Fifth Soul Ring Formed

Among the second tier of targets You Chen had selected, Wind Spirits were among the weakest soul beasts.

Yet despite such obvious drawbacks, You Chen still placed them in the second tier because their advantages were equally apparent.

This type of soul beast was one of the few spirit creatures composed purely of wind-element energy. Absorbing a Wind Spirit as a soul ring would, more or less, enhance a martial soul's control over wind-element power.

If it was used to create a wind-element self-created soul skill, the flexibility of a soul master's self-created soul skill would be a whole level higher than with other wind-element soul beasts.

To give a simple example, after Evil Eye White Tigers consistently hunted a certain soul beast chosen by generations of ancestors through experience, their second soul skill had essentially become fixed as "White Tiger Light Wave."

From this, You Chen could reason backward and draw several conclusions.

First, that soul beast had an extremely high compatibility with the Evil Eye White Tiger. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for every Evil Eye White Tiger soul master to obtain this soul skill so reliably from its soul ring.

Second, even if an Evil Eye White Tiger soul master used the self-created soul skill method while absorbing that soul ring, they would be unable to change the foundation of the skill.

A self-created soul skill was not a matter of a soul master getting whatever they wished for and creating any soul skill they wanted.

While high compatibility and high stability produced soul skills with stronger overall qualities, they also often locked in the possibilities of those skills.

No matter how one used subjective consciousness to influence the formation of the skill, it would ultimately still be a soul skill that released energy through the mouth.

Even if You Chen handled it himself, at most he could alter whether the skill leaned toward long-range attacks or mid-range combat.

Most highly compatible soul rings had already defined the type of soul skill before they were absorbed.

The remaining freedom lay in secondary attributes such as "release method," "maneuverability," "range," and "soul power consumption."

At least one or two of those attributes would likewise be beyond one's choice.

For example, the soul beast Yan had hunted for his second soul ring had already been determined, before absorption, to grant a defensive soul skill that could only manifest as a shield or barrier.

Yet among soul beasts, Wind Spirit soul rings possessed some of the highest freedom.

Other than being limited to pure energy-type skills and being unable to produce soul skills that strengthened the body or condensed into more physical forms, they could yield attack, support, defense, or enhancement skills alike.

So although Wind Spirits themselves were not particularly strong soul beasts, and the boost provided by their soul rings at the same age was inferior to that of other soul beast soul rings, this point alone made them immensely valuable to You Chen.

And twenty to thirty thousand years was nearly the limit for this kind of soul beast. The soul skill he wanted to construct was naturally the signature ultimate technique of the Stardust Dragon, one even more widely known than "Sacrifice Sanctuary" in a certain sense—"Shooting Sonic"!

Strictly speaking, it would not be a true, one-hundred-percent reproduction of "Shooting Sonic."

After You Chen (II), or rather Little You Chen, absorbed his first soul ring, You Chen had gained a preliminary understanding of the power of the Stardust Dragon, the future form of the Stardust Young Dragon, through the soul skill "Sacrifice Sanctuary."

He still could not perfectly control that power. But it was like being unable to play football while still understanding a match. He had gone from being a complete outsider to beginning the process of putting himself in the shoes of a "player."

In You Chen's initial imagination, Sacrifice Sanctuary had been an ability centered on holy power, with starlight power serving at most as a supplement.

But the truth was that not only starlight power, but even Wind Force had been woven into it.

It was an ability born from the perfect application of all three types of power.

You Chen had previously known nothing about the principles behind Sacrifice Sanctuary. He had only known that the Stardust Dragon possessed a skill called Sacrifice Sanctuary.

After You Chen "described the desired effect," the Stardust Young Dragon, as the Stardust Dragon's preliminary form, had corresponding power hidden within it. The soul ring had therefore automatically filled in the necessary components.

You Chen provided the "output result," and because the martial soul possessed that capability, it supplied the "input process," thus achieving a complete skill.

It was equivalent to the system-granted soul ring helping You Chen conduct a reverse-engineering process.

The appearance of a result different from what he had expected was instead entirely within You Chen's expectations.

Rather, that had been his purpose from the start.

Through Sacrifice Sanctuary, he had caught a glimpse of the whole, and could already vaguely see that Shooting Sonic was not a purely wind-element skill.

It was impossible to use the soul ring of a Wind Spirit, a soul beast lacking both starlight power and holy power, to create a completely authentic Shooting Sonic. At most, he could only make something infinitely close to it.

And throughout this process, You Chen would certainly gain a deeper understanding of his own martial soul.

With You Chen's Spirit Abyss Realm spiritual power, far beyond his current realm, and his proficiency as the inventor of "self-created soul skills," this process went far more smoothly than others could imagine.

As for the twenty-four-thousand-year soul ring?

Perhaps not long ago, he truly could only barely endure a soul ring a little over twenty thousand years old. But after his martial soul evolved, the essence of his life had improved.

There was also the enhancement brought about by You Chen (II), or rather Little You Chen, absorbing his first soul ring. Even though most of that enhancement was tied to the soul ring and could not be enjoyed after switching back to the main character card, even one-tenth of it was equivalent to absorbing another perfectly compatible thousand-year soul ring.

With both stacked together, a twenty-five-percent increase in ring age was entirely within his limits.

As he absorbed the soul ring, he etched into it his impression of the Shooting Sonic shown in the animation, while continuously weaving together the principles and concepts of the skill that he had dismantled and analyzed since coming into this world.

And as the soul skill took shape, just as when he had created Sacrifice Sanctuary, many realizations naturally surfaced.

As expected, this is a move centered on the wind element, but one that also incorporates starlight power and holy power!

Wind as the main element, starlight second, with holiness as a hidden undertone? The energy ratio is... 5:2:1?

Mm. No, I can't analyze the specific fusion process. The martial soul itself doesn't have enough support anymore.

Soul beast soul rings with a certain degree of compatibility could all develop the martial soul's inherent abilities. So even though the Wind Spirit was a purely wind-element soul beast, during the construction of Shooting Sonic, the martial soul would excavate its potential and steer the soul skill toward the direction most suitable for itself—the original Shooting Sonic.

It would naturally fill in attribute powers that had not originally been present.

However, the energy produced by excavating the martial soul's potential could not possibly compare to a soul ring condensed from most of a soul beast's life force.

Once the Wind Spirit's wind-element power began to gain the upper hand, the final form of the soul skill inevitably started to deviate.

Twenty minutes later, You Chen slowly opened his eyes and smiled.

The fifth soul ring was complete!

Constructing a full version of Shooting Sonic had never been possible in the first place. At least You Chen's original objective had been achieved.

Unlike other soul masters who wished the absorption process could end as quickly as possible, You Chen even found the limited time far too short!