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Artistic Conception and its practical application were the true foundations.
While meditation was undoubtedly the most convenient path to wielding this conception—which is why Su Wen referred to it as a "method"—there was a critical prerequisite: one had to be capable of perfectly outlining the core formation while possessing a matching Artistic Conception.
For instance, if one attempted to infuse a "Flame Attachment" core formation with a "Sea Wave" conception, it would be counterproductive, potentially even damaging the creator's mental strength. Achieving a level like Su Wen's—where one could produce a "Stroke of Divine Genius" across all types of Soul Tools—was something that could not be attained through simple meditation alone.
Lin Tian accepted the inscribed page containing the meditation techniques, his expression solemn. Su Wen had begun to reveal his true capabilities, and each new revelation made Lin Tian feel like a backwater bumpkin.
The Sun Moon Continent was still in a primitive era where information was passed through physical books, much like the old Douluo Continent. Compared to Su Wen's soul-infused pages—which could store and transmit vast amounts of data directly—traditional methods seemed utterly archaic.
Holding the page to his forehead, Lin Tian felt a flood of information merge into his mind. Having received the inheritance of the meditation technique, he became deeply committed to Su Wen's request. Regardless of which side Su Wen eventually chose, that was a headache for the high-ranking members of the Sun Moon Imperial Cult to deal with.
As for Lin Tian himself, thanks to Su Wen's assistance, he had already secured Ninghai City. In the future, he would be the ruler of a mid-sized city under the Cult's control; the resources allocated to him would be worlds apart from his past experiences. His future had suddenly turned blindingly bright.
"Brother Su, with your current level, you should be able to attempt crafting High-Level Soul Tools," Lin Tian remarked.
As he spoke, Lin Tian felt a pang of complex emotion. He had spent half his life cultivating and half his life researching Soul Tools, yet he was only a Soul Emperor and a fledgling High-Level Soul Tool engineer. Meanwhile, the youthful Su Wen was already a Soul Emperor on the verge of becoming a Soul Saint, and in just a month and a half, he was ready to assault the rank of High-Level Soul Tool engineer.
It was a staggering, almost demoralizing reality. In a month and a half, most Soul Tool apprentices wouldn't even be familiar with the properties of rare metals.
However, Lin Tian worried that the general materials he had provided on High-Level Soul Tools might lead Su Wen astray, causing him to waste time through trial and error. Unwilling to see such talent squandered, Lin Tian decided to hand over a portion of his own teacher's heritage.
It was only the foundational inheritance—the kind of basic data most High-Level engineers possessed but which usually required a certain status to obtain. Since Lin Tian had the authority to disseminate this information, he passed it to Su Wen. Part of it was out of respect for talent; the other part was a burning curiosity to see just how far Su Wen could push the records of the Sun Moon Continent.
Su Wen, sensing the value of the information, accepted it immediately. Exchanging a meditation technique for this data seemed like a loss on paper, but since Su Wen intended to make the Academy's techniques public anyway, it was actually a bargain.
"I see... so High-Level core formations are essentially created by stacking formations equivalent to the limit of Thousand-Year Soul Rings," Su Wen mused. "After stacking, you simplify the formation as much as possible to reduce the difficulty of carving, then add new layers and repeat until you reach the pinnacle of High-Level Soul Tools."
At this level, the basic structure evolved from the simple units of Low-Level tools and the structures of Mid-Level tools into a refined "base" core formation. Once simplified to the extreme, this core could serve as a foundational building block for even larger systems: Super Soul Tools.
The advantage of this path was that it was seemingly endless. The disadvantage, however, was obvious: it was incredibly taxing. Not only did it involve massive amounts of tedious carving, but it also imposed severe limits on the physical size of the Soul Tool.
Su Wen finally understood why "Pinnacle" Soul Tools often required several generations of engineers to complete.
"This is the drawback of not having a foundational formation structure equivalent to a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring."
Eventually, as Soul Tool development progressed, this stacking method would always be necessary. However, the higher the level of the basic unit, the higher the ultimate ceiling of the stacking method would be. If the basic unit wasn't a Thousand-Year limit but a Ten-Thousand-Year level formation, the ceiling would be vastly higher, and the bottleneck for engineers to break through would be significantly smaller.
"Actually, the basic unit for a Ten-Thousand-Year core formation is already achievable," Su Wen said with a smile.
Wouldn't a "Thousand-Year" core formation infused with a "Stroke of Divine Genius" effectively function as a Ten-Thousand-Year unit?
The greatest difference between a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring and a Thousand-Year one lay in its Spirituality. This was evident when soul masters absorbed them; "Soul Shaking" was unique to Ten-Thousand-Year rings because they retained a trace of the soul beast's original instinct. This made the resulting soul skill fundamentally different from a Thousand-Year one.
Therefore, the evolution of the core formation unit from Thousand-Year to Ten-Thousand-Year had to start there. One couldn't easily give a formation a biological "spirit," but one could give it an Artistic Conception, thereby gaining the blessing of Heaven and Earth!
Su Wen set aside the traditional methods for crafting High-Level Soul Tools, turning his thoughts toward a path that belonged to him alone.
"I've only been on the Sun Moon Continent for a month and a half, and I'm already about to revolutionize Soul Tool technology..." The thought made his heart race. This was exactly the "hook" his Academy needed to establish itself here.
The Revolution of the Soul Tool World!
While Su Wen researched his new path, Lin Tian worked tirelessly to contact his teacher. Finally, half a month later, word arrived.
"Brother Su, my teacher has replied. He is very interested in your meditation techniques and the Academy. He wishes to have an in-depth discussion with you."
Su Wen wasn't surprised. "Have the time and place been set?"
"My teacher won't be entering seclusion for crafting anytime soon, so he is waiting for you to arrive in Radiant City. The meeting place is the headquarters of the Sun Moon Imperial Cult—the Sacred Mountain outside the city."
Despite the escalating conflicts across the continent, the headquarters of the Sun Moon Imperial Cult remained unchanged. Radiant City was the heart of the Sun Moon Continent; whoever retreated first would lose the psychological advantage.
Currently, the entire city was the center of a tug-of-war. While wars raged in every other city across the land, Radiant City remained in a tense, frozen stalemate.
"To Radiant City then," Su Wen nodded. "Give me a map of the Sun Moon Continent."
Lin Tian produced a detailed map and handed it over. Su Wen's gaze swept across the terrain, lingering for a brief moment on the Evil Demon Forest, before quickly locking onto the location of Radiant City.
(End of Chapter)