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Chapter 73 - "Group Breakthrough."

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"Uh… did we forget something?"

Nana timidly raised her hand as she watched the others chatting away enthusiastically.

Everyone froze for a second, then quickly turned toward the gravity room—where Xu Tianzhen was currently sprawled out on the floor in a big starfish pose, like a dried-up salted fish left under the sun.

Luan Yu rushed to shut off the soul device and opened the glass door.

"This is outrageous! You guys were just chatting away and totally forgot about this princess!"

Xu Tianzhen lay flat on the floor, panting hard, sweat soaking her bangs.

It had only been a short while, but she was already completely exhausted—like a dog after a marathon.

"She's not used to the gravity shift yet. Let her rest a bit, she'll be fine."

After checking her over, Luan Yu shook her head. Given the physical toughness of soul masters, even young ones, a mere double gravity level shouldn't have put her in such a sorry state.

The real problem was her body just hadn't adapted to the sudden environmental change. She'd be fine after a few more training sessions in the gravity room.

After Xu Tianzhen, Ye Guyi couldn't wait to jump into the gravity room herself. Luan Yu had said that if she could double her physical stats before her breakthrough, she might be able to absorb a thousand-year soul ring.

Before this, raising her physical strength to the level required to handle a thousand-year ring before her breakthrough would've been almost impossible. Even with the resources of the Pingfan Alliance, they couldn't get her that kind of top-tier treasure.

Sure, there were herbs and items that could boost physical stats, but they all took time for the body to absorb—nothing that could work instantly.

Only the legendary immortal herbs could drastically improve the body in a short time without side effects.

Ye Guyi had taken things like whale collagen before. If she could get a large quantity—or older, higher-quality whale collagen—she might've been confident enough to go for a thousand-year second ring. But unfortunately, whale collagen was also rare and highly sought after. All the major powers were competing to collect it, and even the Pingfan Alliance didn't have much to spare for her.

Now, though, the gravity room had given her hope.

Luan Yu had built six gravity chambers in total, specifically for the six of them. While the others were inside training, she had already sent someone to prepare medicinal meals.

She might love money, but she wasn't stingy when it came to spending where it mattered. When it came to investments, she never hesitated.

Xu Tianzhen, Ye Guyi, Gu Yuena—just looking at them, you could tell they had limitless potential. Any resources spent on them were investments. In the future, they'd be the biggest support team for Liuxing and Liuying.

As for Nana, although her talent was a bit lower, with the right training she could still aim for Title Douluo. She could also help Liuxing and the others with handling various matters. Besides, raising someone from a young age meant they'd be reliable down the road.

Luan Yu was doing everything she could to help Liuxing and Liuying build connections and put together a strong support team.

As she watched the kids struggle in the gravity chambers, Luan Yu rubbed her chin and muttered, "Should I sell these gravity rooms myself… or just sell the patent to Mingdetang?"

A basic gravity room only counted as a Level 5 soul device, but its production cost was basically on the level of a Level 7.

"Eh, forget it. Selling it myself is too much trouble. Better just sell the patent to Mingdetang. That old fox Jing Hongchen gets lucky again."

In the end, Luan Yu decided to hand it off to Mingdetang. She knew the gravity rooms were super profitable, but they weren't that hard to replicate. If an 8th-rank soul engineer saw one, they could probably copy it. The real value wasn't in the tech—it was in the idea.

Gravity rooms could help low-level soul masters train their bodies and build a solid foundation. With enough resources, they might even help a soul master absorb higher-level soul rings. There's no way the big clans and sects, always looking out for their younger generation, would pass up something like this.

As for price? That was no issue for these big players. Devices that could boost the next generation's strength and foundation were worth paying through the nose for—even if they were priced like Level 9 soul tools, people would still buy them.

Of course, no one would actually price them that high—unless the gravity rooms became a limited-edition item. Otherwise, people would be pissed.

In Luan Yu's eyes, though, these gravity rooms were nothing compared to her current project: the long-distance communication soul device.

If she could make it work, it'd revolutionize the continent—both in wartime and in everyday civilian use.

But Luan Yu definitely didn't want her invention to be used for war. That's why she wasn't planning to sell it to Mingdetang. If they got their hands on it, they'd ban sales to the original three Douluo kingdoms and reserve the tech exclusively for military use.

It'd become a trump card for wartime.

Unfortunately, Luan Yu had hit a bottleneck with the comms device. She couldn't figure out how to expand its signal range. Solving that would take time—maybe years, maybe decades. Even she couldn't say for sure when she'd crack it.

Time passed as the group kept up their training and studies.

A month into training in the gravity room, Ye Guyi broke through to Rank 20. But she didn't rush off to get her soul ring—instead, she kept training her body while waiting for Xu Tianzhen to catch up.

Eventually, when Liuxing and the others turned eight and entered third year at Mingdu Elementary Academy, Xu Tianzhen finally hit Rank 20 too. It was time for both of them to get their second soul rings.

Actually, Gu Yuena had already broken through even earlier—before Ye Guyi—and she didn't even need the gravity room to do it. She straight-up went and got a thousand-year second ring.

Meanwhile, Liuxing and Liuying had each gained two more ranks over the past six months. At just eight years old, they were already Rank 25 Soul Grandmasters.

Gu Yuena was at Rank 24, Xu Tianzhen and Ye Guyi at Rank 20, and Nana… well, she was trailing behind at Rank 15.

Nana wasn't born with full innate soul power, so both her starting point and cultivation speed were a step behind the others.

Still, she had a great attitude. She was genuinely happy and supportive of her friends' progress. If anything, their success just pushed her to work harder. But talent is something you're born with—unless she got lucky and ate some rare treasure, it'd be hard for her to catch up.

Just as Luan Yu had predicted, all the hard work paid off. With the help of powerful mentors, both Ye Guyi and Xu Tianzhen successfully obtained their second soul rings—and sure enough, they were both thousand-year rings.

Ye Guyi, having trained for a few extra months, jumped straight to Rank 23 after getting her soul ring. Xu Tianzhen was just a bit behind at Rank 22.

To play it safe, they'd both absorbed rings that were just at the thousand-year threshold. If the rings had been even a few hundred years older, their bodies might not have been able to handle it.

"....."

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