Although the Spirit Beast's physical body had long since been completely consumed during cultivation over the years, how could She Long possibly not keep something as a memento from such a special Spirit Beast?
Chen Ming stroked the two skulls while testing She Long's Martial Soul True Body. In the end, he arrived at a conclusion.
A small fragment of the slain two-headed python's soul had attached itself to She Long's Spirit Ring instead of dissipating completely, and She Long's Martial Soul True Body used the Snake Lance as a foundation to manifest the two-headed python's soul once again.
If the Coiling Dragon Staff housed a dragon soul, then the Snake Lance housed the soul of that two-headed python.
It was just that compared to a dragon soul, She Long's snake soul was far weaker, and the formation of his Martial Soul True Body had involved an enormous amount of coincidence.
The odds of such a thing happening were even lower than killing a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast.
After all, while hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beasts were rare, they at least undeniably existed. Those with enough strength could attempt to hunt them.
But events dependent entirely on probability were different. No one could be sure whether they would encounter a suitable Spirit Beast, nor whether such a Spirit Beast would meet the most suitable person for itself.
Although She Long's other eight Spirit Abilities—especially the first six—were relatively mediocre, when it came to compatibility between Martial Soul and Martial Soul True Body, Chen Ming did not think even Qian Daoliu could surpass She Long in this aspect.
She Long had already had children before reaching the Spirit Saint realm, and their Martial Soul was an ordinary Snake Lance. But according to Chen Ming's current deductions, if She Long were to have another child now, the child's Martial Soul would most likely be the evolved Purple Gold Snake Lance rather than the original Snake Lance.
Tool Soul Bestialization, Beast Soul Toolization.
Aside from the Black Tortoise still residing within Heaven Dou Emperial Academy, which he had yet to make contact with, Chen Ming had already encountered most of the Martial Souls and Spirit Masters in the world walking along these two paths.
Big data model construction. Computational analysis. Replicating the underlying logical structure. Attempting to simulate special variables...
Imitating the Coiling Dragon Staff, Chen Ming used the method of Beast Soul Toolization to transform his current Earth Sacred Dragon Martial Soul into a long staff.
The sub-program he had previously split off specifically to simulate the thinking of the Dragon Clan was thoroughly implanted into the Martial Soul. Chen Ming burned through his life force and his own origin, repeatedly attempting the process as if he were possessed.
With the three Treasures Transformation Pill compensating for the consumption of his origin, Chen Ming was able to completely recover his origin in just a few hours after a failure before continuing his attempts.
Staff body failed, dragon soul failed, Spirit Ability transformation failed, Inefficient energy structure, logical errors...
Finally, after several failures, a pale-faced Chen Ming finally achieved the effect he desired.
In the state of Martial Soul possession, Chen Ming displayed none of the beast-like transformations normally produced by beast-type Martial Souls. He simply held a two-meter-long dark gold dragon-patterned staff in his hand.
As Chen Ming circulated his Spirit Power and consciousness, the dragon-patterned staff emitted a glow that was not dazzling, yet incomparably resolute. A deep dragon roar silently spread outward.
With every swing of the long staff, a dragon's roar echoed through the surrounding air.
As Chen Ming gradually entered a more intense state, the speed of his staff swings grew faster and faster. Finally, a phantom dragon silhouette slowly emerged from within the staff and coiled itself around it.
It was a dark golden dragon soul. Its overall form resembled the serpentine body of an Eastern dragon, though its physique was thicker and its limbs broader.
A pair of immature wings spread from its serpent-like body, while its horns resembled those of a deer. One eye shone gold, while the other was dark purple.
Overall, Chen Ming's Martial Soul looked like a fusion between the form of an Eastern dragon and a Western dragon. It vaguely resembled Yinglong, one of the creation deities from ancient legends, but it still fell short of perfection.
After summoning the dragon soul for only a brief moment, seventy percent of Chen Ming's Spirit Power had already been consumed. He had no choice but to withdraw from that special state.
As the "Coiling Dragon Staff" in his hand transformed back into energy and merged into his body, obvious draconic traits finally appeared on him like a normal beast-type Martial Soul possession.
"It's still... still too forced. The dragon soul... the dragon soul's consumption is almost exactly at the limit I predicted. The gap between an artificial dragon soul and an innate dragon soul is still far too great..."
Chen Ming panted for a moment. While circulating his Spirit Power to absorb energy from his surroundings and recover himself, he took out a True Lesser Spirit Ascension Pill from his storage soul tool and tossed it into his mouth.
At his current level, even the non-nerfed version of the Lesser Spirit Ascension Pill no longer provided much increase to his cultivation. But it was still useful for restoring Spirit Power.
Sitting on the ground, Chen Ming closed his eyes and silently began to think.
Unlike Fifteen Ton Douluo and Falling Devil Douluo, Chen Ming's Martial Soul did not possess an innate dragon soul dwelling within it. Unlike Snake Lance Douluo, he also had not acquired a Spirit Ring that retained fragments of a Spirit Beast's soul.
The method Chen Ming had just used was no longer simply Beast-Soul Toolization—using the characteristics of a beast-type Martial Soul to imitate a tool-type Martial Soul. Rather, it was closer to forcibly compressing a beast-type Martial Soul into the form of a tool-type Martial Soul on a deeper level.
That was precisely why no beast transformation traits had appeared on his body.
The core of Chen Ming's method was the AI subprogram split from his own thought process: the "AI Dragon Soul." Using it as the core, he compressed his own energy flow and Martial Soul origin into the shape of a staff, then used the dragon soul to unify the Martial Soul's energy and create a transformation infinitely close to a true tool-type Martial Soul.
But this method was like voice imitation. Even if it could perfectly mimic someone else's voice, it still was not truly Chen Ming's own voice. He had to forcibly alter his own rhythm to maintain it.
That was fundamentally different from the innate talent possessed by Spirit Masters naturally born with tool-type Martial Souls.
In this process, the required consumption of mental energy, Spirit Power, and Martial Soul origin was not small. Furthermore, it did not seem to provide a significant boost to his strength; it was entirely a case of the losses outweighing the gains.
But Chen Ming felt that if he could truly understand this path, his comprehension of the essence of Martial Souls would reach an entirely new level, allowing many of his future studies to continue advancing.
Especially because Chen Ming was considering something beyond Beast Soul Toolization—truly splitting a dragon spear from his own Martial Soul.
The Golden Dragon King had the Golden Dragon Spear, while the Silver Dragon King had the Silver Dragon Spear. Both were companion divine treasures born alongside the two Dragon Kings.
After Lan Xuanyu became the Dragon God, he even fused the two dragon spears together with the Rising Dragon Pillar to create the new Dragon God Spear.
And Martial Souls close to the bloodlines of the two Dragon Kings would also possess innate companion dragon spears. For example, Xian Lin'er from Soul Land 2 possessed the Azure Flame Dragon Martial Soul, a Golden Dragon bloodline Martial Soul, and was naturally born with her own Azure Flame Dragon Spear.
These companion dragon spears not only failed to weaken the Martial Soul itself, but instead further strengthened it on top of its existing foundation. Spirit Abilities could even be extended through the dragon spear. Different dragon spears could also further amplify the innate talents of the Martial Soul.
For example, the Golden Dragon Spear possessed devouring abilities on top of its own base attributes, while the Silver Dragon Spear functioned like a staff capable of amplifying the Silver Dragon King's elemental control talent. As for the Dragon God Spear, after fusing with the Rising Dragon Pillar, it even gained the ability to elevate dragons themselves.
For the current Chen Ming, copying the homework of these higher-level existences was absolutely the correct path.
If he could nurture a dragon spear through acquired means, then both his combat power and future potential would rise to an entirely new level.