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For a normal Spirit Master, even if their Martial Soul didn't collapse after exploding a spirit ring, any attempt to absorb a new one would result in violent rejection.
Even if they chose a spirit ring of the same type and avoided intense rejection, a forced fusion usually wouldn't show any visible progress.
However, Su Wen was able to perceive that tiny bit of progress.
Therefore, even if it meant grinding away with time, he could persevere until the origin of this new spirit ring merged into his spirit ring slot.
Yet, this was the Star Dou Great Forest.
Su Wen circulated the spirit power from the two-thousand-year Starfruit Tree spirit ring within his body, along with the spirit power that had flooded his system after the previous Ring Exploding.
He worked hard to facilitate the fusion of these two types of spirit power.
The spirit power from the Ring Exploding carried the characteristics of Su Wen's own spirit power, whereas the spirit power from the new ring did not. Thus, he first refined the spirit power of the new ring before circulating both according to the route he had developed.
Through the fusion of spirit power, he promoted the merging of the residual aura of the original first spirit ring in the slot with the essence of the new spirit ring.
They were of the same species, after all.
An hour later, Su Wen completed the fusion of the new spirit ring slot.
Within the Martial Soul Space, Su Wen's Origin Spirit Power had also been consumed. However, with his current accumulation as a Spirit King, providing energy for the modification of a two-thousand-year spirit ring wasn't a severe drain.
"Ring Replacement successful!"
Su Wen looked at his five spirit rings—three purple and two black—and broke into a smile.
Upon the summoned Heavenly Book, specks of starlight gathered, though these specks were far too thin.
"There should be hope for acquiring the Star attribute as well, but a two-thousand-year spirit ring is still not enough for the current me."
With the first success under his belt, Su Wen continued to search the Star Dou Great Forest for the tracks of Starfruit Trees and Three-Eyed Phantom Foxes.
Following the two-thousand-year Starfruit Tree, Su Wen did not rush to find the ten-thousand-year Three-Eyed Phantom Fox or the nine-thousand-year Starfruit Tree.
Instead, he first found a Three-Eyed Phantom Fox of about five thousand years and completed a ring replacement.
The shattering of a spirit ring's origin does impact the Martial Soul. While the first success proved that Su Wen's method wasn't fundamentally flawed, one of the key points—stabilizing the Martial Soul while exploding the ring origin—hadn't truly tested him yet.
He didn't dare to be too careless.
Therefore, he planned to proceed step by step.
Only after replacing the second ring with a five-thousand-year one did Su Wen head off to find that nine-thousand-year Starfruit Tree.
This time, Su Wen stayed in the Star Dou Great Forest for two and a half months.
His first spirit ring was successfully replaced with that of the nine-thousand-year Starfruit Tree, and his second ring was replaced with a fifteen-thousand-year one.
"Two and a half months, a bountiful harvest."
It wasn't just the success of the ring replacements; through these many practical applications, Su Wen had improved the method of replacement, turning pure replacement into fusion.
"As long as I only explode the spirit ring and not the spirit ring origin, there is hope to merge a new spirit ring of the same type again."
However, while this meant he didn't need to stabilize the Martial Soul origin or the ring origin, it required Su Wen to stabilize himself and his Martial Soul Space.
This was because, without an empty spirit ring slot, bringing a new spirit ring into the Martial Soul Space would create intense rejection.
Su Wen's solution was to explode a portion of the original spirit ring origin, leaving the slot in a semi-vacant state, which reduced the rejection. In fact, exploding part of the new ring's origin could also reduce rejection, but since he wanted the age of the new ring, he naturally wouldn't choose that path.
"From complete replacement to Origin Fusion..."
Since replacement was already successful, Su Wen spent the effort to refine it to the level of Origin Fusion, naturally thinking of the future.
Some soul beasts were truly rare.
The Stone Monsters were fine; although rare, Su Wen knew of a Stone Monster colony in the Sunset Forest.
But the Void Silver Moon Tapir was truly rare; Su Wen wasn't even sure if any higher-aged Void Silver Moon Tapirs were hidden in some corner of the continent.
Actually, even the Stone Monsters weren't enough. Su Wen's goal wasn't simply to have all ten-thousand-year rings.
He had to consider hundred-thousand-year rings as well.
However, hundred-thousand-year Stone Monsters, Starfruit Trees, and Three-Eyed Phantom Foxes were basically impossible to find.
Origin Fusion was merely a stage in the perfection of the Ring Replacement method.
"Ideally, I could find the specific part of the spirit ring origin that plays the decisive role in the ring's age..."
And to find this point, the fastest way wasn't Su Wen's constant Origin Fusion.
Even with his super-perception, Su Wen couldn't find that decisive part simply by comparing the changes in the spirit ring origin.
After all, his goal was just to increase the ring's age; the number of times he experienced this process was limited. It wasn't like his process of fumbling to develop cultivation techniques, where he would perform countless attempts and adjustments to achieve his goal.
"The current goal is to find a soul beast with devouring abilities and study its power."
Devouring other soul beasts to grow one's own cultivation—isn't that just digesting another's cultivation to improve oneself?
Su Wen felt that this way, he should be able to quickly find the most essential part that determined a soul beast's cultivation age.
The origin naturally determined the age, but which specific part of the origin?
If there were devouring-type soul beasts that could swallow all kinds of soul beasts indiscriminately, then if he found the corresponding part in the origin, could Su Wen eliminate the restriction of "same species"?
"Jie jie jie jie jie, I feel like I'm becoming a bit evil..." Su Wen grinned, feeling like he was becoming a bit obsessed; he even gave himself a "Jie jie jie" laugh.
However, without considering God Trials, this seemed to be the only way he could enhance his strength.
"Unless I can find a replaceable energy, like the kind used to upgrade spirit rings in the God Trials, I can only become an object of hatred for soul beasts."
Su Wen mocked himself.
However, he didn't have a psychological burden.
Firstly, this was all for his own cultivation; he wasn't so much of a "Holy Mother" that he would speak up for the rights of soul beasts.
Secondly, he actually had ideas for replaceable energy.
"In the original story, Tang San used the Blue Silver Domain's 'All Rivers Run to the Sea' to aggressively gather the spirit power of the Blue Silver Grass in the Sunset Forest and pour it into Ah Yin, allowing her cultivation to rise rapidly."
Admittedly, Ah Yin had her own hundred-thousand-year foundation, and with enough spirit power, she was pushed back up. But the energy in her origin had, after all, turned into Tang Hao's hundred-thousand-year spirit ring.
Therefore, there must have been a special energy during that process that compensated for that point.
"So, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well actually emits that kind of energy."
"In fact, as long as it is life energy, it can promote the increase of a soul beast's age; I just need to find the more accurate part."
Su Wen shook his head, forcing himself out of this train of thought.
In an obsessed state, it was easy for his thinking to become paranoid.
Leaving the Star Dou Great Forest.
Su Wen's temperament had undergone a massive change.
He was more ethereal, radiating an invisible sense of sinking into deep thought.
(End of Chapter)