Qian Daoliu looked at Bibi Dong and his brothers, holding several jade bottles as he said:
"I recently got some more pills. I've come to change your colors."
"What? Big Brother, do you mean those thousand-year pills?" The Enshrinements grew excited.
Qian Daoliu nodded. Last time, when Bibi Dong raised all her soul rings to ten thousand years, he had farmed a hundred and sixty pills.
Thinking that he might bind himself to a few more people in the future, Qian Daoliu had not brought them all out. Although he had given his brothers seventy pills, he still had some left.
Things were different now. He had the Pill Formula for the Thousand-Year Soul Ring Pill, so these pills were no longer a limited resource.
"There are eighty here." Qian Daoliu shook the jade bottles.
Golden Crocodile looked at the jade bottles in Qian Daoliu's hands and shook his head.
"Big Brother, we've already taken some before. To be honest, our first three soul rings don't mean much to us. Save them for the younger generation in the Hall."
"Second Brother is right. Leave them for the youngsters."
The other Enshrinements agreed with Golden Crocodile.
"Oh, really? I thought that now I had the Pill Formula, these pills wouldn't be scarce anymore. Since that's how you feel, I'll give them to the younger generation. They're just the Enshrinements of my Spirit Hall, after all."
Qian Daoliu suppressed the urge to laugh.
"With the Pill Formula, of course the pills..." Golden Crocodile was about to say more when realization struck.
"What? The Pill Formula? Big Brother, you have the formula for those pills?"
The other Enshrinements reacted the same way.
Qian Daoliu took out the parchment. "None of you need them, right?"
"Well, Big Brother, the older a soul ring is, the better, of course."
"Big Brother, I didn't say anything just now."
"How could purple compare to black?"
Now that they had the Pill Formula, they had no reason to scrimp.
The younger generation mattered, certainly, but they still needed their elders to shield them through wind and waves.
"..."
Watching these old men change their tune, Qian Daoliu shook his head with a smile. Teasing little old men turned out to be quite entertaining.
"These are only enough for each of you to upgrade one soul ring, with ten left over. I plan to give those to Yue Guan along with the Pill Formula and put him in charge of refining them."
Golden Crocodile and the others agreed with Qian Daoliu.
They knew Yue Guan. Although his personality was a little... his family was obsessed with researching flowers and plants, so he really was a suitable choice.
"Teacher, if we're upgrading one thousand-year soul ring each, why did you bring eighty pills?" Bibi Dong asked, looking at the eight bottles in confusion.
For her six teachers to upgrade one soul ring each, even without accounting for the rings already being several thousand years old, they would need sixty pills at most.
After taking Qian Daoliu as her teacher, Bibi Dong had also begun addressing Golden Crocodile and the other Enshrinements as her teachers, according to their seniority.
Qian Daoliu looked at Bibi Dong and answered:
"The extras are for your Second Teacher. Perhaps he'll reach rank ninety-nine after taking them."
Golden Crocodile was touched. "Big Brother, even getting my soul rings to eight black and one red wouldn't take this many pills. Besides..."
He had been stuck at level 98 for so long. Turning three thousand-year soul rings into ten-thousand-year ones would not solve that.
Accumulating soul power alone was not enough. Many other things were needed.
"Second Brother."
The other Enshrinements called out in concern.
Golden Crocodile had been stuck at level 98 longer than Qian Daoliu had been at rank ninety-nine.
"Take enough for eight black and one red. Going out with purple soul rings would disgrace me."
"Big Brother!" In the end, Golden Crocodile followed Qian Daoliu's wishes and took enough to upgrade his rings to Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings.
Qian Daoliu then looked at everyone and said:
"All right, upgrade your soul rings first. These pills can only raise a soul ring to ten thousand years, and no further."
"But taking them will still restore a little soul power."
Azure Luan and the others took only enough for their third soul rings, intending to leave the surplus for Golden Crocodile.
Perhaps it might work. What if it did?
Looking at the remaining pills, Golden Crocodile understood his brothers' intentions, but he did not take any.
He already had enough soul power.
Qian Daoliu pondered. Bibi Dong was now at rank sixty-six. Could these speed up her cultivation?
"Dong'er, take a few and see whether you can cultivate."
"Huh? Teacher, weren't these meant to increase my teachers' soul ring ages?"
"Dong'er, go ahead and take them," Golden Crocodile said.
For the Enshrinements, these pills merely changed the colors of their soul rings. Their cultivation was too high.
But Bibi Dong was only a Soul Emperor.
Perhaps they would help.
Bibi Dong took a few pills and swallowed them.
Watching Bibi Dong, Qian Daoliu reflected that although he could not use much of his soul power right now, the Chaos Bell was fortunately anchoring his spiritual world, allowing him to use his spiritual power.
As he sensed Bibi Dong's condition, he found that the pills did indeed aid cultivation, just as he had said.
[Congratulations, host. Bibi Dong has successfully taken a Soul Ring Lifespan Pill, triggering a tenfold return reward: Thousand-Year Soul Ring Age Pill ×10.]
?
The system notification rang out, and Qian Daoliu froze for a moment.
Her soul rings had not grown older, yet this still triggered a return.
Qian Daoliu stroked his chin in thought.
"System, will there be a reward if Bibi Dong breaks through to Soul Saint?"
[Yes, host.] [Rewards are issued for breakthroughs in both minor ranks and major ranks, based on the increase in the bound subject's strength.]
In that case...
Qian Daoliu took out the remaining pills to farm another round of rewards.
A Soul Master's cultivation was, in essence, the process of turning "unclaimed soul power" into their own. Now that these pills supplied soul power, Bibi Dong only needed to refine it.
He would make Bibi Dong the youngest Soul Saint today.
As for an unstable foundation, she could break through first and collect the benefits. Dong'er currently had the strongest team of teachers on the entire continent.
Besides, there was still the system.
Qian Daoliu then pondered other matters while feeding Bibi Dong "sugar beans."
One Hall, two empires, and the Upper Three Sects.
There was no need to discuss the Lower Four Sects. They were essentially all subordinate forces of Spirit Hall.
With its formidable strength and ten thousand years of accumulated heritage, Spirit Hall produced one genius after another, with no gap between generations.
The two great empires were doing reasonably well. Their foundations remained intact; they merely lacked high-level fighting power.
The Clear Sky Sect, meanwhile, had produced Tang Chen, who had raised it to its current position as the "number one sect under heaven."
But for Bo Saixi's sake, Tang Chen had sought out the Asura God's inheritance. Now he was effectively missing, as good as "dead."
The Clear Sky Sect urgently needed the Clear Sky Twins to shoulder its banner.
But those two brothers...
Then there was the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Although it had the Seven Killers Family behind it, Chen Xin's father would challenge Qian Daoliu in the future, leaving only Sword and Bone Douluo.
Yet the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile was a support spirit, so the sect needed powerful guardians and could only seek out strong experts to join it.
Neither Sword nor Bone had outstanding descendants.
There was still a gap between the old crop and the new.
As for the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan,
Yu Yuanzhen alone was holding it up now. Yu Luomian seemed to have ties to his Spirit Hall, too, but after the incident with Yu Xiaogang, the clan's internal conflicts would grow even fiercer.
As for the younger generation, it was only year 2619 of the Douluo Calendar. Their time was still far off.
At that thought, Qian Daoliu stopped dwelling on it.
Thinking too much gave him a headache.
[Congratulations, host. Your bound subject Bibi Dong's soul power level has successfully risen to rank sixty-nine. Development reward obtained: one lottery draw.]
Before you continue