"It takes a hundred years to go from Level 95 to Level 96, another hundred from Level 96 to Level 97, three hundred from Level 97 to Level 98, and six hundred from Level 98 to Level 99. Therefore, it is impossible for a human Spirit Master to reach Level 99..."
"Breaking through to Titled Douluo grants a lifespan of three hundred years, and every additional level of Spirit Power adds another hundred years..."
"What the hell is this nonsense?"
"Who the hell can even live to three hundred years nowadays?"
"And exactly how long can a Titled Douluo live? Why does every book say something different?!"
Looking at the blue-covered cultivation notes in his hand, Chen Ming's eyes nearly bulged out. Even with Qian Daoliu and the other worship elders beside him, he still failed to hold back and cursed aloud.
"This?" Qian Daoliu turned his head and glanced at the book in Chen Ming's hand, suddenly understanding. "Oh, this was confiscated… acquired from Sea God Island. It's different from our Spirit Hall's records, so it doesn't count."
"It's not that the books from Sea God Island are necessarily wrong… but Sea Spirit Masters have always relied on longer cultivation periods than mainland Spirit Masters to reach the same level."
"Perhaps it's as you said—the ocean has richer resources and more ways to extend lifespan, which is why things are like this?"
"But your speech today truly shook people awake. Who knows how much turmoil the continent will experience because of you."
"Martial Uncle, I genuinely think human Spirit Masters cultivate in an extremely distorted way. The upper limit of lifespan and the upper limit of strength are severely mismatched, while Spirit Beasts are the exact opposite extreme."
Chen Ming put down the obviously misleading "teaching material" and spoke seriously to Qian Daoliu.
"Based on my deductions, if ordinary people regularly receive treatment from healing-type Spirit Masters and have sufficient nutrition, their lifespan should be able to reach around one hundred to one hundred ten years."
"And logically speaking, even the weakest Spirit Master should be healthier than an ordinary person. If they were nobles with proper maintenance, living to a hundred and fifty should be no problem. Yet in reality, the lifespans of Titled Douluos are generally not high. This is highly irrational."
"I strongly suspect… there's some hidden factor involved here. Otherwise, the discrepancy shouldn't be this severe."
"Right now, I'm considering whether I should develop a method to increase lifespan. If lifespans are extended and cultivation efficiency improved, wouldn't there be far more powerful experts?"
"Hm." The Fourth Worship, Lion Douluo, stroked his chin. Looking at the faint traces of white in his beard, he seemed tempted by the idea as well. "That would certainly be a good thing, but how could something like that possibly be achieved?"
"It's nothing more than increasing income and reducing expenditure." Chen Ming shook his head. "That part isn't difficult. The difficult part is determining how much can actually be conserved. Right now, the lifespan of Titled Douluo is abnormally short. Through conservation and supplementing vitality, doubling their lifespan shouldn't be a problem."
"However… Martial Uncle, after hunting spirit beasts, I'd like to dissect some ten-thousand-year Spirit Beasts for research. Would that be acceptable?"
"I feel the lifespan of Spirit Beasts is also absurdly long. Just as Spirit Masters have lifespans that don't match their energy level, Spirit Beasts display the opposite phenomenon. I truly want to study it."
"What kind of issue is that?" The worship elders all burst into laughter, none of them caring in the slightest.
"As long as you're not dissecting humans—especially not living people, ordinary civilians, or normal Spirit Masters—then even dissecting death row prisoners wouldn't be a problem. As for Spirit Beasts, there's even less reason to object."
The Spirit Masters of this era held a far more open-minded attitude, and their standards for judging evil Spirit Masters were nothing like the chaotic extremism of the later era. In this age, evil Spirit Masters were classified as degenerates—the key factor was moral corruption, not cultivation method.
Even if someone ate a Spirit Beast raw every day for a hundred years straight, as long as they didn't harm humans or commit acts against humanity, they would still be considered a good person.
The fact that someone like Ghost Douluo—a living dead man inherently and severely restrained by light and holy attributes—could still rise to such a high position within the Spirit Hall and be admired by countless people was enough to show the mentality of Spirit Masters in this era.
"When the time comes, I'll go catch them for you myself," Lion Douluo declared confidently, patting his chest.
"Xiao Ming, didn't you say before that you wanted to leave certain people hanging for a few days and go hunt Spirit Beasts first?" Golden Crocodile Douluo brushed back his steel-needle-like black hair and spoke with a sigh.
"Yeah. Because of the Spirit Hall's records, I've gained some new insights into cultivation, so I want to break through as soon as possible and test a few things."
"As for interacting with the others… let the situation ferment for a while first. In truth, I'm the only one truly capable of designing cultivation methods, but people will definitely first try to seek out Senior Ye, Senior Chrysanthemum, and Senior Dugu for help. Only after they recognize reality will it be the right time for me to step in."
As Chen Ming spoke, he sorted, cut, and bound together stacks of manuscript pages covered in writing before standing up and handing them to Qian Daoliu.
"Martial Uncle, this is the revised version of the Douluo Heart Method. Compared to the standard version, I focused more on detail optimization and improving the Spirit Power circulation pathways. The cultivation efficiency should now be around 1.45—about 0.15 higher than the version outside."
"As for going beyond that, I'll need to make targeted modifications based on individual Martial Souls. In the short term, it'll be difficult to improve the universal version any further. If we truly want to push ahead, then we'll have to begin actual human experimentation…"
At that point, Chen Ming stopped speaking.
"1.45…" Qian Daoliu muttered. "According to your standards, the efficiency of ordinary meditation is one. That means this method increases cultivation speed by nearly fifty percent…"
"If that's the case, then even someone with innate Level 7 Spirit Power would have the qualifications to attempt reaching the Titled Douluo realm. And those with exceptional talent would see their upper limits rise tremendously."
"If this truly spreads, then blood will inevitably flow like rivers."
"But the younger generation of our Spirit Hall…" Qian Daoliu thought of the so-called Golden Generation—Hu Liena, disciple of Bibi Dong; her brother Xie Yue; and Yan, the owner of the ancient Flame Lord Martial Soul. He fell into deep thought before eventually shaking his head.
"There's no issue with the younger generation, but the Pope… is not entirely trustworthy."
The Golden Generation had clean backgrounds, excellent talent, and considerable strength. Even Qian Daoliu could find no faults in them and believed they and their peers would become the pillars of the Spirit Hall in the future.
But when he recalled Bibi Dong's previous attempt to forcibly add Yu Xiaogang's name to the author list of the Douluo Heart Method, he ultimately decided to keep this new cultivation method in his own hands for the time being.
Because he genuinely feared that the moment he allowed the Spirit Hall's Golden Generation to cultivate it, Bibi Dong would immediately leak the method to outsiders.
For now… he would only let Xue'er cultivate it.
He just didn't know what that child would think once Xue'er's identity was revealed…
If they could truly gain this child's complete support, then the success rate of Xue'er's plan would likely rise tremendously as well.
Qian Daoliu hesitated inwardly.
In truth, he greatly disliked the plan to usurp the Heaven Dou Empire. But the problem was that Qian Renxue insisted on following the path Qian Xunji had laid out before his death.
And so he had no choice but to reluctantly cooperate, watching Qian Renxue waste her youth living under another identity.
If possible, he truly wanted Qian Renxue to return to the Spirit Hall and become herself again.
"Alright then, since that's settled, let's set out." Golden Crocodile Douluo, who had not left the Consecration Hall for fifty years, cracked his knuckles excitedly.
"The Star Dou Forest… the last time I went there was over sixty years ago. I wonder how much it has changed since then? I wonder whether there are any active hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beasts?"
"If there are, then this trip might as well include hunting down a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone."
...
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