The Soul-Dividing Flower is an extremely peculiar plant-type Spirit Beast.
Its offensive capabilities aren't particularly strong, but when faced with a fatal threat, it separates seeds from itself and entrusts its Soul within these seeds.
After the seeds containing the Soul grow again, they quickly recover their original strength.
Moreover, the original body, even if killed, will not produce a spirit ring.
Therefore, to obtain the Soul-Dividing Flower's spirit ring, one must kill all of its hidden seeds.
To cover the seeds carrying its Soul, the main body of the Soul-Dividing Flower will release hundreds of seeds at once before dying, to confuse its enemies.
This makes obtaining the spirit ring of this Spirit Beast extremely difficult.
Of course, none of this was a challenge for the three brothers, whose five senses were incredibly sharp.
Walking tens of kilometers to the east, in a dense jungle, a three-meter-tall flower with light purple leaves swayed its petals in the wind.
"That's it. Let's do it."
Since the Soul-Dividing Flower itself wasn't particularly aggressive, the three weren't overly cautious.
Shi Nuo stepped forward directly, assuming a drawing stance with his arms crossed over his chest.
After all, killing the main body of the Soul-Dividing Flower wouldn't truly kill it.
"Giant Horn!"
A massive Golden Wild Bull phantom roared forward as Shi Nuo spread his hands, heading straight for the Soul-Dividing Flower.
The light purple flower seemed to sense danger; its entire body trembled, and at the same time, it rapidly spewed out seeds in all directions.
Before its main body was torn apart by the Golden Wild Bull, it spewed out over a hundred seeds at once.
The furthest ones landed nearly 500 meters away from their location.
The three waited for a moment, and sure enough, as they had imagined, no spirit ring appeared on the seemingly dead Soul-Dividing Flower.
Next was the slow search process for the three brothers.
The Soul-Dividing Flower's seeds carried a faint fragrance, which made it easier for the three brothers with their keen sense of smell.
Since the seeds were extremely fragile, and fearing they might accidentally crush a spirit ring, the three moved very carefully. Whenever they found a seed, they immediately called Ming Xin to finish it off.
"Ming Xin, over here, over here, there are three here."
"I have two over here too."
"Okay, I'm coming."
Crushing the three seeds he found, Ming Xin constantly went back and forth between Lin Beiya and Shi Nuo.
Even so, it took the three brothers nearly an hour to search for over a hundred seeds.
When Ming Xin crushed the furthest fallen seed, a purple spirit ring conspicuously rose.
Seeing this, Ming Xin's face immediately lit up with joy, and he called out to his two older brothers who were still searching not far away.
"Beiya Ge, Shitou Ge, I found it! Come over quickly."
Approaching and seeing the rising purple spirit ring, Lin Beiya and Shi Nuo also showed knowing smiles.
"An ordinary person really couldn't kill this thing. So many seeds would take a long time to find."
After all, not everyone possesses a sense of smell sharper than a dog's, and once the seeds scatter, ordinary Spirit Masters would likely struggle.
And Spirit Masters with canine Spirits would likely not need its spirit ring anyway.
"Hurry and absorb it. We will be your Protectors."
"Mm, thank you, big brothers."
Ming Xin nodded, and quickly summoned his cancer gold cloth, put it on, and began to sit cross-legged on the ground, using his Spirit to draw the spirit ring.
The terrifying Soul Spirit appeared, and the surrounding temperature seemed to drop significantly.
After Ming Xin put on his cloth, the limit of the spirit ring he could withstand was probably around 4000 years, and this 3500-year-old Soul-Dividing Flower wouldn't cause any trouble.
So Lin Beiya and the other man weren't nervous at all.
They sat down cross-legged, one on each side, and began to be vigilant of their surroundings.
Although the quality of Spirit Beasts in Sunset Forest was not as good as in Star Dou Great Forest, there were still many existences that could threaten their safety, so it was better to proceed cautiously.
Things did not go beyond the trio's expectations; apart from Ming Xin's initial expression of some pain, no unexpected events occurred, and he quickly entered the slow process of absorbing spirit power.
As the spirit power fluctuations on Ming Xin's body continuously increased, the absorption of the spirit ring gradually came to an end.
This trip only took one day, which was unexpectedly smooth.
At night, the forest was pitch black, and Shi Nuo appropriately lit a bonfire not far from Ming Xin.
At midnight, Ming Xin slowly opened his eyes, a pair of amber pupils filled with excitement.
"Beiya Ge, Shi Nuo Ge, I'm done absorbing."
"Quick, tell us what Spirit Ability it is! It'll make all our hard work worthwhile."
Ming Xin didn't waste words; after nodding, he directly released his Spirit.
One yellow, two purple, three spirit rings appeared in sequence.
When the third purple spirit ring was lit, a small mass of ink-black Soul suddenly separated from his Spirit, floating on Ming Xin's palm.
It was like a burning black flame, appearing mysterious and eerie.
"Uh… what's the use of this black flame?"
Shi Nuo scratched his head; he hadn't felt the slightest threat from the flame in Ming Xin's palm.
He wasn't sure if it was because the other party was suppressing it, or if this move inherently had no power.
Ming Xin smiled without a word, instead holding the black fire mass and slowly walking to a giant tree nearby.
"Third Spirit Ability: Soul Imbuement."
As Ming Xin pressed the fire mass onto the tree trunk, the several-dozen-meter-tall giant tree began to tremble violently.
A moment later, a pair of huge eyes suddenly appeared on the trunk of the previously unmoving large tree.
They blinked, appearing naive and curious.
The giant tree seemed to have gained life and mobility, constantly waving its branches to come and look back and forth in front of the pair of giant eyes.
This scene made Lin Beiya and Shi Nuo secretly click their tongues in wonder.
"This Soul Spirit is indeed bizarre; it can actually imbue objects with life."
Lin Beiya murmured to himself for a moment, then suddenly felt that this move was somewhat familiar. Wasn't it similar to the ability of a certain Four Emperors on the Grand Line?
As Ming Xin took two steps forward and pressed his hand back onto the giant tree's trunk, that black flame was once again drawn away.
And the giant tree's movements stopped abruptly at that moment.
"Currently, the Soul bodies I imbue can only possess the strength of a Spirit Grandmaster, but it should gradually strengthen as my mental force grows."
Hearing this, Lin Beiya pondered for a moment before asking:
"What about the quantity? How many objects can you imbue with a Soul at once?"
"Uh… within ten, I guess. If there are too many, I can't guarantee the combat power of the Soul bodies."
Seeing the regretful expression on Ming Xin's face, Shi Nuo suddenly felt his fists itch.
"This is already incredibly abnormal, alright? You're only a Spirit Elder, yet you can summon dozens of Spirit Grandmaster-level assistants. What will happen in the future?"
"This trip was truly worth it."
Lin Beiya fully agreed with Shi Nuo's point of view, scolding with a smile:
"You little brat, you're still complaining? How many people would beg for this kind of power and not get it?"
Ming Xin chuckled and scratched his head. He was just being modest; he was quite satisfied with the ability of this Spirit Ability.
Looking at the rising bonfire in the distance, some strange ideas suddenly popped into Lin Beiya's mind.
"Ming Xin, try to see if you can imbue the bonfire with a Soul."
"Huh?"
Shi Nuo was slightly stunned; he hadn't thought of that. Ming Xin, however, came to the bonfire with interest and put the fire mass, which had just been extracted from the giant tree's body, into the bonfire.
A few seconds later, the orange bonfire slowly transformed into a dark red, and a pair of large eyes suddenly appeared in the center of the bonfire.
Under the astonished gaze of the three brothers, the fire mass slowly detached from the dry wood, rose into the air, and floated towards Ming Xin.
"Ma… Master!"