Chapter 161: Hunting for Soul Rings
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Due to Di Tian's appearance, Amon had cautiously ordered his clone to withdraw from the Star Dou Great Forest at the first moment. Although it was a futile effort, he wasn't upset.
Futile efforts were just that, they wouldn't bring too much loss. If he had taken a chance, it might have led to a complete defeat, and years of accumulation would be in vain.
Only about one-third of Amon's avatars had reached level 50. To raise them all to the limit, he still needed a lot of soul rings.
Although he had decided to act against the auspicious beast three years later, it didn't mean he would do nothing during these three years.
Sending a large number of avatars into the Star Dou Great Forest was risky and violated Amon's principle of caution, but the loss of a small number of avatars was still within his acceptable range.
So, he sent the Worm of Time Avatars below level 50 into the Star Dou Great Forest in batches. First, to hunt soul rings to improve their levels, and second, to observe the Star Dou Great Forest's reaction to him and see how they would respond.
The number of each batch was small, so even if they encountered irresistible danger, the loss wouldn't be too great.
An aggregated Amon, with five Worms of Time on his body, slowly walked in the outer area of the Star Dou Great Forest. He didn't carry "Invincible Golden Body" or "Teleport".
"Teleport" and "Invincible Golden Body" were the core skills of Amon's combat power, and also an important guarantee for his future hunting of the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. If lost, he would have to steal them back.
But the original owner of the skills, Xiao Wu, was now deep in the Star Dou Great Forest, and Amon, who was being watched warily by the ferocious beasts, found it difficult to find an opportunity, so he had to be careful not to lose them.
Currently, these two skills were carried by the main body and the Worms of Time attached to the main body.
The aggregated Amon who entered the Star Dou Great Forest only brought "Eternal Creation" and "Soul Power Ejection". The latter was stolen from Yan Jin not long ago.
The original owners of these two skills were both in Spirit Hall City. Even if the Amon clone carrying the skills was killed and the skills returned, Amon could easily steal them back.
It might take a little effort for Bibi Dong, but as for Yan Jin, wasn't she always available?
The soul beasts in the edge area near Spirit Hall City were already much fewer. Three crows scouting in the air searched for a long time before finding a hundred-year soul beast.
In order to avoid being discovered that he could control crows and other creatures with low intelligence, Amon didn't let the Worms of Time in the crow's body attack directly, but transmitted the information through an invisible mental connection to the Worm of Time who appeared in Amon's image and transformed into a body.
This hundred-year soul beast was a forest wolf, a close relative of the icefield wolf. The adult male forest wolf was covered in wounds, bitten by its own kind.
It was probably injured in the wolf king battle... Amon guessed, and as soon as he saw it, he launched "Deception" against it.
Even though the soul power carried by the clone was only the smallest amount, less than half, the simultaneous efforts of several Worms of Time instantly controlled it.
An "air bullet" shot in from its eyeball and exploded in its head. The forest wolf's body shook and it fell to the ground.
Countless yellow light spots slowly emerged from the corpse and gathered in the air to form a yellow halo.
Amon reached out and beckoned, and the soul ring merged into his body along with the soul power traction. With his current physical fitness, absorbing a hundred-year soul ring was effortless, and the absorption was completed in an instant.
Feeling the increase in soul power in his body, Amon "tsk"ed and muttered to himself: "A hundred years is still a bit low, it didn't even increase by one level."
After slightly adapting to the increased soul power, he continued to walk deeper.
Not long after, another scouting crow saw a thousand-year-level soul beast, a black "Funeral Ape".
This kind of soul beast has unique habits. They put the newborn Funeral Apes in coffins and bury them underground.
If the newborn soul beast can break out of the coffin and climb out, it means that its body is healthy and qualified to live. If it doesn't climb out, it can only blame its own weakness.
In extremely rare cases, the Funeral Apes buried in the coffin may undergo "corpse change" and become "Mourning Apes". Each Mourning Ape is the king of the Funeral Ape group and possesses extremely powerful combat power.
This Funeral Ape was separated from the group for unknown reasons, which allowed Amon not to worry about being besieged.
He walked over with a smile, preparing to make an attempt. This kind of soul beast with higher intelligence and rich emotions was the most suitable target.
When it saw a human approaching, the Funeral Ape immediately let out a warning howl. Its turbid eyes, emitting a strong fierce aura, stared at Amon.
"So irritable, be quiet." Amon snapped his fingers, and the Funeral Ape's eyes became dull.
This dullness didn't last long before it recovered, with a bit more fear and apprehension in its eyes.
Amon sensed its unease through "Decryption" and smiled slightly.
He continued to walk forward, constantly approaching.
The Funeral Ape finally couldn't hold back and launched an attack. Its claws glowed with a dark light, exuding a faint chill.
A spherical barrier formed by materialized soul power blocked its attack and bounced it away.
After absorbing four soul bones of more than ten thousand years and the quality breaking through one hundred thousand years, Amon's materialized soul power became much tougher.
With only a small consumption, he could create a fairly strong defense, instead of relying on a huge output of soul power to forcibly increase the defense like before, when the quality was not enough and the quantity was used to make up for it.
The Funeral Ape attacked for a long time but failed to break the soul power barrier, and the intention to retreat arose.
It stared at Amon while slowly retreating, but after not taking a few steps, it turned back and continued to attack.
Amon stole its thought of escaping!
After it attacked for a while and found it ineffective, the intention to retreat rose again.
Amon stretched out his right hand and grabbed it, stealing its thoughts again.
Just as it turned to attack, Amon returned all the stolen "escape" thoughts.
The return of a large number of thoughts caused confusion in the Funeral Ape's thinking. The strong "escape" thought almost destroyed its sanity, causing it to run away in a panic, crashing into a tree.
The pain gave it a little calmness, and then it changed direction... attacking Amon... Amon once again stole its idea of escaping!
The Funeral Ape felt that its brain was almost not its own anymore, it was so strange, this was not in line with its normal behavior!
After a brief thought, it understood that the human in front of it was the culprit, the source of all its abnormal behavior. The look in its eyes towards Amon became fearful.
Amon stole its fear, constantly repeating the above behavior.
After an hour of torture, the Funeral Ape's limbs were weak and it lay on the ground with a dull expression. It was about to be driven crazy by this demon!
Amon reached out and grabbed, stealing all its negative emotions. The Funeral Ape became lively and fierce again.
Soon after, it fell to the ground again. This time, no matter how Amon stole its thoughts, it wouldn't get up. It seemed that its spirit was on the verge of collapse.
Amon condensed a long sword with soul power and stabbed it into its heart. At the same time, he returned all the fear stolen from the Funeral Ape.
In this instant, extreme fear overwhelmed the spirit of this poor soul beast. Its eyes widened and it let out a sharp cry.
Then, its body twitched and there was no more sound.
The purple soul ring emerged. Amon didn't think much and absorbed it directly. Then, he began to examine the corpse of the soul beast, cutting it into pieces with the soul power sword.
After careful inspection, he finally found what he wanted in the corpse, a bone with a radiant luster.
This was a left leg bone. Because the soul beast's age was not high, it was severely damaged, with only a small section. But this made Amon more confident in his guess.
The appearance of the soul bone was related to the emotional state of the soul beast before its death. If the soul beast actively sacrificed itself, then a soul bone would definitely appear.
If the soul beast had strong mental fluctuations before death, dying in extreme fear and hatred, it would also greatly increase the chance of a soul bone appearing.
Under normal circumstances, the conditions for achieving these two were very difficult. The soul beast would not actively die for humans, and it was difficult for humans to forcibly kill the soul beast and make the other party's emotions reach the threshold that could produce a soul bone.
But Amon could!
He used the ability to "steal thoughts" to constantly steal and accumulate the other party's "fear" and "hatred", and return them at the moment of killing it.
In this way, the soul beast's emotions before death would be at a very intense level, greatly increasing the probability of the birth of a soul bone.
One example was not enough to prove it, Amon needed to try a few more times to be sure.
He continued to search for prey in the forest. After killing dozens of soul beasts, these few Avatars on his body reached level 50.
Amon also confirmed his guess that his method of accumulating "fear and hatred" through "stealing thoughts" was indeed feasible.
The higher the intelligence of the target, the more "fear" or "hatred" stolen, and the higher the drop rate of soul bones.
Generally speaking, because hundred-year soul beasts had too low intelligence, even if Amon spent more time accumulating "fear", it was difficult for the other party to drop a soul bone.
The probability of thousand-year-level soul beasts with higher intelligence was much higher. Amon killed more than thirty 1000-year soul beasts and dropped six soul bones!
Adding the two harvested from hundred-year soul beasts, he obtained eight soul bones in just a few days!
Amon raised his right hand, pinched the upper and lower edges of his monocle with his index finger and thumb, and muttered to himself in a soft voice:
"Tsk... maybe I can take on the soul bone carry business, kill on demand."
Brilliant starlight lit up, and three streams of light flew out of the aggregated Amon's body, transforming into a man in a black robe in front of him.
He handed all the soul bones on his body to the separated Avatar, letting him take them back to the main body.
The original Amon continued to walk deeper into the Star Dou Great Forest. His expression was slightly sad, but he was determined, with a tragic air of "once a warrior departs, he will never return."
He walked and muttered in his mouth:
"The ruthless main body, always squeezing the avatars, I feel like I'm doomed."
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