Ten months after Lu Tianyu met Tang Hao, he finally cultivated his soul power to level 20. At this time, Tang San and Xiao Wu's soul power had only reached level 17.
Upon learning of Lu Tianyu's breakthrough, Grandmaster immediately sought out the dean of the Notting Junior Soul Master Academy, hoping the dean would accompany him to the Soul Hunting Forest to find soul rings for Lu Tianyu.
Grandmaster's research revealed that due to his martial soul, Lu Tianyu's limit for absorbing soul rings was at least twice that of ordinary soul masters.
This meant that when Lu Tianyu absorbed his first soul ring, he could absorb one from a soul beast with 800 years of cultivation.
The limit for a second soul ring that an ordinary soul master could withstand was 800 years. Of course, Lu Tianyu wouldn't be so reckless as to challenge a 1600-year-old soul beast.
However, he could try absorbing a soul ring from a 1200-year-old soul beast, a result Grandmaster had reached after extensive calculations and considerations.
This time, the hunting location was still the Soul Hunting Forest, although there weren't many top-grade soul beasts in the forest specifically for raising them.
However, given Lu Tianyu's martial soul characteristics, the key factor is the cultivation age of the soul beast.
After entering the Soul Hunting Forest, Grandmaster, Lu Tianyu, and the Dean wandered around with Luo Sanpao for three days before encountering a saber-toothed tiger with a cultivation age of around 1100 years in a valley.
Compared to other tiger-type soul beasts, saber-toothed tigers are not adept at long-distance running and hunting. They prefer to ambush prey in water sources and low bushes.
Once the prey gets close, they suddenly pounce, using their powerful claws to knock it to the ground, and then aim for the prey's neck for a fatal blow.
After selecting the target, Grandmaster did not let Lu Tianyu participate in the hunt, as the strength of a thousand-year-old soul beast is far greater than that of a hundred-year-old soul beast.
Even Grandmaster, with his level 29 soul power, dared not get too close and could only use his two soul skills to provide cover for the Dean.
The aura released by Grandmaster's martial soul, Luo Sanpao, has an extremely strong pungent odor, unbearable even for humans with a less developed sense of smell.
For tiger-type spirit beasts with an exceptionally keen sense of smell, every second was agonizing. It took the old dean half an hour to subdue the saber-toothed tiger.
After all, the difficulty of hunting and subduing are completely different. Only after the saber-toothed tiger was completely incapacitated did Lu Tianyu step forward and deliver the final blow with his steel dagger.
As the saber-toothed tiger breathed its last, Lu Tianyu seemed to see the relieved look in its eyes. For it, those half hours must have been more unbearable than hell.
After the saber-toothed tiger died, all the spirit power within its body was released, condensing into a purple spirit ring in the air.
Seeing the spirit ring appear, the dean sat down cross-legged to recover his spirit power, while Lu Tianyu remained in a state of conserving his energy.
As soon as the saber-toothed tiger's spirit ring appeared, he immediately sat down cross-legged and drew the spirit ring to himself.
Just like when he absorbed the spirit ring of the Vajra Ape, Lu Tianyu's consciousness followed the saber-toothed tiger's spirit ring into the consciousness space of his martial spirit.
This time, three orbs of light were attracted to Lu Tianyu by the saber-toothed tiger's spirit ring. After the orbs came to a stop, several illusory characters appeared above them.
From left to right, the first orb read "White Strike," the second "Steel Fist," and the third "Gentle Fist."
Last time it was a choice between two, but this time it was a choice between three. The White Strike technique needs no introduction.
Steel Fist and Gentle Fist are two completely different styles. Steel Fist is straightforward, with considerable destructive and offensive power.
Gentle Fist, on the other hand, targets the enemy's internal organs and meridians. The Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms and its advanced techniques within Gentle Fist can defend against all physical and solid elemental attacks.
Even with spirit skill locking effects, it can still defend. From this perspective, Gentle Fist's defensive capabilities are far superior to the Iron Block technique in the Six Styles.
After careful consideration, Lu Tianyu chose Gentle Fist, as a technique combining both defense and penetration would be more beneficial to his future path as a spirit master.
After grasping the sphere of light that manifested as a soft fist, a series of soft fist training methods and a physical technique called Bagua Palm: Return to Heaven immediately appeared in Lu Tianyu's mind.
The so-called Bagua Sixty-Four Palms, One Hundred and Twenty-Eight Palms, and Bagua Empty Palm are all advanced skills of the Return to Heaven Palm. Once Lu Tianyu mastered the Return to Heaven Palm, he could naturally execute them.
As Lu Tianyu's consciousness withdrew from his Martial Soul consciousness, he felt something attached to his spine.
It emitted a warm, tingling, and strangely comfortable sensation. However, before Lu Tianyu could investigate further, he felt a surge of soul power flowing into his body from his Martial Soul.
Lu Tianyu could only focus all his attention on suppressing and calming the soul power. Once the surging soul power within him subsided, he opened his eyes.
It was already the next morning. The Dean and the Grandmaster both breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Lu Tianyu awake.
After all, Lu Tianyu absorbed a thousand-year-old spirit ring. Other spirit masters could only absorb spirit rings of up to eight hundred years for their second spirit ring, which completely shattered the spirit master world's understanding of spirit ring age limits.
On the way back to Notting City, the dean kept asking Grandmaster about Lu Tianyu's spirit, but Grandmaster could only vaguely explain that Lu Tianyu's spirit's characteristics allowed him to withstand spirit ring ages that ordinary spirit masters couldn't.
Because of the dean's persistent questioning, Lu Tianyu didn't have a chance to mention the strange feeling in his spine to Grandmaster. They arrived back in Notting City in the afternoon.
Grandmaster instructed Lu Tianyu to have his spirit power level assessed at the Spirit Hall. Firstly, this would allow them to accurately determine Lu Tianyu's spirit power level after absorbing his second spirit ring.
Secondly, after absorbing two spirit rings, Lu Tianyu had become a Great Spirit Master, and his spirit master subsidy from the Spirit Hall had increased from one gold spirit coin per month to ten gold spirit coins per month.
The Grandmaster instructed Lu Tianyu and Tang San to save the gold soul coins they received from the Spirit Hall, as attending intermediate and advanced spirit master academies wouldn't be as costly as attending a primary one.
After the Spirit Hall's evaluation, it was confirmed that Lu Tianyu's spirit power had increased to level twenty-two after absorbing his second spirit ring.
After the date of becoming a Great Spirit Master was inscribed on Lu Tianyu's spirit master's journal, he immediately received his monthly spirit master subsidy.
In fact, Tang San, Lu Tianyu, and Xiao Wu had already received theirs at the beginning of the month, after Lu Tianyu revealed his second spirit ring and received a warm invitation from the Spirit Hall.
However, Lu Tianyu didn't want to participate in the competition between major powers and declined the Spirit Hall's offer.
Upon returning to the Notting Primary Spirit Master Academy, Lu Tianyu didn't even go there; he first sought out the Grandmaster who was instructing Tang San and Xiao Wu in their training.
"Xiaoyu, congratulations on obtaining your second spirit ring and successfully advancing to the rank of Great Spirit Master."
"Brother Xiaoyu, congratulations on advancing to the rank of Great Spirit Master!"
Before Lu Tianyu could even speak, Tang San and Xiao Wu offered their congratulations.
🍀 4RABET 🍀
The master looked at Lu Tianyu and asked, "How is it, Xiaoyu? What level is your soul power?"
"Master, my soul power has reached level twenty-two. But I feel I'll reach level twenty-three soon."
Lu Tianyu answered the master's question truthfully. After listening, the master nodded slightly and said, "That's about what I expected."
"Master, I have something I'd like to ask you."
From the Soul Hunting Forest until now, the warm, tingling sensation on Lu Tianyu's spine had remained.
The master looked at Lu Tianyu and said, "Just ask what's wrong. Why are you hesitating?"
Lu Tianyu glanced at Tang San and Xiao Wu and said, "It's like this, teacher. Ever since I absorbed the saber-toothed tiger's spirit ring, I've felt something attached to my spine."
"It's warm and tingling, quite comfortable, but I can't touch it with my hands."
After hearing Lu Tianyu's words, the master frowned slightly and said, "No wonder you looked so restless in the carriage. Take off your clothes and let me see."
After hearing this, Lu Tianyu hurriedly took off his shirt, revealing his well-defined and muscular physique. Xiao Wu was embarrassed to look and made an excuse to leave.
The master and Tang San looked at Lu Tianyu's back but didn't see anything. The master thought for a moment and said, "Xiaoyu, explain more clearly what you're feeling. There's nothing strange about your back."
Besides feeling a warm and tingling sensation in his spine, Lu Tianyu really couldn't find any other words to describe it.
The master placed his palm on Lu Tianyu's spine to carefully sense it, but found nothing. Therefore, he suspected that Lu Tianyu's condition was related to his second spirit ring.
"Xiaoyu, tell me first what spirit skill you gained after absorbing your second spirit ring. Could the strangeness you mentioned be related to your spirit skill?"
Lu Tianyu didn't know what was going on, but after listening to the master's analysis, he felt that it had nothing to do with his second spirit skill.
However, for now, he could only think about his soul skills. After getting dressed, he looked at the master and said, "Master, my second soul skill is called Gentle Fist. Using Gentle Fist, I can transform my power into a soft yet strong attack, like flowing water or air."
"It can easily penetrate defensive walls to attack internal organs, meridians, and other parts of the body. At the same time, it can also be transformed into a shield to deflect all physical attacks and substantial elemental attacks."
After hearing Lu Tianyu's words, a glint of light flashed in the master's eyes, and he said with some curiosity, "Oh, try attacking me with Gentle Fist."
After hearing the master's words, Lu Tianyu hurriedly shook his head and said, "No, I... I feel that after absorbing the second soul ring, the power of my first soul skill has also been greatly amplified."
"I estimate that I now have about 1,900 to 2,000 Dao Power. The wind blades kicked out by my Storm Kick can probably cause some damage to targets 15 meters away."
"I've only just acquired the Gentle Fist soul skill, and if I don't master it properly, it's easy to injure you, Master. It's best not to try it lightly."
Tang San hurriedly added, "Yes, Master, damage to the internal organs and meridians is very difficult to heal. How about this?"
"Xiao Yu, try striking me with your Gentle Fist. Even if you get injured, I have a way to heal you."
Indeed, Lu Tianyu was also very curious about how powerful the Gentle Fist would be when it formed a soul skill on his body. Actually, Lu Tianyu wasn't concerned about the attack power of the Gentle Fist. Rather, he was concerned about
its so-called 360-degree absolute defense. Although that was a bit of an exaggeration, its defensive power was undoubtedly top-notch.
The Grandmaster knew that Tang San also cultivated other self-created soul skills and seemed to be quite skilled at healing injuries.
After a moment's hesitation,
Lu Tianyu said, "Alright, Xiaoyu, try to control the power." Lu Tianyu nodded slightly and said, "I know. Xiao San, you also need to be careful, because this is my first time using Soft Fist."
Tang San nodded and assumed a fighting stance, secretly unleashing his Xuan Yu Hand. Lu Tianyu took a deep breath and summoned his Martial Soul.
As a two-meter-tall humanoid phantom appeared behind Lu Tianyu, two spirit rings, one yellow and one purple, emerged from the top of Lu Tianyu's head.
"Martial Soul Possession, Second Spirit Skill: Soft Fist."
As Lu Tianyu completed Martial Soul Possession, the purple spirit ring slowly rotating beneath his feet flashed.
Then, Lu Tianyu changed his previous fighting stance, leaning slightly forward and appearing unusually relaxed, raising his right hand and facing Tang San.
After recalling the key points of using Soft Fist, Lu Tianyu slightly stomped his feet on the ground and appeared in front of Tang San, then swiftly thrusting out his right palm to strike Tang San's jade-like left fist.
The moment Tang San's fist touched Lu Tianyu's palm, he felt an explosive force penetrate the Xuan Yu Hand's defenses and enter the meridians and bones of his left hand.
"Crack."
The two fists barely touched, producing a crisp sound, and Tang San's figure quickly retreated several steps before stopping.
Just as Tang San retreated, the force from the Soft Fist had penetrated the meridians and bones of Tang San's left hand, and when it suddenly erupted, it made Tang San's entire left arm go numb.
To be honest, Tang San had secretly circulated his soul power to counteract the penetrating force Lu Tianyu had mentioned, but it hadn't been very effective when the force erupted.
A while later, Tang San's left palm and elbow were swollen, shiny like a large, braised pig's trotter.
Seeing Tang San's swollen arm, the Grandmaster felt a lingering fear. If Lu Tianyu had landed a Soft Fist on his stomach, he probably would have been bedridden for days.
After confirming that Tang San's arm was unharmed, the Grandmaster remembered that the defensive skills of the Soft Fist hadn't been demonstrated yet.
However, when Lu Tianyu demonstrated, he only used the Eight Trigrams Returning Heaven Sixteen Palms.
This was far from being able to deflect all physical and solid elemental attacks. Therefore, to unleash the complete Eight Trigrams Returning Heaven Sixty-Four Palms, Lu Tianyu would need to spend a significant amount of time practicing the Soft Fist technique.
After Lu Tianyu finished demonstrating his second soul skill, the Grandmaster still couldn't figure out what was causing the unusual sensation in Lu Tianyu's spine.