Self-condensing a Soul Ring, breaking through to Soul Saint
Zhao Ming did not linger in Notting City.
He had witnessed Xiao Wu's entire process of condensing her Soul Ring, and those mysterious patterns were firmly etched into his mind. There was no point in staying here any longer.
On his way out of Notting City, Zhao Ming kept replaying the details of those patterns in his mind.
The pattern inside Xiao Wu's Soul Ring, at first glance, appears to have at least a thousand Entanglement lines, but upon closer inspection, he discovered that these lines are not chaotic, but rather have an extremely rigorous structural hierarchy.
Their arrangement and combination reveal an indescribable regularity, like some kind of ancient script, or like some kind of naturally formed law.
"What exactly is this thing?" Zhao Ming pondered as he continued on his way.
He couldn't help but stop halfway, find a secluded cave, and try to use his mental power to Simulation those patterns in the void.
His mental cultivation had reached the mid-to-late stage of the Spirit Abyss Realm, making it easy for him to construct a detailed pattern in his mind.
Under the guidance of his mental power, thousands of patterns were perfectly replicated in the void.
The patterns intertwined, forming a complete loop system that emitted a faint golden light.
The moment the pattern was completed, the spiritual energy in the surrounding world seemed to be summoned and automatically converged towards the center of the pattern, forming a small vortex of spiritual energy.
A thought struck Zhao Ming, and he guided the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the patterns.
The spiritual energy flowed slowly along the lines of the patterns, becoming more solid with each line it passed through.
After the spiritual energy had circulated through all the patterns, a phantom white Soul Ring appeared out of thin air above his palm.
Soul Ring prototype!
Without any fragments of Soul Beast ' souls or any external materials, the prototype of Soul Ring was formed solely based on those patterns!
Suppressing his excitement, Zhao Ming continued to guide the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the nascent Soul Ring.
The color of the Soul Ring slowly changed under the nourishment of spiritual energy, from white to yellow, from yellow to purple, and from purple to black, smoothly reaching ten thousand years.
The entire process was smooth and uneventful, with no signs of an impending explosion.
"I see." Zhao Ming looked at the jet-black Soul Ring in his hand, a smile playing on his lips.
He finally understood that the reason why the soul fragments of Soul Beast could form Soul Ring was not because the soul fragments themselves were special, but because the soul fragments naturally contained these patterns.
These patterns are the true core of Soul Ring formation. As long as you master these patterns, you will not need to hunt Soul Beast at all, and you can condense Soul Ring on your own.
It was three days later when Zhao Ming returned to Heaven Dou City. He did not go back to the Crown Prince's Palace, but went directly to the Pill Tower.
The blacksmith branch in Pill Tower was only established in the last few months.
As the number of alchemists in the Pill Tower continues to increase, the demand for Alchemy Furnace also rises accordingly.
Ye Renxin simply sent someone to Gengjin City to invite a group of experienced blacksmiths to establish a special blacksmith branch inside the Pill Tower, responsible for forging Alchemy Furnace and other metal utensils for the Pill Tower.
Zhao Ming found the head of the blacksmith branch, a middle-aged blacksmith named Tie Shan, and asked him to forge ten daggers using metal that could conduct Soul Power.
Tie Shan found a piece of Deep Silver and meticulously crafted ten palm-sized daggers, each one polished to an unparalleled sharpness with a surface as smooth as a mirror.
After obtaining the dagger, Zhao Ming immediately began a new round of experiments.
He had already verified in the cave that those patterns could condense Soul Ring in the void.
At that moment, Zhao Ming had an idea: could these patterns be engraved on artifacts, and was there any connection between them and Soul Tool?
So Zhao Ming picked up a Deep Silver dagger and, using his mental energy as a carving knife, carefully engraved the patterns from Xiao Wu's Soul Ring onto the dagger's blade.
His control over his mental energy was extremely precise; the thickness and depth of every line were exactly the same as the original.
It took him two full hours to carve all the thousands of lines.
However, when he finished carving the last line, the dagger did not react at all.
There was no light, no gathering of spiritual energy, nothing at all.
Zhao Ming frowned, then picked up the second dagger and re-engraved it.
This time he was even more meticulous, ensuring that the position and direction of every line were exactly the same as the original.
But the result was the same; the dagger lay quietly on the table, unchanged.
He tried five daggers in a row—the third, the fourth, the fifth... and failed every time.
"Looks like I was overthinking it." Zhao Ming put down the dagger in his hand and shook his head. "These patterns aren't the soul guidance array runes used to create Soul Tool, or rather, they're not simply soul guidance array runes."
Zhao Ming didn't waste any more time on this. Since the patterns couldn't be engraved on the object, he would continue to work on the self-condensing Soul Ring.
For the next month or so, Zhao Ming locked himself in the secluded meditation chamber of the Pill Tower, devoting himself entirely to the study of the patterns.
He repeatedly disassembled, compared, and categorized the patterns recorded from Xiao Wu's Soul Ring, trying to figure out the function of each part of the pattern.
The process was extremely tedious, but Zhao Ming enjoyed it.
His mental strength was greatly enhanced during this process, and his understanding of patterns deepened day by day.
After more than a month of effort, Zhao Ming finally completely disassembled the string of runes.
The complete set of runes consists of three parts.
The first part is the basic structure, which is also the most complex and core of the three parts.
The function of these runes is to construct the "skeleton" of the Soul Ring, allowing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to gather, compress, and solidify in a specific way, ultimately forming a stable Soul Ring.
Once the first part of the engraving is completed, the Soul Ring will take shape, and its age will increase as more spiritual energy from heaven and earth is continuously injected into it.
However, Soul Ring that has only completed the first part is a blank Soul Ring, without any Soul Skill.
The second part is the racial imprint, which corresponds to the racial characteristics of the Soul Beast.
After the second part of the engraving is completed, the Soul Ring will automatically generate a Soul Skill related to that race. However, this Soul Skill is random, and different individuals of the same race may generate completely different Soul Skill.
The third part is the designation of Soul Skill, which is the most intricate and complex part of the runes.
It can precisely specify the Soul Skill granted by the Soul Ring, allowing the user to obtain the skills they desire.
However, the number of these runes is extremely large, and each Soul Skill corresponds to a different rune. Zhao Ming has only mastered a few of them so far.
To verify this theory, Zhao Ming successfully extracted five complete sets of runes by studying his first five Soul Ring.
Each set of runes contains three parts, corresponding to five different Soul Skill.
However, the sixth Soul Ring is God-Given Soul Ring, and its structure is completely different from that of ordinary Soul Ring, making it impossible to extract effective runes from it.
Relying solely on one's own Soul Ring samples is not enough.
Zhao Ming then found Qian Renxue, Ye Lingling, and Dugu Yan, and obtained the rune markings on their Soul Ring from them.
Zhao Ming successfully extracted the runes corresponding to Qian Renxue's Martial Soul Avatar from her Seventh Soul Ring.
This set of runes is several times more complex than the runes of ordinary Soul Skill. The third part alone has more than a thousand lines, densely interwoven to form an extremely exquisite pattern.
After obtaining the runes for the Martial Soul Avatar, Zhao Ming made a decision: to break through to the Soul Saint first, and then continue his research later.
His Soul Power has been stuck at level 70 for almost two months; it's time to take a step forward.
Zhao Ming chose to use his fifth Soul Ring, the Golden Flying Dragon, as the second part of his racial imprint rune.
Based on the racial imprint of the Golden Flying Dragon, and with the addition of the third part of the Martial Soul Avatar runes, he was confident that he could condense an unprecedentedly powerful Seventh Soul Ring.
Deep within the Pill Tower, in a secluded meditation chamber.
Zhao Ming sat cross-legged in the center of the secret chamber, fully circulating the "Nine-Breath Qi Absorption" to continuously gather the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a radius of several miles into the secret chamber.
The spiritual energy inside the secret room was so dense that it almost solidified, and a faint milky white mist filled the air, which was the highly concentrated form of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Then, guided by his mental power, more than a hundred patterns appeared one by one in the void.
Zhao Ming had rehearsed this process countless times and knew it by heart.
In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the final line of the basic structure was engraved.
A complete rune array floated in front of Zhao Ming. The surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth seemed to be summoned, rushing wildly towards the center of the array and forming a huge vortex of spiritual energy.
At the center of the vortex, a white nascent Soul Ring is slowly taking shape.
The second step was to inscribe the racial imprint. Zhao Ming imprinted the racial runes of the Golden Flying Dragon into the prototype of the Soul Ring one by one.
These runes blended perfectly with the basic structure, forming dragon-like markings inside the Soul Ring.
The color of the Soul Ring began to change under the blessing of the racial imprint, from white to light gold, and then from light gold to golden yellow, with the faint sound of a dragon's roar emanating from the Soul Ring.
The third step is to select the Soul Skill – Martial Soul Avatar.
This is the most complicated step.
The Martial Soul Avatar has more than a thousand runes. Zhao Ming's mental power was highly concentrated, and the more than a thousand runes poured out of his consciousness like water, accurately landing on every key node of the Soul Ring.
The moment the last rune fell, the Soul Ring suddenly burst forth with a dazzling light.
A powerful energy surge emanated from the Soul Ring, causing the walls of the entire secret chamber to tremble slightly.
The light lasted for about ten breaths before slowly receding, revealing the final form of the Soul Ring: a low-grade white Ten-Year Soul Ring.
He activated the "Nine-Breath Qi Absorption," continuously channeling the surrounding spiritual energy into his Soul Ring.
The color of the Soul Ring began to change slowly under the nourishment of spiritual energy, and after an hour, it turned into a jet-black ten- Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring.
After a day and a night, the Soul Ring's color completely transformed into a blood-red Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring!
Zhao Ming could clearly sense that the energy contained in this Soul Ring was far more terrifying than any Soul Ring he had ever condensed before.
Zhao Ming continued to channel the spiritual energy of heaven and earth into the Soul Ring, and golden patterns began to appear on the blood-red Soul Ring.
Another four days and four nights passed.
When the third golden pattern was fully formed, Zhao Ming finally felt a bit of pressure.
The energy contained within the Soul Ring had reached an extremely terrifying level, and even his physical body was beginning to feel some strain.
He estimated that the lifespan of this Soul Ring was around 300,000 years, which was exactly the limit he could currently withstand.
"That's about it." Zhao Ming opened his eyes and let out a long breath.
A Seventh Soul Ring, 300,000 years old, with three golden patterns slowly flowing on a blood-red background, exuding an ancient and majestic aura.
Such a Soul Ring is probably unprecedented in the entire history of the Douluo Continent.
Zhao Ming took out several recovery pills from his Storage Soul Tool and swallowed them to adjust his condition.
The intense concentration over five consecutive days and nights had greatly depleted his mental and Soul Power.
Fortunately, the pills that Zhao Ming kept by his side were of extremely high quality, and he recovered to his best condition in less than half an hour.
After recovering, Zhao Ming no longer hesitated and used his mental power to guide the 300,000-year-old blood-red Soul Ring, slowly encircling it with his Martial Soul.
The moment the crimson Soul Ring touched the Silver Whip, an immense force surged into Zhao Ming's body along with his Martial Soul, like a raging dragon rampaging through his meridians.
Zhao Ming grunted and quickly circulated the "Nine-Breath Qi Absorption," guiding the massive energy to flow orderly along his meridians.
The energy of a 300,000-year-old Soul Ring is terrifying; even with his physical strength, he felt a faint pain in his meridians.
Fortunately, his foundation was solid enough, and after circulating for nine cycles, the energy gradually subsided and merged into his limbs and bones.
The crimson Soul Ring was firmly attached to the Silver Whip, with three golden patterns faintly visible in the red light.
Seventh Soul Ring, 300,000 years, Martial Soul Avatar!
Zhao Ming slowly stood up, feeling the surging power within his body.
After breaking through to the Soul Saint, his Soul Power surged to level 73.
"Finally done." Zhao Ming stretched his limbs, his bones cracking and popping, a satisfied smile playing on his lips.
He spent nearly half a year learning the Self-Condensed Soul Ring Method, from theory to practice, from failure to success. Now, he has finally mastered this heaven-defying skill.
From then on, he no longer needed to hunt Soul Beast to obtain Soul Ring, and he could also customize the lifespan and Soul Skill of Soul Ring at will.
However, Zhao Ming did not intend to make this skill public immediately.
Firstly, his research on runes is not deep enough. He has only mastered a few types of runes for the third part of Soul Skill, and he still needs to extract and accumulate more from more Soul Ring samples.
Secondly, if the Self-Condensed Soul Ring Method were made public, the entire landscape of the Douluo Continent would be completely overturned. It would be better to wait until he becomes stronger, at least until he breaks through to the Titled Douluo, before revealing the method of condensing Soul Ring.
At that time, the "Nine Profound Art" will be promoted along with it.
"Take your time," Zhao Ming murmured softly, pushed open the door to the secret room, and walked out.