Several days later, Yu Xuanhua, the old sect master of the Heavenly Dragon Sect, finally could no longer hold on.
However, he passed away without a single regret.
At the very end of his life, having witnessed the hope of the Heavenly Dragon Sect rising to greatness in the future, Yu Xuanhua was already completely satisfied.
Su Ming's family did not leave immediately. Instead, they stayed at the Heavenly Dragon Sect for some time longer.
By then, Su Long and Zhou Yun had learned that their son would be heavily groomed by the Heavenly Dragon Sect and would remain there in the future to live and study.
The couple was naturally overjoyed by this.
Although their son, Su Ming, was only a sea Soul Master, the resources and guidance the Heavenly Dragon Sect could provide were far beyond anything they could offer.
Not only would they hire specialized teachers, but they would also construct a simulated cultivation environment in Dragon City specifically suited to Su Ming...
Under such favorable conditions and with such a bright future ahead of him, the fact that sea Soul Masters were ill-suited to land and had weakened combat strength there became utterly insignificant.
After all, while Su Ming lived and studied at the Heavenly Dragon Sect, he would hardly encounter any so-called danger.
"Great-Granduncle, I want to obtain my first Spirit Ring."
One morning, Su Ming sought out Yu Xingtuo and bluntly stated his purpose.
There were not many people in the entire Heavenly Dragon Sect who could directly meet with the sect master, and Su Ming happened to be one of them.
Or rather, Su Ming's status within the Heavenly Dragon Sect was now exceptionally exalted.
The Yu Clan and the core members of the Heavenly Dragon Sect all understood the significance of Su Ming's existence.
Of course, matters concerning his Twin Martial Souls remained confidential even now.
In the entire Heavenly Dragon Sect, only Yu Xingtuo, the current sect master, knew of them.
As for Su Ming changing how he addressed Yu Xingtuo, that had been casually suggested by Yu Xingtuo himself.
Since his parents and grandfather did not object either, Su Ming naturally went along with it.
"Obtain your first Spirit Ring?"
"But we're in Dragon City. There are no Sea Soul Beasts here."
"And hadn't we already settled on a plan a few days ago? When you return home, the teachers and scholars our family hired will gather there as well to offer advice on Ming'er's first Spirit Ring."
Yu Xingtuo patiently explained.
In his view, Su Ming was simply still a child and could not wait to become a true Soul Master sooner.
But Yu Xingtuo believed this matter could not be handled so casually.
Obtaining one's first Spirit Ring was extremely important. It practically determined the direction of a Soul Master's future development.
Therefore, Soul Masters with family resources and inheritances would never allow their descendants to obtain their first Spirit Ring carelessly. They would certainly choose with the utmost care.
After all, this was a matter of paramount importance.
Choosing wrong would leave one with lifelong regrets, and that would not be an exaggeration in the slightest.
Thus, Yu Xingtuo's thought was that there was no need to rush.
Before determining the best and most suitable Spirit Ring, waiting a little longer was not a waste at all.
Especially since Su Ming's first Spirit Ring concerned an ocean-type Martial Soul. Yu Xingtuo, and indeed the entire Heavenly Dragon Sect, had no experience in that regard, so they needed specialists to guide them all the more.
As for why he had not simply adopted the advice of Su Ming's family in this matter—
The reason was simple. Yu Xingtuo, who knew Su Ming's secret of possessing Twin Martial Souls, no longer viewed Su Ming's first Martial Soul as an ordinary mutated Whale Martial Soul.
To be twins with such an incredibly powerful High True Dragon Martial Soul, it had to be an extraordinary ocean-type Martial Soul.
The cultivation of such a powerful Martial Soul could not be taken lightly. It was best left to specialists.
"But while looking through the soul beast encyclopedia recently, I discovered that some land soul beasts can also be absorbed by sea Soul Masters."
"And Great-Granduncle, not every sea Soul Master has to absorb Sea Soul Beasts as Spirit Rings."
To make his claim more convincing, Su Ming even took a soul beast encyclopedia from his storage bracelet.
After opening it to the relevant page, he handed it to Yu Xingtuo.
[Soul Beast: Tidal Marsh Crocodile] [Description: An amphibious overlord of coastal inland mangroves and aquatic marshlands. Its scales can store both freshwater and seawater, and it excels at exploiting the "osmotic pressure differential" at the boundary between land and water to create a viscous force field...] [Locations: Aomo Aquatic Spirit-Beast Hunting Forest, Jiuheng Offshore Spirit-Beast Hunting Grounds...]
"This soul beast has been hunted by members of our Heavenly Dragon Sect before." Yu Xingtuo recognized the creature at once.
Although the inherited Martial Soul of the Heavenly Dragon Sect was the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul.
The Heavenly Dragon Sect welcomed any Soul Master whose Martial Soul possessed dragon bloodline.
Furthermore, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul had a small chance of mutating into other dragon-type Martial Souls.
Thus, the Heavenly Dragon Sect had considerable experience with obtaining dragon-type Martial Souls of various attributes.
Naturally, that included water-attributed dragon-type Martial Souls.
As for this Tidal Marsh Crocodile, Yu Xingtuo had personally led sect members to capture some many years ago.
With Su Ming's reminder today, Yu Xingtuo recalled it completely.
"Then, Great-Granduncle, do you think this soul beast can become my first Spirit Ring?" Su Ming asked expectantly.
"I just asked my father about it. When he was young, he also absorbed a crocodile-type soul beast, and it gave him some very useful soul skills."
What Su Ming had set his sights on was the Tidal Marsh Crocodile's innate ability involving osmotic pressure differentials.
Although Kyogre was an oceanic divine beast, the acquisition of its Spirit Rings was not limited to pure Sea Soul Beasts.
As a transmigrator who knew Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza inside out, Su Ming would use his knowledge and studies to assemble the perfect soul skills.
The Tidal Marsh Crocodile is already an elite soul beast with water attributes, and there happens to be an aquatic habitat not far from Dragon City.
Ming'er's father has also previously absorbed a crocodile-type soul beast as a Spirit Ring. It might work.
Yu Xingtuo's thoughts flickered rapidly as he analyzed the feasibility of Su Ming's proposal.
Then Yu Xingtuo spoke again. "How about this, Ming'er? Wait one more day. Great-Granduncle will give you an answer tomorrow afternoon."
"Among the many teachers I hired for you, one should arrive at the Heavenly Dragon Sect tomorrow morning. We can hear his opinion then."
"Alright, Great-Granduncle." Su Ming nodded obediently.
In his view, choosing the Tidal Marsh Crocodile as his first Spirit Ring was practically a sure thing.
Waiting one more day would not hurt.
Then Su Ming asked curiously, "Great-Granduncle, who is the teacher arriving tomorrow?"
He was also curious about what kind of people the teachers Yu Xingtuo had hired for him were.
Although Su Ming knew Yu Xingtuo would never hire some useless master like Yu Xiaogang from ten thousand years ago—
Since it concerned his future path as a Soul Master, it was still necessary to ask carefully.
Otherwise, he might as well study and figure it out himself.
Before you continue