Chapter Ten: Choosing the First Soul Ring — The Jade Phosphor Seven-Leaf Flower

After enduring various trials, Chen Ming was finally about to face a crucial step on his path as a soul master: absorbing his very first soul ring.

Through rigorous training, potent medicines, and a small amount of whale resin as assistance, Chen Ming's body had surpassed his peers by leaps and bounds. Though he had just turned nine, he looked more like a fourteen or fifteen-year-old middle schooler.

Within the vast darkness of the cavern, clusters of emerald-green vines sprawled everywhere, unconsciously emitting a faint poisonous gas.

This gas was highly corrosive; ordinary people couldn't survive more than a few minutes in such an environment, their bodies beginning to dissolve immediately. Even low-level soul masters would perish with agonized wails. Yet Chen Ming and his two companions stood silently at the cavern’s center, expressionless as they gazed upon the vines.

The Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower was painstakingly planted and nurtured by the Chen family. Preparations, including special antidotes, had been made long before it matured. Moreover, due to the mutation caused by the Chen family’s jade scorpion under the flower’s influence, the deadly poison that would be lethal to ordinary people had little effect on the Chen clan.

Of course, “little effect” is relative—it did not mean no harm at all.

As long as one stayed in the cavern for less than a day, no harm would come. Less than three days and any bodily damage could be remedied. But if an accident occurred or if one lost soul power, the Chen family members would only survive for a few more hours at best.

Over centuries, dozens of Chen family members had died in this cavern for various reasons. If not for the scarcity of those capable of becoming soul masters, the death toll could have reached into the hundreds.

Usually, plants were difficult to become soul beasts; their numbers drove the rise of soul beasts. Some plants might live for a hundred years without becoming soul beasts, while others could transform within a decade. This standard was perplexing and remained unexplained.

For example, some snow lotuses might become soul beasts after centuries or millennia in ordinary mountains. Yet some exceptional snow lotuses, even after a hundred thousand years in the far north, remained mere rare treasures, never evolving into soul beasts, ultimately consumed by other soul beasts.

Generally, a plant-type soul beast represented many of its kind that had not become soul beasts. Even common plant soul beasts only appeared where the probability of transformation was relatively high.

The Silver Dragon King had fallen to the Douluo Continent hundreds of thousands of years ago. Its dissipated power formed the Lake of Life, which gave rise to the Star Dou Forest. Yet, after all these years, the trees by the lake, though nourished and alive, had not become soul beasts.

The Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower typically took ten thousand years to have a chance to become a soul beast. But clearly, the ones in this cavern were exceptional—growing in a top-tier toxic plant habitat and artificially nurtured by the Chen family.

Nearly a hundred Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flowers, large and small, filled the cavern. Yet fewer than a handful could be considered soul beasts; the rest were merely plants with soul power, uncertain when they might truly become soul beasts.

The Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower was a deep green plant with a massive bud, surrounded by several vines used both to absorb nutrients and attack.

Due to their age, most of the Chen family’s Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flowers had not fully bloomed; most of the time, their buds remained tightly closed, camouflaging as deep green rocks, with only the vines serving as visible markers.

Though high in quality, they usually concealed themselves unless maturity or sheer numbers ensured no threat could arise. It was rare to see one fully bloom all day.

After all, releasing poison consumed energy—and not a little. Too much would hinder their growth and could lead to accidents.

Chen Ming stared resolutely at a Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower before him. His soul power stirred gently, his breathing seeming to synchronize with the massive bud. Each breath and heartbeat caused the flower to tremble slightly.

“Xiao Ming, are you truly sure?” Chen Shijie asked earnestly. “Though we've asked many times already, I want to ask once more: do you really want to absorb the soul ring of this Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower?”

“Your body and meridians are roughly on par with an average great soul master, perhaps even a bit stronger. Theoretically, you could absorb an eight-hundred-year-old soul ring.”

“Most third-ring soul lords don’t even have soul rings that old.”

“If you decide now, I’ll immediately find you a rare hundred-year soul beast. After absorbing your first soul ring, your strength would far surpass ordinary soul masters. Then, absorbing a thousand-year-level second soul ring wouldn’t be impossible…”

“Are you really sure you want to absorb this five-hundred-year-old Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower as your first soul ring?”

Chen Shijie reached out to gently pat Chen Ming’s head, his eyes full of heartfelt concern. Beside him, Chen Tianyun hesitated, seemingly at a loss for words.

Absorbing a first soul ring equivalent to the second soul ring’s age was unheard of for an average soul master. No one knew who set the rule, but for centuries, the soul master world had accepted it as fact. Thus, Chen Shijie and Chen Tianyun fundamentally did not believe Chen Ming could absorb a seven- or eight-hundred-year-old soul ring as his first.

If Chen Ming had proposed it himself, they certainly wouldn’t have allowed it.

But it depended on the comparison.

Forcefully absorbing a soul ring beyond one’s limit—if under a thousand years—could still be stopped by Chen Shijie’s ability, though it would cost dearly. Chen Ming wouldn’t grow soul power or absorb soul rings for years, but he would survive and remain a soul master.

Yet the Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower was too overwhelming. Placing an ordinary thousand-year soul beast beside an untransformed Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower would dissolve the soul beast into a toxic sludge in moments. Its poison and soul power far outmatched typical hundred-year soul rings, even surpassing some over a thousand years old.

Once absorption began, there was no turning back, no hesitation—either success or instant death. Even a Title Douluo would require the assistance of a healing soul master ranked Soul Saint or above to save Chen Ming’s life. At best, Chen Ming might never become a soul master; at worst, he would linger bedridden for years.

Failure here meant death without a trace—only a pool of water would remain.

To Chen Shijie and Chen Tianyun, Chen Ming was essentially courting death.

They had witnessed Chen Ming’s talent these past years—he indeed showed potential for Soul Saint or even Title Douluo. If he trained steadily and expanded the family line, the clan’s troubles might well be solved. There was no need to gamble so recklessly by absorbing the Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower’s soul ring.

“I’ve made up my mind,” Chen Ming said firmly, sensing their concern but shaking his head nonetheless.

He reached out to touch the poisonous vines before him. The moment his hand made contact, the otherwise mindless Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower seemed to react, twisting suddenly. Its bud, once closed, parted slightly as the surrounding poison thickened.

“When I first came here to train, I laid eyes on this Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower immediately. At that time, it wasn’t even a soul beast. For two and a half years, I nourished it with my soul power and blood. I can feel that some bond has formed between us.”

“When my hand touches it, it feels as if I have grown a new, flesh-connected arm, developing a unique organ…”

Chen Ming shook his head, finding it difficult to explain.

“Though hard to understand and impossible to explain scientifically, it’s the truth. For other Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flowers, I wouldn’t be certain I could absorb their soul rings. But this one, I’m confident.”

“It won’t reject me.”

As Chen Ming spoke, the vines twisted slightly, as if interacting with something or expressing displeasure. To the others, the movement seemed meaningless.

“It takes ten thousand years for plant soul beasts to develop some intelligence, and a hundred thousand years for true sentience. A mere five-hundred-year-old Bi-Lin Seven Absolute Flower becoming a soul beast is due to perfect timing and place. How could it possibly have intelligence? Xiao Ming, you must think carefully…”

At last, Chen Tianyun, who had been silent, could no longer hold back. Grabbing Chen Ming’s sleeve, his voice trembled with desperation.

Chen Ming’s father, Chen Tianfeng, had been a late-born son and cherished Chen Ming deeply. Unfortunately, he died during a soul ring hunt with his wife.

Chen Shijie had to shoulder the family’s burdens, while Chen Tianyun had raised Chen Ming from infancy to soul awakening, treating him like his own flesh and blood.

To Chen Tianyun, Chen Ming was like a true son, far more important than the two unborn children in his wife’s womb.

Despite Chen Ming’s extraordinary talent and slim chance of success, Chen Tianyun believed the risk of death was at least ninety percent. Such odds were utterly unacceptable to him.