The Venomspike Beast was a creature that resembled a hedgehog-like mouse with poisonous spikes. It could shoot the spikes on its back as a form of attack. However, its clumsy aim posed no threat to Tang San. After firing just two venomous spikes, it was immediately shot through the head by the Zhuge Divine Crossbow, dying on the spot. Looking at the fallen Venomspike Beast and its purple soul ring, Tang San gulped and walked over without hesitation to begin absorbing the soul ring.
Watching this unfold, Chen Ming revealed a satisfied smile.
This Venomspike Beast had been carefully selected by Chen Ming from the rampaging soul beasts and deliberately lured to Tang San. However, this particular Venomspike Beast didn't possess any significant or harmful abilities.
Chen Ming, ever considerate, had enhanced the spikes on the beast's back and infused its body with some life energy.
If Tang San simply absorbed the soul ring, the amount of life energy transferred to him would be negligible. However, Chen Ming's enhancements also brought forth another possibility: an external soul bone.
Yes, Chen Ming intended to give Tang San a gift. While the quality gap between the Man-Faced Demon Spider and the Venomspike Beast was immense—the thousand-year-old Man-Faced Demon Spider could easily prey on Venomspike Beasts that were three to four thousand years old—external soul bones were priceless treasures.
After taking the Eight Spider Lances, Chen Ming felt it was reasonable to return the favor by gifting Tang San the back spikes of the Venomspike Beast.
Although the Venomspike Beast's spikes lacked the lethal poison, devouring attribute, and passive full-attribute amplification ability that the Man-Faced Demon Spider's soul bone provided, it was still an external soul bone—one that had legitimate growth potential. While it was inferior to the Eight Spider Lances in every way, including growth potential, it was still an external soul bone.
The trade-off? It occupied one of Tang San's external soul bone slots, which meant that even if Tang San acquired the Eight Spider Lances later in life, he would be unable to absorb them. But, putting aside this minor issue, wasn't this still a good deal?
In simpler terms, Chen Ming planned to use lower-quality and lower-effectiveness soul bones to occupy Tang San's soul bone slots.
Among the six major soul bone positions, the four limb bones could, under special circumstances, be removed. However, the head bone and torso bone were linked to the soul master's essence and were nearly impossible to remove.
External soul bones could theoretically be detached before being fully absorbed, but once fully integrated, they would become a permanent part of the spirit master's essence. Even deities could not remove them without risking irreversible damage to the spirit master's essence.
In the original story, there was a saying: "Soul rings emphasize age, while soul bones emphasize quality." For a soul master, a hundred-thousand-year-old soul ring, even from a relatively weak Soft Bone Rabbit, was still stronger than a typical ninety-thousand-year ring from a top-tier soul beast. Unless the soul beast's quality was extraordinarily high or perfectly compatible with the martial soul, age was the most important factor for soul rings.
This is because soul rings are a reflection of the soul beast's cultivation.
Soul bones, however, emphasize quality because they represent the manifestation of the soul beast's bloodline power. Some high-quality soul bones from ten-thousand-year soul beasts could even surpass the value of thirty- to fifty-thousand-year soul bones from average soul beasts.
For example, soul bones from the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear were so valuable that even a thousand-year-old bone could surpass most ten-thousand-year-old soul bones of average quality.
Similarly, in Soul Land II: The Unrivaled Tang Sect, Wang Dong's Golden Light soul bone came from the ten-thousand-year-old Golden Earth Dragon King. Due to its connection to the noble Golden Dragon bloodline, it possessed extraordinary and versatile abilities.
As a mere ten-thousand-year soul bone, it was considered comparable in rarity and quality to some hundred-thousand-year soul bones.
External soul bones can grow in terms of age, though their quality rarely improves. Unless blessed with extraordinary opportunities, any quality improvements are usually incidental to their age growth, and the resulting enhancements are minimal.
The Venomspike Beast's external soul bone, for example, was inherently flawed. Even if it grew to a hundred-thousand-year level, its quality would still lag behind that of a fifty-thousand-year high-quality soul bone, and its skills would likely be far worse.
In the original story, Tang San's head bone came from the previous Pope, Qian Xunji, and was a top-tier fifty-thousand-year soul bone. After merging with the Sea God's Heart, it became comparable to a hundred-thousand-year soul bone. His external soul bone, the Eight Spider Lances, eventually became the only super artifact he forged.
With a collection of soul bones of exceptional quality and age, Tang San's ability to defeat higher-level enemies before ascending to godhood was largely due to these advantages. Since Chen Ming had already used a thousand-year Man-Faced Demon Spider spirit bone fused with ten-thousand-year Man-Faced Demon Spider blood to create a fake ten-thousand-year spirit bone for Tang San's head, he certainly wouldn't miss the opportunity to occupy the external spirit bone and torso bone slots as well.
While absorbing a torso bone generally made it impossible to absorb an external spirit bone in the spine area, Chen Ming worried that the Asura God might intervene and grant Tang San a cheat, allowing him to acquire an external soul bone that could grow alongside the torso bone.
Thus, Chen Ming specifically prepared an enhanced Venomspike Beast to gift Tang San.
Under Chen Ming's watchful eye, Tang San indeed experienced a unique transformation while absorbing the soul ring.
Amidst waves of pain, Tang San instinctively curled up. As his soul power fluctuated, sharp spikes emerged from both sides of his spine, forming a sparse yet somewhat grotesque armor.
Each of these spikes was a deep purple, tainted by venom. The tips were barbed, giving Tang San's silhouette the appearance of a humanoid Venomspike Beast.
Though the spikes made him look formidable and provided considerable back protection, Chen Ming could see clearly that these external spikes were connected to Tang San's spine. If they were damaged, not only would the external soul bone sustain significant damage, but Tang San's spine would also be affected.
Of course, this wasn't a major issue in the grand scheme of things. Even the original Eight Spider Lances had similar risks. However, Chen Ming had already started considering ways to use this external soul bone to create surprises for Tang San and slow down his cultivation progress.
Tang San loved using hidden weapons, didn't he? He could even kill with a stone.
In the original story, the Eight Spider Lances gave Tang San direct combat power but didn't enhance his hidden weapon abilities. For someone who prided himself on being the best hidden weapons user, wasn't that a pity?
Now, with the Venomspike Beast's external soul bone, Tang San could increase his hidden weapon capabilities. Chen Ming wondered if he could guide Tang San into using the spikes on his back as hidden weapons, breaking off a few spikes in every fight to attack his enemies. This constant cycle of breaking and repairing could shackle Tang San's cultivation progress.
The fifteen-hundred-year Venomspike Beast's soul ring didn't pose much pressure on Tang San. It felt less challenging than when he absorbed the Ghost Vine's soul ring as a Spirit Grandmaster.
A few moments later, Tang San opened his eyes. His soul rings transformed from two yellow to two yellow and one purple, officially reaching the Soul Elder level.
At this moment, his soul power was at rank 31—a perfectly ordinary advancement for a soul master absorbing an ordinary soul beast's ring. Compared to the original timeline where Tang San absorbed the Man-Faced Demon Spider's spirit ring and Eight Spider Lances, undergoing a complete transformation, this achievement felt lackluster.
As Tang San marveled at the surge of power within him, Xiao Wu finally caught up to his location. Spotting the humanoid Venomspike Beast on the ground, Xiao Wu instinctively circled around it, avoiding any unnecessary entanglement with such a low-level soul beast as she hurried toward Tang San.
However, Tang San wasn't blind. Seeing Xiao Wu pass by, he immediately called out to her, stretching out his hand dramatically to stop her.
When Xiao Wu saw Tang San, who now looked like a hedgehog with dozens of spikes sticking out of his back, she froze for a moment before bursting into tears and rushing into his arms.
Tang San instinctively hugged the charging Xiao Wu, but there was a problem. In her excitement, Xiao Wu forgot about the spikes protruding from Tang San's back.
With a scream, Xiao Wu's arms were deeply pierced by several of Tang San's venomous barbs. Due to the spikes' venom and barbs, Xiao Wu writhed in pain in Tang San's embrace, unable to free herself.
PS: They are getting trolled. lol