One week later, early morning, inside his bedroom, Muyang ended his deductions and opened his eyes.
"At last, I've perfected the secret art of condensing soul rings on one's own!"
Contemplating the perfected secret art, the corners of Muyang's mouth could not help but curl into a smile.
Ever since he deduced the forging methods of soul-forged metals and the crafting of three-word battle armor, Muyang had not halted his steps of deduction. Whenever he had spare time, he would activate his innate deduction ability to derive new secret arts.
There is one thing beyond doubt: the strength of one's soul ring and soul bone configuration is a key factor influencing a soul master's power.
Therefore, deducing secret methods to enhance the age of soul rings and soul bones became especially important.
But aside from these two types of secret methods, in Muyang's expectations, there was another one equally important.
It was none other than the special secret art of condensing soul rings by oneself.
Soul beasts are indeed a renewable resource, but their rate of renewal is extremely slow.
Due to the fact that the number of soul beasts vastly outstrips the number of soul masters, the continent has never lacked low-aged soul rings. Yet high-aged soul rings remain comparatively rare—and the higher the age, the rarer they become, especially the hundred-thousand-year soul rings most suited as the ninth soul ring of a Titled Douluo.
Though a soul beast's cultivation age does not equal its actual life span—for example, a soul beast cultivated to a hundred thousand years does not mean it has lived one hundred thousand years, but rather that its cultivation has reached that level—
Even so, for a soul beast of extraordinary talent to grow into a hundred-thousand-year soul beast requires at least tens of thousands, if not several tens of thousands, of years of cultivation.
On the other hand, a soul master with equally outstanding talent, from awakening their martial soul to cultivating up to level 90 as a quasi-Titled Douluo, may need only a few decades.
Coupled this with the fact that hundred-thousand-year soul beasts are immensely powerful and difficult to hunt, it results in the majority of Titled Douluo on the continent not possessing a hundred-thousand-year soul ring.
But from now on, if Muyang were to spread this newly deduced and perfected Condensed Ring Method, the scarcity of hundred-thousand-year soul rings would be rewritten.
Because the Condensed Ring Method enables soul masters who require an additional soul ring for advancement to no longer need to hunt soul beasts, but instead condense their own soul ring just like a soul beast in human form that has not yet reached maturity.
Moreover, the soul rings condensed through the Condensed Ring Method would, like god-bestowed soul rings or life-bound soul rings, have their age reach the maximum limit one's body can withstand.
In theory, all level-90 quasi-Titled Douluo could condense their own hundred-thousand-year ninth soul ring using the Condensed Ring Method.
In fact, for a soul master like Muyang, whose physical endurance was extremely high, the limit of the Condensed Ring Method was by no means a hundred-thousand-year soul ring.
Furthermore, based on feedback from his deduction ability, although no matter how strong one's tolerance, one could not condense a million-year soul ring with this method, the maximum age of a self-condensed soul ring could still reach as high as 999,999 years!
It could be said that the Condensed Ring Method was a special secret art applicable to all soul masters, with a very low entry threshold but an extremely high upper limit.
This was especially true for twin martial soul soul masters, who faced an enormous shortage of high-aged soul rings.
Compared to ordinary soul rings, the self-condensed rings produced by the Condensed Ring Method, though slightly inferior in soul power increase and physical enhancement compared to those from soul beasts of powerful bloodlines—like the Darkgolden Dreadclaw Bear, pureblood dragon-type soul beasts, or the Evil Demon Tiger, were at least above average in strength.
Additionally, under normal circumstances, when a soul master gains a soul ring, their martial soul is strengthened to some degree.
For instance, Tang San's Blue Silver Grass martial soul, after obtaining the Mandala Snake's soul ring, gained increased toughness while also inheriting a measure of the Mandala Snake's poison.
But the soul rings condensed through the Condensed Ring Method were different: they only provided comprehensive strengthening of the martial soul, focusing on the martial soul's strongest aspects, without introducing attributes or features that did not originally exist.
Judging from this alone, in Muyang's eyes, even if these rings could not compare to soul rings from the most powerful bloodline soul beasts, they were definitely superior to ordinary rings.
Of course, the Condensed Ring Method was not without flaws.
A hundred-thousand-year soul beast in human form that had not yet matured could condense its own soul ring because it retained the immense foundation of once being a hundred-thousand-year soul beast.
Rather than saying human-formed soul beasts could self-condense rings, it was more accurate to say they were reclaiming their original foundation. In contrast, soul masters who grasped the Condensed Ring Method had no such foundation to rely upon.
Thus, by using their martial soul as the medium and absorbing the surrounding world's energy to condense rings, the rings created with the Condensed Ring Method had one defect: except for the special seventh ring, they could not directly form soul skills.
This was not hard to understand. After all, the Condensed Ring Method allowed soul rings whose age matched the soul master's maximum tolerance and were perfectly compatible with their martial soul, with an extraordinarily high upper limit. If such rings also granted soul skills directly, wouldn't they be the same as god-bestowed soul rings?
After all, the Condensed Ring Method was only a secret art deduced by Muyang, a soul master not yet a god, through his innate ability. In terms of level, it was naturally not on par with god-bestowed rings.
What's more, their spread was simply incomparable.
The Sea God Poseidon was wealthy and generous, but even he could not grant god-bestowed soul rings to all his followers. He could only choose the most gifted few, and even then only one or two rings at most.
But the Condensed Ring Method was applicable to all soul masters.
In terms of accessibility alone, the Condensed Ring Method utterly eclipsed god-bestowed rings, so it was natural that it came with flaws.
The fact that these rings did not carry inherent soul skills was indeed a major defect.
After all, for the vast majority of soul masters, soul skills made up a very large proportion of their combat strength. If they were restricted from using soul skills, they might often lose even to a soul master one rank lower who could use skills normally.
So—was there a way to make up for this flaw?
Naturally, there was! The defect of the Condensed Ring Method was that self-condensed rings could not directly carry soul skills.
But language and script are profound tools of wisdom. If it cannot be carried directly, then it can be carried indirectly.
If this problem were left to other soul masters, they might rack their brains and still find no solution. But for Muyang, this was hardly difficult. With his deduction ability, the answer was already at hand.
The process was not complicated either. Although self-condensed soul rings could not directly carry soul skills, when condensing the ring, one could "engrave" their own self-created soul skills into it, transforming them into soul ring skills.
For additional chapters
Versatile mage {40 chapters}
Douluo Dalu:This Soul Master is to Weird {30 Chapters}
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