"Is it the year-end again?"
"I still haven't managed to create the 'nested' Soul Skill the Dean wants to exchange for the fourth-level subsidy."
Wang Linchi glanced at the date. Without Yan Ming King around, his days were extremely comfortable, free from security problems and the risk of being caught in trouble.
So, in the blink of an eye, Wang Linchi checked the time; in another month and a half, it would be the New Year again.
There was a bit of news about Yan Ming King—rumor had it that he had become a prodigious seed in Yingzhou. If he could emerge victorious from the other prodigies in Yingzhou, he would be able to represent Yingzhou in the regional Hundred Prefecture Prodigy Convention.
He was now reportedly in the Yingzhou Prefecture, repeating the kind of face-slapping displays of dominance he had originally shown in Qinghe City's Manor, all to accumulate sufficient foundation and defeat other prodigious seeds.
After that, there was no more news; even if Wang Linchi wanted to follow up, he couldn't.
These past few days, Wang Linchi had also completed many tasks. By gradually investing a large amount of resources and time, his strength had reached the late-stage White Porcelain level. His current spiritual power was 81 points; as for his physique's strength, it was best left unmentioned.
After the effects of the Elixir wore off, he didn't continue to enhance his physique but chose to evolve his Shallow Meditation Soul Kind.
[Soul Seed of the Psychic Series·Spiritual Corridor (Excellent Level)]
[Psychic Baptism: Increase in psychic strength]
[Psychic Recovery: Accelerate Psychic Power Recovery]
[Psychic Toughness: Enhance the toughness of the spirit]
The Spiritual Corridor, evolved from Shallow Meditation, was very practical. In terms of spiritual power—whether it was strength, recovery ability, or toughness—it provided a 10% increase.
Intensity and upper limit are not the same; the former is quality, the latter quantity.
Originally, Wang Linchi wanted to increase the upper limit. However, he reconsidered: the upper limit could be increased through a Soul Forging Method, but enhancing spiritual power intensity had limited pathways and restricted upgrade values.
Currently, the only way Wang Linchi knew to increase spiritual power intensity was through the Soul Forging Method he had obtained from Qinghe Academy, which could only be utilized after reaching the Secret Silver Level.
Besides that, extremely precious treasures produced in Secret Realms could also provide an enhancement.
If his previous spiritual power intensity was like a gentle breeze, his current intensity had become a chilling wind, enough to make people instinctively wrap their clothes tighter—but that was its limit.
After all, he only had so much spiritual power, and the intensity had only increased by 10%; being a percentage increase, it was still based on his own foundational level.
The only downside was the disappearance of the original 20-point fixed bonus to his spiritual power, which pained him a bit, though his recovery speed had greatly accelerated.
In addition, because all three of his Soul Kinds had evolved, his fourth Soul Kind, Subordinate Thinking Focus, had also completed its evolution synchronously.
[Thought Category Soul Seed·Thought Hall (Excellent Level)]
[Thought Field: Generate a power field through thinking, control and influence various creatures, items, and the environment within the power field]
[Thought Mirror: A "mirror" is established in the depth of thought, which can reflect one's soul, body, and emotions at any time]
[Thought Toughness: Enhances the toughness of thought]
Thought Interference had evolved into Thought Field. Originally, it could only affect himself, but now it could also interfere with the external environment, much like Telekinesis.
The downside was also very obvious: because it wasn't true Telekinesis, it was somewhat specialized, and its ability to control and influence was limited.
Its manipulative power within his body was much stronger than the previous Thought Interference, but once it extended outside his body, its effectiveness was truly pitiful.
The range was 8 millimeters centered on him, and the maximum weight it could bear was 8 milligrams.
Millimeters might be familiar, but the weight unit of milligrams might be less so: 1 milligram equals 0.001 grams.
However, there was also good news. Within the range of the Thought Field, Wang Linchi could perceive things through this field. This perception, combined with the Soul Seed effect entries from the Soul Courtyard, allowed for extremely fine-grained observation, which was certainly positive.
Once his spiritual power improved, the range and strength of the Thought Field would also increase. The current weakness stemmed not from the Soul Kind itself, but from his own limitations.
The Thought Mirror's ability was an evolution of Introspection. Instead of merely looking inward, a mirror image now manifested within his thoughts. This mirror image could constantly monitor changes in his body, spirit, soul, mind, emotions, and other aspects, ultimately forming a summarized data projection.
Wang Linchi could also interact with this projection, quantifying and influencing it.
[Soul Resemblance: Book of Records]
[Level: Late-stage White Porcelain level]
[Spirit: 81]
[Physique: 8]
[Soul Kind: Mind Ladder (Limit of Excellent Level), Spiritual Corridor (Limit of Excellent Level), Soul Courtyard (Limit of Excellent Level), Thought Hall (Limit of Excellent Level)]
[More...]
Wang Linchi mentally 'collapsed' the 'More...' section, as it contained data like heartbeat frequency, muscle strength, and blood flow velocity—values he found little practical use for at the moment.
Furthermore, due to the Thought Field, the Thought Mirror could also monitor conditions within this field's range.
As long as Wang Linchi could input the corresponding data and make modifications, he could develop functions like air quality monitoring, Toxin identification, and more. The reason these weren't currently active was simply his insufficient strength.
Therefore, the true value of this composite Soul Kind, the Thought Hall, lay not in using the Thought Field for combat, but in combining the Thought Field with the Thought Mirror to better research Soul Kinds and Soul Resemblance.
For example, evolving his Excellent Level Soul Kinds to Epic Level.
He had initially thought that simply accumulating quantity would suffice, but multiple experiments proved this approach entirely unworkable.
Just as there is a qualitative difference between an Excellent Level Soul Kind and another Excellent Level Soul Kind, the gap between an Excellent Level Soul Kind and an Epic Level Soul Kind is even greater—the two are separated by a vast chasm.
If Wang Linchi wanted to achieve such an evolution, he would need at least one Epic Level Soul Kind as a reference; otherwise, it was simply out of the question.
For now, he had temporarily shelved the Soul Kind evolution plan, as he had no access to an Epic Level Soul Kind.
So, after completing the evolution of the Spiritual Corridor and the Thought Hall, he had shifted his focus to studying his Soul-like Record Book. His research had two directions: one was to enhance its Potential, the other to improve its abilities.
Enhancing its Potential yielded no progress. Improving its abilities showed some slight advancement, but significant deficiencies remained before formal experimentation could begin.
Beyond this, he was studying the Soul Forging Method. Progress here was gratifying, especially with the aid of that Secret Silver Level book-type Soul Resemblance Soul Forging Method. He was confident that once he reached the peak of the White Porcelain level, he could successfully transform the Book Mountain and Sea Soul Forging Method into his own unique Soul Forging Method.
When that happened, and the illusory projection of the Mountain of Books and Ocean of Knowledge solidified completely upon the Book of Records, he would gain more potent effects, not just the rather mediocre ability to accelerate stamina recovery.
While this ability was decent initially, it would become increasingly lackluster over time. Because it offered fixed-value recovery rather than percentage-based, it was destined to be superseded.