With Lin Mu's help, Tang San absorbed the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear as his soul spirit, and his soul power successfully reached Level 96.
Besides the significant increase in soul power, he also obtained a powerful external soul bone.
Lin Mu wasn't surprised by this, as Tang San's six primary soul bone slots were already completely full, meaning any new bones would naturally form as external soul bones.
Over the next two days, they ventured to other areas of the forest.
During this time, Tang San successfully fused with two more 100,000-year soul spirits and absorbed the soul ring of a highly unusual 10,000-year soul beast.
This specific soul beast was the notorious Dark Demon Evil God Tiger.
Initially, Lin Mu had been attracted by its incredible, unique strength and actually intended for Tang San to subdue it and take it as a soul spirit.
However, despite its incredibly high intelligence, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger adamantly refused to submit to anyone, even arrogantly clamoring to devour Tang San whole.
Since the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was so ungrateful and stubborn, Lin Mu had no choice but to let Tang San simply absorb its soul ring the old-fashioned way.
Ultimately, Tang San barely defeated the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger in a grueling battle within its Arena of Life and Death.
Just as the beast's core, the Evil God Pearl, was about to escape into the void, Lin Mu caught it in a flash.
Although he possessed the inheritance of the God of Destruction, this Evil God Pearl was of very little use to him personally. Still, he didn't want to just give such a rare artifact away easily.
Having successfully fused with two 100,000-year-old soul spirits in rapid succession, Tang San's soul power broke through once again, reaching Level 97 in one fell swoop.
He had initially thought reaching Level 99 would be incredibly difficult, but now it seemed it wouldn't be so hard after all.
However, Di Tian currently only knew of these few specific soul beasts within the forest that were truly suitable for Tang San's needs.
As for Tang San's remaining soul rings, he would probably have to hunt for them on the distant Sun Moon Continent, or patiently search for them deep in the sea.
After all, the ocean's area was far larger than the land's, and there were certainly many 100,000-year-old sea soul beasts out there perfectly suitable for the Clear Sky Hammer martial soul; it just would take some considerable time to actually find them.
After leaving the Star Dou Great Forest, the group did not return directly to the Heaven Dou Empire, but instead went straight to the Heaven Dou Empire's forward military camp.
Ever since the Heaven Dou Empire and the Spirit Empire formally went to war, the Heaven Dou Empire had specially dispatched a massive army to support the struggling Star Luo Empire.
This allied army was currently stationed right on the Star Luo Empire's border, not far from the edges of the Star Dou Great Forest.
The reason for their sudden arrival was mainly related to Ye Lingling's second divine trial.
The second trial of the Goddess of Life specifically required her to save 100,000 lives.
This number seemed massive at first glance, but in the middle of a brutal, continent-spanning war, it wasn't actually that difficult to accomplish.
Soon, the three arrived at the sprawling military camp.
Because they flew directly overhead, they quickly attracted the tense attention of the soldiers, who immediately reported the intrusion to Marshal Ge Long.
Soon, Marshal Ge Long personally came out to respectfully receive Lin Mu and the other two.
"This humble general greets the Grand General!"
Facing the highly respectful Ge Long, Lin Mu waved his hand and said calmly, "No need for formalities. I'm here mainly to help you with a favor."
Hearing this, Ge Long was stunned, his weathered face full of astonishment.
He hadn't actually encountered any major problems recently.
Suddenly, Ge Long thought of something and tentatively asked, "Grand General, are you planning to personally intervene in the war?"
Several years ago, Lin Mu had already stormed the Supreme Pontiff's Palace and managed to casually escape unscathed.
Several years had passed since then, and Lin Mu had undoubtedly become an unparalleled powerhouse.
Now, there were likely only a handful of people in the entire world capable of even challenging him.
If he were to personally intervene on the battlefield, he could absolutely, single-handedly change the entire course of the war.
However, Lin Mu had no such intention. He gently pulled Ye Lingling to his side and said firmly, "From now on, she will treat all the wounded in your army. This will save you a lot of trouble."
Hearing this order, Ge Long was stunned once again, looking at the delicate Ye Lingling with clear disbelief.
Could she really treat so many severely wounded soldiers all by herself?
Lin Mu clearly saw his doubt and said calmly, "Don't worry. Her healing ability is currently stronger than all the healing-type soul masters in your entire army combined."
Previously, Ye Lingling had already been able to heal hundreds of soul masters simultaneously.
Now, possessing the powerful soul spirit of Bi Ji, healing thousands of ordinary people simultaneously was absolutely no problem for her.
Furthermore, the actual healing effect was even stronger than that of dedicated one-on-one healing-type soul masters.
It's also worth mentioning that Ye Lingling had seamlessly fused with Bi Ji's soul bone as well, allowing her soul power to break through to Level 95.
With her current immense soul power, although she couldn't unleash Bi Ji's absolute full power, she could at least utilize over 80% of it.
This was especially true when healing ordinary soldiers, which barely consumed any of her soul power at all.
However, it would definitely be difficult for Ye Lingling to progress from Level 95 to 99.
Unlike Tang San, she didn't possess twin martial souls, which could quickly increase soul power by repeatedly absorbing soul rings or fusing multiple soul spirits; she could only rely on her own steady cultivation.
Of course, she still lacked one final soul bone to complete her set.
If that final soul bone were of good enough quality, it would save her a massive amount of cultivation time.
Not long ago, after helping Tang San fuse with his soul spirits, Lin Mu had two 100,000-year strength-attribute soul bones left over, but their specific bone locations simply weren't suitable for her open slot.
And even if they had been the exact soul bone Ye Lingling lacked, Lin Mu wouldn't have let her absorb them.
After all, a purely physical power soul bone wasn't suitable for Ye Lingling's role at all.
It was practically impossible for her to fight other soul masters in close combat, especially since the overall quality of this specific soul bone wasn't particularly outstanding anyway.
Even if she successfully absorbed that 100,000-year soul bone, she could only break through to Level 96 at most.
After all, when Lin Mu himself had absorbed the incredibly powerful Bear Lord's soul bone, he had only increased his soul power by about two levels, and that was back before he even reached Level 95.
If Ye Lingling could somehow absorb a highly compatible soul bone over 200,000 years old, she should be able to smoothly break through to Level 97.
Ge Long naturally didn't dare question Lin Mu's words and immediately led them to the massive wounded triage area.
For several continuous days, Lin Mu and the other two stayed in the military camp. Except for brief periods of rest, they spent most of their time actively treating the wounded.
The unusually strong, sudden resurgence of the Heaven Dou Empire's army quickly reached Bibi Dong's ears in the Spirit Empire capital.
Despite taking significant casualties before, the number of active combatants on their side in the past few days had not decreased, but had actually increased.
Furthermore, the enemy army's morale was incredibly high, as if they had all been suddenly injected with chicken blood.
"Has the Heaven Dou Empire secretly sent reinforcements again?"
Thinking this, Bibi Dong's expression became noticeably more serious. Although they had a large number of elite soul masters participating in the battles, their regular army was vastly outnumbered.
Previously, they could barely hold their own on the front lines with the heavy assistance of the soul masters from the new Seven Great Sects, but in recent days, this numerical disadvantage had grown increasingly severe.
Unfortunately, her own Rakshasa God Trial was currently at a crucial, delicate stage. She absolutely could not afford any mistakes or distractions at this time, otherwise she would lose absolutely everything.
"Elder Ghost Leopard, please go and personally investigate the enemy camp."
Bibi Dong looked down at Ghost Leopard Douluo, her demeanor lacking some of her former absolute arrogance.
Ever since Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo had defected from Spirit Hall, she had very few highly capable people she could fully trust to use, and even some of the remaining elders wouldn't fully obey her orders anymore.
After several years of bitter reflection, she deeply regretted driving away Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo.
Of course, Bibi Dong didn't truly realize her own fundamental mistakes; she merely regretted turning against them too soon.
Now, not only did the elders openly disrespect her authority, but the priests from the Worship Hall completely ignored her orders altogether.
These guys are incredibly short-sighted. If they had just followed her orders completely, they would have already conquered the entire Star Luo Empire by now.
"Your Majesty, this kind of menial scouting task can be easily left to others. How could I, a dignified elder, stoop to do such a thing?" Ghost Leopard Douluo said righteously, refusing the order.
Ever since he had been instantly, humiliatingly defeated by Lin Mu several years ago, he had been deeply traumatized.
He now simply followed Chrysanthemum Douluo's past example of slack-jawed laziness, taking advantage of the chaos to do as little as possible.