"Good, very good!"
As the Sect Master of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, Ning Jingchen naturally understood just how precious a soul bone that could evolve with its owner was. His face was filled with joy, and his evaluation of Bai Chen rose to an even higher level.
Hua Tianyu then asked:
"Bai Chen, what is your first soul skill?"
Generally speaking, the strength of a soul skill was closely related to the soul beast that produced the soul ring.
Of course, there were exceptions such as the Softbone Rabbit and the Ice Silkworm, but overall this rule remained largely accurate.
Hearing the question, Bai Chen immediately demonstrated his first soul skill.
As the purple thousand-year soul ring lit up, a layer of dark-gold light suddenly appeared across the surface of Bai Chen's skin.
He explained:
"This is my first soul skill — Steel Bones Shaking Gold."
"It hardens my body, greatly enhancing both my defense and attack power. At the same time, this skill seems to synchronize with my Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear Right Palm Bone."
"While this skill is active, all attacks from the right palm bone become twice as powerful, and the energy consumption is reduced by half."
"..."
Both Hua Tianyu and Ning Jingchen were momentarily speechless.
Bai Chen's first soul skill was extremely straightforward—almost brutally simple.
But it was also incredibly practical.
Even ignoring the self-enhancement portion, the mere ability to amplify the soul bone's power was already unbelievably strong.
The Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear Right Palm Bone already possessed terrifying offensive capability.
With such an enhancement added on top of it, they could hardly imagine just how powerful it might become.
The Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear itself was famous for its extreme offense and defense, and Bai Chen had clearly inherited those traits perfectly through both the soul ring and soul bone.
After a moment of silence, Hua Tianyu suddenly turned to Ning Jingchen.
"Sect Master, I would like to stay in the Star Dou Great Forest for one more day before we leave."
"Oh? Why?" Ning Jingchen asked.
"I want Bai Chen to become more familiar with his soul ring and soul bone abilities."
Hua Tianyu said seriously:
"Obtaining powerful strength is certainly a good thing for a soul master. But using unfamiliar power recklessly can lead to accidents. Before we head to the Sun Moon Empire, I want him to fully master his new abilities."
"Agreed."
Ning Jingchen immediately nodded.
"Let's do as you say, Elder Hua."
Just as Hua Tianyu had said, Bai Chen truly needed time to understand his newly gained powers.
It wasn't that they thought Bai Chen was weak.
Quite the opposite.
Bai Chen was already far stronger than ordinary soul masters of the same level.
The destructive power of the Darkgold Dreadclaw was terrifying.
At least in Hua Tianyu's understanding, even a Great Soul Master would have no chance of surviving the claw strike Bai Chen had just demonstrated.
What worried them was that once Bai Chen reached the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy, he might accidentally kill someone simply because he couldn't control his strength properly.
And this concern was not exaggerated.
Those who studied at the academy were either exceptionally talented soul engineers or people with powerful noble backgrounds.
In the original story, Huo Yuhao once fought back against a few students from Xuanzhiwen's laboratory who were bullying him.
As a result, he was immediately arrested by the Royal Inspection Corps and nearly punished.
The name "Royal Soul Engineering Academy" alone made its position clear.
Within that academy, members of the royal family and aristocracy possessed almost absolute authority.
If Bai Chen caused trouble there, even Ning Jingchen and Hua Tianyu might find it difficult to intervene.
Thus, for the next day, the four of them wandered through the outer regions of the Star Dou Great Forest, allowing Bai Chen to battle different soul beasts.
During this time, they once again witnessed the terrifying strength of this young "monster."
Ten-year soul beasts were completely incapable of resisting him.
The moment Bai Chen closed the distance, they were killed instantly.
Hundred-year soul beasts could struggle briefly, but they still couldn't withstand the sharpness of the Darkgold Dreadclaw, dying shortly afterward.
Only when facing thousand-year soul beasts did Bai Chen encounter opponents capable of fighting him head-on.
Even then, if a thousand-year soul beast was struck directly by the Darkgold Dreadclaw while his soul skill was active, it would be killed instantly.
Finally, Hua Tianyu gave his evaluation of Bai Chen's current combat strength.
This boy had already surpassed ordinary assault-type Soul Elders.
He was approaching the level of an assault-type Soul Ancestor.
And if Ning Tian obtained her first soul ring in six months and provided support, Bai Chen might even be able to fight against an assault-type Soul Ancestor directly.
Monster.
Watching the corpse of a thousand-year soul beast torn apart by the Darkgold Dreadclaw, Hua Tianyu silently gave that verdict in his heart.
Meanwhile, the person being called a monster casually shook his hand, flicking the blood off his claws.
A fighter who relied on overwhelming numerical superiority in raw stats could produce terrifying suppression when facing opponents who relied on nothing but stats themselves.
Since they were still in the outer regions of the Star Dou Great Forest, the soul beasts Bai Chen encountered weren't particularly powerful.
Even thousand-year beasts merely had higher strength, defense, or speed.
They rarely possessed troublesome abilities.
At least he hadn't encountered another opponent on the level of the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear.
If he did face such a creature again, even Bai Chen would have to rely on Hua Tianyu to deal with it.
"Alright, that's enough."
Hua Tianyu clapped his hands and said to Bai Chen:
"You should now fully understand your own strength."
"Remember this, Bai Chen. Unless your life is in danger, do not use the Darkgold Dreadclaw soul bone skill casually. Understood?"
This warning was not only meant to prevent Bai Chen from accidentally killing someone.
It was also meant to avoid attracting greedy eyes.
After all, the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear Palm Bone was extremely rare.
Throughout history, only Black Left Douluo had ever obtained the Left Palm Bone.
If Bai Chen avoided using the Dreadclaw ability openly, almost no one would recognize that it came from an external soul bone.
After all, martial souls across the continent came in countless strange forms.
For example, Hua Tianyu had recently heard that the Dou Ling Royal Advanced Soul Master Academy had recruited a student with a Dreadclaw Bear martial soul.
That student had even been selected for the academy's reserve team.
Creatures like the Dreadclaw Bear or the Darkgold Bear seen in later eras were merely inferior variants of the Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear.
As long as Bai Chen insisted that his martial soul was something similar, no one would suspect that he possessed the priceless Darkgold Dreadclaw Bear Palm Bone.
Bai Chen clearly understood the meaning behind Hua Tianyu's words and nodded respectfully.
Hua Tianyu finally relaxed a little.
Lately he had increasingly felt that Bai Chen's mentality was far too mature for a six-year-old child.
Ning Tian was already considered very mature.
But compared to Bai Chen, she still seemed like a child.
Was it because his parents had died early that he developed such a mature mindset?
Before Hua Tianyu could think further, Ning Jingchen walked over and said:
"Shall we set off now? It's getting late, and Tian'er needs some rest."
Just as he said, evening was approaching.
They had already spent an entire day in the Star Dou Great Forest.
The other three could endure it easily.
But Ning Tian, a six-year-old support-type soul master, was clearly exhausted.
"Alright. Let's leave the Star Dou Great Forest."
Hua Tianyu immediately agreed.
And so the group departed from the forest, beginning their journey toward the Sun Moon Empire.