Yan's Training Path (Part 1)

You Chen observed the changes in Yan's aura, a faint look of satisfaction appearing in his eyes.

Recently, he had been busy preparing to leave Spirit City, while Yan had gone out to train with Hu Liena and the others some time ago. Master and disciple had not seen each other for quite a while.

Now, with only a brief observation, You Chen could tell that Yan had not neglected his training during this time.

His Soul Power Level had already risen to level 36, and his control over soul power had become increasingly smooth and fluid.

Naturally, alongside soul power training, he could not have neglected physical conditioning or mental training either.

Incidentally, Yan was a year older than Hu Liena. At twelve years old, he was already level 36—seven full levels higher than Tang San's level 29 when he graduated from Notting City Academy at the age of twelve in the original story.

Xie Yue's cultivation speed was close to Yan's, and he too had reached level 36. This was also what had given him the confidence to look down on You Chen before.

In truth, this cultivation speed was not particularly exaggerated.

Yan's cultivation had not even surpassed Xie Yue's because, after taking You Chen as his master, some of the assignments You Chen had given him had slowed the rate at which Yan accumulated soul power.

After You Chen published "Another Use for Whale Jelly," and Spirit Hall monopolized whale jelly, all three members of the Golden Generation benefited from it.

The soul power gained from whale jelly was secondary.

More importantly, with the finest resources supporting them and their own aptitude meeting the standard, the age limits of the soul rings they absorbed at every rank had greatly increased.

When they absorbed their first rings, they had been relatively young and unable to withstand too many supplements, so it had not mattered much.

But after absorbing their second and third rings, they each jumped three full levels.

Ordinary soul masters gained only one level of soul power from absorbing soul rings at the optimal age limit. Tang San's Third Soul Ring, for example, exceeded the limit by some amount—the optimal limit was just over 1,700 years, while Tang San absorbed one that was 3,000 years old—so it granted him one additional level.

Yet the resources enjoyed and training received by Spirit Hall's Golden Generation were far beyond anything Tang San could compare to. Their second and third soul rings exceeded the original optimal age limits by a considerable margin, so the Soul Power Levels they gained were naturally greater as well.

Taken together, it was equivalent to cultivating for at least more than an extra year compared to ordinary people.

The cultivation advantage brought by this additional soul ring energy would likely only begin to weaken after they reached the sixth ring and became Soul Emperors.

That was because finding and hunting high-age soul beasts suited to soul masters was far more difficult than doing so for lower-age ones.

And aside from his high Soul Power Level, Yan had not neglected the tempering of his body either.

The only thing that left You Chen somewhat dissatisfied was Yan's mental training.

Still, considering Yan's rough and burly temperament, he truly was not well suited to the secret mental technique You Chen had created based on his talent for dividing his mind among multiple tasks. It was understandable that his mental power had fallen a little behind, wasn't it?

Beyond the cultivation of Essence, Qi, and Spirit, You Chen's method of developing Yan's Flame Lord Martial Soul and selecting his soul skills was also vastly different from the original story.

Yan had not yet become his disciple when he absorbed his first soul ring, so his soul skill was the same as in the original story, called Hell Lava Surge. (The original novel seemed not to mention it, so let's treat the mobile game's version as canon.)

Simply put, it was a soul skill that fired lava at high speed and caused it to explode.

Aside from granting that soul skill, this soul ring only provided a slight increase to the Flame Lord's energy intensity.

However, the enhancement a hundred-year first ring gave to a top-tier Martial Soul could practically be ignored.

The requirements for the Flame Lord to achieve Martial Soul Evolution were far simpler than the evolution path of the Stardust Dragon.

That was because it was a Martial Soul whose brute-force nature was obvious at a glance. Even its Special Ability was straightforward, focused solely on the dual attributes of fire and earth.

Of course, clear and simple requirements did not mean that achieving Martial Soul Evolution would be easy.

For a top-tier Martial Soul to evolve into a super-tier Martial Soul was no less difficult than for a mid-tier Martial Soul to evolve into a top-tier one.

The process was indeed difficult, but in a sense, it was also easy.

As long as he followed the correct path and did not absorb any nonsensical soul rings—for instance, a fire-and-earth Martial Soul absorbing a Soft Bone Rabbit soul ring—then once Yan absorbed nine soul rings and became a Titled Douluo, his Martial Soul would basically evolve to super-tier quality.

He merely had to steadily stack the levels of fire-and-earth dual-attribute energy. The enhancement brought by nine soul rings, especially soul rings beyond their age limits, would almost certainly allow his Martial Soul to achieve a qualitative transformation through quantitative accumulation.

Even if it fell just slightly short, once Yan reached a sufficiently high level, he could make up the difference by absorbing compatible soul bones.

What made this process simpler than "a mid-tier Martial Soul evolving into a top-tier Martial Soul" was that soul masters with mid-tier Martial Souls basically lacked the talent to become Titled Douluo and gain the enhancement of nine soul rings.

Thus, You Chen's plan for Yan had never focused on improving the quality of his Martial Soul from the very beginning.

What he had always considered was how to maximize the combat strength of the Flame Lord Martial Soul.

There were broadly two directions for improving a Martial Soul's practical combat ability: strengthen its advantages or compensate for its weaknesses.

After carefully studying the Flame Lord's traits, You Chen quickly turned his attention to its shortcomings.

As a top-tier Martial Soul, the Flame Lord's weaknesses were undoubtedly its relatively slow speed and high soul power consumption compared to other top-tier Martial Souls.

Naturally, those flaws were only relative. Against high-tier Martial Souls, the well-rounded Flame Lord held an overwhelming advantage in every aspect.

It was unlike Hu Liena's Demon Fox, whose strengths and weaknesses were both obvious, leaving it vulnerable to being defeated by a weaker opponent.

According to Spirit Hall's many records, when top-tier Martial Souls evolved into super-tier Martial Souls, the process generally strengthened their advantages first. Only if there was room to spare afterward would their weaknesses be raised as well.

You Chen judged that even after the Flame Lord evolved, speed and Endurance would remain its disadvantages. In his six-dimensional Martial Soul rating system, they might even continue to receive a score of three.

Between Endurance and speed, You Chen's first instinct was to improve speed.

After all, if one's overall capabilities were sufficient to defeat the enemy before soul power and stamina ran out, then insufficient Endurance would cease to be a flaw.

Speed was different. Greater speed meant more room for error and a better environment for dealing damage.

As he considered how to compensate for the Flame Lord's speed weakness through its Martial Soul traits, You Chen quickly thought of a method that could both improve its mobility and, to a certain extent, enhance its offensive power.

The Flame Lord's Special Ability was Fire Rock Control, not "Lava Control."

It possessed the greatest control when manipulating lava, the mixed energy of fire and earth. Yet beyond that, it also had considerable control over fire-element and earth-element energy.

Thus, this ability could be viewed as "Fire Control" + "Earth Control" + "Lava Control."

From this, You Chen saw Yan's future potential for more refined, Subtlety-level control over his own soul power.

You Chen's Martial Soul could simultaneously manipulate wind-element, holy-element, and star-element energy.

Yet even with soul power control countless times greater than Yan's current level, aside from wind-element energy, which was the easiest to control, he still could not independently manipulate holy-element or star-element energy.

He could only accomplish such things by using soul skills from soul rings.

The difference was like manually inputting an ultimate move in The King of Fighters versus using an ultimate in simplified mode.

Yan, however, was different. His Martial Soul was innately more suited to controlling fire and earth.