At first, Wang Chen had felt a little regretful that his fourth spirit skill wasn't an amplification type. But once he discovered that it was a teleportation skill, his attitude flipped completely—"truly fragrant."
Teleportation was the ultimate life-saving skill. Any attack beyond one's ability to withstand could simply be avoided with an instant shift.
And in combat, teleportation was equally outstanding, often turning the tide at critical moments: appearing behind an enemy, seizing the instant after their move left an opening, or even teleporting a fixed-mounted soul tool shell right to their side to blow them apart.
In short, Wang Chen was more than satisfied with his fourth spirit skill.
His fifth spirit skill was named Hun (魂 – Soul). Once his spiritual power locked onto an opponent, the next attack became an unavoidable hit, with an added spiritual strike that inflicted mental damage.
The severity of this damage depended on the difference between his own spiritual power and his target's. The greater the gap, the greater the damage; the smaller the gap, the weaker the effect.
His sixth spirit skill was called Ran (燃 – Burn).
This one was a double-edged blade: wounding the enemy a thousand, while harming oneself eight hundred.
By burning his own blood essence, Wang Chen could greatly amplify the power of his next attack. The more essence burned, the greater the boost.
When he tested it, burning 30% of his blood essence raised his soul tool's attack power by 150%. Burning 50% boosted it by 250%. Every extra 10% burned added another 50% amplification.
But even with his strong physique, 70% was the absolute limit. Any more, and he risked burning himself to death before killing the enemy.
Through experiments, he confirmed:
Burning 30% left him only weakened, his combat power dropping by two or three tenths, but he fully recovered in half a day thanks to the Essence of Living Gold.
Burning 50% left him half-crippled for a whole day.
Burning 70% nearly destroyed him, reducing his strength by ninety percent and requiring two full days to recover.
Without the Essence of Living Gold's vitality, he would never dare attempt it. After all, playing with blood essence was no joke—one mistake, and the damage could be permanent.
Still, precisely because of its immense risks, the amplification this skill provided was enormous. To maximize its potential, Wang Chen knew he needed to make his life force even more robust—so strong that the rate of burning and the rate of recovery could balance each other.
While his soul power had risen mainly through cultivation, his physique and spiritual power improvements were largely due to the Essence of Living Gold and spirit ring gains.
Beyond raw strength, Wang Chen's soft power had also grown greatly in these three years.
After reaching Soul Sage-level spiritual power, he had twice refined both the Ring Tempering Secret Art and his Meridian-Passing Method.
The evolved Meridian-Passing Method made his cultivated soul power purer and of higher quality, and even granted a passive effect: the absorption of the world's energy.
This passive function might sound unimpressive, but its effect was anything but. It was essentially a mana-regeneration buff, granting him long-term endurance in battle.
After all, all his spirit skills were now ten-thousand-year-level. Their soul power consumption was massive. Without passive regeneration, his Soul Emperor-level reserves would run dry in no time.
Beyond techniques and arts, Wang Chen had also refined his close-combat skills to the extreme—spearmanship, grappling, and soul tool crafting among them.
And most notably, he had mastered the ultimate battle art from Shrek Academy's Dragon God Douluo Mu En: Sovereign's Descent (君临天下).
The requirements were harsh—it demanded Soul Sage-level spiritual power.
Unlike spirit skills, which were limited by the age of one's spirit rings, battle arts scaled only with the user's own strength. The stronger the soul power, spiritual power, and will, the more devastating the art became.
Even better, Sovereign's Descent wasn't confined to barehanded use. It could be layered atop spirit skills or soul tools, multiplying their effects in countless ways.
In the original story, Huo Yuhao, upon learning this technique, had defeated a fifth-tier soul engineer with only Soul Ancestor cultivation, and even overcame a sixth-tier soul engineer when combining it with soul skills and tools.
With Wang Chen's Soul Emperor-level soul power and Soul Douluo-level spiritual power, simply using Sovereign's Descent on his body allowed him to crush ordinary Soul Emperors outright, and even contend with Soul Saints—at least those not using their Martial Spirit True Body.
The gap between Soul Emperor and Soul Saint was enormous, far greater than between any earlier stages. Soul Saints all possessed powerful martial spirits, and their soul power condensed into liquid form, enabling flight. Their seventh skill, Martial Spirit True Body, provided frightening amplification.
This was why only upon reaching Soul Saint could one be considered a high-level spirit master.
But Wang Chen was confident. With six ten-thousand-year skills amplifying him, even a Soul Saint with Martial Spirit True Body would suffer.
And if it came to life-or-death combat, he could always unleash the Ring Explosion Secret Art, boosting himself enough to make even a Soul Douluo kneel.
Of course, once the technique was over, he would be left gravely weakened, unable to use any spirit skills at all.
Just as Wang Chen sat in his office, lost in thought, a frantic knocking rattled the door.
"Milord, it's bad! The people from the Evening Water Alliance are here!!"
The words snapped Wang Chen to attention. He rose swiftly from his chair, soul power surging into the golden soul tool ring on his right hand.
The six black spirit rings around him shifted instantly—into yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black.