CHAPTER 88: The Fifth Soul Ring and the Evolution of the Sharingan

Chapter 88 – The Fifth Soul Ring and the Evolution of the Sharingan

"You are also an angel spirit? No, that doesn't seem quite right." Mu Qingxue, who had just purified the Soul Devouring Knife, looked at Xiao Qiang with curiosity.

"It's just a special kind of spirit skill," Xiao Qiang replied calmly. "More importantly, Miss Qingxue, you're far more surprising. To fuse two yellow, two purple, and two black spirit rings into a 100,000-year fusion ring… just that alone places your strength above ordinary Soul Saints. I'm now very confident—you truly have the ability to defeat Zhang Lexuan."

Mu Qingxue gave a wry smile. "It's only a small talent. Even if I can fuse a 100,000-year spirit skill with the fusion ring, without my seventh ring, I still won't be able to compete with an eight-ring Soul Douluo."

"Don't worry," Xiao Qiang reassured her. "It won't be long before you obtain a 100,000-year spirit ring—and maybe even jump directly to the eighth ring."

"I hope so," she said, softly.

After their exchange, Yu Mengdi approached Xiao Qiang, her expression serious.

"Since you're now supported by the Sun and Moon Empire, can't you expose the Shrek gang's cheating?"

Xiao Qiang remained silent.

…

"Xuan Lao threatened a five-ring Soul King, telling her not to defeat Shrek. When things didn't go their way, they just added more people into the match. Typical Shrek behavior."

After Yu Mengdi finished explaining her experience, Xiao Qiang found himself unsurprised. In fact, it was expected.

Cheating was practically tradition for Shrek. In both high-level All-Continent Soul Master Competitions where the Peerless Tang Sect represented them, they had employed dishonest means. Combined with the soul beast Xiao Wu's participation in the first Douluo competition, Xiao Qiang couldn't help but wonder—had Shrek ever played fair in the past ten thousand years?

"I never imagined that the academy once home to a god-level individual would stoop so low, even letting a Titled Douluo cheat. How shameless." Bingdi scoffed in Xiao Qiang's spiritual sea. As usual, Tianmeng nodded along and added flatteringly, "Bingbing is right. Shrek is absolutely shameless!"

"Alright, Brother Tianmeng, Sister Bingdi, now's not the time to dwell on this. We have more important things to do," Xiao Qiang interjected. "I've reached level 50. It's time to prepare to fuse my fifth soul ring."

Exposing Shrek's misconduct could wait. Gaining strength and securing his safety in the coming chaos was the true priority. And besides, now wasn't the right moment to confront Master Xuan.

"Okay, leave the spirit ring compression to me," Tianmeng declared. "Compressing a ring into a 100,000-year level is impossible under normal circumstances—but I'm a million-year soul beast! I have ten full portions of essence prepared from beasts that broke through the 100,000-year mark! Ten!"

"As expected of Brother Tianmeng!" Xiao Qiang grinned, reassured.

Tianmeng was a master among soul beasts. Even Electrolux would defer to him in this field. While Electrolux held vast spiritual knowledge, his understanding of soul beasts couldn't compare to Tianmeng's firsthand experience—evolving over a million years had made Tianmeng an authority.

"Uh… don't be too happy just yet," Tianmeng added awkwardly, sensing Xiao Qiang's trust. "There's a small issue."

"What kind of issue?"

"The Silver Wolf is only a bit over 70,000 years old. To compress its power into a 100,000-year soul ring with two soul skills, I'll have to use a considerable amount of my original essence. Once I commit to this process, I won't be able to help you in other ways."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You see," Tianmeng explained, "soul rings are remnants from slain soul beasts, filled with their dying hatred. That's why absorbing them is so dangerous—they want to destroy the soul master with them. Soul spirits, on the other hand, have a shared fate with their master. If you die, they die. So they work to help you absorb the ring safely."

He continued, "Once I begin compressing this ring, it'll truly become a 100,000-year-level ring. The Silver Wolf won't be trying to kill you, but because it and I will focus fully on compressing the ring, it won't be able to help you guide or regulate the ring's power. That means you'll be facing the energy more directly."

"So… how much pressure are we talking about? How strong is this ring, and how much can my body take?"

"The difficulty will be comparable to absorbing a 75,000-year ring. But your current physical limit is around 67,000 years."

"An 8,000-year gap… Brother Tianmeng, will the medicine I have help?"

"If your medicine was enough, I wouldn't have brought this up," Tianmeng replied. "Your body is already far beyond the average. Still, for safety's sake, you should strengthen it further. You're only 15 and already at level 50. A year or two of delay won't matter much. Don't rush it."

"But I don't want to wait. Cultivation is a step-by-step process, sure—but now that I've reached level 50 and can't enter Dragon Valley, I have no idea how to improve my body efficiently."

"Even so—"

"There is a way," came Xue Di's cool voice, cutting Tianmeng off.

"Huh? Sister Xue Di, you have a solution?"

Xue Di, her breath concealed beneath her eye mask, gave Xiao Qiang a calm look. "I was very satisfied that you lent your body to Bingdi last time. So, as a reward…"

She opened her mouth and spat out a gleaming snow pill. "This will raise your endurance limit by 10,000 years."

Without hesitation, Xiao Qiang swallowed the snow pill. Then, he informed Jing Hongchen of his breakthrough, requesting not to be disturbed for the time being. With that settled, he summoned the Silver Wolf.

Tianmeng infused a massive amount of his spiritual essence into the Silver Wolf's spirit ring, compressing its 70,000-year energy into a single 100,000-year ring.

Although the Silver Wolf could have provided four individual rings, all of its energy was condensed into one. The energy was vast, and the missing realm was supplemented by Tianmeng's essence.

As expected, the compression succeeded. And with the additional endurance granted by Xue Di's snow pill, Xiao Qiang's body could now handle the shock of the transformation.

But absorbing a 100,000-year soul ring wasn't without danger. The spiritual impact of the ring—especially from a spiritual-type beast like the Silver Wolf—was immense. The soul shock drilled into Xiao Qiang's mind like a spear.

Yet that very force triggered something within him. Under the intense pressure, his brain instinctively began secreting special protective substances—an unconscious defense mechanism.

And as this occurred, the three magatama in Xiao Qiang's Sharingan began to spin rapidly. Gradually, they dissolved, giving way to a deep black gear-shaped pattern in his eyes.

Xiao Qiang's Sharingan had evolved—into the Mangekyo Sharingan.

With the activation of his Mangekyo, Xiao Qiang's spiritual power surged. Originally in the late stage of the Lingyuan Realm—his mental sea as deep as the abyss—his consciousness now expanded wildly. In a flash, it reached the peak of the Lingyuan Realm and broke into the Lingyu Realm.

The abyss had transformed into a domain. The gears of fate turned in his eyes.

The Mangekyo Sharingan had awakened!