Shattering the rule chains within the assessment brand was not difficult for Su Cheng.
He could crush the immensely powerful rule ring within the spirit ring using his innate power and absorb it into his own strength. These simple, tiny "locks" were no challenge in comparison.
The real challenge lay in how to conceal this from Bo Saixi's perception.
Condensing the rule ring wouldn't disperse energy, but collecting the spirit power reward from the purple-level assessment and subsequently infusing spirit power to increase the spirit ring's age and stabilize it would cause his aura to fluctuate rapidly.
"Let's give it a try."
Su Cheng took a deep breath.
Encased in his spirit power, a droplet of origin force moved to the purple-level assessment brand on his forehead, ready to be unleashed. Then, a thin thread of innate sword energy pierced into the brand, easily breaking through the two rule chains.
In the next moment, the concentrated spirit power was about to flood into Su Cheng's body as a reward, rapidly enhancing his level.
At this critical moment, the droplet of primordial force expanded into a membrane, enveloping the mass of spirit power, leaving only a small gap through which pure spirit power trickled out for him to absorb gradually.
While running his innate technique, Su Cheng also paid close attention to any movement from the temple on the mountain.
Upon shattering the rule chains and releasing the stored reward power, his surrounding spirit power inevitably surged for a moment.
Though it was quickly concealed, it was hard to say if Bo Saixi might have noticed.
However, the possibility seemed slim.
Su Cheng had caused various disturbances during his nearly half-year-long training leading up to today's breakthrough, and Bo Saixi had likely become accustomed to them. She had just come down the mountain yesterday, and typically, she wouldn't leave Sea God Temple again for at least another week.
After two hours passed without any movement from the mountaintop, Su Cheng relaxed completely and began to focus on absorbing the pure spirit power from the reward.
For him, the riskiest stage of increasing his spirit power level was only in the initial moments. After that, concealing the changes in his aura was not difficult.
Reaching levels 68, 69, or 70 would not cause his aura to leak.
Ordinary spirit masters often generated significant commotion upon breaking through because they couldn't fully adapt to the enhanced power immediately and struggled to adjust their state in that critical moment.
Su Cheng didn't have this problem. His strength had long surpassed the constraints of mere levels, and with extensive experience at higher levels, he could absorb spirit power steadily, maintaining perfect control over his energy.
During this process, unless a peak-level Title Douluo fully concentrated on sensing him, it would be difficult to detect anything more than the general situation.
Under the light of the Sea God, Su Cheng's innate technique continued to operate, slowly purifying the faith power from the assessment brand and absorbing the pure spirit power bit by bit.
This process alone took him nearly a week.
When the last trace of spirit power was exhausted, his spirit power finally reached level 70, standing at the threshold of becoming a Spirit Saint.
Next, he needed to take the most crucial and dangerous step: condensing a spirit ring.
For a spirit master, the importance of a spirit ring couldn't be overstated. Even for an unconventional spirit master like Su Cheng, the significance of a spirit ring was immense.
Breaking through rank barriers, adding spirit abilities to his martial spirit, and accumulating spirit power all relied on spirit rings.
Otherwise, the explosive power of the Haotian (Clear Sky) Sect's ring-explosion technique and Su Cheng's further developed ring-shattering method wouldn't be as formidable.
A spirit ring itself embodies the strength of a spirit master, containing vast amounts of spirit power.
In the process of condensing his spirit ring, Su Cheng not only needed to construct a rule ring to attract the ambient, high-concentration spirit power, then infuse it with his own intent, but also had to control his origin force to shield the newly-formed spirit ring's strong aura from being detected by Bo Saixi.
Completing these tasks required immense mental focus.
Moreover, this time he planned to use the sword intent derived from the scene of the world's extinction, the Void Mountain Sword Intent.
This layer of meaning was far less stable than the Immortal Sword Intent, and even he found it somewhat difficult to control. Integrating it into the spirit ring was exceptionally challenging.
Taking a deep breath, Su Cheng prepared to proceed with the next step.
At that moment, his expression changed slightly, and he stopped.
Simultaneously, a red cloud floated down from the top of Sea God Mountain, and a graceful figure landed at the foot of the mountain, looking up at Su Cheng.
Su Cheng ignored her, closing his eyes and appearing deeply focused on his cultivation.
Seeing this, Bo Saixi frowned slightly.
For several months, whenever she occasionally descended the mountain, he would stop his cultivation immediately, but today was different.
She didn't think too much of it, just feeling a bit displeased as she stood there waiting silently...
Half a day passed.
Su Cheng remained in his focused cultivation state.
But Bo Saixi knew he must be aware of her presence at the foot of the mountain.
After all, the Sea God's Light was not a place conducive to focused cultivation.
This place was suitable for training because of the intense pressure and the high-concentration spirit power environment provided by the Sea God's Light.
Precisely because of this immense pressure, a spirit master in this environment had to constantly allocate some mental energy to resist it, making it difficult to fully concentrate.
Bo Saixi's expression changed several times before she couldn't help but snort coldly, "Su Cheng?"
Su Cheng felt a bit helpless, having no choice but to open his eyes and look over, saying indifferently, "What is it, High Priest?"
He couldn't bring himself to call her "sister."
"Nothing," Bo Saixi said coldly after staring at Su Cheng for a moment. Then she vanished and returned to Sea God Mountain.
Standing before the temple on the mountaintop.
The mountain wind blew, causing her waist-length sea-blue hair to flutter, and her scarlet robe to billow like burning flames.
Bo Saixi felt puzzled. She didn't understand why Su Cheng's attitude had suddenly changed.
After a long silence, she sighed softly and returned to the Sea God Temple.
Meanwhile, Su Cheng, sitting cross-legged on the mountain steps, secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Under the Sea God's Light, his level was not easily detected, but if she had approached closely, it would have been difficult to hide from her.
Leaping from level 67 to level 70 within a week would clearly raise suspicions.
This three-level increase in spirit power did not significantly enhance his combat strength. Without condensing the seventh spirit ring, being discovered would render all his efforts futile.
Fortunately, Bo Saixi was reserved and rarely expressed her thoughts directly, allowing him to evade the crisis.
After waiting another day to ensure she had re-entered her meditative state, Su Cheng began his next steps.
As his soul power resonated through his bloodline, a blank rule ring appeared outside his sixth spirit ring.
This rule ring emitted no aura, but the process of condensing a spirit ring and absorbing spirit power to advance was bound to be less tranquil.
Stretching out his right arm, the droplet of origin force appeared in his hand and then gently fell, rapidly spreading out into a circle under the influence of his spirit power, overlaying the blank rule ring.
In the next moment, the dense spirit power within the Sea God's Light began silently converging toward the blank spirit ring, swiftly pouring into it.
The color of the blank spirit ring deepened rapidly with this influx...
At this moment, Su Cheng's tightly closed eyes suddenly opened.
He was astonished to find that the layer of transparent origin force was silently merging into the newly constructed spirit ring rule!
"How is this possible..."
Even at this critical moment, Su Cheng's mind felt somewhat sluggish.
This change was completely beyond his previous expectations.
Over the long period, Su Cheng had tried many methods but could never truly touch the drop of self-contained origin force. Even if it could mix with energy, it shouldn't be able to merge with the rule ring.
The shattering of rule chains does indeed release powerful energy, but the nature of the rule ring is not as simple as energy solidification.
Fundamentally, this entity is a manifestation of bloodline power. Every time a spirit master advances to a higher realm, they delve deeper into their bloodline power, known as martial spirit power.
In Su Cheng's terms, it's the special information contained within the martial spirit.
The purer the bloodline power, the higher the quality of the martial spirit, which indicates greater potential for future advancement and stronger combat performance at the same level.
For ordinary spirit masters, because the martial spirit power is deeply buried in their bloodline, it's difficult to extract it on their own. Therefore, they rely on killing spirit beasts and using the spirit rings generated from the beasts' deaths to stimulate their potential, combining to form new spirit rings and thus advancing.
In Su Cheng's case, due to his deep research into bloodlines, he could condense spirit rings without relying on external sources.
However, these bloodline rules should be exclusive.
Unless the martial spirits, Hell Civet and the White Tiger, have perfectly complementary information, they can't merge.
Even then, it wouldn't manifest in a single spirit ring but should be reflected in the martial spirit itself since the rule ring is inherently self-contained.
Even the natural spirit power gathered around is only wrapped around the rule ring.
At this moment, Su Cheng could clearly feel the origin force and the rule ring merging completely.
"Since that's the case..."
Without time for further thought, following a sudden inspiration, he decisively abandoned the Void Mountain Sword Intent he had prepared to integrate into the spirit ring. Instead, he chose the innate power charm that perfectly fused his essence, energy, and spirit, the same power that had previously shattered the Sea God Trident in a simulation.
He wanted to see if, with his current understanding and the harmony of the primordial force, he could recreate the power of that strike at the Spirit Saint stage!
By this point, Su Cheng could no longer afford to be distracted.
He needed to fully focus on stabilizing this newborn spirit ring to prevent it from slipping out of his control.
Fortunately, he no longer needed to control the origin force to shield his aura.
Since this force was naturally integrating into the spirit ring, Bo Saixi couldn't possibly detect what was happening.
After more than an hour, the drop of primordial force completely merged into the spirit ring.
Su Cheng's extraordinarily unique seventh spirit ring was now fully stabilized.
Unlike the crimson color of his hundred-thousand-year sixth spirit ring.
This new seventh spirit ring, infused with special power, was a beautiful pale pink, shimmering with a crystal-like gentle luster.
Once the origin force completely disappeared, his spirit power fluctuations, far exceeding the Spirit Saint level, could no longer be concealed.
A powerful aura erupted like a volcanic explosion, and seven spirit rings—five black and two red—silently circled at his feet.
For a moment, all the spirit masters on Sea God Island focused their attention on the direction of Sea God Mountain.
In the Sea God Temple, Bo Saixi suddenly stood up, then transformed into a streak of red light rushing out of the temple.
Regarding the situation where the origin force could merge into the spirit ring, there had been previous foreshadowing. The external spirit bone True Sight Eye already contained origin force.