Chapter 26: Abnormal Adaptation, the Golden Finger Begins to Show
After sighing for a moment, Zhao Sanjin set aside the complicated emotions in his heart and began guiding Chen Ming in the understanding of meridians.
As the administrator of the library, he had spent more than 10 years reading almost every book in the entire library, absorbing a vast amount of knowledge and then summarizing and innovating upon it from his own perspective.
Although the combat power of the Douluo Continent had inflated to an absurd degree during the Desolate Era, to the point where it seemed as if a Spirit Douluo could not even secure a seat at the table, in reality, a Spirit Douluo in this era was still a top-tier expert capable of founding a sect.
Many instructors, and even deans, in high-level academies did not possess the cultivation of a Spirit King.
A Spirit Douluo had already reached the level required to leave behind a second-rate Legacy on the continent, and the strongest members of some weaker first-rate powers were only at this level as well.
As for Titled Douluos, even a Rank 91 Titled Douluo stood at the level of a top-tier power on the continent. It was just that above those top-tier powers, there were still the true superpowers.
Zhao Sanjin was a pure Spirit Master who had never used evil methods to assist his cultivation. For him to cultivate a mutated Martial Soul all the way to the level of Spirit Douluo meant that his cultivation standards were already quite high, falling short only of those Titled Douluos who had long since established their reputations.
In terms of knowledge, his talent was even greater than that of some Titled Douluos. Though his understanding was not especially deep, its breadth was certainly wider.
The difference between him and a theoretical master was that he was not merely a master in theory. His fists were also at a master's level.
With Zhao Sanjin's personal guidance and hand-drawn meridian charts, Chen Ming quickly came to understand the cultivation of the 12 Primary Meridians and how they influenced the nature of his Spirit Power. By repeatedly stimulating the 3 Yin Meridians of the hands and feet, Chen Ming temporarily made a small portion of his Spirit Power more Yin in nature, gaining an understanding of how to alter a Meditation Method to a certain extent and actively guide changes in the nature of his own Spirit Power.
Chen Ming felt deeply grateful for Zhao Sanjin's guidance, feeling that meeting such an elder within the Holy Spirit Cult was truly a stroke of luck.
A person like this was rare even in the outside world. And even if the result was partly due to his teacher's background and status, wasn't surviving in the outside world itself also a matter of background?
As for Zhao Sanjin, he was equally satisfied with Chen Ming.
He had exceptional talent and an extremely high upper limit. His temperament was gentle, and he was capable of restraining both his own negative emotions and the instincts of his Martial Soul. His mind was sharp, his memory powerful, and he could quickly grasp and absorb what he learned, even drawing inferences from a single point. This kind of student was exceptionally outstanding.
Zhao Sanjin took Chen Ming to return [Spirit Power and Meridians] to its iron box, then went up to the 2nd floor to fetch one of the introductory books he had mentioned before.
He made an agreement with Chen Ming: if Chen Ming had questions, he could ask him, but the prerequisite was that he must thoroughly memorize this book along with every book he had read before it. Every time he asked a question, there would also be an assessment. If he failed the assessment, Zhao Sanjin would not guide him. Only after thoroughly memorizing all the knowledge could Zhao Sanjin guide him in deeper research.
Time passed quickly in the mountains.
Without any external reference point or clock, Chen Ming buried himself in the introductory books with diligence, using the free paper and pens to write down and organize his questions, learning and researching with almost fanatical enthusiasm.
Half a month after leaving Chen Ming in the library, Zhang Peng, who had returned from hunting in the Spirit Beast forests of the Sun Moon Empire, finally remembered that he had a cheap Disciple. Carrying both apprehension and curiosity, he came over to check on Chen Ming.
Originally, Zhang Peng had thought Chen Ming would appear somewhat uneasy or unable to endure such a suppressive environment. He had already prepared a few methods to comfort and encourage Chen Ming.
But when Zhang Peng actually returned, what he saw was Chen Ming with a face full of excitement, clutching books in his arms and completely intoxicated by them. Not only did he show no anxiety or repression, his Spirits were even better than before.
Chen Ming was extremely excited by Zhang Peng's arrival. After expressing his longing and reverence toward his teacher, he began asking Zhang Peng the questions he had already written down.
It took Zhang Peng 2 full days to answer all of Chen Ming's questions completely, and afterward he further extended some of his guidance into higher-level knowledge. After that, he left behind several hundred-year and thousand-year Spirit Beasts for Chen Ming to use in experiments and as food.
After praising Chen Ming's diligence and talent, and thanking Zhao Sanjin for his guidance and help, Zhang Peng, now completely at ease, went off to cultivate on his own somewhere else.
Zhang Peng came from a thoroughly unorthodox background. Although his own cultivation ability was very strong, when it came to teaching a Disciple, he was truly an amateur. On top of that, Chen Ming was a cheap Disciple, the kind he had taken in on impulse and felt a slight hint of regret about after calming down.
Since Chen Ming could thrive even when left alone, Zhang Peng naturally felt no psychological burden. He planned to come back from time to time, check in on him, and give some guidance to make sure his Disciple did not grow crooked. Otherwise, he would simply continue doing whatever he had been doing before taking in a Disciple.
In the blink of an eye, another 4 months passed.
Chen Ming stayed in the library like a shut-in, using his highest-level borrowing token as a worship Disciple to immerse himself drunkenly in the ocean of knowledge.
Although he did not concentrate excessively on cultivation, by relying on the devouring of Spirit Beast flesh and blood together with daily meditation, Chen Ming's cultivation still rose by 2 more ranks over those 4 months, from a Rank 15 Spirit Master to a Rank 17 Spirit Master. At this rate, another 6 months would likely be enough for him to advance to Rank 20 and obtain his 2nd Spirit Ring.
It should be known that barely half a year had passed since Chen Ming awakened his Martial Soul.
Without relying on medicinal baths, medicinal pills, expensive resources, or any extra training, Chen Ming had achieved a growth rate surpassing Spirit Masters with top-tier backgrounds purely by reading books, devouring Spirit Beast corpses, and performing daily cultivation.
One of the greatest characteristics of Evil Spirit Masters, who were not tolerated by the world yet still managed to develop and grow so powerful, was their cultivation speed, which far exceeded that of ordinary Spirit Masters. Strictly speaking, aside from being evil, Evil Spirit Master cultivation almost had no shortcomings.
If Chen Ming had not immersed himself so deeply in knowledge, but had instead devoted himself completely to devouring and increasing his strength, then it would not have been impossible for him to rise another 1 or 2 ranks by now.
However, over these few months, Chen Ming also gradually discovered a characteristic within himself that he had never noticed before.
The Abomination Martial Soul required an enormous amount of flesh and blood in daily life, and its possessor could barely suppress that hunger and craving.
But after several months of adaptation, Chen Ming was already able to use his reason to almost completely suppress the savage, bloodthirsty instinct of the Abomination Martial Soul. He could even actively stimulate his body to alter its rate of consumption.
In high-frequency mode, Chen Ming could gain much stronger digestive ability and recovery speed, obtaining formidable combat power at the cost of massive energy expenditure and consumption.
In low-frequency mode, Chen Ming could reduce his digestion and metabolism to the limit, using the energy already stored in his body to maintain a much longer standby time.
At first, Chen Ming had thought that this was simply because his will had suppressed the instinct of his Martial Soul, causing this situation.
But as he continuously learned more and more knowledge related to Evil Spirit Masters and Evil Martial Souls, Chen Ming gradually realized that this was fundamentally unreasonable.
The power and uncontrollability of Evil Martial Souls had always been a double-edged sword. Even powerful Spirit Masters could only suppress one aspect of it. But for him to have worn down one side of it almost to the point of dullness, that absolutely could not be explained by willpower alone. This was a change occurring at the very essence of the Martial Soul.
By recording his own condition and recalling the memories from his entire life, especially the period before his Martial Soul awakening, Chen Ming roughly deduced that he most likely possessed a special Golden Finger.
This Golden Finger seemed unremarkable, yet it had always existed, subtly and continuously changing Chen Ming's state. Chen Ming felt that the reason he had not died even after going 10 days without food or water very likely came from this, and the reason he had awakened the Abomination Martial Soul was also because of this Golden Finger.
If he had to describe it, Chen Ming was willing to call this Golden Finger [Adaptability].
It was an extraordinary adaptability that could adjust the self according to the outside environment, carrying out targeted specialization and even evolution.
Before Chen Ming's Martial Soul awakening, this ability had already existed. It was just that because of the external environment at the time, together with his own condition, this ability had not been especially obvious, causing even Chen Ming himself to fail to notice it.
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