Next came the age of the Soul Ring... or rather, the Soul Spirit!
Ji Yang thought.
He had finished absorbing the Soul Spirit, and it was time to increase the Phoenix Bird Soul Spirit's age.
He immediately took numerous Soul Ring Pills out of the ring-shaped Storage Soul Tool on his hand.
Most of these Soul Ring Pills came from Soft Bone Rabbits, with the rest coming from Blue Silver Grass.
There was a patch of Blue Silver Grass around Nuoding Academy. He had previously tried cultivating it with crushed Soul Power Pills, and he had actually managed to raise a few plants into ten-year Blue Silver Grass Soul Beasts.
In the end, he had harvested and refined them all into their corresponding pills.
"Eat these, or try absorbing their power into your body."
Ji Yang first manifested the white Soul Ring around his body as the Phoenix Bird Soul Spirit, then spoke to it.
This was also one of the special features of a Soul Spirit formed from a Soul Power Pill: it could transform directly from a Soul Ring into a Soul Spirit without needing to be summoned from his Sea of Consciousness.
After becoming a Soul Spirit and being enhanced by the Eight Trigrams Alchemy Furnace Martial Soul, the firebird's appearance had changed enormously. It genuinely looked like a Phoenix Bird now.
To be precise, it fell somewhere between a bird with Phoenix blood and an Azure Luan Soul Beast, which ranked below a Phoenix Soul Beast.
"Screee!"
The Phoenix Bird Soul Spirit nodded excitedly, then gazed at the Soul Ring Pills in Ji Yang's hand with longing in its eyes.
As for its current condition, it did not care in the slightest.
Especially after Ji Yang had refined and absorbed it as his Soul Spirit, their bond had become so close that nothing stood between them, making it care even less.
Then, as Ji Yang fed it, the Phoenix Bird Soul Spirit swallowed the Soul Ring Pills in his hand one by one.
Although most of these Soul Ring Pills were low in age, ranging from ten years to sixty or seventy, their sheer quantity made up for it.
As the numerous Soul Ring Pills went down its stomach, the Phoenix Bird Soul Spirit could clearly feel its cultivation and strength growing.
Before long, it advanced from a fifty-year Soul Spirit into a two-thousand-year, thousand-year Soul Spirit, skipping the hundred-year Soul Spirit tier entirely.
If it returned to its earlier Soul Ring form now, its color would no longer be the white of a ten-year Soul Ring, but the deeper purple of a thousand-year Soul Ring.
"Huh?!"
Almost at the very instant the Phoenix Bird Soul Spirit completed its advancement, Ji Yang let out an astonished sound.
The advancement of his first Soul Ring had actually increased his Soul Power Level as well.
As a result, his Soul Power Level rose from twelve and a half, where it had stood after his recent breakthrough, to around fourteen and a half.
Anyone unaware of the circumstances would probably have assumed such an enormous improvement came from absorbing a new Soul Ring beyond his usual age limit.
So much so that even he felt more shocked than delighted.
There was actually a bonus like this? I remembered that during Douluo Dalu III: The Legend of the Dragon King, advancing a Soul Spirit didn't increase Soul Power cultivation. At most, it exercised spiritual power and improved it accordingly.
Ji Yang was utterly astonished.
So, was this another benefit of Soul Ring Pills?
In a sense, Soul Ring Pills were equivalent to an alternative kind of Soul Power Pill-and an even more effective one at that.
"It probably also had something to do with my first Soul Spirit being only fifty years old, far below my own limit. That was why my Soul Power cultivation could grow further as the Soul Spirit's age increased."
"As for later, even if increasing my Soul Spirit's age still raised my Soul Power Level, the increase probably wouldn't be as large as this time."
Ji Yang speculated.
But even so, as long as increasing his Soul Spirit's age really could raise his Soul Power Level along with it, the benefits he could gain through gradual accumulation were practically immeasurable.
With Soul Power Pills to assist him as well, the problem of an Ultimate Martial Soul's slow cultivation speed would never arise for him.
Of course, that meant the Soul Beasts would suffer somewhat.
After all, both Soul Power Pills and Soul Ring Pills came from Soul Beasts themselves.
What a sin, what a sin!
Although he murmured about his sins inwardly, Ji Yang would not show mercy when it actually came time to act.
"My Soul Skill should have changed quite a bit too, right?"
After considering his Soul Power Level, Ji Yang turned his attention to his first Soul Skill.
With the Phoenix Bird Soul Spirit advancing into a thousand-year Soul Spirit, his Soul Skill was bound to have become much stronger.
And indeed, that was the case.
Now that it had become a thousand-year Soul Skill, his first Soul Skill, Phoenix Fire, had undergone a qualitative transformation.
Not only had its enhancement to fire-type offensive Soul Skills increased fivefold, reaching 125 percent, but it had also gained an additional effect that temporarily increased his current total Soul Power by another 50 percent.
Its duration had also been extended to ten minutes.
Such an enormous improvement was truly astonishing.
Once the Phoenix Bird Soul Spirit's age increased further in the future, this Soul Skill would undoubtedly have even more room to grow.
Truly terrifying.
"Excellent!"
Ji Yang was delighted with the changes to his first Soul Skill.
Then he began his next step.
This time, he used a Soul Skill Pill on the Phoenix Bird Soul Spirit.
Normally, a Soul Ring produced after a Soul Beast's death came with its own Soul Skill.
But after being refined by the Eight Trigrams Alchemy Furnace Martial Soul, the Soul Ring and Soul Skill became separate pills.
In other words, a Soul Ring obtained by absorbing a Soul Ring Pill did not possess a Soul Skill.
Only by supplementing it with the corresponding Soul Skill Pill could that Soul Ring obtain the Soul Skill it should have.
However, the Soul Skill Pills refined by the Eight Trigrams Alchemy Furnace Martial Soul did more than merely grant the corresponding Soul Skill to a matching Soul Ring Pill.
They could also merge with the Soul Skills of other Soul Rings, forming entirely new and more powerful Soul Skills.
They could even be incorporated into other Soul Rings to create a second Soul Skill.
However, each Soul Ring could gain only one additional Soul Skill, rather than adding them without limit.
Although this restriction was somewhat regrettable, the ability was still heaven-defying.
After all, only Soul Rings and Soul Spirits that had reached a hundred thousand years could possess two Soul Skills at once.
If Soul Rings and Soul Spirits younger than a hundred thousand years could possess two Soul Skills, what more was there to complain about?
"Eat this!"
Ji Yang fed the Phoenix Bird Soul Spirit a blue Soul Skill Pill he had just taken out.
The pill's color made it easy to tell that it contained a Blue Silver Grass Soul Skill.
He only had Soul Skill Pills from Soft Bone Rabbits and Blue Silver Grass. Surely he could not merge a Soft Bone Rabbit Soul Skill with his first Soul Skill, or add a Soft Bone Rabbit Soul Skill to his first Soul Ring?
He was not that foolish!
As for the Blue Silver Grass Soul Skill, it did not seem particularly compatible with Phoenix Fire either, but Ji Yang felt that Blue Silver Grass's powerful vitality might bring some favorable changes to Phoenix Fire.
For instance, it might give Phoenix Fire an additional life-draining or restorative effect, or accelerate Soul Power recovery under sunlight while further enhancing the attacks of fire-type Soul Skills.
Alternatively, it might grant Phoenix Fire a self-healing ability akin to a Phoenix's rebirth through nirvana.
That was also why Ji Yang had chosen to merge this Soul Skill with Phoenix Fire.
In short, even the worst result would not be all that bad, and it certainly would not produce a harmful mutation.
On that point, Ji Yang felt quite reassured.
Before you continue