7 Chapter 07 - First Spirit Ring
On the outskirts of the Great Star Dou Forest.
A shadow passed quickly through the trees without making the slightest noise. That shadow was Mo Xie who was looking for a 1,000 year old beast with a mental attribute.
"If I want to find a suitable ring I'll need to go deeper into the forest, but before that I'd better gain some experience fighting centuries-old spirit beasts." Muttering to himself, he went in search of an opponent.
He didn't have to look for long, and quickly he found a lone beast among the bushes.
It was a 6-foot-tall brown monkey with a sturdy body. If he correctly remembers the description in the books he read in the Star Luo City Library, it was an Armored Monkey, and according to his appearance it must have around 460 years old and was known for his attacking power.
"Let's test my strength on you!" Mo Xie ran empty-handed towards the spirit beast and he noticed him too.
With a roar he jumped up and threw a fist towards Mo Xie who met him with his own fist.
Their confrontation caused a small explosion in the air, with Mo Xie still standing in the same spot and the Armored Monkey being forced back several meters.
"Again!" Mo Xie yelled and lunged forward again, confronting the monkey's fists.
And just like that they exchanged dozens of fists and palms causing the Armored Monkey to be furious at being forced to retreat.
In his anger he used his innate ability and his arms swelled and began to release more and more strength in his attacks, which Mo Xie calmly confronted.
Mo Xie was inwardly happy that unlike just training his techniques alone, he was gaining real experience at the moment. Although the Armored Monkey acted only on instinct and had no complex technique, he still managed to gain something.
'I can fight an almost 500 year old beast with only 40% of my strength. It's better to finish this before other beasts are attracted.' Mo Xie thought to himself and suddenly dodged the Armored Monkey's fists, punching him in the face and stunned him.
Punching his jaw once more he made the monkey pass out and quickly left the place.
He knew of the problem the spirit beasts were facing in this timeline, so he thought that it's best not to kill spirit beasts unnecessarily.
And just like that Mo Xie was battling different spirit beasts while going deeper into the forest for a few days.
When he was resting from his last battle in a tree, he heard several footsteps coming towards him.
He quickly hid behind the tree and looked at the owner of the steps.
There were 3 middle aged men with scars on their faces who were running while being chased by a pack of Wind Wolves.
He wanted to curse the 18 generations of their families. Even though he is stronger than most of the centuries-old spirit beasts, if he is surrounded he could still perish there if he were alone.
The man further back started talking to the man who was running in front.
"Second brother, this is all your fault! If you hadn't provoked the pack leader by killing a wolf to absorb his ring, we wouldn't be in this situation."
"Third Brother, don't blame me for this! We all agreed with my proposal to kill a wolf and run away with the spirit ring." The second brother at the front yelled.
"We all have a Wind Wolf Martial Soul, if we let that chance pass when we could find a compatible beast for our third ring?" The Second Brother continued screaming.
"Stop yelling you two! It just attracts more spirit beasts to us." The man among them spoke.
"Elder brother, do you know a way to escape from here?" Third Brother asked eagerly.
"Let's continue in that direction, beyond there was a pit of a 1,000-year-old spiritual beast. If we lure the wolves there, this beast will attack them and we can escape the pursuit." Spoke the Elder Brother.
While they argued, Mo Xie followed them silently as he couldn't go in any other direction because of the wolf pack. Thanks to his movement technique he could pass uncovered by the three brothers, but he doubted a pack of wolves wouldn't find him while they were surrounding them from behind.
10 minutes later they arrived in what appeared to be a valley but several tremors were coming from it.
'It looks like 1,000-year-old beasts are fighting each other.' Mo Xie guessed it and the three brothers also noticed the movements in the valley.
A few moments later they could see two beasts fighting. It was a 4,000-year-old Armored Horned Rhinoceros and a 3,800-year-old Scarlet Cyclops fighting.
When Mo Xie who was still hiding saw the Scarlet Cyclops his eyes sparkled with happiness. The Scarlet Cyclops has a particularly strong mental attribute and his innate ability was Illusion, meaning he could cause his targets to enter an illusion, leaving them confused.
Having that spiritual ability as his first ring would be very suitable for him.
Just when he was rejoicing he saw the two spirit beasts discovering the three brothers and heard the wolves approaching from the rear.
"Run!" The eldest of the three brothers screamed and moved diagonally to the right, trying to escape along with his two brothers.
*Roaarr* x2
The two beasts that were fighting stopped and advanced towards those humans who dared to intrude into their territories.
Hearing the roars of the two spirit beasts, the wind wolves approaching from the rear began to back away in fear.
"These guys are really unlucky... They tried to bring the wolves to these two beasts, but they ended up running away instead and now they've become the target of two thousand year old spirit beasts." Mo Xie felt a little sorry for them.
But even if he felt sorry for them, he couldn't do anything against two thousand-year-old spirit beasts at the same time in his current state. He could face the weakest thousand year old spirit beasts, but he was sure he wasn't the opponent of these two spirit beasts.
As for absorbing the Scarlet Cyclops as his spirit ring? He thought he had a 75% chance of success, so he wanted to give it a try and see if he had a chance to ambush and kill the Cyclops.
With that thought, he followed the two beasts silently, only to find them battling another thousand-year-old spirit beast. Apparently the luck of the three brothers arrived and they managed to escape when this new beast arrived.
It was a 4,000-year-old Flame Tiger, and he seemed to be focusing his attacks on the Cyclops who in a panicked attempt used his innate ability of illusion and had him attack the Armored Horned Rhinoceros.
The fight gradually became more chaotic with the tiger hurling some fireballs at the rhino while the cyclops tried to defend himself from attacks of the both beasts using his illusion on the tiger which seemed to be the greatest threat to him.
Even so, the Cyclops began to exhaust, depleting its mental power, and the tiger and rhinoceros had severe wounds suffering from mutual attacks.
Suddenly a mighty roar sounded near the battlefield.
*ROOAAARRR*
It looked like a 10,000 year old spirit beast was nearby and this roar startled the three thousand year old beasts that fled in three different directions.
Mo Xie followed the Cyclops to a place a few miles away from where the battlefield was.
The Cyclops stopped and looked around and relaxed when he saw that there was no beast around.
The moment he let his guard down, an extremely fast sword appeared in his field of vision, exuding a strong sword intent.
He wanted to dodge, but he was exhausted from the battle and flight at the last minute, so he could only watch as the sword pierced his skull, killing him on the spot.
Mo Xie was breathing heavily beside the Scarlet Cyclops's body. In this last blow he used all his strength and spiritual power to pierce the Cyclops's head. If he used less force he feared he wouldn't be able to kill the Cyclops in just one attack and then could only wait to be killed by a nearly 4,000 year old spirit beast.
His sword was totally destroyed, but it was worth it, as he would finally get a suitable spirit ring for him.
On top of the Cyclops's body, a purple spirit ring emerged, giving off a brilliant glow.
Mo Xie sat cross-legged beside the Cyclops's body and began to recover before absorbing the ring. It only took 10 minutes to get back to its peak.
Absorbing natural energy in the forest was far more efficient than in the city, but that still wouldn't obstruct his rapid progress even if he didn't stay in the forest to cultivate.
After recovering he began to absorb the purple ring.
In his Spirit Sea, the image of a Scarlet Cyclops began to form, but Mo Xie began using his Mind Power to cast some Spiritual Shocks on the ghost and he dispersed after some time.
His body shuddered from time to time from the energy the ring contained, but after a while his body began to calm down and the fusion process began to complete.
He felt his body madly absorbing the energy of the ring and his physique was improving at a very fast rate. Spiritual Power passed through all his passages and meridians, strengthening them at every moment. His mental power was also growing at a rapid rate.
He guessed that his mind power was almost approaching that of a Soul Ancestor.
Half an hour later the purple ring began to disappear and everything returned to calm as Mo Xie felt his spiritual power stabilize at Rank 14.
He opened his eyes and stood up. With a thought a bright purple ring emerged from his feet and began to spin around his body.
"I finally got my first ring!" Mo Xie had a smile on his face and when he checked, the first ability from his Mystic Eyes was actually Scarlet Cyclops's Innate ability: Illusion.
"It's time to return to the city." He muttered and checked the corpse to see if it had dropped any spirit bones, but was disappointed that there was nothing.
Throwing his thoughts away, he ran towards the exit of Star Dou Forest.
It only took him half a day to get back to the entrance and start his journey back.
