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Ten thousand years ago, there were rumors of the "Ten Great Ferocious Beasts" circulating across the continent.
However, this didn't mean there were only ten ferocious beasts on the continent. Rather, it referred to the ten strongest ferocious beasts that were active during that era and had not yet been hunted down.
Moreover, this likely only accounted for the three major habitats—the Star Dou Great Forest, the Demon-Evil Forest, and the Extreme North—where the majority of soul beasts resided. The selection was based on the most powerful ferocious beasts among those with lifespans exceeding ten thousand years.
In reality, there were quite a few ferocious beasts scattered across the continent.
However, most of them were in deep slumber, avoiding unnecessary cultivation. If they accidentally increased their cultivation by tens of thousands of years within just ten thousand years, it would be a great loss.
The lifespan of soul beasts wasn't directly proportional to their cultivation. Some soul beasts could increase their cultivation by over a hundred years in just a few years, and in extreme cases, even by a thousand years.
But once a soul beast embarked on the path of becoming a ferocious beast, none of them would willingly increase their cultivation without reason.
During the development of the Federation, the exploitation of the continent had reached its peak. Even the Star Dou Great Forest, once the largest habitat for soul beasts, had been reduced to a small patch of untouched land. As for other regions, there was almost no room left for soul beasts to survive.
Nowadays, if one wanted to see a soul beast, they'd likely have to visit a zoo—and even then, only large or super-large zoological gardens would have the chance to house soul beasts with high cultivation.
Even so, these rare high-cultivation soul beasts would occasionally be "raised to death" in batches.
With nearly all soul beast resources thoroughly mined, even those sleeping ferocious beasts couldn't escape. One by one, they were turned into spirit souls.
The possibility that the top nine floors of the Spirit Pagoda housed ferocious beast spirit souls was very real.
Xu Yuan accepted the permit and carefully stored it away.
Although he couldn't obtain a ferocious beast spirit soul just yet, he still aimed to compete for a ten-thousand-year spirit soul.
"By the way, starting from the thirty-seventh floor of the Spirit Pagoda, the spirit souls are classified as being above ten thousand years. Does that refer to exactly ten thousand years, or several tens of thousands of years?"
If the thirty-seventh floor started with ten-thousand-year spirit souls, then the pagoda would effectively have sixty-four floors filled with ten-thousand-year spirit souls!
Tsk...
Well, don't dismiss the idea just yet.
Considering the soul ring configurations of the powerful soul masters Xu Yuan knew on the continent...
Without a certain reserve of ten-thousand-year spirit souls, it would indeed be impossible to have so many red soul rings.
Back in the days of the continent ten thousand years ago, there were already plenty of ten-thousand-year soul rings. In this era of spirit souls, a single ten-thousand-year spirit soul could provide four or five red soul rings. Calculating this, it made sense that there were more soul masters with red soul rings.
Moreover, the technology for recycling spirit souls was nearly complete. Xu Yuan remembered that before long, this technology would be made available to all soul masters. After a soul master's death, their spirit soul could be extracted and reused.
The difference between ten-thousand-year spirit souls and ordinary ones was vast. It was likely that the technology to recycle ten-thousand-year spirit souls had been cracked long ago.
Furthermore, such technology wasn't exclusive to the Spirit Pagoda. Similar to the foundational technology of the Spirit Ascension Platform, other major powers had developed their own variations. It was possible that each faction had its own version of the technology for recycling ten-thousand-year spirit souls.
Putting aside his various thoughts, Xu Yuan refocused. Xu Shengqun was already urging him to return to Shrek Academy.
"Uncle, I'm leaving."
"Don't rush to ascend the tower for thousand-year spirit souls. Although I haven't asked about your spiritual power level, I can sense that it's already quite strong. Staying at the 40th rank for a while gives you a good chance to break through to the Lingyuan Realm in a short time. Trust me, a ten-thousand-year spirit soul will greatly benefit you."
Xu Yuan felt helpless.
Staying at the same rank?
Impossible.
The advantage of having three martial souls meant that if he needed to stay at the same rank to optimize soul ring pairings, then what was the point of having three martial souls in the first place?
Currently, Xu Yuan's martial soul situation was as follows: his brain-type martial soul was normal and his primary focus. Next was his Tianyuan Brush martial soul, followed by the incomplete separation of the Tianyuan Five-Element Spear bloodline martial soul.
His brain-type martial soul had three soul rings, all provided by Yao Yao.
The Tianyuan Brush martial soul only had the first soul ring, provided by the Five-Element Spear Spirit. Once the two forms were fully separated, the spirit soul would sever ties with the Tianyuan Brush, though the soul ring would remain. However, its effects would be greatly diminished. Therefore, Xu Yuan needed to find a replacement in advance. He had already prepared heavenly treasures corresponding to the five elements to assist in guiding the transition to a new spirit soul.
The Tianyuan Five-Element Spear bloodline martial soul currently had three soul rings.
Yes, three soul rings.
After fusing the Dark Golden Terror Claw, Xu Yuan's Five-Element Spear Spirit had added a third soul ring to the Tianyuan Five-Element Spear.
With three martial souls, if adding soul rings required staying at the same rank to achieve optimal pairing, then these three martial souls might as well be abandoned!
For a genius like Xu Yuan, having three purple soul rings followed by a black fourth ring seemed to be the correct optimal configuration.
Of course, not staying at the same rank didn't mean Xu Yuan was giving up on selecting a ten-thousand-year spirit soul for his next advancement.
Xu Yuan's current soul power was at Level 32, eight levels away from Level 40.
Even if he advanced four levels per year, it would still take two years.
And within these two years, Xu Yuan still had the opportunity to break through to the Lingyuan Realm in terms of spiritual power.
His current spiritual power level was an impressive 2,400 points, nearly halfway to the 5,000 points required for the Lingyuan Realm. Yet, it had only been four years since he awakened his martial soul.
Looking at it another way, two and a half years ago, his spiritual power had just broken through 500 points. Now, it had reached 2,400. Increasing it by another 2,500 points within the next two years didn't seem impossible.
Of course, the main reason was that starting at the age of ten, his body entered its fastest developmental stage. As his body matured, the nourishment it provided to his spiritual power became increasingly stable. For Xu Yuan, this meant that the physical constraints on his spiritual power growth would gradually diminish until they were almost nonexistent.
In fact, over the past two and a half years, Xu Yuan hadn't felt any restrictions at all.
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Shrek Academy
"My uncle's intentions are clear. He may not be able to look after me for a long time. For now, I'll stay in the academy."
Xu Yuan wasn't foolish. He could sense some hints from Xu Shengqun's brief words.
"Hey! Senior Yuyang!"
Xu Yuan spotted a familiar face—Senior Yuyang, whom he had previously seen slacking off at the Mecha Association.
"It's Xu Yuan! Haven't seen you around lately, kid. What's up?"
"I had to leave the academy for a bit. Senior, have you graduated?" Xu Yuan observed Yuyang's demeanor and noticed a significant change.
Previously, he had been slacking off and living aimlessly, but now he appeared both melancholic and determined.
"Sigh, I had no choice but to graduate. If I didn't, I'd still be kicked out without even getting my diploma." Yuyang sighed.
"Thankfully, I finished making the final gauntlet two months ago."
Xu Yuan's lips twitched.
He didn't believe for a second that Yuyang had only completed the final gauntlet two months ago.
"I couldn't find you earlier, but since we've run into each other now, come with me." Yuyang didn't dwell on the topic of graduation and instead pulled Xu Yuan toward the direction of the Mecha Association.
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