Two years later—
Su Yunlin sat cross-legged beneath the Golden Tree, while a crimson Spirit Ring encircled his body.
Tang Wutong crouched beside him and let out a sigh.
"He's been sitting here for almost a year already. How is he still not done absorbing it?"
A year earlier, Su Yunlin's Spirit Power had reached Rank 60, and he had decided to use a God-bestowed Spirit Ring to obtain a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring.
Originally, Elder Mu and the others had already found a suitable hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beast for him. However, that Spirit Beast was rather unusual, and if Su Yunlin attempted to absorb it at Rank 60, there was a possibility that problems would arise.
In the end, Su Yunlin had prepared his own Spirit Ring—the legendary God-bestowed Spirit Ring.
Elder Mu naturally knew what a God-bestowed Spirit Ring was. It was a Spirit Ring granted by a deity from the Divine Realm.
A God-bestowed Spirit Ring was a Spirit Ring perfectly compatible with a Spirit Master. The age of the God-bestowed Spirit Ring would become the highest age limit that the Spirit Master could endure. As long as one could withstand it, obtaining a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring was guaranteed.
However, God-bestowed Spirit Rings differed somewhat from Spirit Rings produced by hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beasts.
Spirit Rings produced by hundred-thousand-year Spirit Beasts would always grant two Spirit Abilities and include a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Bone.
Meanwhile, a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring condensed through a God-bestowed Spirit Ring would only provide a single Spirit Ability. However, that Spirit Ability would be perfectly suited to the Spirit Master and far more powerful than ordinary hundred-thousand-year Spirit Abilities.
"Hehe, little girl, there's no need to worry," Elder Mu said with a smile. "Yunlin already passed the most difficult stage of absorbing the Spirit Ring long ago. He's already fully mastered this hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring. Right now, he should simply be in a state of deep meditation."
Elder Mu had already returned. A year and a half earlier, he had brought Su Jinming and Ma Xiaotao back to Shrek Academy.
Their trip to the Sun Moon Empire had yielded enormous gains.
Elder Mu had personally hunted a seventy-thousand-year fire-attributed Tyrant Evil Eye for Ma Xiaotao. After her phoenix nirvana, Ma Xiaotao successfully crossed ranks and absorbed the Spirit Ring, obtaining a head Spirit Bone as well.
The Evil Eye clan was rather unique. If they dropped a Spirit Bone, it would most likely be a head Spirit Bone. After absorbing that head Spirit Bone, Ma Xiaotao's spiritual power greatly increased. In the future, absorbing a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring as her eighth Spirit Ring should no longer pose any issues.
Afterward, Elder Mu had brought Su Jinming to secretly infiltrate the Sun Moon Empire's Mingde Hall and several other core locations.
Together, they had quietly taken away nearly seventy to eighty percent of the Sun Moon Empire's soul tool secrets.
Among them were fixed-installed soul cannon shell technology, humanoid soul tool technology, and an entire series of Level 9 soul tool inheritances.
With these sophisticated soul tool inheritances, Shrek Academy's soul tool development entered an explosive period of growth.
Su Jinming became Shrek Academy's first Level 9 Soul Engineer.
He personally forged a Level 9 offensive soul tool for himself—the Night Divine Needle.
During this trip, Su Jinming had obtained data regarding the Sun Moon Empire's famous soul tool, the Sun Divine Needle. Using his own Dark Night Emperor Moth Martial Soul as a foundation, he created the Night Divine Needle.
The Night Divine Needle compensated for the weakness of the Dark Night Emperor Moth Martial Soul—its lack of offensive power after reaching the Titled Douluo level.
Forged from various dark-attributed rare metals and fused with two ten-thousand-year Spirit Bones possessing dark-gathering abilities, the soul tool was not only tremendously powerful but also recharged far faster than the Sun Divine Needle.
Relying solely on the Night Divine Needle, Su Jinming could already fight Elder Xuan evenly.
If the Night Divine Needle were unleashed at full power, even Elder Xuan would be injured.
The birth of the Night Divine Needle signified that Shrek Academy had finally obtained a Level 9 soul tool of its own.
This was absolutely a milestone in Shrek Academy's soul tool development.
More importantly, Su Jinming was not the only one who could use it. Su Tianxuan and Su Yunlin could also wield it. Their Martial Souls originated from the same source, and if Su Tianxuan used the Night Divine Needle, he might even be capable of taking Elder Xuan's life.
After Su Jinming became a Level 9 Soul Engineer, he was quickly followed by Xian Lin'er, the dean of the Soul Tool Department, who also advanced to become a Level 9 Soul Engineer.
She completely remade her Level 8 close-combat soul tool, the Azure Flame Spear, using even more precious materials and engraving it with more powerful soul tool formation patterns.
The second Level 9 soul tool of Shrek Academy—the Azure Flame Divine Spear.
Unfortunately, Vice Dean Qian Duoduo had yet to create a Level 9 soul tool of his own. However, his abilities as a Soul Engineer had still improved dramatically. He could now produce peak Level 8 soul tools on the level of the Judgment Sword.
Next came Shrek Academy's greatest secret—
Battle Armor.
Battle Armor had become Shrek Academy's highest priority and was designated by Elder Mu as the academy's number one project. Anyone capable of creating a fourth-level Battle Armor would be allowed to directly become the Master of the Sea God Pavilion.
Because fourth-level Battle Armor represented the combat strength of a Limit Douluo.
Even the weakest Limit Douluo was not someone a Super Douluo could challenge.
However, forging metal to the Heavenly Forging level was unimaginably difficult. At the very least, neither Su Jinming nor Xian Lin'er had managed to achieve it so far.
Still, third-level Battle Armor had already been developed. By incorporating the Sun Moon Empire's humanoid soul tool concepts, the Battle Armor system had finally reached completion.
Now, third-level Battle Armor had become Shrek Academy's ultimate trump card in soul tool technology. The minimum requirement for wearing a third-level Battle Armor was Spirit Sage.
A Spirit Sage equipped with third-level Battle Armor would immediately possess combat power on the level of a Titled Douluo, with strength roughly equivalent to Rank 91.
The higher one's cultivation, the greater the amplification from third-level Battle Armor. Even Titled Douluos would receive considerable boosts from it.
Furthermore, third-level Battle Armor required Soul-Forged Metal—metal that had already developed a soul of its own.
Third-level Battle Armor also possessed domain auras that could significantly strengthen a Spirit Master's abilities.
Under the leadership of the three deans, the Soul Tool Department gathered numerous high-level Soul Engineers and first created a third-level Battle Armor for Elder Mu.
However, for Elder Mu, a Limit Douluo, the increase provided by third-level Battle Armor was not particularly significant. At most, it improved his physical defenses and allowed him to unleash more of his strength. But ultimately, third-level Battle Armor still could not provide Elder Mu with a fundamental increase in power.
Still, Elder Mu sensed that there was something extraordinary about Battle Armor and decided to keep the set. He ordered the Soul Tool Department to prioritize custom third-level Battle Armor for Elder Xuan and Su Tianxuan first, before producing sets for himself and the inner court students, with the academy elders coming afterward.
Battle Armor was undoubtedly Shrek Academy's true trump card.
If the Sun Moon Empire launched another war in the future, Battle Armor could protect Shrek Academy's disciples. At the very least, they would no longer die from the aftershocks of fixed-installed soul cannon shells.
The current Shrek Academy could be said to have undergone a complete transformation.
Only two years had passed since the Spirit Master Tournament, yet the inner court disciples had already experienced tremendous growth.
Those capable of entering the inner court were all dragons among men and phoenixes among women. Their learning abilities spoke for themselves. No one required them to become Soul Engineers, but becoming familiar with soul tools and combining them with their own Martial Souls was something the inner court disciples could certainly accomplish.
As for whether there were disciples within the inner court who did not wish to use soul tools?
Of course there were.
But the Sea God Pavilion had long since issued an order: any inner court disciple who refused to comply with the academy's arrangements would be expelled and all resources obtained within the inner court would be reclaimed.
Faced with such a mandatory decree, naturally no one dared object.
At present, forceful measures were necessary to break the deeply rooted belief among inner court disciples that Spirit Masters alone reigned supreme.
A Spirit Master paired with suitable soul tools was the true path.
...
Buzz—
The Golden Tree suddenly trembled.
Immediately afterward, the entire Golden Tree released dazzling golden light, causing all the elders within the Sea God Pavilion to be startled.
In an instant, every plant across Sea God Island turned golden, while the surrounding natural energy surged toward the Golden Tree.
"What is this?"
Elder Mu was astonished to discover that both the natural energy and life force on Sea God Island had increased dramatically.
Suddenly, a ray of golden light poured into Su Yunlin's body.
Thump. Thump.
Thump. Thump.
It sounded like the beating of a heart.
"Huu…"
Su Yunlin slowly exhaled a turbid breath before opening his eyes.
He stood up as Spirit Rings rose around his body.
Yellow. Purple. Purple. Black. Black. Red.
A hundred-thousand-year sixth Spirit Ring.
How absurd was such a Spirit Ring configuration?
At the very least, according to Shrek Academy's records, aside from Sea God Tang San—who had once temporarily possessed a hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring due to his wife's sacrifice—
True Spirit Masters generally could not absorb hundred-thousand-year Spirit Rings until reaching Rank 70.
Back when Elder Mu had absorbed his own hundred-thousand-year Spirit Ring at Rank 70, it had required tremendous effort and the full support of Shrek Academy.
But Su Yunlin's sixth Spirit Ring was different.
Its overall color was crimson, yet around it were green-gold patterns.
"Yunlin! You're finally awake!"
Tang Wutong immediately threw herself into Su Yunlin's embrace, continuously rubbing her face against his chest.
Su Yunlin gently patted Tang Wutong's head.
"Tongtong. Teacher."
Elder Mu stroked his beard and smiled.
"As long as you succeeded, that's all that matters."
[Su Yunlin — Rank 65 Assault System Battle Spirit Emperor]
...
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