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Second Spirit Skill: Control.
Su Wen's second spirit skill allowed him to expend a certain amount of spiritual and spirit power to control the external heaven-and-earth energy.
In the month before he arrived at Tian Dou City, he had actually been trying to use this to increase his cultivation speed.
The richer the external heaven-and-earth energy, the faster the cultivation speed.
This was a given. It was the very reason many resource-rich locations were occupied by large factions, and it was one of the few ways, besides mimicry cultivation, to increase cultivation speed in the current Spirit Master world.
Unfortunately, Su Wen's technique of gathering heaven-and-earth energy to boost his cultivation speed always had a bottleneck.
Cultivation was never a short-term project.
It requires an accumulation of months and years to show any real effect.
If he continuously cast his spirit skill, the time his spiritual and spirit power could last was limited. Moreover, a large portion of the refined energy would just be used to recover the spirit power he'd spent, making it an inefficient trade-off for the purpose of increasing his spirit power limit.
However, while it wasn't very effective at boosting his cultivation limit, it was extremely effective at helping Su Wen recover his spirit power.
He could expend a certain amount of spirit power in exchange for a much longer period of continuous spirit power recovery. The rate of this recovery couldn't outpace the consumption, but the total amount recovered would eventually surpass the spirit power he'd spent. (Cough, cough, think Cheng Yaojin.)
Thus, for Su Wen, this technique became a skill for endurance.
Never mind Yu Tianheng and Dugu Yan, who were in a battle of attrition with Su Wen; even Qin Ming, a Spirit King, was completely astonished.
Su Wen was only a Grand Spirit Master.
Yet he was actually competing in a battle of attrition against two Spirit Elders.
"The total amount of spirit power Su Wen can be perceived to have isn't high, and the consumption for each of his skills isn't small either," Qin Ming muttered. "But... his recovery rate is just monstrous."
Xiao Zhan nodded with an air of "as expected."
That's right. In just seven days, this kid learned the majority of the techniques I've spent years developing. This perverted recovery rate is a key part of it.
Su Wen was like a perpetual motion machine. He spent less spirit power to gain more spirit power recovery. It was simply a cheat.
And the key was, he could fly!
Even if this consumption-recovery process required a certain amount of time to reach a "net-positive" state, Su Wen could easily just kite them in the air.
And the moment Dugu Yan and Yu Tianheng tried to conserve spirit power or rest, Su Wen would strike.
The other five who had been eliminated on the sidelines watched the scene unfold with speechless expressions.
"Stop!" Qin Ming shouted.
There was no point in continuing the fight.
Yu Tianheng and Dugu Yan let out a sigh of relief.
"Let's call this match a draw," Su Wen said, taking the initiative.
Although he was using his wind element control to avoid being poisoned as much as possible, it was impossible to completely block a spreading toxin. The longer it went on, the more the trace amounts of poison, which he couldn't block every single second, would accumulate.
Therefore, it was hard to say whether he would succumb first, or if Yu Tianheng and the others would run out of spirit power first.
"Vice-captain Dugu Yan's poison is impossible to defend against completely. I wouldn't have been able to last much longer either."
"Alright. In that case, we'll call this a draw." Qin Ming didn't fuss over who won or lost.
This battle was intended to observe Su Wen's performance and, incidentally, to check on the progress of the main team.
He was currently very satisfied.
At the very least, he was very satisfied with Su Wen.
"Tianheng, your explosive power is still not strong enough, and you are far too hesitant in battle, worried about gains and losses.
And Yanzi, your problem is the most severe. Your poison is strong, and under normal circumstances, your control is very good. But against someone like Su Wen, your poison is almost completely ineffective. Today, Su Wen was only able to fight a battle of attrition. What if his spirit power rank was higher and he was strong enough?"
Although satisfied, Qin Ming still pointed out several shortcomings.
Qin Ming had given Dugu Yan advice on her cultivation long ago, but she had a Titled Douluo for a grandfather, so it wasn't his place to overstep. Using this battle as an opportunity, he brought up his old suggestions again.
"Yanzi, your poison is a control method, but you cannot rely entirely on its toxicity."
The best development path for Dugu Yan now was either to learn to manipulate the poison mist, strengthening its impact force so it could clash with Su Wen's airflow and spread the toxins, or...
Of course, she could also take a more microscopic approach, focusing on excavating the diffusive properties of the poison itself.
Even without a powerful poison mist to clash with Su Wen's airflow, just by making contact, the toxin could spread rapidly, even against the wind.
For the current Dugu Yan, the latter was naturally difficult to develop. Her spiritual power wasn't strong enough, and developing such fine control over her toxins was extremely hard.
However, Qin Ming's first suggestion—manipulating the poison mist itself—was feasible.
It was just that... Su Wen knew Dugu Bo's ultimate move, which could wipe out an entire city...
That didn't rely on 'manipulation' at all, but on excavating the poison's diffusive ability, making it not only terrifyingly toxic but also terrifyingly widespread.
Su Wen had no interest in over-analyzing Qin Ming's teaching methods. He had only thought about it out of his habit for theoretical research.
"Ao Siluo, you are still too impulsive, not calm enough. When Su Wen was in danger, even if you had rushed over, Su Wen would have been eliminated. Instead, you would have let Tianheng seamlessly transition from dealing with Su Wen to fighting you."
Yu Tianheng's third spirit skill had a high consumption. After finishing Su Wen, he would have had to find a new target, which would require him to give chase, further draining his power.
But Ao Siluo had rushed right in.
It was only because Su Wen had a way to escape; otherwise, he would have basically served Yu Tianheng a perfect tempo on a silver platter.
"Yes, Teacher Qin Ming." Ao Siluo accepted the criticism humbly.
However, it was clear that such a flaw was not easily overcome. If he was this impulsive even when a newcomer like Su Wen was in trouble, it just showed how much of his judgment was based on emotion.
Still, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"Yu Feng, your performance today was largely without error. It's just that your control over the wind element is still inferior to Su Wen's. You need to work on that."
"Lingling, you also need to strengthen your self-preservation training."
"..."
After every battle, Qin Ming would give a review, point out their flaws, and then give suggestions for their future training.
"Alright, let us all welcome Su Wen, who has newly joined the team today!"
"Hello, Junior Brother Su."
"Hello, Senior Brothers and Sisters."
After the battle, Qin Ming did not immediately arrange for more training. He gave Su Wen and the others time to talk and get to know one another.
"Senior Xiao Zhan, your guidance of Su Wen is already perfect," Qin Ming said with admiration.
The various techniques Su Wen had just displayed had amazed him.
Especially that terrifying recovery rate.
Xiao Zhan put on a proud expression.
Sure, I only taught him for seven days, but weren't all the techniques he just showed off developed in advance?
Therefore, by rounding up... it just means my teaching was perfect!
(End of this chapter)