Eastsea Academy, Class Zero.
"Today is your second time entering the Spirit Ascension Platform. I hope to see improvement, rather than having you eliminated by all sorts of accidents like last time."
Wu Zhangkong gathered the six of them and spoke solemnly.
Naturally, he had not applied to use the Spirit Ascension Platform simply for spirit ascension.
From Wu Zhangkong's perspective, this was actually meant to hone their practical combat abilities.
Soul Masters of this era rarely engaged in genuine life-and-death combat, and the Spirit Ascension Platform was one of the few places that could meet that need.
For Soul Masters, life-and-death combat was a crucial form of training. Whether they had undergone such training made an enormous difference to their combat strength.
After a round of admonishments and guidance, Wu Zhangkong led everyone to the Spirit Pagoda.
They entered the chambers, and the six of them were teleported into the Spirit Ascension Platform separately.
Jiang Xia looked around.
This was his first time entering the Spirit Ascension Platform for something other than cultivation.
Both the Ice Fire Silkworm and the Mutated Evil Eye now have illusory spaces to anchor them, so they place almost no burden on my spiritual power.
Jiang Xia did not know whether this was a bug. In any case, within his Martial Soul, Soul Spirits could serve as vessels for illusory spaces, while those illusory spaces merged with his Silkworm Dream, supporting his spiritual power and housing his Soul Spirits.
In other words, the Soul Spirits and illusory spaces served as vessels for one another.
It was simply unheard of.
Of course, there were limits to this. Jiang Xia could sense that.
Once both the illusory spaces and the Soul Spirits became markedly stronger than his Broken Dream, he would suffer a backlash.
As for exactly where those limits lay, Jiang Xia was still feeling his way forward.
"Jiang Xia's third Soul Skill has some offensive power, at least. He should be able to kill a Soul Beast or two."
In the monitoring room outside, Wu Zhangkong watched Jiang Xia on the screen.
He paid particular attention to this feed.
He did not know what direction Jiang Xia was taking in cultivating his Broken Dream Martial Soul. He only knew that Jiang Xia currently had little ability to fight head-on.
Being able to provide support was a good thing, but Jiang Xia refused to acknowledge himself as a support-type Soul Master.
Wu Zhangkong had no solution for that, either.
Suddenly, his gaze shifted slightly. On Jiang Xia's screen, a Soul Beast was quietly approaching.
Naturally, Jiang Xia noticed it.
"A ten-year Wind Baboon?"
It was a relatively large baboon, with green currents of air swirling around its body.
After spotting Jiang Xia, the Wind Baboon swiftly charged out.
It moved so fast that it left an afterimage.
Swish!
The Wind Baboon's corpse fell to the ground.
Outside, in the monitoring room, Wu Zhangkong's pupils abruptly contracted.
"What just happened?"
His gaze sharpened. He had completely missed what Jiang Xia had just done.
Even when he replayed it in his mind, he could not pick out any details.
Elsewhere.
Compared to his first visit, Tang Wulin was clearly much calmer.
He searched the mountain forest for traces of Soul Beasts with considerable composure.
He had come to the Spirit Ascension Platform for spirit ascension, so of course he would not waste the opportunity.
If he could hunt Soul Beasts, he needed to hunt as many as possible.
So what if Jiang Xia has three thousand-year Soul Rings? Without the ability to fight head-on, he'll have a hard time achieving spirit ascension here.
My physical constitution is strong, and my spiritual power is sufficient. I can absolutely use the Spirit Ascension Platform to raise my Goldlight to the thousand-year level too.
Tang Wulin had been competing with Jiang Xia these past few days.
It was not that he had truly developed romantic feelings for Gu Yue.
For an ordinary boy, seeing a good friend become close to someone else was bound to feel uncomfortable.
Especially in Tang Wulin and Gu Yue's case: although there was nothing between them, that bigmouth Xie Xie was always fanning the flames, leaving Tang Wulin with a subconscious perception that Gu Yue was his simp.
Even if he had never consciously thought that way, the notion was still there in his subconscious.
That was why seeing Gu Yue interact with Jiang Xia irritated Tang Wulin.
He then attributed it to matters between men and women.
Then he dismissed Gu Yue's looks.
And after that, he still competed with Jiang Xia, determined to establish who was better.
Sometimes, a young person's thoughts were difficult to fathom. Not everything followed a coherent thread of logic.
"This Wind Baboon has eighty years of cultivation. After killing it, I should gain about eight years' worth of spiritual power."
Killing a Soul Beast in the Spirit Ascension Platform granted spiritual power equivalent to one-tenth of its cultivation.
After absorption, this spiritual power was divided according to the number of Soul Rings, evenly increasing the age of the Soul Master's Soul Spirits.
Tang Wulin currently had only one Soul Ring, so spirit ascension was easiest for him.
Under normal circumstances, however, it was extremely difficult for a one-ring Soul Master to hunt large numbers of Soul Beasts and absorb spiritual power in the Spirit Ascension Platform.
Unless they had a god-tier carry.
Tang Wulin activated the Golden Dragon King's blood essence within him.
Blood essence swirled around his body, and golden dragon scales covered his right arm.
His Golden Dragon Claw reached out.
A dragon's roar erupted.
At that moment, he went all out.
The Wind Baboon had attacked the instant it saw him.
The dragon's roar made the Wind Baboon instinctively falter for a moment.
But after sensing the terrifying pressure of the Golden Dragon Claw, the Wind Baboon still dodged in time.
Green currents of air swirled around it, making its movements fluid and natural as it advanced, retreated, and darted from side to side.
Coupled with its natural agility, this left Tang Wulin unable to catch it for a while.
He activated his Blue Silver Grass, trying to bind the Wind Baboon.
Only after exerting the strength of nine oxen and two tigers did he finally kill it.
"It wasn't even a hundred-year Soul Beast, yet dealing with it was already this troublesome."
Tang Wulin felt helpless.
His shortcomings were far too obvious. Although the Golden Dragon King granted tremendous explosive power and strength in head-on combat, an enemy could maneuver around him, leaving him on the back foot.
He had performed well on his previous visit to the Spirit Ascension Platform because the Soul Beasts he encountered had not feared him at all and had made no effort to maneuver.
Only in those head-on clashes had his Golden Dragon Claw proved its worth.
Eight years' worth of spiritual power secured. Another step closer to a thousand years.
Silently cheering himself on, Tang Wulin sat cross-legged to recover his Soul Power.
The battle had consumed a considerable amount of his Soul Power, and he had expended a great deal of blood essence as well.
Outside, in the monitoring room, Wu Zhangkong had watched the entire process.
"Not bad. He's starting to handle opponents who maneuver around him."
Although the result was far worse than last time, Wu Zhangkong was not looking at numerical differences, but at actual changes in tactics and combat proficiency.
He turned his attention to the others, silently scoring each of them.
Wang Jinxi faced much the same situation as Tang Wulin.
Although none of the Soul Beasts in the Elementary Spirit Ascension Platform possessed much intelligence, their instincts still gave them an innate tendency to seek safety and avoid danger. They were not living targets.
Wang Jinxi was powerful, but when he fought Soul Beasts, they would not clash head-on with him the whole time.
They would invariably maneuver around him and try to flee.
In the environment of the Star Dou Great Forest, giving chase could easily lead him into an encirclement of Soul Beasts.
What to pursue and what to abandon depended entirely on Wang Jinxi's decisions.
Of course, what mattered even more was anticipating the enemy's moves and leaving them nowhere to retreat.
Zhang Yangzi had a much easier time. His Dark Demon Eagle possessed both speed and damage, so he had no fear of opponents running away.
The same held true for Xie Xie.
As for Gu Yue, her execution was even more fluid. Her long-range elemental attacks gave her an extremely high ceiling.
Of course, the one Wu Zhangkong found hardest to fathom was still Jiang Xia.
Even now, he had yet to work out how Jiang Xia had killed that Wind Baboon.