"This is the bead Xiao Hei left after it died?"
Xiao Wu recognized what it was.
"Xiao Hei is Xiao Hei. The Dark Devilgod Tiger is the Dark Devilgod Tiger. Not the same concept."
Chu Chengzhou spoke with a dark face.
Although the Dark Devilgod Tiger summoned spirit Xiao Hei was condensed by the seventh spirit ring, and his seventh spirit ring came from a Dark Devilgod Tiger, the two could not be lumped together.
Besides, as a summoned spirit, Xiao Hei would not leave any bead after death.
"Can it really awaken a domain?"
After carefully examining the black bead in her hand, Zhu Zhuqing blinked, doubt flashing in her eyes.
Something as lofty as a domain should not be so easy to obtain, right?
"Uh… I can only say there's hope, but I don't dare guarantee it one hundred percent."
Chu Chengzhou waved his hand.
Abruptly, Chu Chengzhou recalled something he had long forgotten that was similar to this black bead.
It was the inner core of the Ten-Headed Fierce Sun Serpent he had obtained on the Hell Road in Slaughter City.
He had originally planned to have Xiao Hong refine it, but after leaving Slaughter City, there was a lot going on (busy courting), and he forgot.
Xiao Hong: … You don't love me anymore?
Still not too late. He would arrange it for Xiao Hong shortly.
Without much hesitation, Zhu Zhuqing was about to begin refining the black bead left by the Dark Devilgod Tiger.
Zhu Zhuqing's temperament was undoubtedly very strong-willed. Ever since annulling the engagement with the Star Luo imperial family, she had simply stopped showing it outwardly.
Now that Xiao Wu and Chu Chengzhou had both advanced to Spirit Saint in succession, while she was still lingering at six rings, Spirit Emperor, a sense of urgency naturally rose in her heart.
Though she had Second Sister Ning Rongrong as company and their spirit power ranks were similar, she was a battle Spirit Master while Ning Rongrong was an auxiliary Spirit Master.
If her strength could not keep up with Chu Chengzhou and Xiao Wu, she would become a mere benchwarmer in the future.
Ning Rongrong was different. The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's traits meant that even with an entire major rank less spirit power, she could still provide her buffs without discount, at most consuming more spirit power when using amplification skills.
In short, if anyone among the three sisters might become a vase in the future, the probability was undoubtedly highest for her.
Thus, not wishing to be a vase, Zhu Zhuqing naturally craved greater strength.
But as soon as she began refining, Zhu Zhuqing frowned.
"Evil power?"
Likewise, Chu Chengzhou noticed something wrong at once.
The black bead left by the Dark Devilgod Tiger was indeed an energy crystal, but it was not attribute-less. It contained the multiple attributes of time, space, wind, thunder, darkness, and evil.
Zhu Zhuqing's Nether Civet martial soul had no obvious attribute division. It was an attribute-less martial soul. Time, space, wind, and thunder energies carried no negative effects and could be refined without side effects.
Darkness seemed negative, but it was a simple elemental attribute. As long as the martial soul was not of the light attribute, it posed no problem.
Evil attribute energy was different. It was a purely negative attribute energy. Unless one's martial soul itself carried the evil attribute, it was not suitable for refining.
Forcing refinement could easily cause issues with one's temperament and push one toward becoming an evil Spirit Master.
"Zhuqing, stop for now."
Chu Chengzhou stopped Zhu Zhuqing from continuing.
If this evil power issue was not solved, he could not let Zhu Zhuqing refine it, lest their big kitty turn from a proper Spirit Master toward evil.
"What a pity."
Looking at the black bead in her hand, regret flashed in Zhu Zhuqing's eyes.
She could sense that the bead contained a huge amount of energy. If she could refine it, domains aside, it would at least increase her spirit power by a lot.
Zhu Zhuqing was not wrong. This was an energy crystal condensed by a Dark Devilgod Tiger. In the original work, the black bead from the Dark Devilgod Tiger Tang San hunted even crossed into another world and became a protagonist's golden finger.
Though the Dark Devilgod Tiger that became Chu Chengzhou's seventh spirit ring was under fifty thousand years, inferior in foundation to the sixty-thousand-plus-year tiger Tang San hunted in the original, and because it had sacrificed voluntarily, the energy within this bead was far less than the one that went to the other world, it did not change the fact it held vast energy.
A treasure mountain you cannot enter. Few things are more vexing and regrettable.
"Don't worry. I have a solution. I'll take you there tomorrow."
Chu Chengzhou comforted her.
The issue before Zhu Zhuqing was simply that evil energy would invade while refining the bead, and evil energy, being negative, easily formed hidden dangers.
This was similar to how his killing intent had surged after he committed slaughter in Slaughter City.
Solving it was not hard. He could just find Big Sister Tang Yuehua.
Tang Yuehua's innate domain could already cleanse others' hearts. Now it could purify all negative states. As long as Zhu Zhuqing refined the bead within its range, there would be no worry about evil energy invading the body.
Back then Qian Renxue had been very considerate. "Big Brother Good Little Brother" was not said in vain. The mansion she gifted Chu Chengzhou was quite spacious. Though far from the size of a Spirit Master academy, the estate had a training ground a hundred meters across.
On the training ground, Chu Chengzhou manifested the True Spirit Banner martial soul. The third spirit ring shone, and he summoned the Fire Phoenix summoned spirit, Xiao Hong.
"Clang—"
Seeing no obvious enemy targets, Xiao Hong gave Chu Chengzhou a questioning low cry.
"Here's something good for you."
With that, Chu Chengzhou took out the Ten-Headed Fierce Sun Serpent's inner core that had been gathering dust in his storage soul tool and held it before Xiao Hong.
Of course, "gathering dust" was an exaggeration. A storage soul tool did not connect to the outside. There was no dust within.
"Clang?"
The inner core's aura was restrained, and Xiao Hong's strength was insufficient to sense its energy fluctuations. It could not tell what use this golden-red pellet had.
"Just eat it."
Chu Chengzhou tossed the inner core straight into Xiao Hong's mouth.
"Clang, clang—"
At first bite Xiao Hong sensed nothing. But once the inner core entered its belly and the energy began to spread, Xiao Hong's eyes widened at once. It happily craned its head to nuzzle Chu Chengzhou.
As the inner core's energy released, Xiao Hong clearly felt its cultivation years slowly increasing.
"Quit nuzzling. Refine it properly."
If Xiao Hong could sense its cultivation rising, as the summoner, Chu Chengzhou sensed it too.
He was very satisfied.
The scene before him verified a conjecture. His summoned spirits could increase their years by means other than AFK growth and divine exam rewards.
Since Xiao Hong could increase its years by consuming the Ten-Headed Fierce Sun Serpent's inner core, then Xiao Hei, a lord among evil spirit beasts by species, should also be able to increase cultivation by devouring spirit beasts, no?
Of course, there was no need to go on a spree hunting spirit beasts for Xiao Hei to devour just for this.
He would inevitably kill spirit beasts of a hundred thousand years and above in the future. Even if he controlled their consciousness to sacrifice, bodies would remain. Following the principle of waste utilization, if the corpses were given to Xiao Hei to devour, would Xiao Hei's years not skyrocket?
"By that logic, should my True Spirit Banner martial soul be best matched with spirit rings from evil spirit beasts?"
Chu Chengzhou's thoughts drifted.
The importance of spirit ring years to a Spirit Master was beyond doubt. As the Chu family developed, the True Spirit Banner would certainly be passed down.
But only he had a cheat. His descendants would not.
If spirit ring years could not be raised, the True Spirit Banner would not seem much stronger than other martial souls of the same quality.
Even if a summoned spirit's strength rose greatly once it formed a level disparity with the Spirit Master, it would still not match high-year summoned spirits.
Thus, attaching rings from evil spirit beasts so the formed summoned spirits could increase their years by devouring other spirit beasts seemed necessary.
Of course, whether something was labeled an evil spirit beast did not directly depend on species.
It was just that beasts that could raise cultivation by devouring living beings were basically classified as evil spirit beasts.
But when he imagined his future descendants going "jie jie jie—," Chu Chengzhou hurriedly threw out the idea.
Too terrifying.
Glancing at Xiao Hong refining the Ten-Headed Fierce Sun Serpent inner core, Chu Chengzhou had the servants bring a lounge chair. Lying back, he watched Xiao Hong while testing a new trick.
There was a big gap from his original assumption. He had thought that with time and space attribute spirit power, his arrows could carry heaven-defying temporal or spatial effects.
For example, Arrows of Time Acceleration, hitting before the opponent could react.
Or Space-Jumping Arrows, with arrows crossing space to strike directly.
Reality proved he had thought too much.
Arrows condensed with time or space attribute spirit power did carry those forces, but the effects were minimal.
Arrows of Time Acceleration did speed up a little, but in speed they were inferior to wind-attribute arrows, where speed was an elemental trait.
Space-Jumping Arrows could traverse space, but the distance was very short. Once shot, the arrow vanished, reappeared two meters away, then flew on a normal trajectory.
Barely better than nothing would be generous. These were less than that.
Worse, the time and space effects only appeared on pure time- or space-attribute arrows. Once paired with the Flowing-Gold Armor-Piercing Arrow, the already faint time acceleration and space jump vanished.
No surprise. His comprehension of time and space was insufficient. He had only brushed the surface.
Opening the attribute panel for a look, Chu Chengzhou thought a moment, took the seventh spirit ring out of the eighth AFK slot, and put the Elemental Dominion Skull in its place.
Barring surprises, Xiao Hei could increase its years by devouring spirit beasts.
In that case, there was no need to occupy a precious AFK slot, at least for now. Feed it a few hundred-thousand-year spirit beast corpses and it would basically reach a hundred thousand years.
Comprehending time and space by feel alone was difficult. The Elemental Dominion spirit bone skill could enhance comprehension of all elements, including time and space.
And the higher the bone's years, the stronger the effect. Once its years hit a qualitative change, the effect would rise sharply. AFK-upgrading the Elemental Dominion Skull's years would help his future comprehension of time and space.
Of course, to do a good job, one must first sharpen one's tools. The current comprehension bonus was not large. For now he would set aside time and space and test multi-attribute fusion first.
When the Elemental Dominion Skull reached a hundred thousand years, he would use it to aid his comprehension of time and space.
Aside from time and space, he could now freely convert to wood, light, fire, metal, water, earth, wind, thunder, darkness, and evil—ten attributes.
After thinking it over, Chu Chengzhou decided to test the fusion of earth, water, fire, and wind to see if they could evolve into the Chaos attribute.
He spread his five fingers. On the fingertips of the four fingers other than his thumb, a wisp of earth, water, fire, and wind attribute spirit power rose.
Then the four fingers drew close. The four attribute powers touched. He controlled them to merge.
At once the four wisps at his fingertips rioted. The four different attribute powers then lost control together and dissipated into the air.
"Insufficient spirit power control?"
Chu Chengzhou raised a brow.
But if earth, water, fire, and wind could really fuse into Chaos, perhaps his self-assessed control was indeed lacking?
Thinking a bit, Chu Chengzhou lowered his sights and tried dual-attribute fusion first.
Wind feeds fire. Among the four, wind-fire fusion should be the easiest.
The next second, green light representing wind rose from his left hand, and red light representing fire rose from his right. His hands slowly came together as he controlled them to merge.
At once he felt a repulsion, like forcing two identical poles of strong magnets together.
Dual-attribute fusion was not the same as simple superposition.
Superposition was stacking a gold ingot and a silver ingot together. Fusion was smelting them into an electrum alloy. The difficulty gap was enormous.
Fortunately the repulsion was not as strong as in the four-attribute attempt. It did not trigger a riot. With his current control, it would not slip out of control immediately.
"Eliminating this repulsion completely should be the perfect fusion of wind and fire, right?"
Chu Chengzhou thought to himself.
Chu Chengzhou: Hmph, annoying.
With the sun leaning west and sunset's afterglow falling, Chu Chengzhou kept testing wind-fire fusion from his lounge chair.
As for results?
He was not sure if it was an illusion, but the repulsion between the two attributes during fusion did feel slightly weaker.
"Clang—"
Just then, a phoenix cry filled with nobility rang out.
Sensing movement from Xiao Hong's side, Chu Chengzhou rose to offer his satisfaction.
Suddenly, his keen senses felt a wave of scorching heat. He rushed to shield himself with protective spirit power.
The next moment, a ring of crimson light spread at high speed, covering the entire training ground.
"Crap."
Seeing the crimson light covering the whole field, Chu Chengzhou was first delighted, then cursed and hurriedly recalled Xiao Hong.
A second later, the crimson glow vanished, revealing the training ground's originally hard surface now blazing hot with faint signs of melting.
Fortunately there were no servants in the training field. Otherwise Xiao Hong's earlier domain spread would have caused accidental injuries.
Yes, the crimson fire that had covered the training ground was Xiao Hong awakening the Fire Phoenix's exclusive domain for beast or Spirit Master alike: Phoenix Domain.
Summoning Xiao Hong again and scolding it, Chu Chengzhou then broke into a satisfied smile.
After refining the Ten-Headed Fierce Sun Serpent inner core, the Fire Phoenix summoned spirit Xiao Hong not only awakened the Phoenix Domain and soared in strength, but its years rose from the original ten thousand to just over thirty thousand, exceeding his expectations.
Phoenix Domain. The domain was filled with scorching phoenix flame. Within it, phoenix flame power rose by 50%, and so long as the domain was unbroken, the Fire Phoenix was undying, able to be reborn through phoenix flame at any time.
Though summoned spirits did not fear death, the undying effect attached to Xiao Hong's Phoenix Domain was very useful.
A summoned spirit could not be resummoned immediately after death. It needed time to recover. Summoning also consumed a considerable amount of Chu Chengzhou's spirit power.
The pity was that Xiao Hong had not grown multiple heads like Ma Hongjun's martial soul in the original.
But multiple heads did not matter. In Chu Chengzhou's view, multi-headed monsters did not fit his aesthetics.
Besides, in the Douluo universe, true powerhouses were never multi-headed monsters.
Today was one of the six nights each month he was "permitted" to stay out. After dinner, Chu Chengzhou left home and met Hu Liena. The two strolled the Heaven Dou City night market.
The little fox was a fiancée, not a call buddy. Happiness did involve battle, but not only battle.
After a bout of shopping, they headed to the Heaven Dou Grand Hotel.
In the room, after discussing the Dao of Yin and Yang together, a sweat-soaked Hu Liena collapsed limply in Chu Chengzhou's arms.
Chatting idly, Hu Liena brought up business. "Your dear big brother Xue Qinghe sent someone to the temple with a message. He's inviting me to lunch in three days. What do you think he wants?"
Hu Liena recalled how that afternoon the Heaven Dou Crown Prince Xue Qinghe had sent someone to the temple with a formal invitation.
"Xue Qinghe inviting you?"
Hearing this, Chu Chengzhou raised a brow.
"Mm. No idea what trick is in it."
Hu Liena nodded.
"Relax. Xue Qinghe is one of us."
"One of us?"
Hu Liena blinked, confused.
She knew Chu Chengzhou was close with Xue Qinghe. But Xue Qinghe was the Heaven Dou Empire's heir and future emperor. Even if they were close in ordinary times, you could not trust such a person without reservation, right?
None are more unfeeling than the imperial house.
"You'll know when the time comes."
Chu Chengzhou did not explain.
If he guessed right, the Heaven Dou Empire would soon face upheaval. Qian Renxue might be preparing to take the throne early.
If Qian Renxue planned a palace coup to ascend, she would certainly need to mobilize the Heaven Dou branch of Spirit Hall.
Mobilizing the Heaven Dou Spirit Hall could hardly escape the notice of Hu Liena, who was both Spirit Hall Saintess and held office in the Heaven Dou temple.
Hu Liena was Bibi Dong's personal disciple and the current Saintess. She was not an outsider. Even if she learned the truth, she would not leak it.
In other words, Qian Renxue's banquet for Hu Liena likely had no other purpose than to come clean and give advance notice.
"By the way, Nana, get ready. In a while I'll take you to a special place to train. It's special. You probably won't be back for a few years."
"That long? Where?"
"Sea God Island. It's a divine inheritance ground left by a deity. Training there raises strength far faster than slogging away on your own."
Chu Chengzhou did not hide it.
He and Xiao Wu were leveling fast. The other girls were not slow either.
Hu Liena was now rank 67, Spirit Emperor. Zhu Zhuqing 66. Ning Rongrong 65. With the Nine-Breath Breathing meditation and latent immortal herb power, at most half a year more and Hu Liena, currently the highest, would break through to rank 70.
If Zhu Zhuqing refined the Dark Devilgod Tiger's black bead, the time would be even shorter.
Before the fastest among Hu Liena or Zhu Zhuqing broke through rank 70, he planned to take his four girls to Sea God Island to freeload the big spender.
Not only to freeload god-gifted spirit rings, but best if one of his girls freeloaded the Sea God godhood too.
At present the Douluo God Realm seemed to have only five God Kings. Though Sea God Poseidon had not been a god for long, his strength was just below the five God Kings. His godhood was no ordinary prize.
"Sea God Island? If I remember right, Spirit Hall once sent people to conquer it, but failed.
That force is at odds with Spirit Hall. I am Spirit Hall's Saintess. They probably won't welcome me."
Blinking, Hu Liena spoke uncertainly.
Hearing this, Chu Chengzhou curled his lip. "If you don't say it and I don't say it, how would they know you're Spirit Hall's Saintess?"
Sea God Island had little contact with the continent and was practically isolated. They might not even know who the current Pope was, let alone Hu Liena as Saintess.
Any Spirit Master belonging to Sea God Island could take the Sea God trials. They could switch camps temporarily and join Sea God Island.
If his four girls could get the Sea God Nine Trials, there would be no need to worry about "born of Sea God Island, die as Sea God Island's ghost" and never leaving.
If they did not get the Nine Trials, then he would wait until his wings were hard and go fish them out.
Without a Titled Douluo rank and a million-year summoned spirit in hand, Chu Chengzhou would not dare act rashly before the half-god Bo Saixi.
As for himself… Chu Chengzhou was certain he had over a ninety percent chance of obtaining the Sea God Nine Trials.
Excluding twin martial souls, in talent and strength he now far surpassed Tang San when Tang San first went to Sea God Island in the original.
But with a cheat in hand, Chu Chengzhou would not dare become the Sea God's successor. If Poseidon discovered something fishy later and wanted to dissect him for study, it would be over.
In any case, while Sea God Island was exclusive, it was not to the point that stepping ashore and refusing to join would get you hunted down.
T/N: For up to 30 chapters ahead on most of my translations, become a p@tron at [email protected]/LordHipposApostle