From this, Zhou Qing partially overturned some of his earlier assumptions from the time at Saint Soul Village and came to a new hypothesis: the role of soul rings for soul masters is primarily to grant a soul skill and to help them break through their current realm.
As long as the attributes of the hunted soul beast match the attribute of the martial soul, the martial soul can better connect with the soul ring, thus maximizing the efficiency and effect of the soul skill.
Moreover, when a soul beast with the same attribute as the martial soul is absorbed by the soul master, there is a greater probability that the martial soul will acquire the soul beast's most fundamental skill.
For example, the Mandala Snake's most fundamental skill should be poison, but in the original story, after the Blue Silver Grass absorbed that soul ring, the skill gained was only entanglement; the poison effect was greatly weakened and only served as a secondary effect when using the soul skill.
In Zhou Qing's view, obtaining a soul ring for the martial soul is like building with blocks—if the concave and convex parts fit together perfectly, the martial soul can naturally inherit the soul beast's most fundamental skills and power; if they don't fit well, the process of absorbing the soul ring will require time to grind down the "concave" and "convex" parts so that they can fit together.
The latter situation might cause the soul master to suffer great pain or even die during absorption.
After all, this process isn't just inheriting the soul beast's skill—it involves forcibly refining the skill to make it fit the martial soul's structure on the basis of the soul beast's original skill!
In fact, if it weren't for Tang San's Xuantian Gong, he would have died when absorbing his first soul ring due to incompatibility between the soul ring and his martial soul. As for his later ability to continually absorb soul rings from different animal types far beyond his own level, that was entirely because the Ice Fire Two-Aspect Eyes gave him a tremendous physical improvement and opened the meridians in his body, enabling Tang San to perform feats of great strength—
No matter what kind of soul beast it was, as long as the soul ring's age was high enough, he accepted them without hesitation, using the soul beast's cultivation age and the overwhelming power of the acquired soul skills to compensate for the mismatch with the Blue Silver Emperor attribute.
But in reality, if someone had the same martial soul as Tang San and soul rings of the same age, but all from the plant attribute, their power would definitely surpass Tang San's.
It's just that others don't have the same fortune as Tang San...
From the original story's perspective, Tang San's cultivation of his martial soul was mostly for breaking through with Xuantian Gong; in combat, he mostly used various Tang Sect martial arts and hidden weapons.
Besides the early-stage soul skills like entanglement, parasitism, and web binding, which were used more frequently, the skill Tang San would use the most in the future was the fifth soul skill awakened from the Blue Silver Emperor: Blue Silver Overlord Spear.
That's because this fifth soul ring is Tang San's core soul ring, whose age can increase with his soul power level, and the skill's power can grow stronger and stronger—
Hmm?
[Soul ring age increases? Soul skill power enhancement?]
This ability was also present in the first soul ring Tianmeng Ice Silkworm gave to Romantina, with a similar effect.
However!
The age of Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's wisdom soul ring was already fixed at one million years, and the power increase of its skill was just gradually unlocked as Romantina's strength improved.
Tang San's Blue Silver Overlord Spear was different. It came from the awakening of the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, a core martial soul skill formed by the martial soul itself. It could continuously grow with Tang San, with a growth potential absolutely beyond one million years.
From this angle, if the soul ring—or the skill brought by the soul ring—could completely become part of the martial soul, then could the soul skill's power and the soul ring's age evolve together with the increase in the soul master's soul power and the growth of the martial soul?
"This is just too—"
Tang San was speechless after hearing Zhou Qing's thoughts on increasing the soul ring's age.
Back at Saint Soul Village, Zhou Qing already had unique insights into cultivation methods and skills, but now he even thought of allowing soul rings and soul skills to improve with practice—just like controlling cranes and capturing dragons, Xuan Yu Hand, Ghost Shadow Illusion, and other techniques that increase proficiency with training.
No!
This wasn't even training. It meant soul rings and soul skills would grow stronger alongside the soul master's increasing soul power and the martial soul's growth.
Tang San also gained a clearer concept of martial soul cultivation:
Except for cases involving congenital mutations, rare materials, special soul beast soul rings, or other factors that can change the martial soul, the potential of a martial soul is fixed at the moment of awakening.
Because the "martial arts" that come with the martial soul do not change, only the soul master's mental strength improves through cultivation, allowing them to sense more soul power circulation paths.
Just like a saying in Saint Soul Village: "Dragons beget dragons, phoenixes beget phoenixes, and mice are born to dig holes."
All soul masters' martial souls can be likened to the seed of a sapling—
The awakening of the martial soul is like a seed sprouting.
Innate soul power determines the growth potential of this tree, but during growth, some saplings occasionally encounter uncertain situations that allow them to surpass their originally fixed potential and break through...
Raising soul power strengthens the soul master's own power while also watering and fertilizing the sapling, encouraging it to grow robustly.
Finally, the soul ring's role for the martial soul is like pruning the sapling, shaping it into the form the soul master desires.
"That's quite a fitting analogy."
Zhou Qing thought to himself: Communicating with smart people is easy.
"But the relationship between the final soul ring and the martial soul, if compared to pruning, isn't quite right."
"Then what would you compare it to?" Tang San asked curiously.
"Uncle Wang at Saint Soul Village has an acre of land planted with peach trees. I once heard Grandpa Jack say that the peaches those trees bore were small, sour, and covered with fuzz—only good for making wine... But we saw those same trees in summer, full of large, plump peaches, and Uncle Wang didn't mind if we picked them, as long as we didn't bring sacks... After the blacksmith's workshop was built, Uncle Wang even sent you peaches—big and red ones..."
As Zhou Qing reminisced, Tang San showed a hint of nostalgia and admired the simplicity of Saint Soul Village residents but didn't understand why Zhou Qing mentioned Uncle Wang.
"Do you know why the peaches we saw were so big and plump?"
"Because Uncle Wang used better fertilizer and went out every day to catch bugs and water the trees," Tang San guessed.
"No. Because he bought branches from peach trees of another village specialized in growing peaches."
Zhou Qing gave the answer: "Peach trees have varieties—some produce big peaches, some have yellow flesh, some are juicy. Uncle Wang grafted the branches bought from that other village onto his own peach trees. So the peaches that grew on his trees were no longer small and hard like walnuts, but fist-sized, with white tender flesh full of juice."
At this, Tang San suddenly understood.
In his previous life, villagers outside the Tang Sect village also used similar methods to cultivate better fruits and vegetables.
Isn't this analogous to martial souls gaining soul rings to acquire soul skills?
Zhou Qing made a simple analogy: