บท 21: Chapter 21: Third Soul Ring
"Can't you have two teachers?" Hu Liena timidly retorts, "Mr. Su often comes to the academy to teach us."
As Bibidong's personal disciple and the only one at that, Helena's bond with Bibidong surpasses even that of a mother and daughter, so naturally, she's well aware of Qian Renxue's true situation.
She understands very well the high status Qian Renxue holds in the Martial Soul Hall and just how terrifying her sister's talent is. She's always held a deep respect for her.
Though Qian Renxue's smile is sweet to the point of being eerie, Hu Liena instinctively senses that she's quite displeased.
In fact, over the years they've spent together, despite their good relationship, Hu Liena has hardly ever seen Qian Renxue smile.
"That's two different things, can't mix them up," Qian Renxue shakes her head, "if you call him 'teacher,' the Pope will be upset."
Helena subconsciously wants to argue back but wisely keeps her mouth shut under her sharp intuition, feeling a bit sulky as she walks to the side.
Su Cheng pays no attention to the conversation between the two girls.
With Helena's talent and age, she doesn't even qualify as a pawn in his game. Plus, this girl is actually quite similar to Bibidong in some aspects; she's a top-tier romantic brain, and ordinary folks simply can't handle her.
If you can't become her sweetheart, then in her eyes, you're just a tool.
Su Cheng hen never even considered putting any effort into her.
Today, Hu Liena came to him because of a previous agreement with Bibi dong.
For the core young generation of the Martial Soul Hall, Su Cheng is to personally guide them when they obtain their soul rings, helping determine the most suitable soul ring age limit.
While there have been individuals in the past who could exceed the upper limit of soul ring age, even with his theory raising the limit again, the data remains conservative for safety reasons, with some fluctuation depending on different constitutions.
"Have you reached level 20 yet?"
Seeing Helena nod, Su Cheng isn't surprised. With her 9th level innate soul power and her growth at the Martial Soul Hall Academy, reaching level 20 at nine years old is not unexpected.
So, he prepares to get up and check the flexibility of her meridians and the strength of her bones and muscles.
But just as he's about to rise, Qian Renxue suddenly speaks up, "Wait a minute."
She takes Helena's delicate hand in hers and says, "Let me handle this for you, Master."
"Okay then," Su Cheng pauses in his movements and sits back down, casually flipping through the nearby soul beast compendium.
To accurately determine the optimal absorption age limit for soul rings, a series of procedures such as full-body bone palpation and acupuncture with silver needles are required. It's quite troublesome to do it all, and Su Cheng has no interest in laying hands on a young girl.
Though the girl has indeed developed well, her face is just too youthful.
Helena steals a glance at Qian Renxue holding her hand and then at Su Cheng, who is busy reading, but she doesn't dare to speak.
Qian Renxue nods in satisfaction, her smile becoming more natural. "Come with me, Nana. You should be able to absorb a second soul ring of over 1200 years, much stronger than mine was back then."
With that, she leads Hu Liena towards the door.
"Wait a moment."
Just as the door opens, Su Cheng's voice suddenly comes from behind.
Qian Renxue furrows her brows and glances at the obedient Helena standing beside her before calmly turning her head.
Su Cheng continues to read with his head down but speaks up, "Nana, your soul ring choices are decided by the Pope. I won't say much about that. But if you choose a charm-type soul beast, adding an extra three to five decades to the soul ring age limit won't hurt."
Her first soul ring was obtained by utilizing Su Cheng's previously published theory to cross the age limit, and her second soul ring was already far beyond the upper limit.
Before absorbing soul rings of ten thousand years or more, soul masters are not subjected to strong mental shocks.
Nowadays, the young generation of the Martial Soul Hall continually improves their spiritual power by taking medicine to lay the foundation for the future. The bottleneck before the third soul ring lies only in physical strength.
Su Cheng has done quite a bit of research on martial souls and soul beasts over the years, knowing that the energy of charming-type soul beasts' soul rings is relatively low, so the selectable age limit for absorption can be raised even further.
"Alright. Thank you, Mr... I mean, Su Cheng, for your guidance."
After the two leave, Su Cheng puts away the soul beast compendium, tapping his fingers lightly on the table, lost in thought.
"With this, I've collected data on seven types of soul beast soul rings. After I absorb the third soul ring, I can start researching and developing the properties of soul rings."
It must be said that it's quite comfortable to have the backing of the Martial Soul Hall.
Unlike the three major sects, the Martial Soul Hall is not a family inheritance. Whether nurturing the next generation or recruiting strong individuals, each has its own characteristics, and there is a wide variety of martial souls.
This provides him with a considerable amount of material and data.
Though his talent points are all in medicine, with years of deepening research, his talent and comprehension in martial soul research are also rapidly improving through lateral thinking.
Even though his current physical aptitude is lacking, all of this is by no means useless. Once the simulation ends and he returns to reality, all of this experience and achievement will be valuable wealth. In his view, its importance surpasses even the rewards of the mission itself, like the Twin Soul Martial Souls.
...
Two hours later, the door is opened again, this time only Qian Renxue returns.
"Is all the testing done?"
"Done, it's 1300 years," she says, casting a pitiful glance at Su Cheng. "You're really lucky to get a second soul ring with such a high age limit. It's much stronger than mine was back then."
"Stop pretending. A thousand-year soul ring is useless," Su Cheng says without raising his head.
With Qian Renxue's temperament, she wouldn't care about how strong Hu Liena's second soul ring is. The difference in talent between them is too great.
The girl rolls her eyes at the remark and doesn't say anything further.
"Let's talk about your soul rings later. Go see the soul beast I've prepared for you first; I want to conduct an experiment."
As core members of the Martial Soul Hall, they don't need to personally hunt low-level soul beasts when absorbing soul rings; there are specialists who capture them and prepare them in advance.
"What kind of soul beast are you going to absorb?"
Qian Renxue is curious.
As far as she knows, when Su Cheng absorbed his first two soul rings, he didn't specifically target any particular creature; he just went for whatever had a similar age limit.
"A five-thousand-year-old Cloud-patterned Copperhorn Rhinoceros," Su Cheng says as he walks toward the door. "To find a similar soul beast, I had Chrysanthemum Douluo lend a hand."
"Is there anything special about it?"
"It doesn't have anything particularly special about itself, but the kind of soul beasts I'm talking about are all descendants of the Earth Dragon King clan, extremely rare, with a certain ultimate earth attribute."
With Su Cheng's current physical aptitude, he could actually absorb soul rings with higher age limits, but such soul beasts are hard to find.
Adult Earth Dragons tend to transform into mountainous veins, making them extremely rare. Naturally, the number of their bloodline descendants is far fewer than other major dragon clans.
And because of their powerful combat strength and innate talent, the energy contained within their soul rings is likely to surpass that of ordinary soul beasts by a considerable margin. Five thousand years is actually quite sufficient.
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