Chapter 66: Rank 29!
"How is this possible...?"
Zhi Lin could not help muttering to himself.
According to the common understanding of the Spirit Master world, once a low rank Spirit Master released their Martial Soul, it was nearly impossible for them to withstand the direct Spirit Power pressure of a high rank Spirit Master.
If they could endure pressure equal to about two thirds of their own Rank, for example, if a Rank 20 Spirit Master could withstand the pressure of a Rank 13 or 14 Spirit Master, that would already be considered outstanding.
If they could hold on against pressure equal to their own Spirit Power Rank, then their willpower would absolutely be considered exceptionally tough.
But all of this had one major premise.
The Spirit Master had to possess a Beast Spirit that could directly strengthen the body.
Lin Mo's situation, however, was far too special.
Charmander was clearly a Beast Spirit, yet it manifested externally, more like a Tool Martial Soul.
By all logic, this kind of external Beast Martial Soulshould provide far less physical enhancement than a normal Beast Martial Soul that could possess the body directly.
So what exactly was happening now?
Charmander was out, but logically, it should not have been able to provide much help in resisting the pressure on Lin Mo's body.
Yet Lin Mo still looked this relaxed.
Soul Douluo Zhi Lin's curiosity was completely stirred.
He stopped hesitating and carefully increased the intensity of his Spirit Power.
The pressure slowly climbed from Rank 28 to Rank 29, then Rank 30.
It crossed the boundary of the Spirit Elder realm and continued to rise. Rank 31, Rank 32...
When the pressure exceeded Lin Mo's own Spirit Power by 10 full Ranks and reached around Rank 38, Lin Mo's expression finally changed slightly.
His face was no longer as completely calm as before. It turned a little more solemn, and his eyes grew sharper and more focused.
Soon after, as the test continued, everyone present seemed to hear a dull, steady pounding.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
The sound was low and powerful, like a battle drum beating slowly in the distance, yet each impact carried astonishing force and penetrated straight into everyone's ears.
The source of that sound was Lin Mo's chest.
It was his heartbeat.
Under this tremendous pressure, the sound of his heartbeat had become so clear and forceful that it felt as though it were pounding directly against everyone's minds.
The external Spirit Bone within Lin Mo's body, the [Crimson Heart], had long since completed perfect fusion with him.
Unlike the external Spirit Bones of ordinary Spirit Masters, which usually required outside assistance to reach perfect fusion because of poor compatibility, Lin Mo's situation was different.
The compatibility between his Body Martial Soul and this heart type external Spirit Bone had been extraordinarily high from the very beginning. As early as the 3rd month after returning from the Soul Hunting Forest, he had already achieved complete fusion with it.
On top of that, the [Crimson Heart] itself was special. It did not manifest outwardly, so Lin Mo was not worried at all about this trump card being exposed here.
More importantly, his Body Martial Soul was no longer just a simple heart.
It had already evolved into the [five viscera and six bowels].
This gave his internal organs far greater strength than those of ordinary Spirit Masters, and his ability to withstand internal and external pressure had long surpassed others of the same Rank.
That was the greatest source of confidence that allowed him to remain calm under a Douluo's pressure.
And besides that, there was another important reason.
Around a year earlier, during a casual conversation, Lin Mo had deliberately brought up something called Whale Glue in front of Elder Ye Linyuan.
In his memory, Whale Glue was very helpful for improving a Spirit Master's physical constitution.
However, in the current era of the Douluo Continent, because Whale Glue was highly nourishing to pure yang energy, it was mostly treated as a "tonic" by certain nobles and used to enhance pleasure.
Precisely because of that, it also had a strong nourishing effect on blood and qi.
Lin Mo had used the excuse of "nourishing blood and qi" to pretend that he had accidentally discovered Whale Glue's real function, that it could significantly strengthen a Spirit Master's body, especially for absorbing higher age Spirit Rings in the future.
Ye Linyuan had been skeptical of Lin Mo's so called "discovery," but out of responsibility toward both his disciple and his granddaughter, he had still used the Ye Family Medical Hall's channels to gather some Whale Glue for testing.
After confirming that Whale Glue truly was effective, Ye Linyuan had begun secretly buying it in large quantities.
Still, high quality Whale Glue was indeed difficult to obtain. Even through the Ye Family Medical Hall's network, what they could acquire was mostly 100 year stock, with a small amount of 1000 year stock mixed in.
As for 10000 year Whale Glue, they had not seen a single piece.
Over the following year or so, both Ye Lingling and Lin Mo had consumed quite a lot of it.
Relying on the nourishment from large amounts of Whale Glue, the physical constitutions of the 2 of them had become much stronger than those of Spirit Masters of the same Rank.
To put it simply, if measured by the maximum age limit of a 3rd Spirit Ring, Ye Lingling's physical endurance had increased by around 1000 years compared to normal standards.
Lin Mo's improvement was even more shocking. His limit had increased by over 2000 years.
The reason for such a huge gap lay in Lin Mo's Body Martial Soul, which had already transformed into the [five viscera and six bowels].
After this transformation, his digestion and absorption abilities had become almost abnormal, and his appetite had become far greater than that of ordinary people.
Applied to a Heaven and Earth treasure like Whale Glue, that meant he could absorb much more of it than others, and his body's tolerance toward its medicinal effect was also far stronger.
Simply put, after Ye Lingling consumed a certain amount of Whale Glue, her body was almost saturated. Even 1000 year Whale Glue no longer produced any obvious improvement for her.
If she wanted to continue strengthening herself, she would have had to consume Whale Glue of even higher age to break through that saturation point.
Lin Mo, however, had a much larger "capacity."
Given the same Whale Glue, he could digest and absorb more of it, so the effect on him was naturally much better.
Of course, Whale Glue above 10000 years was a treasure that could only be encountered by luck. Even with Ye Linyuan's status and channels, obtaining it for the time being was still extremely difficult.
Soul Douluo Zhi Lin looked at Lin Mo, who had already withstood Spirit Power pressure more than 10 Ranks above his own, and the astonishment in his eyes had gradually turned into something close to horror.
He was beginning to doubt whether there was something wrong with his own perception.
But he could clearly feel that the pressure he was releasing had already reached the equivalent of Rank 45.
Yet Lin Mo, standing at the center of it, only had slightly redder cheeks than usual, a heartbeat that was growing heavier and stronger, and a faint red glow on the surface of his body.
Apart from that, he seemed perfectly fine.
He still looked as if he had not yet reached his limit.
At that point, Soul Douluo Zhi Lin took a deep breath, suppressed the shock in his heart, and decisively withdrew the Spirit Power he had been releasing.
The test had to stop.
It was not because he could not keep increasing the pressure.
He could tell that this was probably not Lin Mo's true limit, though it should have been getting close.
But he no longer dared to continue.
A Rank 28 Spirit Grandmaster had actually withstood Spirit Power pressure equivalent to a Rank 45 Spirit Ancestor and still looked as though nothing was wrong.
In all his long years, he had never even heard of such a thing, much less seen it with his own eyes.
He was afraid.
Afraid that if he continued the test, even the slightest mistake in controlling his output might injure this child.
If that happened, he, Zhi Lin, would become a sinner of the Heaven Dou Empire.
And at the exact moment Soul Douluo Zhi Lin withdrew his Spirit Power, the Spirit Power inside Lin Mo and Charmander rebounded like a spring that had been compressed to its limit.
The bottleneck that would have taken some more time to break through was smashed apart in that very instant.
Lin Mo's Spirit Power officially rose to Rank 29.
Soul Douluo Zhi Lin looked at Lin Mo, who let out a slow breath as his face quickly returned to normal, and for a long moment, he could not say a single complete sentence.
Chief Meng Shenji and Vice Chief Bai Baoshan had already stood up as well, their faces filled with the same disbelief and shock.
Lin Mo had just reached Rank 29 like that?
Director Xue Sheng was even more excited, both fists clenched tightly.
Ye Lingling stood a little farther away, a complicated light flashing through her purple eyes.
Among everyone present, she was the only one whose expression remained more or less unchanged, as though she had long expected this scene to happen.
.....
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