Chapter 143

– Another Chance at Spirit Ascension
Tang Wulin swept his gaze over the spider webs in his surroundings and sure enough, they were beginning to weaken. There were even some cracks visible in the webs now. Although the Man-Faced Demon Spider was extremely toxic, there was still a limit to its toxicity. Once the protection of the webs disappeared, they would no longer be safe to rest in this spot as after all, they, too, were afraid of the toxic spider webs!
Tang Wulin asked,
How much spirit energy do you all think we’ve absorbed?

Gu Yue frowned.
We all should have absorbed four to five hundred years worth of spirit energy. You and I have it all concentrated in our single soul ring, while the others have increased each of their two soul rings by about two hundred years. There should also still be about one or two hundred years worth of spirit energy in our surroundings, but it’ll take us too long to absorb it. We’ll need to be especially careful of other Soul Masters after we depart. They’re a much greater threat to us now than soul beasts.

Gu Yue’s deduction was correct. A thick air of spirit energy currently hung around their bodies, and if another party of Soul Masters saw them, they might immediately be targeted. After all, there were no true deaths in the spirit ascension platform, and who wouldn’t want to absorb such rich spirit energy?
Tang Wulin responded with a calm smile,
Take it easy. In one move, we’ve already passed our final exam and absorbed far more spirit energy than usual. Even if we encounter a powerful foe and get ejected from the spirit ascension platform, that’s okay, too. Everyone’s recovered now, right? Let’s go then.

Tang Wulin’s words had injected vigor into everyone’s minds. He took out his hammers once more and reminded his comrades,
Everyone, pay attention to how much your spirit soul can bear. If you feel like you’re approaching the limits of how much it can absorb, then immediately press the button to exit the spirit ascension platform. Don’t be greedy, or else your body or your spiritual power might collapse, and then you’ll really be in trouble.

Although he himself was beginning to feel a bit bloated, he hadn’t reached the limits yet. According to Gu Yue’s assessment, he should still be able to absorb a lot more spirit energy, so he didn’t have to worry about it for now.
After all, the strength of his body and spiritual power was directly related to how strong of a spirit soul he could support. There was no need to even speak of his body’s strength and his spiritual power growth rate. They were both outstanding, allowing him to already reach the Spirit Connection realm, so he certainly had the capabilities to bear a single thousand-year spirit soul.
A thousand-year spirit soul… Would he truly be able to walk this path?
Tang Wulin led his team out, carefully avoiding the toxic webs. They left their miraculous, safe heaven and once again returned to the dangers of the forest.
The chaos of an assortment of noises soon entered their ears. There were the sounds of collisions, the roars of soul beasts, and occasionally, some wretched screams from Soul Masters.
It truly was a rebel period!
Tang Wulin mulled over their choices for a moment before he decided to have everyone absorb the remaining spirit energy in the area. Normally, they would have to kill countless soul beasts before earning this much spirit energy. Though it would take awhile to absorb all of this energy, it was a rare opportunity for them. Wu Zhangkong could help them out in the matter of combat experience, but not in evolving their spirit soul. This was the most important goal in entering the spirit ascension platform after all!
A sudden realization dawned on Tang Wulin. Those with fewer soul rings actually have an advantage in the spirit ascension platform. Wang Jinxi, Zhang Yangzi and Xie Xie all have two soul rings. Furthermore, Xie Xie’s rings come from two spirit souls, and they’ll need to evolve all of their soul rings to the thousand-year level in order to evolve their spirit soul. In other words, the more soul rings someone has, the more spirit energy necessary to evolve the spirit soul!
The strength of a Soul Master’s spiritual power and body also determine how much spirit energy they can bear to absorb.
Wang Jinxi and Zhang Yangzi can’t handle having two thousand-year soul rings then. Their spiritual powers are both too weak.
Having come to this realization, Tang Wulin’s heart began to stir. If it’s like this, then isn’t being a one-ringed Soul Master the best for the spirit ascension platform? If my spirit soul actually evolves to the thousand-year level, then once I hit rank 20 and get a second soul ring, that ring will also be at the thousand-year level. And when I get my third, it will be at the thousand-year level, too! Wouldn’t I save a lot of money like that?
Tang Wulin’s heart sped up at this discovery, but he soon calmed himself at the thought of the rare situation they were in.
First of all, the spirit ascension platform was strictly monitored by the Spirit Pagoda, and they had already calculated the maximum level of spirit soul a one-ringed Soul Master could bear to be a little over four hundred years. Basically, it was impossible for a one-ringed Soul Master to attain a thousand-year spirit soul. However, the spirit energy they absorbed would be split when they reached rank 20 and gained a second soul ring.
Tang Wulin’s current situation could be said to be truly marvelous. One reason was that he coincidentally found himself such a wonderful cultivation environment while the other was that his body was far stronger than normal people’s, allowing him to absorb more spirit energy. These two factors combined to allow him to potentially obtain a thousand-year spirit soul.
Following this line of thinking, his original guess that the academy wanted them all to obtain thousand-year spirit souls was wrong. The others wouldn’t even be able to support two thousand-year soul rings even if they wanted to! At most, they would only be able to absorb enough spirit energy until they reached their current limits.
In the future, as he grew stronger and gained more soul rings, it would only grow increasingly harder to evolve his spirit soul. This was the reason why spirit evolution was rarely seen in the spirit ascension platform. Ordinary Soul Masters with ten-year spirit souls wouldn’t even be lucky enough to enter the spirit ascension platform, and even if they did, they wouldn’t be able to defeat any soul beasts. Those with the means to directly obtain a hundred-year spirit soul wouldn’t opt for such a convoluted method of evolving a ten-year spirit soul either. As for those who wanted to evolve their hundred-year to a thousand-year spirit soul, the vast majority had bodies that were too weak to bear it.
Everything was clear to him now and more importantly, he had found the path he would travel from now on. Others might not be able to evolve their spirit souls, but I can! My body is far stronger than normal, and my spiritual power is high too. Though, I can’t even compare myself to Gu Yue.
With his current circumstances, he could absorb as much spirit energy as he wanted, until his body reached the saturation point.
He wasn’t clear on the strength of his body after absorbing the power of the Golden Dragon King’s first seal, but he knew he was about as strong as an ordinary Soul Master with three or four rings. With this in mind, he deduced that he would have no problems obtaining a thousand-year spirit soul. After this was over, he planned on having Wu Zhangkong assess him.
Then there was the matter of his spiritual power. The level his spiritual power attained would determine just how much spirit energy he could absorb in the spirit ascension platform.
Teacher Wu said that if I joined his organization, I’d be able to obtain a cultivation method. It seems I should really consider joining it now…
As for talent, my comrades are all far more talented than me. After all, my martial soul is just Bluesilver Grass. Tang Wulin had no way of knowing whether or not his Bluesilver Grass would continue to mutate as he broke the seals on the Golden Dragon King, but a Soul Master’s spirit souls and soul rings were directly representative of their strength!
If I can evolve my spirit soul once more, then I’ll have paved the path for my next two soul rings.
Even if I absorb as much spirit energy as my body can handle, my body will strengthen again when I break the next seal on the Golden Dragon King, and then I’ll be able to absorb even more spirit energy. I need to have two rings before I break the next seal, but what if I break it when I’m only approaching two rings? Will I be able to survive it?
Countless possibilities continuously appeared within Tang Wulin’s mind, as if numerous, brilliant doors were slowly opening up to him.