The Thunderous Hellvine contained a faint trace of the Thunder God's bloodline.
After Lin Rong absorbed this faint bloodline, his strength did not undergo any earth-shattering changes
However, the divine essence contained within this faint divine bloodline gave Lin Rong's physical body a tiny trace of divinity.
Don't underestimate this small trace of divinity. In the future, whether inheriting an existing divine position or creating his own divine position, this divinity will provide Lin Rong with immense help.
Moreover, with a trace of divinity already present in his body, the insurmountable divide between mortals and gods has already been broken.
As this trace of divinity continues to grow and develop, Lin Rong may very well possess a divine-level body even before becoming a god.
Furthermore, the physical body nurtures the soul, and the bloodline nourishes the martial soul.
As the divinity within his body continues to grow, it will subtly influence and nourish his soul and martial soul, causing them to gradually develop divinity as well.
At that time, Lin Rong will be able to possess a divine-level body, divine-level soul, and divine-level martial soul even before he officially becomes a god.
Additionally, this divine-level martial soul is not something that can be compared to the Six-Winged Angel or the Sea God martial souls.
These two divine martial souls, aside from the god-given tenth-level soul power and extremely high-quality martial souls, are still essentially within the realm of mortal martial souls.
For example, Qian Renxue's martial soul is the Six-Winged Angel.
Whether it is before or after becoming a god, her Six-Winged Angel martial soul can still be called a divine martial soul.
Yet, although they are both divine-level martial souls, the power of the latter is incomparable to that of the former.
The divine martial soul nurtured by divinity is capable of rivaling the Six-Winged Angel in power.
Lin Rong carefully sensed his internal condition, thinking to himself:
"I can't become complacent; the nurturing of divinity is not something that can be accomplished overnight."
"I can feel that the trace of divinity within my body is constantly absorbing the power of heaven and earth to strengthen itself."
"But the progress is still too slow. It seems like I still need some external assistance."
"Fortunately, I have so many rare herbs harvested from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Eye. If I take a little each day, using my Life Dragon Soul to convert it into vitality for the divinity to absorb, it will help speed up its growth."
"However, this matter needs to be done slowly; I can't rush it. The current tasks are more important."
After absorbing the Thunderous Hellvine's soul bone, Lin Rong's soul power increased from the peak of level 42 to level 44.
At the same time, this soul bone did not disappoint him, granting him a very powerful explosive output soul skill—Thunder Prison: Heavenly Punishment.
This soul skill's attack mode could also be changed according to Lin Rong's will, allowing it to be used as either a single-target attack or a group attack.
Lin Rong's fourth soul skill, Dragon Roar Thunder Realm, and the soul bone skill, Thunder Prison: Heavenly Punishment, came from the same source.
Therefore, Dragon Roar Thunder Realm and Thunder Prison: Heavenly Punishment complemented each other.
Dragon Roar Thunder Realm can absorb the power of Thunder Prison: Heavenly Punishment to strengthen the barrier, making it harder to break.
When Thunder Prison: Heavenly Punishment is released within Dragon Roar Thunder Realm, it can activate the second phase of the soul skill, gathering vast amounts of thunder power to form a true Thunder Dragon.
The Thunder Dragon's true form has no intelligence and needs to be controlled.
Lin Rong can either control it himself or let the Nine Curves Vine Dragon take control of it.
After finishing everything in Thunder Canyon, Lin Rong set off back to his mansion.
On the way back, he encountered many teachers and students from the Advanced Soul Master Academies who were heading toward Heaven Dou City.
Inside the carriage.
Lin Rong gazed out the window, thinking:
"I'm nine years old, and that Tang San is only nine and a half."
"In the original story, when Tang San participated in the Continental Advanced Soul Master Elite Competition, he was fourteen and a half."
"The competition is held once every five years, and it's already time for this year's competition to begin."
"However, the average level of the contestants this year seems quite poor. It's far below the level of the next competition, which will take place five years from now."
The original story didn't describe much about this year's Continental Advanced Soul Master Elite Competition.
All Lin Rong knew was that the champion was the Spirit Hall, and Liu Erlong's Blue Tyrant Academy defeated the second team of the Heaven Dou Royal Soul Master Academy in the preliminaries.
This small detail reveals just how weak the overall strength of this year's contestants is.
In the next competition, Blue Tyrant Academy will field at least one Soul King.
This year, they probably won't even manage that, yet they still defeated the second team of the Heaven Dou Royal Soul Master Academy.
As a member of the Heaven Dou nobility, Lin Rong felt ashamed.
The hereditary nobility of Heaven Dou places a lot of importance on the soul power training of their direct descendants.
But as for the non-hereditary nobility, well, that's another matter entirely.
In past competitions, the second team of the Heaven Dou Royal Academy has always been composed entirely of non-hereditary noble descendants.
The reason they wanted to participate in the competition was simply to use the participants' names to enhance their own resumes, adding a prestigious line to their personal history.
As for the first team, the academy's board of education had done its best to select team members based on strength.
However, very few hereditary nobles are willing to compete, and most of them graduate as soon as they break through level 35.
After all, the Continental Advanced Soul Master Elite Competition is essentially a platform for the major powers of the continent to recruit outstanding soul masters.
Hereditary nobles are the ones doing the recruiting, not the ones being recruited.
Moreover, with the Spirit Hall's seed team in the competition, the hereditary nobles felt that they had no hope of winning the championship, so they were naturally unwilling to participate.
Their pride as hereditary nobles made them unwilling to be the backdrop for others' glory.
In the original story,
If it weren't for Yu Tianheng, the direct disciple of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, and the support of Dugu Yan for Yu Tianheng,
It's uncertain whether Yu Feng, Oscar, Shi Mo, and Ye Lianling would have participated in the competition five years later.
Heaven Dou Royal Soul Master Academy.
Academic Board.
Meng Shenji, Bai Baoshan, and Zhiling sat together, looking at the list of students on the table, their faces filled with worry.
"How can such a large academy not even find a decent student?"
"With so many students, not a single Soul King at level 40, what are we going to do about this year's competition?"
"What else can we do? We'll just get knocked out in the first round!"
The three board members looked at each other, and without a word, they all sighed simultaneously.
"This year has no hope, but next year still has some potential."
"With Yu Tianheng, the direct heir of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, and that lady's granddaughter, we at least have two Soul Kings."
"Let's hope that next year, the hereditary nobles will think about the empire's honor and send more outstanding younger generations to compete."
After speaking, they began to tidy up the scattered student lists on the table, one of which had "Tang San" written on it in large letters.