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The Bloodthirsty Mad Shark was like a lab rat at this moment, its internal energy flow fully perceived by Su Wen's senses. It roared in a fury, but it was all in vain.
As time passed and it continued to struggle, the flow of its "Devouring Power" was meticulously recorded by Su Wen's "World of Books." Finally, Su Wen delivered the killing blow.
Two figures descended from mid-air onto the ocean surface: the massive corpse of the Bloodthirsty Mad Shark and Su Wen himself. Xiao Bai caught Su Wen steadily and swam toward the shark's remains, her eyes wide with shock.
He actually killed it.
The Sea Dragon Douluo was equally shaken. He had personally experienced how terrifying the Bloodthirsty Mad Shark was—it had been powerful enough to suppress both him and the Zhantian Douluo simultaneously. Yet, after being dragged into a private space by Su Wen, it was solo-killed in such a short amount of time, and Su Wen didn't even look particularly disheveled.
This far exceeded the Sea Dragon Douluo's expectations. Zhantian Douluo, on the other hand, took it in stride; he had, after all, witnessed Su Wen solo-kill a Peerless Douluo once before.
"A torso bone."
Su Wen stepped forward and extracted the spirit bone from the shark's carcass. Currently, other than his external spirit bone, he hadn't absorbed a single standard spirit bone. Thus, the bone dropped by the shark could be considered "random," or rather, biased toward the shark's most proficient ability.
Torso Bone: Devouring Power.
Su Wen could already sense the same devouring artistic conception from the bone that the shark had displayed in life. To be honest, having reached Level 66, the fact that Su Wen hadn't refined even one of the six primary spirit bone slots was unexpected. It wasn't that a Spirit Emperor must absorb spirit bones, but given Su Wen's resources, it was baffling. He had a double-digit collection of top-tier spirit bones—enough to assemble a complete set—yet he hadn't touched them.
However, it seemed the situation was about to change. Su Wen looked at the 100,000-year Great Beast torso bone in his hand, weighing whether absorbing it was worth it. The torso is the most core position; logically, a mere 100,000-year shark might be a bit "outdated" for his ultimate goals.
But spirit bones are more about compatibility. Su Wen had to think further ahead: he needed to prepare for the "Spirit Bone Armor" he planned to construct.
While "Devouring Power" didn't perfectly align with his martial soul, this battle—specifically his research inside the Life-and-Death Arena—had given him a new perspective on devouring. At the same time, he had formed a clear classification of the difference between spirit bones and spirit rings.
"Devouring is, in a sense, a form of digestion."
To cultivate "Blood and Qi Power," Su Wen had to digest external energy and fuse it into himself. The principles of devouring overlapped significantly with this. Furthermore, in his current theories—specifically his planned method for awakening a Body Martial Soul—he drew heavily from the cultivation methods of soul beasts.
His theory involved treating his own body as a soul beast to cultivate, then using his human identity to transform that foundation into a martial soul. Soul beast cultivation usually requires immense time, but the rapid growth models of devouring-type beasts like the Dark Devilgod Tiger or the Bloodthirsty Mad Shark suited Su Wen perfectly.
The Dark Devilgod Tiger devours soul beasts to grow; the Bloodthirsty Mad Shark devours external natural energy to accelerate its cultivation. There were subtle differences, but after thoroughly dissecting the shark's power in the arena, Su Wen became genuinely interested in this torso bone.
Perhaps this bone would become the core of his future Body Martial Soul cultivation.
"Spirit rings are additions to the Martial Soul; Spirit bones are additions to the Physical Body."
Therefore, when choosing spirit rings, one must consider the development of the Martial Soul. When choosing spirit bones, one must consider the cultivation of the Physical Body. Following this logic, Su Wen suspected that mental power cultivation should also have equivalents to rings and bones.
He didn't rush to a conclusion. He stored the torso bone and the shark's carcass into his storage soul tool and returned to Xiao Bai's back.
"Xiao Bai, take a different route back to Sea God Island. As per the old rules, we stop at any islands with sea spirit master settlements along the way."
"Yes, Master Wen!" Xiao Bai replied.
Sitting on Xiao Bai's back, Su Wen studied the spirit skills within the torso bone, still debating if it was fit to be the core of his Spirit Bone Armor.
"Let's wait and see."
The shark's ability was devouring, but there was a much more powerful existence in the ocean with similar—though likely secondary—abilities: the Deep Sea Demon Whale King.
"Sigh, the cultivation years are still too low."
Ultimately, Su Wen prepared to pass. Even though it was a "Great Beast" (凶兽), it was only at the 100,000-year level. While a treasure to others, for Su Wen, this was a drawback for a core torso position. He decided he would first use his "Incarnation" and his comprehension of artistic conceptions to replicate the bone's abilities to aid his Blood and Qi cultivation without actually absorbing it.
A month later, the trio returned to Sea God Island.
Zhantian Douluo's first trial was successfully completed. However, because Su Wen had dealt the killing blow, the reward was diminished to a 500-year increase for all his spirit rings.
Su Wen's memory had been slightly off; after arriving at the island, he learned that Black-level trials usually don't offer spirit ring age increases—most Guardian Douluos had standard optimal configurations. However, Zhantian Douluo was different as the Guardian of the God of War; for him to receive a trial from the Sea God, other rewards were less cost-effective. For example, granting a level of soul power was more "expensive" for the Sea God than boosting nine rings by 500 years each.
"God-level Ninth Trial, Second Trial: Awaken the second martial soul—the Body Martial Soul. Reward: Divine Power Body Tempering."
"Awakening the Body Martial Soul is no longer a difficulty," Su Wen mused. "The problem is I want to ensure its quality is at the absolute peak upon awakening."
But was he going to waste a long time on this second trial? Su Wen felt a sense of urgency. It took the Sea God over a thousand years to achieve godhood even with guidance. No matter how confident Su Wen was, he couldn't guarantee he would reach godhood within ten years.
And within those ten years, at least two other gods would emerge. This was Su Wen's pressure, and his motivation. He couldn't afford to waste time. Similarly, the Sea God likely knew he shouldn't waste time either.
"So, what exactly is the effect of this 'Divine Power Body Tempering'?"
If it was what he imagined, Su Wen felt that awakening the Body Martial Soul now would be well worth it.
(End of Chapter)