Yang Xiong sat in a cross-legged meditation position next to the glowing yellow spirit ring, carefully preparing himself to begin the absorption process. The people surrounding him all wore expressions of deep concern and anxiety. After all, this spirit ring was extremely close to the legendary thousand-year level - a threshold that no one had ever dared to cross for a second spirit ring. If Yang Xiong hadn't repeatedly insisted and confidently assured everyone that he would successfully absorb it, probably no one present would have agreed to this dangerous attempt.
However, Yang Xiong himself had already made his final determination. He summoned his original body martial soul with practiced ease and carefully used his accumulated spirit power to guide the hovering spirit ring, gradually drawing it closer to his physical form.
The moment the spirit ring settled onto his body, a familiar yet strangely different power rapidly surged into Yang Xiong's entire being, making his whole body feel as though it might explode from the overwhelming energy. The sensation was both exhilarating and terrifying.
This power was completely different from his experience with his first spirit ring absorption. If the previous power had been mysterious and exceptionally fiery in nature, this time it felt like boundless vitality was pouring directly into his body. However, the energy was also filled with wild violence, as if every single cell and drop of blood within him was about to burst apart under the pressure.
A full three intense hours passed before the strained expression on Yang Xiong's face gradually returned to its normal, peaceful state. The surrounding observers finally allowed themselves to breathe sighs of relief. Obviously, this tremendously risky spirit ring absorption, which had exceeded all known age limits, had been a complete success.
Upon seeing Yang Xiong slowly open his eyes, his father Yang Lin immediately stepped forward with concern. "Son, how does your body feel right now? Are there any uncomfortable sensations or lingering pain?"
A genuine smile of satisfaction appeared on Yang Xiong's face as he looked up at his worried parents. "Mom and Dad, I feel absolutely wonderful now. I can sense that my body has become significantly stronger in ways I never imagined possible."
Yang Xiong carefully examined his internal condition with growing amazement. After absorbing this extremely powerful wood-attribute spirit ring, his entire physical form seemed to have grown noticeably taller. Most importantly, he could feel that his body had begun to possess some form of extraordinary life energy, and his natural recovery ability appeared to have become dramatically stronger than before.
Moreover, after completing the spirit ring absorption process, Yang Xiong discovered that his spirit power had reached an absolutely astonishing level of twenty-three. This meant that a single spirit ring had allowed Yang Xiong to increase his spirit power by a remarkable three full levels. Under normal circumstances, a Spirit Master could only increase by one level of spirit power when successfully absorbing a spirit ring. This unprecedented three-level increase clearly demonstrated the incredible power contained within the Golden Cypress's vitality, spirit power, and even its ancient bloodline.
After returning safely to his family home, Yang Xiong spent considerable time carefully examining and understanding the new spirit ring skill he had obtained through this dangerous process.
His second spirit skill was called "Golden Heart." After activating this remarkable ability, he could rapidly recover from various injuries and completely dispel negative conditions affecting his body, bringing his physical state to its absolute optimal condition while granting him the legendary recovery ability of the Golden Cypress for a substantial period of time.
This spirit skill initially appeared to be a simple healing-type ability, but Yang Xiong quickly realized it was far more than just basic restoration magic. When properly utilized, the spirit ring would inject massive amounts of pure vitality directly into his body. The more severe his injuries became, the more spirit power the skill would consume to counteract the damage.
The ability to dispel negative conditions affecting his body and possess the incredible recovery capabilities of the Golden Cypress meant that he would essentially become like an unkillable opponent for a certain duration. This realization filled him with both excitement and a sense of responsibility.
Yang Xiong decided to test his new abilities thoroughly. He discovered that he could successfully dispel the adverse effects of ice attacks, fire damage, and various poisons affecting his body. This confirmed that he had indeed absorbed the power of a truly top-grade plant-attribute spirit beast.
Particularly noteworthy was that after absorbing this exceptional spirit ring, Yang Xiong felt that his overall physical strength seemed to have increased by a full thirty percent. This improvement had already exceeded the typical effects of absorbing an ordinary strength-type spirit ring from a comparable spirit beast.
Yang Xiong felt completely satisfied with this newly acquired spirit skill. In the future, both his combat effectiveness and survival capabilities would be greatly enhanced beyond his previous limitations. Furthermore, this spirit skill would not become ineffective after he advanced to become a high-level Spirit Master. Perhaps the beneficial effects of this ability would become even more pronounced when he truly achieved the status of a high-level Spirit Master.
After successfully absorbing his second spirit ring and officially advancing to become a Spirit Grand Master, Yang Xiong felt that his spirit power reserves had increased dramatically once again. This meant he could continue developing his ambitious Rasengan technique with renewed vigor and enhanced capabilities.
Bone Douluo, who had been secretly observing Yang Xiong's second spirit ring absorption process from a concealed position, found himself genuinely surprised by the outcome. He honestly hadn't expected Yang Xiong to actually succeed in such a dangerous undertaking.
After Ning Fengzhi carefully listened to Bone Douluo's detailed description of the events, he expressed equal surprise and curiosity. "Uncle Bone, what do you believe is Yang Xiong's true purpose in taking such risks? According to your observations, he didn't experience excessive pain during the spirit ring absorption process. Doesn't this suggest that with his current physical fitness level, he could potentially absorb even ordinary thousand-year spirit rings?"
"We have conducted numerous experiments with whale glue enhancement, but the general effectiveness has never been as remarkable as Yang Xiong's results. Even Rongrong's second spirit ring was only eight hundred years old when she absorbed it. Could it be that he possesses some hidden advantage we're unaware of? That seems unlikely, but I cannot think of another explanation."
Bone Douluo thought carefully for several long moments before responding thoughtfully, "Fengzhi, it appears that we have significantly underestimated Yang Xiong's martial soul potential. Although it is extremely rare to use one's physical body as a martial soul, I have recently been researching this phenomenon extensively. In terms of spirit power development, Yang Xiong already ranks very highly within the entire Class One, basically maintaining a position in the top five students. You must remember that he dedicates substantial time to physical body training, while Rongrong and the other students spend considerably more time in meditation at home."
Ning Fengzhi couldn't help but release a sigh of admiration. "It seems that I have seriously underestimated Yang Xiong's potential. He may genuinely be capable of walking a completely unique path of cultivation with his physical body serving as his martial soul."
Approximately one month later, during a peaceful afternoon, Yang Xiong found himself alone at home, dedicating time to his cultivation practice.
He could be observed using his refined spirit power to suspend a small ball in the air with his right hand. Countless amounts of concentrated energy poured steadily into the spherical object, and all the energy appeared to be rotating in complex patterns.
Under the influence of this carefully controlled force, the ball began rotating at increasingly rapid speeds. The entire sphere seemed to gradually swell and expand. As the rotation velocity became faster and more intense, the ball appeared to fill with compressed energy. Upon closer examination, the surface of the sphere seemed to be constantly denting inward and then quickly recovering under the action of the swirling forces.
As Yang Xiong continued injecting more and more of his spirit power into the technique, the entire ball seemed unable to withstand the tremendous internal pressure. Just before his spirit power reserves were about to be completely exhausted, the sphere burst apart dramatically.
Yang Xiong's face immediately filled with excitement and genuine surprise. "It's finally completed! The third developmental stage is successfully finished. It seems that the true creation of the Rasengan is now only a matter of dedicated time and practice."
The successful completion of this crucial phase in his Rasengan research and development greatly boosted Yang Xiong's confidence in his abilities. This self-created spirit skill had finally reached the dawn of ultimate success after months of painstaking effort.
However, Yang Xiong understood perfectly well that the most challenging aspect of perfecting the Rasengan would be the final step - truly forming stable spirit power and making that concentrated energy genuinely destructive in combat situations.
The Rasengan was not intended to be a simple spirit power attack technique. Instead, it involved running spirit power at incredible speeds, forming a hurricane-like sphere of energy in the user's hand, and ultimately delivering devastating damage to enemies through controlled release.
Moreover, this represented only the most basic version of the Rasengan. If he could successfully inject the elemental energy of his spirit ring attributes into the technique, the destructive power could almost be doubled. Unfortunately, Yang Xiong had only absorbed a wood-attribute spirit ring and a space-attribute spirit ring thus far. These two particular attributes were not ideally suited for enhancing the Rasengan's combat effectiveness.
The cultivation of distraction control served as the foundation for everything he hoped to achieve. Only by truly mastering distraction control techniques could he gain extremely precise control over his spirit power and genuinely multitask to inject spirit ring energy into the Rasengan while maintaining its stability.
His original body martial soul also possessed a tremendously strong advantage in this regard. After absorbing spirit rings of specific attributes, he could master certain amounts of those elemental powers. The remarkable versatility of his original body martial soul allowed various attribute energies to coexist harmoniously within his body without rejection.
If other Spirit Masters attempted to learn the Rasengan technique, Yang Xiong suspected they could probably only master the most fundamental version. They would likely lack the extensive variations and potential for further development that Yang Xiong possessed, since Spirit Masters generally did not have access to multiple different attributes when absorbing their spirit rings throughout their cultivation journey.
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