SoulLand:Ascending to Godhood through Science

You Chen had essentially confirmed that improving his physical body's attributes at this stage would no longer increase the optimal age of spirit rings.

Forget about the soul emperor-level physical strength of the You Xing character card; even the physical strength of a soul king already seemed to reach the upper limit dictated by his formula.

Based on You Chen's hypothesis, the limit formula for the second spirit ring would be: spiritual power starting at the Lingyuan Realm + soul king-level physical strength + ? spirit power level ≈ lower age limit of a soul emperor's seventh ring in the old era.

In other words... approximately 30,000 years.

Like a bucket with three wooden planks, the maximum capacity could be roughly determined by its shortest plank.

Thus, the issue inevitably circled back to that shortest plank.

With only 20 levels of spirit power, the maximum for You Chen's second ring at this stage was roughly 20,000 years—akin to the old era's ideal sixth ring age.

Naturally, You Chen's thoughts shifted to methods for breaking through this limit.

In fact, after two uses of "Eureka Flash," he had already developed such a method. He named it: "Spirit Power Borrowing Technique."

Of course, this wasn't something You Chen had conjured out of thin air.

In a world where rigid thinking prevailed, where spirit masters had always followed established norms and never considered exceeding the bottleneck level when absorbing spirit rings—and where there was indeed no prior need to—what reference material could he possibly draw upon?

The answer was simple: draw from the ideas of other worlds.

For example, a well-known innovation in the original story that broke the traditional understanding of spirit masters—"Mysterious Heaven Technique," which allowed one to cultivate spirit power even before martial spirit awakening.

Snatching the Mysterious Heaven Technique from Tang San would be as difficult as stealing food from a tiger's mouth.

Fortunately, You Chen didn't need the cultivation method itself, only a reference for how it broke the world's rules to a certain extent.

And You Chen was undoubtedly the one with the most opportunities to interact directly with the Mysterious Heaven Technique.

That phrase, "mutual progress," was no empty promise.

Through repeated mentor-like guidance battles and sparring matches, or by injecting his spirit power into Tang San during combat under the guise of nurturing his body, You Chen meticulously studied the energy circulation routes and logic of the Mysterious Heaven Technique.

Given that he couldn't fully uncover the original technique, it was an immensely challenging task, even for a research genius like You Chen, to extract truly enlightening insights in this manner.

Fortunately, You Chen had his trump card: "Eureka Flash."

With sufficient time, numerous samples, extraordinary intellect, and innovation, combined with "Eureka Flash," he finally laid the groundwork for the "Spirit Power Borrowing Technique."

Spirit Power Borrowing Technique

The foundation of this technique relied on the principle that "even after reaching the spirit ring bottleneck, spirit power could continue to accumulate."

Under normal circumstances, a spirit master's level wouldn't increase even if spirit power continued accumulating; it would only spike after acquiring the next spirit ring. Until then, even the spirit master themselves couldn't tell how much spirit power they had accumulated.

The borrowing technique tapped into this unseen, unusable, and unmeasurable spirit power.

By leveraging the semi-released state of spirit power levels during spirit ring absorption, it "borrowed" the hidden power levels to "trick the world's rules" into allowing a spirit master to absorb spirit rings at a higher power level.

In fact, You Chen had already tested this method by having some beast soldiers, upon reaching their spirit power bottleneck, delay obtaining their spirit rings for half a year. Using the borrowing technique, they successfully absorbed higher-age rings, proving its feasibility.

However, the trade-off was still debatable. For higher-level spirit masters, efficient spirit power accumulation made delaying cultivation questionable. Spending time to gain only a minor boost in ring age seemed a mixed blessing. For instance, accumulating just one or two extra levels wouldn't significantly increase the ring's age, but waiting to accumulate ten full levels would waste far too much training time.

But for You Chen... this issue didn't exist.

Thus, this secret technique was practically tailor-made for spirit masters like him or those with twin martial spirits.

Three Main Research Projects

You Chen's research over the past year could be divided into three main projects. The first was, as described, his study of spirit ring ages.

Second: "Starlight Avatar" Development

After spending another use of "Eureka Flash," You Chen had essentially resolved the issue of duration for his "Self-Transformation: Starlight Avatar."

Initially, his optimization efforts reduced spirit power consumption and enhanced efficiency, extending the duration from several hours to over 18 hours—tripling energy efficiency.

Next, by enabling the avatar to utilize the innate ability "Starlight Recharge," it could absorb starlight energy at night to offset daytime losses. Now, as long as there were no consecutive cloudy nights, the avatar was capable of indefinite sustenance.

An everlasting avatar? Such an innovation would be a game-changer—akin to a dimensional strike—if the soul masters of Douluo Continent ever learned about it.

Yet, You Chen wasn't satisfied.

The primary purpose of developing this ability was to achieve dual-operation. The avatar could remain in Notting City while You Chen himself traveled thousands of miles away to pursue missions tied to his first task line.

Although the presence of a second task line lessened his urgency, You Chen didn't intend to forgo preparation.

This year, he had only completed one mission from the first task line—an unsatisfactory pace.

However, the avatar's biggest limitation was distance. Even with his immense spiritual power, extending his control across vast distances was unrealistic. Without his consciousness anchoring the avatar, it would soon revert to its initial form and dissipate within hours.

Fortunately, You Chen wasn't clueless about a solution. By further refining the "Split Mind Soul Refinement Technique," he conceived a communication relay system akin to a signal tower, enabling remote control by embedding a fragment of his mind within the avatar.

Progress was already underway...

Before testing this enhanced Starlight Avatar for mission support, however, there was one thing to accomplish.

Assisting His Protégé

In the force You Chen personally founded—"Soul-Battle Beasts"—the most talented individual, a prodigy with a top-tier martial spirit, had been stuck at level 40 for an entire year.

In this new era, where innovations like whale glue enabled spirit masters to absorb spirit rings exceeding 10,000 years from the fourth ring onward, this young protégé represented the group's highest combat potential.

Naturally, You Chen intended to personally oversee this matter.

It was also an excellent opportunity to validate whether the Spirit Power Borrowing Technique applied to rings surpassing the 10,000-year threshold.

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