4 First Ring and a Lion Pet
Xue Long stepped back from the tree trunk and looked at his clawed hands. Slowly the Dragonfication receded and his regular hand appeared.
'A frontal attack with dragon-like claws… it increases ALL attributes by 10% for all beast-type martial spirits in a radius of 10 metres for over 2 minutes myself included. On top of it all, it decreases 10% to all attributes to my enemies who have Beast Martial Spirit in my range.'
'Not bad stuff for first ring ability.'
For a few moments, he had a thoughtful look. Once he is back in the palace he is going to study and hopefully reverse engineer those energy claws and the AoE effects.
Domains after all exist in this place.
"Most impressive my Prince! Should we continue to acquire the next ring?"
Xue Long nodded and looked at his soldiers.
"Begin the search! Spread out!"
"Yes! My Prince!"
After seeing him dominate the Fierce Qilin like that the boys got excited to see him destroy another Spirit Beast!
Everyone quickly spread out to look for another Dragon species Spirit Beast.
"My Prince, did your Spiritual Rank increase after acquiring your first ring?"
"No. The only difference that happened is that I have a spirit ability."
The old man nodded at him. He thought this much. He didn't sense any improvement after gaining that ring. This is the first time in his life that he is exposed to someone who had innate rank at 20! So he is closely documenting all of this!
"I see. The possible change could happen when you acquire your second ring. The energy can pass on directly after you gain the second ring."
Zhi Lin speculated, to which Xue Long nodded. He can guess it's gonna be something like this.
'I should try out compressing energy. I read something about some sort of spirit cores with attributes.'
~~~~~~Later~~~~~~
A few days have passed since the Fourth Prince acquired his first ring.
The search for his second ring was underway. The difficulty was that he needs to find dragon species. And those are not easy.
This is why he brough an entire battalion of scouts and some light infantry.
While the soldiers were looking for his prey he was sitting high on a tree overlooking the vast expanse of forest.
After enjoying the view for a few moments he crossed his legs and started to meditate.
Falling in trance and being one with the land was not difficult anymore. However, he is still struggling with partial possession.
For example, if he wants to manifest just his wings he always slips and always fully transforms.
This is something he is constantly working on. Same way he tries to grasp the spirit energy outside his body. This is important for his continuous understanding of spirit energy and cultivation.
The process was simple he would leak some of his Spirit energy and then he would engrave it on the wood. Through this, he would try to feel the energy outside his body.
Which is quite fascinating because he felt the difference between himself and the world around him.
His was… angry, bloody, like an unruly vortex of energy.
It is quite strange how he can be this calm when his energy is like that!
Most likely that Shaolin mediation technique was on completely different levels altogether!
So after sensing how he was, the Fourth Prince started to practise how to calm this energy down. To get It under proper control.
As he was doing all of that he didn't even notice how the time was moving on!
When he opened his eyes he saw that it was getting late so he descended from the tree and went to get some food.
"Hmm?"
"What do we have here."
As he spoke a small golden kitten stopped in its tracks. Slowly the feline lifted its head and looked at the big guy who interrupting its meal.
*HISS*
The small feline hissed angrily at him.
"Excuse me? You eating my jerky! Thank your gods that I am a feline guy. Otherwise, I would have turned you into a jerky!"
The feline didn't have any of that. It hissed more and tried to look even bigger…
Xue Long snorted he was more amused by this than impressed by how serious this cat tried to look. He leaned forward and grabbed the cute thing by its neck and lifted it.
"Now, what do we have here? It's a lion. Well, I will be keeping you. As I say. Always take care of your lions." Sure enough, he changed the position of his new cat and went over to grab some of the remaining jerky.
"You know. I have no idea how you found my stash. I'm pretty sure I hid it properly." After saying that he started eating his smoked jerky.
While he was saying that the golden lion tried to get out of his grip. But the moment it saw that the guy was eating jerky the feline stopped struggling and tried to reach his food.
"Yeah. No. You have to ask properly."
Not like the spirit beast listened to him. It continued to struggle…
This lasted for some time. As Xue Long was having his snacks. Which is not just smoked meat. But he had his milkshake, a proper dose of veggies.
Eventually… the proud animal caved in and started to beg.
"See? Was it so hard?"
After saying that he started to feed the cute animal.
"Truly a beautiful cat you are."
As he said that he inspected the lion.
'Golden fur, red eyes. And… is that closed third eye on its forehead?'
That moment the Fourth Prince realised that this was the famous three-eyed Golden Lion!
'Holy smoke! Is it got attracted to my Martial Spirit!?'
As he thought that with shock the cute kitten mewed at him.
It appears it got somewhat subdued by him!
'As far as I remember it does have the bloodline of Golden Dragon!'
"Well, well. What a great prize you are!" After saying that he strokes the beast's fur and went back to his eating. Once he was done with that he returned to his tree.
While he did all that his bodyguard simple shook his head from this absurdity. Only the Prince will casually find a wild lion Spirit Beast and tell it that it's now his and you can struggle as much as you want…
It's not going to help.
~~~~~~Few Days Later~~~~~~
Xue Long with his group ended up in quite a dry area. One could say it's a biome of savanna.
"There is an Earth Dragon in that direction. By its size and the thickness of the scales, it's around 5 thousand to 7 thousand years old." One of the scouts said to his Prince.
"Actual Dragon…"
The Prince nodded at the exclamation of his bodyguard. This was quite strange. The Qilin he has slain… or it should be Qilin, well, the name is Qilin but the bloodline most likely is quite diluted. But this Land Dragon and the cat he got.
For some reason, Di Tian hasn't appeared yet and killed him off…
'Well, honestly… something fishy is going on…'
"I will face him."
"B-But!"
"Take care of her. I will be back shortly." As he said that he handed over the golden lion to the old man. The moment it ended up in his hands it released its fangs.
And started to assault the old man. It was hilarious from an outsider's perspective.
"M-My Prince! That thing is easily over 5 thousand years old! Its fighting prowess can easily match those of 10 thousand!" Zhi Lin said that as he pulled the lion cub aside.
"I know! And it's exciting!"
As he said that he lunged forward and transformed fully into his Dragonoid form.
***ROAR***
A roar escaped from Xue Long mouth. This was an invitation into a battle!
Sure enough, the ground shook for a second as a huge around 10 metres long land-dwelling dragon rushed out from its burrow.
Just from looking at it. The Prince could see that this thing has some Dragon blood.
While its legs are not spread like lizards, its head looks somewhat similar to a dragon. But this thing is a far cry from a true dragon.
The thing roared back at the Fourth Prince and rushed to engage him in pure close-range combat.
It lunged at him and Xue Long took his martial arts stance.
Then he exploded with pure power, leaving a small crater behind him.
Fist smashing into the scaled mouth of the Land Dragon.
Upon impact, the scales shattered, and moments later the first ring glowed and a flurry of swipes with draconic claws descended on the Spirit Beast.
But what happened next has quite baffled the soldiers even the golden lion stopped its assault on the old man and looked at the human who feeds her.
Xue Long continued th claw attack as he started to incorporate leg attacks as well! It's like he was learning how to improve the first ability to the next and next level!
"... I thought the first ability was only a series of slashes… is the prince adding martial arts into that ability!?
"Look at the ring! It's constantly blinking!"
"If his Grace continues this he will run out of Spirit energy!"
As the soldiers were commenting Xue Long was able to push the huge Land Dragon back.
Even though the attacks he delivered have pummeled the creature quite hard. It was not enough to damage organs.
"I see… you are strong! Good! I suppose I don't need to hold back at all!!!" As the Fourth Prince said that he took a completely different stance from before.
The moment he took this stance ghostly image of a golden man appeared behind. Though he didn't see this figure or the people who were watching the fight. The Land Dragon did.
What kind of figure this was? It was a certain someone from his previous world!
The martial arts stance he took was the Praying Mantis. With his clawed hands, he will shred this Land Dragon off its scales!
With another lunge, he appeared in front of the Spirit beasts and delivered his hand downward. The force of his strike was off the charts. It was as if his power skyrocketed just because he changed his martial arts!
The strike shattered the head scales with a single stroke. However, this was not the end. As Praying Mantis style is not just a single strike. It has a multitude of interconnected strikes that Shaolin Monks developed over hundreds of years.
Downwards strike, backhanded strike, hammer strike, knee strike, ending with a spin kick.
As the combo was getting faster and faster, the Land Dragon tried to fight back and bite. However, that only ended with a fist striking inside of its mouth!
He tried to fight back with its claws but its front legs ended up getting broken!
"Holy… what is that!? How does Prince knows this technique!?" Zhi Lin asked with a gulp, the golden lion cub gulped down alongside him!
The soldiers were shell-shocked too! They expected an epic fight! What they got was an epic beatdown!
Which grew more and more one-sided! It's like… the Martial Spirit Golden Dragon King helped him get more and more fluid with his fighting style!
"Deva Diamond Palm!"
Xue Long's palm glowed golden as a ghostly image of a golden monk striking with its palm appeared above him. Delivering a devastating strike.
***CRACK***
That moment it connected the whole Land Dragon head explode into mist. The corpse collapsed on the ground with a loud thud.
Seeing that the beast was down Xue Long can finally breathe in relief.
He exhaled loudly as he cancelled the possession. And dropped to the ground and started to meditate. The amount of spirit energy he used in this battle was enormous.
'I guess this amount is my current limit.'
As he took a breather the soldiers rushed to form a defensive perimeter for him.
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