Chapter 11: The First Spirit Ring
The next day, Chrysanthemum Douluo escorted the now-awake Grandmaster and Tang San out, then formally began helping Xia Tianling search for a suitable spirit beast.
"Little Tianling, have you decided which spirit you'll attach spirit rings to first, and what path you plan to take in the future?" As an old hand who had followed Bibi Dong for so long, he knew that twin spirits required choosing one as the primary spirit first.
"Grandpa Chrysanthemum, I plan to make the Two-Piece Set my primary spirit and follow the Power Attack path." During his three months of cultivation, Xia Tianling had already set his development route. The significant physical boost provided by his second spirit, True Dragon, made him almost twice as strong as Spirit Masters of the same level; it would be a waste not to go for Power Attack. With the characteristics of his first spirit, the Two-Piece Set, he could initially attach a few body-strengthening skills and appear as a Power Attack type Spirit Master. In the mid-stage, once he started cultivating his second spirit, he definitely wouldn't lack offensive methods. The later spirit rings for the Two-Piece Set could then be used for domain-type skills providing control and other special effects, perfectly complementing each other.
"Oh? Do you have plans for what kind of spirit beasts to choose for your first two spirit rings?"
"Yes, for the first spirit ring, I plan to choose a Slime of around nine hundred years," Xia Tianling said without hesitation.
"Slime? What kind of skill can such a weak spirit beast provide?" Chrysanthemum Douluo frowned. In his impression, Slimes were extremely weak spirit beasts with almost no offensive capabilities.
He didn't doubt whether Xia Tianling could absorb a nine-hundred-year spirit ring; after all, his formidable physique was evident, coupled with his innate level 19 spirit power, absorbing beyond his level was definitely not an issue. Moreover, the main point was that Slimes weren't strong and lacked intelligence; even exceeding the age limit by one or two hundred years wouldn't pose a problem.
"Grandpa Chrysanthemum, let me ask you, what is the Slime's main characteristic?"
"Is it mutual fusion?"
"Correct, it's fusion! Slimes can merge two different individuals into one, becoming stronger. This is basically its only skill. After obtaining this skill, I can most likely merge my Two-Piece Set spirit into one, becoming a stronger weapon! Besides, Slimes have low intelligence. With the physique provided by my second spirit, I can definitely withstand a spirit ring that breaks the age limit!"
Those three months of reading weren't for nothing. The Spirit Hall library recorded all sorts of strange and varied spirit beasts and methods to identify them. How could an organization with tens of thousands of years of history lack records of such basic knowledge? So, as for where Yu Xiaogang got his knowledge about spirit rings and spirit beasts... those who know, know. Those who don't can just guess.
"Hiss... merge into one, that's quite interesting." Chrysanthemum Douluo suddenly understood; so such a weak spirit beast like the Slime had this use. "Since you have a plan, let's go then."
With that, Chrysanthemum Douluo led Xia Tianling wandering through the Spirit Hunting Forest, occasionally catching passing spirit beasts for some hands-on teaching about them. This wave of practical teaching greatly benefited Xia Tianling. As the ancients said well, "Knowledge gained from paper always feels shallow; to truly know something, one must practice it." Knowledge seen in books versus experiencing it firsthand – the feeling was completely different.
As for why choose a nine-hundred-year Slime? Of course, it was because thousand-year Slimes simply didn't exist. For such a weak spirit beast, nine hundred years was already the limit, and that was only possible in a Spirit Hunting Forest like this, lacking top-tier spirit beasts. In the Star Dou Forest, finding even a hundred-year one would be difficult. Just like the Ice Silkworm, pitifully weak. Over tens of thousands of years, only Brother Tianmeng, that lucky guy who fell into an ice cave, managed to achieve the million-year spirit beast status that even the Deep Sea Demon Whale King and Di Tian couldn't reach.
For Xia Tianling, who could cultivate immortality, the age of the spirit ring was secondary, as long as it suited him. Unless... it was a hundred-thousand-year or even million-year one.
"Tianling, there's one over there." With a Titled Douluo's perception, it didn't take long to find a Slime rolling around next to a large rock.
Xia Tianling quickly walked over. This Slime was a faint, transparent white, about ninety centimeters in diameter. Growing one centimeter in diameter every ten years – this was the sign of approximately nine hundred years.
"Go on, Little Tianling. Slimes basically have no offensive ability. Even one close to a thousand years old is just a bigger punching bag, perfectly suited for you to get some practice," Chrysanthemum Douluo stood aside with his arms crossed.
"That's exactly what I was thinking." Xia Tianling smiled slightly. "True Dragon, possess!" His second spirit appeared. Compared to the Two-Piece Set spirit, which still had no rings, the Five-Clawed Golden Dragon, providing a massive physical boost, was more suitable for the current situation. After possessing the True Dragon, Xia Tianling was covered in a layer of fine scales, small dragon horns grew on his head, and his hands were replaced by dragon claws with faint lightning power flickering over them.
Spirit beasts like Slimes have extremely low intelligence; the whole blob looks foolish. If it were any other spirit beast, it would have already fled or prepared to fight under these circumstances, but that white Slime was still stupidly rolling around by the rock. The reason this creature could survive in the forest was probably because it tasted awful. Living by absorbing stray energy and residual energy from various corpses, no spirit beast had any desire to eat it. Uh... although it tasted bad, it was occasionally treated as a mobile experience pack to be absorbed.
Xia Tianling strode forward, concentrating spirit power in his right claw, and forcefully swiped downwards at the Slime. Faint lightning traveled across the Slime's slightly transparent white body, seeming to glow faintly from a distance. But it was useless. The five torn wounds healed almost instantly as Xia Tianling withdrew his claw. Its color just seemed a tiny bit more transparent than before.
This was due to the Slime's characteristics. To kill it completely, one had to attack continuously, slowly grinding it down until all its energy was depleted, turning it transparent. At that point, its body would change from a jelly-like substance to the stiffness of frozen rubber. Seizing that moment to split it in half or shatter it would result in the Slime's true death. If you cut it in two while its energy was abundant, it would split into two individuals like an earthworm, and could even merge back into one later. It could be said that the Slime's abilities were mostly useless, but exceptionally irritating, making one feel incredibly frustrated. Unless one possessed an extremely powerful large-scale skill capable of instantly reducing the entire Slime to ashes, that would be a permanent solution.
However, Xia Tianling didn't have such a skill, so he could only grind it down slowly. Punching left and right, he relentlessly hammered the round Slime, an utterly tedious process. What made it worse was that when its energy was full, its body structure was extremely soft, like jelly. Landing a solid punch felt like throwing a full-force blow that hit nothing, your arm passing right through. Not only was it uncomfortable, but it left a sticky layer on his hands and arms, which was quite disgusting. But if he used less force, a punch wouldn't drain much energy, and watching this blob jiggle before him was infuriating.
Damn it, was this thing created purely to annoy people? Xia Tianling looked helpless, but for the sake of the fusion skill, he endured it.
After grinding away for a full half hour, he could no longer sustain the True Dragon spirit possession while simultaneously channeling spirit power to hammer the thing. Lasting this long was already a result of the Dao Sutra tempering his spirit power quality far beyond Spirit Masters of the same level.
Now, Xia Tianling summoned the Two-Piece Set. Hacking with the axe on the left, smashing with the hammer on the right, relying purely on physical strength to hammer and chop. Under such high-intensity blows, the Slime had become very transparent, and its body was slowly hardening.
BANG!
Finally, hard work paid off. Just as Xia Tianling was getting frustrated enough to consider asking Chrysanthemum Douluo for help, one hammer strike shattered the transparent Slime, sending transparent fragments flying everywhere. Xia Tianling mechanically swung empty air once before realizing.
Damn it, almost an hour! This stupid thing is finally dead! With such tenacious vitality and disgusting skills, which spirit beast would be foolish enough to kill this thing? Probably only plant-type spirit beasts would have the patience!
A deep yellow spirit ring rose from the remaining lower half of the Slime's body.
Overjoyed, Xia Tianling quickly summoned his spirit, sat down cross-legged, and guided the yellow spirit ring over the crossed hammer and axe.
Chrysanthemum Douluo's timely reminder sounded from the side, "Tianling, guard your spirit, firm your heart."
(End of Chapter)