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"Then, would you mind telling Uncle Ning what kind of breakthrough you experienced with your spiritual power after acquiring your second spirit ring?"
Ning Fengzhi seemed quite certain that Su Wen had indeed achieved a breakthrough in his spiritual power.
Su Wen put on a surprised expression, seemed to hesitate for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, my spiritual power increased significantly with the help of the Monkey Wine. Since then, I've been able to mobilize my spiritual power, and after obtaining my second spirit ring, I managed to directly open up my Spiritual Sea."
"Opened the Spiritual Sea!" Ning Fengzhi was astonished by the breakthrough Su Wen described.
To think it was such a massive breakthrough!
One had to understand that many Spirit Saints weren't even guaranteed to successfully open their Spiritual Sea.
However, after receiving Su Wen's confirmation, his initial surprise quickly turned into excitement.
"It seems my guess was correct." Su Wen's answer provided the initial validation for his theory.
"If my guess is correct, you must have felt a powerful surge of energy impacting you while absorbing the second spirit ring. Opening the Spiritual Sea was likely accomplished under the pressure of that very impact."
Now, Su Wen was genuinely astonished.
"Judging by your reaction, that process must have occurred." Ning Fengzhi smiled and said, "If that's the case, I think I understand the likely reason you were able to successfully absorb a thousand-year spirit ring as your second one."
"Luck... it truly is an unpredictable thing most of the time."
"Your martial soul had a full five levels of innate spirit power, so it obviously couldn't be a completely ordinary Book martial soul. It must have undergone a mutation, likely related to the spiritual attribute. This is probably also why you chose a spiritual-type spirit ring for your second one."
Su Wen nodded, continuing to listen as Ning Fengzhi explained his theory on how he managed to absorb the thousand-year spirit ring.
"Furthermore, the Monkey Wine did an excellent job of drawing out your latent spiritual talent. At that precise moment, your martial soul itself was at a critical point of transformation. Stimulated by the Phantom Spirit Fox's thousand-year spirit ring—a force that completely surpassed your normal limits—your martial soul underwent an evolution."
"A large portion of the spirit ring's power was diverted to help you breach the Spiritual Sea. Compounded by the fact that your physical constitution was already exceptionally tough thanks to the Monkey Wine, you managed to endure the process."
In short, from Ning Fengzhi's perspective, the most critical factor in Su Wen's success was that the process of opening the Spiritual Sea consumed a massive amount of the spirit ring's energy.
"We also can't rule out the possibility that your martial soul's evolution itself consumed an enormous amount of power."
But making these deductions relied on a key prerequisite: that Su Wen's martial soul was already on the verge of transformation, or rather, at the brink of evolution.
"Your martial soul is definitely a mutated one, and it's possible the mutation wasn't entirely complete."
It was the combination of all these various factors that culminated in Su Wen's thousand-year second ring.
Su Wen maintained a shocked expression.
This Ning Fengzhi's research into martial souls was truly profound.
Aside from the internal, subjective methods Su Wen himself had used during the absorption, Ning Fengzhi had practically deduced the entire process of how he endured the thousand-year spirit ring.
Of course, the subjective part was that Su Wen had been able to perceive his martial soul space, allowing him to actively guide the spirit ring's power into that space to participate in the transformation, thereby alleviating the immense pressure on his body's meridians.
The excess energy did indeed have two destinations: one was opening the Spiritual Sea, and the other was achieving a better, more thorough evolution of his martial soul.
When he thought about the characteristics of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, Su Wen quickly understood why Ning Fengzhi's research on martial souls was so profound.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan was immensely wealthy, and their collection of martial soul research materials was second only to Spirit Hall. Ning Fengzhi essentially had the perfect conditions for research.
"Being able to gather all these conditions at once... it truly can only be described as luck."
The most difficult condition to meet was having a martial soul on the verge of evolution—and a spiritual attribute evolution at that. This was something generally only seen in those Spirit Masters with incomplete mutations.
And that specific group of Spirit Masters, for the most part, never gets the opportunity. Most can't even guarantee a hundred-year ring for their first, let alone attempting to absorb a thousand-year ring for their second.
However, with this new train of thought, if one were to provide targeted cultivation... it might not be entirely impossible.
Ning Fengzhi pondered the feasibility.
"It's not necessary to jump an entire color. Just exceeding the limit by a few hundred years should also produce a significant effect."
As someone who had thoroughly researched the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, Ning Fengzhi was convinced this was the most promising path toward martial soul evolution.
Regardless of which spirit beast a spirit ring came from, or its specific age, the spirit skills granted to a Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Spirit Master were almost always fixed.
So, what was the point of absorbing spirit rings with a higher age?
This was a puzzle that no Spirit Master from the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Clan had ever been able to solve throughout the generations.
Because, given the choice, no one would deliberately absorb a white ring (ten-year) as their first, or a yellow ring (hundred-year) as their third.
However, speculation about this mystery had never ceased.
For example, Ning Fengzhi himself was a strong advocate for the "potential theory."
"Alright, Xiao Wen, that's everything Uncle Ning wanted to understand." Ning Fengzhi was very satisfied with the information he had learned today.
A breakthrough during the spirit ring absorption!
This gave him a flash of inspiration.
That's right! Perhaps when I absorb a spirit ring, I can focus on breaking through in a different area, consuming the spirit ring's power simultaneously with the martial soul's absorption. This could, in turn, increase my own tolerance!
He was already impatient to return and conduct theoretical deductions, and perhaps even begin verification within the clan.
"Xiao Wen, I have a daughter."
Su Wen blinked, listening as Ning Fengzhi continued to speak.
"She's a bit younger than you, just over nine years old, and her spirit power has been stuck at level nineteen for a long time. I brought her along this time as well, intending to have her participate in a few battles at the Great Spirit Arena. I'm hoping it might provide some stimulation and help her break through."
Su Wen saw the underlying intention but didn't point it out, merely remarking, "Uncle Ning is very thoughtful."
"Mm, Rongrong inherited my Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, making her an auxiliary-type Spirit Master, so she can't participate in 1v1 battles. Coincidentally, Xiao Wen, you are a power-attack type. You could team up with Rongrong and participate in the 2v2 battles," Ning Fengzhi said. "I just don't know if you would be willing to 'carry' her."
"Uncle Ning, Rongrong is only level nineteen. If she teams up with me, we'll be placed in the Spirit Grandmaster bracket," Su Wen pointed out.
"I have faith in your strength, Xiao Wen," Ning Fengzhi said with a smile.
Su Wen was indeed grumbling internally.
Is this Ning Fengzhi planning to use this as an opportunity to gauge my true strength?
"Since Uncle Ning trusts me this much, I will certainly do my best to protect Rongrong," Su Wen replied.
"Rongrong!"
Ning Fengzhi led Su Wen to a large private room in the Great Spirit Arena. Upon pushing the door open, Su Wen saw a clever-looking, mischievous little girl playing with a staff member.
"Dad, you're back!"
Ning Rongrong's eyes lit up. She looked over at Su Wen and asked, "Is this the teammate you found for me?"
She stepped forward to size up Su Wen, looking quite adorable.
At least for the time being, she seemed very cute.
"Xiao Wen is older than you. You should call him Big Brother Wen," Ning Fengzhi said with a serious expression.
Ning Rongrong stuck out her tongue, mentally chanting to herself: Be good, be good, be good.
She had to agree to a lot of conditions just to come out this time.
"Hello, Big Brother Wen."
(End of this chapter)