It was widely known that Body martial spirits possessed a significant fundamental flaw: all spirit skills were directly related to and triggered through the user's own physical body. If these abilities were used repeatedly in combat, it became relatively easy for enemies to identify patterns and discover exploitable weaknesses.
To compensate for this inherent limitation, practitioners needed to master various combat skills, which were essentially self-created spirit skills and specialized fighting techniques.
Throughout the Douluo Continent, the application and development of combat skills remained relatively superficial and underdeveloped. Many Spirit Masters gradually learned these techniques through continuous spirit dueling and practical experience, while some powerful families possessed exceptional self-created spirit skills that had been passed down through generations.
For example, the Clear Sky School was famous for their Clear Sky Nine Absolutes and Chaotic Cloak Hammer Technique, while the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had developed their signature Dragon Transformation abilities. In comparison, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School possessed even more extensive resources and techniques.
In addition to the Distraction Control method used by direct descendants of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda lineage, there was also the renowned Seven Kills Sword Technique. The foundation for all these diverse abilities stemmed from the fact that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School maintained a wide variety of Spirit Masters within their ranks. Each generation produced corresponding Titled Douluos who could contribute numerous self-created spirit skills for the benefit of the entire sect.
However, these self-created spirit skills varied significantly in quality and effectiveness. The most powerful was naturally Sword Douluo's Seven Kills Sword Technique, but unfortunately, it required a sword-type martial spirit and could only be taught to core disciples within the sect.
For Yang Xiong at his current stage of development, all of these advanced techniques were far too premature to consider. What he needed most urgently was to strengthen his physical constitution, ensuring that he wouldn't fall too far behind other students during these crucial early stages.
Yang Xiong maintained a disciplined routine of simple and repetitive activities both at school and at home. He would wake up every morning to exercise his body, though he was careful not to exhaust himself completely in the morning sessions. Instead, he focused primarily on developing his athletic abilities and coordination.
After breakfast, he would attend school and spend his time reading extensively. He absorbed all kinds of books, including various forms of knowledge about the Spirit Master world, and occasionally studied different spirit power application techniques. In the afternoon, he would return home to engage in grueling exercise routines, basically pushing his physical strength to its absolute limits. After each training session, he would typically collapse on the ground from complete exhaustion.
At that point, he would take his medicinal bath. These specially prepared baths could relieve fatigue and provide therapeutic benefits to a certain extent, ensuring that his intensive training wouldn't cause permanent damage to his developing body.
After dinner, he would meditate with complete focus and dedication. Yang Xiong was not yet capable of engaging in spirit duels with other students, so there were no practical combat considerations at this stage. After all, he was still only a six-year-old child.
It had to be acknowledged that Ning Rongrong's natural talent was truly exceptional. In just under four months after awakening her martial spirit, Rongrong had already become the first student in the entire sect's first-year class to obtain a spirit ring. This remarkable achievement attracted envious attention from everyone around her.
However, this little girl Ning Rongrong had developed something of a princess complex and enjoyed being praised and admired by everyone. She existed within their entire class like a brilliant star surrounded by devoted admirers.
Moreover, Ning Rongrong was particularly generous with her classmates, often bringing delicious treats and entertaining toys to share with everyone. Sometimes she would even present rare treasures and valuable items, which naturally attracted considerable attention and excitement.
Of course, Ning Rongrong also enjoyed playing pranks and teasing people around her. All kinds of mischievous activities seemed to emerge from her imagination one after another. Since they were all six-year-old children with limited concentration and emotional control, Ning Rongrong's elaborate schemes often left her targets in tears.
Ning Rongrong herself also enjoyed leading large groups of students to cause various forms of trouble throughout the entire sect grounds, creating scenes of chaos and disruption. She even dared to tease and prank the teachers themselves. Even their homeroom teacher suffered from constant headaches dealing with her behavior, but there was essentially no way to discipline her effectively. This pattern of behavior was the true source of Ning Rongrong's notorious nickname as the "Little Witch."
It could honestly be said that within the entire school, Ning Rongrong and Yang Xiong represented two complete extremes. Ning Rongrong was the most dazzling and attention-grabbing presence in the entire academy, while Yang Xiong was the most low-key and inconspicuous student in the whole school.
Although the two studied in the same class and possessed completely different personalities, they basically had no meaningful communication or interaction with each other.
Yang Xiong had even been targeted by Ning Rongrong's pranks on several occasions, but he didn't take any of these incidents seriously at all. Unlike other children who would cry when teased, Yang Xiong remained unusually respectful toward Ning Rongrong and simply continued focusing on his solitary studies.
Yang Xiong understood very clearly that Ning Fengzhi was deliberately training Ning Rongrong to become the next sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda martial spirit itself could only be cultivated to level seventy-nine due to its inherent limitations, and users were typically support-type Spirit Masters. To effectively control and manage a powerful sect, one needed to master many different skills beyond simple cultivation.
For example, the special arrangement of elite classes was designed to allow Ning Rongrong to interact extensively with her future peers and subordinates. This would help her develop high prestige among her classmates and even learn to understand and manipulate people's emotions and motivations.
This understanding was also one of the reasons why Ning Fengzhi indulged Ning Rongrong's mischievous behavior rather than punishing her. Otherwise, it would be virtually impossible for a young girl to successfully inherit leadership of such a powerful sect.
It was important to understand that compared to other top-tier sects, becoming the sect master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School was arguably even more challenging. This was because the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda could only be cultivated to level seventy-nine at maximum. In addition to Ning Fengzhi himself, there were definitely many other Seven Treasure Glazed Tile martial spirit users within the sect who had reached the Spirit Saint level. However, Ning Fengzhi was able to make the entire sect as unified and solid as an iron fortress. He essentially had the final authority in all sect decisions. This level of leadership and control definitely couldn't be achieved through the support of two Titled Douluos alone.
Yang Xiong was especially aware that Ning Rongrong's every movement within the sect was probably being carefully monitored by hidden guards. Anyone who attempted to harbor ulterior motives toward Ning Rongrong would likely be dealt with immediately and decisively.
The difficulty of cultivating a Body martial spirit proved to be more challenging than Yang Xiong had initially imagined. Although innate spirit power level six was considered respectable for a small genius, the gap remained extremely vast compared to true prodigies with innate spirit power level nine or full innate spirit power.
It took Yang Xiong a full two years to raise his spirit power from level six to level ten. He was the slowest among all students in their entire class, performing even slightly worse than some classmates who possessed innate spirit power level five.
It was important to note that exceptional geniuses like Ning Rongrong could improve by 2.5 to 3 levels every year, and their progress was typically even faster during the early stages of cultivation.
However, Yang Xiong worked diligently without becoming overly anxious about his slower progress. For Body martial spirits, the early stages might be relatively slow and difficult, but the later stages would definitely allow him to match or even exceed their cultivation speed. This was especially true since he had also mastered many secrets and advanced knowledge about the Spirit Master world, which would prove extremely beneficial for his future cultivation development.
Currently, there was a small but significant problem confronting Yang Xiong: how to properly handle a valuable item he had recently acquired.
During the recent holidays, Yang Xiong had wandered around Seven Treasure City alone for exploration and research. He had accidentally discovered something truly exceptional—a piece of genuine whale glue.
This piece of whale glue was only about the size of a chicken egg. Based on its quality and characteristics, it appeared to be hundred-year whale glue, and the merchant was selling it for only one hundred gold spirit coins. Yang Xiong had purchased it immediately without any hesitation.
Unfortunately, while buying the whale glue, he had encountered Ning Rongrong, who was also shopping in the same area.
Ning Rongrong appeared to be quite knowledgeable and recognized that whale glue possessed certain medicinal properties that could enhance physical vitality. She looked at Yang Xiong with a strange, judgmental expression, and her eyes seemed filled with obvious contempt and suspicion.
It should be understood that Yang Xiong was currently only eight years old, but he was purchasing whale glue at such a young age. This seemed completely incredible and totally inconsistent with Yang Xiong's normally low-key and serious personality.
Ning Rongrong spoke with a contemptuous tone and mocking smile. "Little Yang Xiong, I never expected you to start using whale glue at such a young age. It seems that your usual serious appearance is completely fake and pretentious. Aren't you afraid that your parents will find out about this?"
Yang Xiong felt completely speechless for several moments before responding. "Student Rongrong, I simply thought it was interesting and decided to buy it for my collection. Please don't overthink the situation."
Ning Rongrong adopted an understanding expression while nodding knowingly. "I understand completely, Little Yang Xiong. You don't have to keep pretending like this in the future, you know."
Yang Xiong could only stare at her in stunned silence, completely unable to find appropriate words to respond to this embarrassing misunderstanding.