Martial souls can be passed down through bloodlines, no doubt about it.
But during the inheritance process, occasional mutations occur, and that's what Su Cheng has been focusing on in recent years.
Not only to compensate for his own shortcomings, but also, crucially, to use this as a starting point to unravel the mysteries of martial souls.
After researching numerous materials, he found that besides martial soul mutations, the majority of martial souls actually gradually weaken over time during the long inheritance process.
This is because martial souls are inherited through bloodlines, and over time, impurities accumulate in the blood.
Martial souls themselves have attributes, and unless it's a super martial soul with absolute dominance in the bloodline, descendants will inevitably be influenced by both parents' martial souls, though only inheriting one side outwardly.
With impurities accumulating in the blood, when they reach a certain level, mutations occur.
Su Cheng speculates that if the impurities in the blood conflict with the main attributes of the martial soul, malignant mutations occur; whereas if the attributes match, it's likely to achieve benign mutations or martial soul evolution.
Take himself as an example, his martial soul inherited the gold attribute from his parents, but also contains a large amount of fire attribute elements that greatly restrain the gold attribute.
So, the awakened martial soul exhibited malignant mutations with cracks all over the sword body.
When a soul master attaches soul rings to the martial soul, the energy properties of the soul ring can feed back to the martial soul to some extent.
To compensate for the internal consumption caused by his mutated martial soul, Su Cheng thought of using extreme earth attributes to reconcile the gold and fire attributes in the martial soul.
But he was just trying it out with a trial-and-error mindset.
After all, how effective this feedback energy would be, Su Cheng himself wasn't sure, and whether it would be effective at all was hard to say.
But for now, his approach seems to be correct.
Of course, since the changes in martial souls stem from impurities in the blood, if you want to change the martial soul, besides reconciling attributes, there is undoubtedly another path, purification.
To trace back to the original and strongest form of the same type of martial soul, aside from mutated martial souls.
If the martial soul has ancient bloodlines, after purification, there will be a phenomenon of atavism, which is another awakening, but that depends on chance.
"The road to complementing the martial soul has just begun," Su Cheng thought to himself.
After slightly adjusting to his newly breakthrough to level 32 body, he looked towards Yueguan, who had been waiting on the side.
"Just before I could ask, I wonder why Grandmaster Douluo came here?"
"Mr. Su, the Pope has summoned you."
"What does she want me to do?"
Their relationship has always been good, and even Yueguan's breakthrough two years ago benefited from their exchanges, so he didn't hide anything and said straightforwardly, "I'm not sure about the specific reason, but before she asked me to come, the Pope asked about your progress in researching martial souls."
Su Cheng's heart moved upon hearing this, and he immediately had some guesses. After a moment of contemplation, he first looked at Qian Renxue on the other side. "Has the Great Elder been in seclusion recently?"
"No, she came out of seclusion a few months ago," Qian Renxue shook her head, somewhat puzzled as to why he would care about this.
Su Cheng continued to say to her, "I'm going to the Pope's palace with Grandmaster Douluo now. We'll talk about the Fourth Soul Ring later. Go to the Elder's Hall and say hello to your grandfather."
Qian Renxue then realized, nodding knowingly, "Don't worry, I'll go find my grandfather."
Yueguan listened to the conversation between the two with a strange expression, pretending to admire the surrounding scenery, appearing as if he hadn't heard anything.
...
Not long after, the two arrived at the council chamber of the Pope's palace.
Yueguan stopped at the door, while Su Cheng pushed the door and walked into the hall.
Wearing the Pope's robe, Bibidong was standing at the forefront of the hall with a cold expression, her noble and dignified aura making people feel intimidated.
When she saw Su Cheng coming in, her face showed a slight change, clearly sensing something different about him.
At first, there was a moment of confusion, but then Bibidong remembered what Yueguan had said earlier, feeling surprised. "I must not let this opportunity slip," she immediately spoke up to probe, "It seems Mr. Su has already achieved the rank of Three-Ringed Soul Sage, quite a harvest, I presume?"
"Not bad," Su Cheng replied casually.
"Show me your martial soul," Bibidong commanded bluntly, without any niceties.
Su Cheng glanced at her and didn't bother much, simply extending his right hand.
Then, his flawless longsword martial soul appeared in his hand, with one yellow and two purple soul rings quietly floating.
Bibidong's eyes widened, and she even took a couple of steps forward involuntarily.
After a while, she regained her composure and spoke again, her voice trembling with excitement. "Have you really solved the problem of martial soul mutation?!"
"Why so excited, Your Holiness? Even if I have solved malignant mutation, it's just an ordinary martial soul, common everywhere on the continent. And when did you start caring about me? Just a Soul Sage like me probably isn't worthy of the Pope's attention, right?" Su Cheng put away his martial soul calmly, saying nonchalantly.
Bibidong's delicate eye twitched slightly.
Here we go again!
That irritating tone and attitude.
About to speak, she suddenly felt a probing gaze coming from the direction of the Elder's Hall.
Her expression changed slightly, and she sneered at Su Cheng, "Mr. Su is quite vigilant."
Su Cheng immediately understood that Qian Renxue had already consulted Qian Daoliu.
But pretending not to know, he said, "I don't understand what you're talking about. The Martial Soul Hall is like home to me, and you've always been a respected family member. Why would I be wary?"
Seeing his confused expression, Bibidong took a deep breath, suppressing the anger surging in her heart, and asked, "How did you solve your martial soul's malignant mutation problem?"
She had only wanted to understand Su Cheng's research progress on martial soul mutation in detail, never expecting that he had already solved the problem of martial soul mutation, leaving her feeling somewhat at a loss from the beginning.
"Just being cautious," Su Cheng replied with a shrug. "You never know."
Su Cheng waved his hand dismissively. "I don't think it's necessary. Spending energy on such a trashy talent is simply a waste of time."
Bibidong, hearing him call himself "trash" and "waste" left and right, instantly lost the joy she had before, and her mood became utterly miserable.
Sarcastically, she retorted, "Didn't you just say something about 'even a commoner can rise to nobility'? Now, suddenly, you're going to cherish your own mediocrity?"
"Your Holiness, didn't you understand the meaning of that statement? Whoever has such a trashy talent should figure out a solution for themselves. I'm just a good guy, not a saint."