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One year later.
Two figures, one large and one small, walked through the Soul Hunting Forest located four hundred miles northeast of Nuoding City.
Three years after his martial soul awakening, at the age of nine, Chu Chengzhou had finally raised his innate half-level soul power to level 10—a pseudo-Soul Master.
Chu Chengzhou: Three years, three years, and another three years—I can finally become a soul master!
[Attribute Panel]
- Host: Chu Chengzhou
- Soul Power: Level 10 Soul Trainee
- Martial Soul: True Spirit Flag
- Skills: Meditation (Purple), Body Refinement (Yellow), Spirit Refinement (Yellow)
Another year had passed, and the martial soul that had occupied one of the two AFK slots for cultivation had finally reached top-tier quality.
As a top-tier martial soul with no inherent flaws, the original limit of six soul rings for the Elemental Summoning Flag had disappeared. As long as he could break through bottlenecks, Chu Chengzhou could cultivate all the way to the nine-ring Title Douluo level.
Moreover, after the martial soul's transformation, the suppressed summoning bloodline—previously capped below top-tier quality—had also risen to just below the god level.
Additionally, after the transformation, the summoned beings would possess intelligence.
As a primate, Chu Chengzhou fully understood the importance of intelligence.
If the summoned beings lacked intelligence, he would face a severe weakness.
That is, if he were controlled by a spirit-type soul master, without his guidance, the summoned beings—lacking intelligence—would become mindless beasts with only strength and no brains.
In such a situation, they would inevitably be defeated one by one.
However, if the summoned beings possessed intelligence, this scenario would no longer be possible.
Furthermore, intelligent summoned beings, once trained, could operate without Chu Chengzhou's direct command. They wouldn't fight alone but instead act like a well-coordinated soul master team, defeating stronger enemies.
It was precisely because of this intelligence that Chu Chengzhou named his transformed martial soul the "True Spirit Flag."
Of course, this wasn't even the most important aspect. The most critical point was that after his martial soul evolved into the True Spirit Flag, his soul power cultivation speed increased further!
To put it in perspective, if the cultivation speed of an ordinary-quality Summoning Flag was rated as 1, then the high-quality Elemental Summoning Flag would be rated as 2. Now, with the top-tier True Spirit Flag, the cultivation speed reached 3.
Though the increase wasn't double the previous rate, Chu Chengzhou was still satisfied.
With a top-tier martial soul combined with his current Purple tier Meditation skill, his soul power cultivation speed, while not quite matching that of someone with full innate soul power, wouldn't lag far behind either.
The benefits of AFK cultivation for his martial soul were immense. Originally, Chu Chengzhou had planned to continue cultivating it further.
However, when he saw that upgrading the True Spirit Flag to god-tier quality would require ten times the duration—an entire ten thousand days—he immediately abandoned the idea.
Jokingly speaking, ten thousand days equaled more than twenty-seven years. Such a long period was clearly beyond what he could afford to invest.
Still, based on his calculations, the efficiency of AFK cultivation should improve significantly in the future. God-tier martial souls could wait for later.
After all, among the younger generation of soul masters on the continent, in terms of martial soul quality alone, only Qian Renxue surpassed him.
Coincidentally, he had grown dissatisfied with the diminishing returns of his yellow-tier Body Refinement skill. He decisively removed his martial soul from the first AFK slot and replaced it with the Body Refinement skill.
"Little Chengzhou, have you decided to choose the Sky Azure Tree for your first soul ring?"
In the forest, Su Nan asked Chu Chengzhou.
"Mm-hmm, though it's not absolute. A healing-type spirit beast from six or seven hundred years ago would also work."
Chu Chengzhou first nodded, then shook his head.
His martial soul differed from many others on the continent—it had no specific bias. Any soul ring from any spirit beast in the world could be attached to it.
However, considering his own cultivation needs, Chu Chengzhou chose a healing-type spirit beast for his first summoned being.
In the world of soul masters, if there were a ranking for healing-type martial souls, the Nine-Heart Begonia would undoubtedly top the list.
Among spirit beasts, barring a few rare super-species too scarce to form sizable populations, the Emerald Swan ranked highest among healing-type spirit beasts.
But healing-type spirit beasts were relatively rare in the spirit beast forests, let alone the top-ranked Emerald Swan.
Moreover, the spirit beast forest he visited was merely the artificially enclosed Soul Hunting Forest of the Tian Dou Empire. Its diversity of martial souls couldn't compare to the Great Star Dou Forest. Top spirit beasts like the Emerald Swan were out of the question.
On the other hand, the Sky Azure Tree—a widespread plant-type healing spirit beast—could be found in most major Soul Hunting Forests across the continent.
Though the Sky Azure Tree wasn't renowned in the spirit beast world and its bloodline wasn't particularly strong—indeed, no soul master had ever seen a thousand-year Sky Azure Tree—for Chu Chengzhou, the bloodline level of the target spirit beast had some influence but wasn't critical.
Both a soul master's martial soul and a spirit beast's bloodline could undergo transformations as cultivation progressed.
Even if one started with an ordinary-quality martial soul, reaching soul power level 90 or above would ensure the martial soul's quality wouldn't fall below top-tier.
Similarly, any ten-thousand-year spirit beast could achieve top-tier bloodline status.
Take the Blue Silver Grass, for example. Originally considered a trash martial soul or a weak spirit beast, upon evolving into the Blue Silver Emperor, it became a top-tier martial soul or top-tier bloodline spirit beast.
Conveniently, Chu Chengzhou had the advantage of AFK cultivation to boost the years of soul rings. Even if the target Sky Azure Tree's bloodline level wasn't great, AFKing it to a thousand-year level would elevate its bloodline to at least high-tier.
At ten thousand years, it would reach top-tier spirit beast status. If upgraded to a million years through AFK cultivation, it might even evolve into a divine beast.
Of course, after the bloodline's enhancement, the Sky Azure Tree could no longer be called a Sky Azure Tree.
For instance, once a snake transforms into a dragon, it becomes a dragon—not a serpent or a snake.
"Six or seven hundred years?"
Upon hearing this, Su Nan raised an eyebrow but didn't object.
He himself had cultivated the mysterious body refinement technique that his grandson practiced.
Although, for a four-ring Soul Ancestor like him, the effects were negligible.
But for a child who hadn't yet become a formal soul master, it could truly be considered a legendary "god-level skill" on the continent.
A soul ring from a six or seven hundred-year-old spirit beast would suffice as an ideal second soul ring for the vast majority of soul masters.
Even among some major powers, core disciples whose martial souls weren't Beast Martial Souls often had second soul rings of similar age.
However, for Chu Chengzhou—whose physical strength far surpassed his peers and even exceeded that of soul masters at the same level—a six or seven hundred-year soul ring for his first soul ring wasn't excessive at all.
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