The Secrets of Soul Rings and Soul Skills

Jiang He had awakened his Martial Soul and absorbed Soul Rings to gain Soul Skills only yesterday.

Because he had been thinking about this for years, after returning from Sunset Forest yesterday, Jiang He felt as if a huge weight had finally been lifted from his heart, leaving his entire body relaxed.

So he had rested properly at home and had not had time to carefully study his Martial Soul and Soul Skills.

He only had a basic understanding of what his Soul Skills did and roughly how much Soul Power they consumed.

For example, his second Soul Skill was a ten-thousand-year Soul Skill and an area-control skill, so it indeed consumed a considerable amount of Soul Power.

But he could still use it three times.

If he only used it twice, then as long as he relied solely on his first Soul Skill afterward, fighting for ten minutes would definitely not be a problem.

When he had just said that his Soul Power was exhausted, he had merely been giving Qin Ming an out.

If they continued fighting like this, regardless of who ultimately won or lost, Qin Ming would not come out looking good.

After all, with Jiang He's actual combat ability, Qin Ming would truly have to use several Soul Skills to defeat him, and he would not look relaxed in the slightest.

At that point, outsiders would see that this was no longer some supposed lesson, but a genuine battle.

And as a teacher, if Qin Ming could not even subdue his own student, he certainly would not be able to save face.

That was why Jiang He had found an excuse to end the fight.

Of course, aside from Qin Ming's dignity, there was another reason... Jiang He's system had detected something strange.

Because he had not examined things carefully before, Jiang He had not used his Soul Skills since obtaining his Soul Rings, apart from when he had first acquired them. He had barely even released his Soul Rings, which severely limited the system's analysis of Soul Rings and Soul Skills.

But during the battle just now, every time Jiang He released a Soul Skill through a Soul Ring, the system recorded the changes in his bodily data, as well as the changes in the Soul Ring's data.

During this process, Jiang He discovered something interesting.

According to the system's detection results, Soul Rings and Soul Skills seemed to be a part of Jiang He's body.

In other words, according to the system, Soul Rings seemed to have become external parts of Jiang He's body.

Within these parts of his body were some meridians identical to those inside Jiang He.

And so-called releasing Soul Skills through Soul Rings was actually just circulating Jiang He's Soul Power through the meridians of this [external body] for one cycle, then using the function of those [meridians] to unleash a skill.

Take Jiang He's first Soul Skill, Berserk, for example.

After Soul Power circulated through the first Soul Ring, it added a layer of Soul Power to Jiang He's body to enhance it.

This enhancement was continuous, so while Jiang He used his first Soul Skill, his Soul Power was also continuously consumed.

After circulating through the [meridians] of the first Soul Ring, the Soul Power became special. Its enhancement was stronger; rather than simply covering a certain part of the body with Soul Power, it directly strengthened the body as a whole. Thus, it was more powerful than directly covering the body with Soul Power.

His second Soul Skill, on the other hand, was the opposite.

After circulating through the [meridians] of the second Soul Ring, this portion of Soul Power transformed into a shockwave that rushed toward the ground. Upon touching the ground, it spread outward in all directions. That was area control.

Moreover, using the second Soul Skill also consumed a portion of Jiang He's mental energy.

It was not much, but it was definitely there.

If not for the system's detection, Jiang He would not even have noticed the consumption of that mental energy.

This portion of mental energy entered the second Soul Ring alongside the Soul Power, then attacked the surrounding area.

The greatest function of these two Soul Rings was that, after Soul Power circulated through the [meridians] within them, it could not only produce different effects, but also enhance the portion of Soul Power that traveled through those [meridians].

Since this was the principle behind Soul Rings releasing Soul Skills, was it possible for him to bypass the Soul Rings, directly circulate Soul Power through the same meridians inside his body, and then release Soul Skills?

Could he even study the changes between meridians and directly create his own Soul Skills?

With that thought, Jiang He said to Qin Ming beside him, "Teacher Qin, I feel a little tired. I'll go back and rest first."

Hearing this, Qin Ming glanced at Jiang He, nodded, and said, "You just obtained your Martial Soul, then went through such an intense battle and exhausted your Soul Power. It is indeed rather tiring for you. Go back first. Later, I'll apply to the school for the Gravity Training Room, and when the time comes, I'll take you there to try it out."

"Alright. Sorry to trouble you, Teacher Qin."

"It's nothing."

After bidding Qin Ming farewell, Jiang He immediately returned home.

After briefly recovering some Soul Power, Jiang He began following the data observed by the system to locate the meridians in his body that matched those inside the Soul Rings. He prepared to try circulating Soul Power through them and see whether he could release a Soul Skill.

After roughly fifteen minutes, Jiang He found the meridians inside his body that matched the first Soul Ring.

Then he circulated his Soul Power, carefully guiding it through the meridians.

On his first attempt, Jiang He soon failed after taking a wrong path through the meridians. His blood and qi even churned, and he nearly spat blood.

Of the meridians required for his first Soul Skill, only a very small portion were main meridians. Most were tiny branch meridians within his body, making it extremely difficult to circulate Soul Power through them.

If Jiang He had not consumed an Immortal Herb and opened all Eight Extraordinary Meridians, he probably would not even have been able to circulate his Soul Power through them!

After recovering for a while, Jiang He tried again.

The second attempt failed!

The third attempt failed!

Every failure required Jiang He to spend quite some time recovering.

After repeating the process several times, Jiang He finally succeeded in circulating it for the first time around midnight!

Yet as he felt the enhancement to his body, Jiang He could not help but furrow his brows deeply.

Without Martial Soul Possession, after completing the first circuit through those meridians, his enhancement was only forty percent!

Furthermore, because so many of them were branch meridians, while Jiang He continuously circulated Soul Power through this circuit, part of the Soul Power leaked into other meridians, causing an even greater expenditure of Soul Power!

Jiang He tried increasing his Soul Power output.

This time, the enhancement rose to sixty percent, but correspondingly, the Soul Power consumption had already reached twice that of using his first Soul Skill!

Jiang He did not understand. They were the same meridians, so why was there such a huge difference in enhancement after increasing the Soul Power output?

If Jiang He had been left to study it himself, this question would probably have troubled him for quite some time.

But fortunately, he had the Auxiliary System.

He began reviewing the system's detection records.

Very quickly, he found the reason.

The first issue was that the meridians inside the Soul Ring were far sturdier than the branch meridians inside his body!

Their strength was no different from that of his main meridians!

Different levels of strength naturally produced different results.

According to the system's estimate, even if Jiang He could perfectly and skillfully circulate Soul Power through these meridians within his body, the final result could only reach one-third of the first Soul Ring's effect—one hundred percent.

Although that was still very strong, it was still far inferior to the first Soul Skill Jiang He already possessed!