At this moment, he was practicing Spirit control in an empty, deserted space.
As a Tool Spirit Master, Spirit control is a very important ability, directly related to a Tool Spirit Master's combat power and survival ability. After all, Tool Spirit Masters generally don't have the strong physique of Beast Spirit Masters, and all their combat methods, including but not limited to Spirit Abilities, are closely related to their Spirit. If they can't even control their own Spirit, it's simply courting death.
Zhu Ziyang's goal was to reach the ultimate level of Spirit control: to use his Spirit without displaying a spirit ring, and to freely send and receive spirit power through his Spirit!
This level is called 'consummate control,' also known as 'man-and-tool-as-one.'
Normally, a Tool Spirit Master only needs to reach the Spirit Saint stage and possess Martial Soul True Body to achieve this level. However, Zhu Ziyang considered himself a genius and naturally wasn't willing to wait until he became a Spirit Saint to master such an ability.
One must understand, actively mastering something versus passively receiving it are completely different levels.
Once Zhu Ziyang could achieve consummate Spirit control, it would be time for him to start attempting to create his own Spirit Abilities—that was his true ambition!
While practicing Spirit control, Zhu Ziyang was also consciously learning the combat style of the scythe.
As a long-handled weapon, the scythe's advantages and disadvantages are very clear. Its advantage lies in its wide attack range; the scythe's length is unique among long-handled weapons, so the larger the space, the greater its advantage. In sufficiently wide spaces and terrains, the scythe can easily achieve feats of fighting one against ten, or even one against a hundred. However, its disadvantages are also very obvious: the scythe is very heavy, the king of heavy weapons, and requires a high level of strength, making it unusable for ordinary people. In confined spaces, the scythe is difficult to wield.
Therefore, the scythe's combat style should be extremely flexible. It needs to maintain distance for sweeping blade attacks, but can also use the blade or back of the blade for defense. Since the Radiant Scythe's back is also sharpened, it can also be used for offense. Additionally, the scythe's sub-blades can be used for offense, and the circular sub-blades can even be used directly for grappling, leading to close-quarters combat. In short, the scythe requires the user to have extremely agile reactions to choose moves based on changes in combat.
Oh, and the scythe's combat posture is very elegant, which can satisfy someone's desire to show off.
Just like that, Zhu Ziyang quickly found his rhythm of life. During the day, if there was a practical combat class, he would attend; if not, he would find a deserted place to cultivate by himself. In the evening, he would cultivate with Jiang Nannan. His time was full and fulfilling.
This kind of life continued until it was interrupted by an event more than twenty days later.
Jiang Nannan reached Level 10.
"As expected of Nannan, you reached Level 10 so quickly!" Inside the dormitory, Zhu Ziyang praised her sincerely, a smile on his face as he said, "Tomorrow, we'll go ask the teacher for permission to leave the academy and hunt for a spirit ring!"
"Mhm mhm!" Jiang Nannan was also very excited from breaking through to Level 10, her entire small face flushed.
"By the way, Nannan, have you thought about what kind of Spirit Beast you want for your first spirit ring?" Zhu Ziyang asked, his smile receding slightly, his eyes shining with wisdom.
"Not yet!" Jiang Nannan showed a troubled expression, saying, "The Spirit Beasts I know are just the most common ones, and I've been busy studying these days, so I haven't had time to look for a Spirit Beast suitable for me."
"Is that so!" Zhu Ziyang's face immediately broke into a smile upon hearing this, and he said, "Then, how about letting your big brother help you choose your spirit ring?"
"Okay, okay!" Jiang Nannan clapped her hands in delight upon hearing this, her expression innocent and sweet, saying, "Brother Ziyang, you're so knowledgeable, you'll definitely be able to pick out a suitable Spirit Beast for Nannan's spirit ring!"
"Mhm!" Zhu Ziyang smiled, his mind rapidly contemplating.
Jiang Nannan's Spirit is the Soft Bones Rabbit. The Soft Bones Rabbit is very ordinary in every sense, an ordinary Spirit at the Spirit level, and an ordinary Spirit Beast at the Spirit Beast level.
However, the Soft Bones Rabbit Spirit has a very strong presence in history. Because it is said that the Sea God's wife, Soft Bone Douluo, also had the Soft Bones Rabbit Spirit. Zhu Ziyang happened to be reading books from that era these days, and from the Spirit Hall's ancient texts, he learned even more: Soft Bone Douluo was actually a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soft Bones Rabbit that had taken human form!
No wonder, no wonder she was able to achieve Titled Douluo with such an ordinary Soft Bones Rabbit Spirit.
Only one such case in ten thousand years of history!
Because of this, later Tender Bone Rabbit Soul Masters became obsessed, blindly imitating Soft Bone Douluo Xiao Wu's spirit ring and Spirit Ability configurations. This truly left Zhu Ziyang speechless.
Tender Bone Rabbit Soul Masters couldn't even accurately define their own Spirit, blindly imitating Xiao Wu's Spirit Abilities, unaware that Soft Bone Douluo was a Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast that had taken human form. Her Spirit Abilities were perfectly suited to her, refined over a hundred thousand years, and she didn't need to acquire additional spirit rings or consider Spirit evolution paths.
However, Tender Bone Rabbit Soul Masters were different. As Spirit Masters, not considering the Spirit evolution path when choosing spirit rings was one thing, but they didn't even consider their Spirit Master development direction, choosing to unhesitatingly learn from Xiao Wu. After generations of Tender Bone Rabbit Soul Masters trying one after another, they actually found spirit ring configurations that could replicate Soft Bone Douluo's Spirit Abilities. From the first Spirit Ability, Waist Bow, to the fifth Spirit Ability, Soft Bones Lock, they managed to figure them out.
Why only from the first to the fifth Spirit Ability? That's because the strongest Tender Bone Rabbit Soul Masters were only Spirit King level. There was no connection between the spirit rings they absorbed; they were purely for imitation, and their own Spirits were damaged. How could they reach a higher realm?
No wonder, besides Soft Bone Douluo Xiao Wu, there were no other famous Tender Bone Rabbit Soul Masters in history.
They truly deserved it!
In fact, practices like Tender Bone Rabbit Soul Masters imitating their predecessors are not uncommon in today's Spirit Master's world. The famous Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Soul Masters and Star Luo White Tiger Soul Masters all have fixed spirit rings and Spirit Abilities for their first three spirit rings. These were the most suitable spirit rings for their Spirits, summarized by their ancestors over hundreds or thousands of years, so later generations could blindly copy them.
However, Tender Bone Rabbit Soul Masters and Blue Silver Grass Soul Masters cannot blindly imitate Soft Bone Douluo and Thousand Hands Douluo like this. One word: foolish!
That's right, Zhu Ziyang was implicitly referring to the Tang Sect's Blue Silver Grass Soul Masters. They were truly a group of ignorant and so-called people.
Thousand Hands Douluo Tang San's Blue Silver Grass Spirit's attached spirit rings were definitely a mudslide in the Spirit Master's world. Whether it was ordinary Blue Silver Grass or Tang San's Blue Silver Emperor, they were all plants with tenacious vitality. According to normal logic, they should attach spirit rings that enhance vitality. But Tang San was different; his first four spirit rings are clearly recorded in the Tang Sect's ancient texts: the first spirit ring was a Datura Snake, the second was a Ghost Vine, the third was a Man Faced Demon Spider, and the fourth was a devil spider... Honestly, Zhu Ziyang was stunned the first time he saw such spirit ring attachments. Was this really the spirit rings of the legendary Thousand Hands Douluo who looked down on the world? Anyone with knowledge could see that such spirit rings were suicidal for a Blue Silver Grass Spirit. That Tang San didn't cripple himself with such spirit rings, Zhu Ziyang could only lament that the Blue Silver Emperor Spirit was indeed a super Spirit, not even crippled by this.
However, Tang San himself wasn't crippled, but he brought misery to later Blue Silver Grass Soul Masters. The Tang Sect's Blue Silver Grass Soul Masters regarded the spirit rings attached to Tang San's Blue Silver Grass Spirit as sacred scripture. One after another, they imitated him without any doubt, and the result was obvious: the Tang Sect was gone.
Zhu Ziyang didn't believe that the Tang Sect's ancient texts didn't record that Tang San's Spirit was the Blue Silver Emperor Spirit, not an ordinary Blue Silver Grass Spirit. If there were no such record, then that ancient text wouldn't exist in his library. The only explanation was that the Tang Sect's Blue Silver Grass Soul Masters all chose to ignore this detail.
They truly deserved it!