Xu Yuan had no intention of touching any spirit souls related to dragon bloodlines.
In this world, the pitfalls of dragon bloodlines were simply too terrifying. Once tainted by dragon bloodline power, one essentially became part of the hierarchical system of dragons.
If someone possessed stronger bloodline power than you, you could only accept your fate.
Of course, there was still room for improvement. For instance, the path Xu Yuan prepared for Jiang Wuyue was genuinely helping him gradually enhance his bloodline and future potential.
However, the Golden Dragon King and Silver Dragon King remained two insurmountable mountains in front of him.
"By the way, what about Xiao Jia?"
Jiang Wuyue's spirit soul fusion was complete, and Xu Yuan suddenly remembered that he had brought back a little armored creature from the Demon Plane.
The Mountain Dragon King pointed towards the depths of the Dragon Graveyard.
"Xiao Jia's situation is different from your soul masters. He is a true member of the dragon race. Absorbing higher-level bloodline power isn't as quick for him as it is for soul masters. He is currently in seclusion, digesting my Mountain Dragon King bloodline power."
Xu Yuan understood.
He also knew that soul masters were a rather special group.
Actually, not just soul masters; the human race itself had extraordinary adaptability. As a unique system, whether in terms of bloodline or attribute enhancement, soul masters could rapidly achieve progress through the existence of martial souls.
Especially when obtaining soul rings.
"Since that's the case, I won't disturb him. Wuyue, quickly get used to your current state. I'm preparing to challenge the Spirit Pagoda. You might need to come with me."
Jiang Wuyue already possessed an ancestral Tyrant Dragon spirit. Hence, whether it was his eighth or ninth soul ring, he wouldn't need another spirit. Thus, this trip into the Spirit Pagoda was purely to resolve Xu Yuan's early troubles and, at the same time, use the pagoda's spirits to hone himself and adapt to his newfound power.
"It seems the value of the Dragon Valley is greater than I imagined."
After hearing Xu Yuan's account, Yun Ming realized that the Tyrant Dragon spirit Jiang Wuyue fused was comparable to a Ferocious Beast soul ring with the equivalent of five hundred thousand years of cultivation. This made him value the Dragon Valley even more.
Any great dragon buried in the Dragon Valley graveyard might have been at least a hundred-thousand-year spirit beast level before death. It was estimated that many powerful dragons were equivalent to Fierce Beasts before dying.
No, that wasn't quite right. It should be said that the spirits converted from these dragons in their current state were at least calculated as such.
These dragons might have been divine-level beings or even deities in their lifetimes.
Therefore, theoretically, producing divine-level soul rings was possible. However, due to the passage of time and changing circumstances, these dragons had been dead for eons, losing most of their power. Apart from a few special cases, most dragons left behind only the energy in their bones, which could be used as energy for converting spirits.
Even so, such residual energy was sufficient to condense ferocious beast-level spirits!
With so many potential high-level spirits, the value of the Dragon Valley naturally increased significantly.
However, obtaining these spirits would certainly require dragon-type soul masters.
"So far, there are only a few students in the academy suitable for dragon-type spirits, but none of them can fuse with the spirits in the Dragon Valley. None of the leading figures possess dragon-type martial souls." Yun Ming thought to himself.
As the master of the Sea God Pavilion, he had a good grasp of the academy's situation. However, he would only observe without intervening or commenting most of the time.
Currently, the situation at Shrek Academy was that the leading figures didn't need them, while those who could benefit from the Dragon Valley hadn't met the criteria.
Thus, although the Dragon Valley was valuable, its current utility was limited. It merely added a significant foundation to Shrek.
"Tang Wulin should be able to handle the Dragon Valley's spirits," Yun Ming suddenly thought of Tang Wulin. "But his bloodline can naturally generate soul rings. His Blue Silver Emperor martial soul absorbing dragon-type spirits would actually be detrimental."
So, in the end, there were no suitable students in the inner court to absorb the Dragon Valley spirits?
Among the inner court students Yun Ming could think of, Yu Yuanfeng was the most suitable to fuse new spirits in the Dragon Valley.
Yu Yuanfeng was the team leader when Xu Yuan, before entering the outer court, went with Ye Xinglan and Xu Lizhi to participate in the Tianhai Competition. That exchange match was also part of Yu Yuanfeng's inner court assessment.
Yu Yuanfeng and Yue Zhengyu had something in common. Both came from influential backgrounds and entered Shrek through special means. Yu Yuanfeng and Yue Zhengyu were the same age, and similar to Yue Zhengyu, they didn't train at the academy. Instead, they trained in their families until reaching Soul Sage, then underwent the inner court assessment.
He passed the assessment and returned to his family for further training.
This situation was common at Shrek. Many secluded sects and families with good relations with Shrek did the same.
Of course, after breaking through to Soul King, Yu Yuanfeng didn't stay in his family anymore but consistently trained in the inner court.
Even the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Dragon Family could only provide him with a training environment up to level fifty. After level fifty, the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Dragon Family wasn't incapable of continuing his cultivation, but staying at Shrek offered better cost-effectiveness.
"This Yu Yuanfeng directly absorbed a ten-thousand-year soul ring for his fourth soul ring, using one of the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Dragon Family's quotas for this century. He was considered the pillar they intended to cultivate in this generation, receiving extraordinary treatment. Unfortunately, he fell slightly short."
Yu Yuanfeng's fourth ring was ten thousand years, and naturally, his fifth ring was also ten thousand years. Moreover, he was close to breaking through to the sixth ring, which indeed qualified him to attempt a hundred-thousand-year soul ring.
While he qualified for a soul ring, spirit souls were out of the question.
Because he had lost the condition to fuse with a hundred-thousand-year spirit soul.
"Pity, he now has two spirit souls."
Among the hundred-thousand-year dragon-type spirit souls within Shrek, the best ones were already occupied by Long Yeyue, Zhuo Shi, and Feng Wuyu. Yu Yuanfeng could only wait for these spirit souls to be recycled, so the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Dragon Family didn't consider letting him absorb a hundred-thousand-year spirit soul for his sixth and seventh rings.
According to traditional cultivation logic, Yu Yuanfeng's development route was to strive for all-black soul rings for the first eight rings and aim for a hundred-thousand-year soul ring for the ninth ring. This was already considered excellent in traditional logic. Figures like Zhuo Shi and Feng Wuyu, who had purple soul rings, were actually a step below Yu Yuanfeng if they followed normal progression.
Of course, Zhuo Shi and Feng Wuyu were grassroots geniuses.
Yu Yuanfeng now had two spirit souls. His first spirit soul was a purple thousand-year one, and his second spirit soul was already ten thousand years.
This was also the heritage of a secluded family.
Can the Ascension Platform steadily upgrade a thousand-year spirit soul to ten thousand years?
Secluded families had unique methods, though they couldn't guarantee one hundred percent success, it was a stable path.
Of course, it only worked for special spirit souls suitable for their inherited martial souls.
Yu Yuanfeng's first and second spirit souls were suitable for the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Dragon martial soul.
"If the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus Dragon Family had invested a few more pieces of whale glue when Yu Yuanfeng was at level thirty, allowing him to advance to Soul Sage with three purple rings, then hunt a ten-thousand-year soul beast for his fourth soul ring, subsequently upgrading his first spirit soul to ten thousand years and granting him the fifth soul ring, his future would be completely different now."
Yun Ming sighed.
It was just a small difference.
According to Yun Ming's assumption, Yu Yuanfeng could now have five ten-thousand-year soul rings enhancing his physique.
In that case, Yu Yuanfeng at the sixth ring could attempt to enter the Dragon Valley and fuse with a hundred-thousand-year or even ferocious beast spirit!
What a pity.
Xu Yuan naturally didn't know what Yun Ming was thinking.
"Teacher, I'm preparing to challenge the Spirit Pagoda."
Yun Ming's thoughts returned, and he stopped lamenting the missed opportunity for Yu Yuanfeng.
"Hmm, you're at level seventy now. It's time to fuse with a new spirit soul. Given your current situation, a hundred-thousand-year spirit soul is inevitable. You should have seen the hundred-thousand-year spirit souls in the academy. It seems there aren't any suitable for you?"
"It's not that there aren't any suitable for me, just that the suitable ones don't match my martial souls." Xu Yuan said helplessly.
He had made a decision.
First, continue focusing on the Brain martial soul.
The brain martial soul represented his spiritual power limit.
Adding a hundred-thousand-year spirit soul to the brain martial soul, along with the rapid increase in soul power, would allow him to quickly enter the Spirit Domain realm through spiritual feedback.
Once he broke through the Spirit Domain realm, the Heavenly Origin Brush martial soul could fuse with the academy's hundred-thousand-year spirit soul.
Given his current situation, increasing soul power wasn't difficult.
His spiritual power had already reached eighteen thousand, very close to twenty thousand.
"Hmm, your choice is correct. Although cultivating soul power and spiritual power are parallel processes, under our current circumstances, prioritizing the increase in spiritual power must take precedence." Yun Ming reminded Xu Yuan.
Xu Yuan's gaze flickered.
Had there been some new discovery?
After all, although Yun Ming had previously required him to cultivate his spiritual power, he had never said that its priority should be placed first.
"This is something I recently realized during my own cultivation. When a soul master reaches the system's upper limit, further breakthroughs require more than just meeting power requirements. The demands for insight are very high."
Pure power breakthroughs were just extreme sublimations, bursts of power.
Because there was no path, if you forcibly jumped out, you would eventually fall back, plummeting into an abyss.
For a stable breakthrough, you needed to pave the path first, then consider the breakthrough.
Alternatively, while jumping out, you could create temporary bridges beneath you to maintain your divine state.
Yun Ming explained his understanding to Xu Yuan, who easily grasped Yun Ming's meaning. Normal breakthroughs only required sufficient power, but as pioneers, they had to follow the path of insight. Insight first, then steady progress.
At the same time, he felt a stir in his heart.
"Has teacher started paving the way?" Xu Yuan asked curiously.
"I owe it to your Dream Space for giving me ideas." Yun Ming replied.
"Dream Space?" Xu Yuan's heart stirred, and he suggested, "Since it's related to the Dream Space, teacher can go check out the Blood God Legion. The evolution of the Yidi should give teacher some inspiration."
"Yidi?" Yun Ming was puzzled.
Xu Yuan explained the origin and characteristics of the Yidi.
A glimmer of curiosity flashed in Yun Ming's eyes.
Based on what Xu Yuan said, this Yidi was very helpful for paving the way.
Before Yun Ming could speak, nine dragon souls emerged from Xu Yuan's body.
"You mean the spatial passage merged with your Dream Space, existing in a semi-real and semi-illusory state?" This was spoken by the Light Dragon King.
Xu Yuan nodded affirmatively.
"But it's not my Dream Space. It's a new Dream Space I constructed purely with stellar energy, integrated into that spatial passage. Now it's filled with stellar energy, the primal energy of Douluo Star, and abyssal energy. Even the Abyss can't suppress the use of soul master martial souls and soul power within the passage."
"That's a celestial phenomenon." The Light Dragon King said.
"Celestial phenomenon?"
"Yes, special zones born in cosmic space, based on cosmic space but possessing many plane-like characteristics. Additionally, their origins vary widely."
The Light Dragon King educated Xu Yuan on celestial phenomena.
Not only Xu Yuan but Yun Ming listened carefully too.
These nine dragon kings were quite knowledgeable.
"There are celestial phenomena born from elemental disturbances, filled internally with corresponding elemental powers. After a long period of evolution, these elemental powers merge with stellar energy, forming various strange elements, such as Strange Fire, Mysterious Water, Heavenly Thunder, and Divine Wind. These strange elements accumulate over long periods and exist in special forms, such as the birth of fire seeds, which practitioners can absorb and integrate to master these special elements. For example, there's a strange fire called Chi Jin Xuan Yan (Red Gold Mysterious Flame), which burns everything and gives flames a metallic penetrating effect and can purify bloodlines."
A glint of surprise flashed in Xu Yuan's eyes.
Strange Fire?
What is this supposed to mean?
"The most common Mysterious Water is Heavy Water. A single drop of water might weigh as much as a mountain. Once mastered by a practitioner, its destructive power is unimaginable. Any water-based skill infused with Heavy Water will undergo a qualitative change."
"Heavenly Thunder…"
Listening to the Light Dragon King's explanation, Xu Yuan also recognized the peculiar treasures in the Douluo universe.
"Besides elemental disturbances, there are also celestial phenomena caused by spatial chaos, with dense spatial elements inside, but also extremely dangerous. They can also nurture special treasures, many of which have the potential to become divine artifacts. If the phenomenon is strong enough, nurturing super divine artifacts isn't impossible either."
"These two are the most common types of celestial phenomena. What Xu Yuan described about the mutation of the spatial passage is quite special, resulting from the fusion of real and illusory spaces. I'm not sure exactly what treasures it will nurture, but they are definitely extremely precious. If possible, it's best to seize them because the root of this celestial phenomenon lies in your original Dream Space."
"In that case, I really need to visit this celestial phenomenon." Yun Ming said, "If it truly nurtures some special treasures and the Abyss takes them, it would be equivalent to weakening our side."
He pondered for a moment and told Xu Yuan, "I'll handle some academy affairs first and try to accompany you to the Blood God Legion when you return."
After speaking, Yun Ming notified the other pavilion masters and prepared to convene the Sea God Pavilion meeting.
Xu Yuan didn't stay on Sea God Island but returned to the dormitory.
He contacted his uncle Xu Shengqun and asked him to help apply for two spots in the Spirit Pagoda.
The spots in the Spirit Pagoda are perceived as rare and precious, but in reality, they weren't. Compared to the Ascension Platform, where external circulation of slots was nearly fixed, the Spirit Pagoda operated on an application system.
As long as you passed the application, you could enter.
The so-called rarity lay in its difficulty to pass. Without internal connections or proper arrangements, it was hard to get through.
Xu Yuan naturally wasn't worried about this. He was more concerned about whether there were suitable spirit souls for him in the Spirit Pagoda.
This call to Xu Shengqun was also to ask him to help investigate.
Tianhai City.
Xu Shengqun ended the communication, his brows furrowed.
"So, Xiao Yuan is really going to challenge the Spirit Pagoda?"
Xu Shengqun found a letter, opened the envelope, took out the letter, and looked at Xu Zhi's last words, falling into deep thought.
"So, what exactly did Xiao Zhi prepare? How could he predict events so many years later?"
There were two requests in the letter regarding Xu Yuan challenging the tower.
One was the phantom beast Xu Yuan obtained.
The other was about to come true now.
"There's a spirit soul I left in the Spirit Pagoda. It's one I extracted and researched. Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be dispatched. Brother Qun, you'll need to help manipulate it."
"After he fuses with this spirit soul, let him check the place I marked when he has time."
The entire letter's last words had reached the final step.
"It's clearly a zone of spatial chaos, nothing special." Xu Shengqun looked at Xu Zhi's last sentence, and the coordinates Xu Zhi left behind, feeling very puzzled.
He had been there.
Back then, the creation of paper spirit souls was done in a spatial crack with dense spatial power found nearby, but he didn't find anything particularly special left by Xu Zhi.
"Never mind, Xiao Zhi told me to remind Xiao Yuan this way, so I'll do as he said."
Xu Shengqun put the letter back in its place and stopped thinking.
If he couldn't figure it out, he wouldn't think about it.
These two surely had some special secrets.
Xu Yuan only waited about ten minutes before receiving a call back from Xu Shengqun.
"Hey, Uncle, are there any suitable spirit souls for me?"
Xu Yuan was somewhat expectant.
The Spirit Pagoda had hundred-thousand-year spirit souls starting from the thirty-sixth floor, totaling one hundred and eight floors!
Richer than Shrek's collection.
"I roughly checked the spirit soul data in the Spirit Pagoda. There are spirit souls suitable for your Heavenly Origin Brush martial soul, but the one originally suitable for your brain martial soul has already been fused by Han Tianyi."
Han Tianyi, a Limit Douluo of the Spirit Pagoda Tower, whose martial soul was the Spirit Brain, was also the continent's foremost illusion master.
His martial soul was also brain, and as a high-ranking member of the Spirit Pagoda Tower, he had long taken the hundred-thousand-year spirit soul suitable for brain martial souls.
Xu Yuan frowned involuntarily.
Fused by another soul master with a Brain martial soul?
"However, there's a nearly ten-thousand-year spirit soul close to mutating. After fusing with you, it should break through." Xu Shengqun's voice continued, "Do you want to give it a try?"
Ten-thousand-year spirit soul?
Close to mutating?
Should be able to break through to ten thousand years?
Xu Yuan's brows furrowed, and he began to consider, "Uncle wouldn't settle for letting someone of my caliber fuse with anything less than a hundred-thousand-year spirit soul."
With such a foundation, regardless of which martial soul, the next soul ring should be a hundred-thousand-year one.
As a Spirit Pagoda Envoy and in the prime of contending for the Pagoda Master position, Xu Shengqun would undoubtedly do his utmost to find a suitable hundred-thousand-year spirit soul for him.
Suggesting he absorb a ten-thousand-year spirit soul at this point?
Xu Yuan raised a question.
"Uncle, what kind of soul beast is this ten-thousand-year spirit soul?"
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