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Having clarified the manufacturing concepts for the "Artificial Soul Ring," Ye Lan began to ponder the relationship between absorbing these rings and a Soul Master's physical fitness.
There are two pathways for absorbing Natural Soul Rings. The first is the traditional method: hunting a beast and absorbing the ring naturally. This method is strictly correlated with physical fitness. Once the Soul Ring age exceeds ten thousand years, it also involves requirements regarding the level of one's Mental Power.
If not for this mental restriction, Ye Lan could have absorbed a ten-thousand-year Soul Ring back when he was merely a Soul Elder.
The second pathway is related to Ye Lan's fourth Soul Ring. This involves a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast willingly sacrificing itself. This method has high requirements for Mental Power but places very low demands on physical fitness, though there is still a baseline threshold.
In this scenario, if the physical constitution of the recipient Soul Master is too weak, the hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast must actively seal the vast majority of the soul power contained within the ring. Otherwise, expecting a tenth-level Soul Scholar to directly obtain a fully powered hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring is entirely unrealistic.
The reason Ye Lan was able to obtain a complete hundred-thousand-year Soul Ring for his fourth ring was entirely due to his abnormal physical constitution.
However, he is an outlier. After all, the current Soul Masters of the Douluo Continent do not possess his unique conditions: consuming Immortal Herbs and Whale Glue, possessing a God-level Martial Soul, the complete Blood Armor, and the Ultimate Life attribute.
As for his absorption of a second hundred-thousand-year ring, that was because he truly possessed two hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bones and four external Spirit Bones approaching the hundred-thousand-year mark, raising his physical durability directly to the level of a Titled Douluo.
Viewing it from this perspective, the relationship between "Artificial Soul Rings" and physical fitness was worth deep contemplation.
Ye Lan began to recall the process of absorbing his fifth Soul Ring.
First, the most notable point was that his Soul Power level did not jump by five ranks as it did when he absorbed his first hundred-thousand-year ring; it merely increased by a single rank.
Thinking of this, Ye Lan's eyes lit up.
He immediately understood why absorbing the "120,000-year Blue Silver Emperor Soul Ring" had been so effortless.
The reason Natural Soul Rings demand such high physical durability is likely due to the massive quantity of Soul Beast soul power contained within the ring.
A Natural Soul Ring contains the soul power a beast has accumulated over many years of natural growth. Although a large portion dissipates upon death, the remaining amount is still enormous for a human Soul Master.
This is also why "absorbing beyond the limit" allows a Soul Master to increase their Soul Power by two or even three ranks. It is because after the soul power within the ring is converted by the Martial Soul into higher-level energy, there is still plenty left over.
For example, when a Level 50 Soul Ancestor absorbs a ten-thousand-year Soul Ring, the energy in the ring is converted by the Martial Soul into Level 51 soul power. The Martial Soul absorbs this energy, advancing itself to a Level 51 Martial Soul.
At this moment, the soul power level in the Dantian is still Level 50. The Martial Soul's level no longer matches the Dantian's level.
Consequently, the energy in the Dantian flows back into the Martial Soul. One hundred units of Level 50 soul power might be converted into seventy-seven units of Level 51 soul power. This leaves a vacancy of twenty-three units in the Dantian. The remaining energy in the Soul Ring is then converted by the Martial Soul into Level 51 soul power to refill the Dantian.
After filling the Dantian, if there is still a significant amount of energy remaining in the ring, the Martial Soul will convert that energy into Level 52 soul power. The Level 51 Martial Soul then absorbs this energy and begins to evolve toward Level 52.
Once the Martial Soul reaches Level 52, the Level 51 soul power in the Dantian once again mismatches the Martial Soul, and the cycle repeats.
Through this repetitive cycle, once the energy in the Natural Soul Ring is completely exhausted, the Martial Soul may have advanced by as many as two or three ranks.
Under the "Sacrifice" pathway of a hundred-thousand-year beast, a low-ranked Soul Master might even skyrocket by five ranks or more.
From this, one can easily deduce that for a Martial Soul to absorb ring energy and advance, the higher the level jump, the more energy is required. The conversion efficiency is not high, and the difficulty of leveling up grows exponentially. Furthermore, as a Soul Master's level increases, the number of ranks gained from absorbing a ring diminishes.
Analyzing the relationship between ring energy and Martial Soul advancement, Ye Lan instantly understood why absorbing a ring beyond the limit increases rank so significantly.
It is because the quality of the soul power in an "over-limit" ring far exceeds both the Martial Soul and the Dantian's level. Converting high-level energy to low-level energy is highly efficient, whereas converting low-level to high-level is inefficient.
For instance, if the energy quality in the ring is equivalent to Level 55 soul power, it can easily be converted to Level 51. The reverse is much harder.
If one absorbs a low-year ring, converting low-grade energy to high-grade is extremely difficult, so typically, unlocking the ring only provides a single rank increase.
The difference between the Blue Silver Soul Ring condensed by the "Blue Silver Awakening Ritual" and a Natural Soul Ring is that the former is condensed based on the target's physical fitness, emphasizing the quality of the soul power within the ring rather than the quantity.
Thus, Ye Lan's 120,000-year Blue Silver Emperor Soul Ring was born, but the quantity of soul power inside was extremely low.
Therefore, when Ye Lan absorbed this ring, he merely converted the small amount of Titled Douluo-level "solid-state" soul power into Level 51 soul power. After advancing his Martial Soul to the Soul King stage, the energy in the ring was exhausted.
Although absorbing this type of ring doesn't provide a massive boost in ranks, the advantage is that this ring is the absolute limit in terms of age that matches the Soul Master's body.
One must remember that Ye Lan's first, second, and third rings did not reach his theoretical absorption limit. But his fifth ring reached the absolute limit based on his physique—a full 120,000 years.
Drawing from the "Blue Silver Soul Ring" concept, if one simply reduces the total quantity of soul power within an "Artificial Soul Ring," it would largely reduce the impact of the beast's soul power on the Soul Master's body.
More importantly, this lowers the difficulty of condensing an "Artificial Soul Ring." After all, the energy in a natural ring is the result of countless years of accumulation by a beast.
If an "Artificial Soul Ring" were required to raise a Martial Soul by several ranks, Ye Lan dared not imagine how much soul power would be consumed to create just one. The energy required to raise levels increases exponentially.
However, while reducing the total quantity of energy in the "Artificial Soul Ring" drastically reduces the physical shock during absorption, Ye Lan still had to solve the issue of matching high-year rings with a Soul Master's physical fitness.
After all, you cannot simply let a Level 10 Soul Scholar absorb a "100,000-year Artificial Soul Ring." Even if the total quantity of energy is small, a Soul Scholar-level Martial Soul cannot withstand the impact of "Titled Douluo-level solid-state soul power."
The reason Ye Lan could absorb a "100,000-year ring" was that the "Blue Silver Awakening" ritual created a ring that matched his specific endurance limit. His physical fitness had truly reached the Titled Douluo level, allowing him to absorb it easily. Other Soul Kings would never possess such a physique.
The ideal method for "Artificial Soul Rings" would be like the "God Bestowed Spirit Ring," where the age scales from low to high until it hits the body's limit, or like the "Blue Silver Awakening," condensing slowly from a low year count.
But this approach obviously doesn't fit the mass-production concept of "Artificial Soul Rings." The Artificial Ring is a pre-manufactured product; when a Soul Master buys it, the quality of soul power inside is inevitably higher than what is in their Dantian.
Furthermore, when manufacturing "Artificial Soul Rings," it is impossible to produce different rings tailored to the specific physical fitness of tens or hundreds of thousands of Soul Masters.
When these Soul Masters advance, their physical fitness changes. Trying to match everyone's exact physique would require tens of thousands of different ring age variations. Stacking the different types of Soul Beasts required for different Martial Souls on top of that would increase the magnitude of complexity by several levels.
Therefore, the "Artificial Soul Ring" must satisfy two characteristics: Universality and Adaptability.
Universality is easy to solve. "Artificial Soul Rings" can be released in standardized versions: "500-Year Version," "999-Year Version," "5,000-Year Version," "9,999-Year Version," "20,000-Year Version," "40,000-Year Version," "60,000-Year Version," "80,000-Year Version," and "100,000-Year Version."
For example, a Level 10 "Lone Wolf" Soul Scholar could choose to purchase a "500-Year Artificial Lone Wolf Soul Ring."
When absorbing this "500-Year Ring," the process can adapt to reach the corresponding age based on his endurance limit.
If Su Yuntao was a Level 10 Soul Scholar and his limit was 402 years, after choosing and absorbing the "500-Year Ring," he would obtain a 402-year Soul Ring based on his body's limit.
If his limit was 520 years, he would obtain a 500-year ring, which is not far from his limit.
Of course, if he couldn't determine whether his limit was 400 or 500 years, he could choose the "999-Year Version." In this way, his first ring would be guaranteed to be a limit ring.
Although the general versions of the "Artificial Soul Ring" were roughly determined through segmentation, the problem of the ring's soul power versus the body's endurance limit still needed to be solved.
If we discard the idea that an Artificial Soul Ring must be at the absolute limit, the solution is simple.
One only needs to issue "100-Year," "1,000-Year," "5,000-Year," "10,000-Year," "30,000-Year," "50,000-Year," "70,000-Year," and "100,000-Year" Artificial Soul Rings.
These ages correspond to the minimum standard rings for Great Soul Master, Soul Elder, Soul Ancestor, Soul King, Soul Emperor, Soul Sage, Soul Douluo, and Titled Douluo respectively.
A Soul Master at Level 10 or 20 absorbing a "100-Year Artificial Soul Ring" would certainly have no issues, as the energy within a "100-Year Ring" is equivalent to Level 21 Great Soul Master soul power. Similarly, the "1,000-Year Ring" corresponds to Level 31 Soul Elder power, and so on.
A Soul Master reaching Level 20, 30, or 40 absorbing the corresponding standard rings (100-year for Lvl 20, 1000-year for Lvl 30/40) would definitely not need to worry about their body exploding.
While this method solves the safety issue perfectly, the upper limit is significantly lower compared to absorbing limit-age rings.
However, at the very least, it guarantees that a Soul Master can grow steadily and safely. If they can break through to Titled Douluo, they will inevitably possess a "100,000-Year Soul Ring."
Hypothetically, if the "Douluo Continent" didn't currently have the Ten Thousand Beast Sect and the "Soul Spirit System," this version of the "Artificial Soul Ring" would likely sweep across the entire continent in no time. Everyone would have perfect ring configurations: Yellow, Yellow, Purple, Purple, Black, Black, Black, Black, Red.
The problem lies in the fact that the "Soul Spirit System" is currently dominant.
Compared to traditional soul ring routes, the "Soul Spirit System" allows for absorption beyond the limit and provides combat spirits. Thus, a non-limit version of the "Artificial Soul Ring" is not very attractive compared to the "Soul Spirit System."
Fortunately, after the Soul King level (10,000-year ring), this scheme's "Artificial Soul Ring" is not far from a Soul Master's physical limit. By the time they are Soul Sages, the rings they absorb are close to the physical limits of ordinary Soul Masters anyway.
If he cannot solve the problem of the "Artificial Soul Ring" self-adapting to physical limits, this plan remains a viable backup.
At least in terms of high-end Soul Masters, Spirit Hall could definitely win them over. After all, no matter how abnormal the Ten Thousand Beast Sect's "Soul Spirit System" is, Ye Lan didn't believe they could turn "100,000-Year Soul Spirits" into common cabbages found everywhere.
But his "Artificial Soul Ring" concept really could turn "100,000-Year Artificial Soul Rings" into common cabbages—and cabbages with dual soul skills at that.
Retracting his thoughts, Ye Lan began to conceptualize how to solve the problem of adapting high-year rings to the limits of a Soul Master's physique.
Ye Lan recalled the scene when he absorbed the "Blue Silver Soul Ring" again. Because his body could handle a 120,000-year ring, the "Blue Silver Awakening" ritual condensed a "120,000-Year Ring" for him. Naturally, after absorbing it, he received a 120,000-year red ring.
Suppose the ritual had condensed a 200,000-year ring instead?
Then, he likely would not have been able to withstand the shock of 200,000 years of soul power.
When absorbing the ring, his body directly endured the impact of "120,000-year solid-state soul power," then converted it into Level 51 gaseous soul power for absorption. If his body had to endure "200,000-year solid-state soul power" and his physique couldn't handle it, his meridians would likely be damaged. If he couldn't convert the solid power to gaseous quickly enough, the Martial Soul absorbing such ultra-high-quality energy would likely cause an explosion and death.
Having clarified this, a train of thought instantly struck Ye Lan.
Since the body must convert the ring's energy into a grade the Martial Soul can absorb, why not just let the body absorb only the limit of what it can withstand?
How does the body determine the limit of soul power it can absorb?
Naturally, that is determined by the Soul Master themselves.
Generally speaking, the normal process for absorbing a Soul Ring is:
The Soul Master uses their pores to absorb the energy within the ring. After this energy enters the body's meridians, it goes straight to the Martial Soul.
Stimulated by the soul power, the Martial Soul unlocks and advances to a higher level. It then converts the high-quality ring energy into the specific evolutionary soul power required by the Martial Soul, absorbing appropriate energy until the evolution is complete.
When Ye Lan absorbed the "Blue Silver Ring," after his Martial Soul advanced to "Level 51," the ring's energy was exhausted, and his Dantian contained Level 50 soul power.
After converting the Dantian's Level 50 power to Level 51, there was a 23% vacancy in the Dantian. Ye Lan had to meditate to recover this gap.
So, normally, assuming a Soul Master's Dantian is full when they start absorbing, it will definitely not be full after the process is done.
The "Artificial Soul Ring" could utilize this point to ensure the absorbed ring is the absolute limit.
The Method:
First, before absorbing the "Artificial Soul Ring," the user must consume 70% of the soul power in their Dantian, leaving only 30%.
Then, the soul power from the ring is absorbed directly into the Dantian, not the Martial Soul.
Because the Dantian has 70% empty space, the ring's soul power can be temporarily stored within this void.
And since the Dantian still contains 30% of the Soul Master's own power, the low-level soul power in the Dantian mixes with the high-level soul power from the ring.
As more ring energy is absorbed, the quality of the soul power in the Dantian will rise higher and higher until it reaches the limit of quality the Soul Master can withstand.
At this precise moment, the user can circulate their Martial Soul to absorb this "limit-quality soul power." The Martial Soul, stimulated by this limit energy, will directly unseal and evolve.
Let's assume a Level 10 "Blue Silver Grass" Soul Scholar is unsure if his limit is 420 years or 450 years.
He can choose the "500-Year Artificial Soul Ring." Before absorbing, he drains his Dantian to 30%, leaving 70% space.
Then, he begins absorbing the energy from the "500-Year Ring."
Since the "500-Year Ring" exceeds his limit, the first step is not to let the Martial Soul absorb it, but to store this energy in the Dantian.
The soul power in the Dantian is "Level 10 Soul Scholar Power." He can mix the incoming "500-Year Power (Great Soul Master Level)" with the 30% "Scholar Level Power" already present.
Because of the 30% buffer, as soon as the "500-Year Power" enters, it begins to elevate the Dantian's soul power to a higher grade.
From Level 10, it gradually rises to Level 11, Level 12, Level 13...
Eventually, the pre-existing soul power is raised to the maximum quality limit that this Blue Silver Grass Soul Master can withstand.
Once this personal absorption cap is reached, the energy in the Dantian is guided to the Martial Soul. This limit-level energy stimulates the Martial Soul, producing the absolute maximum limit Soul Ring.
Superficially, it might seem one could do this without leaving space in the Dantian.
But for this Soul Master, the "500-Year Ring" exceeds his limit. He must use a portion of his Dantian as a buffer zone for the first wave of energy.
If the Dantian were full, it couldn't store any more energy. The "500-Year Power" would be forced directly into the "Blue Silver Grass" Martial Soul, leading to an immediate body explosion.
If the Dantian is largely empty, the 500-year energy can use that 70% space to buffer.
The beauty of this is that after absorbing the "Artificial Soul Ring," the "Blue Silver Grass" Martial Soul reaches Level 11.
At this point, since the Dantian's energy has mixed with the ring's energy, this mixed energy will autonomously trend toward Level 11, matching the Martial Soul.
Suppose his physical limit was a 420-year ring.
If he had absorbed exactly a 420-year Artificial Ring, his Martial Soul would have just reached Level 11. The Dantian's energy would convert to 77% full of Level 11 power, leaving 23% empty.
But using the "Dantian Buffer Method" with a "500-Year Artificial Ring," the original 23% vacancy plus the 70% pre-drained space equals 93% available Dantian space.
This space perfectly accommodates the extra few decades of soul power from the "500-Year Ring" that exceeded his 420-year limit.
In the end, the soul power in his Dantian won't be 77% full; it might be 20%, 30%, 50%, or 80% full.
And since "Artificial Soul Rings" prioritize quality over quantity, the surplus energy from absorbing one is unlikely to overfill the Dantian completely.
Thus, the issue of absorbing energy beyond capacity and damaging meridians is avoided.
In the most extreme case, where the Martial Soul evolves, the Dantian fills up, and there is still energy left in the ring...
There is no need for excessive worry. The Martial Soul has already evolved, meaning the Soul Master's physical fitness has improved. The energy that was previously "over the limit" for the old body is no longer a massive burden.
It simply needs to be expended.
Furthermore, when absorbing Artificial Soul Rings, a "Martial Soul Advancement Master" can be assigned to assist.
The duty of the "Advancement Master" is simple: if the energy in the "Artificial Ring" exceeds the Soul Master's capacity, they are responsible for guiding that energy out or using conflicting attribute soul power to neutralize the excess within the ring.
All these absorption theories are based on following the correct procedures.
Given the vast number of Soul Masters, Ye Lan couldn't guarantee there weren't idiots among them.
If a "Level 10 Soul Scholar" tries to absorb a "100,000-Year Artificial Soul Ring," no one can stop him from exploding. When "Titled Douluo-level solid-state soul power" enters a Soul Scholar's Dantian, death is certain. Ye Lan has no cure for stupidity.
However, as long as a Soul Master chooses the appropriate "Artificial Soul Ring" version, they are destined to obtain a ring at the absolute limit of their physical capability.
Soul Masters aren't as foolish as Ye Lan might imagine; they can generally estimate their limit.
Moreover, to accommodate certain geniuses, "Artificial Soul Rings" could release versions like "600-Year," "3,000-Year," or "6,000-Year."
These versions are safer compared to the "999-Year," "5,000-Year," or "9,999-Year" variants.
For example, if someone feels their limit is just over 500 years, they don't need to choose the "500-Year" (under limit) or "999-Year" (too risky). The "600-Year Version" fits perfectly without being overly dangerous.
Ye Lan considered these various versions because the manufacturing technology would be held by a few within Spirit Hall. Against the massive population of Soul Masters on the continent, they wouldn't have the energy to issue too many custom versions.
Once Spirit Hall unites the Douluo Continent, or after he ascends to Godhood, he wouldn't mind making the technology and techniques public.
Once the "Artificial Soul Ring" technology is public, Ye Lan believed a new profession would emerge: the "Soul Ring Customizer."
They would tailor "Artificial Soul Rings" of specific beast types and ages for different Martial Souls. By then, the system would be even more prosperous.
Retracting his wandering thoughts and organizing all his ideas, Ye Lan made a final summary.
Artificial Soul Ring System:
First: Using Soul Beast blood or Soul Master blood as a catalyst, based on the "Bloodline Factor" theory, create Standard Artificial Soul Rings and Martial Soul Avatar Artificial Soul Rings.
Second: "Artificial Soul Rings" cannot self-condense; higher-age rings must be manufactured by others.
Third: Martial Soul advancement and evolution prioritize the quality of soul power stimulation. "Artificial Soul Rings" must ensure high soul power quality rather than total quantity, otherwise, there is a risk of body explosion.
Fourth: Based on the physical limits of most people on the Douluo Continent, prioritize releasing "Artificial Soul Ring" versions slightly above standard limits. Example: 500-year, 800-year, 2,000-year, 5,000-year versions.
Fifth: Absorption requires the "Dantian Buffer Method." Drain 70% of Dantian soul power to use as buffer space. Fuse the high-level ring energy with the low-level Dantian energy. Once the mixed energy reaches the body's absorption limit, circulate the Martial Soul to absorb the limit energy and unlock the limit ring.
Sixth: Assign "Martial Soul Advancement Masters" to prevent accidents and strengthen general education regarding "Artificial Soul Rings" to prevent foolish Soul Masters from absorbing rings far beyond their years.
(End of Chapter)