Chapter 10: Ghost of the Ringless
📅 Age: 10
Current Rank: Spirit Elder → Spirit Ancestor (Rank 39 → 40)
Location: Shadowed borderlands between Balak Kingdom & Star Dou territory
Alias:Hollow Turban (now buried)
Underground Reputation:The Unspeakable Howling Thunder
Tian vanished without a trace.
No whispers, no bets, no blood.
Just gone — as if the Unspeakable Howling Thunder was never real.
But those two years in Balak had carved him. The arena wasn't just a proving ground; it was a crucible. And Tian had emerged forged in silence and brutality.
He had killed humans now.
Not just beasts.
Not just criminals.
Professionals. Combatants. Spirit Kings.
And no one had seen it coming. Not even Dao Heishen, whose silent fury echoed through the Balak underworld for months.
But Tian didn't care. He wasn't in this for fame.
He was in this for survival. For power.
And for revenge — long, meticulous, and absolute.
🌲 Into the Wild Again
The forest greeted him like a returned soldier.
The scents of damp earth and old blood felt like home.
He camped near the edge of Star Dou's forbidden subzones, areas known for chaotic spirit beast migration and strange temporal anomalies. These places were unclaimed by Spirit Hall, uncharted by the empire, and unsupervised by beast tribes.
Perfect.
Tian needed to vanish for at least another year — long enough to scout, level, and hunt something truly monstrous.
His goal?
Ring #4: 53,000+ Years
– Element: Destruction
– Attribute: Spatial Bending
– Domain: Devouring
🧠 The Recalibration
Tian knew one thing: he was falling behind in cultivation compared to the elites.
If Tang San or other plot-armored freaks were at Rank 30 at age 6–7, they'd be Rank 40+ by age 10, some with external spirit bones, divine inheritance, or team support.
Tian had nothing.
So, he did what he always did — min-maxed his soul.
For the next four months, he:
Refined his AVATAR stamina with delayed overload training, pushing 55-minute summons to failure, recovering faster each week.
Adjusted his bullet compression matrix, increasing velocity and stability for higher tier beast penetration.
Upgraded his gun's scope with scavenged crystal from a deformed thousand-year Sight Eagle.
Hunted human mercenary teams from afar — without killing, only wounding and stealing supplies.
Absorbed spiritual backlash simulations to prepare his body for 50K+ ring rejection and mental resistance strain.
Used breathing techniques from Seimei Kikan to trigger artificial breakthrough conditions.
By the end of this silent period, he had cultivated from Rank 39 to Rank 40.
[Spirit Ancestor unlocked.]
[One additional spirit ring slot now active.]
[AVATAR Boost: Adjusted to base Rank 80 equivalent (Spirit Douluo physicality while summoned).]
[Ammo Limit: 880 per day.]
[Summon Duration: 55 minutes × 4 daily remains unchanged.]
But that wasn't enough.
His body was ready. Now he needed prey.
🧭 Hunting the Beast
Tian didn't pick a random 53K+ year monster.
He scouted.
For three more months, he roamed fringe zones, using the newly evolved scope on his rifle to:
Map out spirit beast territories
Watch dominance fights between high-tier beasts
Mark nests, migratory paths, corpse piles, and ring decay zones
Sniff out corruption, madness, or unusual ring behavior
And then, one day — just before dusk — he saw it.
🐍 The Predator: Void-Tunneling Basilisk
Age Estimate: 53,600 Years
Size: 18 meters long
Primary Element: Destruction
Attribute: Space Displacement
Domain: Gravity Collapse
☠️ Risk Assessment:
– Body phase-shifts into spatial folds
– Bullets risk partial pass-through
– Any wound becomes a collapsing point
– Last known Spirit Master fatality: Rank 72 Conqueror class (3-man team)
Tian set up camp five kilometers away.
This was it.
The perfect target.
"If I kill this thing… I become a god-slayer to anyone Rank 50 or below."
"My gun becomes anti-territory."
"And I finally get a ring effect that eats through space and formations."
⚠️ Weakness = Strength
Tian's greatest flaw remained:
Without the gun, he was just a smart 10-year-old.
No spirit bone. No elemental affinity. No combat body enhancement.
Just human.
But that was fine.
The gun wasn't his crutch.
It was his avatar. His partner. His edge.
And when the day came —
When the Basilisk slithered too far from its rift pool…
When the sun aligned to blind its third eye…
When Tian's traps were all set…
He would make his fourth kill.
"Four rings. Four kills. All solo. No mercy. No legacy."
"This is the path I walk."
"I don't just want to survive anymore...
I want the world to regret ignoring me."
[End of Chapter 10 – Ghost of the Ringless]