Soul Ring and Martial Soul Compatibility

In the blink of an eye, the holiday was drawing near, and Chen Huang could not help growing anxious. There was no other reason—looking at the books filling the entire library, he had only read a tiny fraction of them.

"Xiao Shan, have you decided when you're going to hunt for your Soul Ring?" Chen Huang asked. They did not have a teacher like Master, so obtaining Soul Rings was rather troublesome. Still, someone like Xiao Shan, with Innate Full Soul Power, should obtain her Soul Ring sooner rather than later—and its quality could not be poor.

"Mm, Dad told me about it. He said he'd take me to hunt for a Soul Ring once the holiday starts."

"Teacher is taking you?" Chen Huang was somewhat surprised. Tang Hao was not planning to hide his identity as a Soul Master.

The enormous library was cold and deserted. Aside from the table where Chen Huang sat, only the two of them were there. Most of the books spread across his table were about plant-type Martial Souls and plant-type Soul Beasts. He was trying to find several Soul Beasts suitable for Xiao Shan.

He had originally wanted to cling to Master's thigh, which was why he had held a little respect for him. But now that Master was gone, even that tiny shred of respect had vanished completely.

In Douluo 2, Martial Soul compatibility was a frequently used concept. The higher the compatibility, the greater the chance of producing a Martial Soul Fusion Skill.

Since different Martial Souls had compatibility with each other, could one's own Martial Soul and the Soul Rings one acquired also have a question of compatibility? If it were a dragon-type Martial Soul, then one would try to choose Soul Beasts with dragon bloodlines for the Soul Rings. For someone like Ma Hongjun, he could choose Soul Beasts with the Fire Attribute or phoenix bloodlines.

Chen Huang felt that such choices were really meant to guide the Martial Soul toward beneficial evolution, or perhaps a second awakening. It just seemed that Douluo 1 had no successful examples. Ma Hongjun, for instance, ate a Cockscomb Phoenix Sunflower once and absorbed the Inner Elixir of a Ten Headed Fierce Yang Serpent once. The latter should have counted, evolving him into a Seven-Headed Fire Phoenix. He continued evolving afterward and eventually became a Ten-Headed Fire Phoenix.

Tang San's Soul Ring choices were as follows: his first ring was a Mandala Snake, granting him the soul skill Entanglement and the Poison Attribute. His second ring was a Ghost Vine, granting him Parasitism. His third ring was a Man Faced Demon Spider, granting him Spider Web Restraint. His fourth ring was a Cave Demon Spider, granting him Blue Silver Prison.

All of these enhanced Tang San's control abilities and combat strength. Master's choices had actually been quite good.

However, that was all based on Master not knowing that Tang San's Martial Soul could awaken once more. If he had known beforehand, would his choices have been different? The awakened Blue Silver Emperor and Blue Silver Grass were practically two entirely different Martial Souls, all right? Even his hair color had changed.

He felt that if Master had known in advance, he might have chosen higher-year plant-type Soul Beasts and prioritized control-type soul skills that enhanced toughness, such as vine-type plants. The goal would have been to awaken the Martial Soul. Tang San's fourth ring had been ten-thousand-year-old. Judging by his own theory of surpassing one's age limit, perhaps Tang San could have awakened on his own even without that Soul Ring formed by the fusion of Blue Silver Grass.

Thinking along those lines, Chen Huang thought of something else. He looked at Xiao Shan's blue-green hair, and understanding dawned on him.

That hair color was a sign of Martial Soul awakening, wasn't it? If so, then perhaps his standard for judging whether a Martial Soul was useless had been wrong? Xiao Shan's effect was instead somewhat similar to the Blue Silver Domain that appeared later on. Though its effect seemed weaker—was it a half-awakening? Was her Martial Soul only half-awakened as well?

In other words, his assumptions had caused him to overlook many things. In truth, Xiao Shan's talent was much better than Tang San's? If Xiao Shan truly had an Innate Domain, then it could not be wasted. He had to make proper use of it and help her try to master that domain when the time came.

"What is it? Why are you looking at me instead of reading your books?" Xiao Shan asked.

"Hehe, because you look better than the books," Chen Huang said with a grin.

"Oh, give it a rest. You spend most of your time reading, yet you say I'm pretty. If I'm so pretty, why don't you look at me a little longer?" Xiao Shan retorted irritably.

Chen Huang gave a bitter smile and rubbed his nose. Why aren't you following the script? Are you really a child?

In a little while, he would not be able to read anymore. He had to go set up his stall. This would not do. It felt like he barely had any time to cultivate or read. He thought.

He remembered that Master in the original novel seemed to have developed a cultivation method of his own. It apparently improved cultivation efficiency by quite a lot. It could even allow one to passively cultivate Soul Power twenty-four hours a day. That was not something he could compare to.

Chen Huang had originally wanted to find a suitable cultivation technique for Xiao Shan, but he discovered that although the method she currently used might be utterly inferior to his in quality, it was much faster than his.

Could it be said that Douluo's cultivation methods pursued speed and efficiency while neglecting quality? That was what made breaking through to become a Titled Douluo difficult. Later, after a method for condensing a Soul Core emerged, becoming a Titled Douluo became easier again. Was it because Soul Cores increased the total amount of Soul Power, the cultivation speed of Soul Power, and the quality of Soul Power?

Still, he could not rush it. If possible, he also wanted to try a second Martial Soul awakening. He just did not know whether his Weed could awaken again. If it could, then he could try absorbing plant-type Soul Rings beyond his age limit. In that case, he would start with a thousand-year First Soul Ring.

Chen Huang believed it could be done.

Take the First Soul Ring as an example. Most Soul Masters were nobles with relatively high Innate Soul Power. By the age of six or seven, they could reach level ten Soul Power. The so-called maximum age limit for a First Soul Ring, which was a little over four hundred years, was actually meant for children of that age. Based on their physical constitution, it was a little over four hundred years.

First, Chen Huang could further train his physical constitution and increase his nutritional intake.

Second, older children were generally physically stronger than younger children. That could be considered common sense.

Third, Tang San had been able to absorb a Soul Ring over two thousand years old at the age of twelve.

Tang San had the Mysterious Heaven Skill, while he cultivated Zhang Sanfeng's Pure Yang Limitless Skill, which combined movement and stillness while cultivating both internal and external aspects. It was especially effective at improving one's physical constitution. At worst, he could wait until he was twelve. Could he really not absorb a thousand-year Soul Ring by then? Plant-type Soul Beasts were gentler than other kinds anyway. Of course, that was without considering that Tang San had already reached level thirty at the time. Even taking that into account, had he not lowered his own target by more than a thousand years?

Oh, right, the Soul Beasts Tang San chose were all vicious. He would not imitate him. He would choose something more docile. Ideally, it would be a beautiful plant-type Soul Beast with no offensive power. That would definitely be safe.

As for his Martial Soul, he had never placed any hopes on it. Did he expect it to grant him a powerful soul skill? Forget it. He was already thinking that if possible, he would trade every soul skill he obtained in the future for a second awakening of his Martial Soul. He had coveted Tsunade's Monster Strength for a long time. When the time came, he could fight with Monster Strength instead, so it would not matter much.