Development Direction

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect moved with remarkable speed. In just one day, the sect had assigned people to help Yang Xiong's family relocate. Everything in their home, large and small, was moved away—even the little training equipment Yang Xiong used.

It was only after truly entering the Inner Sect that Yang Xiong experienced the prosperity and wealth of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect firsthand.

The entire Inner Sect was built in dazzling splendor, complete with pavilions, terraces, lakes, artificial hills, and everything else one could want. Even the lake water was jade-green, its misty air like an earthly paradise. Even an ordinary-looking tree was exceedingly precious, and the aura it gave off was beneficial to Soul Masters.

Yang Xiong's family was assigned a courtyard near the western side. Though there were only four people in the family—six even with the two servants—the house alone had more than ten rooms. There was also a large training ground in the courtyard, a small pool, and even secret rooms. It was simply an ideal living environment.

The happiest of all was Yang Wei, Yang Xiong's elder brother. He had originally been studying in Heaven Dou City, but in the blink of an eye, the entire family had become Inner Sect disciples of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Even their parents had been assigned new jobs within the Inner Sect.

After all, the treatment of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Inner and Outer Sects was completely different. Every month, they received subsidies in money and medicinal pills, along with all sorts of other benefits.

Meanwhile, Yang Xiong was deep in thought at home. A stack of papers lay before him, covered in all kinds of writing.

Yang Xiong considered the choice of Soul Rings extremely important, and he had spent a long time considering his future path.

Using one's body as a Martial Soul truly offered countless choices, but none of those choices seemed ideal.

On the paper, Yang Xiong wrote down gold, wood, water, fire, earth, light, darkness, and space. These were the most fundamental attributes that made up the entire Douluo Continent.

Beyond those, there were many other attributes, such as ice, lightning, wind, poison, strength, speed, mental, and so on. These could only be considered extensions of the basic attributes. Ice was an extension of water, while the lightning attribute was produced by a combination of several attributes. Even wind was not considered a foundational attribute.

Light, darkness, and space, meanwhile, belonged to the advanced foundational attributes.

As for strength and mental attributes, they were more like extensions of certain attributes, or entirely new attributes born from the combination of multiple attributes.

For example, the Clear Sky Sect's Clear Sky Hammer should fundamentally have been an ordinary hammer. A hammer itself should possess the gold attribute, yet the Clear Sky Sect added Power Type Soul Rings to every Clear Sky Hammer. In the end, the Clear Sky Hammer displayed terrifying strength and might even develop into ultimate strength in the future.

Another example was the Star Luo Dai Family's White Tiger Martial Soul, which could basically be regarded as a combination of strength and the gold attribute.

As for so-called Power Type Soul Beasts, they were more like combinations of the gold attribute, earth attribute, and other attributes mixed in.

For example, Flame Lions and Unicorn Fire Tyrant Dragons possessed powerful strength attributes in their bodies, but also fire attributes. Yet their fire attributes seemed to be gradually gaining the upper hand. Then there was the Deep Sea Demonic Whale King, who theoretically should have been water-attributed, but also possessed lightning and strength attributes.

Just like Tang Lie of the Clear Sky Sect: although his Clear Sky Hammer possessed the strength attribute, what it displayed were both strength and fire attributes. Its power seemed even greater that way.

Taken together, the strength attribute seemed to be a powerful manifestation born from the combination of multiple attributes.

According to Yang Xiong's research into Body Martial Souls, pursuing a pure strength attribute should have been the best route, and it could even make the body increasingly powerful.

Yet ten thousand years later, the Body Sect had not taken that path. Both Du Busi and Du Bisi had pursued poison attributes. Given the Body Sect's research into Martial Souls, there had definitely been Soul Masters who pursued pure strength, but their development likely had not met expectations.

Take the Strength Clan among the Four Single Attribute Families. They too followed the path of pure strength, and their Great Strength Gorilla Martial Soul was not bad either. Yet they had been unable to produce even a Titled Douluo, and as time passed, the clan had gradually been left behind. This showed that the path of pure strength was not necessarily suitable for development.

After thinking for an entire day, Yang Xiong had basically settled on his path of development.

He would follow the path of strength while taking every attribute into account. All of his Soul Rings would be Power Type Soul Rings, and they would respectively possess the attributes of gold, wood, water, fire, earth, light, darkness, and space.

Among all these Soul Rings, the truly hardest Power Type Soul Beast to find would be one with the wood attribute. The other kinds could more or less be found.

Yang Xiong intended to develop this way mainly because the path of strength could indeed improve his combat power. Even his body, muscles, and other aspects could be greatly enhanced. Perhaps he could even use the ability to absorb Soul Rings beyond his rank to achieve a Second Awakening of his Martial Soul.

Beyond the attributes, he naturally had to choose more powerful Soul Beasts. In particular, Soul Beasts with dragon-bloodline attributes might be even better.

The foundation for all of this was the unique compatibility of a Body Martial Soul. A Body Martial Soul was based on one's own body and could absorb Soul Rings of any attribute. There would not even be any rejection between the Soul Rings.

Yang Xiong even felt that if he truly possessed every attribute, his body might undergo some kind of qualitative transformation and become unprecedentedly powerful.

The next morning, Yang Xiong brought up his Soul Ring requirements to his class teacher.

When students of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect needed to obtain Soul Rings, there were specialized personnel to help them analyze and select Soul Beasts.

In particular, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect raised a large number of Soul Beasts, most of which were under a thousand years old. The sect even possessed its own Soul Beast Forest, over fifty kilometers in both length and width, filled entirely with Soul Beasts under ten thousand years old. Soul Beasts over ten thousand years old had to be hunted outside.

However, ordinary students only needed Soul Beasts at the thousand-year level at most. Only stewards above the Soul Ancestor rank needed ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts, and that was already outside the academy's jurisdiction.

Besides, ten-thousand-year Soul Beasts were difficult to obtain and required one to make a certain contribution to the sect. Some Soul Beasts in particular had to be acquired from the Star Dou Great Forest, a place filled with danger.

Class teacher Lin Gong directly took out a thick book that recorded the various Soul Beasts possessed by the sect.

After opening the book, Yang Xiong discovered that it contained an enormous variety of Soul Beasts, with specimens of nearly every age range. Naturally, common Soul Beasts existed in greater numbers, while rare Soul Beasts were relatively scarce and reserved for certain geniuses.

The first page recorded Thousand Jun Ants, complete with detailed descriptions.

"Thousand Jun Ant, pure Power Type Soul Beast. One hundred years old: seventeen. Two hundred years old: nine..."

The second page contained Soft Bone Rabbits. Though Soft Bone Rabbits rarely produced exceptionally powerful Soul Beasts, they were fairly good for speed-type Soul Masters.

Yang Xiong flipped through the records page by page, but he never found the Soul Beast he wanted. Soul Beasts that could be raised in captivity were generally too ordinary, and there were basically none of the top-grade ones he desired.

Just then, Yang Xiong's eyes lit up. After examining it carefully, he spoke. "Teacher Lin, I want to choose this Soul Beast."

Lin Gong was also startled when he looked at the page. "Yang Xiong, you need to think this through. This Soul Beast's quality is good, but it's five hundred and forty years old, far beyond the absorption limit of a First Soul Ring. Moreover, it's a defense-type Soul Beast, which doesn't match your Martial Soul very well."

"This Soul Beast has been raised in our sect for quite a few years, but no one has ever wanted it. The main reason is that turtle-type Soul Beasts are too limiting. At most, they can only provide defensive Soul Skills, and they are only suitable for turtle-type Martial Souls. Our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect does not have many Soul Masters with turtle-type Martial Souls, much less students."

Yang Xiong hurriedly said, "Teacher Lin, I've made up my mind. I want this one. I think it suits me very well."

Lin Gong nodded. "This is too important a matter. I need to report it to the Sect Master, and I also need to inform your parents. Otherwise, if anything goes wrong, you could be crippled. That would be truly troublesome."

There are some matters to deal with during the New Year, so I can only post two chapters today. I'll return to the usual three chapters tomorrow.

If he obtains an External Soul Bone turtle shell, will people curse me to death?