Qian Gu Dieding's face turned ugly.
Although Su Ming didn't mention his earlier offense in a single sentence, every sentence seemed aimed at him.
Seemingly discussing the tax system, it was actually a roundabout way of targeting him alone.
Among the present quasi-gods, who needed a large quantity of abyssal energy?
To put it bluntly, the weakest among them was him, Qian Gu Dieding, but the one with the greatest demand was also him.
So, the more one absorbed, the more tax one paid—this essentially targeted only him.
Moreover, he had a vague feeling that not only would he absorb the most total amount, but his reliance on the grand formation would also be the greatest.
Other quasi-gods—Yun Ming, Chen Xinjie, Cao Dezhi, and even Su Ming—which of them didn't have some connection to the Sea God?
They could probably handle some of the pressure themselves, relying extremely little on the grand formation.
In contrast, he, Qian Gu Dieding, might have to pay the most tax.
The key point was, not a single one of the nine foundational divine artifacts for the grand formation came from the Qian Gu Family!
"Who agrees, who opposes?" Su Ming looked at the group, waiting for them to express their stance.
In fact, apart from Qian Gu Dieding abstaining, everyone else indicated agreement.
"Very good. Then I will ask professionals to test the specific data on energy operation and formulate a future tiered taxation policy. Each Spirit Master's Blood God Ring will carry data on the abyssal energy they have devoured. The grand formation will then use this data to extract the corresponding energy while assisting Spirit Masters in devouring abyssal energy."
This aspect wasn't something Su Ming would handle; he was only responsible for the formation's foundation. The remaining functional operations would be handed over to a specialized team.
For this, he would use a team he trusted.
"For calculating abyssal energy, I plan to define a unit, using 'Ba'an' to represent the amount of abyssal energy. One Ba'an is the amount of abyssal energy I obtained from devouring the Ba Emperor. This unit is large, so it will be subdivided into ten thousand parts. Each part is one 'point,' meaning ten one Ba'an equals thousand points."
"I've roughly calculated that one point of abyssal energy is about enough for a Spirit Elder to break through from the thirty-ninth rank to the fortieth rank."
Hiss—
The sound of sharp intakes of breath filled the room.
One point of abyssal energy is enough for the needs from the thirty-ninth to the fortieth rank?
Then...
Most present were Limit Douluo and knew very well that one thousand times the energy required from thirty-ninth to fortieth rank would be sufficient for a quasi-god's total Spirit Power.
In other words, the core energy of one Ba Emperor is equivalent to ten quasi-gods?
And Su Ming only absorbed the Ba Emperor's core portion, not everything!
No, he also Devoured a Charm Emperor.
How did he manage to take in that much?
And how is he still only a Spirit Sage?
After devouring so much energy, couldn't he instantly become a Limit Douluo?
The Limit Douluo present would rather see Su Ming become a Limit Douluo instantly than see him still stuck at the Spirit Sage level.
The implications were too terrifying.
Su Ming offered no explanation.
Most of the abyssal energy within his body wasn't converted into cultivation level but was hidden in the form of latent potential, such as Spirit Ring year count.
His seventh Spirit Ring wasn't red with gold patterns, but black-gold. Although black was the base with gold accents, its essence was already approaching the god-level.
Also, Hun Dun seized the chance to break through, consuming energy for the spirit soul's advancement. Additionally, Su Ming slightly separated the spirit soul from the Spirit Ring, hiding another portion within the ring.
These were all ways to cram as much energy as possible into various parts of his body.
The ninety-ninth rank is a limit. Su Ming wanted to break through and immediately become a God King; the difficulty was extraordinary. He had to find every way to hide energy and accumulate latent potential within himself.
"I'm more concerned with another detail, Su Ming. You devored the Ba Emperor and obtained one Ba'an of abyssal energy. I want to know, if one kills an ordinary Ba'an, or kills the Ba Emperor but his core escapes, and only the scattered energy is devored, how much would that yield?" Chen Xinjie asked.
"Not much," Su Ming said. "If you kill an Emperor while devouring his core, the profit will be at least ten times greater. As for ordinary Abyssal creatures, this ratio would be smaller, purely depending on the Spirit Master's individual ability to retain as much as possible."
To sum it up in one sentence: the core of any Abyssal Emperor is enticing.
Even the weakest one, an Emperor with only Titled Douluo strength, has core energy sufficient to equal a Limit Douluo.
The Limit Douluo present almost drooled with envy.
So, the Abyssal Emperors were this rich.
"Enough talk. I need to establish the formation now."
Su Ming called upon Cao Dezhi and the other quasi-gods to help him stabilize the formation's foundation.
"Water's flow, Fire's scorching heat, Earth's heaviness, Wind's lightness, Light's dazzling brilliance, Darkness's extinction, Space's stability—Seven Elements Isolation Formation, rise!"
Su Ming took one characteristic from each of the seven elements, mutually constructing a cycle. He did not create an offensive formation but established an isolation formation to demarcate the battlefield.
"Henceforth, the area within this formation is the planar battlefield, its space independent."
"Water's nurturing, Fire's nirvana..."
He took another characteristic from each, mutually constructing a cycle to form a nurturing formation for nurturing the divine artifacts.
Afterward, he began constructing the part of the grand formation related to suppressing abyssal energy.
This was the core of the grand formation—the Suppression Formation.
The formation used Sea God faith, but only as a packaging. Within this packaging, he replaced it with forging faith, empowered by the Will of the Plane.
Forging faith also didn't consume his own faith; its source came from Tang Hao.
To this day, although Su Ming wasn't yet the God of Forging, he was no less than possessing the corresponding divine rank.
Tang Hao had once used an incomplete forging foundation as his faith base. Strictly speaking, he could now be considered a subordinate deity under Su Ming, the God of Forging.
After the Suppression Formation was completed, Su Ming successively laid down an Offensive Formation and a Defensive Formation.
Upon completing all the Seven Elements formations, he then extracted the Five Elements to arrange a Five Elements Formation. However, because his mastery over the Five Elements was slightly weaker, this formation primarily focused on consolidation, further reinforcing all the previously laid Seven Elements formations.
Additionally, he constructed a Faith Formation to collect faith.
By the time everything was completed, a month had passed.
"Setting up a formation once is truly strenuous. But the gains aren't small either."
Su Ming secretly rejoiced.
Half a month ago, the Su Ming from Douluo 1 had already reached the Sun Moon Continent, scavenged the locations of three Elemental God Divine Trials, accepted the assessments, and, under the guidance of the six Elemental Gods, found the coordinates of the Space God's inheritance space, obtained its trial.
And merely half a month after receiving the trials, by correlating the formation setup with the Divine Trials and cross-referencing them, Su Ming completed their respective First Trials.
After completing the First Trial given by the seven Elemental Gods in Douluo 1, the Second Trial simultaneously involved all seven elements, though the focus of each different Elemental God's trial varied.
Not only that, after completing the First Trial of the seven Elemental Gods, he received the baptism (baptism, tempering) of the Prime Fire, Prime Water... the Prime Essences of the seven elements. Then, he inexplicably began to gather a special type of faith.
The Faith Formation at the end of the grand formation also originated from this.
If Su Ming were to name this faith, it could be called—Elemental God Faith.
***
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