hotmtlnovel 21. Absorbing the Soul Bone: An Extremely Painful Trial
21. Absorbing the Soul Bone: An Extremely Painful Trial
The absorption of the soul bone had not stopped. Even with the help of the divine pearl, Ling Bingtian's thoughts were inevitably somewhat intermittent, but he was not entirely without a way to deal with it.
In my past life, when I was running and exercising, I would tell myself to keep going until I got to that word in front of me, and then I would stop.
But when Ling Bingtian actually ran to that word, he would tell himself to persevere a little longer and run to the next word before stopping.
Time and again, Ling Bingtian ingrained this method into his very being, and with it, he also imbued it with the spirit of perseverance. Whenever Ling Bingtian used this method, he accomplished seemingly impossible tasks with astonishing willpower.
Using this method, Ling Bingtian completed several long-distance running training sessions in his previous life, and was often able to achieve better results when self-discipline training was required.
Now, Ling Bingtian knew that it was the perfect time to use this method.
Ling Bingtian kept thinking to himself, "Hold on, hold on, think about your desires, think about the promises you made to the souls of this world, think about your bright future."
Hang in there! If Huo Gua could endure the pain when he merged with Hyotei, I will never lose to him!
However, what Ling Bingtian didn't know was that the Ice Emperor Scorpion's torso bone that Huo Gua absorbed when he was at level 20 was only a torso bone that was 390,000 years old.
In contrast, this Frost Dragon skeleton, although it was only a 100,000-year soul bone that had just broken through to the 100,000-year limit when the Ice God first obtained it.
However, having been hidden beneath this altar and nurtured by the power of the Ice God for tens of thousands of years, its age has now reached a terrifying 999,999 years.
This was something even the Ice God hadn't noticed.
It can be said that if it weren't for the law that prevents soul beasts from becoming gods, this Frost Dragon skeleton could have broken through to the level of a million-year soul bone with the help of the Ice God's divine power!
If it could truly become a million-year-old soul bone, even gods in the divine realm would likely be willing to pay a high price to study it. Of course, this is just a hypothesis.
Even so, this soul bone is not something that the Ice God can casually give to his successor.
If the Ice God hadn't completely forgotten about the existence of this soul bone over the long years, and hadn't failed to carefully examine its age when taking it out, Ling Bingtian probably wouldn't have had the chance to "enjoy" it.
Bringing this soul bone back to the God Realm to consider how to evolve it for trading or directly trading it to a high-ranking deity in the God Realm who needs it, such as a selfless God-King, would be a better choice for the Ice God.
Therefore, Ling Bingtian was purely lucky to be able to absorb such a top-grade soul bone.
Strictly speaking, this soul bone could even be considered the strongest in the history of Douluo Continent.
Nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine years!
Apart from the god-level being sleeping in the very center of the Star Dou Great Forest, the strongest soul beast on the continent today, ranked first among the ten most ferocious beasts, is the Beast God Di Tian, who has only a cultivation of over 800,000 years.
In other words, even the soul bone that was dropped after Di Tian was killed was only an 800,000-year soul bone in its initial quality, far inferior to this 900,000-year-old Frost Ice Dragon torso bone, which was at its maximum age.
In fact, the reason why this Frost Dragon skeleton has reached its current state is entirely due to a series of coincidences.
First of all, as a soul bone that fell from the body of a true dragon like the Frost Dragon, the quality of the Frost Dragon's torso bone could very well have reached this limit of years. However, it is limited by its owner's cultivation level of just over 100,000 years, so it can only be a 100,000-year soul bone that has just broken through to around 100,000 years.
But later, two things led to its evolution.
One is the power of the Ice God. As a higher level of energy, the nourishment it brings to the Frost Dragon's body and bones is far beyond what soul power can provide.
At the same time, the divine power also gave this soul bone the possibility of breaking through to 200,000 years or even 900,000 years.
Nourishment at the level of soul power is unlikely to increase the age of a soul bone by even a fraction. Only divine power or higher-level energy can potentially advance the age of a soul bone.
Secondly, the existence of this small plane that broke off from Douluo Continent greatly helped the advancement of this soul bone.
If it were truly in the main plane of Douluo Continent, even if this Frost Dragon's torso bone were nourished by the power of the Ice God, it would still be blasted into dust by the Heavenly Tribulation of Laws when it broke through to the level of a 200,000-year Soul Bone, and would be annihilated from the world forever.
However, growing up in this small plane that separated from the main plane of Douluo Continent is completely different.
Because it was separated from the Douluo Continent plane, the laws in this smaller plane are similar to those in the Douluo Continent, but they are not as harsh and powerful on soul beasts as those in the Douluo Continent plane.
Not to mention that this small plane is completely under the control of the Ice God. As a soul beast who transformed into a human, the Ice God naturally detests the laws that restrict soul beasts from becoming gods.
Therefore, in this small plane, the rule that soul beasts cannot become gods was unconsciously and greatly weakened by the Ice God, to the point that he didn't even have the ability to create a heavenly tribulation to destroy soul bones.
Therefore, this piece of Frost Dragon skeleton was able to continuously absorb the divine power of the Ice God over tens of thousands of years or even longer, thus evolving itself without attracting the Heavenly Tribulation of Laws.
Through a series of coincidences, the Frost Dragon's torso bone, considered the supreme king among soul bones, was born.
In the original timeline, this small plane should have lost contact with the Ice God because the God Realm was swept away by the spacetime turbulence, thus leaving this Frost Dragon skeleton permanently hidden in this altar until it was discovered one day.
But now, it has its own owner, Ling Bingtian.
Ling Bingtian's acquisition of this soul bone was extremely fortunate. Normally, given his aptitude, absorbing most soul bones would have had a negligible impact on his development, but this "most" definitely did not include the Frost Dragon torso bone.
During the fusion, while the Frost Dragon's torso and bones brought Ling Bingtian extreme pain, they also greatly enhanced his physical attributes and, to some extent, his already formidable cultivation aptitude.
As the essence of the Frost Dragon and the divine power diluted by the soul bone merged, they entered Ling Bingtian's body along with the Frost Dragon's torso bones, widening and stabilizing Ling Bingtian's already extensive meridians.
These were all benefits that Ling Bingtian could have obtained, but he had no time to consider them at the moment. His body was still trembling uncontrollably from the pain.
Visibly, a layer of ice beads had appeared on Ling Bingtian's skin, which was formed by the rapid condensation of his sweat under the low temperature.
If you look closely, you can also see a few ice beads mixed with blood or black color. These are formed when blood that is released uncontrollably from the body mixes with thin impurities in the body and sweat and then condenses.
More importantly, the blood energy within Ling Bingtian's body was also rapidly circulating along with the integration of the Frost Dragon's torso bones. The speed of circulation was so fast that one could clearly hear bursts of explosions emanating from his body, and the frequency of these sounds was constantly increasing.
If this rate of blood circulation and upward trend continues, even if the Divine Pearl intervenes, it will probably not be able to sustain Ling Bingtian's body. Before long, Ling Bingtian will experience the feeling of his body exploding and dying.
The accelerated circulation of blood and qi is an inevitable consequence of absorbing and fusing with the soul bone.
This situation can also pose a great threat to the absorber's internal organs, meridians, flesh, and bones.
From the outside, one could clearly see thin wisps of blood mist rapidly seeping from Ling Bingtian's body, rising up, and then solidifying into blood-red beads by the surrounding cold temperature shortly after leaving his body, falling onto or beside Ling Bingtian.
Even when Huo Gua absorbed the torso bone of the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, he was protected by the spiritual essence of the two powerful beings, the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm and the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion, which prevented his body from being blown apart by the high-speed circulation of blood energy.
This illustrates the importance of the protectors at this juncture.
And the power of the Ice God True God is naturally far beyond what the Heavenly Dream Ice Silkworm and the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion can compare to.
At this point, the Ice God finally stopped standing idly by. If things continued like this, the successor he had finally found would really not be able to hold on.
It seems that his own test has been answered satisfactorily by this successor.
At this moment, He suddenly realized that He seemed to have suffered a huge loss. The Frost Dragon skeleton that He had not examined seemed to have increased in age by far more than a few years. But now was not the time to think about these losses.
With a wave of his right hand, the Ice God sent a faint ripple through the small plane according to his will.
The ice crystal located in the southeast corner of the altar also shone with a dazzling light, and a thick ball of icy blue divine power was released from the tip of the ice crystal. Under the control of the Ice God, it flew swiftly toward Ling Bingtian's trembling body.
The divine power ignored the frost dragon's torso bones that were constantly merging into Ling Bingtian's body from behind. Just before it arrived, it suddenly exploded, turning into countless fine threads of divine power that rapidly flowed into Ling Bingtian's body through every pore.
It was visible to the naked eye that whenever a thread of divine power entered Ling Bingtian's body, the spasms and tremors in that part of his body would gradually subside.
The icy blue light shone even brighter, and soon it spread upwards from Ling Bingtian's tailbone, like strands of icy blue silk, up his spine, ribs, sternum, until the vertebrae outlined by the icy blue light could be seen through Ling Bingtian's entire back.
Unlike before, with the help of the Ice God's power, Ling Bingtian felt all the pain disappear in just a few breaths, leaving only an endless feeling of warmth.
As the pain gradually subsided, Ling Bingtian couldn't help but groan; it felt so good!
The level of pain he just experienced was so intense that Ling Bingtian dared to say it was worse than being slowly sliced to death. Fortunately, with the help of an external energy source, the pain gradually subsided.
Sensing the special energy that had suddenly appeared within his body, Ling Bingtian, whose thoughts were gradually returning to normal, began to speculate. Because of a certain selfless God-King, the Ice God was unlikely to descend to this small plane that was closely related to the Douluo Continent in his true form.
But just because He cannot come does not mean that His power cannot come. The eight ice crystals that have shone for thousands of years on the octagonal altar contain His divine power.
The energy that suddenly surged into his body to help him absorb the soul bone was probably the divine power contained within those ice crystals on the altar by the Ice God.
"Since that's the case, why not?"
Thinking of the characteristics of the Devouring Yuan Technique, Ling Bingtian hardened his heart and painfully began to circulate the Devouring Yuan Technique within his body, starting to absorb the divine energy that was clearly of a higher level.
The instant Ling Bingtian did this, a tremendous force burst forth from his divine power, strengthening Ling Bingtian's physical attributes at an unimaginable speed, together with the Frost Dragon's torso and bones.
However, at the same time, the loss of divine power caused Ling Bingtian to feel that intense pain again in different areas of his body.
Spasms and convulsions reappeared in Ling Bingtian's muscle groups, but unlike before, they were much less intense.
However, this time, even without the aid of divine power, Ling Bingtian, having prepared herself mentally, gritted her teeth and endured the pain.
Such appropriate torment is also beneficial to the growth of one's willpower. Ice God probably had this idea in mind, which is why he did not tell him about the pain he might have to endure when absorbing this soul bone.
But this was actually just Ling Bingtian overthinking things. On one hand, the Ice God had no idea that the age of this Frost Dragon skeleton would be so high. On the other hand, He also believed that the Ling family's education would not neglect this kind of knowledge...
If Ling Bingtian knew that this was the reason he had to endure the excruciating pain of absorbing the Frost Dragon's torso bone without any preparation, I wonder if he would "happily" laugh.
"Let the storm rage on!" Ling Bingtian screamed inwardly amidst the excruciating pain! It seemed that only in this way could he alleviate the chilling agony in his body.
Meanwhile, in the sea of consciousness that Ling Bingtian couldn't attend to at the moment, the divine pearl slowly flew up and began to channel the divine power that had been channeled into Ling Bingtian's body into itself.
As divine power was slowly poured in, the divine pearl began to rotate, and something faintly appeared and shimmered on its surface...