A quarter of an hour later.
Zhu Lie was the first to finish absorbing his spirit ring, becoming a true Spirit Emperor-ranked Spirit Master.
Although the Diamond Rhino spirit ring was nearly twenty thousand years old, it was still too easy for Zhu Lie, whose Spirit was a Horned Cracking Mountain Boar.
If it weren't for the Diamond Rhino being such a rare Spirit Beast, Zhu Lie would have preferred his sixth spirit ring to be thirty thousand years old.
"Congratulations," Zhang Lexuan said, congratulating Zhu Lie on behalf of everyone.
"Hehe, I still have to thank Senior Sister, Senior Sister Ruo Ruo, and everyone," Zhu Lie said, scratching the back of his head with a simple smile, "When we get back, I'll cook something delicious for everyone."
"Great, great!" Su Meng was the first to clap and agree.
Everyone laughed.
Zhang Lexuan smiled, but her gaze turned to Ma Xiaotao, who was still absorbing her spirit ring, and she frowned slightly, muttering, "I hope Xiaotao can successfully absorb her spirit ring."
At this moment, Ma Xiaotao's brows were tightly furrowed, and she was using all her strength to absorb the Fire Spirit Tiger spirit ring.
Her body trembled slightly, but her hands firmly held the spirit ring, and a gentle yet powerful spirit power poured out from the spirit ring, impacting Ma Xiaotao's meridians and flesh again and again.
Ma Xiaotao, however, ignored it, enduring the intense pain and fully accommodating this spirit power.
Time passed bit by bit.
"Chirp, chirp~"
The phoenix cried out.
A clear phoenix cry sounded, and Ma Xiaotao instantly jumped up from the ground, with five spirit rings, yellow, yellow, purple, purple, and black, shining behind her, along with a crimson phoenix phantom.
Clearly, she had completed the absorption of her fifth spirit ring.
Ma Xiaotao put away her Spirit and spirit rings, and like a gust of wind, she instantly rushed to Zhu Ziyang and hugged him.
The girl was very excited, clutching the still somewhat bewildered boy tightly.
Her reaction showed everyone that Zhu Ziyang's statement was correct.
Seeing this, Zhang Lexuan and the other girls couldn't help but smile.
Their relationship with Ma Xiaotao was very good, and they naturally hoped that her Spirit defect could be eliminated.
"Sister Xiaotao, I can barely breathe!" Zhu Ziyang's head was buried in a soft embrace, his nose and mouth completely blocked, so his voice sounded a bit muffled, but the action of his hands reminded Ma Xiaotao.
Ma Xiaotao immediately let go of Zhu Ziyang, then looked at him with joyful gratitude and said, "Little brother Ziyang, thank you so much!"
"Xiaotao, has your Spirit defect been resolved?" Wu Ming asked.
"Not yet, but I can clearly feel that the evil fire's influence on me has weakened a lot.
At least I don't have to worry about losing control in battle now!" Ma Xiaotao said excitedly, then hugged Zhu Ziyang again, "Ziyang, this is all your credit! If you have any needs in the future, your sister will satisfy them!"
"It's nothing, Sister Xiaotao," Zhu Ziyang replied with a smile, "Do we need to be so formal with our relationship?"
Zhu Ziyang was referring to their master-disciple relationship, while Wu Ming and the others, unaware of the inside story, looked at the two with ambiguous expressions.
Several male students were already preparing to whistle.
"So, Xiaotao's evil fire problem hasn't been completely resolved?" Zhang Lexuan stopped the crowd who wanted to make fun.
She understood Zhu Ziyang's meaning and was very aware of the relationship between Zhu Ziyang and Jiang Nannan, so she said.
"Hmm!" Ma Xiaotao nodded, not feeling disappointed, and said, "But it doesn't matter, at least I know the solution, right?
As long as I absorb a few more spirit rings like the Fire Spirit Tiger, won't the evil fire problem be solved? Right, Ziyang."
"Haha~" Zhu Ziyang couldn't help but smile bitterly when he heard this, and said, "It's not that easy, Sister Xiaotao.
Not to mention that Spirit Beasts like the Fire Spirit Tiger are rare and hard to find.
Even if you find them, they won't help you much.
Your evil fire belongs to the power of evil demons, and ordinary purifying flames can only be effective once.
To eradicate it, you can only use natural treasures, like your ancestor Phoenix Douluo Ma Hongjun."
"Is that so!" Ma Xiaotao's excitement couldn't help but diminish a few points, but she still smiled and said, "It's okay, I was too greedy.
Being able to weaken it once is good enough."
"Xiaotao, you..." Zhang Lexuan wanted to comfort Ma Xiaotao.
But Ma Xiaotao waved her hand and said, "I'm fine, Sister Lexuan.
Let's continue on our way."
"Alright," Zhang Lexuan had no choice but to give up, turned to everyone, and said, "Everyone, let's prepare to set off."
Everyone immediately packed up, formed their formation, and continued to search for Spirit Beasts.
"Alas! If natural treasures were so easy to obtain, would little girl Xiaotao still need to suffer like this?" Xuan Zi, hiding in a tree, sighed.
---
In the following few days, the group traversed thousands of meters, moving from place to place, constantly on the move, and exceptionally arduous.
Of course, hardship and reward are proportional.
Most of the people in the team had already obtained the spirit rings they wanted.
Now, only Zhang Lexuan, Zhu Ziyang, and Wu Ming had not found suitable ones.
However, Wu Ming would soon no longer be in this category.
Ma Xiaotao, Wu Ming, Luo Wei, Wan Wan, Long Yu, and others were besieging a twenty-five-thousand-year-old King of the Earth.
The King of the Earth, a fierce fire-attributed Spirit Beast, despite its name, was a scorpion Spirit Beast, bloodthirsty and extremely aggressive.
The group was the provoked party; they hadn't intended to hunt it, but it proactively attacked them, extremely arrogant.
Thus, at Zhu Ziyang's suggestion, this King of the Earth was about to become Wu Ming's sixth spirit ring.
"Phoenix Sky Blue Flame!" Ma Xiaotao in the air revealed her fifth spirit ring, and a phoenix composed of blue flames instantly soared from behind her, rushing directly towards the King of the Earth, which was controlled by Wan Wan on the ground.
Phoenix Sky Blue Flame releases a phoenix composed of flames with purifying power, causing a massive amount of fire damage to targets on the ground, while also removing all negative status effects from itself.
The King of the Earth, precisely struck by the Phoenix Sky Blue Flame, was immediately declared critically ill.
Wu Ming timely delivered the final blow, taking its head and spirit ring.
Wu Ming began to absorb the spirit ring, and everyone, as usual, surrounded her in the middle.
"Ziyang, isn't my fifth Spirit Ability powerful?" Ma Xiaotao sat beside Zhu Ziyang and asked somewhat proudly.
"Hmm, very powerful," Zhu Ziyang replied with a smile.
"Hehe, that's for sure!" Ma Xiaotao giggled continuously, her delicate body constantly brushing against Zhu Ziyang.
Half an hour later, Wu Ming finished absorbing her spirit ring and advanced to Spirit Emperor.
"Everyone, do we choose to go deeper, or continue searching in this area?" Zhang Lexuan inquired.
"Senior Sister, right now, only you and Junior Brother Ziyang haven't found suitable Spirit Beasts.
Junior Brother Ziyang doesn't need to worry; the Spirit Beasts in this area are enough to meet his needs.
But you need an eighth spirit ring, alas, there surely aren't any suitable Spirit Beasts for you here, so why don't we go a bit deeper?" The speaker was Zhang Weiwei, a woman with a cold demeanor, and she said, "Once you obtain your eighth spirit ring, we can then turn back to find a spirit ring for Junior Brother Ziyang."
"But if we go deeper, we'll enter the core area," Zhang Lexuan was a bit conflicted.
She really wanted to refuse, because as a qualified team leader, she couldn't put the team in danger.
But she also didn't want to compromise herself; the eighth spirit ring was crucial to whether she could break through to Titled Douluo, and she absolutely couldn't choose casually.
"It's okay, Le Xuan," Han Ruoruo said, "If it were at the beginning, our strength might have been insufficient, but now, we are a team with one Spirit Douluo, four Spirit Saints, four Spirit Emperors, and three Spirit Kings!
As long as it's not a 100,000-Year Soul Beast, we can retreat calmly!"
"But..." Zhang Lexuan still couldn't make up her mind.
"How about we vote? Those who think we can go deeper, please raise your hands," Cheng Hui said.
Everyone raised their hands, including Zhu Ziyang.
"Everyone!" Zhang Lexuan was very touched, and could only agree, saying, "Alright.
But I must state that we will only advance one thousand meters and stay for only one day.
After one day, whether or not I find a suitable Spirit Beast, we must retreat!"
"Yes!" Everyone responded in unison.
"You can stay a few more days," Xuan Zi suddenly appeared in front of everyone and said, "With me escorting you, there's no need to worry! Little girl Le Xuan, you don't need to be too hard on yourself!"
"This... Thank you, Elder Xuan!" Zhang Lexuan couldn't help but reveal a brilliant smile and said.
After receiving Elder Xuan's assurance, everyone was immediately filled with confidence and motivation.
With a Level 98 Super Douluo overseeing them, even if they encountered a 100,000-Year Soul Beast, they could still contend with it.