The Yuhao Chronicles - Volume 1 Chapter 7

The next morning, Yun Er and Yuhao packed their things and continued on their journey, During this time, the pair talked about what they should do once they arrive at Soutuo City. This allowed Yuhao to mention his idea which was supported by his mother.

After 5 hours of walking, they came across a bridge, crossing over a river that went very far into the Great Star Dou Forest. Taking this as a sign to stop, the mother and son pair sat down for some food and to rest, seeing as Yun Er was not a spirit master and became quite exhausted. After a small meal, Yuhao spoke up, “Mum, I know you think it is dangerous for me to get a spirit ring without a master being with me, but I am stronger than I look. I won’t be going for one too high of a level so the danger will be low.”

Yun Er hearing this looked down at the floor, unassured of her worries, “I know honey but just imagining you alone in that forest worries me. I am not strong enough to follow you so how will I know you are ok?…”

He couldn’t help but hug her at this comment. “I know it must be scary for you mum, but it has to be done. If I do it here and now, at least we won’t have to worry about coming across any dangerous beasts as they have already been cleared out by spirit masters.”

“Ok my Yuhao but be extra careful. Take my White Tiger dagger with you. Hopefully it can keep you safe. Please come back as soon as possible.”

“I will mum, I will” He stated, grabbing the dagger happily, before running off into the forest, parallel to the edge of the river.

Yuhao decided that he will get his first spirit ring for his Steel Space Dragon spirit. Mental attribute beasts are rare so he would have to look considerably longer for one suitable for his spirit eyes. Therefore, he currently was on the look-out for any defence oriented, looking back and forth between the river’s edge and outer edges of the forest. After a couple hundred metres of walking, he discovered the river merged into a much larger lake. Knowing how animals work he became extra vigilant as lakes and ponds are generally hotspots for life.

As he crept around the borders of the lake, he noticed a small group of slightly curved, black rocks, located less than a metre from the water’s edge. These rocks for some reason seemed odd to him, so he carefully looked around his surroundings before sneaking over to a larger rock nearby. As he sneaked up to the larger rock, he noticed that these ‘black rocks’ are in fact not rocks, but what looked like black turtles. They were about half a metre long each and in the middle of sunbathing. Back on Earth, he had a friend who used to own a turtle which he quite commonly found sunbathing, especially during the middle hours of the day. He knew that they sunbathe to jump-start their metabolism before a meal and were quite unfocused and drowsy during this time.

‘Excellent. A turtle will definitely have a good defensive skill for me. But what ages are they? It wouldn’t feel right to just kill them all, however, I doubt I would have the chance. The action of me killing one would probably cause the rest of them to escape into the water.’ Yuhao stood there, silently tapping his chin in thought. ‘Ah, maybe Amra would know.’

Upon this thought, he sent a sliver of spirit energy into his sea of consciousness. “Amra, I need your help for a second.”

“What is it, child? I am having a nap” Amra replied back groggily.

Yuhao shook his head at this, half annoyed, half amused at the lions lack of care for him and his actions, “Do you know how to tell the ages of different spirit beasts? I found some black turtles and I want to know which one I should kill for my first spirit ring. For my Steel Space Dragon spirit of course.”

“Yes I do, let us have a look” Amra replied before looking out into Yuhao’s surroundings. “Hmm, they are all at about 600 years. All except for that slightly larger one, with the white nose. It has just reached 1020 years in fact. It must be the leader in the group.”

“So I should go for the one? Do you think I can handle it, with it being over the 423 years?” He asked curiously.

Amra chuckled, “Definitely. If you couldn’t handle at least that much after not only the release of my first bloodline seal, but your strange cultivation technique and physical workouts over the past few years, I would definitely be worried about your talent. I wouldn’t be surprised about you absorbing a spirit ring closer to 2000 years, but this Black Turtle will certainly give you a good skill. Hurry up then.”

Yuhao nodded internally before sneaking a little bit closer to the group. As soon as he was within lunging distance he unsheathed the dagger from his hip, jumped forward and simultaneously brought the dagger down onto the startled turtle. Through a combination of luck and skill, he managed to catch it right in the middle of its stubby, leathery neck, slicing it clean off. Vibrant, red blood began spurting out of the corpse as it fell lifeless on the shoreline. Yuhao caught his breath quickly as he watched the rest of the turtles scurry in panic to the safety of the water. As the last turtle slipped away, he looked down at the dead turtle below him and the light purple ring that rose up out of its carcass. He stood up and dragged the turtle’s body back into the tree line where he has more cover from any spirit beasts that may enter the lake while he is absorbing the ring.

As soon as he was covered by the trees he quickly sat down in a meditative pose and pushed his soul force out to wrap around the ring. As soon as he had it wrapped, he proceeded to bring it back into his body and watched it slip into his chest. After a couple of minutes, the 1020-year-old Black Turtle ring was successfully absorbed into his Steel Space Dragon martial spirit. Immediately following this event, inside his spiritual sea, the ring containing the abilities of the Black Turtle began to be infused with the Three-Eyed Nemean Lion essence. After a couple of seconds of infusion, a spectre of a Black Turtle appeared above the ring, only to evolve into a Black-Gold Turtle before being absorbed back into the ring. Even though the age of the ring stayed the same, Yuhao definitely noticed a difference in quality that the ring had.

He manifested his Steel Space Dragon spirit and called upon his first spirit ring, named Shell Guardian. As the bright purple ring, with a swirl of gold, appeared below him, a black shield materialised in front of him. It was shaped like a black turtle’s shell and with solid, golden lines creating black hexagons across the surface. With only thought, Yuhao found he was able to manipulate where the shield floated around him. However, it was only able to move as far as 1 metre away from him and no matter how hard he tried; he just could not get it to move any further. Happy with the outcome for his first spirit ring, he cancelled the skill and absorbed the defence spirit back into his body.

Yuhao smoothly stood up from his position, dusted himself off and began the journey back to his mother and their relocation to Soutuo City.