Douluo: In an extraordinary world, with unparallel understanding!

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Su Yu left Jing Hongchen's office. 

He had already provided the method; whether Jing Hongchen could implement it was out of Su Yu's control. 

Besides, Huo Yuhao could accomplish much of it on his own. 

As the "Child of Destiny," his spirit ring combinations were bound to be exceptional. 

After all, his first spirit ring was already a million years old. Add the Ice Empress's torso bone, which had reconstructed his body, and absorbing a ten-thousand-year spirit ring for his third ring should be no problem. 

Huo Yuhao had already done just that—absorbing a ten-thousand-year spirit ring for his third ring—and his soul power had directly jumped to Level 34 as a result. 

However, in the subsequent six months, he had only managed to rise by one level. 

Compared to Su Yu, the speed difference was significant. 

Although Huo Yuhao's spirit rings granted him a considerable increase in soul power, Su Yu's continuous cultivation had widened the gap between them. 

This was precisely why Jing Hongchen had sought Su Yu's advice. 

Back when Su Yu had been at Level 40, he could gain a level in three months. By contrast, Huo Yuhao took half a year to gain just one level, and that too while he was still in the Soul Elder stage. 

Jing Hongchen was genuinely concerned. 

To be fair, at thirteen years old and at Level 35 as a Soul Elder, Huo Yuhao was already extraordinary. 

However, Su Yu had significantly raised Jing Hongchen's expectations. 

In this generation of the Sun Moon Empire, prodigies abounded: Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen had both broken through to the Soul King level before the age of fifteen, while Su Yu had achieved the Soul Emperor stage at fourteen. 

Huo Yuhao, a genius comparable to Su Yu, was someone Jing Hongchen had high hopes for. 

But now, it seemed that Huo Yuhao's foundational deficiencies were incredibly difficult to overcome. 

Huo Yuhao's Spirit Eyes martial soul had immense potential, but its current quality was too low. 

Born with half a level of innate soul power, and reaching only one ring at eleven years old, his starting point was far inferior to Su Yu's. 

Back when Su Yu had first enrolled, he was already at the same level Huo Yuhao was now. 

---

"A second awakening for a body martial soul?" 

After Su Yu's departure, Jing Hongchen sat alone in his office, pondering. 

Sun-Moon Hall and the Body Sect were adversaries in theory, similar to Shrek Academy's relationship with the Body Sect. 

However, the Body Sect's reclusive nature made it largely unknown to the public. 

Sun-Moon Hall had conducted substantial research on body martial souls, but it was far less advanced than the Body Sect's knowledge. 

Especially when it came to the Body Sect's secret techniques—Sun-Moon Hall was completely in the dark. 

Jing Hongchen narrowed his eyes to slits. 

The Body Sect, the Heavenly Soul Empire's royal family... 

He quickly analyzed the advantages at his disposal. 

Sun-Moon Hall's greatest strength lay in soul tools, something the Body Sect distinctly lacked. 

Even if most Body Sect disciples resisted using soul tools, their leaders would undoubtedly consider adopting them. 

At the very least, the Heavenly Soul Empire's royal family would eagerly seek talent in this field. 

"Should I plant an undercover agent?" 

Jing Hongchen temporarily shelved this idea. 

"If I remember correctly, Sun-Moon Hall is already holding someone important." 

Before the Soul Master Tournament, Kong Deming had captured someone—Xu Sanshi. 

After the tournament, Xu Sanshi was transported back and imprisoned in Sun-Moon Hall's dungeon. 

At this moment, Jing Hongchen recalled the young master of the Xu Clan's Black Tortoise Sect. 

"The Black Tortoise Sect's martial soul seems to have a secret technique for secondary awakenings. Perhaps it's worth studying." 

---

Leaving Jing Hongchen's office, Su Yu headed toward Xuan Ziwen's research lab. 

"Senior Brother." 

Xuan Ziwen, who was in the middle of designing the Star Staff soul tool, paused his work on the core array and turned to look. 

"Xiao Yu, you're here?" 

The Star Staff, an auxiliary soul tool, was once considered one of Xuan Ziwen's failed projects. 

However, after learning about rune methods and fusion-type soul tool technology, he revived this abandoned project. 

The results were impressive. 

The auxiliary effects surpassed the limits of Level 5 tools, and Xuan Ziwen successfully created a Level 6 Star Staff. 

Currently, he was working on a Level 7 Star Staff. 

Despite his achievements, Xuan Ziwen felt disheartened. 

The development of battle armor had reached the advanced stage, which was his limit. 

In fact, the current advanced battle armor technology was primarily led by Jing Hongchen and Kong Deming. Xuan Ziwen's role was limited to expanding the technical framework within the existing advanced designs. 

As an eighth-level Soul Engineer, he was struggling to keep up with advanced battle armor production. 

Even Jing Hongchen, a ninth-level Soul Engineer, found himself out of depth with the complexities of super battle armor. He had chosen to focus on crafting his own advanced battle armor first, planning to revisit super battle armor after improving his soul engineering skills under its enhancement. 

Similarly, Xuan Ziwen hoped to use the Star Staff alongside his advanced battle armor to assist in breaking through to the ninth level of soul engineering. 

However, the production of advanced battle armor was exceedingly difficult. 

Spirit-forged metals posed particular challenges. 

On one hand, they could be simple to work with; on the other, they could be extraordinarily demanding. 

The process placed immense requirements on a soul engineer's spiritual power. 

Following Su Yu's research, it became clear that the best way to upgrade future battle armor was to carve core arrays directly into the spirit metal itself. 

Intermediate battle armor could already be crafted from spirit metals, as demonstrated by Su Yu's armor, which was just barely adequate for use. 

But advanced battle armor, while also made from spirit metals, demanded even greater refinement and spiritual qualities from the metal. 

This was because the complex core arrays required highly responsive spirit metals. 

Thus, the forging of spirit metals became an even more challenging process. 

Of course, much of the process involved nurturing the spiritual essence within the metal itself. 

The Spirit Refinement Array functioned continuously, using the soul master's own soul power and spiritual power to nurture the metal. While this naturally enhanced its spiritual properties, the process was painstakingly slow and required significant time to complete. 

Xuan Ziwen's spiritual power met the necessary standard, and he had already contracted all the spirit metals required for crafting his advanced battle armor. 

However, the time required for nurturing the metal's spirituality was far too long. During this interval, Xuan Ziwen focused on developing the Star Staff to improve his chances of successfully crafting ninth-level soul tools in the future. 

Of course, advanced battle armor could also rely on inscribing physical core arrays onto spirit metals without utilizing spiritual patterns. 

But this approach imposed a ceiling on the battle armor's potential, making future upgrades nearly impossible. 

The nurturing of spiritual essence relied on the Spirit Refinement Array. If the surface of the metal was crowded with inscribed arrays, there would be little space left for the Spirit Refinement Array. This not only reduced optimization possibilities but also made any subsequent enhancement of the metal's spirituality exceedingly difficult. 

The optimal method Su Yu and his team established was to engrave the Spirit Refinement Array onto the metal during its forging process, awakening its spiritual essence. 

Only those arrays that supported the nurturing of the metal's spirituality were physically inscribed. 

The core arrays required for battle armor functionality were instead drawn using the awakened spiritual essence. 

---

"Senior Brother, I've got a new project in mind. Are you interested?" 

Initially, Su Yu intended to work on the bone pattern system alone, exploring it step by step. 

But upon reflection, he realized the sheer volume of bone patterns involved and the limited number of spirit bones he had access to for reference. It would be more efficient to collaborate. 

"What's the idea?" 

Xuan Ziwen, ever intrigued by Su Yu's innovative concepts, eagerly asked. 

The rune and battle armor systems already demonstrated Su Yu's ingenuity. 

Su Yu explained his vision for the bone pattern system in detail. 

Upon hearing it, Xuan Ziwen's face lit up with astonishment once again. 

"Brilliant! Who would have thought of that?" 

Indeed, the potential applications of runes were remarkably vast. 

They not only enhanced soul tools as a whole but also reduced operational barriers for soul masters, making them easier to control. 

Additionally, they could be used as a mental power cultivation method. 

Runes also seamlessly integrated into the realm of battle armor, facilitating the fusion of armor and soul master. 

Now, Su Yu proposed yet another groundbreaking idea: engraving runes directly onto the bones of one's body to reinforce their skeletal structure and enhance physical strength. 

"Strengthening the bones first, then the flesh, and finally the internal organs—eventually refining the entire body into a peerless vessel," Xuan Ziwen exclaimed in admiration, genuinely impressed by Su Yu's thought process. 

Su Yu had indeed chosen the right person to discuss this with. 

Even without further prompting, Xuan Ziwen independently expanded the concept to include refining the flesh after the bones. 

"This is too brilliant! I need to try it out as soon as I have time," Xuan Ziwen declared, intending to pause his work on the Star Staff. 

The bone pattern system presented a future just as promising as that of battle armor. 

---

"Teacher, the results of the spiritual tests on the spirit metals are ready," a crisp female voice called from behind Su Yu. 

Su Yu turned around and saw a beautiful young woman with long black hair, her eyes still drowsy as she pushed the door open. 

"Juzi? Just leave the report here," Xuan Ziwen said, looking up and gesturing to her. 

"Oh, by the way, this is Su Yu, my junior brother." 

Juzi's sleepy eyes sharpened, examining Su Yu with curiosity. 

"So, you're the Su Da-ge that Yuhao keeps talking about?" 

She seemed intrigued by how this fifteen-year-old boy could be held in such high regard by Huo Yuhao. 

"Juzi, he's my junior brother. Show some respect," Xuan Ziwen reminded her. 

"Got it, got it," Juzi replied casually, waving her hand. She extended it toward Su Yu. "Hi, I'm Juzi. Yuhao probably mentioned me, right?" 

The corner of Su Yu's mouth twitched slightly. 

He was tempted to respond with a simple "Never heard of you" just to see her reaction. 

"Nice to meet you, Su Yu," he said instead, suppressing the urge to be mischievous. 

"Perfect timing, Xiao Yu. Since you're here, we can review the spiritual attribute test results of the spirit metals together," Xuan Ziwen said. 

Su Yu snapped out of his thoughts and asked curiously, "What exactly are these spiritual tests?" 

He had been wondering about it earlier. 

Xuan Ziwen organized his thoughts before explaining, "All energy can be quantified to some extent. For spirit metals, their spirituality is particularly prominent. I've been conducting extensive research to derive numerical representations of their spiritual intensity." 

As Xuan Ziwen elaborated, Su Yu quickly grasped the concept. 

"The current focus of my research is determining what conditions accelerate the growth of spirituality within spirit metals." 

Spirit metals could be forged without a blood bond, though their spirituality would initially be weaker compared to metals bonded through such a process. 

However, these non-contracted spirit metals were invaluable for experimentation. 

After all, once a metal was bonded, it occupied one of the limited soul master contract slots. Any mistake in its spiritual enhancement or refinement process would result in permanent loss. 

Thus, conducting research with non-contracted spirit metals was both practical and necessary. 

At Xuan Ziwen's invitation, Su Yu examined the test reports on the spirituality of spirit metals. 

"This is the control group, showcasing the changes in spirituality under pure soul power nurturing, pure spiritual power nurturing, and simultaneous nurturing by both," Xuan Ziwen said, pointing to the data. 

"These are comparative tests conducted under different environmental conditions." 

Looking over the neatly presented data, Su Yu quickly identified the key factors influencing spiritual enhancement. 

"Soul power is indispensable, and spiritual power plays a significant role. Under specific extreme conditions, spiritual power can further amplify the nurturing process." 

The findings indicated that nurturing spirit metals required a foundation of soul power. Adding spiritual power on top of that drastically improved efficiency. 

"These are records of the soul masters responsible for nurturing the metals under various extreme conditions," Xuan Ziwen added, pulling out another set of notes. 

"The results show a correlation between the positive stimulation provided by extreme environments and the soul power attributes of the soul masters involved." 

Su Yu couldn't help but admire Xuan Ziwen's meticulous and thorough approach to experimentation. 

"Senior Brother, perhaps the Spirit Refinement Array could incorporate attribute-specific enhancements," Su Yu suggested. 

Xuan Ziwen nodded. "I've considered that possibility as well." 

Su Yu found himself increasingly intrigued by Xuan Ziwen's research. 

The data clearly showed that combining soul power and spiritual power, along with matching the soul master's elemental attribute to an extreme environment, could exponentially accelerate the growth of spirituality. 

The implications were profound. 

"In that case, absorbing the Thunderous Hell Vine as a spirit soul was beneficial in this context," Su Yu mused. 

Without the Thunderous Hell Vine, Su Yu's soul power would have been purely life-attributed. But now, he could generate thunder-attributed soul power and use the Thunderous Hell Vine's abilities to nurture his battle armor under a constant barrage of lightning. 

Moreover, if further research aligned with Su Yu's expectations, the Spirit Refinement Array's optimization would no longer rely solely on stacking arrays within its design. 

Flipping through the report, Su Yu's attention was drawn to the mention of "Huo Yuhao" on the final page. 

"Yuhao's Ultimate Ice seems to surpass the effectiveness of regular ice-attributed soul masters in nurturing spirituality," Xuan Ziwen remarked, intrigued. 

"Could the strength of an attribute also influence nurturing efficiency?" 

He made a note of this observation, planning to include it in future tests. 

---

After reviewing the research report in Xuan Ziwen's lab, Su Yu walked away with several new insights. 

"By the way, Teacher, I heard Yuhao is crafting his preliminary battle armor using spirit metals. Could that cause any issues?" Juzi asked, addressing Xuan Ziwen. 

"Preliminary battle armor with spirit metals?" Xuan Ziwen frowned. 

"If the hall master didn't stop him, then his spiritual power is likely sufficient to support a contract with those spirit metals." 

His frown relaxed as he waved it off. 

"Xiao Yu, I need to make some arrangements. Come find me tomorrow, and we'll discuss the bone pattern system in more detail," he said. 

(End of Chapter)