
The moment he saw Wu Ling finish, Uncle Willow stepped forward impatiently and asked, "Wu Ling, how is the Spirit Skill? What type is it? Is it powerful?"
Wu Ling froze at Uncle Willow's string of questions, then smiled easily. He turned his gaze toward the nearly four-hundred-year Mandala Snake.
"Uncle Willow, ten thousand words are not as useful as one action. I will show you directly."
After speaking, Wu Ling walked behind the Mandala Snake, facing the direction it had come from.
"Uncle Willow, release that Mandala Snake."
Uncle Willow asked uncertainly, "Wu Ling, are you not a support type? Are you sure you want to fight this Mandala Snake?"
"Uncle Willow, who said I was a support type? Just release it."
Unable to outargue Wu Ling's insistence, Uncle Willow released the Mandala Snake. However, while releasing it, he kept a precaution ready. His fourth, purple Spirit Ring quietly began to glow.
Once freed, the Mandala Snake tested its body with a slight twist. The next instant, it shot from where it was and rushed toward Wu Ling.
By then, Wu Ling's yellow Spirit Ring had already lit up. A figure appeared over his Unregistered Spirit Origin.
The figure had a long, dark-blue ponytail tied with a pale purple ribbon, with locks hanging down to his collarbone. Even with his face blurred, it was clear he was a handsome man. He wore a deep purple sleeveless jacket over a purple kimono, purple wrist guards, straw sandals, and carried a five-shaku longsword while standing with both arms crossed.
Because of the distance, Uncle Willow could not see him clearly before the figure was absorbed into Wu Ling's body.
Then a section of sword hilt emerged from the energy sphere at the center of the Unregistered Spirit Origin. Wu Ling seized the hilt and pulled a longsword about one and a half meters long out of the sphere.
At that moment, the Mandala Snake was less than five meters from Wu Ling. To the snake, that distance was only a matter of a second. The little creature before it would soon be swallowed in one bite.
The next second, the Mandala Snake opened its mouth wide and lunged at Wu Ling.
Uncle Willow was about to move when a voice suddenly sounded beside his ear.
"Do not move."
The hairs on Uncle Willow's body stood up. His already glowing purple Spirit Ring dimmed again. He knew who that voice belonged to, so he relaxed and held back.
As soon as Uncle Willow turned his gaze back toward Wu Ling, his eyes widened.
Wu Ling, who had just been facing the snake's bloody mouth, was still standing there unharmed. Beside him lay the Mandala Snake's corpse.
"What... just happened...?"
Uncle Willow had not seen it, but Ghost, hidden in the shadows, had.
A few seconds earlier, Wu Ling had simply shifted two steps to the right and held the blade sideways. The Mandala Snake had looked as if it crashed into the weapon by itself and was cut cleanly in two. Even its hard scales had failed to withstand the edge.
In Ghost's eyes, the long blade was only an ordinary weapon. If a plain weapon could display that level of power, it meant only one thing: the person wielding the blade was the true treasured sword.
"A six-year-old child cannot possibly possess sword technique this refined. Is it his Spirit Skill? Is it related to that shadow just now?"
Uncle Willow, unaware of all this, was about to go over and ask when a wolf howl interrupted him.
It was a pack of wolves drawn by the smell of blood. Each gray wolf had half a silver line running along its back. The largest one at the front had a full line.
"Ten six-hundred-year Moonhowl Wolves and one thousand-year Moonhowl Wolf King!"
Uncle Willow's expression tightened. He summoned his Martial Soul and was about to act, but before his Spirit Ring could light up, four words pressed him back down.
"Do not interfere."
Because the wolves had been drawn by the stench of blood, Wu Ling, standing beside the Mandala Snake's corpse, naturally became their target.
Wild beasts did not talk about preparation or beginning. The ten Moonhowl Wolves had just surrounded Wu Ling when they pounced at him together.
Wu Ling did not panic at all. His heart remained clear every moment.
Under the assault of ten Moonhowl Wolves, Wu Ling avoided their attacks as if taking a relaxed stroll through a garden. Then, as though casually swinging his blade, he took a wolf's life with each stroke.
In less than a minute, Wu Ling had killed seven of the ten Moonhowl Wolves. The other three survived only because they had been frightened into not attacking.
Seeing such heavy losses, the Moonhowl Wolf King could not hold back. It howled, and specks of moonlight shone over its body, as if draping it in armor made of moonlight.
With the skill strengthening it, the Moonhowl Wolf King charged at Wu Ling. This was Wu Ling's first time facing a thousand-year Soul Beast, so he took his stance seriously.
In the blink of an eye, the Wolf King's front half entered within three meters of Wu Ling.
At that moment, Wu Ling drew his blade.
Blade light flashed. When the eye could see again, the sword had already returned to its sheath.
Even Uncle Willow failed to see what had happened. The Moonhowl Wolf King had already been divided into four pieces.
Before Uncle Willow could ask, Ghost, who had been hiding in the dark, had already appeared before Wu Ling.
"What was that technique called?"
Wu Ling answered calmly, as if he had expected the question from the start.
"Swallow Reversal."