Ring Quenching Method

Nothing was more unbearable than suddenly learning that he might have gained a "fiancée."

At least, that was how Kong Ming'an felt.

After repeatedly confirming that his Grandfather was not joking with him, Kong Ming'an completely lost his composure.

His mind was a mess. Kong Ming'an rubbed his brow with a headache, his tone full of incomprehension. "I'm not even seven yet."

"Many people already have children in their teens. For you, it is only a few years away. It is not too early."

Kong Deming spoke calmly.

"...Uh."

Influenced by over twenty years of memories from his previous life, Kong Ming'an found it somewhat impossible to accept.

Kong Ming'an tried to struggle a little more. "Is it necessary?"

Kong Deming glanced at Kong Ming'an. "What do you think?"

"...All right."

Kong Ming'an understood.

The so-called "marrying a Princess" was likely not merely the Sun Moon Emperor's idea. His own Grandfather probably tacitly approved of it as well...

Seriously... he suddenly had a fiancée?

Kong Ming'an sank into thought...

Seeing Kong Ming'an's slightly dejected look, Kong Deming chuckled and comforted him.

"Ming'an, you need not worry. His Majesty has yet to decide which Princess to betroth to you, so you are still free for the time being.

"Besides, it is only one Princess. His Majesty knows that the Kong Family bloodline is sparse, so it definitely will not restrict you. Of course, if there are many, it would be best not to make it too obvious. You should at least consider the royal family's dignity..."

"No, wait..." Kong Ming'an raised a hand and interrupted his old man's nonsense, utterly baffled.

"When did I say I wanted many of them?"

Kong Deming looked puzzled. "Then you do not want that little girl from the Hongchen Family?"

"She is an assistant I want to train!"

"..." Kong Deming paused for a second or two, then narrowed his eyes slightly, his tone turning nostalgic. "Your father said the same thing back then."

"???"

Kong Ming'an's face was full of question marks.

So this was how the preliminary process that produced me worked?

The grandfather and grandson talked for half a day about the matter of marrying a Princess, yet ultimately reached no conclusion.

Of course, Kong Ming'an did not particularly care. His earlier loss of composure had mostly been because he found the whole thing absurd.

Something he had failed to accomplish in over twenty years in his previous life had been settled in less than ten years in this one...

That was truly hard to judge.

Fortunately, unexpected incidents like this did not happen every day, and Kong Ming'an's life soon returned to normal.

Amid day after day of grueling cultivation, Soul Tool experiments, and exploration of the mysteries of Soul Rings, time slipped silently by like sand through his fingers.

In the blink of an eye, Kong Ming'an was already seven and a half years old.

At this moment, deep within the Hall of Worship, inside a Laboratory of extremely high specifications, the air was heavy as countless energy-monitoring instruments around the room flashed with dense lights.

Researchers in white robes adjusted the instruments that were about to be used.

At the center of the Training Ground stood a powerfully built officer with a solemn, meticulous expression.

He was Wang Meng, the officer Kong Ming'an had encountered during his first visit to the Reserve Soldier encampment of the suburban Soul Engineer Legion, the one who had been eager to improve.

At this moment, six Soul Rings—yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black—slowly revolved beneath his feet, his Soul Emperor aura unmistakable.

Kong Ming'an stood not far behind him. His small figure appeared especially tiny within the enormous Training Ground, yet he carried an air of complete control.

Beside him, Meng Hongchen wore a fitted white lab coat and held a clipboard in her hands. Her Ice Blue eyes watched the experimenter at the center of the field.

Her focused expression made her look every bit like a capable little assistant.

After nearly a year of study and Ming's hands-on instruction, Meng Hongchen had gradually acquired a faint air of a "researcher," calmly following at Kong Ming'an's side.

Kong Ming'an glanced at his old man on the second-floor observation platform. His gaze was calm and his voice clear.

"Begin."

As his voice fell, Wang Meng understood. He closed his eyes to adjust his state, took a deep breath, then abruptly opened them.

There was no Martial Soul Possession, nor did he use any Soul Skill. He merely assumed a stance, then...

Bang!

A crisp yet thunderous sound suddenly rang out as a Yellow Soul Ring beneath Wang Meng's feet exploded!

Under deliberate guidance, immense power spread through Wang Meng's body. Yet he merely frowned slightly before quickly adapting to it.

Without the slightest pause, a thought crossed his mind, and three Soul Rings beneath his feet—yellow, purple, purple—exploded in succession!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Almost visibly, the energy produced by the four Explode Rings flooded Wang Meng's body, causing him to swell by nearly a full size in an instant.

Gritting his teeth, he took a fierce step forward and threw a heavy punch ahead!

Boom!

The sound of his punch erupted like thunder, and Wang Meng began practicing the combat techniques paired with the Body Forging Method, punch after punch.

Every exertion of force, every extreme stretch and contraction of his muscles and bones, was like an invisible pump, forcibly guiding and compressing the violent Explode Ring energy within him, forcing it to scour, seep into, and merge with the deeper layers of his body!

Hisss—!

Scorching-hot Bloodline Power mixed with threads of violently leaking energy, gushing from every pore of his body like columns of smoke.

Wang Meng's eyes widened in fury as he felt the surging Vitality around him, seemingly trying to bring it under his control.

However, as he punched again and again, his swollen body began to shrink and recover bit by bit at a visible rate, like a deflating balloon, while explosive cracks rang through his muscles and bones.

This process lasted nearly a quarter of an hour.

When Wang Meng performed the final move and planted himself in place like an iron tower, the violent energy fluctuations around him finally began to subside.

His abundant Vitality was drawn back into his body, revealing a physique that seemed even more solid than before. Every movement carried a weightiness steeped in Vitality.

The experiment was over.

Kong Ming'an calmly "watched" the Life aura that had settled within Wang Meng, far more powerful than before. Rather than being pleased, he revealed a trace of disappointment.

"It failed again..."

Nearly a year earlier, after initially mastering the Explode Ring technique, he had decisively begun researching a method of using Explode Ring to assist Body Cultivator training.

He would use the immense Soul Power gained from Explode Ring to scour the body, combining the body's adaptive abilities with the Body Forging Method's active regulation.

With this double reinforcement, the body could repeatedly break through its limits within an acceptable and delicate threshold, resolving the problem of the Body Forging Method's declining body-tempering efficiency once one reached Soul Ancestor.

For the time being, he named this method the Ring Quenching Method.

Half a year ago, during a data-gathering experiment for improving the Ring Quenching Method,

when he had the test subject repeatedly break through his bodily limits with the Ring Quenching Method...

"Vitality" had appeared as naturally as that.