The Dark Gold Bear crossed its arms and puffed out its chest. It looked up at Su Ming, seemed uncomfortable, and then its entire body grew larger, transforming from a small-sized Dark Gold Bear back to its original size.
Its head was raised, its eyes looking down, gazing down at Su Ming. Its expression seemed to urge Su Ming to continue.
Go on, so what should I do?
Seeing the Dark Gold Bear's posture, Su Ming found it amusing.
So this Dark Gold Bear had such a personality.
"Do you know your own advantage?"
The Dark Gold Bear blinked and shook its head.
Advantage of a Spirit Soul?
It didn't understand.
Su Ming said, "I'm talking about your own advantage."
The Dark Gold Bear's eyes began to show impatience. It roared, signaling Su Ming to stop beating around the bush and just say it.
A bear's brain wasn't made for convoluted thinking.
"Thanks to the Meteorite Iron Mine, your talent in the metal attribute has been fully excavated, and you're almost on the verge of a bloodline evolution," Su Ming reminded it.
The Dark Gold Bear had a sudden realization.
Right!
That was its advantage.
"You are now in the form of a Spirit Soul. You are no longer just a bear alone; you have a Spirit Master to help you evolve together—a smart one who can help plan your future growth path!"
A glint of wisdom flashed in the Dark Gold Bear's eyes.
"Roar!" (Makes sense, I acknowledge you!)
"Haha, then from now on, we are partners progressing together," Su Ming said.
Regarding Spirit Souls, he had always felt they could be cultivated like in a beast-taming style. While the Spirit Soul advanced, the Spirit Master themselves would also progress, even though this Spirit Soul normally couldn't develop to improve its cultivation level under ordinary circumstances.
But the Spirit Soul was a tangible individual, still possessing a spiritual origin, and still had the potential to evolve and improve.
Contracting with a Spirit Soul, nurturing it, and then receiving feedback from it.
It was also a promising direction.
Of course, one couldn't neglect the fundamentals for the trivial. One must be strong oneself. Receiving feedback from the Spirit Soul but failing to perfectly integrate the Spirit Soul's abilities into one's own system would be a waste of effort.
"From now on, I'll call you Little Gold."
The Dark Gold Bear roared, not very pleased.
Little?
Is this bear small?
It gestured to its height, comparing it to Su Ming's.
"Let's talk business. Your primary goal now is bloodline evolution."
"Roar!" (Right!)
"And the biggest reason you've come this far is the Meteorite Iron Mine, which allowed you to absorb sufficient metal-attributed vital energy, stimulating a beneficial bloodline evolution."
"Roar!" (Right!)
"So, if you want to evolve your bloodline, either you need some kind of opportunity, or you continue step-by-step, using the development of the metal attribute to complete the bloodline's self-awakening."
"Roar!" (Right!)
Secretly, the Dark Gold Bear felt a bit more trust towards Su Ming.
My goodness, so a Spirit Master's brain is this useful? This bear could never sort out its thoughts so clearly before.
"Do you know what I do?"
"Roar!" (Right!)
"Roar." (No, wait, I don't know.)
The Dark Gold Bear roared twice in succession.
Su Ming pointed behind the Dark Gold Bear.
The Dark Gold Bear turned around, feeling the small room was a bit uncomfortable, and shifted back to its small form.
After turning, it came into view the blacksmith shop.
"Roar"(so you're Blacksmith)
"Correct, I'm a blacksmith. I work with metal every day, and I can also help you evolve," Su Ming said.
"Roar!" (Right!)
"However, bloodline evolution isn't something that can be achieved easily."
"Roar!" (Right!)
"So, Little Gold, you also need to personally join in the forging, help me complete the forging of metal."
"Roar!" (Right!)
"Just being in contact with metal isn't enough. It's best if the metal can give back. This kind of situation exists in the Blacksmith Association—forging the spirit out of the metal. But, from the looks of it now, metal that can be forged to produce spirit is extremely rare in the world and has its own peculiarities. The blacksmith is merely a catalyst." Su Ming said all this in one go: "This relies too much on the material. It's not suitable for a case like yours, which requires long-term benefits from forging feedback. So, we need to find a way for ordinary metal to also give birth to spirit."
This time, Little Gold didn't immediately follow up with a roar. Su Ming had said a lot, and it needed some time to understand.
After a while, it roared.
"Roar!" (Still right! As expected of a Spirit Master!)
"If the metal has no spirit, then we bestow them with spirit. You are a Spirit Soul; you have spirit."
"Roar roar?"
Little Gold felt something was off.
It roared twice, questioning Su Ming.
"Roar!" (You're so smart, don't you have spirit?)
Su Ming helplessly said to Little Gold, "I have a physical body. My soul is hidden within it and simply cannot be separated. You are different. You are in the form of a pure spiritual entity, very stable because of our contract. And as long as you don't harm your origin, you can recover within my Sea of Consciousness."
Little Gold indicated it didn't understand.
Su Ming smiled.
Good that it didn't understand.
"It's okay if you don't understand. You just need to do as I say. We are now in a relationship where we share glory and loss. If you evolve, I can also enjoy the benefits. I definitely have your best interests at heart."
"Roar!" (Right!)
"You just need to cooperate with me. During forging, try to separate a part of your spirit and put it into the metal. I will use forging techniques to imbue the metal with spirituality. Then, after this spirituality grows, it will feed back to you. It's a win-win."
"Roar?" (If I separate spirit, and then get feedback, will it become more?)
"Right!" Su Ming said. "The feedback from creating life is enormous. Synchronized improvement from weak to strong is also the simplest."
"Let me give you an example. The spirit of a life form is 1 at birth. As it grows from birth to infancy, its spirit will grow to 10. Then, it grows to adulthood, reaching 100. You are now 100. You've already enjoyed this process; improving further is difficult. But metal is different. After you successfully impart 1 point of your spirituality to the metal, after the metal goes from nothing to having spirit, and then experiences growth again and again, growing to 100, even if only one-tenth is fed back to you, that's still 10 points of spirit! Moreover, the biggest advantage of metal's growth is its speed. As long as the forging technique is sufficient, this growth process might be completed in just a few days!"
This time, Little Gold thought for a full two and a half minutes before hesitantly nodding its bear head.
"Roar." (Alright, I more or less understand.)
Su Ming showed a smile.
Excellent.
Although it wasted a bit of time, he finally managed to make his Spirit Soul understand the purpose of what they were going to do next.
"Then, let's try to pioneer the Spirit Refinement system now."
Little Gold also looked full of vitality.
Can we start improving now?
This time, Su Ming didn't make unlimited promises.
"Let's be clear first. We don't have the correct method yet, so we still have to feel our way. The early stages might be very difficult, maybe even only investment without harvest. But as long as we find the right method and successfully develop Spirit Refinement, we can have an unlimited future!"
"Roar!" (Let's do it!)
Brave bear, fear no difficulty!
(End of Chapter)