Amid clinks and whirrs of his custom Battle Soul Scanner and soul tool instrumentation, Chen Fu carried out yet another experiment, carefully recording every step.
"Why do soul rings have colors?"
"Attempting spiritual impact... first test, increasing intensity…"
"Testing mixed soul power… adjusting ratios…"
"Detected fluctuations—recording…"
"Unknown gap found in fluctuation data…"
After over a hundred rounds of trial and error, Chen Fu—pale-faced and exhausted—finally felt as though he'd caught a glimpse of the truth.
Soul rings were tied to the spirit. Using his own rings for testing consumed spiritual power, but within controllable limits. He continued to wear it down slowly within that safety margin.
"So that guess was right—the color of my first soul ring is beginning to fade."
He continued operating the specially made spiritual impact device. First, he injected his own spiritual power into it. Then, using soul power stored in the [Ark] core, he mixed the two in precise ratios. The semi-fused mixture was then fired at the soul ring at high speed.
Since both soul power and spiritual power came from himself, logically, their identical frequency and attribute should've allowed them to pass through cleanly.
But with only partial fusion, unless the soul ring's spiritual frequency exactly matched the user's own, it would still suffer minor erosion—even at near-identical resonance.
The actual body wouldn't be harmed—but the soul ring would, exposing imitators who failed to detect such subtle mismatches.
If the impact passed without resistance, the ring was truly part of oneself. But if it consumed energy—it proved the ring was still, fundamentally, an external entity. Perhaps heavily assimilated, but still not truly the same.
"In traditional soul ring theory, white, yellow, purple, black, and red represent soul beasts of increasing power—and intelligence gaps."
"But in my analysis, intelligence isn't determined by spiritual power—but by the soul. The spirit can be produced by the soul, but it isn't the soul."
"So, soul color is influenced by the soul itself, while the spirit influences the soul skill's nature and strength?"
"A portion of the soul power is injected into the ring, and the rest returns to the world…"
"Is that why deeper-colored soul rings subconsciously feel more oppressive?"
"If that's true…"
Chen Fu scribbled rapidly on his custom scanner, locking down the lab in seclusion mode.
"If I remove the ring entirely… what happens to the soul skill?"
"This shortcut… is too much of a shortcut."
"As expected… there's an unconscious soul remnant residing within the ring…"
"Can a Devourer-type soul master really suppress those remnants completely?"
"If so… maybe I can activate… Delete this record."
[Record deleted]
---
"He's been shut in for an entire month?!"
Ma Xiaotao, fiery as ever, stood before the door, stopped by a certain overly large hamster.
"He said no one is to disturb him while he's in closed-door cultivation."
Mo Ling nervously blocked her path. She knew if Ma Xiaotao forced her way in, she wouldn't be able to stop her—nor explain it afterward.
"Doesn't he have monthly orders to fulfill?"
"The young master completed them all on the first day."
Uncle Fu stepped in, having rushed over as soon as he heard the commotion.
Ma Xiaotao glanced at the bracelet on Mo Ling's wrist and let out a cold snort before turning away.
She waited in Lin Pavilion for half the day, but with the door remaining silent, she finally chose to return to her training.
"Let me know the moment he's done."
---
Three more days passed. Then finally, the long-sealed metal door opened.
Pale, weary, but with eyes sparkling with life, Chen Fu staggered out.
"Young master!"
Uncle Fu, already waiting outside, rushed forward to support him.
Mo Ling quickly called the cook to prepare a meal and steeped a pot of tea herself.
Seeing Chen Fu silently devouring his food, the two were anxious but held their tongues.
Only once he'd eaten and drunk his fill did Mo Ling finally ask:
"What did you do to end up like this?"
"It was fine… until I ran out of rations during the last experiment. Had to power through on an empty stomach—got lightheaded."
After chewing on dry rations for a month, Chen Fu now leaned back against Mo Ling's oversized lounge chair, rubbing his content belly.
He had just barely managed to finish his final experiment when the food ran out—leading to a hunger-induced crash.
But it was worth it. The insights into soul rings alone were massive.
He now understood three uses for soul rings:
Explosion rings: the most basic and crude, used for short bursts of power.
Storage rings: storing soul power within the ring; theoretically capable of exceeding even the soul beast's own reserves.
Integration rings: removing soul remnants and merging the ring with bodily meridians, enhancing physical resilience and regeneration.
Integration rings could coexist with storage rings—but most people simply couldn't afford the cost of sustaining them.
As for how soul rings were obtained, he'd developed two theoretical models.
The first was the difficult one: self-generated soul rings—like those produced by soul beasts after transformation. Hard to pull off, but with high success rates.
Soul Beasts that achieved human form had tens of thousands of years to integrate soul, spirit, and soul power—so they could directly inscribe those traits into their own rings.
Why could they only generate rings for the first six stages?
Because 100,000-year-old soul beasts are stupid! Chen Fu concluded.
Ten millennia of cultivation and they still can't figure out proper technique?
Your soul power is god-tier but you still act like a fool?!
In contrast, fierce beasts were far more intelligent. If one of them transformed, their refined techniques and advanced cognition might actually shatter the false rule that soul beasts can't self-generate rings beyond the sixth.
The second ring-acquisition method was simpler: still involved a soul beast, but without killing it.
Instead of extraction through death, the ring would be formed with just a fragment of the beast's soul, combined with injected spirit and soul power.
The soul fragment could then be removed for lower quality, or retained for a fully functional soul beast ring—all without killing the beast or enduring its final psychic backlash.
Both methods were theoretical for now—practical tests still pending.
But the future looked promising.
---
After a restful afternoon, Chen Fu spent the next day clearing out his pending orders and restocking the Pavilion's standard soul tools.
Right on cue, the cultivation maniac from next door arrived.
In just one month, she'd leveled up again. Without the threat of evil fire, Ma Xiaotao had become obsessed with training.
"Xiao Tao, come quick! I've got a big treasure to show you!"