The fact that my third spirit ring was over ten thousand years old was clearly a terrible blow for Meng Shinji's poor heart.
Sure, it was theoretically possible for someone with several ten-thousand-year spirit bones, and specifically a head spirit bone, to be able to get past the spirit beast's mental backlash and have it as a fourth spirit ring. In theory, anyway.
But in reality? That was fucking impossible. No Sect, even for their heirs, would drop such valuable resources on their heirs because... It was all too possible that while they were roaming around getting experience. They would get killed by someone much older and stronger.
There was a reason that it 'supposedly' took a thousand killed spirit beasts to drop a single spirit bone. The Sect's over literally centuries, if not millennia, of existence should have accumulated a store of spirit bones. It's not like spirit bones are lost when they are absorbed into a human's body.
No, only External Spirit bones, once fused into a human's body, cannot be extracted from either a living person or a corpse. Normal spirit bones don't degrade so long as they are kept in an area with rich spiritual energy as well.
The reason why spirit bones weren't so common over countless years of accumulation was simple. Most of the time, people kept their spirit bones as their greatest secret so people woudn't hunt them down for it.
So when they inevitably died and were buried. Buried very specifically, that spirit bone was lost from the market, basically.
It was very much an important cultural thing in this world for people to be buried whole and without missing limbs. So it played a major part, as it was just a major cultural no-no to mess with a corpse.
After coming to terms with my spirit ring. Meng Shenji shook his head with a helpless look in his eyes as he said in confusion, "Wait! You said you are also level 40 as well! Does that mean you are ready to absorb your fourth spirit ring right now!?"
But I shook my head as I said honestly. "No, no, I am not ready to absorb my fourth spirit ring at this point. I need to strengthen my body a great deal before I can reach my goal of a forty to fifty-thousand-year fourth spirit ring."
Because my ultimate goal was to have a Hundred Thousand Year Spirit Ring for my Seventh Spirit ring. Which would be my Martial Spirit Avatar spirit ring. Combined with my powerful growth third spirit ring...
The Clear Sky Hammer was going to have a rival facing a mountain-sized giant cauldron falling on their heads.
But my words made Meng Shenji's face twist as he choked out. "A forty-thousand-year fourth spirit ring??? You are going to explode into a bloody mist, young man!"
I actually gave the dean a dull look before I retorted flatly. "Exactly my point. I still need to strengthen my body for a good while with some methods."
Then Tang Wutong spoke out with a light cough. "Dean Shenji. Besides Tian Long's cultivation matters. What else do we need to take care of, as we both have been traveling with Lord Dugu Bo for the last few days? And we would very much like to rest."
Dean Meng Shenji chewed on his thoughts for just a moment before he coughed and said with a genial smile. "Ah of course. I will have one of my aids send you to one of the villa's consider it your new home. Unless something goes awry, you will be there for at least a couple more years."
Which was all to true. While I did shoot up a whole realm due to my immortal pill and would probably hit the late forties with the excess medicinal energy surging again when I got my next spirit ring.
Using the wealth of the capital city of this continent's one of two empires would be a good way for me to explore my alchemy, obviously.
Meng Shenji then had one of his attendants lead us towards a private villa. "I am very glad we have a private villa. And our nearest neighbor is a good way away as well. So it's unlikely that random people will come to mess with me while I am doing my alchemy." I said with a smile.
Tang Wutong slowly nodded, clearly thinking about something before she spoke. "I call the basement. I need space to start making more hidden weapons."
We took in the villa, and it was truly meant for some noble kids, as there were four different bedrooms. All were decorated in different styles, as well as two different training rooms.
I took one of the training rooms as I needed an enclosed, large room for my alchemy now at this point. As with my third spirit ring, I could now refine large amounts of elixirs and pills at the same time.
So while Tang Wutong went to go make war crimes in the basement. I settled in, in the training room to get into the right mindset at this point.
"I am at the point where I need to majorly increase my body's total strength. Not because my divine tier pill didn't do enough to make my body stronger with heavenly herbs like the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum. But I am still too young, and my body isn't fully developed." I muttered to myself.
I drew a hand across my face with some annoyance at that poignant fact. I was just hitting my teenage years. My so-called 'golden years' of cultivation and my spirit energy had enhanced my puberty to the point I looked like a sixteen-year-old rather then just barely thirteen.
But that didn't change my 'bone age' in cultivation worlds, your bones and organs also needed to be refined with whatever magical energy was in your verse. And most of the time it was just done over time.
That was my bottleneck right now. I needed to build up my body at this point as cultivation itself was going to be smooth sailing.
"Now... How can I forcibly improve my body greatly? I could try to have Dugu Bo break open some mountains to take their cores to make some Mountain Core Fluid?" I shook the errant thought aside.
As I imagined the poison user giving me deadly looks, as he didn't have such widespread direct damage attacks and methods. Even if I could convince him to do so.
Yeah, that evil old poisoner would lose his patience all too quickly using his Martial Soul, True Spirit to smash open a mountain for me to look for it's core.
While there were other elixer's I COULD make, especially with the leftover herbs and treasures from the Yin-Yang Well. I couldn't really take them. My body was still stuffed to the gills with divine-tier medicinal energy I couldn't accept being wasted.
So that left one major option I could think of.
I needed to get some spirit bones... And then. I was going to break this world's cultivation system even further by upgrading the Spirit Bones so that they are both useful and providing the strongest boost to my body.
Looking towards the giant window that showed off the distant mountains and city of Heaven Dou's capital. In the distance, I could see from the raised villa the Seven Treasure Tower as well as the Royal Palace.
"Let's see... Some Foundation Elixirs that can enhance the innate spirit level by one. I wonder if I can get a few low-quality spirit bones for them?" I muttered thoughtfully.
I then took out some formal paper from my storage space and began writing a formal letter. One directly to the royal family. And one to the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect... More specifically, to my 'good' friend Ning Rongrong.
The Seven Treasure Sect was more than likely my best bet for getting low-ranked spirit bones for a bargain!