Chapter 4: The First Thousand-Year spirit ring
Speaking of the two Limit Douluo hidden in the Sun Moon Empire, at this stage, Xu Tianran has not yet cooperated with the Evil Soul Masters.
Currently, Xu Tianran's body is intact and his temperament hasn't changed; in the future, it's unlikely he will ever cooperate with Evil Soul Masters.
Therefore, at this stage, Evil Soul Masters are detested by everyone in the Sun Moon Empire and do not dare to appear in the open.
Although the Holy Spirit Cult already exists, it rarely appears publicly, so almost no one knows of it.
As a result, the Holy Spirit Cult's headquarters is hidden within the Demon Forest, and no one is aware of its location.
Not to mention the information that Ye Xishui and Long Xiaoyao, those two Limit Douluo, are both Evil Soul Masters.
At this stage, Evil Soul Masters are still lurking in the shadows like rats in a sewer, coming out to cause trouble every now and then.
However, Xu Tianhao has some ideas regarding the Holy Spirit Cult. After all, the combined high-level combat power of the Holy Spirit Cult is not inferior to the top powers of the Spirit Master's world like Mingde Hall, the Body Sect, and the Sea Gods Pavilion.
If used well, they would be a sharp blade against Shrek.
Of course, these matters are still too distant for Xu Tianhao right now.
What he needs to do is increase his strength as quickly as possible to give himself the ability to control the situation.
So, after determining the cultivation direction for his Spirit, Kong Deming personally arranged a cultivation plan for Xu Tianhao.
Although Xu Tianhao was born with full spirit power, he did not immediately absorb a spirit ring.
This was because of the inherent physical strength advantage brought by his twin spirits and the enhancement of mental force from his Sun Moon Divine Pupils.
Kong Deming intended for Xu Tianhao's first spirit ring to be at the thousand-year level.
The reason for choosing this was because Kong Deming now clearly understood that to fully exploit the advantages of twin spirits,
one must polish their physical fitness and mental force to the extreme at every stage possible.
It was because his own physical fitness was insufficient that he couldn't continue adding spirit rings to his second Spirit, which led him to focus entirely on one Spirit.
Fortunately, even so, Kong Deming achieved great success.
Now, what Kong Deming wanted to do was cultivate Xu Tianhao well, allowing this little fellow to become an existence that surpasses himself.
Regarding Kong Deming's plan, Emperor Xu Jilong naturally had no reason to object.
Now that Kong Deming was Xu Tianhao's teacher, Emperor Xu Jilong naturally wouldn't interfere.
As for Xu Tianhao himself, he had even fewer objections.
Even if Kong Deming hadn't planned it this way, he would have proposed it himself.
In this era, there are many ways to help a Spirit Master improve their physical fitness and absorb spirit rings beyond their age limit.
Take Xiao Hongchen for example; in the original story, his fifth spirit ring reached a terrifying thirty thousand years.
Although that was due to the uniqueness of his Spirit and the use of medicine, the results do not lie.
While Xu Tianhao wouldn't overuse medicine to overdraw his potential, relying on the physical fitness of his twin spirits and the mental force boost from his Sun Moon Divine Pupils,
using a bit of Whale Glue and medicinal baths to absorb a thousand-year first spirit ring wouldn't be much of a problem.
With the resources of the Sun Moon Royal Family, these things were basically available to Xu Tianhao upon request.
So, under Kong Deming's arrangement, Xu Tianhao first used Whale Glue to improve his physical fitness, then refined his mental force with Soul-Tempering Grass.
In just one month, Xu Tianhao's foundation became even more solid.
Three months later, Kong Deming personally conducted a detailed test on Xu Tianhao.
The maximum limit his first spirit ring could withstand had reached about one thousand five hundred years.
Even for a spirit ring produced by a top-tier Spirit Beast, Xu Tianhao could easily fuse with one of around a thousand years.
After making all the necessary preparations, Xu Tianhao finally began to absorb his first spirit ring.
His first spirit ring came from a twelve-hundred-year-old Evil Eye, which Kong Deming had personally gone to the Demon Forest to select.
The Evil Eye is a top-tier mental-attribute Spirit Beast. The leader of the Evil Eye clan is a super existence ranked second on the list of the Ten Great Savage Beasts.
The Evil Eye Tyrant King, who possesses nearly eight hundred thousand years of cultivation!
Legend has it that this Evil Emperor once faced the number one ranked Savage Beast, Beast God Di Tian, and did not fall behind.
Using an Evil Eye as the first spirit ring was absolutely the best fit for Xu Tianhao and also one of the most perfect mental-attribute spirit rings.
Inside Haoyu Palace, besides Kong Deming and Xu Tianhao, Emperor Xu Jilong, Xu Tianran, and Xu Tianzhen were all present.
They were also looking forward to seeing the sight of Xu Tianhao absorbing a thousand-year first spirit ring.
Xu Tianhao took out the Brilliant Dragon Dagger, finished off the dying Evil Eye in front of him, and then sat cross-legged, preparing to absorb the spirit ring.
Before long, a purple spirit ring condensed over the Evil Eye's body, accompanied by dense mental force.
Normally, Spirit Beasts below the ten-thousand-year level do not possess soul shock, but powerful mental-attribute Spirit Beasts are different.
Although this twelve-hundred-year-old Evil Eye did not possess soul shock, it still carried a certain amount of mental pressure.
If one were not a mental-attribute Spirit Master, they basically wouldn't be able to absorb this spirit ring.
Given the quality of an Evil Eye, this twelve-hundred-year ring would be more than enough even as a third spirit ring for an ordinary Spirit Master.
Now it was merely Xu Tianhao's first spirit ring; such was the benefit of top-tier talent combined with a top-tier background and resources.
For anyone else, even a Spirit Saint or a Spirit Douluo level expert might not dare to go deep into the Demon Forest to capture a thousand-year-old Evil Eye.
A thousand-year-old Evil Eye isn't scary; what's scary is that Evil Eye Tyrant King inside the Demon Forest.
Only an expert of Kong Deming's level would dare to so recklessly select a spirit ring for Xu Tianhao.
Of course, this was also an unspoken rule between the Sun Moon Empire and the Demon Forest.
As strong as the Evil Emperor was, he couldn't withstand the encirclement of an entire nation's power.
And while the Sun Moon Empire did not fear the Evil Emperor with its full national strength, there was no need to pay such a price.
Therefore, as long as one didn't touch the Evil Emperor's direct bloodline on the surface, the Evil Emperor generally wouldn't interfere.
By the same token, if those who entered the Demon Forest to hunt Spirit Beasts died inside due to lack of strength—even if they were princes or princesses—they could only blame their own incompetence.
To hunt a Spirit Beast, one must bear the risk of being killed in return.
This applied to any Spirit Beast forest that housed top-tier Spirit Beasts.
...
When the Evil Eye's spirit ring was fully formed, Xu Tianhao also released his Sun Moon Divine Pupils Spirit.
With the release of his Spirit, Xu Tianhao's eyes transformed into the sun and the moon, with gold and silver light blooming within them.
Xu Tianhao directly drew the spirit ring over his head. In the next moment, intense spirit power pressure and mental pressure fell simultaneously, causing Xu Tianhao's body to stumble involuntarily.
This scene made the hearts of Emperor Xu Jilong and the others twitch.
Especially Kong Deming; although he was confident Xu Tianhao could absorb this ring, he also feared an accident.
So from the moment Xu Tianhao began absorbing the spirit ring, Kong Deming stared at him without blinking, ready to intervene at any moment to prevent an accident.
But Xu Tianhao quickly regained his composure and began to absorb the spirit ring step by step.
With Xu Tianhao's current foundation, absorbing this spirit ring did not involve too much pressure.