Lin Mo closed his eyes, immersing himself in an analysis of his and Charmander's current circumstances.
The earlier double joy of successfully obtaining his first soul ring and Charmander hatching smoothly had left him no time to delve into the additional information on the panel.
Now that he had calmed down, the information about the evolution requirements surfaced unbidden in his mind, prompting him to ponder the reasons behind them.
The requirements for Charmander's hatching and first evolution were level ten and level thirty Soul Power, respectively.
This happened to align with certain ideas about bottlenecks in Soul Master cultivation on the Douluo Continent.
For the vast majority of Soul Masters, levels ten, thirty, fifty, and seventy could be considered some of the most important thresholds along their path.
First came level ten, the starting point of the Soul Master's path and the dividing line between ordinary people and Soul Masters.
A very small number of people could awaken Soul Power, yet remained unable to break through the level-ten bottleneck because their Innate Soul Power was simply too low, their Martial Soul's quality was far too poor, they lacked proper cultivation methods, or various other factors.
These people could not be considered true Soul Masters, only Soul Scholars who possessed Soul Power, their prospects essentially fixed at that point.
Being unable to raise their Soul Power to the level-ten bottleneck also meant that they could never possess soul rings and Soul Skills of their own.
Those with Tool Martial Souls were better off, unlike those with Beast Martial Souls, who could not even undergo Martial Soul possession.
This meant they were merely ordinary people with Soul Power, unable to become true Soul Masters for their entire lives.
Next came level thirty, a threshold that held back even more people.
Who knew how many Soul Masters exhausted a lifetime's efforts only to remain Soul Grandmasters at level twenty-nine, unable to advance another inch?
Like the so-called Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang, whose Luo Sanpao Martial Soul had undergone a failed mutation, leaving him trapped at level twenty-nine for life, unable to become a Soul Elder.
Level thirty marked a qualitative transformation in a Soul Master's abilities, meaning they could begin absorbing thousand-year soul rings, a sign that they had truly entered the ranks of intermediate Soul Masters.
Although level fifty was not an unbridgeable chasm that determined the fates of so many Soul Masters the way level thirty did, it was still an extremely important milestone for the vast majority of them.
Only upon reaching level fifty did Soul Masters gain the ability to absorb and withstand ten thousand year soul rings.
There was an enormous gap between ten thousand year soul rings and thousand-year soul rings.
Whether in the power of their Soul Skills or the comprehensive improvement to a Soul Master's physical attributes, the difference was like heaven and earth.
It could be said that whether a Soul Master could obtain a ten thousand year soul ring largely determined the upper limit of their future potential.
As for level seventy, that was a threshold of vital importance to every Soul Master, one they could even be said to yearn for in their dreams.
Level seventy meant a Soul Master could obtain the seventh Soul Skill that represented their Martial Soul's greatest power-Martial Soul Avatar.
Once they unleashed their Martial Soul Avatar, every aspect of a Soul Master's abilities would increase explosively, and their strength would undergo an earth-shaking transformation.
Only Soul Masters who possessed a Martial Soul Avatar could be considered to have truly entered the ranks of high-level Soul Masters, with the confidence to establish a foothold on the continent.
Level ten is the starting point, level thirty is the key, level fifty is a leap, and level seventy is a qualitative transformation... Lin Mo silently sorted through this information in his mind.
And for Charmander's evolution, the first explicitly listed requirement is level thirty...
His train of thought gradually became clearer. Since the prerequisite for Charmander to hatch from its egg was reaching level ten Soul Power, while the prerequisite for evolving into its next form, Charmeleon, was reaching level thirty Soul Power...
Then could he further infer that the prerequisite for Charmeleon to evolve again into its final form, Charizard, was very likely reaching Soul Power Level fifty?
After all, level fifty was likewise an extremely important threshold for Soul Masters, the stage at which they obtained ten thousand year soul rings and achieved a leap in strength.
Charmander's evolutionary stages aligned so closely with the key levels in Soul Master cultivation that this was probably no mere coincidence, but more like a reflection of something at the level of rules.
Or rather, the earthly rules of the Douluo Continent's world were influencing the growth path of Charmander, which existed as a Martial Soul.
At this thought, Lin Mo could not help feeling a little fired up.
If his conjecture held true, then as long as he cultivated step by step and raised his Soul Power to level thirty and level fifty, Charmander would naturally complete its evolutions!
Yet these explicit evolution requirements involuntarily brought Lin Mo's thoughts to his other Martial Soul... the heart Body Martial Soul that included all the blood in his body.
Unlike the clearly listed evolution requirements on Charmander's panel, the [Evolution requirements] field on his second Martial Soul's panel still displayed the word "Unknown."
That word, "Unknown," had almost become a dark cloud over his heart.
Through his research and exploration during this time, he had gained an initial grasp of some ways to use this Body Martial Soul, drawing on his previous life's understanding of the heart, meridians, Qi, and blood, as well as his firsthand experiences in this life.
He had even developed a Self-Created Soul Skill like "Blood Burst," which could unleash his Qi and blood in a brief burst to strengthen specific parts of his body.
But as for how his second Martial Soul was supposed to evolve, he still had no clue whatsoever, unable to grasp even the slightest lead.
If its evolution requirements are like Charmander's, simply reaching a certain Soul Power Level... Lin Mo speculated inwardly.
Then the panel should directly display a specific level requirement, just as it does for Charmander, something like "Evolution requirements: reach Soul Power Level XX," rather than merely giving a vague "Unknown" like it does now.
After turning it over in his mind, this deduction remained the most likely possibility.
His panel was a manifestation of his own special talent, with relatively limited functionality: it could only display status information for himself and Charmander.
He had previously tried concentrating on other people or objects, but the panel had shown no response, indicating that it truly could not provide information about anything other than himself and his partner Charmander.
Then the panel displaying "Unknown" for his second Martial Soul's evolution requirements seemed to indirectly support one possibility:
The evolution requirements for his heart Body Martial Soul definitely could not be met merely by raising his Soul Power Level, as Charmander's could.
The prerequisite for its evolution very likely involved some form of external intervention!
Precisely because this external force was not an ability he already possessed, the panel could not provide a specific hint and could only label it "Unknown."
External intervention... Lin Mo's eyes could not help lighting up, and his mind began racing.
He began combining the information he currently knew to consider just what things might serve as an "external force" to help his second Martial Soul evolve.