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Tang Chuan landed, slowly retracting his iron spear. He looked at the floating spirit ring with a determined expression in his eyes.
"It's finally over," he said to himself. "Time to absorb the spirit ring."
He sat down cross-legged and extended his hand. The deep yellow spirit ring trembled and then, as if drawn by an unseen force, it flew towards him and slowly enveloped his body. The ring then sank down, settling firmly around him.
"It's begun," Tang Chuan whispered. He closed his eyes, directing his spirit power to guide the ring's fusion.
At first, everything went smoothly. But after only half an hour, Tang Chuan felt an astonishing torrent of spirit power pouring down from the spirit ring. It was like a raging river, incredibly violent.
"What's happening?!" Tang Chuan's face changed drastically, and he opened his eyes abruptly. "The intensity of this spirit power far exceeds a five-hundred-year spirit ring. It's even close to a thousand-year spirit ring!"
Tang Chuan was horrified. The Illusionary Hidden Flower's spirit ring was not as simple as the five-hundred-year estimate recorded in the books. Could it be that after its mutation, its age could no longer be judged by previous methods? Had its spirit ring's age already approached the thousand-year mark?
In the next second, the power churned through his body, causing his meridians to swell violently. A tearing pain radiated from within him.
"Damn it, if this keeps up, my meridians will rupture!" Tang Chuan gritted his teeth and used his mental force to suppress the surging power. At the same time, he summoned his Blue Silver Grass, which emerged from the ground and swirled around him, slowly absorbing and channeling the excess spirit power. This created a buffer zone.
Even with this, he still felt as if his internal organs were filled with mercury, heavy and burning hot.
"I must... I must succeed in the fusion," he thought.
Just as Tang Chuan was about to be overwhelmed, his vision went black. A trace of blood oozed from the corner of his mouth, and the chaotic spirit power crashed against his bones, muscles, and internal organs.
"This is bad. I'm about to explode," Tang Chuan gritted his teeth, his eyes bloodshot, but he continued to hold on.
Suddenly, a bright light burst forth from his right leg bone. A dazzling blue-gold light illuminated the entire swamp, like a sacred divine force. It was the bloodline power of the hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor right leg bone.
As the light gathered, a solemn and ancient life aura rose within Tang Chuan's body. It was as if a ten-thousand-year-old ancient tree had sprung from his spirit sea. Endless phantoms of Blue Silver Grass appeared on his body, their leaves unfurling to form the silhouette of a woman in the void.
The remaining Blue Silver Emperor bloodline will in the spirit bone instantly resonated with the mutated Illusionary Hidden Flower's power within the spirit ring. As the supreme royalty of the plant system, the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline naturally had the ability to control and suppress all lower-tier Blue Silver-type spirit beasts, and even some other plant-type spirit beasts.
In just an instant, the almost out-of-control spirit power within Tang Chuan's body quickly stabilized under the protection of the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline. The spirit ring seemed to be guided by something, instinctively submitting to the Blue Silver Emperor's aura. Although it still impacted Tang Chuan's body, it was no longer wild and untamed. It was now like a domesticated torrent, flowing in an orderly fashion along his meridians.
"Pfft!" Tang Chuan's entire body shook, and he spat out a mouthful of murky blood. Then, he slowly closed his eyes, completely entering a state of fusion.
After an unknown amount of time, a low buzzing sound echoed as the spirit power within Tang Chuan's body began to pulse violently, as if boiling. His spirit power was no longer at Level 1, or even Level 10, but surged all the way to Level 18, and then Level 19.
"This is..."
In meditation, Tang Chuan clearly felt the immense amount of spirit power he had accumulated after absorbing the hundred-thousand-year spirit bone. This power had been suppressed in his Spirit Scholar realm due to the absence of a spirit ring. Now, as soon as the first spirit ring's fusion was complete, some of the accumulated spirit power burst forth like a dam breaking. What shocked him even more was that his first spirit ring, which was originally deep yellow, was now slowly beginning to turn purple. This was happening under the combined catalysis of the spirit power and the spirit bone.
The edges of the yellow spirit ring gradually became tinged with a faint purple light. As time passed, the purple color slowly permeated inward. With a loud bang, the yellow spirit ring instantly burst forth with a brilliant purple light.
The next moment, a purple thousand-year spirit ring condensed, formed, and solidified beneath Tang Chuan's feet.
Slowly opening his eyes, Tang Chuan remained seated cross-legged, the surrounding dust long since dispersed by his spirit power. He looked at his surroundings, and his pupils suddenly contracted. He saw a spirit ring, emanating a purple light, slowly rotating around his body.
"What's going on?" he asked himself. "Wasn't it a hundred-year spirit ring?"
Tang Chuan was stunned for a moment, then he stood up and involuntarily took a half-step back, his expression shifting from shock to confusion, and then from confusion to doubt.
"I clearly absorbed a hundred-year spirit beast, an Illusionary Hidden Flower," he thought. "Even if its mutation caused me to misjudge its age, it should only be around eight or nine hundred years old. How did the spirit ring's color turn purple?"
Frowning, Tang Chuan's mind raced. After a moment of silence, he began to analyze the situation.
"Wait a minute... just now, during the final stage of absorption, this spirit ring's massive spirit power almost made me explode. But at that very moment, the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline from my right leg bone actively released itself and suppressed the power. And then..."
His voice trailed off, his expression becoming solemn. He continued in a low voice: "Could it be that after I absorbed the hundred-thousand-year Blue Silver Emperor right leg bone, a large amount of spirit power accumulated in my body? At the moment of the spirit ring's fusion, this power uncontrollably surged into the spirit ring itself, causing it to fuse and enhance with the Illusionary Hidden Flower's own spirit power?"
Suddenly remembering the wild spirit power from earlier, Tang Chuan realized: "If that's the case, it makes sense. Originally, this Illusionary Hidden Flower's spirit power was probably around nine hundred years old. But because of the impact of my internal spirit power, which almost made my body explode, it fused with the help of the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, and its spirit ring's age was directly pushed to the thousand-year threshold."
"So that's what happened," he thought.
At this moment, Tang Chuan finally understood. Although he had only hunted a mutated Illusionary Hidden Flower that was less than a thousand years old, the immense spirit power he had accumulated from absorbing the hundred-thousand-year spirit bone unintentionally forced the spirit ring to catalyze and upgrade, ultimately giving him a true thousand-year spirit ring.
Tang Chuan looked at the Blue Silver Grass that emerged from his palm. He noticed that its leaves were faintly shimmering with a purple glow, while the edges of the leaves carried a subtle blue-gold light.
"It's time to test what spirit ability this spirit ring brings," he said to himself.
Taking a deep breath, Tang Chuan raised his right hand, and the Blue Silver Grass instantly grew rapidly from his palm.