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After the preliminary, knockout, and advancement rounds concluded, each team was granted a month to rest and adjust. During this time, representatives from various major factions would visit promising young soul masters, hoping to recruit them.
This tactic was typical of past tournaments, as the Continental Elite Tournament served as a talent selection platform for the major forces across the continent.
During this period, Tang San and his group, aside from occasionally watching matches, spent most of their time focused on their own endeavors.
Tang San, in particular, began teaching the Twelve Zodiac Guards a new training method he developed: the "Vital Furnace Technique," inspired by Xiao Wu's spatial furnace. This technique focused on cultivating internal energy by circulating vital energy through the heart, lungs, liver, kidneys, and spleen in a specific sequence to form an embryonic furnace. By then guiding energy through the six internal organs, they could condense the vital energy in the abdomen, transforming it into flames and completing the Vital Furnace.
Tang San also incorporated techniques for manipulating the five types of energy within the chest and the six types in the abdomen. This allowed practitioners to rapidly digest food, absorb nutrients, and strengthen their physical bodies. At the pinnacle of mastery, it was theoretically possible for them to consume the world's energy directly, much like Xiao Wu's spatial furnace.
To accelerate the Twelve Zodiac Guards' progress, Tang San took them to the Beast Mountains on Shenlong Island for an intensive three-year training program.
In the Realm of Eternity, time could flow differently, with centuries passing in an instant. As such, while only a month passed in the outside world, the Twelve Zodiac Guards experienced three years of training on Shenlong Island. Both their innate abilities and mastery of the Vital Furnace Technique advanced significantly, with each of them reaching near-Soul Emperor levels. The top four—Shen Hou, You Ji, Hai Zhu, and Wei Yang—even achieved spirit power levels of 58 and 59.
However, since the Realm of Eternity was isolated from the rules of the Douluo Continent, the Twelve Zodiac Guards' spirit power levels weren't restricted by the need for spirit rings to progress.
The limitations on spirit beasts within Douluo Continent were starkly evident; a balanced world would not impose such severe restrictions on both human and beast cultivation.
True, spirit beasts provided human soul masters with spirit rings, saving them the time needed to develop their own techniques, but this convenience also stifled human creativity to some degree.
Everything in life has two sides.
At present, the ability to absorb spirit rings from spirit beasts was still more beneficial than harmful. However, as the times progressed, innovation would become essential, and the dependence on spirit rings could become more of a hindrance than an advantage, one that might need to be eliminated.
Everything evolves with the times; when something no longer fits, it's replaced. If it becomes suitable again, it will return. This is an unchanging truth of the world.
With this realization, Tang San understood that he didn't need to dwell on such concerns. He simply had to do what he felt was right from his own perspective.
After the Twelve Zodiac Guards completed their training, Tang San used the power of his ninth spirit ring to create spirit rings for each of the twelve guards, helping them absorb these rings as well.
This accomplishment left the Twelve Zodiac Guards in absolute awe!
Creating spirit rings from nothing!
Such an ability was something only a legendary deity could possess!
In the eyes of the Twelve Zodiac Guards, Tang San had already become akin to a deity, their gaze filled with unwavering loyalty and intense fervor. Whatever Tang San declared, they would take as absolute truth.
Tang San's ability to create spirit rings predated his ascension to the Thrones of the Gods of Eternity and Creation. Even before fully obtaining his ninth spirit ring, he could already condense Blue Silver Emperor-class spirit rings using his Blue Silver Emperor spirit. Later, under the guidance of the Lord of Eternity, he conducted further research on the process of crafting spirit rings.
Simply put, spirit rings are the result of Douluo Continent's unique rules, where the energy and fragments of the soul of an extraordinary, non-human entity are semi-materialized and fixed in place.
In this process, both energy and spiritual power are essential.
Once someone understands and leverages Douluo Continent's laws governing this, they can create spirit rings using energy and spiritual force.
Unlike spirit rings created through the death of a spirit beast, artificial rings use spiritual energy in place of the soul fragments of the beast, resulting in a key limitation: they cannot enhance the soul master's martial spirit with the bloodline attributes of the spirit beast. Spirit rings born from spirit beasts carry fragments of the beast's soul and bloodline energy, which allows soul masters to absorb these enhancements, accelerating the evolution and transformation of their martial spirits.
When Tang San creates spirit rings without using his Blue Silver Emperor, solely relying on the "Creation" power, the absence of spirit beast bloodline data means the rings lack bloodline enhancement for the martial spirit.
However, these artificial spirit rings offer more than just a pathway to advancing ranks. Lacking spirit beast bloodline and soul fragments, these rings adapt uniquely to the martial spirit of the individual.
The principle is that the pure spiritual energy within the artificial ring resonates with the soul master's intent, then adapts to the nature of their martial spirit, producing skills that match its essence.
For instance, as a bird matures, it naturally grows feathers and gains the ability to soar; a young beast soon learns to stand, walk, and even run; a fish can swim the moment it hatches.
This is instinct!
Tang San's artificial spirit rings merely evolve the martial spirit's inherent skills once it reaches a certain level of development.
Moreover, when these rings are absorbed, the spiritual energy within them resonates with the soul master's mind. If the soul master's spiritual will is strong, the ring's energy will actively draw upon external energy, causing its years of effectiveness to increase during absorption until the ring is fully assimilated.
This behavior closely resembles the "God-bestowed spirit rings" from legend.
Perhaps, this is the true principle behind God-bestowed spirit rings!
"Next, we'll begin your martial spirit fusion experiments," Tang San said, refocusing on the present and smiling at the Twelve Zodiac Guards. "If you succeed, you will gain powers even stronger than the Martial Spirit Bone Armor True Form!"
However, martial spirit fusion has a critical flaw—those involved in the fusion often develop mutual attraction due to the interaction of their spirits.
Historically, when two individuals of different genders, aside from siblings, engaged in spirit fusion, a natural attraction would emerge.
Yet, as Tang San and the Spirit Hall researchers delved deeper, they discovered that this phenomenon wasn't limited by gender. Even people of the same gender might develop a close bond due to fusion, and cases of lifelong partnerships among such pairs were not uncommon.
For instance: Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo.
These two have now essentially fused into one entity.
Sibling pairs engaging in martial spirit fusion do not encounter such ethical dilemmas because they already have well-formed moral frameworks, grounded in Douluo Continent's cultural norms.
However, if a pair of siblings who had never met each other were to discover a fusion potential later in life, mutual attraction might arise, potentially leading to an uncomfortable scenario until family intervention—a situation with a rather well-known historical precedent.
But—
Martial spirits of the same essence will not encounter this issue.
(End of Chapter)