He transmitted his will into the earth, and the entire dragon tomb tremored slightly. His eyes were closed so he couldn't see anything, but there were dense bursts of light erupting from the ground all around him. There were lights of all types of different colors, and in the end, they combined as one to form a rainbow halo that silently revolved around his body.

A gentle feeling of intimacy surrounded his entire body, and he felt as if he could hear the cries of countless dragons, all of which were filled with joy and elation rather than grief and indignation.

In the end, this rainbow light converged to form a water-droplet-shaped crystal that contained nine different colors within. The crystal drifted down onto Tang Wulin's right wrist, and a thin nine-colored chain appeared, strapping the crystal to his wrist.

All of a sudden, Tang Wulin's body shuddered, and he felt as if his spiritual world had been smashed open! His spiritual power, which had been stagnant for a long time, suddenly began to increase at a rapid rate.

This process didn't last a very long time, but Tang Wulin was suddenly struck by the feeling that his horizons had broadened. Even though he still had his eyes closed, he could sense everything around him with brilliant clarity.

He could sense that all of the bones in his torso, including his spine, his breastbone, and his ribs, were all glowing with a dazzling light. It was as if a crystalline suit of armor had been fitted onto those bones, filling him with an indescribable sense of power.

This was a torso bone!

The Mountain Dragon King had given him a torso bone.

Among the soul bones that Soul Masters could fuse into their bodies, there were a few types that were the most valuable.

Without taking into consideration the ages of the soul bones, head bones, torso bones, and external soul bones were the rarest and also the most precious.

External soul bones were extremely valuable as they could exist independently outside of the six most common types of soul bones, and they were exceedingly rare.

In contrast, head bones and torso bones brought the greatest enhancements to Soul Masters, and they were also the most difficult to obtain.

Among the descendants of the Dragon God, the Mountain Dragon King possessed the most powerful defensive prowess, so its torso bone was undoubtedly one of the most exceptional torso bones anyone could hope to obtain. With the addition of this torso bone, Tang Wulin's defensive prowess would be elevated to a whole new level. This could even make it a lot easier for him to withstand the influxes of energy from breaking Golden Dragon King seals in the future.

Aside from sensing the fact that he'd obtained a new soul bone, Tang Wulin continued to extend his consciousness outward, and everything around him appeared in his mind with brilliant clarity, even though his eyes remained firmly shut.

This indicated that his spiritual power seemed to have ascended to a new level.

500 points of spiritual power were required to reach the Spirit Sea realm, and that was already an extremely important hurdle for the vast majority of Soul Masters as it determined whether they'd be able to become high-level Soul Masters. Without sufficient spiritual power, one would find themselves unable to fuse powerful soul bones into their bodies.

Tang Wulin had already reached the Spirit Sea realm, but at this moment, he felt as if he'd make a breakthrough to a higher realm.

He felt as if his spirit had become an abyssal prison. If his spirit were the world, then the upper boundary would be heaven while the lower boundary would be hell! This was the Spirit Abyss realm, the realm that was commonly referred to as the limit for a normal human's spiritual power!

Tang Wulin only knew of two other Soul Masters around the same age as him whose spiritual powers had reached the Spirit Abyss realm; one of them was Gu Yue, while the other one was Dai Yun'er, who possessed a spirit attribute martial soul.

Such immense spiritual power was the mandatory foundation to acquire a legendary soul spirit. With this foundation, one would be able to fuse with any level of spirit souls; even orange and red ones. However, each person can only fuse with one orange and one red soul spirit, and after fusing with one of those two types of soul spirits, one's capacity to fuse with other soul spirits would revert back to that of a being with spiritual power at the Spirit Sea realm. If no red or orange soul spirits had been fused with, then the upper limit for the number of soul spirits of other levels that could be fused with was five. Generally speaking, the Spirit Abyss realm was the limit of human spiritual power. At the same, after reaching that realm, Soul Masters would no longer be limited by their spiritual power as it would be sufficient to support them until they progressed to become Titled Doulos.

Never would Tang Wulin have thought that he'd make such a significant breakthrough in his spiritual power here in this Dragon Valley. This was a form of reciprocation from all of the dragon skeletons!

After that, Tang Wulin's consciousness gradually faded, and he entered a deep meditative state again. He required time both to completely fuse with the Mountain Dragon King's torso bone, as well as to adjust to his new level of spiritual power, which had reached the Spirit Abyss realm.

500 points of spiritual power were required to reach the Spirit Sea realm, and that number spiked sharply to 5,000 for the Spirit Abyss realm. After reaching the Spirit Abyss realm, it was virtually guaranteed that he'd be able to become a Titled Douluo in the future unless something were to happen to his body. But was Tang Wulin's body ever of any concern? The answer to that was, of course, no.

……

Shrek Academy.

During the past two years, the academy had seemed to be very quiet, and no noteworthy events took place.

Ever since the new generation of Shrek’s Seven Monsters had been announced two years ago, some changes had been happening within the academy.

The first graders, which was renowned as the most exceptional year level in the academy, had become second graders. The core members among them, Gu Yue, Ye Xinglan, Xu Lizhi, Xie Xie, and Xu Xiaoyan, had all been inducted into the inner court, and at the same time, Yuanen Yehui and Yue Zhengyu, who had become third graders, had also received the same honor.

After that, these seven people were announced to be the new generation of Shrek’s Seven Monsters. At the same time, they were granted the right to accept any challenges from Soul Masters teams below a six-ring level for a year. If no teams below the six-ring level could defeat them during this year, then they would be confirmed as Shrek’s Seven Monsters.

According to the rules of Shrek Academy, once a generation of Shrek’s Seven Monsters was confirmed, then all seven members would hold this title unless they were to perish, willingly relinquish the title, or become members of the Sea God's Pavilion.

As such, Shrek Academy always exercised caution when selecting Shrek’s Seven Monsters. Only the most exceptional prodigies or those who had made significant contributions to the academy were considered.

No one could dispute the contributions the current generation of Shrek’s Seven Monsters had made to the academy. Just the fact that they had traveled to the Star Luo Empire and defended the honor of Shrek Academy was an undeniably significant contribution.

Of course, there were also those who were unwilling to accept such arrangements. For example, the disciples that had already entered the inner court challenged them countless times during the coming year, but Gu Yue was always able to lead them to victory.

Thus, a year later, they were finally confirmed to be Shrek’s Seven Monsters.

Life in the outer court continued as normal. The current second grade's class one, which was once the most exceptional first grade's class one, now had Wu Siduo as their class president with Luo Guixing as the vice-president. Even without Gu Yue and the other, the second grade's class one was still exceptional. Wu Siduo, Luo Guixing, Xu Yucheng, Yang Nianxia, and Zheng Yiran had all become one-word battle armor masters. All they had to do was pass the inner court exam, and they'd officially become inner court disciples. With their current power levels, this was clearly just a matter of time.

Prior to the conclusion of the second year, over 10 disciples from that cohort entered the inner court, thereby further cementing their reputation as the most exceptional year level. They were also known among the outer court disciples as Shrek's golden generation.

Shrek Academy, inner court.

Gu Yue stood beside the Sea God's Lake, and it was as if she'd already fused as one with the natural scenery around her. She cast her gaze toward the Sea God's Island with a blank expression on her face, and it was impossible to tell what she was thinking.

A figure suddenly began to travel toward her from the island, moving at a rapid speed.

The figure had silver hair and purple eyes, and she was an exquisite beauty.

After three years, Na'er had also grown up. She was already 16 years old, and she was gorgeous as a celestial maiden. She was renowned as a once-in-ten-thousand-years beauty in Shrek Academy, and she was undoubtedly by far the number one beauty in the academy.

Na'er gently landed beside Gu Yue.

The Sea God's Island was where the elder of the Sea God's Pavilion resided, and only the direct disciples of those elders were allowed on the island, while most of the other inner court disciples had to study and live outside of the island.

Compared to in the outer court, there was more freedom in one's education in the inner court; disciples could choose what they wanted to learn and make appointments with their teachers to arrange lessons.

It was also very simple to graduate from the inner court; all one had to do was become a two-word battle armor master. It sounded simple, but it was much easier said than done. Despite the increased level of freedom and flexibility, every student who entered the inner disciple still worked tirelessly to better themselves, and none of them dared to grow complacent.

There had always been a strange phenomenon in Shrek Academy, which was that among those who entered the inner court, very few of them were willing to leave even after becoming two-word battle armor masters. Instead, most of them chose to continue to cultivate in the academy or become teachers themselves.

This positive cycle had repeated itself for over 10,000 years to create the current Shrek Academy.

Na'er was already a young woman now. She was tall and slender, and as she stood beside Gu Yue, it was quite difficult to tell that there was an age gap of two to three years between them.

The two of them stood side by side, and neither of them said anything.