Chapter 8: Phonic Gain Resonance
For several breaths after the absorption ended, neither of them moved.
The forest had gone strangely still.
The Ironscale Ridge Panther corpse lay cooling in the dirt, its blood already darkening under the roots. The thousand-year spirit ring turned behind Renyu in a slow purple orbit, steady and undeniable. In front of him, the red Symphogear Converter Crystal hovered above his palm, its inner light no longer merely dormant, but changed.
Something had opened.
Renyu could feel it.
Not as a fully formed technique ready to leap out of his hand, and not as a transformation that suddenly covered him in armor. It was subtler than that. Like a mechanism within the crystal had finally received its first true current and had begun to hum with quiet life.
His breathing was still rough.
His meridians felt the raw power.
But underneath the aftershocks of pain and exhaustion, information rose clearly through his mind.
[First Soul Ring Skill: Phonic Gain Resonance.]
Renyu face froze.
No.
No, no, no.
Across from him, She Long was still watching with that rare expression of genuine surprise, but Renyu no longer had the attention to care. His thoughts had snagged fully on the name.
Phonic.
Gain.
Resonance.
The crystal fed him the rest with merciless clarity.
[A support-type skill.
Song, rhythm, and emotional synchronization would generate phonic gain and convert it into direct combat enhancement. The effect was passive whenever it detected song. The user's physical strength, speed, reflexes, soul power circulation, and mental resistance would all rise with it. The steadier the song and the stronger the emotional focus, the stronger the amplification.]
Renyu sat there in the dark forest, a first purple ring behind him, a red crystal in front of him, and came to one devastating conclusion.
The heavens hated him personally.
Because yes—the power was absurd.
And yes—it was exactly the kind of ridiculous, unreasonable, high-potential support effect that could become terrifying later.
But it was tied to song.
Song.
He did not want to sing.
He absolutely did not want to sing.
She Long voice cut through the spiraling horror in his head.
"What is the skill?"
Renyu looked up slowly.
The old Title Douluo stood in the dim light between trees, spear still in hand, face unreadable once more except for the sharpness in his eyes. Whatever surprise he had felt at Renyu succeeding with a thousand-year first ring had already been folded away. What remained was the look of an elder evaluating the result of a dangerous investment.
Renyu considered lying for half a breath.
Then dismissed it.
Lying to Qian Renxue hidden Title Douluo about a first ring skill was a good way to cause something wrong in the future. He still need the their help for future spirit ring.
"It's called Phonic Gain Resonance," he said.
She Long brow shifted slightly. " What is the effect?"
Renyu hesitated, mostly because saying it aloud made it feel more real.
"It's... a support-type skill."
The old man waited.
Renyu forced himself to continue. "When it detects song, rhythm, or strong emotional synchronization, it generates something called phonic gain and converts it into direct enhancement for my body."
This time She Long expression changed again.
Not disbelief.
Focus.
"How much enhancement?"
"I don't know yet."
"Then try it."
Renyu obeyed, though his legs threatened to complain. The spirit ring still turned behind him, its purple halo strangely surreal against the dark trees. He dismissed it with effort, and only after it faded did he realize how heavy his limbs still felt from absorption.
She Long glanced once around the clearing, then stepped back.
"Test it."
Renyu stared at him. "Here?"
"Now."
There was no arguing with the tone.
Unfortunately, there was also the smaller problem that he had no intention whatsoever of bursting into song in the middle of a spirit beast forest under the eyes of a Title Douluo.
He tried the simplest method first.
Summon the crystal.
The red converter appeared above his palm.
Nothing obvious changed.
Then he listened.
Wind through leaves.
Distant insect hum.
A few scattered birdcalls from farther away now that the battle had ended.
The moment he truly paid attention, the crystal vibrated faintly.
Renyu blinked.
A thin wave of sensation moved through him—not dramatic, not explosive, but unmistakable. His breathing settled a fraction faster. The ache in his limbs tightened into something more efficient. His senses felt sharper around the edges.
Passive detection.
Even ambient sound with rhythm was enough to trigger a weak response.
She Long noticed the change immediately.
"It activated."
Renyu nodded slowly. "A little."
"Cause?"
"The birds. The wind. Rhythm, probably." He frowned, feeling it out. "It's weak like this."
"Good. Then it need a stronger stimulus."
Renyu already disliked where this talk was going.
She Long, being mercilessly practical, arrived there at once.
"Sing."
Renyu expression turned blank.
The old Douluo looked at him.
Renyu looked back.
"No way," he said.
She Long eyes narrowed a fraction. "This is not a debate."
Renyu was six years old, exhausted, bruised inside and out, and still immediately certain that he would rather absorb a second thousand-year ring than start singing in front of this man.
"There should be other methods," he said carefully.
"Then hum."
That was somehow worse.
Renyu held perfectly still.
She Long studied him for one long second and then, to Renyu growing dread, seemed to understand something.
His tone became very flat. "You are embarrassed."
Renyu wished, not for the first time, that the Ironscale Ridge Panther had aimed one strike higher.
"It's unnecessary," he said.
"It is the core trigger of your first skill."
"I am aware."
"Then test it."
Renyu grip tightened imperceptibly beneath the floating crystal.
This was not survivable.
Not socially. Not spiritually.
But She Long face made it clear that refusal had reached its limit.
Renyu inhaled.
Then, very quietly, he hummed a single line.
He intended it to be as short and low as possible.
The crystal disagreed.
The instant the sound left him, the red converter flared. Not bright enough to blind, but bright enough that the clearing sharpened under crimson light. A pulse of energy rolled through his limbs so suddenly that Renyu nearly stumbled from the contrast.
Strength filled his muscles first.
Then speed—not the literal motion yet, but the coiled ease of moving faster.
Then reflex, the feeling that his body and thought had closed the gap between each other.
His soul power circulation, which had been sore and uneven after absorption, suddenly became cleaner, smoother, almost eager.
And underneath all of it, his mind steadied.
The raw tension left over from the thousand-year gamble settled into a hard, focused center.
Renyu cut the sound off at once.
The enhancement weakened immediately, though it did not vanish all at once. It tapered, lingering for a breath before fading.
He stood there in horrified silence.
She Long did not.
But the old man eyes had changed in a way Renyu had not yet seen.
This was no longer mere surprise.
This was shock.
"Again," She Long said.
Renyu looked at him as if betrayed by the entire world.
"Again."
There was no escape.
So Renyu did it a second time, this time holding the humming longer. The effect deepened almost at once. The steadier the tone, the stronger the response. He could feel it building layer by layer—controlled, structured, and terrifyingly direct.
His body was stronger.
Not just imagination. It real.
It actually becoming stronger.
When She Long tossed a broken branch at him without warning, Renyu hand moved before conscious thought fully caught up. He caught it cleanly.
The old Douluo eyes sharpened further.
"Again."
This time She Long moved.
Not with killing speed, but with enough quickness that ordinary children would have seen only blur. Renyu, still humming under his breath and holding the crystal active, managed to track the motion. Barely—but clearly better than before.
The old man stopped after three exchanges and went utterly still.
Renyu let the sound die.
The clearing fell back into normal forest noise. The immediate enhancement faded with it, leaving only exhaustion and the memory of what it had been.
For several breaths, She Long said nothing.
Then he turned his gaze to the red crystal and asked, "Only on yourself?"
"Yes."
"Passive whenever it detects song?"
"Yes."
"Stronger with stable rhythm and emotional focus?"
Renyu expression tightened. "Yes."
That last answer came a little too quickly.
She Long noticed.
Of course he noticed.
He looked at Renyu for a long beat, then said slowly, "You truly hate this aspect of it."
Renyu closed his eyes for half a second.
"of course, I hate that aspect," he muttered.
To his profound offense, She Long laughed.
Not much.
A single rough breath of amusement.
But enough that the forest itself might as well have cracked open.
Renyu stared at him.
The old Douluo schooled his face again almost immediately, but the damage was done.
"Unprecedented," She Long said at last.
That word landed more heavily than praise.
He stepped once around Renyu, studying him and the crystal from a new angle. "A first ring skill that is support-type in nature, yet amplifies the user direct combat parameters so broadly... and with such low activation requirement." His eyes narrowed in thought. "The passive trigger alone would make it troublesome. With deliberate use, it becomes far more dangerous."
Renyu dismissed the crystal, both because he was tired and because having it visible while this conversation happened felt somehow stupid.
She Long did not seem to mind. He had already seen enough.
"If this child is folded into Spirit Hall's younger generation," he said more to himself than to Renyu, "then that generation ceiling will rises with him."
Renyu went still.
She Long gaze sharpened again as his mind clearly continued moving.
"Having a thousand years spirit ring can be said to impossible, no one even from the legend pass down ever manage to have a first ring in the thousand" She Long coming from the Spirit hall so he knows some common knowledge.
He let the sentence hang.
He did not need to finish it.
Renyu understood anyway.
This was why Qian Renxue buried secrets.
A martial spirit like his, with fixed skill paths and ring freedom, was already dangerous enough. Add a first skill that converted song and rhythm into broad-spectrum self-enhancement, and his development curve no longer looked ordinary at all.
If everyone know, he might be targeted so some form of protection must be make. Not only that, the way for someone to get a thousand years ring must be a secret to protect the source.
If everyone know it, the price of it can be said to be astronomical after this.
She Long looked at him directly. "Young Mistress must hear this immediately."
That, more than anything else, told Renyu how seriously the old Douluo took it.
Then the elder added, with a trace of something dry returning to his voice, "And you must learn not to make that face every time the skill requires sound."
"I wasn't making a face."
"You were."
Renyu looked away.
She Long mouth moved again by a fraction. He only have one thought, 'Kids'.
This time, Renyu decided not to acknowledge it.
They did not leave the forest immediately. She Long insisted on two more short rounds of testing before withdrawing. One with ambient rhythm alone. One with deliberate humming. The results only confirmed the first impression.
Ambient forest sound was enough to produce a weak baseline enhancement.
Deliberate, stable sound multiplied it noticeably.
And emotional focus mattered. When Renyu forced himself through the embarrassment and concentrated on control rather than resistance, the effect became steadier and denser.
That part annoyed him almost as much as the singing itself.
By the time they finally began the return toward the horses, the forest had deepened into full night.
Renyu walked more slowly now, not because he was injured beyond movement, but because absorbing a thousand-year ring and then immediately testing a bizarre first skill had wrung him nearly dry.
She Long adjusted their pace without comment.
Somewhere above, wind moved through the high branches in a loose pattern.
Renyu felt the faintest stir of Phonic Gain Resonance at the edge of his senses, light as breath.
A passive hum.
Always listening.
Always waiting.
He already disliked how naturally it fit him.
Ahead, the dark path opened in thin slices through the trees.
Behind him lay a cooling beast corpse, the source of the first purple ring that he absorb, and the proof that his road had already departed sharply from common sense.
Beside him walked a Title Douluo who had gone from skepticism to shock in a single evening.
And waiting back in Heaven Dou was Qian Renxue.
Renyu had the distinct feeling that explaining this skill to her would somehow be worse than surviving the absorption.
That realization followed him all the way out of the forest.