Originally, Wang Chen felt somewhat helpless that he had not obtained any amplification-type soul skill.
But when he saw that his fourth soul skill turned out to be a teleportation-type skill, he couldn't help but think—truly fragrant!
Teleportation-type soul skills were god-tier lifesaving abilities. Any attack that exceeded one's capacity to withstand could be evaded using teleportation.
Moreover, teleportation skills were also extremely effective in combat. They often enabled a comeback from hopeless situations—such as suddenly appearing behind an enemy, or teleporting right in front of an opponent at the instant of their post-attack delay to strike them down.
Or even teleporting a fixed-installation soul-guided cannon shell directly beside an enemy to blow them up.
In short, Wang Chen was extremely satisfied with his fourth soul skill.
The fifth soul skill of his Tool Spirit was called Soul.
After locking onto an enemy with spiritual power, the next attack would definitely hit, and that attack would carry a mental impact capable of inflicting spiritual damage.
The degree of spiritual damage depended on the difference between the Tool Spirit master's spiritual power and the opponent's.
The greater the difference, the greater the damage. The smaller the difference, the weaker the effect.
The Tool Spirit's sixth soul skill was called Burn.
This soul skill could be described as "injure the enemy by a thousand, harm oneself by eight hundred."
By burning the Tool Spirit master's own vital blood, it could amplify the power of the next attack.
The more blood essence burned, the stronger the resulting attack.
Wang Chen tested burning 30% of his blood essence to enhance a soul tool's attack—and discovered that it increased its power by 150%.
When he burned 50% of his blood essence, the amplification reached 250%.
Every additional 10% of blood essence burned increased the attack power by another 50%.
However, even with Wang Chen's physique, the maximum he could burn was about 70%.
Any more than that, and before killing his enemy, he might very well burn himself to death first.
Wang Chen experimented and found that burning 30% of his blood essence with the sixth soul skill caused little harm to himself afterward—just temporary weakness and about a 20–30% drop in combat strength.
Thanks to the powerful life force brought by the Spirit Life Gold, he could recover completely within half a day.
However, burning 50% of his blood essence was far more serious. His combat strength dropped by at least half and required a full day to recover.
Burning 70% left his combat strength reduced by ninety percent, needing two full days to recover.
If it weren't for Wang Chen having absorbed Spirit Life Gold—making his vitality abundant, his blood essence strong, and his recovery fast—he truly might not have dared to experiment like this.
After all, burning one's own blood essence was not something to take lightly. One misstep could cause severe depletion of vital energy and irreparable bodily harm.
Of course, precisely because of that, this soul skill's amplification was extraordinarily immense.
To bring out the full power of this ability, Wang Chen believed he would need to make his own life force even more vigorous—
to the point where the burned blood essence and his recovery rate could balance each other out.
In terms of soul power progress, Wang Chen relied on his own cultivation.
As for physical strength and spiritual power, their improvement mainly depended on the nourishment of the Spirit Life Gold and the enhancement gained from absorbing soul rings.
Aside from his soul power, spiritual power, and physique, Wang Chen's soft strength had also improved greatly over these past three years.
After his spiritual power reached the Soul Saint level, not only had his secret art of Soul Ring Tempering undergone a second refinement through deduction,
he had also carried out a second deduction of his cultivation method, Tongmai Gong (Through-Vein Art).
After the second deduction, Tongmai Gong became even more powerful.
The soul power cultivated through it became purer and of higher quality,
and it even gained the additional effect of passively absorbing the world's spiritual energy.
This passive absorption might seem insignificant, but its effect was actually excellent—
it was essentially a mana regeneration buff, greatly enhancing endurance during battle.
You must know—Wang Chen's current soul skills were all ten-thousand-year level,
and the consumption of soul power was extremely high.
Without the passive world energy absorption to replenish his reserves,
even with his Soul Emperor-level power, his soul energy would be drained dry in no time.
Aside from cultivation methods and secret techniques, Wang Chen had also pushed his frequently used combat skills to their limits—
including spear techniques, close-combat martial arts, and soul tool crafting techniques...
In addition, Wang Chen had also learned from Shrek Academy's Dragon God Douluo Mu En
the powerful battle art that fused one's spiritual power, soul power, and will into one—
Dominating the World (Jun Lin Tian Xia).
The requirements to use Dominating the World were extremely high.
One must possess at least Soul Saint-level spiritual power.
Unlike soul skills, whose strength was limited by the age of the soul rings,
the power of a battle art depended entirely on the user's own capability.
The stronger one's spiritual power, soul power, and will,
the greater the might of the battle art.
Furthermore, battle arts could be used bare-handed or overlaid onto soul skills and soul tools for combined effects—its uses were endless.
In the original story, after Huo Yuhao mastered Dominating the World,
he used only this battle art to defeat a fifth-rank soul engineer with his Soul Ancestor cultivation
in the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy.
When he later combined it with soul tools and soul skills, he even defeated a sixth-rank soul engineer.
Although those fifth- and sixth-rank soul engineers weren't the strongest among their level,
this feat still proved the astonishing power of Dominating the World.
With Wang Chen's Soul Emperor-level soul power and Soul Douluo-level spiritual power,
just by applying the Dominating the World battle art onto himself—
without using any soul skills, soul tools, or secret techniques—
he could easily crush other Soul Emperors,
and even fight on par with a Soul Saint who wasn't using their Martial Soul True Body.
The reason he could only match Soul Saints not using their True Body
was because the difference between Soul Emperors and Soul Saints was vast—
a complete divide between tiers.
Any Soul Master who reached the Soul Saint realm was exceptional—
none had weak martial souls. Every Soul Saint had once been a prodigy among peers.
Moreover, a Soul Saint's soul power had already transformed from gaseous to liquid form,
allowing them to fly using soul power alone.
Their strength far surpassed that of Soul Emperors,
especially when augmented by the terrifying power of their seventh soul skill—
the Martial Soul True Body.
That was why only Soul Saints were considered high-level Soul Masters.
Nevertheless, Wang Chen was confident that by using battle arts in combination with his soul skills,
he could definitely defeat a Soul Saint even when they used their Martial Soul True Body.
With six ten-thousand-year soul skills enhancing him,
no matter how strong a Soul Saint's True Body might be,
they would still have to wear a "mask of pain."
If it came to a life-and-death battle,
and he used the Soul Ring Explosion Secret Technique to temporarily boost his cultivation,
then even a Soul Douluo expert would have to kneel and kowtow twice before leaving.
Of course, after such a fight, Wang Chen's condition would be extremely poor,
since the aftermath of using the Ring Explosion technique left him severely weakened and unable to use soul skills for some time.
Just as Wang Chen sat in his office lost in thought,
a rapid knock suddenly sounded at the door.
"Sir, bad news! The people from the Xi Shui Alliance are here!!"
Hearing that, Wang Chen immediately stopped thinking.
He rose from his chair, and soul power surged from the golden soul tool ring on his right hand.
The six black soul rings around him suddenly transformed—
into yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black—seven soul rings in total.