Kong Ming'an did not immediately answer, merely lowering his gaze to observe the spirit ring in his hand.
Over the past year or so, while he had focused his attention on cultivation, Ilieks had never stopped his research into the 'spirit ring'.
With dozens of Soft Bones Rabbits sacrificed daily in the research into the essence of the 'spirit ring', finally, a few months ago, Ilieks had a preliminary understanding of its true nature.
After carefully considering his words, his gaze fell upon the Hongchen siblings and his own elder before him. Then, his calm voice slowly echoed.
"A 'spirit ring' originates from a Spirit Beast. If a Spirit Beast is completely dissected and separated, its composition can be broadly divided into four parts: 'body', 'Soul', mental force or rather, 'memory', and the most fundamental 'spirit power'."
"After killing a Spirit Beast, its 'body' remains in place, while the spirit ring that emerges is composed of the remaining 'Soul', 'memory', and 'spirit power'."
He paused, explaining with a more vivid analogy: "You can view a spirit ring as the 'semi-automatic Soul-guided rifle' I made when I had nothing better to do before."
"The 'spirit power' that forms the basis of the spirit ring is the 'casing' of the rifle. Its function is to carry its internal structure, namely 'memory' and 'Soul'."
"The 'memory' of the Spirit Beast during its life, especially the parts related to the use of its power, will naturally form 'Soul Skill Modules', similar to the structures inside a rifle such as the firing pin, gas operating system, and recoil spring."
"The remnant 'Soul' of the Spirit Beast acts as the 'trigger mechanism' that activates these Soul Skill Modules, which is the trigger."
"The final 'bullet' is the spirit power input by the Spirit Master."
Kong Ming'an paused, then summarized:
"Therefore, the process of a Spirit Master using a Spirit Ability is when the Spirit Master inputs spirit power into the spirit ring, the spirit power triggers the remnant Soul of the Spirit Beast, and then the remnant Soul of the Spirit Beast drives a specific Soul Skill Module, ultimately releasing the Spirit Ability. This is the essence of the spirit ring and Spirit Ability."
"The above is tentatively referred to as the 'spirit ring Tripartite Theory'."
Xiao Hongchen only felt his head itching, as if he was growing a brain.
Meng Hongchen's eyes were somewhat dazed, half-understanding, half-confused. She only felt that the theories someone was spouting seemed very powerful, but she couldn't quite articulate how powerful they were.
Only Kong Deming's eyes gleamed slightly, as if he had discovered a new continent, his gaze constantly flickering with contemplation.
Kong Ming'an did not stop, continuing:
"Suppose a Soft Bones Rabbit only possessed three Spirit Abilities during its life: 'Teleportation', 'Paragon Golden Body', and 'Charm'."
"And an ordinary Spirit Master whose Spirit has no particular leanings kills it and absorbs its spirit ring, he will ultimately only obtain one of the three Spirit Abilities."
"This does not mean the other two Spirit Abilities have disappeared; they still form Soul Skill Modules and are carried by the spirit ring.
"The problem is that the remnant Soul left after the Spirit Beast's death is too incomplete and weak. It can only 'anchor' and trigger one of the Soul Skill Modules and then solidify it.
"The other Soul Skill Modules, mixed with a large amount of the Spirit Beast's useless memories, lie dormant deep within the spirit ring."
"This can explain some phenomena:
"For example, why do 100,000-year spirit rings always have two Spirit Abilities? Because the Soul of a 100,000-year Spirit Beast is strong enough that even if it's incomplete, it can still anchor and trigger two Soul Skill Modules."
Kong Ming'an didn't finish his thought. In fact, this could also explain why the future 'Spirit Souls' can grant multiple spirit rings and multiple Spirit Abilities.
Because the Soul of a Spirit Soul is relatively complete, a complete Soul can naturally control and trigger more skills. This can be seen from the Snow Empress's Spirit Soul in the original work.
Hearing this, Kong Deming had already caught up with Kong Ming'an's line of thought and raised a question:
"So, if a Spirit Beast's Soul is complete enough, then one spirit ring can actually trigger multiple Spirit Abilities?"
"Theoretically possible, but not practically feasible," Kong Ming'an replied.
"Why?"
"This involves the carrying capacity limit of a spirit ring."
Kong Ming'an smiled and explained again in easy-to-understand language: "Suppose the total carrying capacity of a spirit ring is ten parts."
"Then, in a natural spirit ring, the incomplete Soul of the Spirit Beast itself occupies about four parts of the capacity."
"The Spirit Beast's complex, useless memory fragments occupy about three parts."
"And all the Soul Skill Modules combined only occupy the remaining three parts of the capacity."
"The single Spirit Ability that Spirit Masters use daily, which is solidified by the remnant Soul of the Spirit Beast, might only utilize a small fraction of this three-part Spirit Ability capacity, perhaps 10%, or even less."
"In such a situation, the more complete the Spirit Beast's Soul, the greater its proportion will be. However, the total space of the spirit ring is only so much, so the Spirit Beast's Soul will actively reduce memories and Soul Skill Modules to achieve balance."
His words paused slightly, but he continued in his mind.
The Spirit Soul system is actually similar; the complete Spirit Soul occupies the vast majority of the capacity.
According to his speculation, it might even account for ninety percent, leaving only ten percent for Spirit Abilities, but it achieves and distributes multiple skills by occupying multiple spirit ring positions.
This can also explain why absorbing Spirit Souls in Douluo Dalu 3 has such high requirements for one's mental force Rank, because the pressure on a Spirit Master when absorbing a spirit ring comes not only from the spirit ring but also from the Spirit Soul, or rather, the Spirit Beast's Soul.
"In summary," Kong Ming'an concluded, his tone carrying the calmness of a researcher,
"In spirit rings born from naturally killing Spirit Beasts, a large portion of their carrying capacity is occupied by remnant Souls and useless memories, while the 'Treasure Trove' of Soul Skill Modules is buried.
"This is structural inefficiency and extreme waste!
"And in this spirit ring of mine, before absorption, the Spirit Beast's Soul within it was completely purified and erased."
"The benefit is that the huge capacity originally occupied by the remnant Soul has been freed up. I can try to use my own will as the guide to actively perceive, connect, and mobilize all potential Soul Skill Modules within the spirit ring!"
"If there are no surprises, this 10,000-year spirit ring will provide me with at least a double-digit number of Soul Skill Modules, and each Soul Skill Module is an independent Spirit Ability."
"In other words, this single spirit ring can genuinely contain multiple Spirit Abilities!"
"The drawback, however, is that everything requires manual operation."
Kong Ming'an summoned his own spirit ring, using it as an example, and slowly began:
"You see, with previous spirit rings, you only needed to inject spirit power, and the remnant Soul would automatically complete the entire process of triggering, guiding, and releasing. It was completely 'idiot-proof' operation."
"But now, taking myself as an example, if I want to use a Spirit Ability, I need to precisely locate the module of the desired Spirit Ability.
"Then, I must accurately control the amount, attribute, output mode, range, effect strength, and various other parameters of the injected spirit power, and finally lock onto the target and release it."
"Any error in any of these steps could lead to the Spirit Ability failing to release, its effect being greatly reduced, or even spirit power backlash.
"For the vast majority of Spirit Masters accustomed to 'idiot-proof' spirit ring operation, learning all this is like learning to speak, requiring a great deal of time to study and get used to."