Chapter 18: The Idea for the Second spirit ring
"I'm leaving, Sister Yanran!"
Li Minghong waved goodbye to Lin Yanran.
He had been there for a week, troubling Flander, who helped him open a small coffee shop for Lin Yanran in Soto City. She said it was something she had always wanted to do.
The shop was named Mingran Coffee.
Lin Yanran reluctantly watched Li Minghong ride away in the carriage. Turning around, she saw tears in Flander's eyes! She hadn't expected anyone to be sadder than herself!
Lin Yanran was about to offer some comfort when Flander suddenly flew off. It might have been Lin Yanran's imagination, but she thought she heard Flander muttering, "My money, my money!"
Helping Lin Yanran secure a shop in Soto City had indeed made Flander, a notoriously stingy person, bleed a lot of money.
To ensure Li Minghong would come to Shrek Academy in the future, he had truly invested a fortune.
Meanwhile, Li Minghong.
The sound of hooves gradually softened, and the carriage came to a stop.
"I'm back, Nuo Ding City!"
In the days that followed, everything remained the same; he continued to focus on cultivation.
Now that his spirit power level had reached sixteenth rank, if he cultivated normally, it would probably take more than two years to break through to twentieth rank.
"Three months from now, Oscar's instance will cool down. I'll go to Shrek Academy again. Although I can't defeat the attack-type Soul Masters among the Shrek Seven Devils, I can certainly defeat Oscar, the food-type Soul Master!"
Clearing the Young Oscar instance would definitely improve his spirit power and physical fitness even more than before. Even the effects from the Waste Master's drops were much better than those from the young protagonist group.
"Dai Mubai's instance will have to wait two years."
Li Minghong thought about the original plot; it seemed Dai Mubai only joined Shrek Academy when Zhu Zhuqing was nine years old.
As for Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong, Li Minghong felt that he might miss out on their childhood instances, as the instance spaces should be time-limited.
Just like Yu Xiaogang, the instance space directly opened to the middle-aged Yu Xiaogang.
Upon returning to the dormitory, after greeting them, he got into bed and began cultivating Xuantian Skill.
That night, Li Minghong lay in bed.
His recent strength improvement made him consider challenging Xiao Wu later.
'Young Xiao Wu doesn't have any long-range attacks, so if I just keep my distance from her, when she gets close, I'll use Blue Silver Grass to pull myself away, and then use my first Spirit Skill for a long-range attack, right?'
With this thought, Li Minghong decided to give it a try.
Although Young Xiao Wu was fast, Li Minghong's Purple Demon Eyes, which had broken through to the Observation Realm, possessed extremely strong dynamic vision.
Even if his body speed couldn't keep up with his reactions, the speed of his first Spirit Skill was very fast.
'Enter Young Xiao Wu's instance.'
"Instance opened."
Whoosh.
Upon entering the instance, Li Minghong immediately used his first Spirit Skill to entangle a pillar in front of him and pull himself forward.
After creating distance, he turned to look at Xiao Wu in the distance and activated his Purple Demon Eyes.
"How do you have Third Brother's ability!"
Seeing this, Xiao Wu paused, looking at Li Minghong's purple-glowing eyes in surprise.
Li Minghong ignored her, directly seizing the opportunity to continue using his first Spirit Skill.
The Blue Silver Grass grew wildly, instantly reaching Xiao Wu. Just as it was about to wrap around her ankle, she directly used her third Spirit Skill, Instantaneous Movement, and disappeared.
Then, she reappeared in front of Li Minghong.
"Damn it!"
Li Minghong hadn't expected Xiao Wu to be able to dodge his attack in such a short time and immediately turn passive into active, launching an attack on Li Minghong!
He hurriedly pulled back, but Xiao Wu's attack was too fast, directly breaking Li Minghong's left arm.
"Ugh!"
Clutching his broken left arm, Li Minghong stared fiercely at Xiao Wu with bloodshot eyes.
Xiao Wu surpassed him in every aspect.
He could only temporarily rely on his Martial Soul to barely survive; he couldn't inflict any damage on Xiao Wu at all!
"After I use Blue Silver Grass to create distance from Xiao Wu, if I want to create distance again or attack Xiao Wu, I must first retract my Martial Soul!"
"If only my Martial Soul could be used in two parts."
He thought as he fled.
In the end, Li Minghong, whose combat power and combat skills were inferior to Xiao Wu's, had his neck twisted by Xiao Wu and died.
The first thing he did upon waking up was to check the information in his mind.
He remembered that his basic knowledge of Soul Beasts contained records of this aspect.
"Found it!"
In the basic knowledge of Soul Beasts, there was a type of Soul Beast called the Earthworm Vine. This vine could, like an earthworm, split into two separate lives.
According to records of some Soul Masters who obtained Earthworm Vine spirit rings, most Spirit Skills allowed the Martial Soul to split into two for use, but required excellent dual-focus control ability to control two split Martial Souls simultaneously.
If not, this spirit ring would instead be a burden.
"There are no other added benefits, just Martial Soul splitting, but for me, it's enough."
Across the continent, only the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School had dual-focus control techniques. Although Li Minghong didn't have them, he had two souls.
"As long as I use both souls simultaneously, I can master this Martial Soul splitting Spirit Skill very well."
At that time, relying on his Martial Soul to both create distance and launch long-range attacks would undoubtedly be a very good choice.
"Although Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track is good, the speed increase is always limited. As a Great Soul Master, to cross a major rank and kill a Spirit Elder level Xiao Wu, I can only rely on my Martial Soul."
Having decided on the choice for his second spirit ring, Li Minghong continued to cultivate his spirit power, striving to break through as soon as possible.
The next day.
In the afternoon, Tang San and Li Minghong went to the blacksmith shop together.
At the blacksmith shop, after finishing his own work, Li Minghong would also forge some crude parts.
Stone Uncle and the others saw it but didn't pay much attention, as the blacksmith shop had plenty of iron, and these small parts wouldn't waste much iron. As for what parts Li Minghong was forging, they didn't care.
'Failed again.'
Li Minghong looked at another scrapped part in his hand and couldn't help but sigh.
He needed to prepare in advance for obtaining his second spirit ring.
Although it might be at least a year away, the things he needed to prepare might truly take him a year.
Li Minghong was preparing the Zhuge Divine Crossbow, an hidden weapon from the original work that could easily shoot and kill a Spirit Ancestor.
From the original work, the Zhuge Divine Crossbow could be mass-produced, indicating that its forging difficulty and material requirements were not very high.
However, for Li Minghong, forging a Zhuge Divine Crossbow was very difficult because it required extremely high precision for its parts.
Throughout this year, he would need to continuously familiarize himself with it.