As soon as Han Li spoke, the entire basin fell into silence.
Even Xiu'er looked at him with a strange expression.
Not long ago, Han Li had just reached level 69, and now it had only been a little over a month.
Not only had he obtained an unprecedented seventh ring—a million-year soul ring—but he had also increased by 8 levels in one go. Both his soul rings and soul bones had improved by more than one grade. Yet, he was still acting pitifully in front of everyone, which was a bit excessive.
This time, even Xiu'er found it hard to accept Han Li's behavior.
Just as everyone was gearing up, ready to give Han Li a good thrashing, a voice suddenly came from behind them: "I heard someone calling me. What's up?"
Turning towards the voice, they saw a snow-white dragon-type soul beast with wings flying towards them.
"Are you Skydream?"
Guang Ling raised an eyebrow, looking at the significantly changed soul beast.
"Yes, I am now the Ice Dragon Skydream."
The almost adult-sized ice dragon puffed out its chest proudly.
"Alright, got it. No one called you. Since you're awake, go build a nest for yourself."
Guang Ling glanced at Skydream, who now exuded the aura of a thousand-year soul beast, and unceremoniously dismissed it.
Regardless of how much Skydream had contributed, it was still a soul beast. A deal was a deal, and positions were positions—these couldn't be mixed.
If it weren't for his disciple's sake, Guang Ling wouldn't mind killing this creature. He hadn't forgotten that Skydream had previously encouraged them to use the power of the Spirit Hall to wage war against the fierce beasts in the core of the Star Dou Forest.
Given such actions, not to mention soul beasts, even human soul masters couldn't be accepted by him.
"Go ahead and build a big one. With your current growth rate, you won't fit in a stone chamber. From now on, you'll be the guardian here. My promise still stands."
Han Li smiled gently at Skydream, indicating his stance.
Since Guang Ling had already spoken, Han Li wouldn't go against his master. Between his master and Skydream, there was no need to choose.
Skydream was his biggest helper in this success. It was a transaction, and Han Li wouldn't betray it. He would fulfill his promises as much as possible, but there was a natural difference in closeness. He had to wrong Skydream a bit.
Skydream blinked, looked at Guang Ling, nodded, and flew off to the side.
"At least it helped Xiao Li a lot. Take it easy on your temper."
Once Skydream was far away, Dugu Bo looked at Guang Ling. He was a loose member of the Spirit Hall and didn't care much.
"You don't understand. Do you know how many people the Spirit Hall loses each year handling soul beast riots?"
Guang Ling retorted, silencing Dugu Bo.
"As long as human soul masters need soul rings, there will never be peace between the two sides."
Azure Luan added. His temperament wasn't as fiery as Guang Ling's, but he also had no fondness for Skydream.
Han Li listened to the conversation and shook his head. This wasn't a problem he could solve now.
In theory, in the future, the soul beasts on the continent could be considered his subjects, but he was human and had a natural stance.
Forget it. This kind of headache-inducing issue should be left for the future.
Future me, I'm counting on you.
Pushing these thoughts aside and noticing the somewhat cold atmosphere due to the previous events, Han Li deliberately changed the subject.
"Master, Grandpa, do you remember what I told you about the origin of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well?"
"Are you referring to the previous speculation that it was the fallen land of a high-level dragon-type soul beast or even a possible deity?"
Dugu Bo quickly responded, glancing at Skydream in the distance.
"That's right. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I went down to take a look. I indeed found the remains of two dragons. Not only that, but I also successfully obtained two soul bones."
As he spoke, Han Li extended his arms forward. Red and white light radiated, and two dragon shadows appeared, enveloping him.
"What level of soul bones are these? I feel like they have more power than when you used Skydream's soul bone," Dugu Bo asked, feeling the intense dragon aura and instinctively stepping back.
"I don't know, but they are stronger than Skydream's head soul bone."
Han Li knew he was being watched and didn't mention the Ice and Fire Dragon King. He wasn't supposed to know about these things.
"Are these two arm bones, along with Skydream's soul bone, like the leg bone of the Blue Silver Emperor? Do they come with additional skills?" Guang Ling asked, eyeing Han Li's arms enviously.
"Yes, they do come with additional skills. But not just two, there are four."
Han Li nodded lightly, revealing shocking news.
"Hiss."
The temperature in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well rose significantly.
"You alone have nearly as many soul skills as all of us combined. Plus, you have quite a few self-created soul skills," Guang Ling said, looking up at the sky in exasperation. He swore that if Han Li wasn't his disciple, he would have killed him.
As Han Li had joked before, this kid was terrifying and should not be left unchecked; otherwise, he would become a major threat in the future.
"Although I have more skills now, many of them are essentially repetitive. They don't add much, just enhance some aspects."
Han Li shook his head. This time, the commotion was too big. To ensure everything went smoothly, he didn't have the energy to customize and modify each soul bone skill as he had before.
However, this was expected. The types of enhancements and skill applications are fundamentally limited, so it's not surprising to have similar ones.
"The previous soul ring color change is one of the new methods. It can also be used to create illusions and confuse enemies. My mental detection and attack capabilities have been greatly strengthened. The biggest gain is mental sharing, which compensates for the previous limitation of one-way communication through the antennae—or rather, dragon horns now."
A pair of very tiny red and white dragon horns appeared on Han Li's head. Instead of adding to his majesty, they made him look even cuter, as evidenced by the bright eyes of the three girls.
His mental power covered the area where they were standing, activating mental sharing and synchronizing the effect in everyone's minds.
"How about this encrypted communication? Pretty effective, right?"
Han Li's voice echoed in their minds while the entire basin's scene was vividly projected.
"Just this skill alone is worth it. If I had this skill, I would be confident in defeating your Martial Uncle Golden Crocodile," Guang Ling said confidently.
Han Li's mental sharing was different from Huo Yuhao's. Due to the initial connection with his soul bones, his mental sharing not only involved simple detection sharing.
His mental sharing revealed the enemy's soul power flow routes, and attack prediction paths due to strong mental power, and even included some element vision.
It was like a precise computer telling you how to respond. In this scenario, fighting above one's level was standard.
Now, everyone was in the mental sharing, with the hypothetical enemy being Skydream, who was moving bricks in the distance.
Poor Skydream was still diligently building a nest, while on this side, he had already become a test subject.
"Now we can return to Wuhun City with peace of mind," Guang Ling said with a smile, glancing at Han Li and then sneakily taking a look at Dugu Bo.
He was certain that Dugu Bo was no longer a match for his disciple.
"Hmm?"
Han Li hadn't turned off the mental sharing yet, and Dugu Bo felt insulted. Even though he thought he would likely lose in a fight against Han Li, Guang Ling's behavior was a bit too blatant.
"Sorry, I apologize, I didn't mean anything by it," Guang Ling said, realizing his mistake and laughing awkwardly. He had a habit of provoking Dugu Bo and had forgotten that the mental sharing was still active, making Dugu Bo lose face in front of the younger ones.
Dugu Bo glared at him but decided to let it go. He understood Guang Ling's personality well and knew that he meant no harm; it was just his way of showing closeness.
"What about the arm bones?"
Azure Luan changed the subject.
"Speaking of which, the biggest enhancement the arm bones brought me is the physical reinforcement," Han Li said, half amused and half helpless.
His mastery of the ice and fire elements was already maxed out, so while it provided a significant boost to others, for him, it was somewhat redundant.
"Of course, they also come with two powerful attack skills each, one for single-target attacks and one for area-of-effect attacks."
"There are still some other enhancements. They reduce my ice and fire element consumption by fifty percent and triple the power. Additionally, the domains they come with enhance the power of my Ice-Fire Domain. I haven't tested it yet, but it's expected to at least double."
"In the future, soul masters with ice and fire martial souls will be lucky to exert fifty percent of their power in front of me," Han Li said, quite satisfied. This round of enhancements made him a nightmare for ice and fire attribute soul masters.
Guang Ling grew increasingly uneasy as he listened, and by the end, his face turned dark. It seemed like Han Li's skills targeted him more than Dugu Bo by tenfold.
"Haha, the stronger, the better. If a fight breaks out, someone might not be a match for his disciple anymore," Dugu Bo said, his eyes shining brighter as he listened, eventually breaking into laughter.
"Do you like using me as a benchmark for combat strength? Now, let's see if you can keep laughing," he thought. Seeing that the two were about to start bickering again, Han Li quickly retracted the mental sharing and initiated a forced interruption.
"By the way, when I broke through earlier, did it attract any attention?" Han Li asked.
"It triggered a small beast tide. Fortunately, there haven't been many soul masters coming here recently, so it wasn't a big deal," Azure Luan replied. "There was one suspected high-level soul master in a black robe on the periphery, but after I released my aura, he retreated. However, there's a chance he might come back to investigate."
Azure Luan added this information because Guang Ling and Dugu Bo were both well-known, so the perimeter watch had been his responsibility, and he had disguised himself to avoid exposing his identity.
"Not a titled Douluo from the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Clan. He seemed to be seriously injured," Azure Luan added after some thought.
"Is that so? That's interesting," Han Li said, exchanging a knowing smile with Guang Ling.
They could roughly guess who it was. Given the timing, location, and Azure Luan's information, it was highly likely to be Tang Hao.