Over the next three days, Qiangu Longyu discovered something that none of the books he had read had ever mentioned.
Research could hurt.
A lot.
“Another lap,” Qianjun ordered.
Longyu took a deep breath.
Then he started running.
Again.
The Worship Hall’s training grounds were not particularly large, but after enough laps, Longyu had begun to hate every stone along the path.
His legs burned.
His breathing was heavy.
Sweat soaked his black hair.
And sitting comfortably beneath the shade of a tree, Jiangmo Douluo seemed to be enjoying the situation far too much.
“Come on, Longyu!” he shouted.
“For science!”
Longyu did not answer.
Mostly because he needed the air to keep breathing.
Also because answering would probably result in him saying something rather disrespectful to one of his grandfathers.
A short distance away, Qian Lingyu watched carefully.
She wasn’t alone.
Beside her stood a gray-haired man dressed in white-and-gold robes.
His name was Su Yuntao.
No.
Longyu had needed to suppress a smile when he heard the name of the actual healer assigned to supervise the tests.
Mu Qinghe.
A level seventy-four Soul Sage specializing in healing and recovery who served directly under the Worship Hall.
His Martial Soul was the Jade Spirit Lotus.
Qian Daoliu had not taken Longyu’s proposal lightly.
If they were truly going to consider allowing a six-year-old child to absorb a Soul Ring approximately six hundred years old, he wanted a serious evaluation.
Longyu completely agreed.
Although he was beginning to regret having been so enthusiastic.
“Time,” Qianjun said.
Longyu crossed the final mark.
He took two steps.
Three.
Then collapsed onto the grass.
Jiangmo applauded.
“Excellent technique.”
Longyu turned his head.
“Which one?”
“Falling down.”
Longyu closed his eyes.
Someday, he would become stronger than Jiangmo.
That day would be glorious.
Mu Qinghe knelt beside him.
A small jade flower appeared above his palm.
Two Soul Rings briefly lit up.
Green light covered Longyu’s body.
The sensation was pleasant.
But the man wasn’t trying to fully heal him.
He was examining him.
“Elevated pulse, but stable.”
Lingyu stood beside him.
Her own Healing Angel appeared faintly behind her body.
Since her awakening, she still couldn’t use any Soul Skills.
She had no Soul Ring.
But manifesting her Martial Soul seemed to increase her sensitivity toward the vitality of other living beings.
It was weak.
Imprecise.
But it was there.
Mu Qinghe had noticed it on the first day.
And since then, he had allowed Lingyu to participate.
“What do you feel?” the Soul Sage asked.
Lingyu closed her eyes.
Longyu remained still.
“He’s tired.”
Jiangmo burst out laughing from a distance.
Mu Qinghe completely ignored the Titled Douluo.
“We can see that.
Try to be more specific.”
Lingyu frowned slightly.
Several seconds passed.
“His legs are…
hot.”
“Pain?”
Longyu answered.
“Yes.”
Lingyu shook her head.
“Not just pain.”
She opened her eyes.
“It’s different.”
Mu Qinghe smiled faintly.
“Muscle inflammation.”
Lingyu slowly repeated the words.
“Inflammation.”
“Intense exercise causes small injuries in the muscles.
The body needs time to repair them.”
Longyu immediately opened his eyes.
He already knew that from his previous life.
But hearing it explained within the context of this world was still important.
“Can she sense those injuries?”
Mu Qinghe looked at Lingyu.
“Not precisely.
Not yet.”
Then he observed the faint figure of the Healing Angel.
“But she possesses an exceptional affinity with vitality.
Once she obtains her Soul Rings, she will probably be able to distinguish much more.”
Longyu looked at Lingyu.
She looked back at him.
Longyu immediately saw possibilities.
Many of them.
Lingyu seemed to recognize that expression.
“You’re making that face again.”
Longyu sighed.
“You too?”
“We all know it now.”
That was concerning.
The first day was dedicated almost entirely to the body.
Speed.
Strength.
Endurance.
Balance.
Recovery.
Flexibility.
Longyu recorded everything.
Qianjun did as well.
Mu Qinghe made his own observations.
But by the end of the day, Longyu was dissatisfied.
He stared at the pages of his notebook while eating dinner with his parents.
Lanyue looked at the notebook.
Then at her son.
“No.”
Longyu looked up.
“What?”
“You’re going to eat.”
“I am eating.”
“You’re looking at the notebook.”
“I can do both.”
Ye Zhenyuan calmly took the notebook away.
Longyu looked at him.
His father continued eating.
“Betrayal.”
“Survival,” Zhenyuan replied.
“I’m married to your mother.”
Lanyue smiled.
Longyu decided to finish his dinner.
Only afterward did he retrieve his notes.
The results were good.
Very good, in fact.
His physical condition was clearly superior to that of an ordinary six-year-old child.
The months of training had produced results.
His heritage likely played a role as well.
But one problem remained.
None of this proved how much stress he could withstand while absorbing a Soul Ring.
Running faster did not mean his meridians could withstand a greater amount of energy.
Lifting more weight did not mean his body could endure the pressure of an older Soul Ring.
Longyu wrote a sentence.
External physical strength does not necessarily equal absorption tolerance.
He stared at it.
Then wrote another.
I need to measure internal stress.
The second day began differently.
Longyu manifested the Destruction Coiling Dragon Staff.
Mu Qinghe stood in front of him.
Lingyu was beside him.
Qianjun watched from several meters away.
Jiangmo was also present.
Naturally.
Jin Yue, Luoyue, and Renxue had appeared shortly afterward.
Longyu suspected Renxue had told the other two what was happening.
Jin Yue was particularly interested.
“So you’re not running today.”
“No.”
“Boring.”
“You can run.”
“I’m fine.”
Longyu ignored the hypocrisy.
He held the staff with both hands.
“I’m going to keep my Martial Soul manifested while circulating Soul Power.”
Mu Qinghe nodded.
“Slowly.”
Longyu closed his eyes.
He felt the Soul Power within his body.
Level ten.
He had reached the limit he could attain before obtaining his first Soul Ring.
He began circulating it.
Nothing happened.
He increased the speed slightly.
The Destruction Coiling Dragon Staff responded.
The golden lines across its surface glowed.
The small dragon coiled around the staff seemed to awaken.
Longyu continued.
One minute.
Two.
Five.
Mu Qinghe periodically checked his condition.
Lingyu tried to do the same.
After ten minutes, Longyu began to feel fatigued.
At fifteen, something else appeared.
A faint pressure in his arms.
“Stop,” Mu Qinghe said.
Longyu immediately stopped circulating his Soul Power.
The pressure gradually faded.
Mu Qinghe examined his arms.
“Pain?”
“Not exactly.”
“Describe the sensation.”
Longyu thought.
“Internal pressure.
Mostly here.”
He pointed at his right forearm. This chapter was copied from g.com without permission.
Lingyu frowned.
“That one is worse.”
Longyu looked at her.
“You can feel it?”
“A little.”
Longyu extended both arms.
“I used both equally.”
Lingyu shook her head.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Your right hand held your Martial Soul.”
Longyu stopped.
He looked at the staff.
Then at his arm.
Lingyu tilted her head.
“That counts as exertion too, doesn’t it?”
Longyu dismissed the staff.
He immediately grabbed his notebook.
Lingyu smiled.
“I knew you would do that.”
Longyu wrote:
Martial Soul manifestation distributes stress unevenly.
Below it:
The type of Martial Soul probably affects absorption tolerance.
He stopped.
He crossed out probably.
Then replaced the sentence.
Hypothesis: Martial Soul type and quality may affect absorption tolerance.
Requires evidence.
Much better.
By midday, Longyu had begun constructing something.
It wasn’t a formula.
He didn’t have enough data for that.
It was a classification.
On one page, he wrote:
Preliminary Risk Factors for Soul Ring Absorption
Physical condition.
Meridian condition.
Recovery.
Martial Soul quality and type.
Soul Power.
Compatibility with the Soul Beast.
Age of the Soul Ring.
Longyu studied the list.
Renxue was sitting across from him.
“You’re missing something.”
Longyu looked up.
“What?”
“Willpower.”
Longyu blinked.
Renxue shrugged.
“Grandfather says absorbing a Soul Ring also requires enduring the Soul Beast’s spiritual pressure.”
Longyu remained silent.
Then he wrote:
Mental/spiritual resilience.
Renxue smiled in satisfaction.
“You’re welcome.”
Longyu had to admit it.
“Good observation.”
Jin Yue appeared behind him.
“I have one too.”
Longyu waited.
“Being strong.”
“That is literally the first line.”
“Then my work here is done.”
Jin Yue walked away.
Luoyue watched her go.
“She doesn’t work much.”
“Efficiently,” Jin Yue corrected from a distance.
The problem appeared that afternoon.
And it was entirely Longyu’s fault.
He wanted to test how his meridians responded when he combined accelerated Soul Power circulation, Martial Soul manifestation, and physical activity.
In theory, it made sense.
In practice…
“Longyu.”
“I’m fine.”
Qianjun looked at him.
“I didn’t ask.”
Longyu gripped the staff.
He had performed twenty basic movements with it while maintaining Soul Power circulation.
The first ten had been easy.
The next five, uncomfortable.
The last ones…
Hurt.
Longyu took a deep breath.
“One more repetition.”
“No,” Mu Qinghe said.
Longyu stopped.
“We need to know where the limit is.”
“And we just found it.”
“I can still—”
A sharp pain shot through his arm.
Longyu gritted his teeth.
His Soul Power circulation lost stability for an instant.
The staff disappeared.
Longyu stepped backward.
His vision blurred.
Something warm ran down from his nose.
Lingyu was the first to reach him.
“Longyu!”
He touched his nose.
Blood.
That wasn’t good.
Mu Qinghe appeared in front of him almost instantly.
The Jade Spirit Lotus manifested.
Green light covered his body.
Qianjun said nothing.
That was worse than if he had shouted.
After several seconds, Mu Qinghe spoke.
“Mild meridian overload.
No permanent damage.”
Longyu slowly exhaled.
“Then we can record—”
“The test is over,” Qianjun said.
Longyu raised his head.
“I can still continue.”
“That wasn’t a question.”
“But we need more data.”
Qianjun stared at him.
Longyu stopped.
His grandfather pointed at him.
“If you say ‘we need more data’ one more time, I’m personally carrying you back home.”
Longyu closed his mouth.
Jiangmo turned away.
His shoulders were trembling.
Qianjun looked at him.
“Laugh.”
Jiangmo immediately regained a serious expression.
“Never.”
Longyu was fairly certain he was lying.
Lingyu was still holding his arm.
She looked angry.
“That was stupid.”
Longyu looked at her.
“It was a necessary test.”
“No.”
“We needed to know—”
Lingyu squeezed his arm.
“Ah!”
“It hurts.”
“Yes.”
Longyu stared at her.
Lingyu held his gaze.
Longyu decided that arguing with a future Healing Soul Master while she had direct access to his injuries was probably a bad idea.
“Understood.”
“Good.”
Mu Qinghe watched the two of them.
A faint smile appeared on his face.
That night, Longyu added another sentence to his notes.
Pain is not simply an obstacle.
It is also information.
Then he added:
Ignoring it invalidates the usefulness of the test and unnecessarily increases the risk.
He stared at the second sentence.
It annoyed him.
Mostly because Qianjun had been right.
He had pushed too far.
He had wanted to find an exact limit.
But the human body did not function like a Soul Power bar with a number floating above it.
He couldn’t simply say:
Maximum capacity: 612 years.
That was ridiculous.
Even the ages of Soul Beasts were estimates.
Individuals differed.
Martial Souls differed.
Soul Beasts differed.
Conditions during absorption differed.
Longyu began to understand something.
Perhaps he had been asking the wrong question.
He didn’t need to discover:
What is my exact limit?
He needed to discover:
What level of risk am I willing to accept?
The third day involved no extreme tests.
Qianjun made sure of that.
Instead, Longyu, Mu Qinghe, and Lingyu reviewed the results.
They also compared some of the records available in the Worship Hall.
First Soul Rings of two hundred years.
Three hundred.
Three hundred and fifty.
Four hundred.
Failed cases.
Successful cases.
Exceptional cases.
The data was imperfect.
But something became clear.
There was no magical boundary where one additional year meant automatic death.
Risk increased progressively.
And the condition of the Soul Master mattered.
A lot.
By late afternoon, Longyu stood before Qian Daoliu again.
His notebook rested on the table.
Qianjun stood on one side.
Mu Qinghe on the other.
The other Worships listened.
Qian Daoliu looked at Longyu.
“So?”
“I cannot prove that a six-hundred-year Soul Ring is safe for me.”
Qianjun nodded.
Longyu continued.
“But I also found insufficient evidence to consider four hundred years an absolute limit.”
Qian Daoliu showed no reaction.
“Explain.”
Longyu opened his notebook.
“I think we are treating age as if it were the only important variable.”
He pointed at his list.
“It isn’t.”
Physical condition.
Meridians.
Recovery.
Martial Soul.
Soul Power.
Compatibility.
Mental resilience.
Age.
“All of these variables should influence absorption.”
Golden Crocodile Douluo picked up the sheet.
“How much?”
Longyu shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
“Then this still doesn’t tell us what you can withstand.”
“Not exactly.”
Longyu turned to the next page.
He had divided risk into categories.
Low.
Moderate.
High.
Extreme.
“I can’t say my limit is six hundred and twelve years, or any similar number.”
Jiangmo looked disappointed.
Longyu continued.
“But I can estimate which decisions are more dangerous than others.”
He pointed at one combination.
“A six-hundred-year Soul Beast with low compatibility would be a risk that isn’t worth taking.”
Then another.
“One approximately five hundred and eighty years old with high compatibility, after resting and fully preparing my body, might be reasonable.”
Qian Daoliu looked at Mu Qinghe.
“Your opinion?”
The Healing Soul Sage took several seconds.
“The boy has an extraordinary constitution for his age.
His meridians are strong as well.”
Longyu listened carefully.
“But he is still a child,” Mu Qinghe continued.
“Six hundred years will not be safe.”
Longyu didn’t argue.
Mu Qinghe looked at him.
“It will be safer for him than it would be for most.”
That was different.
Qianjun crossed his arms.
“Recommendation?”
Mu Qinghe thought.
“Between five hundred and fifty and six hundred years, provided the compatibility is excellent and he begins the absorption in perfect condition.”
Longyu felt a small sense of satisfaction.
Not because he had proven himself right.
He hadn’t.
He had proven that the question was worth considering.
Qianjun watched him for several seconds.
Finally, he sighed.
“I’ll accept six hundred years as the maximum.”
Longyu looked up.
“Really?”
Qianjun pointed at him.
“Don’t get excited.”
Longyu immediately regained his composure.
“I’m not excited.”
Jiangmo laughed.
Qianjun continued.
“If we find a five-hundred-and-fifty-year Soul Beast with better compatibility than one at six hundred, you will choose the five-hundred-and-fifty-year one.”
“Yes.”
“If Mu Qinghe determines that your condition is not perfect that day, you will absorb nothing.”
“Yes.”
“And if you try anything stupid during the absorption—”
“Understood.”
Qianjun narrowed his eyes.
“I wasn’t finished.”
“I considered the conclusion reasonably inferable.”
Jiangmo laughed again.
That evening, the five children gathered once more.
This time, they weren’t in the library.
They stood around a table covered in maps.
Longyu placed three sheets in front of them.
He had reduced his twelve candidates.
Three.
The first:
Ironbone Tyrant Lizard
Target age: 550–600 years.
Extraordinary physical strength.
Extremely resilient skeletal structure.
Weak draconic bloodline.
Excellent compatibility with a path focused on physical power.
The second:
Blackscale Earth Dragon
Target age: 550–600 years.
Superior draconic bloodline.
Excellent defense.
Great strength.
Less specialized in breaking power.
And the third:
Shattering Horn Dragon Beast
Target age: 550–600 years.
Concentrated explosive power.
Exceptional ability to break through defenses.
Weaker draconic bloodline than the Blackscale Earth Dragon.
Longyu studied the three names.
There was no perfect candidate.
One offered a better body.
Another offered a better bloodline.
The last offered better breaking power.
Renxue pointed at the second.
“That one has ‘Dragon’ in its name.
Pick that one.”
Longyu looked at her.
“That isn’t a scientific argument.”
“But it has a good name.”
Jin Yue pointed at the first.
“Tyrant.”
“Neither is that.”
“Clearly the best one.”
Luoyue ignored both of them.
“Where do they live?”
Longyu smiled faintly.
Finally.
A useful question.
He spread out the map.
“Two of them can be found in the same region.”
Luoyue studied the location.
“Then we should search for those two first.”
Longyu nodded.
They didn’t need to decide before seeing them.
A record could tell them a great deal.
Observing the actual beast could tell them more.
Lingyu looked at the map.
“When are we leaving?”
Longyu stopped.
He had expected that question from Jin Yue.
Not from her.
“You want to come?”
Lingyu looked at him as though it were obvious.
“I want to see what happens during the absorption.”
Longyu remained silent.
Then he smiled.
That made sense.
Jin Yue placed both hands on the table.
“Then I’m coming too.”
“Why?”
“I want to see the fight.”
That also made sense.
Luoyue looked up.
“I want to observe the Soul Beasts.”
Longyu finally looked at Renxue.
She crossed her arms.
“I’m not staying here while all of you leave Spirit City.”
Longyu sighed.
Somehow, his expedition to obtain a first Soul Ring had turned into a field trip involving five six-year-old children accompanied by several of the most powerful Soul Masters on the continent.
Qianjun would be delighted.
Probably.
Longyu looked again at the three sheets.
For the past three days, he had tried to measure his limits.
Instead, he had learned something different.
A limit was not simply a number.
It depended on the body.
On the Martial Soul.
On preparation.
On compatibility.
And possibly on many variables he had yet to discover.
His method was crude.
His data was insufficient.
His conclusions could be wrong.
But that was fine.
He could correct them.
He could improve the method.
He could gather more information.
This was only the first version.
Longyu picked up his notebook and wrote at the top of a fresh page:
Preliminary Soul Ring Absorption Risk Assessment — Version 1.0
Lingyu read over his shoulder.
“Why does it say ‘Version 1.0’?”
Longyu closed the notebook.
“Because it’s probably wrong.”
Lingyu blinked.
“And you’re proud of that?”
Longyu shook his head.
“I’m leaving room to correct it.”
Lingyu remained silent for several seconds.
Then she smiled.
“Then I hope we reach Version 2.0.”
Longyu looked at the map once more.
Three candidates.
Three slightly different paths.
One first Soul Ring.
For a week, he had researched.
For three days, he had measured his body.
Now all that remained was to discover whether his ideas could survive outside the pages of a book.
The preliminary research was over.
Now, the hunt would begin.