One month later.
For a whole month, Xiao Lin and Tang San had been cultivating, learning, and conducting research at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Thanks to the unique environment of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, Xiao Lin's blood energy cultivation progressed rapidly, quickly catching up with his soul power level. It could be said that his blood surged like a dragon.
Although Tang San was slightly behind, with his powerful vitality and martial soul that had already evolved into the Blue Silver Emperor, he too made astonishing progress.
During this time, Xiao Lin had also essentially completed his research into self-congealed soul rings.
This technique required a high level of fusion between a soul master's spirit, physical constitution, and soul power. Only then could a soul master congeal their own soul ring.
He owed much of this to the help of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings. Without them, even if given five more years, he might've only scratched the surface of this knowledge.
Upon realizing the difficulty of self-congealing soul rings, Xiao Lin didn't shrink back—in fact, he was even more eager to try it.
Though he wasn't going to experiment on himself, he could recruit volunteers, ideally those from remote, impoverished areas who were desperate for an opportunity.
These soul masters often longed for success but couldn't afford the money to acquire high-quality soul rings.
That's where Xiao Lin could help. By guiding them through training to achieve the necessary fusion of willpower, body, and soul power, they would be able to congeal their own soul rings.
Even if the resulting soul ring only had the strength of a ten-year-level ring, it would cost them nothing and allow them to choose their desired soul skill.
That was better than spending money on a potentially unsuitable ring.
A soul ring that fit perfectly from the start would minimize the risk of martial soul mutation, and its soul skill might be superior to standard ten-year soul skills—or even some hundred-year ones.
Because such soul skills were extremely compatible with the user's body, their soul power consumption would likely be much lower.
Therefore, Xiao Lin planned that after leaving the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well and Sunset Forest to acquire soul rings in the Extreme North, he would seek out volunteers from that region to test his method.
Then, if possible, he would ask the Ice Dragon King to help strengthen the soul ring age of those with ice-type martial souls.
If this allowed them to break through to a hundred-year soul ring, then Xiao Lin's first step in developing the self-congealed soul ring system would be complete.
His next goal would be to develop a method for soul masters to absorb a soul beast's power without harming the beast.
This second step would be much harder. Even with the help of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings, Xiao Lin could only currently work with ice, fire, or dragon-type soul rings.
Still, even if only the first step succeeded, it would revolutionize the relationship between humans and soul beasts.
Well… to be more precise, it would change the relationship between humans and lower-tier soul beasts.
With this method, ordinary people wouldn't need to kill low-tier soul beasts to gain ten-year rings—they could just congeal them independently.
That would give low-level soul beasts time to recover and evolve, increasing the number of those that survive long enough to reach the hundred-year level.
If the second step was also completed?
Then Xiao Lin could be called a living saint of this era.
In addition to training his blood energy and researching self-congealed soul rings, Xiao Lin also studied the concept of Innate Martial Souls.
According to his not-so-reliable research, the probability of awakening an Innate Martial Soul was less than 10%.
And this was after factoring in his current efforts to strengthen his body through blood energy cultivation.
This result surprised Xiao Lin greatly.
Even with a weaker body, he figured he'd have better odds than Huo Yuhao, who only had innate rank 1 soul power when he awakened his Spiritual Eye martial soul.
This conclusion left Xiao Lin confused—yet it made sense.
The second martial soul could only be awakened under immense external pressure.
As for soul power compression, Xiao Lin had already hit the level 40 bottleneck, so he shifted all his cultivation efforts into compression.
With the aid of the two Dragon Kings, compressing his soul power became nearly effortless. He accomplished it quickly and smoothly.
At present, as soon as Xiao Lin's soul power reached rank 70, he could immediately begin cultivating his soul core.
Of course, the cultivation of a soul core would still rely on the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings.
It wasn't that Xiao Lin couldn't do it himself—just that if you've got cheat codes, why not use them?
The two Dragon Kings promised that when Xiao Lin hit rank 70, they would help him simultaneously condense two soul cores—one of ultimate ice and one of ultimate fire, located in his second dantian.
As for any additional soul cores, Xiao Lin would have to form them on his own.
Finally, regarding spiritual power training…
This is where Xiao Lin could no longer laugh.
When visualizing the Coiling Dragon Rod in his Sea of Spirit, the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings truly let him experience what it meant to live through hellish torment.
On mountains formed from ice and fire, created by the Dragon Kings, Xiao Lin had to withstand the extreme conditions.
This required not only a high level of control, but also intense mental focus and extreme resistance to environmental stress.
After a month of such training, Xiao Lin's spiritual power had significantly improved, though still not on par with Tang San.
Tang San, meanwhile, had also made great progress over the past month.
He was doing well in compressing soul power, training blood energy, and everything else.
In just this one month, he had even completed enhanced versions of some hidden weapons.
For instance, the Yama's Token (Yama's Decree)—Tang San claimed that, thanks to the superior medicinal herbs at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the condensed version of Yama's Token could even affect a Title Douluo.
Though, he wasn't sure whether it could completely melt one into pus and blood.
Tang San also assisted Dugu Bo in refining poisons. At one point, when Tang San couldn't break through Xiao Lin's skin, he became visibly upset.
In the end, Xiao Lin had to lower his defenses and relax his mind, allowing Tang San to extract some blood from his finger.
Soon after, Xiao Lin's body healed on its own.
Because of this, Tang San made fewer antidotes, but the efficacy was far greater now—even restoring stamina.
Tang San believed this was due to Xiao Lin's cultivation of blood energy.
In fact, Tang San even joked that if Xiao Lin kept training like this, he'd turn into a walking miracle herb.
Lastly, Tang San crafted many soul tool devices for daily use, significantly improving their living conditions at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Had he not been reluctant to waste the special fire-and-ice ore from the area, he would've also built attack-type soul tools using both elemental attributes.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Suddenly, Xiao Lin's blood energy broke through, producing strange roaring sounds from his body.
Immediately, the springs of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well erupted violently around him, making such a disturbance that even Tang San turned his head in surprise.
"Hiss… Blood Like a Dragon!"
Looking at Xiao Lin, whose soul power and blood energy now circulated and merged visibly, forming a fiery aura, Tang San couldn't help but gasp and step back ten meters, afraid of being splashed by the well's water.
Instinctively, Tang San activated his Purple Demon Eye to observe.
In his special vision, every part of Xiao Lin's body was now being activated by immense power. A deep-colored energy was spreading through his entire being.
Tang San recognized it: life force.
It was clearly visible to the naked eye. Xiao Lin's cells were undergoing drastic transformation, becoming tougher and more powerful.
But that wasn't all. Tang San also saw that some of Xiao Lin's soul power and blood energy were fusing and compressing into a sphere.
Though it wasn't fully solid yet, Tang San was almost certain:
In the future, Xiao Lin would form a Blood-Soul Core.
Or perhaps… an inner core, a golden core?