After returning home, Zhou Qing did something unprecedented—he didn't tidy up his books. Instead, he began cultivating his martial soul: the blood circulation system, using the accompanying technique it brought—Innate Meridian Map.
The goal was simple: to circulate and refine the internal energy produced by cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Technique and the innate soul power from his martial soul awakening. This was to be achieved through a complete cycle across the Three Gates and Nine Orifices as the main route, with the rest of the meridians as support.
This Innate Meridian Map simultaneously cultivated the Three Treasures of Essence, Qi, and Spirit. Soul power flowed through the upper, middle, and lower dantian, passed through Weilü, Jiaji, and Yuzhen gates, and connected the Yin, Yang, and Central Orifices via the Ren and Du Meridians. It then extended into the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, linking up with the Twelve Main Meridians, eventually forming the configuration of the Nine Palaces and Eight Trigrams.
Since Zhou Qing's martial soul was integrated with his circulatory system, his heartbeat, vascular contractions, and blood flow could actively assist in cultivating this technique. With each beat of his heart, Zhou Qing felt as if every cell in his body resonated and trembled in harmony, continuously refining his body and enhancing his physique.
This would allow him to endure higher age soul rings in the future.
From the original story, when the protagonist group trained on Seagod Island, Ning Rongrong was the first to receive a reward allowing her to increase her soul ring's age. At that time, it was stated that: the higher the age of a soul ring, the less soul power it consumes to activate a soul skill.
In other words, although the soul skill itself doesn't change, higher age soul rings make activating that skill more efficient.
It could mean that the internal pattern or structure of a soul ring becomes more efficient at channeling soul power the older it is.
If we were to use a metaphor: a soul ring is like an electric lamp, the soul skill is the light it emits, and soul power is the electricity. Then a high-age soul ring is like a modern LED bulb, while a low-age soul ring is like an old tungsten filament bulb—both can emit light, but one is far more efficient.
This is likely one major reason why soul masters pursue higher age soul rings.
Another reason could be that the energy stored in a higher-age soul ring contributes more to raising a soul master's level.
And of course, higher-age soul rings generally produce more powerful soul skills.
"Speaking of soul power levels… That's something I find rather peculiar," Zhou Qing muttered to himself. "It's a vague, almost metaphysical sense, but ever since my martial soul awakened, this sense has grown clearer. I imagine that once I obtain my first soul ring, my exact level of soul power will become increasingly apparent."
Zhou Qing suspected this odd phenomenon—almost like game mechanics—might be related to the Divine Realm. After all, while Douluo Continent is a fantasy world, the clear level system seems rather artificial.
In the original story, after Tang San obtained his first soul ring, he knew he had broken past level 11 but still needed to be tested at the Spirit Hall using a crystal ball to determine the exact level. However, after reaching levels 20 or 30, soul masters could sense each level-up with great precision—as if their level was self-evident.
The other Shrek Seven Devils had the same experience.
So... has Douluo Continent already established some internal system of perceiving soul power levels?
Impossible!
The soul master world on this continent hasn't even completed a proper cultivation framework! Their understanding of the human body is laughably primitive!
It's a truly strange phenomenon.
You could argue Tang San had reincarnated from another world and thus had a unique ability to sense his cultivation level. But what about the others?
Dai Mubai, Zhu Zhuqing, and Ning Rongrong were from royal families or top clans it's plausible they had special training methods.
But Oscar and Ma Hongjun were just commoners.
Their teachers had completely different martial souls. The soul power they cultivated was of a different nature. There's no way they were all using the same method to measure their level!
Therefore, Zhou Qing concluded: it must be a rule of this world itself.
"Forget it. That's far beyond me right now. Besides, this rule isn't necessarily a flaw. It actually helps people clearly gauge their cultivation progress," Zhou Qing decided to set this mystery aside for now. He would revisit the topic once he'd learned more about martial souls and soul beasts.
For now, the most important thing was choosing his first soul ring.
His martial soul was the blood circulation system.
So even before considering what soul skill he would get, the chosen soul beast's abilities had to boost or enhance blood vitality and life force.
The next requirement came from his Innate Meridian Map technique.
"Iron Ox Plowing Earth Brings Fortune."
This was the first line of the cultivation manual, which depicted an old farmer wielding a whip, driving an iron ox to till the land with a cauldron furnace beneath his feet.
Plowing the earth symbolized mobilizing kidney energy, and lighting the cauldron's fire referred to cultivating the lower dantian.
For most, this would require arduous effort.
But Zhou Qing was different. With a martial soul aiding him and fully connected meridians, his path of cultivation was clear. All he needed was time and consistent effort.
But why an iron ox for plowing?
Because iron oxen are tough and hard to control, suggesting that this process would be difficult and would require patience and spiritual insight. But once the essence-refining into qi stage was complete, the cauldron would ignite, and four Yin-Yang Taiji symbols would light up at the lower dantian, marking the emergence of primordial qi.
In Daoist terms, this was referred to as "lead and mercury," with "lead" representing this primordial qi, not the literal metal.
Zhou Qing speculated these four symbols represented the four primordial energies of creation: Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire.
"So my first soul ring should come from a soul beast with vigorous blood vitality, and more importantly earth-based attributes like soil or stone."
Zhou Qing had confirmed the elemental attribute he needed for his first soul ring: Earth.
Earth is the mother of all things, and thus should come first.
He scoured all his soul beast-related books and filtered out those that met his conditions. After cross-referencing, he narrowed the list to three most suitable soul beasts:
1. Earthscale Lizard
Possessing incredible vitality, it could regrow lost limbs or tails over time. Its body was covered in rock-like scales, and it had the ability to burrow into the ground.
2. Titan Giant Ape
Zhou Qing immediately crossed this one off the list. Although its blood vitality and control over earth were exceptional, this apex soul beast was way beyond his current ability to handle. Even with just a hundred years of cultivation, it could rival regular ten-thousand-year soul beasts. Attempting to make it his first soul ring would be suicide. The only known Titan Giant Ape lived in Star Dou Forest, and while there might be variants in the Extreme North, their elemental affinities were likely very different.
3. Moochun Ox
A widely distributed species found in plains and forests, so long as the environment wasn't too harsh. Ox-type soul beasts were known for their great strength and strong life force. Moochun Ox was one of the few among them to also possess an earth attribute.
It got its name from its behavior during spring during mating season, it would moo incessantly. But even after the season ended, it would continue to moo as if singing about the arrival of spring. The soul master who first recorded this behavior named it the "Moochun Ox" imbuing the name with a touch of poetic charm.
Ps: read advance in patreon.com/XenTronix