Leaving aside Yu Xiaogang, whose memories were being examined, Tian Hao raced back home carrying that basin of spirit blood. He went straight into the underground ice cellar and began processing and researching it. After confirming that this spirit blood wasn't much different from ordinary blood, he finally relaxed and poured it into a suitably sized glass bottle, placing it on a shelf in the cellar.
The shelves in the ice cellar were already lined with glass bottles filled with blood—every last one collected by him during his duties as an executioner of fallen Spirit Masters.
"Copy."
Tian Hao activated the head Spirit Bone that had come from a 10,000-year Mirror Shadow Beast. A mirror-like fragment appeared at the center of his forehead. He smeared a drop of Yu Xiaogang's blood onto it and activated the Spirit Bone's ability.
Immediately after, a yellow Spirit Ring rose from the copied skull and settled around his body.
"Fart Like Thunder—Earth-Shattering Luo Sanpao!"
Imitating Yu Xiaogang, he recited the Spirit Ability incantation and activated that Spirit Ring with his Spirit Power.
A surge of Spirit Power shot out from the ring and flowed into his body, circulating through his meridians along a specific trajectory before gathering in his stomach. It finally converged in the large intestine, transforming into a stream of gas.
"It really works like this?!"
Tian Hao hurried out of the ice cellar, rushed into the bathroom, sat on the toilet, and released it. He then returned to the basement with a dark expression on his face.
This Spirit Ability was way too bizarre.
"Looks like Yu Xiaogang's blood is useless. Hopefully, Luo Sanpao's spirit blood will give me something different."
With a depressed sigh, Tian Hao took out a drop of Luo Sanpao's blood and smeared it onto the mirror fragment on his forehead, activating the Spirit Bone's copying ability once more. Immediately, a special type of Spirit Power surged into his body—warm and sacred, as comfortable as basking in the sun.
"So Luo Sanpao really is a Bright Holy Dragon."
Sensing the Spirit Power aura that resembled that of Pope Qian Xunji, Tian Hao understood that Luo Sanpao was anything but ordinary.
Luo Sanpao possessed both Light and Sacred attributes. It was the legendary Bright Holy Dragon, a divine beast on par with the Fire Phoenix. It had Light attribute power approaching Ultimate Light, along with a Sacred attribute—hence the titles Bright Holy Dragon and Sacred Giant Dragon.
"No wonder in the original story, when Yu Xiaogang's trio stacked their Spirit Rings and Spirit Power onto Luo Sanpao through a Spirit Fusion Ability, it could undergo such a drastic transformation. Turns out Luo Sanpao itself was already extraordinary.
"It should be considered the juvenile form of a Bright Holy Dragon, meant to grow after obtaining enough Spirit Power and Spirit Rings.
"In that case, Luo Sanpao was completely dragged down by Yu Xiaogang.
"That 'Fart Like Thunder' first Spirit Ability clearly came from a Lightning-attribute Spirit Beast, meaning it was still being cultivated according to the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon model.
"If it had obtained a Light-attribute Spirit Ring instead, it would've been a pure mouth-cannon ability—and maybe Luo Sanpao's body would've even grown as well."
After analyzing it, Tian Hao couldn't help lamenting Luo Sanpao's terrible luck. If it hadn't met someone like Yu Xiaogang, it might have long since become a true Bright Holy Dragon Spirit—just like Mu En would ten thousand years later.
Ten minutes later, the copied Spirit Ability effect faded, and the sacred light attribute derived from Luo Sanpao's spirit blood dissipated.
This was the ability of that head Spirit Bone. It was similar to Oscar of the Shrek Seven Devils' sixth Spirit Ability, Replica Sausage—also derived from a Mirror Shadow Beast—capable of temporarily copying others' Spirit Abilities and Spirit Power attributes using blood as a medium.
However, this Spirit Bone was only just barely at the 10,000-year level. Its copying effect was far inferior to Oscar's.
Oscar's Replica Sausage could reproduce 70% to 100% of a Spirit Ability's effect and last for three minutes.
Tian Hao's head Spirit Bone could only reproduce about 10% of the effect, though it lasted a full ten minutes. The Spirit Power attributes themselves, however, were not discounted.
The limitations were also the same—it couldn't copy Spirit Rings or Spirit Abilities above the user's own Spirit Power rank. It was only after reaching Rank 10 that Tian Hao could use it to copy and experience the first Spirit Ability of the blood's owner. Before that, he could only experience the Spirit Power attributes contained in the blood.
On the upside, its consumption was extremely low. Even with just Rank 10 Spirit Power, he could activate it three or four times.
Thus, this Spirit Ability's greatest value wasn't in combat, but in allowing him to copy and research the effects and operating principles of various Spirit Abilities and Spirit Rings, as well as Spirit Power attributes. It was a purely auxiliary Spirit Bone ability.
And since it was a head Spirit Bone, it also provided a massive boost to spiritual power.
Unfortunately, this Spirit Bone had already been refined by several people before him. It had been passed down within Spirit Hall for hundreds of years, lacking the benefits that fresh Spirit Bones provided in terms of boosting Spirit Power and physical constitution.
Still, Tian Hao was more than satisfied.
"Light attribute and Sacred attribute—perfectly compatible with the meditation technique bestowed by the Pope. I need to find a way to permanently obtain both Sacred and Light attributes. Best case scenario would be acquiring Spirit Bones with both attributes and fusing them into my body."
Recalling the Sacred and Light attributes he'd just experienced from Luo Sanpao's blood, Tian Hao was filled with anticipation.
"This time, I've made a major contribution. I wonder what kind of reward the Pope will give me. Best if it's another Spirit Bone."
His thoughts shifted to the rewards for this merit.
This was his second major contribution. The first had been when he was eleven years old, and the reward then was this very head Spirit Bone. Although its copying ability wasn't particularly strong, the spiritual power boost was extremely powerful—perfectly suited to his spirit.
Thinking of his own spirit, Tian Hao sat down and let his consciousness sink into his Sea of Spirit—his spirit itself.
That's right. His spirit was neither a Beast Spirit nor a Tool Spirit, but his own Sea of Spirit. It should be classified as a Body Spirit.
This Sea of Spirit was inherited from his father's spirit bloodline and had undergone mutation, as his father's spirit was already inclined toward the spiritual type.
Unfortunately, his innate Spirit Power was only half a level—exactly the same as Yu Xiaogang's, just a bit worse than Huo Yuhao ten thousand years later.
However, there was one thing Yu Xiaogang could never compare to him in—Body Spirits could undergo a second awakening.
"I don't need a Golden Awakening. Even a Silver Awakening would be insanely strong."
Muttering to himself, Tian Hao was full of confidence in his spirit. The Body Sect ten thousand years later would prove the immense potential of Body Spirits. When properly developed, they could even surpass god-level spirits.
Of course, his current talent wasn't bad either. It was just that his spirit was purely mental, making him extremely specialized—all his points dumped into spiritual power.
If spiritual power had an innate value like Spirit Power, he estimated he'd be someone with full innate spiritual power.
After more than a decade of meditation cultivation, his spiritual power had already reached half of what that copy Spirit Bone provided. He could even extend a small portion of his spiritual power outside his body, clearly proving how extraordinary his spirit was.
That said, his spirit was also extremely special…
"I still can't refine and fuse a Spirit Ring."
Sensing the yellow Spirit Ring suspended and sealed within his Sea of Spirit, Tian Hao felt deeply frustrated.
He had reached Rank 10 several months ago and, accompanied by his parents, enthusiastically headed to the Spirit Hunting Forest, where they found a mental-type Spirit Beast clan.
After providing some special materials the clan needed, an elderly Spirit Beast voluntarily stepped forward to die and offer up its Spirit Ring.
This was a characteristic of mental-type Spirit Beasts. Because their spiritual power was strong, their intelligence was often high as well, allowing for communication.
However, an anomaly occurred during the absorption process. His Sea of Spirit rejected the Spirit Ring—or rather, disdained it—only sealing it away and bypassing the rule that Spirit Rings dissipate after two hours, preserving it until now.
He'd researched it all this time but still couldn't figure out what was going on.
"The essence of rejection is incompatibility. Could it be that I need to generate my own Spirit Ring like a 100,000-year Spirit Beast undergoing Human Transformation? Using my own spiritual origin? Or do I need to absorb and refine a 10,000-year or 100,000-year Spirit Ring? Wouldn't that just blow me up?"
He instantly extinguished the idea of absorbing a 100,000-year Spirit Ring and instead returned to a hypothesis he'd formed some time ago—the only solution he could currently think of.
If you reject external Spirit Rings, then using my own spiritual origin to condense one should work, right?
Same origin—no rejection.
But how exactly does one generate or construct a Spirit Ring from within?
"There's been news these past few years about the Haotian Twin Stars, Tang Xiao and Tang Hao, roaming the Spirit Master world. I wonder if they've met that equally foolish woman, Ah Yin. If I could consult her, I should be able to learn the secret of self-generated Spirit Rings.
"Mm, I should find a chance to visit the Blue Silver Forest in the future. Even if I can't find AAh Yin, I can at least communicate with the Blue Silver King."
He couldn't help thinking of another foolish woman on par with Bibi Dong—someone who completely ruined herself.
At present, the Human Transformation Spirit Beasts he knew of were only two: Blue Silver Emperor Ah Yin, and Xiao Wu's mother, who should also have already transformed into human form by now. Unfortunately, she was hard to find, and Xiao Wu herself was still in the core area of the Star Dou Great Forest—far beyond a place he could go.
The Blue Silver Forest was his only real option.
Maybe he'd run into that silly woman Ah Yin and trick her a bit. If he could get her to sacrifice herself to him, that would be perfect.
If Huo Yuhao could start with a million-year first Spirit Ring ten thousand years later, then starting with a 100,000-year Spirit Ring shouldn't be too much to ask, right?
"Daydreaming again. Back to researching Spirit Rings!"
After a long while, Tian Hao finally calmed down. Using the abilities of his Sea of Spirit, he shrank his spiritual consciousness down to an extremely minute scale and merged it into the Spirit Ring, studying its complex and intricate internal structure.
This was an ability his Sea of Spirit awakened after he reached Rank 10—within the Sea of Spirit, he could shrink his spiritual consciousness down to a microscopic level, like Ant-Man shrinking via Pym Particles.
The limit of this shrinking was determined by spiritual power. With the boost from a 10,000-year head Spirit Bone plus his own cultivated spiritual power, the combined effect allowed him to shrink to an extremely microscopic scale. He could now begin observing the fine structure of a Spirit Ring.
If he could thoroughly understand these structures, perhaps he could imitate them and construct a Spirit Ring himself.
While Tian Hao was immersed in research, on the other side, Bibi Dong returned to her residence and soon received a summons—her teacher wished to see her.
Though somewhat nervous, Bibi Dong steadied her emotions and headed to the Pope's Palace.
There was no third person who knew about her plan to elope with Xiao Gang. Her teacher certainly wouldn't know.
Qian Xunji: "Dong'er, come—help your teacher achieve the Secret Chamber Douluo!"