Seven Hundred and Twenty Years

After his sparring match with Xu Heng concluded, Lu Yuan did not step foot into the North Hunting Forest for three full days.

Shao Ping instructed him to rest and recover his condition, and he did not push himself blindly. Each morning he completed his basic training as usual, and every afternoon he shut himself away to recuperate, abandoning the practice of the Piercing Spear to sit cross-legged instead, wholeheartedly circulating his soul power.

He had been stuck at rank nineteen for quite some time.

Yet during these past few days of cultivation, Lu Yuan could clearly sense his internal soul power growing increasingly full, leaving only a final step before the barrier of rank twenty.

Returning to his quarters that afternoon, he cast aside all distracting thoughts and sat quietly in meditation. Time flowed away silently, and by the time he opened his eyes, night had already fallen heavily outside the window, the dark hue completely enveloping the earth.

Lu Yuan raised a hand to softly summon his soul power, its flow rate far exceeding ordinary days while its reserves grew increasingly abundant.

As the dust settled, he lowered his gaze to look at his palm.

Rank twenty.

The breakthrough arrived with exceptional calmness, far exceeding his expectations.

Early the next morning, the moment Lu Yuan arrived at the East Training Area, Yan Tuo pushed the Soul-Testing Crystal straight toward him, speaking with concise brevity, "Test."

Lu Yuan raised a hand to cover the crystal's surface, and a clear white light suddenly ignited, its brightness noticeably a cut higher than when he was at rank nineteen, the tier entirely distinct.

Yan Tuo gazed intently for two breaths before speaking with certainty, "Twenty."

Nearby, Zhou Qi was in the middle of binding his weighted gear and raised his head at the sound, opening his mouth to speak, but Yan Tuo had already cleanly retrieved the crystal, cutting off his words.

"Today's weight is halved. Preserve your condition and on no account overdraw yourselves."

Lu Yuan paused slightly, "No full-intensity training?"

"Normal training, intensity halved."

"Why?"

Yan Tuo glanced sideways at him, countering with a question, "Do you know what a spirit master lacks most after reaching rank twenty?"

Lu Yuan pondered briefly and answered honestly, "A second spirit ring."

"Just understand that."

Yan Tuo picked up his brush to record the breakthrough information in the logbook, then summoned the duty personnel and ordered them to report the news of Lu Yuan's breakthrough to rank twenty to the Elder Hall.

When the morning training ended, the Elder Hall's messenger arrived as expected. Lu Yuan accompanied the person over, and Qian Daoliu was in the side hall reviewing the training records submitted by Shao Ping.

Aside from the logbook filled with accounts of daily training and actual combat situations, three animal-skin blueprints lay flat upon the desk, a different spirit beast meticulously outlined on each one.

Qian Daoliu did not have him look at the blueprints first, taking the lead to ask, "You fought Xu Heng to a draw?"

"Yes." Lu Yuan nodded in acknowledgment.

"How was the battle situation?"

"He could strike me, and I could likewise pierce him; neither side decided a winner."

"So there was no loss or victory." Qian Daoliu summarized in a single sentence, then flipped to the final page of the logbook and slowly said, "He is at rank twenty-two with dual spirit rings, while you are at rank nineteen with a single spirit ring. Being able to fight to a tie sufficiently proves that your Piercing Spear cultivation and combat experience have both yielded results and were not wasted effort."

As his voice fell, his gaze landed upon the long spear in Lu Yuan's hand, his tone turning somewhat heavy, "Yet your shortcomings remain conspicuous."

Knowing what the other was referring to, Lu Yuan stated bluntly, "Close-quarters grappling."

"Be more precise."

"Once the spear shaft is suppressed, it is very difficult for me to reopen the offensive and defensive distance and reverse the battle situation."

This was an ailment that had plagued him for a long time. He had suffered repeated restrictions ever since he first entered the North Hunting Forest's combat grounds, as Xu Heng's Long-armed Ape martial soul excelled most at close-range spear suppression and body-to-body charges. Even though he had long since figured out a countermeasure of dismissing his martial soul and resummoning it, leveraging the spear tail to shift his stance and vie for position, he still could not completely break the deadlock when facing a dual-ring spirit master who overwhelmed him in both strength and speed.

Qian Daoliu lightly tapped the table, pointing out the crux, "Therefore, the priority for your second spirit ring lies not in might, but in mending your shortcomings."

He pushed the first animal-skin parchment before Lu Yuan's eyes. On the blueprint was a black spirit beast with a slender build and front claws as sharp as blades.

"Shadow-Clawed Cat, six hundred and eighty years of cultivation, focusing primarily on high speed and burst. Its spirit skill will most likely align with speed and surprise-attack attributes."

Lu Yuan swept a glance over it and shook his head on the spot, "Its attributes overlap with my first soul skill, Piercing Edge, yielding limited enhancement."

"Your vision is acceptable."

Qian Daoliu then pushed over the second blueprint: "Iron-Spined Savage Bull, seven hundred years of cultivation, possessing both strength and defense. If you acquire a strength-enhancement spirit skill, it can massively reinforce your head-on charging capability."

Lu Yuan still did not accept. While frontal strength was certainly useful, the core issue of why he was repeatedly suppressed at close range by Xu Heng had never been a lack of offensive power, but rather his inability to shake off close-quarters confinement and reconstruct his spear momentum.

Seeing through his considerations, Qian Daoliu pushed the final animal-skin parchment to the very front. On the parchment, the spirit beast's shoulders and back were slightly hunched, its build medium, its limbs thick and sturdy, and its spine covered in layers of deep brown armor plates that looked thick and hard in texture.

"Quake-Armor Beast."

Lu Yuan's gaze suddenly locked onto it, and he softly asked, "Cultivation years?"

"The one currently locked onto is seven hundred and twenty years."

Lu Yuan gazed intently at the silhouette of the spirit beast on the blueprint, remaining silently mute.

Qian Daoliu slowly explained, "Ever since your rank nineteen soul power reached completion, the Elder Hall has been screening suitable second spirit rings for you. These three are the optimal backups left after layers of filtering."

"The backup for the Quake-Armor Beast was already decided long ago?"

"The category was settled long ago; this specific target was only precisely locked down yesterday." Qian Daoliu pointed his fingertip at the blueprint. "It previously fought with its own kind for territory and suffered heavy injuries. Its right hind leg sustained a severe tear, the armor plates on its flank are damaged, and its flesh wounds have yet to heal to this day."

Lu Yuan raised his gaze, "Sustain heavy injuries, yet still retain combat capability?"

"Naturally it can fight. If it had no capacity for resistance whatsoever, it would not have been listed as your target." Qian Daoliu said indifferently, "It currently retains sixty percent of its combat strength; its core frontal charge and counter-shock abilities are not lost, but the hind leg injury drags down its turning speed, and its endurance falls far short of its prime condition."

Lu Yuan instantly understood, "So this one is the most suitable for me?"

"This is precisely the prime opportunity." Qian Daoliu stated the pros and cons directly, "You are currently at rank twenty with only one ring. If you were to face a seven-hundred-plus-year spirit beast in its prime, no matter how compatible its attributes were with the Piercing Spear, I would never let you go into battle alone."

These words were blunt and cruel, yet exceedingly fair. Lu Yuan knew in his heart that although he could independently deal with spirit beasts of two to three hundred years of cultivation, the seven-hundred-year tier was already an entirely different level. Even with the Quake-Armor Beast wounded, it was by no means an opponent that could be easily slain.

"The Elder Hall has already dispatched personnel to station themselves around the perimeter and keep watch." Qian Daoliu continued to instruct, "Once we arrive at the site tomorrow, we will verify its injuries once more. If the wounds have worsened or it has recovered too quickly, we will change targets immediately. What I want is a spirit ring you have the confidence to take down alone, absolutely not for you to gamble your life for extra years."

With that, he once again pointed to the spine's armor plates, "This beast's trickiest ability is defense and counter-shock. When subjected to attacks, its armor plates can dissipate force and rebound, reflecting a portion of the impact force. Even if its combat strength is discounted by forty percent, this core ability will not vanish."

Lu Yuan stared at those layers of hard armor plates, lowering his voice to confirm, "Counter-shock effect?"

"More or less."

"If I use it as a spirit ring, what kind of spirit skill can be acquired?"

Qian Daoliu answered crisply, "No one can state it with certainty beforehand. A spirit skill taking shape depends both on the spirit beast's origin and on matching the traits of your martial soul. We can only screen the direction of compatibility, not predetermine the spirit skill's effect."

Lu Yuan deeply agreed. His first soul skill, Piercing Edge, was precisely the unique effect after the fusion of the Wind-Rending Leopard's origin ability and the Piercing Spear martial soul, and did not completely replicate the spirit beast's innate talent.

The Quake-Armor Beast was similarly the same. Yet the growth direction it brought was already clear enough—shock.

If this counter-shock and force-dissipation ability could be bestowed upon the Piercing Spear...

The five fingers gripping his spear tightened abruptly, and within his mind once more surfaced the scene of being suppressed at close range by Xu Heng, unable to break free.

Qian Daoliu looked at his resolute expression, "Have you chosen?"

Lu Yuan raised a hand, gently pushing the other two animal-skin blueprints aside, his gaze firmly locked onto the Quake-Armor Beast blueprint, "This very one."

"Reason."

"I have no need for faster surprise attacks, nor do I need stronger single-strike piercing force." Lu Yuan's tone was steady, every word resolute, "What I want is that when an opponent suppresses me at close range and locks down my spear momentum, they will no longer be able to firmly pin down my spear shaft, completely cracking the close-quarters dead-end."

The side hall plunged into a brief silence.

A moment later, Qian Daoliu put away the two backup blueprints and slightly nodded, "The train of thought is clear. Let it be settled as such."

"When do we set out for the hunt?" Lu Yuan asked.

"Tomorrow morning."

Lu Yuan was slightly surprised, "So hasty?"

"When your soul power neared rank twenty, the screening work had already begun. The target was locked down yesterday, and dedicated personnel kept watch throughout the entire process; timing waits for no one." Qian Daoliu glanced at him indifferently, "Could it be that you want to wait for it to walk to Spirit City's gates on its own?"

Lu Yuan was left speechless.

Qian Daoliu closed the logbook, stood up, and walked outward while instructing, "There is no need to go to the North Hunting Forest today, nor is there any need to spar with Xu Heng again."

"I originally had no intentions of battling again."

"Best if that's the case."

Walking to the door, Qian Daoliu paused slightly in his steps, turning his head back to look at Lu Yuan with a tone that added a bit of solemnity, "The Wind-Rending Leopard for your first spirit ring was already severely wounded by predecessors; you could be considered to have just smoothly finished off the tail end."

Lu Yuan raised his gaze to meet his.

"This time, no one paves the road for you, and no one makes a move on your behalf."

Qian Daoliu handed the Quake-Armor Beast blueprint to the attendant waiting outside the door, his tone remaining calm yet carrying an unquestionable rule, "The accompanying personnel are only responsible for guarding your life; if you cannot match it, they will rescue you in a timely manner. As long as you can independently slay this beast, this seven-hundred-and-twenty-year Quake-Armor spirit ring will be your fortuitous encounter."

Lu Yuan tightly gripped the Piercing Spear in his hand; the spear shaft was slightly cool, his palm burning hot.

"I understand."

Qian Daoliu said no more, pushing the door open and departing.

Lu Yuan followed closely behind as he walked out of the side hall, lowering his gaze toward the long spear in his hand as he crossed the threshold.

Last time, his un-upgraded self could still hold a stalemate and draw with Xu Heng.

What the outcome of his post-rank-twenty self would truly be remained to be seen.