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Qin Ming and Xiao Zhan reached an agreement on Su Wen's training.
Qin Ming would be responsible for his spirit power cultivation, and Xiao Zhan would be responsible for his spirit development.
"By the way, Teacher Qin, you should be close to breaking through to level 60, right?" Xiao Zhan asked.
It had been several months since Qin Ming had reached level 59.
However, it was entirely possible to be stuck at this bottleneck for a year, or even two.
Therefore, saying Qin Ming was "close" to breaking through wasn't quite accurate.
"I only just reached level 59. My spirit power growth hasn't even hit its limit yet; I'm still far from level 60," Qin Ming replied, shaking his head.
"Your Raging Fire Wolf is also a fire attribute. You can come and exchange pointers with me when you have time. It might help you break through to Spirit Emperor," Xiao Zhan offered.
Qin Ming was pleasantly surprised and expressed his gratitude.
"Junior Brother Su, what's the deal with your spirit power recovery speed?"
Yu Tianheng was very concerned about Su Wen's terrifying endurance.
After all, this was the very point on which they had lost. He desperately wanted to know the answer.
Although Dugu Yan was trying to signal to him with her eyes that this was a Spirit Master's private matter, Yu Tianheng clearly didn't notice, nor did he care.
Su Wen, however, didn't bother to hide it.
"It's because of my spirit's characteristic."
The lie came easily to him.
He had used the "strong spiritual power" excuse with Xiao Zhan, which was actually very close to the truth. But here with Yu Tianheng, Su Wen was obviously not going to just hand over his secrets.
The entire Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan stood behind him.
With Yu Tianheng's personality, he would probably report everything straight back to his family.
Blaming it all on his "spirit's characteristic" was the best way.
This way, even his thousand-year second ring would subconsciously be attributed by others to his spirit's unique nature.
Or perhaps, his spirit had mutated to gain this characteristic because of the thousand-year ring.
And what must have happened during the absorption process to cause such a mutation?
By reasoning backward step by step, it would only lead them in the wrong direction.
"Oh, right, Junior Brother Su, what's the real story with your thousand-year second ring?"
Not a single one of the seven team members was incurious about Su Wen's second spirit ring.
But after the battle, none of them had thought to ask immediately.
Now that Yu Tianheng had asked, the others also remembered.
Dugu Yan also wanted to ask, but because Yu Tianheng's previous question was already quite rude, and this one about the thousand-year ring was even more impertinent, she was too embarrassed to be the first to speak.
Yu Feng, on the other hand, was very straightforward and just asked directly.
"That was just good luck. The beast I was absorbing was a Phantasmal Spirit Fox, and I made a mistake in judging its age."
"Ah?"
Yu Feng was astonished.
Misjudging a spirit beast's age?
That was a huge taboo when acquiring a spirit ring.
But, when the spirit ring appeared, a thousand-year ring would be purple...
There's no way he could misjudge that, right?
So you killed the wrong one, but then you were still reckless enough to just absorb it?
"Well, I'd already killed it. I'd spent so much effort, I couldn't just let it go to waste..."
The seven members of the Tian Dou Royal Team looked at Su Wen with somewhat strange expressions.
I'd... already killed it...
What kind of devil's logic was that?
"At the time, I also felt that the spirit ring would be beneficial to me, so I just absorbed it." Su Wen described his psychological state at the time as one of reckless impulse.
After all, many people had the arrogant idea of challenging a thousand-year ring for their second one.
Normally, they would behave themselves under the guidance of their teachers. But when you're really in that situation, and you've just happened to kill a beast that was just at the thousand-year mark after immense effort, and the "easiest" possible thousand-year ring is right in front of you... who could truly maintain their rationality?
Su Wen was just the lucky one!
Qin Ming, hearing their discussion, stepped in to interrupt. He instructed the seven not to try such a thing, and then very sternly warned Su Wen.
"Teacher Qin, don't worry. I was just impulsive at the time. If my spirit hadn't mutated during the absorption process, I wouldn't have been able to withstand it." A trace of lingering fear flashed in Su Wen's eyes.
This trace of fear was genuine.
When he had absorbed the thousand-year ring, although he had a theory, he had still overestimated his own physical constitution.
He had assumed that since it was a spirit ring just at the thousand-year mark, absorbing it would be no problem. He had even dared to think about challenging a 1,200 or 1,300-year ring.
But the facts proved that a ring that was barely a thousand years old had almost made him explode.
Even with his body and meridians having been significantly strengthened by the Clarity Wine, and his mastery over his spirit space, and his technique for accelerating the spirit ring's power into his spirit... with all those advantages, he had just barely held on.
So, the fear was real. Su Wen was thankful that what had appeared at the time was a Three-Eyed Phantasmal Spirit Fox of just a thousand years, and not some 1,200 or 1,300-year beast.
"A spirit mutation?"
Hearing Su Wen's words, the others had a collective "aha!" moment.
In the current Spirit Master world, one of the greatest, unsolved mysteries was spirit mutation. Hearing that the key to Su Wen's successful absorption was a timely spirit mutation, they all found it completely understandable.
"I'm so envious of you," Ao Siluo lamented.
A mutation like that was clearly a beneficial one.
And with a thousand-year second ring, he had taken off.
Starting from the second ring, he was already ahead of Spirit Masters of the same rank. In the future, this advantage would only snowball.
With the topic of the thousand-year ring concluded, the seven began to discuss Su Wen's abilities.
"Junior Brother Su, your wind element control technique is really amazing," Yu Feng said with the most admiration. "How long have you been practicing it?"
As a three-ring Spirit Elder, Yu Feng was actually inferior to Su Wen in this aspect, which was indeed a bit embarrassing. Although his own spirit skill was related to wind, it involved attaching the element to his wings to form wind blades. Being able to launch those blades as a ranged attack was already the result of training under Qin Ming's guidance.
"Haha, Senior Brother Yu Feng, it's very simple. Once you grasp the technique, you can learn it quickly."
"Is that so?" Yu Feng was skeptical.
He wondered inwardly, Did I just take the wrong approach in my own cultivation?
"Of course. If you want to learn, I can teach you," Su Wen offered generously.
Yu Feng, however, shook his head. "Forget it. My spirit skill isn't suited for it, after all. Forcing it would be inefficient."
He was well aware that Su Wen learned quickly because his spirit skill was suited for that direction. His own skill was about attaching wind to his wings. Developing it for ranged attacks was already a major deviation.
If he wanted to develop in that direction, it would be better to just get a ranged, wind-attribute attack skill in the future. Developing it then would be much more natural.
"But, there's no problem with us exchanging pointers," Yu Feng said.
While they were talking, Ye Lingling had finished healing everyone's injuries, including Su Wen's poison.
Looking at the pink crabapple blossom cupped in Ye Lingling's hands, Su Wen sighed in admiration, "Senior Sister Lingling, the healing effect of your Nine Heart Crabapple is truly incredible."
He suspected that at least thirty percent of the Tian Dou Royal Team's training effectiveness was thanks to Ye Lingling.
(End of this chapter)