Inside the dining room, Mu Yang was busy wolfing down his food, while the gentle and virtuous Shui Bing'er occasionally picked up a bite for him. Meanwhile, Shui Yue'er ate absentmindedly, clearly a bit annoyed.
Ever since moving to the Elemental Sacred Academy, given that he was no longer a child and now had a fiancée, Mu Yang had stopped living with the elders. Instead, he shared a villa allocated by the academy with Shui Bing'er and his sister-in-law, Shui Yue'er.
Because they were still young and in the prime "golden" period of cultivation, and in order to avoid delaying their progress, the academy did not assign them any official duties. All their time was theirs to manage freely.
With plenty of spare time, and given Shui Bing'er's faint aura of a virtuous wife and loving mother, she now had the chance to cook for Mu Yang. Otherwise, as before, the three of them would have just eaten at the academy cafeteria.
"Bing'er, I've already finished refining the Soul-Forged Battle Armor. In a while, we'll set out to hunt for a soul ring."
Scooping delicious food from his bowl, Mu Yang spoke to Shui Bing'er.
A few days ago, he had already broken through to the 70th level and become a quasi-Soul Sage. Now that the Soul-Forged Battle Armor had been completed, his upper limit had risen sharply once more. The safety of the soul hunt was greatly enhanced—it was time to begin preparations.
According to typical optimal ratios, the fifth soul ring of a Soul Master should be just over ten thousand years, the sixth around twenty thousand years, and the seventh roughly forty to fifty thousand years.
But for Mu Yang, a seventh ring of only forty or fifty thousand years was clearly not enough—not even close.
If he didn't know the whereabouts of a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, and didn't have the strength to hunt one, then settling for a soul ring of eighty or ninety thousand years for his seventh might have been acceptable.
But since he did know where to find a hundred-thousand-year soul beast and had the strength to hunt it, then anything less than a hundred-thousand-year seventh soul ring wasn't worth considering.
This time, Mu Yang planned to bring along top-tier powerhouses and go big.
If everything went according to plan, the increase in strength after this soul hunt would be the greatest leap since his Martial Soul had awakened.
After all, time waits for no one. Qian Renxue, who had failed in her coup, had already returned to Spirit City to inherit her family legacy. If nothing unexpected happened, she would soon ascend to the position of Angel God. He had to pick up the pace too.
"When exactly?"
Shui Bing'er asked.
Putting down his chopsticks, Mu Yang replied, "The target of this soul hunt is quite powerful. To play it safe, I plan to call in the four powerhouses of our family.
I'll go speak to them later and ask them to make arrangements for the academy's affairs. We'll set out in a month."
"All of them? The continent isn't exactly peaceful right now. I have a feeling that Spirit Hall is going to war with the two great empires. If all the strong figures from our academy go soul hunting with us, won't that be a bit inappropriate?"
Shui Bing'er was hesitant.
Mu Yang waved his hand dismissively, "Relax. The reason I'm planning to leave a month from now, aside from giving the four Deans time to arrange academy matters, is to ensure the academy still has some trump cards left, in case someone really does try to mess with us."
"Trump cards? What trump cards? Uh~ are you talking about the Soul-Forged Battle Armor?"
Shui Bing'er blinked in confusion, but quickly caught on.
"Exactly, the Soul-Forged Battle Armor! An eight-ring Soul Douluo equipped with Soul-Forged Battle Armor can absolutely achieve Title Douluo-level combat strength.
Our academy still has four eight-ring Soul Douluo. If I equip them with Soul-Forged Battle Armor, even if Aunt and the others come with us on the soul hunt, we'll still have four Title-level powerhouses holding the fort."
Back when Mu Yang returned from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well with great rewards, Vice Dean Chi Chengyan of Blazing Academy had broken through his bottleneck at level 79 with the help of a Grade-Nine Zizhi and advanced to eight-ring Soul Douluo.
After the founding of the Elemental Sacred Academy, Mu Yang took some time to create elemental meditation techniques for fire, water, ice, and wind. Though their effects weren't as strong as the Extreme Flame Meditation Method or the like, they were still significantly more effective than ordinary meditation, and were made available to high-level academy members with seven rings or more.
Although these four elemental meditation methods were essentially lower-grade versions of Ice Flame, Extreme Ice, Extreme Flame, etc., they still had clear value.
Sure enough, in just about a year since the Elemental Sacred Academy had been established, three level-79 Soul Sages who switched to the elemental meditation methods had already broken through to eight-ring Soul Douluo.
Counting the already-advanced Chi Chengyan, the academy now had four Soul Douluo. Though their soul power levels weren't especially high—especially the three who had broken through more recently, with the highest only at level 83—they possessed three-Word Soul-Forged Battle Armor. Their strength absolutely reached the level of Title Douluo and even exceeded that of weak Title Douluo like She Long.
With these four Title-level experts guarding the academy, unless something truly major happened, they could handle anything with ease.
Shui Bing'er nodded. "That's good. I'm still a bit short of level 70. Since we're setting off in a month, I'll probably be able to break through by then, which saves us from making another trip."
Upon hearing this, Mu Yang thought for a moment and said, "Bing'er, don't be in a rush to break through. Let's wait until after this soul hunt. Then we'll go to the City of Slaughter. That place should have a seventh soul ring more suitable for you."
Asura God stood as a Supreme Divine King, so he likely wouldn't be as stingy as the Rakshasa God. If Mu Yang could successfully initiate the divine trial, even if Shui Bing'er's assessment level didn't reach the God's Nine Trials, there would still be a high chance she could obtain a God-bestowed Soul Ring.
Ten-thousand-year soul beasts were already rare on the continent, and whether there even existed an ice-type flying soul beast of a hundred-thousand-year age was uncertain. Even hundred-thousand-year ice-type soul beasts in general were extremely scarce. At the very least, Mu Yang had never heard of one.
Though the Extreme North did have three vicious ice-type beasts that had lived for over two hundred thousand years, none of them were currently within Shui Bing'er's range of options.
Firstly, at level 70, Shui Bing'er likely wasn't strong enough to safely attach such a high-age soul ring—especially those of the Ice Empress and Snow Empress, whose soul ring ages were exceptionally high.
Secondly, while the Elemental Sacred Academy was no doubt powerful, it was clearly still lacking in strength if it wished to target those three beasts.
Even the weakest among the three, the Titan Snow Demon King, was at least on par with a Worship-level expert of Spirit Hall.
Yes, in a one-on-one fight, the Titan Snow Demon King, with over two hundred thousand years of cultivation, could absolutely and utterly crush the Demon Subduing Douluo in the Extreme North.
As for the strongest among them, the Ice and Snow Maiden, the Snow Empress, she was even more extraordinary. In the current soul master world, perhaps only Qian Daoliu could match her.
At present, those three vicious beasts in the Extreme North were not under consideration for either Mu Yang or Shui Bing'er.
Therefore, in order to ensure a better future for Shui Bing'er, Mu Yang set his sights on the God-bestowed Soul Ring.
God-bestowed Soul Rings have a one hundred percent compatibility rate with soul masters, and their age limit is extremely high—at the very least a hundred thousand years, possibly even reaching ninety-nine thousand or even a million years. This far surpasses ordinary sub-hundred-thousand-year soul rings or hundred-thousand-year rings with lower compatibility.
Moreover, Shui Bing'er was a single martial soul soul master, and she only needed three more soul rings in the future. If the Asura God turned out to be generous, then perhaps they'd never have to worry about her soul rings again.
For additional chapters
Versatile mage {40 chapters}
Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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