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Looking at the box in Su Wen's hand, Ning Rongrong was visibly startled. She recognized the origin of this black container immediately; it was the very same compensatory gift that Yu Tianheng had handed over to Su Wen earlier.
Previously, her senses hadn't been sharp enough to pick up on its contents. Her perception of faith was far inferior to Su Wen's, but as he pried the box open, she instantly realized the sheer value of what lay inside.
Was this faith?
It was actually an object saturated with the power of faith!
Resting within the box was a violet-black ring, crystal clear as if carved from natural gemstones. Deep within the band, intricate patterns resembling streaks of lightning were etched into the material.
"Thunder attribute," Su Wen muttered, narrowing his eyes as he began to deduce the identity of the God it belonged to. Aside from the dense aura of lightning, there was a faint, unmistakable draconic pressure radiating from it.
No wonder it had been a treasured heirloom of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. Even the surface-level effects of the ring were perfectly compatible with their martial soul.
After taking the ring out and injecting a thread of soul power to probe it, Su Wen formed a preliminary judgment regarding its capabilities. If he wasn't mistaken, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had likely treated this ring as a specialized soul tool throughout the generations, using it to amplify their control over thunder and enhance the oppressive force of their draconic aura.
However, a top-tier martial soul was already at the peak of its class. Attempting to leap over that threshold to reach an even higher level was an arduous task. While this ring possessed that potential, it couldn't be achieved by simply treating it as a common tool.
"This is very likely a token of inheritance, similar to the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud. If one truly recognizes it as their master, they might have the chance to significantly boost the quality of their martial soul. Even a top-tier martial soul could potentially manifest a portion of the effects of a God-level soul."
The Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud merely provided a few simple, independent skill effects, but this ring was different. The powers within it could be integrated and utilized in tandem with the user's own martial soul.
The combination of the thunder attribute and the potent dragon soul gave Su Wen a deep sense of curiosity regarding its original owner. Perhaps this God was even more suited for Dugu Yan or Yu Tianheng than the Sea God was.
"Let's go, Rongrong. We'll head back to the sect to cultivate for a while. Once you break through Rank 50 and absorb your fifth soul ring, we'll set off for Sea God Island."
Once they arrived there and Ning Rongrong received her trial from the Sea God, Su Wen would either continue to lead her in the search for this new God, or she would stay on the island to train while he sought the inheritance alone.
It was a distant goal. For an average soul master, even if they obtained the ring and bonded with it, they might never find the corresponding God's inheritance. But Su Wen was not an average soul master.
Not only could he sense the presence of faith, but he was also becoming capable of manipulating and applying it. While he couldn't yet use the faith within the ring to pinpoint the God's location, he felt that he wasn't far from reaching that level of proficiency.
Even though he hadn't yet received the rewards of the Fourth Trial or gained formal experience in using the power of faith, Su Wen had absolute confidence in his research abilities. Even if he only had mental and soul power tainted with the characteristics of faith, it would be enough for him to explore for a long time and develop a multitude of techniques. Among his plans was using the faith on this ring to track down its origin.
"Let's move."
"Mm."
Ning Rongrong's progress toward Rank 50 was exceptionally fast.
In less than half a month after receiving the Stone God's trial, her bottleneck was shattered, and her soul power smoothly reached Rank 50. At this point, she was only sixteen years old.
A sixteen-year-old Soul King—this cultivation speed was among the very best on the entire continent. Aside from Su Wen himself, perhaps only Qian Renxue, with her innate Rank 20 soul power, could have reached such a height at that age.
"Rongrong, absorb this soul ring directly. This God-Bestowed Soul Ring determines its final year limit based on the absorber's endurance. This endurance relies more on mental will than physical pressure. Coupled with the Soul Elevation Method to offset a portion of the soul power impact, your current physical condition is more than enough to try."
Su Wen was essentially telling her that the only thing currently limiting the age of her soul ring was her mental strength. Ning Rongrong pouted slightly, looking a bit unhappy, but she knew Su Wen was right.
A deficiency in mental strength wasn't just her problem; it was a common ailment for nearly every soul master in the world. Even for those with mental-attribute martial souls, enduring the soul tremors of a 50,000-year ring at the Soul King stage was a monumental task.
Furthermore, mental strength couldn't be improved overnight, and there were no techniques like the Soul Elevation Method to buffer that specific pressure. Even though Su Wen had published the Visualization Method—providing a direction for soul masters to train their minds and open their Spiritual Seas—mental cultivation remained the weak point of the entire Soul Master world.
According to Su Wen's theories, he could technically develop a "Mental Version" of the Soul Elevation Method. In his view, the Martial Soul Space was a unique dimensional space between a soul master's soul and body—a bridge that connected and maintained the two. Soul power could enter the Martial Soul Space from the body, and mental power could do the same.
In the past, Su Wen had used Origin Soul Power to locate and then break into his Spiritual Sea to open it. He had entered the Life and Death Arena multiple times, using that method to crack open his Spiritual Sea, which allowed him to visualize the world and wield abilities far beyond what a six-year-old should possess.
However, Su Wen no longer needed such clever tricks for himself, so he hadn't bothered to develop the mental version of the method. He paused to consider if developing it for Ning Rongrong was worth the effort.
It wasn't a question of whether his effort was "worth it" in a personal sense, but whether it was cost-effective for Ning Rongrong to pay a massive price just to absorb a ring with a few thousand extra years of age.
The answer was: not really.
By the time a soul master reached the Soul King stage—or specifically, after absorbing the fourth ring at the Soul Ancestor stage—their martial soul had already grown to a relatively mature phase according to his "Martial Soul Growth Theory."
At this junction, the difficulty for a martial soul to continue evolving and transforming increased exponentially; specifically, the possibility of the soul's essence undergoing a fundamental sublimation was almost zero.
Before Rank 40, one could make major revisions and overhauls to the soul's essence. But from the fifth ring onward, the process was more about supplementation. Accumulation eventually leads to a breakout, but a truly epic transformation requires a long period of buildup.
After the first four rings have triggered their transformations, a soul master at the Soul King stage must begin this accumulation. This is the "Dormant Period," the key reason why the overall cultivation speed of soul masters drops significantly at this stage.
At this level, the increase in a martial soul's strength truly begins to lag behind the rising difficulty of soul power cultivation. Because the two no longer scale proportionally, most soul masters experience a slowdown of two, three, or even five to six times their previous speed.
(End of Chapter)