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*****
"The Myriad Beast Realm is now officially completely open."
After completing his secluded meditation and refining the Myriad Beast Realm, Su Wen opened it to all Spirit Masters.
On the Silver Dragon King's side, she had also instructed Di Tian to spend the last half a year making the necessary preparations for entering the Myriad Beast Realm within the Star Dou Great Forest, making it mandatory for the soul beasts to enter.
While it was framed as a series of closed beta tests, it was actually a way for the soul beast faction to discover the benefits of this Myriad Beast Realm.
The Spirit Master faction was restricted to only a few entrants, but the soul beast faction had been forced to enter the Myriad Beast Realm starting half a year ago.
Within the Myriad Beast Realm, the slaughter and basic order among the soul beasts had already been established.
In just a short half-year, almost all the soul beasts had come to know of this illusory world's existence and had basically mastered the technique of entering and exiting it.
"Oh?"
Su Wen spotted a familiar little fellow.
"If I remember correctly, this kid should be just one class behind Lin Dong, belonging to the second batch of students at the Academy."
Though called the second batch, they were actually the first generation.
Because Lin Dong and Ye Luochen were exceptions; they had joined the Academy before the Spirit Master Tournament that Su Wen participated in, making them the true first batch.
Later on, as the Academy spread across the continent, those who joined during its construction formed the first generation of students, though they weren't the first batch.
The true Senior Brothers had always been Lin Dong and Ye Luochen.
They were also the Senior Brothers of the two major departments within the Academy. Now that their strength had grown, they had gradually taken charge of these two departments as ministers.
The youth currently in Su Wen's gaze belonged to the second batch--one of the first-generation students.
Back then, before the Scholar Realm had even been created, Su Wen was traveling around the Star Luo Empire helping to establish various branches of the Academy, and this youth had joined along the way.
Bai Sheng!
A youth who possessed a Paper Martial Soul. His innate spirit power was rank three, which seemed identical to Su Wen's past situation, yet was fundamentally different.
At the time, Su Wen had high expectations for him, personally guiding him and planning out the developmental direction of his Martial Soul.
However, Su Wen had not seen Bai Sheng since then.
Bai Sheng had been practicing continuously at the Star Luo City branch of the Academy within the Star Luo Empire. Now that the Myriad Beast Realm had opened, Su Wen only noticed him because of his rather unique style of combat.
"Your Martial Soul is not mere paper; it is a scroll, a scroll that can record everything under the heavens."
These were the words Su Wen had given to Bai Sheng back then.
Bai Sheng had kept these words firmly engraved in his heart. Through his studies at the Academy, he learned of the deeds of Lin Dong--the Senior Brother of the Inspection Department who had successfully changed his own destiny against all odds. As a result, Bai Sheng worked even harder in his studies and cultivation. Ignoring the opinions of outsiders, he dedicated himself wholeheartedly to his training.
This training lasted for seven years.
After seven years, Bai Sheng's current spirit power was at rank twenty-three.
That's right, completely ordinary.
A rank twenty-three spirit power at thirteen years old would have been considered a genius before Su Wen's emergence, putting him among the leading group of Spirit Masters across the continent--especially considering he started from an innate spirit power of rank three.
Setting everything else aside, looking strictly at the increase in his spirit power rank, he was not inferior to those geniuses with an innate spirit power of rank eight or nine who reached rank twenty-eight or twenty-nine by the age of thirteen.
And if one factored in the immense difficulties that an innate rank three spirit power imposed on cultivation, the fact that he could match those geniuses in rank progression made his overall talent seem even more staggering.
But that was the past.
The times had changed now.
From the year the Academy was founded, the Spirit Master world of the entire continent was no longer what it used to be.
Seven years after the opening of the Scholar Realm, the batch of children who awakened their Martial Souls at six years old had now reached thirteen. Among them, a thirteen-year-old at rank twenty-three only stood right in the middle.
Yes, not even upper-middle class.
However, Bai Sheng was somewhat special.
"Good kid, it looks like you've fully integrated everything I told you."
Su Wen's consciousness hovered high above the entire Myriad Beast Realm, watching Bai Sheng's battle below.
Bai Sheng had two spirit rings around him, and both were thousand-year rings!
This alone was a testament to his sheer perseverance.
He had likely been stuck at rank ten for a long time, delving deep into the Spirit Ascension Method and practicing body tempering techniques.
Fortunately, absorbing higher-age spirit rings could feed back into one's spirit power; otherwise, he probably wouldn't have even reached rank twenty by now.
"Two spirit rings, one developed towards storage and containment, and the other towards decomposition?"
Watching Bai Sheng's battle, Su Wen felt a hint of hesitation.
Because Bai Sheng didn't seem to rely on these two spirit skills as his primary means of combat. Instead, he walked the same path as Su Wen, developing his own self-created spirit skills to fight.
This was excellent. With the vast amount of foundational data and meridian knowledge provided by Su Wen, more and more Spirit Masters were creating their own skills nowadays. However, Spirit Masters who could truly rely entirely on this path to sustain their combat capabilities were still few and far between.
Bai Sheng was one of them.
As long as he didn't copy Su Wen by trying to walk too many paths at once, he might truly achieve great things.
"Two spirit skills to develop his Martial Soul, while simultaneously using them to assist in developing his self-created skills."
A clever choice.
"It's still too early to upgrade your rings. Go back and focus on cultivating your spirit power first."
With a wave of Su Wen's hand, Bai Sheng was ejected from the Myriad Beast Realm.
Bai Sheng blinked, looking around in a daze.
He had just been fighting a two-thousand-year soul beast; how did he suddenly leave?
When the voice of Grandmaster Wen echoed in his mind, he became incomparably excited.
Too early?
Focus on cultivating spirit power first?
Standing rooted to the spot, Bai Sheng pondered the reason behind Grandmaster Wen's words.
After a long time, a sudden realization dawned on him.
"The innate flaws of my Martial Soul have been mostly compensated for. By Grandmaster Wen's standards, I probably don't need to worry about my Martial Soul before becoming a Spirit King or even a Spirit Emperor. If my third and fourth rings are ten-thousand-year rings, there will be even less reason to worry."
Therefore, Grandmaster Wen was telling him not to blindly chase after the age of his spirit rings.
"With the Myriad Beast Realm here, upgrading spirit rings can be done at any time. My top priority right now is that my spirit power is too low."
Among those of the same rank, Bai Sheng was already extremely formidable.
Grand Spirit Masters who could battle thousand-year soul beasts were considered the cream of the crop--even more so now that, after Su Wen's revolution, the younger generation of the Spirit Master world had been nourished by the knowledge of the Scholar Realm. To be an outstanding standout among this elite new generation by fighting thousand-year beasts as a Grand Spirit Master was a massive feat.
Yet Bai Sheng, at rank twenty-three, could go back and forth with a two-thousand-year soul beast.
Even so, his spirit power was still too low.
"For the next two years, I will focus on cultivating my spirit power and break through to rank thirty first!"
With Su Wen's reminder, Bai Sheng snapped out of his thoughts, realizing that his spirit power had indeed fallen behind the true apex tier of his peers.
He didn't care about what others thought, but he knew that Grandmaster Wen had a good reason for telling him to catch up on his spirit power.
After Bai Sheng left, Su Wen nodded in approval.
While accumulating heavily before making a breakthrough was good, the accumulation phase shouldn't take too long if one truly wanted to reach the peak.
The peak cultivation period for a Spirit Master was before the age of thirty. If one couldn't reach the Title Douluo realm before thirty, subsequent cultivation would become very passive.
Reaching Title Douluo before thirty meant there was hope to grind up to one's theoretical maximum spirit power limit within ten years.
However, if one only broke through to Title Douluo at fifty or sixty, it might take thirty or forty years without ever guaranteed to reach that theoretical limit.
They would likely spend the rest of their lives just trying to grind up to the absolute limit allowed by their natural aptitude.
The gap was obvious at a glance.
If one reached their theoretical maximum limit by age forty, the probability of breaking through that limit in the future would be much higher.
This was a different way of shattering one's limits.
Bai Sheng's comprehension was quite good. He hadn't greedily rushed toward the end result of "recording everything under the heavens" that Su Wen had mentioned. Instead, he analyzed it carefully, broke it down into foundational abilities, and then added spirit rings, developed his Martial Soul, and created his own spirit skills simultaneously.
Naturally, Su Wen gave him some guidance.
Forget about before thirty--if possible, break through to Title Douluo before twenty-five.
Bai Sheng had that chance.
His current foundation was already sufficient.
Without paying too much mind to the cultivation of the younger generation, Su Wen monitored the area for half a day. After confirming that everything in the Myriad Beast Realm was running smoothly, he departed.
"Rank eighty-eight spirit power. It's still a bit slow."
Having advanced by more than three ranks within the major realm of Spirit Douluo over the course of half a year, Su Wen actually found it slow.
If other Spirit Douluos found out about this, they would probably cough up blood.
Even with Su Wen's cultivation methods, his guidance in knowledge and theory, and even using soul bones to refine the development direction of their Martial Souls to perfectly align with their paths...
Those Spirit Douluos still couldn't advance by three ranks in half a year.
An increase of nearly four ranks!
At this rate, wouldn't it take just a single year to transition through the Spirit Douluo realm and enter Title Douluo?
It was simply absurd.
He wasn't human!
"This half-year of cultivation delayed the developmental progress of my Visualization Miniature World by a month. The price was quite steep."
During these six months, Su Wen utilized the pathway of his Visualization Miniature World to channel cosmic energy into condensing his own soul bones. This inevitably reduced the amount of cosmic energy his miniature world could digest. Balancing the give and take, it was equivalent to the miniature world stagnating for a month.
"The Silver Dragon King's efficiency is incredibly high. The Heavenly Book Miniature World has expanded significantly. The Visualization Miniature World can no longer be used as a channel."
Su Wen hadn't expected the Silver Dragon King to spare no effort in helping him upgrade the Heavenly Book Miniature World.
"However, my blood essence cultivation hasn't reached the level required to open a miniature world yet. If it keeps expanding, the threshold to open a physical body miniature world will only become higher."
This endless cycle of competing growth might end up creating negative feedback.
Su Wen sighed.
This was the first time he had been out-paced by someone else's intense efforts.
"I should venture into the cosmos myself to research and unlock the mysteries of the human body."
Now that the Myriad Beast Realm was open, there was temporarily no need for Su Wen to remain on the Douluo Planet.
A spatial shift occurred.
In the blink of an eye, Su Wen tore through space and arrived in outer space.
He sat cross-legged alone in the cosmos, closing his eyes to cultivate.
"There are countless profound mysteries within the human body. By unearthing the potential of the body and plundering external energy to fill it, one can rapidly elevate oneself."
The so-called potential referred to the capacity to quickly digest external energy.
"Spirit Masters temper their meridians, while Heavenly Jewel Masters temper their acupoints."
Meridians and acupoints together formed the perfect structural framework of human energy pathways.
Su Wen's body began to glow.
Glow in a literal, physical sense.
Inside his body, countless dense lines of light and points of light flickered brightly against the backdrop of the cosmos.
"Acupoints correspond to heaven and earth."
Su Wen no longer possessed his Heavenly Jewel Master cultivation, nor did he have Heavenly Power or Heavenly Jewels. Therefore, while his acupoints were fully developed, they lacked the so-called acupoint spaces.
The core of a Heavenly Jewel Master's cultivation lay in their Heavenly Jewels. Using the jewels as a medium to open up spaces within the acupoints actually connected them to the Heavenly Jewels.
After Su Wen refined his Heavenly Jewels into equipment, these acupoints lost their connection to them.
"The Heavenly Jewels are still busy suppressing space inside the Heavenly Book Miniature World, so I can't try to restore that connection. However, I can use my acupoints to communicate with the universe."
Su Wen vibrated his acupoints.
His spirit power surged.
In the cosmos, a terrifying tidal wave of energy was whipped up by a single man.
Cosmic energy formed a massive vortex, pouring into him. Yet despite such an immense disturbance, it did not disrupt the normal flow of energy in the universe. The man's body seemed to completely merge with the surrounding cosmos.
Beneath a certain strange energy dimension.
Within a world of pitch-black darkness, a pair of massive black eyes seemed capable of devouring everything.
"Is this... a plane ascension?"
He felt the shift of energy within the cosmos.
It appeared that a vast amount of cosmic energy was pouring in a single direction.
This situation was usually an indication that a plane was about to advance.
Of course, the scale of this influx wasn't massive yet, but it should be a precursor.
At the very least, it meant the plane's development had taken a step forward, drawing in more cosmic energy.
Under stable progression, a plane developing at a faster pace was absolutely credited to the cultivators within it. Furthermore, the cultivators capable of driving the overall progress of a plane would not belong to a low-level plane themselves!
"Is it a plane that is about to enter the Divine Level?"
The Abyssal Sage King's completely pitch-black eyes resembled an abyss as he stared intently toward a certain direction in the cosmos.
In this direction.
Before and after, there had already been highly distinct energy tides.
"It's still strengthening."
The more it was so, the more certain the Abyssal Sage King became that there was a plane about to undergo ascension over there.
And it was highly likely an ascension toward the Divine Level.
"How difficult it is to advance to a Divine Level plane. Once it fails, the result is the ruin of the entire plane. It would be better off turning into nourishment for my Abyss."
Jie jie jie~~~
The Abyssal Sage King immediately manipulated the Abyss, groping his way toward the direction he sensed.
He also knew he was a street rat hated by everyone, and he worried that someone might be fishing, so he didn't make his movements too conspicuous.
"The physical body miniature world can finally be opened."
After another five months, Su Wen felt that his physical body was strong enough to open a miniature world.
The problem now was that his Visualization Miniature World and Heavenly Book Miniature World were too powerful.
If the physical body miniature world was opened now, it might be difficult to establish a perfect balance right away.
"What a hassle."
However, the future path was truly completely smooth.
After muttering a few complaints, Su Wen prepared to make his charge.
Charging for rank ninety!
He had broken through to rank eighty-nine three months ago. For such a long time, he had been continuously cultivating his blood essence power, leaving his spirit power trapped at rank eighty-nine for three months. He could wait no longer.
"There is still one month left before the Silver Dragon King takes human form. I must strive to open the physical body miniature world before she does."
Even if he temporarily had to constantly maintain the balance of the three miniature worlds himself, Su Wen had to seize this opportunity to open it as soon as possible.
The balance of the miniature worlds could always be adjusted later.
But if he missed this chance, there wouldn't be anyone helping him suppress the backlash of a miniature world for free next time.
Su Wen circulated his spirit power. The spirit power inside his body was like ocean waves, crashing through his acupoints and flowing through his meridians, letting out earth-shattering rumbles.
The cultivation of his blood essence had long since smoothed out the bottleneck of rank ninety.
"Charge, rank ninety!"