Observing Yan's energy fluctuations, You Chen felt a tinge of satisfaction in his heart.
Recently, he had been busy preparing to leave Spirit City, and Yan had been out training with Hu Liena and others, so it had been a while since the mentor and disciple had met.
Now, with just a glance, You Chen could tell that Yan hadn't slacked off in his studies during this time.
Yan's soul power level had already increased to 36, and his control over it had become more refined and fluid.
Given the training of soul power, it was unlikely that physical conditioning and mental strength training had been neglected.
Incidentally, Yan was a year older than Hu Liena. At 12 years old and at level 36, he was significantly ahead of Tang San, who was 29 at the same age when he graduated from Notting City Academy in the original story.
Xie Yue's cultivation speed was similar to Yan's, also reaching level 36. This had been part of his internal confidence to look down on You Chen.
Actually, this cultivation speed wasn't exaggerated.
Yan's cultivation speed hadn't surpassed Xie Yue's because the assignments You Chen gave him slowed down his soul power accumulation.
After You Chen published "The Uses of Whale Glue," and Spirit Hall monopolized it, the Golden Generation trio enjoyed its benefits.
The soul power increase from whale glue was secondary.
The most important aspect was that with top-tier resources and their inherent talents, the soul ring ages they absorbed at each stage were significantly higher.
For the first ring, when they were younger and couldn't handle too many supplements, it wasn't as noticeable.
After absorbing the second and third rings, they each leaped three levels.
Typically, absorbing optimal soul ring ages only increases one level of soul power, but like Tang San's third ring, which exceeded the optimal age (optimal age around 1700, Tang San absorbed a 3000-year ring), resulted in an additional level increase.
The resources and training received by the Spirit Hall's Golden Generation trio far surpassed Tang San's. Their second and third soul rings had ages far exceeding the original optimal ages, resulting in greater soul power level increases.
Overall, this advantage in soul ring energy equated to more than a year's worth of extra cultivation time.
This advantage would likely diminish after they reached the sixth ring, the Soul Emperor stage.
Finding and hunting high-age, suitable soul beasts is significantly more challenging than lower-age ones.
Besides his high soul power, Yan hadn't neglected physical conditioning.
The only aspect You Chen found a bit lacking was his mental strength training.
However, considering Yan's straightforward nature, it was understandable that he wasn't well-suited for the mental techniques You Chen had developed based on his multitasking talents.
In addition to cultivating his essence, energy, and spirit, You Chen's approach to nurturing Yan's Flame Lord martial spirit and choosing his soul skills differed significantly from the original story.
When Yan absorbed his first soul ring, he hadn't yet become You Chen's disciple, so his soul skill was the same as in the original, called "Infernal Magma Surge." (In the original, it wasn't specified, so we'll take the game's version as canon.)
Simply put, it's a soul skill that rapidly fires magma to explode.
This soul ring, aside from providing a soul skill, only slightly enhanced the energy intensity of the Flame Lord.
However, a century-level first ring's enhancement to a top-tier martial spirit is negligible.
The conditions for the Flame Lord's evolution were much simpler than the evolution path of the Star Dust Dragon.
This is because it's a straightforward and violent martial spirit, even its special abilities are straightforward, focusing on dual fire and earth attributes.
Of course, simple conditions don't mean achieving martial spirit evolution is easy.
For a top-tier martial spirit to evolve into a super martial spirit is no easier than a mid-tier martial spirit evolving into a top-tier one.
The process is challenging, yet in some ways easy.
As long as Yan follows the correct path, avoiding the absorption of incompatible soul rings—like taking a Soft Bone Rabbit ring for a fire and earth attribute spirit—then by the time he absorbs nine rings and becomes a Titled Douluo, his martial spirit should evolve to a super quality.
He merely needs to stack layers of fire and earth attribute energy, and the enhancement from nine, high-age soul rings will almost inevitably lead to a qualitative change in his martial spirit.
Even if there's a slight gap, once Yan reaches a high enough level, he can make up for it by absorbing a suitable spirit bone.
This process is simpler than "mid-tier martial spirit evolving into top-tier" because mid-tier spirit masters typically lack the talent to become Titled Douluos and gain the enhancement of nine soul rings.
Therefore, You Chen's plan for Yan didn't focus on enhancing the martial spirit's quality from the start.
He aimed to maximize the combat effectiveness of the Flame Lord martial spirit.
Enhancing a martial spirit's combat capability generally involves two directions: strengthening strengths and compensating for weaknesses.
After thoroughly studying the Flame Lord's characteristics, You Chen focused on its shortcomings.
As a top-tier martial spirit, its weaknesses, compared to other top-tier spirits, were relatively slower speed and higher soul power consumption.
These shortcomings were relative; against high-level martial spirits, the well-rounded Flame Lord had overwhelming advantages.
Unlike Hu Liena's Enchantress Fox, which had pronounced strengths and weaknesses and the risk of being countered.
Based on numerous records from the Spirit Hall, top-tier martial spirits evolving into super martial spirits often involved strengthening strengths, and if possible, raising weaknesses later.
You Chen judged that even after evolving, speed and endurance would remain the Flame Lord's weaknesses, possibly maintaining a score of 3 in his six-dimensional martial spirit evaluation system.
Between endurance and speed, You Chen's first thought was to enhance speed.
After all, with enough comprehensive ability, defeating the enemy before exhausting soul power eliminates endurance issues.
Speed, however, provides greater error tolerance and better output conditions.
Considering the Flame Lord's martial spirit characteristics, when addressing the speed shortfall, You Chen quickly devised a plan to boost both its mobility and output capabilities.
The Flame Lord's special ability is "Fire Rock Control," not "Magma Control."
It has the greatest control over fire-earth mixed energy magma, and besides that, it also has substantial control over fire and earth energies.
Thus, this ability can be seen as "Fire Control" + "Earth Control" + "Magma Control."
You Chen foresaw Yan's future of fine-tuned soul power control.
You Chen's martial spirit can simultaneously manipulate wind, holy, and star energies.
But even with soul power control far surpassing Yan's, he can't independently manipulate holy or star energies without using soul ring skills.
The distinction is akin to executing a fighting game move with manual inputs versus using a simplified mode.
Yan is different; his martial spirit inherently offers easier control over fire and earth attributes.