Chapter 78: The 'Artificial Spirit Ring' Ploy
Seeing Yue Guan and Gui Mei about to kick the bucket, Qin Xuan spoke up in due time, his voice cutting through the oppressive cold. "Alright, Jingni, put away your Spirit pressure. Otherwise, Senior Yue Guan and Senior Gui Mei might be flattened by your aura."
The immense Spirit pressure that had been sweeping across the clearing vanished, but the thick, crystalline ice covering their bodies still made Yue Guan and Gui Mei tremble violently.
If they still didn't know that Qin Xuan was the one orchestrating this entire display, they would truly be fools. The power, the woman, the casual control—it all pointed to him.
Yue Guan gritted his teeth, the ice cracking around his jaw. "Qin Xuan, we are all from Spirit Hall! Old Ghost and I have no grievances with you, so why treat us like this?"
Qin Xuan said with a disarming smile, "Indeed, you have no grievances with me. But who told you to see something you shouldn't have seen today?"
Yue Guan was stunned. Something he shouldn't have seen?
He immediately reacted, his gaze snapping to Jingni. She stood there, a silent goddess of death, covered in her ethereal Spirit Bone armor, with nine terrifyingly scarlet Spirit Rings circling her body.
[Inorin's Note: A full set of 9 scarlet rings would imply nine 100,000-year rings, a level of power unheard of and capable of terrifying any Titled Douluo.]
Yue Guan swallowed hard, the sound loud in the quiet forest. "Old Ghost and I aren't bigmouths. You're not... you're not planning to silence us, are you?" The fear in his voice was palpable.
Qin Xuan didn't answer him. Instead, he looked at the silent Gui Mei. "Senior Gui Mei, aren't you worried I'll silence you?"
"If you were worried about the secret being leaked, you wouldn't have invited us to travel with you," Gui Mei replied sullenly, his voice a low rasp.
"Straight to the point." Qin Xuan laughed. "As expected, compared to Yue Guan, you are one of the few in Spirit Hall with a brain."
It was a pity, Qin Xuan thought, that in the original work, he was ambushed and killed by Tang San; otherwise, with this cautious mind, he wouldn't have fallen so easily.
As soon as these words came out, someone immediately became displeased. Ling Yuan, who had finally recovered from the shock of Jingni's 9-ring display, unhappily pinched Qin Xuan's waist.
It was a sharp, warning pinch. "What do you mean, 'one of the few in Spirit Hall with a brain'?" she pouted, her voice a dangerous purr. "Am I as stupid as Yue Guan in your eyes?"
She leaned closer, her fiery aura washing over him, her voice dropping for only him to hear. "You'd better explain yourself clearly to me today, little man. Or else, don't even think about getting into my bed tonight." She was full of aggressive, flirtatious words.
"Yes, yes, yes, of course you have a brain," Qin Xuan replied, touching his waist with a helpless smile. But he added under his breath, "Just... not many."
He winced as her pinch tightened. "Are women in every World really this fierce? Do they all like pinching men's waists?"
Seeing this intimate, yet tense, scene, Yue Guan and Gui Mei were once again dumbfounded.
Goodness, no wonder Ling Yuan had been so obedient and compliant with Qin Xuan all this time. It turned out these two had already gotten together.
At the same time, they finally understood why Ling Yuan had been so disproportionately angry last night. Most likely, she was in the middle of... that... with Qin Xuan, and they had been attracted by the campfire, accidentally intruding into their camp and disturbing their good time, thus suffering an unprovoked disaster.
Hearing Qin Xuan's placating words, Ling Yuan was finally satisfied. She said somewhat smugly, "To tell you the truth, I already guessed that you invited these two with ill intentions."
Qin Xuan chuckled. "Your brain is very sharp, Big Sister Ling Yuan. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have business to discuss with these two... future partners."
He turned his gaze back to the two frozen Elders, his expression shifting from amusement to cold, calculating seriousness. "Senior Yue Guan, Senior Gui Mei, do you want to reach a higher realm?"
A higher realm?
The two Elders' faces showed confused expressions. Gui Mei asked, his voice a low rasp, "What do you want to do?"
"I want to ask you a simple question," Qin Xuan said. He stood between Jingni and Ling Yuan, a picture of absolute confidence. He raised his right hand lightly, his demeanor elegant and composed.
"A question?" The two became even more confused.
Qin Xuan used a very elegant, almost seductive tone, coaxing them like a merchant selling an impossible dream.
"That's right. Are you satisfied with yourselves now? You are Level 90. You are quasi-Titled Douluo. You are at the peak of what 99% of Spirit Masters will ever achieve. But you are also... stuck."
His words hit them like a hammer. Stuck. It was the one word that defined their lives for decades.
"Don't you feel that the current World is flawed? That the rules are wrong? Don't you want to elevate yourselves to a truly higher realm? A place where you are not just quasi... but truly, undeniably, at the peak?"
He let the words hang, then smiled. "Let me help you. Obey me. Pledge your loyalty to me, and I will grant you greater power. Power you cannot even imagine."
Yue Guan and Gui Mei were completely bewildered, not understanding at all. This sounded like the ravings of a madman.
Suddenly, Yue Guan, ever the pragmatist, seemed to think of something. His eyes lit up with a sudden, desperate greed. He asked, his voice cracking with excitement, "What do you mean by greater power? Do you... do you perhaps still have Immortal Herbs?"
At this moment, he was already tempted. An Immortal Herb! If he could truly obtain one, he wouldn't say he could achieve a level comparable to Jingni—that was clearly an anomaly—but reaching the realm of a Level 96 Peak Titled Douluo? Becoming a Worship? Holding a status comparable to the Supreme Pontiff himself? That was possible!
Qin Xuan shook his head, dashing that hope, only to build a new, more impossible one. "Immortal Herbs can, at most, only enhance your potential and talent. They cannot directly grant you strength that surpasses Spirit Masters of the same level. My research... is almost complete."
He began to spout his nonsense, his voice serious, as if revealing a divine secret.
"My research breaks the pathological, inefficient cultivation system of this world. The system where you can only absorb Spirit Rings and improve your strength by blindly hunting Spirit Beasts."
He paced slowly, like a scholar giving a lecture. "Through special, highly complex methods, the ambient Spirit Power scattered in nature is gathered, compressed, and purified. It is then transformed into the most suitable Spirit Ring for oneself."
"Such a Spirit Ring has no attribute restrictions. It has no age limit, only the limit of your own body. As long as your endurance is strong enough, even absorbing a 10,000-year Spirit Beast... is easy."
"I call this technology... the Artificial Spirit Ring."
Hearing this, both Jingni and Ling Yuan knew that Qin Xuan, that scoundrel, was about to start tricking people again. Jingni remained impassive, but Ling Yuan rolled her eyes, though she played along, looking appropriately intrigued.
But Yue Guan, and even the perpetually gloomy Gui Mei, listened with rapt fascination. A 10,000-year Spirit Beast... the number one dream in the current Spirit Master's World. No Spirit Master would not be tempted.
However, 10,000-year Spirit Beasts are too powerful, too difficult to find. The absorption conditions are impossibly harsh, requiring extremely strong physical fitness and endurance. Even the current Supreme Pontiff of Spirit Hall did not possess one.
"It's even possible," Qin Xuan added, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper, "to increase the age of the Spirit Rings you've already absorbed. Just... like... this."
As Qin Xuan spoke, he released his Spirit Rings: Yellow, Purple, Purple, Black, Black, Black, Red. Seven Spirit Rings slowly ascended from his feet.
Dazzling light wrapped around his body.
Although it wasn't as visually shocking as Jingni's nine 100,000-year rings earlier, it was enough to make them dumbfounded.
"Another 100,000-year Spirit Beast! And it's the seventh ring!" Yue Guan shrieked.
"And your second... and fourth rings!" Gui Mei exclaimed, his voice cracking. "They... they've changed! Your second ring is Purple! Your fourth is Black! How is this possible? You... you actually, truly mastered the method of condensing and upgrading Spirit Rings!"
Yue Guan and Gui Mei exclaimed in shock.
If it was Jingni, they could barely, barely explain it away with Twin Spirits or some lost inheritance.
But now, Qin Xuan's Spirit Rings—rings they had seen before—had visibly changed. This forced them to believe.
There really existed a method in the World to increase the age of Spirit Rings and condense new ones from thin air.
But... did such a method have no harm whatsoever to the Spirit Saint himself?
Yue Guan and Gui Mei's minds instinctively connected to the Evil Spirit Masters they had always suppressed. That cultivation method, while rapidly increasing Spirit Power, was extremely harmful to the body and would not be tolerated by the Spirit Master's World.
Qin Xuan seemed to read their concerns and chuckled, "Don't worry, it's not as bad as you imagine. If it were harmful, then I wouldn't use it on myself. Moreover, a successful case has already appeared right before you."
Jingni's Spirit Bone armor and her Spirit in hand were simultaneously put away. Qin Xuan put his arm around her shoulder, pulling her close. "Let me formally introduce her. Jingni, a Level 97 Peak Titled Douluo. She is my wife, and also the biggest beneficiary of the Artificial Spirit Ring technology."
He began to weave the tale. "One year ago, she was still a Spirit Saint, with a normal Spirit Ring configuration of yellow, yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black. Her teacher, a mysterious reclusive powerhouse, used his entire life's cultivation before his demise to perform a forbidden art: he forcibly removed the Spirit Rings from her body, giving her the rare opportunity to exchange her Spirit Rings."
"After inheriting a complete set of Spirit Bones from her teacher, she gained the physique to withstand 10,000-year Spirit Beasts."
"And I," Qin Xuan smiled, "happened to be the one who provided her with the 'Artificial' 10,000-year Spirit Rings to fill those empty slots."
Yue Guan suddenly understood, his mind reeling. While envious, he couldn't help but exclaim, "No wonder... no wonder this girl suddenly burst out with Level 90+ Spirit Power. It turns out the Spirit Power accumulated in her body was already enough for her to advance to Titled Douluo. The 70,000-year Spirit Beast we hunted for her... that was just a cover-up!"
"Indeed." Qin Xuan nodded, sealing the lie. "So now that you both know my greatest secret, you have two choices."
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