As vitality begins to wane and soul power grows more abundant, the number of spirit rings anchoring a martial spirit increases, making the spirit more stable. This process mirrors biological evolution in nature, where evolution is a beneficial mutation, and as a species' genes stabilize, the chances of mutation diminish.
This means that as a spirit master's level rises, the martial spirit becomes more stable, making it increasingly challenging to induce evolution. From this perspective, absorbing spirit rings beyond their normal age, especially during the early stages, can significantly accelerate the martial spirit's evolutionary progress compared to standard-age rings.
However, martial spirit evolution is not merely about "quantity."
How does absorbing a spirit ring enhance the martial spirit's core power, leading to its "mutation"?
Let's examine what changes spirit rings bring to spirit masters: enhancements in spirit skills, physical attributes, soul power, mental strength, and core martial spirit power.
The improvements in physical attributes, soul power, and mental strength can collectively be termed as the enhancement of the "three essences" (jing, qi, shen).
Excluding spirit skills for now, the essence of martial spirits is a miracle and gift from this world, born from the unity of these three essences. This aspect passively strengthens the martial spirit's power, but for evolution, it merely adds to the process and doesn't warrant detailed discussion here.
Excluding these elements, the key aspect left is the direct, apparent enhancement of the martial spirit's core power.
The primary consideration here is absorption efficiency, determined mainly by the compatibility between the martial spirit and the spirit beast. For instance, if a Blue Silver Grass spirit absorbs a Soft Bone Rabbit ring, the compatibility is unlikely to be high, potentially resulting in less than 10% of the energy directly enhancing the martial spirit's core power.
This leads to the second question: which aspect of the Blue Silver Grass's core does this fraction of energy enhance? It's likely just "vitality."
Blue Silver Grass is a simple martial spirit, with core attributes centered around "plant growth and propagation," "inherent vitality," "toughness," and "(primarily inter-Blue Silver Grass) perception."
Aiming for its ultimate evolution form, the Blue Silver Emperor, the most critical aspects are "plant growth and propagation" and "perception," followed by "vitality," and lastly "toughness."
Absorbing a Soft Bone Rabbit ring with initially low efficiency and minimal enhancement to the most crucial aspects would be a failing absorption if martial spirit evolution was the goal.
From this, the three key points for spirit ring absorption leading to martial spirit evolution become clear:
1. Martial Spirit Stability: The spirit can't be overly stable; it needs some plasticity. This generally means fewer rings, lower soul power, fewer soul bones, and younger age.
2. Core Energy Quantity: Higher year rings contain more core energy. Higher compatibility increases the efficiency of core energy enhancement.
3. Core Energy Type: Different spirits have different evolutionary requirements. Simpler spirits have fewer core power types, and vice versa. Enhancing specific core power types to a threshold triggers martial spirit mutation.
Now, as You Chen absorbs this first spirit ring, he feels as if he's truly returned to the time of absorbing his very first ring. He doesn't feel the constraints of his original four rings, and his soul power is restricted to the level 10 bottleneck by the world's rules...
His martial spirit seems as free and vibrant as it was twenty years ago.
The system-provided spirit ring's compatibility needs no mention. It brings the power necessary to trigger martial spirit mutation.
The only consideration for You Chen is the third point, "energy type." He aims to lock in the spirit skill first, indirectly anchoring the changes in the martial spirit's core power brought by the ring.
Just as Blue Silver Grass has the Blue Silver Emperor as a guide, Stardust Hatchling Dragon has Stardust Dragon as its beacon.
Compared to tool spirits, beast spirits have far more complex core power types. Basic attributes like strength, agility, and endurance are standard. Beyond these are traits like body size and scale composition.
These are common to all beast spirits, collectively termed "physical attributes." Following these are the elemental attributes like earth, fire, water, and wind.
Generally, if the spirit ring's "compatibility" is high, the "physical attributes" will align well, and the spirit won't develop improperly. To evolve a martial spirit, the growth of "elemental attributes" must be correct and sufficient.
Initially named "Wind Hatchling Dragon," You Chen's martial spirit led him to focus on cultivating extreme wind attributes. But when the "Wind Core" grew comparable to a high-level spirit, evolving into "Stardust Hatchling Dragon," he realized his path deviation.
Stardust Dragon is indeed a dragon with wind attribute power, but not exclusively so. Its ultimate form includes light attributes, and both Stardust Hatchling Dragon and Stardust Dragon in their infant forms are light attribute entities.
Considering Stardust Dragon's effects and signature abilities, like the "Sanctuary of the Sacrifice," which nullifies effects...
These indicate Stardust Dragon isn't a spirit pursuing extreme wind paths. Stars, wind, holiness – these three energies lie dormant within its body.
This is the conclusion You Chen arrived at. The first three rings had taken him far along the wind attribute path. Thus, for the fourth ring, he specifically chose a spirit beast with stellar power.
Yet, even with this, Stardust Hatchling Dragon hadn't touched the evolutionary threshold. Originally, You Chen speculated he might need to reach the seven-ring Spirit Sage stage before his spirit could further evolve.
By then, it would likely be his life's final limit. However, the system has given him another chance. The future remains uncertain; whether he can obtain another system spirit ring is unknown.
Pouring all his hopes into this ring, You Chen aims to construct the spirit skill — "Sanctuary of the Sacrifice"! The core ability written on Stardust Dragon's card!
If he can fully engrave the signature ability described on the card, his martial spirit will surely complete its evolution and pave the way to Stardust Dragon!
The adaptive spirit ring's color quickly shifted. From white to yellow, then orange, and tinged with purple...
After an hour, the ring had turned pitch black.
The soul power fluctuations finally subsided. A pair of dragon wings suddenly spread wide, the gusts from their movement knocking over items in the room.
"Phew."
Exhaling lightly, You Chen opened his eyes with a satisfied smile.
'First spirit skill — Sanctuary of the Sacrifice! It worked!'