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Since the awakening of his martial soul, two and a half full years had passed.
Su Wen didn't want to wait any longer.
"My first soul ring has to maximize the quality of my martial soul."
He already had a plan for the method that could most effectively raise its quality.
"Along with origin soul power, if I want to push my martial soul's quality as far as possible, then beyond the ring's own properties, the more soul power contained inside the ring, the better for me." The richer a ring was in soul power, the more power Su Wen could channel to elevate his martial soul's grade. "Only by forcing a full metamorphosis can I avoid being stuck at the bottlenecks around rank thirty or forty."
Su Wen was painfully clear about his reality: his martial soul was ordinary—an ancestral book. The fact it had any innate soul power at all was already a surprise; expecting it to carry a Soul Master all the way to Soul Elder was basically impossible.
"I need two things at once: to keep cultivating without hitting an upper limit imposed by the martial soul's quality, and to do it as fast as possible."
As for immortal herbs—
He would inevitably try to obtain them, but he wouldn't daydream before he did. And only by pushing each current-stage metamorphosis to its limit would he be able to make the most of an immortal herb once he had it.
He made his way to the Spirit Hall and soon found Su Yuntao.
"It's you? You've broken through to rank ten?" Su Yuntao remembered him.
Two and a half years to go from level five to level ten was, honestly, already quite fast—especially for a book martial soul that was so ordinary.
In truth, Su Wen had reached rank ten in a bit over a year; that was decidedly abnormal.
Su Wen guessed that being a transmigrant had left him with innately strong spiritual power, which compensated somewhat for his cultivation speed. Perhaps that was also why an ordinary book martial soul could even have innate soul power.
The Grandmaster and the dean, meanwhile, assumed the book had mutated in terms of toughness, so they hadn't questioned how he'd reached rank ten so quickly.
"You want a Hunting Forest permit?" Su Yuntao frowned, puzzled. "Can't your academy help you obtain a soul ring?"
"I want my first ring to be a hundred-year ring."
Su Yuntao nodded in sudden understanding.
That would be… unlikely.
At a primary academy, the dean was a Soul Sect at best; the other teachers weren't even Soul Elders.
For a Great Soul Master to hunt a hundred-year soul beast was very dangerous.
A Soul Elder could relatively safely kill such a beast, but keeping it controlled long enough for a student to deliver the finishing blow? Much harder.
Especially inside the Hunting Forest.
With limited knowledge of soul beasts, one could misjudge age, misread strength, and run into myriad crises.
Thus, aside from getting their own rings, few Soul Masters went out to hunt beasts—least of all those who chose to teach at primary academies.
When hunting for students, safety came first.
"I can apply for a permit," Su Yuntao said, "but a hundred-year soul beast isn't easy to kill. Even I can't guarantee I'd take one down." He tried to dissuade Su Wen.
Permits were issued by the Spirit Hall. On paper they required sponsorship from three nobles, but internal Spirit Hall personnel could stand in for nobles.
As a deacon, Su Yuntao had the standing to sponsor him; with two colleagues, getting a permit wouldn't be hard.
"Don't worry. I've already found a team. They'll help me hunt," Su Wen said.
A hunting team? Su Yuntao's brows knit. Such teams ranged from dependable to predatory. If Su Wen met a conscientious group, fine; if not, they might fob him off with any random hundred-year beast—or worse, take the money and vanish, even silence him.
"You could join the Spirit Hall," Su Yuntao offered. "We have mechanisms to help Soul Masters at bottlenecks obtain rings. With your talent, after you join, it's possible to qualify for a hundred-year first ring. Later rings would depend on the contributions you accumulate."
"Even if your talent doesn't meet the threshold for the Spirit Hall's central academy, our Nuoding City sub-hall can still teach you what you'd learn at a Soul Master academy, and we can provide a cultivation environment."
He thought a moment, then continued to persuade him.
Hunting teams were unreliable. Among the local crews around Nuoding City, there wasn't a single one he truly trusted.
Su Wen had been about to refuse, when a detail in Su Yuntao's words caught him.
Stay and cultivate at the Nuoding City sub-hall?
Didn't joining the Spirit Hall mean going to Spirit City's core academy?
"Of course not," Su Yuntao said. "Only the highly gifted get sent to Spirit City. You may have the innate soul power, but your martial soul doesn't meet the standard. Still, with your talent, staying at our Nuoding sub-hall would get you more resources."
So that was it.
Su Wen nodded and asked for more specifics.
Some Spirit Hall-affiliated Soul Masters studied at external academies while holding Spirit Hall identity—much like clan or sect-affiliated students at the academies.
In that case… joining was worth considering.
He didn't regret not coming earlier to ask.
He'd only join if it brought real benefits—without having to go to Spirit City and eat humble pie.
If he'd joined earlier, he might have studied better over these two and a half years, but his speed would have been exposed. His martial soul's shortcomings would have also been obvious—making it hard to claim he'd failed the Spirit City academy's standards.
As for any background investigation—
The "wasted" year-plus already dragged down his evaluation.
He had squandered time during the golden training phase.
Even if soul power had still been accumulating and would surface after ring acquisition, not feeling that steady day-to-day rise would cast doubt on the quality of his cultivation.
In short, even if they investigated him thoroughly, the Spirit Hall's assessment wouldn't merit a slot at the Spirit City headquarters.
As for future performance—
If he secured a hundred-year first ring and did well thereafter, opportunities might open up again.
Still, if he chose to steer around it, he could avoid being sent to Spirit City at all.
"I'll join the Spirit Hall," Su Wen decided, changing course.
Su Yuntao smiled.
"Don't worry—you won't regret it."
"After your awakening, I checked," he added. "A functional book martial soul does have uses. Our Spirit Hall has talent in that area."
"Unlike combat-oriented training, functional Soul Masters are cultivated across sub-halls. For example, you could serve as a librarian at the Nuoding sub-hall. Once your seniority builds, you can move to larger sub-halls, even the main hall or the Sacred Hall, to take corresponding posts."
(End of Chapter)