When his Spirit Power broke through the twentieth rank, Su Ming's brows began to furrow.
"It's time to condense the Spirit Core. Be careful not to make any mistakes while setting up the formation," Du Busi reminded.
Su Can's expression turned serious as he began to inscribe the formation.
He didn't dare make any mistakes, quickly placing the previously prepared pieces of rare metal in their respective positions.
After arranging these core components of the formation, he began to use his Spirit Power to guide the patterns within each piece of rare metal, constructing numerous Spirit Power channels in the air.
Finally, a hexagram formation took shape, suppressing Su Ming at its center.
Feeling the pressure from the formation, Su Ming breathed a sigh of relief.
The Spirit Power within his body was restrained, and the amount that could flow through his meridians simultaneously became very small. This way, his limited Spirit Power was sufficient to spread throughout all his meridians.
This was the key to condensing the Spirit Core, as it concerned the connection between the Spirit Core and the energy within all the meridians after its formation.
If only a few meridians were used to condense the Spirit Core, not only would there be issues with whether the Spirit Power in other meridians could circulate after condensation, but the impact of the core's collapse on the unused meridians during the process would be a significant unknown.
A complete cycle was not enough.
Pressure was also needed.
Fortunately, the formation provided this, compressing his Spirit Power.
It wasn't just the formation; his Spirit Power was compressing on its own.
After absorbing the second Spirit Ring, his Spirit Power broke through the twentieth rank, directly reaching the twenty-first rank, and it hadn't completely stopped yet, rapidly advancing toward the twenty-second and twenty-third ranks.
During this process, his Spirit Power also received feedback, gradually compressing.
Taking advantage of the compression, he suddenly converged his Spirit Power at his dantian.
Boom!
At that moment, Su Ming felt a roaring sensation.
The Spirit Power within his body was instantly drained, concentrating in his dantian and forming a vortex.
From countless corners of his body, faint strands of Spirit Power emerged—this was the Spirit Power he had cultivated previously but hadn't manifested. It replenished his dried-up meridians, seamlessly connecting with the vortex-shaped Spirit Power.
The vortex gradually stabilized, becoming an important driving force for the Spirit Power within Su Ming's body.
Driven by this vortex, Su Ming quickly completed a full cycle of Spirit Power circulation, taking less than half the time it used to!
Of course, his Spirit Power had been stagnant and difficult to circulate before.
Compared to his fastest circulation speed, the time needed now was only about sixty percent of what it used to be.
This meant he could circulate nearly two-thirds more in the same amount of time.
Not only was his Spirit Power cultivation faster, but its recovery was also quicker, and its output was smoother, allowing for more seamless execution.
But this wasn't the end.
The formation of the vortex was just the beginning. As time passed, the Spirit Power vortex would grow larger, and the concentration of Spirit Power within it would become increasingly exaggerated.
Only when the Spirit Core expanded to fill the entire dantian would it become a true Spirit Core.
For now, Su Ming had only guided his Spirit Power to form the prototype of a Spirit Core, alleviating the crisis of his Spirit Power solidifying.
"A normal Spirit Core is a vortex formed by compressing the Spirit Power filling a Spirit Master's meridians, taking shape directly in the dantian. My total Spirit Power is much lower, so the vortex hasn't even filled the dantian yet."
After checking his condition, Su Ming began to feel optimistic.
His Spirit Power was still increasing—the accumulation from before was indeed substantial.
According to the feedback from his Martial Soul, the growth of his Spirit Power would drive an improvement in its quality. Now, however, this improvement was becoming less noticeable. The prototype Spirit Core directly facilitated the circulation of Spirit Power, causing it to spread through his meridians. The density couldn't increase effectively because, before it could be compressed, the prototype Spirit Core pushed it rapidly throughout his meridians. Just as it was about to become denser, it would be completely absorbed by the Spirit Core to strengthen the vortex. Another portion, driven by the prototype Spirit Core, would spread throughout his body again.
In this cycle, while the quality of his Spirit Power was slowly improving, the extent of this improvement was significantly diminished.
"At this rate, I can safely cultivate up to the fortieth rank. Even after obtaining the fourth Spirit Ring, I probably won't face the crisis of my Spirit Power solidifying again."
"Hmm, the Spirit Power is rising a bit too quickly."
Just as Su Ming breathed a sigh of relief, sensing the changes in his Spirit Power, he couldn't help but feel troubled again.
It was too fast.
Before joining the Body Sect, he had been stuck at the twentieth rank for four months. During those four months, he had likely advanced by at least one rank, though he couldn't manifest it. Additionally, the 1,200-year Star Tree Spirit Ring he absorbed this time, perfectly integrating its cultivation as a Spirit Soul, had boosted his Spirit Power by at least another rank. Add to that the energy contained in the two pieces of Thousand-Year Whale Glue he had consumed earlier.
With so much energy accumulated, he directly broke through to the twenty-fifth rank!
"Ugh, I haven't even had the chance to enjoy the thrill of freely increasing my Spirit Power. I hope it doesn't rise so fast that I have to condense a second Spirit Core too soon," Su Ming thought, almost wanting to cry.
Of course, he wouldn't slow his cultivation speed just to avoid condensing a second Spirit Core—that would be putting the cart before the horse.
Wasn't the point of cultivating freely to maximize the speed of Spirit Power growth?
Full-powered cultivation was the greatest respect he could pay to his own talent.
"Whatever, I'll just enjoy cultivating for now. As for condensing a second Spirit Core, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. With future technological support, the difficulty should be reduced significantly."
By the time of Douluo 3, dual Spirit Cores had become very common, with plenty of condensation experience and models for Su Ming to learn from.
"For now, let's check the Sea of Consciousness."
This was the greatest advantage of Spirit Souls.
Any Spirit Master, once their mental power reached a certain level, could open their Sea of Consciousness with the stimulation of a Spirit Soul. By the Douluo 3 era, most Spirit Masters could sense the existence of their Sea of Consciousness.
It could be said that Spirit Souls directly helped Spirit Masters unlock half of their mental attribute potential.
Even Spirit Masters without mental attributes could progress in mental power at a pace not inferior to that of mental attribute Spirit Masters from the Douluo 2 era. Even the slower growers were faster than mental attribute Spirit Masters from the Douluo 1 era.
"The future side..."
Su Ming began to communicate with his future self. Learning the outcome from the future perspective, the corners of his mouth unconsciously curled upward.
Seeing the change in Su Ming's expression, Su Can and Du Busi both breathed sighs of relief, though they wondered why Su Ming hadn't opened his eyes yet.
"There really is Faith Power gathering."
This meant that the status he gained now could be used by his future self.
"Next, we'll see if we can collect the Faith Power that accumulated over the millennia but wasn't gathered in time. If we can, I might even skip the time needed to collect Faith Power!"
Before Su Ming could test his idea, his perception was captivated by something else.
The Su Ming from Douluo 3 had experienced Faith Power before.
Now, the Su Ming from Douluo 2 entered his Sea of Consciousness and saw faint strands of Faith Power within it.
"Wait, why would I have Faith Power now?"
Something must be wrong.
In this era, where did Faith in Spirit Souls come from?
...
Read 50 advance at patreon.com/CNBLUE
(End of Chapter)