"How much longer?"
"Shortest three to five days, longest ten days to half a month."
"Come with me."
Zhu Jiuyang directly took Su Ming and left Gengxin City.
"Teacher, where are we going?"
"To the Meteorite Iron Mine. Your Spirit Soul originally cultivated and grew up relying on that environment. It's better to return there for evolution. Moreover, evolving into a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear probably requires a lot of metal-attribute power, which you, as his Spirit Master, would find difficult to provide."
As he spoke, Zhu Jiuyang checked his storage Spirit Tool.
"I still have two Earth Origin Fruits here. They are the most suitable Natural Treasures for replenishing Spirit Power. If a wild Spirit Beast consumes one during evolution, as long as it doesn't exceed ten thousand years, the evolution process will be very smooth, without energy concerns."
Three days later.
Meteorite Iron Mine.
"We're here."
The master and disciple arrived at the area of the Meteorite Iron Mine.
The meteorite iron here had been mined for two and a half years. Most of the meteorite iron inside had been excavated, but the metal-attribute elements had not dispersed.
Returning to his old home, Little Gold felt very familiar and directly woke from his dormant state.
"Roar!"
Scenes from his bear life flashed by, then transformed into a mighty roar.
His body began to grow larger.
On his paws was a very distinct pair of dark golden claw sheaths, perfectly fitting the Dark Gold Claws growing from his fingertips.
Zhu Jiuyang's gaze locked onto the sheaths on Little Gold's hands.
"Did you make these for him using Spirit Tool methods?"
"Mn, I also used thousand-refined metal."
After achieving Thousand Refinements with Spirit, Su Ming had secretly shared it with Zhu Jiuyang. Zhu Jiuyang was also very envious, which was why he still hadn't gone to hunt for his eighth Spirit Ring.
He wanted to try to get a Spirit Soul, too.
But a ten-thousand-year Spirit Soul wasn't easy to obtain.
Ten-thousand-year Spirit Beasts already had intelligence. If they resisted forcefully, it could easily lead to the contract shattering.
So Zhu Jiuyang needed time and was patiently waiting for a suitable ten-thousand-year Spirit Beast to become a Spirit Soul.
"Roar!"
Little Gold's roar drew Su Ming's attention back.
He looked at Little Gold.
Little Gold's body had now swelled to a full five meters tall. His coat of dark golden fur flickered uncertainly, sometimes brilliant gold, darkening.
Su Ming could see that with each flicker, his fur was becoming thicker, and the skin and flesh beneath were undergoing an astonishing metamorphosis.
Through their contract, Su Ming also received feedback. The surrounding metal-attribute vital energy madly poured into his body, tempering his physique.
Hiss~
Su Ming couldn't help but suck in a cold breath; the pain was intense.
"Roar!"
Little Gold was still roaring.
Su Ming now knew those were roars of pain. He also began to can't help but hiss and roar.
Watching Su Ming and Little Gold roaring in pain simultaneously, Zhu Jiuyang could only take out the Earth Origin Fruits and toss one to both the human and the bear.
After eating the Earth Origin Fruit, abundant vital energy flowed within his body, alleviating Su Ming's pain.
Little Gold's pain, however, continued.
His bear paws became immensely broad, and the Dark Gold Claws gradually grew sharper.
Each change was equivalent to him growing a new pair of Dark Gold Claws.
Streaks of sharp, metal-attribute aura began to appear. The claw sheaths are perfectly adapted to his brand new Dark Gold Terrorclaws.
"Roar!"
Little Gold raised his head to the sky and roared, then directly swiped his bear claw forward.
His right claw directly slashed five claw beams through the air mid-swing. The five claw beams scraped across the ground, leaving five deep gouges.
Evolution, Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear!
Su Ming gasped for breath, his entire body soaked in sweat.
From Little Gold's evolution, he had also gained benefits. His entire body had been tempered once over.
Ten months ago, Su Ming fused with Little Gold and broke through to the 23rd rank. Reaching Grand Spirit Master, his cultivation speed dropped again. Two and a half months wasn't enough for a breakthrough; it took a full three months to increase one level. So, one month ago, he broke through to the 26th rank.
This time, with Little Gold's evolution, Su Ming absorbed the surrounding metal-attribute vital energy and digested the Earth Origin Fruit, directly breaking through two levels to reach the 28th rank.
"Ahead of Douluo 2."
The Su Ming from Douluo 2 had directly broken through to the 25th rank when condensing his Spirit Core. After half a year, he had only improved by two levels, reaching the 27th rank.
"Innate Spirit Power doesn't represent everything."
Su Ming felt slightly proud at this moment.
Surpassing others held no thrill; Spirit Masters in this era generally cultivated too slowly. So the only thing was to surpass himself, to surpass his two future selves.
Of course, achieving such a feat was actually due to multiple factors.
Although the Su Ming from Douluo 1 also dabbled in secondary professions, his main focus was blacksmithing. He leveraged the advantages of his Martial Soul to cultivate during the forging process, basically never delaying his own training.
In contrast, the Su Mings from Douluo 2 and Douluo 3 truly had to study knowledge and practice it; it genuinely couldn't be done concurrently with Spirit Power cultivation.
"Little Gold, how do you feel?"
Su Ming turned to look at Little Gold and found that he had grown even larger, now standing a full seven meters tall!
"Roar!"
Little Gold let out a low roar, full of vigor.
His bear claws were particularly eye-catching. Those enormous bear paws and the dark golden terrorclaws gave anyone who saw them a feeling of mental tearing pain.
"How about his cultivation?" Zhu Jiuyang asked.
He was very concerned about this point.
Su Ming could actually sense the changes in his own Spirit Ring, but he still looked at Little Gold.
"Roar!" (Increased by three thousand years!)
"Three thousand years."
Zhu Jiuyang gasped, sucking in a cold breath.
That was a bit exaggerated.
"Actually, it's not that bad. If the energy from the two Earth Origin Fruits were truly fully converted into Spirit Power, it would probably be equivalent to seven or eight levels. I only improved by two levels; the rest was absorbed by Little Gold. Also, a lot of the metal-attribute vital energy here was absorbed by me and Little Gold," Su Ming said.
"It's not an issue of energy, but the magnitude of improvement brought by this evolution," Zhu Jiuyang said. "One thousand years directly became four thousand years."
"Otherwise, how could it be called an evolution?" Su Ming said with a smile.
If this were a Spirit Soul evolution in the Douluo 3 era, there indeed wouldn't be such an exaggerated cliff-like increase. Spirit Soul evolution in that era relied on obtaining spiritual energy from the Spirit Ascension Platform, which was converted into cultivation in real-time. The metamorphosis from a hundred-year to a thousand-year would also not have a cliff-like change, but a very smooth increase.
This was the Douluo 1 era; there was no Spirit Ascension Platform.
Over the past half a year, Little Gold had made significant progress following Su Ming. His pair of Dark Gold Claws had been imperceptibly enhanced a lot by the thousand-refined Heavy Silver with the tearing attribute. Moreover, through forging, he constantly absorbed the spiritual nature from the metal.
This accumulation was also essential for Little Gold's three-thousand-year cultivation increase this time.
"A second Spirit Ring of four thousand years... this is comparable to many Spirit Masters' fourth Spirit Rings," Zhu Jiuyang said. "For your next, the third ring, you aren't going to try and absorb a ten-thousand-year Spirit Ring, are you?"
Su Ming shook his head.
Seeing Su Ming shake his head, Zhu Jiuyang breathed a sigh of relief.
Su Ming's next words, however, shocked the relieved Zhu Jiuyang once again.
"I won't need to hunt for the third ring. I can sense that Little Gold should be able to add another Spirit Ring for me."
"Roar?" (Huh?)
...
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(End of Chapter)