Over the past few months in Sunset Forest, Chen Ming hadn't been idle. During this time, he learned from Dugu Bo about the forest's ecosystem and the soul beasts that lived there, while also beginning to select his third soul ring. Thanks to his improved physical fitness and enhanced spiritual abilities, Chen Ming could now absorb a soul ring of roughly 7,000 years. With another year or so of training, consuming more of the body-strengthening herbs from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, and obtaining more whale glue, he might even reach the standard for absorbing a ten-thousand-year soul ring.
As for the spiritual shockwaves emitted by ten-thousand-year soul beasts… those weren't a problem for Chen Ming at all.
But… even if Dugu Bo was a Rank 93 Titled Douluo, Chen Ming didn't dare to absorb a ten-thousand-year soul ring for his third ring.
Typically, the third soul ring for most people was just over 1,000 years old. If he were to directly absorb a ten-thousand-year soul ring, that would be a tenfold increase—an outrageous leap that would make absorbing a thousand-year second ring seem insignificant by comparison.
If word got out, the entire Douluo Continent would go crazy.
Even if Dugu Bo were Rank 93, or even Rank 95, he might not have been able to protect Chen Ming.
At that point, squads of unknown soul masters with martial souls like the Clear Sky Hammer, Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, or Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda might band together to hunt down Dugu Bo.
If luck permitted, one might even find soul masters with martial spirits like the Bone Dragon, Seven Kill Sword, or Coiling Dragon Staff in those squads.
If Dugu Bo were Rank 97, Chen Ming might dare to try absorbing a ten-thousand-year third ring. But for now, he didn't have the audacity. His luck simply wasn't strong enough.
Still, it wasn't such a big deal. Chen Ming had other means to enhance his soul ring's age through his special. He could always upgrade it to ten thousand years later when he had the power to protect himself.
While Sunset Forest wasn't as great as the Star Dou Great Forest, there were still a few soul beasts that Chen Ming found appealing. After some deliberation, he narrowed his target to three specific types of soul beasts.
The first was the infamous Man-Faced Demon Spider, which was prominently featured in the first part of Douluo Dalu. This soul beast was a top-tier creature and considered the king of spiders, second only to super-soul beasts like the Death Spider Emperor or Soul-Devouring Spider Emperor.
The Man-Faced Demon Spider was known for its terrifying poison, exceptional physical strength, and high-level attributes such as evil and devouring. Even with Chen Ming's picky standards, he had to admit it was an excellent choice.
If he could acquire the Spider God Possession skill, it would be a huge gain.
However, Chen Ming wasn't sure if divine-level skills came with special restrictions. If that wasn't an option, the hidden soul skill that only appeared after a Man-Faced Demon Spider reached ten thousand years was still outstanding.
That hidden skill allowed for near-perfect concealment, undetectable even by the spiritual power of a Titled Douluo. It was simply a must-have for anyone looking to assassinate or steal.
As someone who could pick his soul skills, Chen Ming didn't have to worry about his gacha pool being polluted by trash skills like Spider Web.
The second soul beast was the Illusory Dark Scorpion, an extremely rare spirit beast with psychic poison that Dugu Bo had mentioned. This soul beast was top-tier in quality and even rarer than the Man-Faced Demon Spider. Due to its bizarre psychic poison, very few people in the spirit master world even knew it existed.
The Illusory Dark Scorpion could convert its poison into psychic attacks, causing mental damage to its enemies. It could also continuously transform the mental pain of its victims into more poison. This poison was highly complex and varied depending on the victim's mental state, making it extremely difficult to detoxify.
Essentially, if someone sustained mental damage from this beast, their body would continuously generate poison. This poison would harm both the body and the mind, and the resulting mental pain would further fuel the production of venom.
A thousand-year-old Illusory Dark Scorpion could dominate the Sunset Forest, and even ten-thousand-year soul beasts would suffer immensely if stung. Most importantly, its poison was almost impossible to counteract. Few soul beasts would dare to challenge an Illusory Dark Scorpion unless they had no other choice.
Dugu Bo had previously researched this soul beast but didn't achieve much and eventually stopped searching for it.
To absorb this soul beast as a soul ring, Chen Ming would likely have to spend a long time tracking one down.
The third soul beast was the Emerald Heavenly Dragon… or perhaps more accurately, the Emerald Gecko.
This soul beast was considered one of the Five Venomous Beasts, and while it was generally high-quality, it fell just short of top-tier status.
However, Dugu Bo knew of a nest of Emerald Geckos in Sunset Forest that had true dragon blood in their lineage. These geckos belonged to the earth dragon category and were far superior to ordinary Emerald Geckos.
These geckos had stronger poison, tougher bodies, dragon scales growing on their skin, and small wings on their backs. They were top-tier soul beasts. Absorbing one would likely grant a powerful defensive or buffing soul skill, which would perfectly complement Chen Ming's current deficiencies.
As for the other high-quality poison-type soul beasts in Sunset Forest, they either didn't suit Chen Ming's martial soul or simply didn't meet his standards.
If none of these three soul beasts worked out, Chen Ming would have no choice but to head to the Star Dou Great Forest.
After preparing medicine for Dugu Yan and confirming that she wouldn't encounter any issues in the next few days, Chen Ming left the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well with Dugu Bo and began hunting for his third soul ring.
Chen Ming's first target was the Man-Faced Demon Spider. This infamous soul beast had provided Tang San in the original story with the Eight Spider Lances external soul bone. Later, when Tang San achieved the Sea God's divine status, the Eight Spider Lances evolved into the Sea God's Eight Wings, becoming a hidden trump card against the God of Destruction in Legend of the Divine Realm.
Eventually, through the baptism of chaotic energy, the Eight Spider Lances became the only super divine tool that Tang San created himself.
For any transmigrator arriving in the Douluo Universe, it was natural to be curious about the Eight Spider Lances, a bug-like external soul bone from the original work.
However, Man-Faced Demon Spiders were incredibly rare.
These soul beasts were cruel and powerful, with evil and devouring attributes. They were predators of smaller soul beasts and killed indiscriminately, even when not hungry.
Even in the soul beast world, they were despised and hunted by other beasts.
High-age soul beasts that could handle a Man-Faced Demon Spider never hesitated to kill one. As a result, despite having no natural enemies, their numbers were extremely low. A ten-thousand-year-old Man-Faced Demon Spider was even rarer than a ten-thousand-year-old Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear.
Because of this, Man-Faced Demon Spiders were always on the move, never staying in one place for long.
Even after searching for several days in areas where Man-Faced Demon Spiders were known to appear, Chen Ming and Dugu Bo didn't find a single trace—not even a hair. They didn't even find soul beasts that had been slaughtered by a Man-Faced Demon Spider.
With no other choice, the two had to accept the reality that the Man-Faced Demon Spider had likely moved elsewhere, and they began searching for the Illusory Dark Scorpion instead.
This soul beast was even rarer than the Man-Faced Demon Spider. However, since it wasn't universally hunted like the spider, it had its territory and generally didn't wander far.
After conducting a thorough search in likely areas for several days, Dugu Bo and Chen Ming finally found an Illusory Dark Scorpion nest.
The nest was home to a Scorpion King leading five smaller scorpions. The Scorpion King was around 50,000 years old—a true Scorpion King. Among the five smaller scorpions, the oldest was 30,000 years old, and the youngest was around 7,000 years old—perfect for Chen Ming.
However, since ten thousand-year-old soul beasts had intelligence, the youngest scorpion was being carefully guarded deep within the nest by the four older scorpions, playing right next to the 50,000-year-old Scorpion King.
While they had found the nest, the scorpions' strong combat abilities and strange poison made it risky to attack. Even as a Titled Douluo, Dugu Bo didn't dare recklessly charge into the nest to capture the youngest scorpion.
These top-tier poison-type soul beasts had incredible poison resistance and tremendous vitality. If Dugu Bo tried to force his way in, there was a real chance he could fail.
After waiting for several days and seeing no signs of the scorpions leaving their nest, Dugu Bo had no choice but to temporarily give up and take Chen Ming to investigate his third choice.
If Chen Ming still wanted the Illusory Dark Scorpion soul ring, they could always return later when the scorpions left their nest.