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The True Spirit Flag martial soul's quality had ascended, evolving into a god-tier quality martial soul. Naturally, the changes weren't merely superficial.
After summoning his spirits and conducting various tests, Chu Chengzhou discovered that besides the innate domain that came with his martial soul, his True Spirit Flag had gained two additional characteristics.
Trait One: Spirit Heart—enables telepathic communication with summoned spirits.
Previously, when commanding his summoned spirits in battle, for those with considerable intelligence who understood human speech—such as his Dark Demon Evil God Tiger spirit Xiao Hei and other spirits with cultivation years exceeding one hundred thousand—he could simply give verbal commands.
However, for spirits with insufficient intelligence who couldn't understand human speech—such as his Sky Azure Tree spirit Xiao Qing, Light Lion spirit Xiao Bai, Fire Phoenix spirit Xiao Hong, and Mystic Water Turtle spirit Gui Er—he had to communicate through spiritual power.
But after the martial soul's evolution, through the Spirit Heart characteristic, Chu Chengzhou's every thought and intention could be instantly conveyed to all his summoned spirits.
The difference before and after was like a mechanized military unit completing its information technology transformation.
Even if the personnel remained the same, the weapons remained the same, and the artillery remained the same, the latter could thoroughly dominate the former.
Trait Two: Spirit Transformation—allows fusion with summoned spirits.
There were two methods of Spirit Transformation: one where Chu Chengzhou himself transformed into a spirit, with the summoned spirit as the main body and himself as the auxiliary; and two where the summoned spirit transformed, with himself as the main body and the summoned spirit as the auxiliary.
For example, if Chu Chengzhou chose Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear Big Bear as his Spirit Transformation target, with Big Bear as the main body and himself as auxiliary, the fused form of man and bear would be a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.
Excluding enhancements from soul cores, auxiliary skills, supreme arts, and other factors, the strength of this Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear fused form would equal Big Bear's own one hundred thousand years of cultivation, plus Chu Chengzhou's Level 91 Titled Douluo strength converted to equivalent one hundred thousand years of cultivation, ultimately resulting in the strength of a two hundred thousand-year Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear.
Although an ordinary Level 91 Titled Douluo would only be thoroughly dominated by a one hundred thousand-year spirit beast, when comparing only levels and not combat power, a one hundred thousand-year spirit beast truly only matched a Level 91 Titled Douluo.
If Chu Chengzhou remained the main body with Big Bear as auxiliary, then the fused form of man and bear would be Chu Chengzhou himself, with strength based on his Level 91 Titled Douluo foundation, plus Big Bear's one hundred thousand-year spirit converted to a ninth-ring realm level 1 soul power, resulting in Level 92 Titled Douluo strength.
WTF~ this seemed like a losing deal.
However, in terms of actual combat power, Level 91 Chu Chengzhou plus one hundred thousand-year Big Bear still couldn't defeat Level 92 Chu Chengzhou.
Although the gap of one soul power level below Level 95 wasn't significant, Chu Chengzhou wasn't an ordinary Titled Douluo. Even a single level difference at the initial ninth ring stage couldn't be compensated by a one hundred thousand-year spirit beast.
Additionally, in Chu Chengzhou's view, the primary function of the Spirit Transformation characteristic wasn't to stack the summoner and spirit's strength, but to protect the soul master himself.
If he hadn't cultivated various powerful supreme arts, with no offensive or defensive soul skills, wouldn't he be the team's greatest weakness?
When facing opponents, they would certainly implement decapitation tactics rather than choosing to clash directly with the summoned spirits.
But by fusing with summoned spirits, opponents' decapitation tactics would become ineffective. Unless opponents possessed overwhelming absolute strength, even if one was just a weak chicken, their safety would be guaranteed.
Chu Chengzhou understood that his cheat-enabled self was special. If his bloodline descendants awakened the True Spirit Flag martial soul, setting aside the summoned spirits' strength, their own strength would definitely fall far short of his.
However, with the Spirit Transformation characteristic, those who cultivated supreme arts well could assist their summoned spirits or have the spirits enhance their own strength.
If one lacked talent for cultivating supreme arts, they could simply transform during battle—taking the summoned spirit as the main body and themselves as auxiliary—lying back and letting the summoned spirit carry them to victory.
Unfortunately, the Spirit Transformation characteristic only allowed fusion between one person and one spirit. Multiple spirit fusion was impossible, as was one person fusing with multiple spirits. Moreover, the strength enhancement from Spirit Transformation was merely additive, not the qualitative transcendence seen in martial soul fusion skills.
The innate domain awakened after the True Spirit Flag martial soul's evolution—True Spirit Domain—was equally impressive, carrying three domain skills.
Domain Skill: True Spirit Rhythm—ignores suppression and dispel effects from opposing domains.
For example, the Sea Dragon Douluo—the first among the Seven Sacred Pillars of the Sea God Island—possessed the Demon Breaker Domain, which could dispel all domain abilities. But before the True Spirit Domain, the Sea Dragon Douluo's Demon Breaker Domain would completely fail.
Another example: when facing Tang Hao who possessed the Killing God Domain, if he lacked the Killing God Domain himself, his strength would be suppressed by 20%. But with the True Spirit Rhythm domain skill, the Killing God Domain's suppression effect on him would fail to activate.
Similarly, even Tang Chen's Slaughter Domain—with its mana suppression effect that restricted opponents from using soul skills within its range—would be ineffective against him.
Of course, Chu Chengzhou understood that for the True Spirit Rhythm domain skill to function, there couldn't be a heaven-and-earth level difference in strength between himself and his opponent. Otherwise, the "overwhelming force breaks all techniques" scenario would occur.
Domain Skill: Spirit of All Things—within the True Spirit Domain range, enhances all summoned spirits' strength by 50%.
This domain skill was simple and brutal, with an exceptionally high enhancement ratio for summoned spirits' strength. However, it wasn't without flaws—the domain was unique in number and had limited range, not necessarily able to enhance all summoned spirits simultaneously.
Domain Skill: Control Heaven and Earth—similar to the weakened version of the "fountain" from his previous life's canyon game—it could rapidly absorb elemental energy corresponding to his various summoned spirits' attributes from the external environment. This could be used to restore his life force, soul power, and spiritual power. The richer the external elemental concentration, the stronger the actual effect.
"Not bad, this is a good skill!"
Chu Chengzhou nodded in satisfaction.
In his view, the Domain Skill: Control Heaven and Earth wasn't merely a recovery-type domain skill—it was also an auxiliary skill for rapidly enhancing strength.
One must understand, the Rainbow-Tier Nine Breaths Qi Absorption could refine all energy for personal use. By rapidly absorbing large amounts of elemental energy from the external environment through this domain skill, he could similarly use it to elevate his soul power level.
It could be said that with this domain skill, even without the special treasure location of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, he could absorb vast amounts of water-elemental energy from the boundless ocean, converting it into his own strength through Nine Breaths Qi Absorption.
Additionally, worth mentioning was that after the True Spirit Flag martial soul evolved into a god-tier quality martial soul, the previous restriction that limited his summoned spirits' bloodlines to at most below god-tier was automatically lifted.
Thus, after the martial soul quality ascended to god-tier—although cultivation years didn't increase again—his Dark Demon Evil God Tiger spirit Xiao Hei's strength surged dramatically. Even his innate soul skill: Death Arena—which had been suppressed due to bloodline level restrictions—was regained.
When the innate soul skill: Life and Death Arena activated, even if the opponent was an invincible semi-god expert in the world, once caught in it, they could only become nourishment for Xiao Hei's evolution.
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