Being touched and examined so directly through his Martial Soul made Ning Fengzhi somewhat uncomfortable. However, seeing the serious look in Chen Ming's eyes, he did not say anything and simply allowed Chen Ming to continue observing.
"Senior Ning, could you use a support-type Spirit Ability on me? Any one will do."
"Seven Treasures are renowned, first: Strength."
Ning Fengzhi nodded and activated the Spirit Ability attached to his first Spirit Ring. The effect enveloped Chen Ming's body, increasing his strength attribute by eighty percent.
Generally speaking, enhancement-type abilities of Spirit Masters would be weakened by level differences. When a high-level Spirit Master enhanced a low-level Spirit Master, the effect would suffer little reduction. But when a low-level Spirit Master enhanced a higher-level one, the effectiveness would continuously diminish.
Only the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was an exception.
The amplification of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda depended solely on the user's own level. In the original story, when the Shrek group first entered the Star Dou Forest, Ning Rongrong had enhanced Zhao Wuji even while he was using his Martial Soul True Body.
Although the enhancement lasted only an instant before draining Ning Rongrong's Spirit Power completely, at that moment she had indeed, as a mere Spirit Grand Master, boosted two attributes of a high-level Spirit Saint using Martial Soul True Body by thirty percent.
These were the two defining traits that made the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda worthy of being called the world's number one support Martial Soul: generous numerical amplification that increased alongside the user's level, and enhancement effects that were not weakened by differences in cultivation rank.
Watching the first level of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda light up as the Spirit Ability activated, and sensing the enhancement on his own body, Chen Ming activated his AI thought process.
Countless parameters stored within his mind were called forth. Massive amounts of knowledge surfaced as several lines of thought simultaneously branched into different directions, analyzing and debating against one another.
Several minutes later, Chen Ming finally arrived at roughly three conclusions.
"The reason Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Spirit Masters cannot become Spirit Douluo is because the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda only has seven levels. Fundamentally, the origins of Sect Master Ning's seven Spirit Rings are likely anchored within the corresponding levels of the pagoda itself. That is why activating a Spirit Ability causes the corresponding layer to resonate."
Ning Fengzhi revealed an awkward yet polite smile.
"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda is already too perfect. And precisely because it is perfect, it cannot break through."
"The reason the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda possesses such efficient amplification is due to its own structure. Through the special nature of the Martial Soul, it forcibly transforms all Spirit Abilities into identical enhancement-type abilities, and the effectiveness of those abilities is unaffected by the age of the Spirit Rings."
"Because it is overly perfect, the structure itself has become locked in place. It is resistant to external degradation, but also extremely difficult to improve externally. Amplification is an innate ability of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda itself. The Spirit Abilities merely direct and release that hidden power."
"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda possesses a preset upper limit. This is not something that can be changed merely by talent, nor can it be altered through conventional external means. I fear that even treasures considered supreme within the Spirit Master world—such as hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings and Spirit Bones—would still be unable to break this limit."
Because the system was too precise, because its demands toward the outside world were extraordinarily simple, and because hidden beneath its elegance was an adaptability and durability comparable to rugged military equipment, Chen Ming even began suspecting that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was not originally a Martial Soul native to the Douluo world.
Rather, it might originally have been some magical treasure created by a higher existence. It was just that the world suitable for the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda had possessed a lower energy level than the Douluo world.
Thus, after the prototype of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda entered the Douluo world, Martial Souls resembling it gradually began appearing. However, because these Martial Souls were merely replicas of an already existing object, they still retained the limitation of Level 79.
This was not impossible.
As human technology continuously advanced, by the eras of the third and fourth Douluo generations, the category of tool Martial Souls already included soul tools and hidden weapons.
Furthermore, even the imperial bloodline originating from Elven Planet would, after mixing with the bloodline of Douluo humans, eventually manifest in the form of Martial Souls unique to the Douluo world. This proved that the concept of Martial Souls within the Douluo world itself was extraordinarily special and possessed a unique assimilative property.
Conversely, this also meant that tool Martial Souls could potentially be analyzed, reverse-engineered, and then recreated as actual weapons and equipment.
"Is Elder Chen perhaps exaggerating the matter somewhat?" Ning Fengzhi's expression turned serious.
For the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, there had always only been two believed methods of breaking through the upper limit of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
One was for the Martial Soul to undergo mutation directly upon awakening.
The other was to obtain a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone or even a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring later in life, thereby breaking the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's limit.
The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was definitely incapable of bearing a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring, but in the eyes of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone was not entirely impossible and had always been considered their greatest hope.
And now, one of those two paths had been directly denied by Chen Ming. How could Ning Fengzhi not become serious?
"To improve the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, one requires not only the power to break through the upper limit, but also the ability to reconstruct the existing framework of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda while adding additional layers to it. But the structure of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda is already extremely perfect, so modifying it on that foundation is extraordinarily difficult."
"The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda is like a perfectly crafted bucket. Every aspect of it is flawless, except that its capacity for holding water is insufficient. There may be many ways to increase the limit, but forcibly pouring more water into it is definitely not one of them."
"Once more power is forcibly stuffed into the container, it becomes difficult to say whether the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda would evolve… or simply collapse."
"In the history of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, there truly was once a special Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Spirit Master who broke through this limit. But even the Spirit Hall does not know exactly how he achieved it."
"This junior dares ask one question: what exactly did that senior of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect obtain back then in order to break through the limit? In my opinion, breaking the limit without increasing the number of layers is even more difficult than doing so by adding additional layers."
"..."
Ning Fengzhi remained silent for a moment, weighing the pros and cons internally before finally sighing helplessly.
"Since Elder Chen is interested, then I'll speak of it. In any case, it happened a thousand years ago, and such a thing could never be replicated."
"That ancestor's talent was actually not particularly outstanding. The reason he was able to break through the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda's upper limit was because his seventh Spirit Ring came from a special Spirit Beast."
"It was the Rainbow Dragon, known as the Descendant of Dragons."
"It was actually a Rainbow Dragon?" Chen Ming was genuinely shocked.
Besides the conventional Nine Great Dragon Kings, many variants existed within the Dragon Clan.
For example, the Hell Demon Dragon within the Star Dou Forest was one such variant. And among all dragon variants outside the nine major dragon clans, the one with the noblest bloodline was undoubtedly the Rainbow Dragon.
The bloodline of this dragon species was considered extraordinarily noble even among dragons themselves. It possessed extremely powerful elemental control abilities and terrifying enhancement abilities, essentially making it the Spirit Beast equivalent of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda—except even stronger in terms of group-wide amplification.
Although their combat power was not particularly outstanding because their support abilities occupied too much of their potential, their pure bloodline strength still granted them formidable physical bodies. At the very least, as a Martial Soul, they were stronger than ordinary Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect Spirit Masters.
Because their bloodline was noble and powerful, their appearance dazzling and beautiful, their enhancement abilities overwhelming, and their individual combat strength comparatively weak, these dragons often appeared as companions of stronger dragon species. Thus, they earned the titles "Descendants of Dragons" and "Magic Dragons."
If the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda was the "strongest support-type tool Martial Soul," then the "strongest support-type beast Martial Soul" would definitely be the Rainbow Dragon.
In fact, Spirit Masters possessing this Martial Soul suffered from almost exactly the same problem as Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Spirit Masters: after obtaining seven Spirit Rings and completing the seven colors, advancing further became extraordinarily difficult.
Furthermore, because dragon-type Martial Souls were tied heavily to bloodline inheritance and thus far less stable than the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, Rainbow Dragon Martial Souls had long since vanished into the river of history on the Douluo Continent.
It was said that this noble and powerful dragon species had already gone extinct on the Douluo Continent long ago. Even within the records of the Spirit Hall, such Spirit Beasts had become little more than mythical legends.
Yet unexpectedly, an ancestor of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had once managed to obtain such a Spirit Beast as his seventh Spirit Ring…
Compared to obtaining immortal herbs, it was hard to say which probability was lower.
Chen Ming would bet fifty cents that this Rainbow Dragon definitely had not lived within the Star Dou Forest.
Otherwise, considering the Rainbow Dragon's noble bloodline and support abilities, if Di Tian had learned that a Rainbow Dragon died at the hands of a Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda Spirit Master, Chen Ming felt there was over a seventy percent chance that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect would have been erased from history by an enraged black dragon one night.
Because every true Rainbow Dragon was a priceless treasure of dragonkind.
Even during the peak era of the dragons, the number of such powerful dragons was probably extremely limited.
And because of the title "Descendant of Dragons" and the Rainbow Dragon clan's mastery over elemental control, Chen Ming even suspected that the Dragon God's wife may have originated from this race. He simply did not know whether she had originally been a Rainbow Dragon, or whether the Rainbow Dragon race only came into existence after receiving additional power from the Dragon God.
Still, it made sense.
Only a Spirit Beast like the Rainbow Dragon—whose amplification abilities were both powerful and highly compatible with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda—could possibly break the original upper limit without disrupting the Martial Soul's overall structure.