In the next moment, thousands of flying insects burst forth from the sunflower patch, and many peculiar-looking creatures quickly fled the ground, clearly all soul beasts that had cultivated with the sunflowers.
"Those are mutated fire attribute dual-type slimes and solar holy beetles. I wonder if their ages are suitable for me to reach the Great Soul Master and Soul Sovereign levels…"
Upon seeing these two types of soul beasts mixed in, Xu Yang, who had been quietly observing from the tree, immediately straightened up with wide eyes. He never expected to see these two soul beasts here.
Slimes are extremely common elemental martial spirits, comparable in quality to blue silver grass among plants, and are mostly water attribute. Due to their inherent characteristics, they can easily mutate into slimes of other attributes, so they can have any attribute.
Even so, slimes have a very singular method of attack and are generally considered weak.
However, slimes possess a unique ability that can be inherited as a soul skill by weapon martial spirits: their ability to split and merge. This characteristic is fundamental to their survival; as long as their core remains intact, they can recover in a short time.
Weapon martial spirits and elemental martial spirit soul masters who absorb slime spirit rings will definitely gain the splitting soul skill, especially elemental martial spirit soul masters who will inherit this characteristic without fail.
The soul skill is quite simple: it allows the user to continuously split their weapon martial spirit into two, then four, and so on, and after splitting, they can re-merge back into one.
In contrast to slimes, solar holy beetles are much more famous; they are one of the few high-level insect-type soul beasts. They excel at shaping soul power and are renowned for a move where they condense a holy sword on their horns. This attack can ignore defenses against energy blasts and strike at lightning speed from above. Generally, no soul beast or soul master of equivalent level can evade it.
This type of soul beast can grant elemental soul masters weapon-like soul skills similar to the Blue Silver Overlord Spear, typically manifesting as a holy sword.
When Xu Yang saw the introduction of this soul beast in the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, he speculated that Qian Renxue's Holy Sword was likely derived from this soul beast. In his view, the essence of this soul skill should be about condensing and shaping soul skills since some solar holy beetles do not condense holy swords but instead form armor around themselves. This indicates that the use of this soul skill mainly depends on the user.
After studying the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School's collection, he had chosen his second and third spirit rings based on this information. He originally planned to have disciples scout for these two types of soul beasts when he was close to a breakthrough but unexpectedly encountered them right after obtaining his first spirit ring.
While Xu Yang was still in shock, Ning Haiyan had already reached above the golden-edged sunflower. With a firm grip from his left hand, he yanked it out of the ground entirely before turning towards Xu Yang's direction and rushing over.
Plant-type soul beasts share similar characteristics with plants; they have incredible vitality. Even if their roots are pulled from the soil, they won't lose life immediately—this is why Ning Haiyan acted so roughly.
After Ning Haiyan left, the sunflower sea that had closed its buds reopened once more.
"Young Master, kill it and absorb its spirit ring! I'll protect you!"
Ning Haiyan tossed the suitable sunflower in front of Xu Yang and instructed him.
Xu Yang nodded at this command. He took out a dagger from his storage ring and began chopping at the roots of the sunflower. For plants, roots are the source of life; if they are damaged, the plant will eventually die—this also applies to plant-type soul beasts at least for those under ten thousand years old.
After breaking apart the roots, Xu Yang discovered that this golden-edged sunflower was still alive. He couldn't help but marvel at its vitality. With another swift cut, he severed its main stem to finally end its life.
Immediately, a deep yellow spirit ring floated above the corpse of the sunflower.
Xu Yang quickly sheathed his dagger and sat cross-legged on the ground to calm himself. He summoned his martial spirit and began guiding and absorbing the spirit ring according to the methods recorded in meditation techniques.
As soon as the spirit ring enveloped his solar martial spirit, Xu Yang felt an immense energy surge into his body—this energy was hot and violent. Upon entering his body, it began to roam wildly as if trying to destroy him from within.
Fortunately, having consumed whale resin before and consciously training his body regularly had greatly enhanced his physical quality beyond that of an average soul master. Once in meditation mode, he utilized his own soul power and mental strength to guide this energy within manageable limits.
In the original text, Yu Xiaogang managed to research some aspects of meridian existence; thus, it was natural for the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School's meditation techniques—which have been passed down for thousands of years—to also contain studies related to this area. Although it may not be as thorough as traditional Chinese medicine's ancient practices concerning bodily studies over millennia, it still has records regarding mainstream meridians used for cultivation and application of soul skills that can form basic circulatory paths.
Now Xu Yang was using his own soul power to direct this energy along these meridians for continuous digestion.
He didn't want to delve too deeply into meridians; that knowledge accumulated over thousands of years in China couldn't be fully grasped by him in just a few years. However, he wasn't worried because he once heard a theory that resonated with him: "When water is full, it overflows."
The dantian is like a reservoir holding water; meridians act like rivers draining water away. Once his soul power fills this reservoir completely, any excess will naturally flow through these rivers. When enough accumulation occurs within them, they will clear any blockages—thus allowing all meridians to become unobstructed. This is what is meant by "when water is full, it overflows."
Therefore, he needed to focus more on his own soul power and its applications rather than wasting time on meridian studies.
Perhaps due to the high compatibility between his solar martial spirit and sunflower soul beast—even though it had seven hundred years of cultivation—it didn't cause much harm to his body during absorption; everything went exceptionally smoothly without taking much time at all.
Boom!
As he completely absorbed the energy of the spirit ring, Xu Yang felt an increase in his dantian's soul power—it transformed from a trickling stream into a winding river; what initially converted only a trace of solar energy increased by ten percent!
He succeeded!
Xu Yang was ecstatic!
Not only did he successfully absorb his first spirit ring but also drew closer to aligning with his solar martial spirit.
Moreover, under the refining influence of this pure solar energy—a force embodying utmost yang—his body grew even stronger, comparable to that of a Soul Sovereign-level battle master.
Most importantly, he instinctively felt capable of drawing together solar energy from within a hundred-meter radius around him; although he couldn't condense it into shape yet, assisting in cultivation would definitely be no problem—even the consumption features of that first spirit skill felt minimal.
When he stood up again, he felt filled with power; even punching down a cow seemed trivial.
However, he also understood that this was merely an illusion caused by an abrupt surge in strength—not an indication that he truly possessed such power.
(End of chapter)