"What do you mean?"
Zhu Jiuyang didn't understand immediately.
"It means the same Spirit Soul can attach multiple Spirit Rings to me at once," Su Ming explained.
Little Gold, standing to the side, looked very confused. He hadn't even sensed this ability himself yet, so how did his Spirit Master already know?
He began to focus inwardly, carefully sensing, and gradually found the feeling. Only then did he realize he indeed seemed to possess this innate talent, capable of attaching more Spirit Rings to Su Ming.
Zhu Jiuyang grasped Su Ming's meaning and also showed a surprised expression.
However, he didn't simply agree with Su Ming but instead raised a question.
"Even if it can provide multiple Spirit Rings, is it necessary? With that Spirit Ring slot, you could simply choose a new Spirit Soul."
"Roar!"
Before Su Ming could even respond, Little Gold, unhappy with Zhu Jiuyang's words, let out a low growl towards him, appearing quite displeased.
Zhu Jiuyang didn't take offense at Little Gold's impudence and simply reasoned with him, "With more Spirit Souls, Little Ming will surely have them assist in forging later. Your workload could become much lighter in the future."
"Roar!"
Little Gold growled again.
Zhu Jiuyang looked at Su Ming, not understanding Little Gold's meaning.
Su Ming translated for him. "Little Gold says what you said makes sense, but it's useless because he forges for his own improvement, not because I force him to work."
A huge question mark seemed to pop up above Zhu Jiuyang's head.
He looked at his disciple, surprised that Su Ming, despite his young age, was so exceptional, having already molded Little Gold's worldview so thoroughly.
Zhu Jiuyang was no pushover either. He turned back to Little Gold and said, "But, you are Little Ming's first Spirit Soul, the big brother among the Spirit Souls. You forge to cultivate, but can't you leave the trivial tasks outside of forging to the others?"
"Roar?"
Little Gold was taken aback.
That… seemed very reasonable.
Repairing the forging platform was fine; it was still forging. But fixing the house was a bit of a waste of energy.
Moreover, there were many unnecessary tasks during the forging process itself. If someone could help, he could save some effort and still enjoy the full benefits of improvement. That would be achieving twice the result with half the effort!
Thinking further, Little Gold felt like he had discovered a new world.
Just as Zhu Jiuyang had convinced Little Gold, he received a helpless reply from Su Ming.
"Teacher, Spirit Souls also place a burden on my Spirit Power."
Spirit Power?
Zhu Jiuyang was greatly shocked. He looked at Su Ming, asking for specifics.
"My Spirit Power should be considered quite high among Spirit Masters, which is how I managed to absorb Little Gold back then. It has been improving during this period too, but it's still far from enough to absorb a second Spirit Soul. At least from what I can sense, supporting Little Gold alone is already very strenuous for me."
Su Ming's description was vague, but there was no helping it; in the era of Douluo 1, he couldn't quantify it precisely.
If measured using Douluo 3's metrics, he would currently be in the Spirit Communication Realm, and his numerical value wouldn't be low, probably close to two hundred.
Over the subsequent twenty thousand years, Spirit Masters developed both the physical and spiritual fields. Spirit Power was divided into specific realms, from low to high: Spirit Origin Realm, Spirit Communication Realm, Spirit Ocean Realm, Spirit Abyss Realm, and Spirit Domain Realm. Beyond that was the domain of gods, defined as the Godly Spirit Realm.
1 to 50 points was the Spirit Origin Realm, 51 to 500 the Spirit Communication Realm, 501 to 5000 the Spirit Ocean Realm, 5001 to 20000 the Spirit Abyss Realm, and 20001 to 50000 was the Spirit Domain Realm.
Even Spirit Masters with spiritual attributes would typically only break through to the Spirit Communication Realm around the age of nine or ten. Reaching one hundred points usually required being twelve years old.
Gu Yue, during her first test at East Sea Academy, was just nine years old, yet her Spirit Power was as high as one hundred and fifty points.
Su Ming from Douluo 1 was already nine years and eight months old, with Spirit Power nearing two hundred. This was enough to show his talent in the spiritual aspect.
It wasn't that he possessed an innate spiritual attribute talent, but rather the talent he brought with him from his transmigration.
In the Douluo Plane, the improvement of Spirit Power primarily depended on two aspects: growth driven by the body's development affecting the spirit, and pure cultivation relying on innate talent. The former was a somewhat fixed growth; as a Spirit Master's body developed, their Spirit Power would naturally increase with their natural growth.
Su Ming was exceptional in this aspect. His initial Spirit Power was high, and receiving feedback from his body's development, his natural growth was also greater.
It wasn't just the Douluo 1 Su Ming; the Douluo 2 Su Ming was the same, his Spirit Power being slightly higher than that of ordinary Spirit Masters.
Zhu Jiuyang's brow furrowed.
"So merging with Spirit Souls is actually tied to Spirit Power... Looking at it this way, you absorbing a Spirit Ring bestowed by Little Gold for your third ring is indeed feasible. But are you sure you don't want to consider a higher year ordinary Spirit Ring?"
The advantages of Spirit Souls were obvious. A Spirit Soul could continue to improve, meaning the Spirit Ring also had the opportunity to increase its year.
However, the disadvantages of Spirit Souls were equally apparent: lack of diversity.
A single Spirit Soul bestowing three Spirit Rings meant the Spirit Master's Martial Soul could only derive characteristics from this one type of Spirit Beast for these three rings, preventing diversified development!
For a Spirit Master, all nine Spirit Ring slots were exceptionally precious. Each Spirit Ring could grant some trait from an external Spirit Beast. This was key to the Martial Soul's growth, a manifestation of the differences between each Spirit Master's Martial Soul, and a testament to each Spirit Master's cultivation journey.
Moreover, did Little Gold still have room for growth?
Zhu Jiuyang believed not.
This evolution was most likely his limit. Furthermore, he had never heard of a higher-level evolution path for the Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.
Therefore, having Little Gold bestow the Spirit Ring would basically fix the third ring at four thousand years. Yet, Su Ming could definitely attempt a five-thousand, six-thousand, or even seven or eight-thousand-year Spirit Ring for his third ring now!
"Roar!"
Little Gold also growled.
He felt he didn't have much room for improvement either, so perhaps trying for a higher-year Spirit Ring was better.
Although he had been forging constantly, using the spirituality feedback from the metals to enrich himself, his actual year hadn't moved. The spirit energy he absorbed was merely stored within him, just like the Spirit Power a Spirit Master cultivates upon reaching a level divisible by ten; it couldn't manifest and required a qualitative change to continue converting into cultivation base.
But he had already evolved into a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear. There was no hope for further qualitative change.
Of course, the most important thing was that he felt he didn't have any particularly special Spirit Skills to bestow upon Su Ming. His strongest attribute now, the Dark Gold Terrorclaw, was a racial innate talent. Even if bestowed to Su Ming as a Spirit Skill, it would probably only be a Spirit Power-simulated terror claw, with a very noticeable gap compared to his real claws.
Su Ming patted Little Gold's head.
"Teacher, I believe in Little Gold. He can still improve."
Zhu Jiuyang and Little Gold reacted differently.
"Don't forget, I possess the legacy of Spirit Tools. The key to Little Gold's evolution this time was also a Spirit Tool I created, or more accurately, what I prefer to call Spirit Soul Armor."
Understanding flashed across Zhu Jiuyang's face.
Right, he had almost forgotten that.
From the normal Spirit Beast path, Little Gold had indeed reached his evolutionary peak. But he could still improve further through means like what Su Ming mentioned: equipping Little Gold, using human wisdom to arm him, enabling unnatural evolution!
"Roar?" (Really possible?)
...
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(End of Chapter)