Douluo: I am the True Master

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Dragging the corpse of the Shadow Panther to a secluded, vegetation-dense corner in the outer region, Ye Wen sprinkled some deodorizing powder over it, then sat cross-legged on the ground and began channeling the soul ring for absorption.

The familiar tugging sensation returned from within his body, but this time, Ye Wen didn't feel much pain. In almost no time, he had fully absorbed the soul ring.

Perhaps because his physical strength far exceeded the pressure of the soul ring itself, akin to the scientific principle of siphoning. 

In fact, with Ye Wen's current physical condition, he could have easily absorbed a ten-thousand-year soul ring. 

He could have achieved a terrifying configuration of one yellow, two purple, and one black soul ring. However, when it came to matters of the soul, Ye Wen was somewhat apprehensive.

Although he had been empowered by the plane's consciousness, risking his fundamental human soul was still too dangerous. If he ended up turning himself into an idiot, it wouldn't be worth it—especially since, in his current memory, Snow Empress wasn't by his side, nor did he have any mentor guiding him in cultivating spiritual power. Better to play it safe for now.

Take Tang San, for example. His reckless confidence in absorbing a ten-thousand-year fourth soul ring ultimately required the aid of the Ice-Fire Dual Eye. At this moment, Ye Wen had no such support. Caution was always the right choice. After all, there were countless paths to cultivation, but life was the most important. Without your life, what good was high cultivation?

Feeling the surge of doubled strength within him, Ye Wen felt an overwhelming sense of frustration, as if he wanted to grab the heavens or tear apart the earth.

"Thanks to the amplification of the soul ring, my current strength has reached approximately 21,000 jin."

Ye Wen closed his eyes, slowly estimating his current physical attributes and strength, then summoned his martial soul.

Yellow—Purple—Purple—Purple

Four glowing soul rings circled around Ye Wen's body. His martial soul, Void Cloth, still appeared as an ordinary one-meter-square cube, but its internal space had greatly expanded to 50 cubic meters.

After sensing his martial soul, Ye Wen opened his eyes only to be startled by the discovery of a cloak embroidered with intricate silver patterns covering his right side and back.

"Is this… my True Body Armor?" Ye Wen asked in surprise.

Previously, after adding three soul rings, his True Body Armor hadn't manifested, so Ye Wen had subconsciously assumed that, like Ning Rongrong or Oscar, he might not have a visibly distinct True Body Armor.

However, it seemed that his martial soul's uniqueness meant that his True Body Armor hadn't appeared until now.

Back when he'd seen Ah Yin's cool blue-gold armguard, Ye Wen had been envious for a while.

Slowly dispersing the True Body Armor with his willpower, Ye Wen clearly felt that his consumption of soul power decreased, but his control over his martial soul also weakened.

At this point, Ye Wen recalled that the True Body Armor not only enhanced a soul master's combat ability but also increased their soul power consumption.

It was essentially a buff that traded soul power for enhancement.

Once the novelty wore off, Ye Wen began examining the abilities granted by his fourth soul ring.

"Fourth Soul Skill—Inner Void.

Allows the body to enter a shadow state for three seconds, with an additional second added for every 10 levels gained. Each use consumes roughly 10% of my soul power. Additionally, this ability can be shared with allies using Subspace."

Ye Wen was ecstatic. This was comparable to Xiao Wu's coveted Invincible Golden Body—but while one resisted attacks directly, the other rendered him intangible. Moreover, this ability could be shared with companions. Incredible!

Next, Ye Wen stored the Shadow Panther's corpse inside Nabu's space. A soul beast's corpse was valuable—its fur, flesh, bones, and blood could all be used to create excellent byproducts.

Unfortunately, portable storage devices like spirit tools were rare commodities. As a result, most soul masters only took the most valuable parts from a soul beast's corpse after harvesting its soul ring, leaving the rest behind in the Star Dou Forest—a considerable waste.

The nearly ten-thousand-year-old Shadow Panther Ye Wen had just acquired could fetch no less than 1,000 gold spirit coins if sold.

This raised a question about Shrek Academy in the original story: why were they so poor? With two Soul Sage-level experts, as long as they avoided the Mixed Zone, they should have been able to hunt plenty of such soul beasts with relative ease.

Yet they remained in such a remote village, even scamming 10 gold spirit coins from civilian soul masters. Their actions were baffling. Was Flender simply fond of deception, or was he just clueless?

As for the idea that they were motivated by kindness, wanting to leave a path for future generations of soul masters—that was laughable. Zhao Wuji, the Immovable Bright King, was a man who had emerged from seas of blood and corpses. In the original story, Flender was portrayed as a greedy and stingy individual, but he was also part of the legendary Golden Iron Triangle—the Soaring Horn—who had roamed the continent. Having reached the Soul Sage level, the amount of blood on his hands might not rival Zhao Wuji's, but he was certainly no "pure-hearted saint."

{T/N: I've seen many translations saying 'horn' but the it can also be translated as 'corner'. I'm just used to seeing 'Horn' so I left it as is. If you prefer 'corner' let me know.}

So how had they ended up in such dire straits?

How strange, indeed…

After dealing with the Shadow Panther's corpse, Ye Wen returned to his birthplace, his hometown.

Looking at the villagers toiling away in the fields during the harvest season, Ye Wen's heart was both peaceful and tense. He had already surpassed the initial fragile stage of being a soul master and was now ready to face the challenges of the future.

"I am not a savior, but I have things I want to protect. If the gods wish to destroy this world, even if they are gods, I will fight them.

Starting from this Holy Spirit Village, let the light of human wisdom ignite the epic of civilization."

With his heart burning with passion, Ye Wen began his next plan.

Time passed little by little. Ye Wen purchased a small mountain range not far from Holy Spirit Village.

Since it couldn't be farmed and had no special resources, the Notting City officials readily sold the land to Ye Wen. Even so, it cost him 1,000 gold spirit coins.

Next, he hired construction teams to build walls, classrooms, dining halls, and other school facilities. Though the workers were ordinary people without soul power, the efficiency of their labor was accelerated by their martial souls. Within half a year, a small junior academy had been completed in this remote area.

The newly built academy looked pristine, with clean white walls everywhere.

The most eye-catching feature was a large yellow stone in the center of the campus, engraved with four large characters:

'Tian Xing Junior Academy'

Below it, smaller characters spelled out the school motto:

"Observe the Way of Heaven, Execute the Actions of Heaven."

An indescribable sense of grandeur emanated from the inscription.

"Master, what does 'Observe the Way of Heaven, Execute the Actions of Heaven' mean?"

A youth, slightly shorter than Ye Wen, asked softly.

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