Soon, Bai Chen opened his eyes.
As a purple soul ring rose beneath his feet, the aura surrounding his body began to climb steadily.
When a soul master absorbs a soul ring, part of its energy forms a soul skill, while another portion is used to increase the soul master's cultivation.
Generally speaking, a soul ring at the theoretical limit would raise a soul master's cultivation by about one level.
But Bai Chen hadn't absorbed a theoretical-limit ring.
He had absorbed a two-thousand-year Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear soul ring.
Naturally, the improvement it brought was far greater.
His soul power continued to rise—
until it finally stabilized at Level 14.
Just as expected, once he woke up, Hua Tianyu immediately approached with excitement and delivered the news Bai Chen had already anticipated.
They had discovered a Right Palm Bone on the corpse of the thousand-year Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear.
As one of the top-tier soul beasts, the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear was like a dragon—its entire body was valuable.
Its fur could be used to craft durable armor.
Its claws could be forged into deadly weapons.
And its soul bones were treasures coveted by every soul master.
Among all the soul bones of the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear, the Right Palm Bone was unquestionably the most precious.
The Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear had a unique trait.
Only the arm bones had the possibility of inheriting its signature Dreadclaw ability.
And even when the arm bones passed down this ability, the resulting skill was still weaker than the one possessed by the bear itself.
Many years ago, a soul master once obtained a Left Palm Bone from a Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear.
Only then did people realize that palm bones were the ones capable of perfectly inheriting the Dreadclaw ability.
With the help of that powerful soul bone skill, the man quickly became famous across the continent and eventually earned the title "Black Left Douluo."
The "Left" in his title referred to the left hand fused with the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear's palm bone.
But the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear had another trait:
Its right claw was significantly stronger than its left.
In other words, the Right Palm Bone might be even stronger than the left one.
If Bai Chen could successfully absorb this soul bone, his strength would undoubtedly experience a qualitative leap.
Hua Tianyu had no intention of claiming the soul bone himself.
Not only did he believe Bai Chen was the most suitable person to absorb it, but he also already possessed a right arm soul bone.
The Right Palm Bone of the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear could be considered something close to an external soul bone.
Normally, it could coexist with an arm bone.
But unfortunately, Hua Tianyu's right arm bone conflicted with it.
If he tried to absorb it recklessly, the two bones might clash and produce negative consequences.
In that case, it was far better to give the bone directly to Bai Chen.
After all, Bai Chen had just absorbed the bear's soul ring—no one was more suitable to absorb the soul bone than him.
Ning Jingchen had no objections either.
In his heart, Bai Chen was already considered family.
Since Ning Tian clearly couldn't absorb the bone, giving it to Bai Chen was the most logical choice.
Bai Chen didn't refuse.
After bowing respectfully to Hua Tianyu, he accepted the precious external soul bone and began absorbing it.
The moment the absorption began, the immense energy he had just experienced surged into his body again.
But this time, the energy was even more violent and overwhelming.
In the original story, Xiao Xiao had absorbed a Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear's soul ring with little difficulty.
Yet she nearly lost her life when absorbing its soul bone.
This alone showed just how terrifying the energy inside the bone was.
However, the reason Xiao Xiao struggled was primarily due to the overwhelming bloodline pressure of the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear.
Unfortunately for the bear—
bloodline pressure was exactly what Bai Chen feared the least.
The black-gold Dominion Domain appeared once again.
The proud and domineering bloodline aura of the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff instantly suppressed the power contained in the Right Palm Bone.
For a brief moment, Bai Chen even felt as if the suppressed Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear bloodline emitted something like a pitiful wail.
The sensation vanished quickly.
The pressure on Bai Chen suddenly decreased.
The absorption process became far smoother.
Although absorbing a soul bone was even harder than absorbing a soul ring, Bai Chen had just absorbed a thousand-year soul ring, which had already strengthened his body significantly.
The enhancement from the soul ring combined with the increase of four levels of soul power meant that his physical strength—under the amplification of his domain—had already reached the level of a Soul Ancestor.
As the absorption progressed, Bai Chen could clearly feel his body continuing to grow stronger.
After all, this was the famous Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear Right Palm Bone.
Its value was not inferior to a 100,000-year soul bone.
It was a true priceless treasure.
Absorbing the soul bone took far longer than absorbing the soul ring.
Only after two full hours did Bai Chen open his eyes again.
His soul power had now reached Level 15 Peak, only one step away from breaking through to Level 16.
The harvest from this trip to the Star Dou Great Forest was simply astonishing.
Before today, Bai Chen could never have imagined that he would obtain his first soul bone so quickly.
"How is it?"
Seeing Bai Chen awaken, Hua Tianyu—who had been guarding him the entire time—immediately stepped forward and asked anxiously.
Bai Chen smiled slightly and raised his right hand.
Shing—
Five sharp claws suddenly extended from his fingers.
With a casual swing of his arm, five golden claw projections, each nearly three meters long, shot forward.
In an instant, the surrounding trees were cut cleanly in half.
Ning Jingchen was stunned.
Clearly, this was not the kind of power a normal soul master's soul skill could produce.
Bai Chen explained calmly:
"My Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear soul bone has two forms."