Characteristics, the Essence of a Soul Master.

Soul Hunting Forest.

An old man and a child, two figures, walked through the lush forest. They looked just like a grandfather taking his grandson out for a spring outing, especially harmonious and affectionate.

"Chang'an, you've studied at the academy for more than half a year. As for your Second Soul Ring, do you have any thoughts of your own?" Meng Shenji walked forward, Soul Power surging with a wave of his hand as he forced apart a large stretch of vines and thorns ahead, clearing a path. At the same time, he smiled and asked the little boy behind him.

"Grandpa Meng, although my Martial Soul comes with poison, and even possesses some characteristics of a beast soul, it is still mainly a Weapon Soul."

Li Chang'an said, "So I think it would be better to strengthen the characteristics of the 'sword.' Please find me a soul ring that can enhance sharpness and armor-piercing properties. It doesn't matter if it has no poison."

During the more than half a year he had spent at the academy, Li Chang'an had gone to the Three Education Commissioners every few days to ask for advice and study. Because of that, he had long since told them about his Martial Soul having two forms.

At first, he had planned to hide it, but later, as he read through a great deal of material in the academy library, he discovered that Martial Souls with dual forms like his were actually not as rare as he had imagined. Aside from Snake Lance Douluo in the Original Work, the records of the Heaven Dou Empire still contained a few Soul Masters with the same characteristic.

So the fact that his Martial Soul had both beast Martial Soul and Weapon Soul forms was not that unusual, and there was not much point in hiding it. In this life, his greatest cheat was that his Soul Beast Clone could share power with him. Only that needed to be kept strictly secret! As for the rest, it did not matter.

As for the development of his Martial Soul, Li Chang'an thought it over and over, and felt that he should focus on developing the characteristics of the "sword." Rather than splitting his attention between two uses, it was better to specialize in one!

If he tried to take care of both the Weapon Soul and beast Martial Soul characteristics at once, then in the end, he might end up with a perfectly mediocre result.

In any case, the Serpent Form of his Martial Soul mainly used poison to attack. But that aspect could be improved through feedback from the Soul Beast Clone. The characteristics of his Sword Soul could not be improved through feedback.

So for the standards of obtaining soul rings for his Martial Soul in the future, he felt he should follow the direction of an extreme Sword Soul: specialize in sharpness and armor-piercing. He would strive to bring out every advantage of the sword.

In all martial arts under heaven, speed alone is unbreakable!

When your sword was fast enough and sharp enough, there was no enemy that could not be dealt with in one strike.

Cast aside all other useless abilities and specialize in one!

The might that could erupt from it would absolutely shock the world. Moreover, he still had the Serpent Form to avoid certain situations where he was deliberately countered.

After hearing Li Chang'an's request, Meng Shenji stroked his long beard and nodded, having no objection to his choice. Because in his view, this choice was very correct. Next, they only had to search for a suitable soul beast.

As a place where soul beasts were artificially raised in captivity.

The authorities naturally had records of which soul beasts were distributed where in this forest, but these records were generally not open to outsiders. Only high-level figures like Meng Shenji, or those with connections, could possess this sort of map that recorded the species and distribution locations of soul beasts.

He took out the map, compared it for a while, and quickly confirmed the direction. Leading Li Chang'an, he swiftly headed in the direction marked on the map.

After some time passed.

A soul beast appeared before the two of them.

In appearance, it was a mantis. Its entire body was golden, looking as if it had been cast from metal, and the shell on its body reflected dazzling light under the sunlight!

"Chang'an, do you know this soul beast?" Meng Shenji turned his head and asked with a smile.

"I learned about it in school."

Li Chang'an nodded and recalled the information in his mind as he said, "Adamantine Mantis, the first choice for blade and sword Martial Souls. The soul rings it produces basically grant soul skills related to sharpening and amplifying cutting power."

"Mm, you're right."

Meng Shenji smiled and nodded, saying, "This area is the habitat of the Adamantine Mantis. The age of this Adamantine Mantis in front of us is roughly around a hundred years, too low. Let's keep going deeper and find one with a suitable age."

Li Chang'an naturally had no objection. He nodded obediently and followed behind him.

Regarding the addition of soul rings, there was no rule saying that a Weapon Soul must add soul rings from plant-type soul beasts. Rather, it had to match the Martial Soul's own characteristics.

What were characteristics?

For example, take the Adamantine Mantis before them. Looking at its body of metallic shell, as well as that pair of forelimbs as sharp as blades, one could tell that its own characteristics leaned toward metal, making it the most suitable for blade and sword Martial Souls.

In the Original Work, Tang San's Martial Soul was Blue Silver Grass, and its advantage lay in the tenacious vitality of wild grass. Logically speaking, it should have developed toward auxiliary healing, or perhaps toward strengthening its plant origin. If it absorbed some powerful plant soul rings, it would inevitably be able to greatly strengthen the origin of the Blue Silver Grass, which was also a plant, allowing its own characteristics to be fully enhanced. It might even have allowed the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline to awaken on its own.

In the end, however, his First Soul Ring absorbed a completely unrelated Mandala Snake soul ring, obtaining a useless entangling soul skill with a bit of poison. Not only was the essence of the plant Martial Soul not strengthened in the slightest, it was instead contaminated by an animal soul ring.

If Tang San had not ultimately awakened his bloodline with the help of the Blue Silver King and many Blue Silver Grasses, removing the impurities, this Martial Soul would have long since been ruined.

As mentioned earlier, the essence of a Soul Master was actually that of a plundering profession. By absorbing soul rings to plunder the talents of soul beasts, they enhanced the essence of their own Martial Soul. The more compatible that soul beast was with the characteristics of the Martial Soul, the greater the benefits gained after fusion would be.

The essence of Martial Soul Evolution was precisely this.

Yet in the Original Work, Tang San just had to do the exact opposite. One truly did not know what to say. It could only be said that there was a reason Yu Xiaogang was always criticized. This fellow's talent and theories were truly a complete mess, leading students astray.

It was only because he was lucky and encountered the protagonist, Tang San. If it had been anyone else, they would have long since been ruined by his blind commands.

"The age of this Adamantine Mantis is about right. Let's take this one." Meng Shenji pointed at an Adamantine Mantis more than two meters tall not far away and said.

As his words fell, Meng Shenji's body suddenly became exceptionally illusory, his entire person turning into a pitch-black phantom. Thick Black Mist rose from beneath his feet, and two yellow, three purple, and three black soul rings appeared around his body.

When Li Chang'an saw his soul ring configuration, he almost instantly understood why he was still a Soul Douluo at his age. It was because his Fifth Soul Ring was actually only a Thousand Year Soul Ring, and not a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring. This caused Meng Shenji's foundation to be somewhat lacking compared to a normal genius, and from then on, he had no chance of becoming a Title Douluo.

From Meng Shenji, one could see just how important soul rings were to the growth of a Soul Master.

Just the difference of a single soul ring had made him completely lose the possibility of taking another step forward.

As for why Meng Shenji's Fifth Soul Ring had not been a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, Li Chang'an did not know. But he imagined there might have been some reason behind it. After all, absorbing a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring was not so easy. One had to face the soul beast's spiritual shock. Even for a Soul King, absorbing one carried some risk.

From this, one could tell just how absurd it seemed to these natives that Tang San absorbed a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring as his fourth ring in the Original Work.