Xiao Yun shook his head.
"You've already gone down the wrong path."
Hu Liena raised her head, her brows lifting slightly. She seemed to disagree, but in the end, she offered no rebuttal.
"Charm may be powerful, but against certain races and certain experts, it's completely useless." Xiao Yun's voice was calm, yet carried an unquestionable certainty. "Besides, charm is an innate gift of the demon fox. You can develop it yourself. Once your level rises and your spiritual power grows strong enough, or your martial soul evolves, your charm will naturally grow along with it. There's no need to strengthen it with spirit rings at all. Using spirit rings to strengthen charm means wasting your spirit ring slots and losing opportunities for your martial soul to evolve."
Hu Liena opened her mouth to say something, then swallowed the words.
"For a demon fox martial soul to evolve into a Nine-tailed Celestial Fox, every spirit ring must let the demon fox master an entirely new power system," Xiao Yun continued. "Illusion techniques, foxfire, the power of the five elements, the power of the four symbols, the power of yin and yang... any of them will do. As long as it's the seed of a complete power system, every additional one the demon fox martial soul masters will let her grow another tail. Three tails, six tails, nine tails-one step at a time."
He paused, looking into Hu Liena's eyes.
"So what you need to do most right now is decide whether to discard your existing spirit rings and acquire entirely new soul skills. Start over from scratch, using what I've taught you, and follow a path completely different from Spirit Hall's."
Hu Liena fell silent.
She sat there, her fingers unconsciously squeezing the peeled spirit fruit. Juice seeped from the