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The Frozen Forest
Li Luochen brought Oscar to the Frozen Forest, a spirit beast forest near the frigid northern regions. Most of the spirit beasts here were ice-attribute.
At the outskirts of the Frozen Forest lay Tianshui City, home to the Shui family of Tianshui Academy. Their family possessed ice-attribute spirits, so they lived close to the Frozen Forest.
Li Luochen could fly, so he carried Oscar directly into the Frozen Forest, saving time. Ten-thousand-year spirit beasts were rare in the Frozen Forest, and five-thousand-year ones were even scarcer.
"Hmm? Found it. I'll injure it first, and then you can finish it off."
Li Luochen's spiritual perception had detected the Mirror Shadow Beast. Its scales were incredibly unique—each scale resembled a small mirror. If it stood still, it could reflect its surroundings like a perfect camouflage.
The Mirror Shadow Beast was a relatively rare gem-type spirit beast, and this would be the foundation for Oscar's transformation. This particular Mirror Shadow Beast was exactly twenty thousand years old.
"Gravity Quagmire!"
Li Luochen set Oscar down and immediately unleashed a Gravity Quagmire to restrain the Mirror Shadow Beast. Against the Mirror Shadow Beast, one couldn't use soul skills, as it could replicate and reflect them back at the attacker.
However, it seemed that soul bone skills couldn't be copied. Thus, Li Luochen used his Gravity Swamp without hesitation. Now, he had to carefully injure the beast—he feared accidentally killing it with too much force.
"0.1x Titan Sky Cannon!"
A surge of orange light engulfed the Mirror Shadow Beast, severely injuring it. Li Luochen didn't release the Gravity Swamp.
"Little Ao, hurry! Finish it!"
Li Luochen shouted. Oscar immediately summoned his White Jade Arm Sword and stabbed it into the Mirror Shadow Beast's eye, causing blue blood to spurt out.
The Mirror Shadow Beast was an extremely rare and powerful spirit beast, with blue blood.
A black soul ring emerged from the Mirror Shadow Beast's body. Oscar placed a cushion on the icy ground and began absorbing the soul ring.
Oscar was thrilled inside. Li Luochen had once told him that the Mirror Shadow Beast might transform him into a true battle-type soul master. However, thanks to his external soul bone, the White Jade Arm Sword, he had already become one.
Still, he was excited. Based on Li Luochen's description, the Mirror Shadow Beast's soul skill might change his fate!
Oscar focused intensely on absorbing the soul ring. Though it was a twenty-thousand-year soul ring, his strong foundation—bolstered by two soul bones—allowed his physical condition to surpass that of an ordinary Soul King, reaching Soul Emperor levels.
The only challenge was the soul shock from a ten-thousand-year spirit beast. However, as a food-system soul master, Oscar had excellent control over his soul power, and his mental strength was sufficient.
His experience absorbing a higher-level fourth soul ring and undergoing six months of intense training had increased his mental fortitude. Li Luochen believed Oscar could easily absorb this twenty-thousand-year soul ring.
After all, Li Luochen himself had absorbed a twenty-thousand-year soul ring for his fourth ring. For Oscar's fifth ring, a twenty-thousand-year soul ring shouldn't pose much of a problem.
Next, Li Luochen turned his attention to the Mirror Shadow Beast's corpse. Using his spiritual perception, he checked if any soul bones had formed.
Above the beast's head, he detected fluctuations of soul power—a head soul bone. Li Luochen used his soul power to extract the head soul bone from the Mirror Shadow Beast's skull.
He carefully held the blue-and-white head soul bone—a twenty-thousand-year Spirit Condensation Mirror Shadow Skull Bone.
Though its age was somewhat low, for Oscar, it was equivalent to a fifty-thousand-year head soul bone. Paired with Oscar's soul skills, its power would be immense.
It took Oscar half a day to absorb the soul ring. Though he sweated during the process, there were no major issues—his body didn't swell from the overwhelming soul power. Li Luochen attributed this to Oscar possessing two soul bones.
As soon as Oscar opened his eyes, Li Luochen handed him the Spirit Condensation Mirror Shadow Skull Bone.
"Little Ao, this head soul bone from the Mirror Shadow Beast is a perfect match for your fifth soul ring. Absorb it. Though its age is lower, soul rings and soul bones from the same spirit beast amplify each other. For you, its value is comparable to a fifty-thousand-year head soul bone."
Upon hearing this, Oscar was overjoyed. His standards had risen—he aimed for ten-thousand-year soul bones across his body. Though this soul bone's age was slightly lower, Li Luochen assured him it would amplify to the equivalent of a fifty-thousand-year soul bone. Trusting Li Luochen completely, Oscar absorbed it without hesitation.
Li Luochen wouldn't harm him—why worry? Most of Oscar's current strength was thanks to Li Luochen's guidance, and he trusted him implicitly.
An hour later, Oscar finished absorbing the head soul bone, and his soul power reached level 53.
"Alright, Little Ao, let's see if your soul skill is extraordinary."
Li Luochen asked knowingly, though he had forgotten some details. He vaguely remembered it involved replication and transformation into a beast-type soul master, but the exact numbers escaped him.
"The soul skill allows replication. Using a drop of a soul master's blood, anyone who consumes it gains 70% of the donor's soul skill power for three minutes.
If the user's soul power rank is lower than the donor's, they can only replicate skills corresponding to their own rank.
Only soul ring skills can be replicated—not soul bone skills or domain abilities.
The soul bone skill creates a doppelgänger, allowing the user to summon a mirror image identical to themselves. This copy possesses 80% of the original's abilities and lasts for one minute. Additionally, it boosts the effectiveness of the Mirror Image Sausage from 70% to 80%."
Oscar was ecstatic. This skill was truly divine! With it, he became a versatile battle-type soul master. As long as he had enough blood and soul power, he would be an incredibly formidable opponent.
"Hmm, give it a try." Li Luochen gave Oscar a drop of his blood.
"Fifth Soul Skill: Copycat Mirror Image Sausage!"
Oscar began forming a silvery-white sausage in his hand. However, the moment he finished, his face turned pale, and his soul power was nearly depleted.
"My goodness, Chen… Brother Chen… Your blood's power… It's so overwhelming—it drained 90% of my soul power!"
Oscar's aura had completely diminished. Even Li Luochen hadn't anticipated his blood's potency.
Oscar then consumed the Mirror Image Sausage and naturally gained Li Luochen's first five soul skills. However, since he couldn't wield Li Luochen's spirit, he could only partially utilize them. For example:
- First Soul Skill: Godspeed (mini version).
- Third Soul Skill: Gentle Ripple (mini version).
- Fourth Soul Skill: Tyrant Dragon Battle Form.
Moreover, he couldn't fully unleash their power. These skills were based on the weight of Li Luochen's Atlas Divine Dragon Staff, so they were useless to Oscar. Li Luochen's fifth soul skill was immensely powerful, but Oscar couldn't use it.
Thus, while the Mirror Image Sausage created using Li Luochen's blood was pure white, there was a solution. If Oscar hunted a Silver Eagle Beast, he might be able to imprint one of Li Luochen's moves. That single move would be incredibly strong.
Though it could only replicate one move, that move would likely be a full-power strike. A Soul King-level Oscar possessing a trump card equivalent to Li Luochen's full-power strike would be formidable. However, Silver Eagle Beasts were exceedingly rare—practically impossible to find.
From here on, it was up to fate. Oscar's foundation was now complete. When he reached level 70, Li Luochen planned to send the entire Shrek team to the Sea God Island.
There, they would receive better training. After all, the divine-bestowed soul rings were truly exceptional.
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