Three days later.
Douluo Continent – The Great Star Dou Forest, Land of Great Beasts.
Clad in black, Di Tian stood beside the Lake of Life, once again pouring his power into its depths.
Soon, the earth trembled.
A silver dragon head slowly rose from the water as the Silver Dragon King emerged from the lake.
She tilted her head slightly while looking at Di Tian and the boy standing beside him.
"Judging by this scene… the research is finished?"
"Yes, my Lord."
Di Tian nodded respectfully.
Then he suddenly reached into the empty air beside him.
With a single motion, he pulled a figure directly out of space.
It was a man in his forties.
His face was fierce, and scars across his body told the story of countless brushes with death.
At the moment, however, black darkness energy bound his entire body, leaving him completely unable to move.
His eyes were filled with fear.
Di Tian bowed slightly toward the Silver Dragon King.
"This is a human who has reached the Level 60 bottleneck. After discussing it with Bai Chen, we decided to use him to test the effects of the soul spirit ritual."
"Very well. Begin."
The Silver Dragon King spoke lazily, her gaze settling on Bai Chen with curiosity.
Bai Chen stepped forward.
Walking beside him was a black tiger.
The tiger looked extremely old.
Its fur had faded, and its posture was weak and exhausted.
The strangest feature was its tail, which ended in a black hook, much like the tail Bai Chen possessed in the third era.
This creature was known as a Scorpion Tiger.
A distant branch of the Dark Demon Evil Tiger lineage.
In terms of hierarchy, it couldn't compare to the Dark Demon Evil Tiger at all.
However, as a descendant of that terrifying beast, it also possessed the ability to gain power through slaughtering other soul beasts.
This particular scorpion tiger had reached 50,000 years of cultivation.
Forty thousand of those years had been gained through devouring other soul beasts.
Originally, Di Tian had intended to leave it alone for a while longer.
But after hearing that Bai Chen had completed research on the soul spirit ritual, he ordered Wan Yao Wang to beat the beast to near death and bring it here.
Most of its life force had already been devoured by Wan Yao Wang.
Without external help, it would die of old age within ten days.
Thus, it had no choice but to "willingly" become a soul spirit.
At least that way, it might survive.
Under the Silver Dragon King's watchful gaze, Bai Chen began drawing a magic formation on the ground.
While drawing, he explained calmly:
"This formation is required to construct the soul spirit ritual."
"If my cultivation were high enough, I wouldn't need to draw it physically. I could simply condense it with soul power."
"But right now, I only have Level 10 soul power, so I need the formation as support."
Just as he finished speaking, the formation was completed.
He directed the man and the scorpion tiger to stand within it.
Then he began softly chanting.
The concept of soul spirits had originally been built upon by Tianmeng Ice Silkworm, first created by Electrolux, and later perfected by Huo Yuhao.
Because of that origin, the technique worked especially well for individuals with light and spiritual attributes.
Coincidentally, Bai Chen in this era possessed exceptionally strong talent in both attributes.
As the chanting continued, faint golden particles began rising from the formation.
They slowly merged into both the human and the soul beast.
The first stage of the soul spirit ritual involved using light energy to provide a protective layer for the participants.
For modern spirit pagoda spirit masters, this stage wasn't particularly important anymore.
After thousands of years of development, the soul spirit system had undergone countless improvements.
By the third era, the ritual had become extremely safe.
But for Bai Chen, who was still only a Soul Scholar, this step was crucial.
After all, this was his first demonstration in this era.
He had to ensure nothing went wrong.
Under the soothing influence of the light energy, both the man and the scorpion tiger visibly relaxed.
But the real ritual was only just beginning.
Bai Chen lightly tapped the edge of the formation with his foot.
Immediately, a pillar of light several meters high erupted upward, enveloping the scorpion tiger.
The beast shifted uneasily.
Its primary attribute was darkness.
Small amounts of light energy were calming.
But this was extreme light energy, which made it uncomfortable.
Just as it began to react—
It suddenly felt a cold gaze.
Its entire body trembled as it slowly turned toward the source.
There stood Di Tian, dressed in black.
His golden eyes were icy cold.
Even without speaking, the message was clear:
Move, and you die.
"..."
The scorpion tiger nearly burst into tears.
It lowered its head immediately and didn't dare move again.
Thanks to Di Tian's intimidation, Bai Chen encountered no resistance from the soul beast, allowing him to proceed smoothly to the second stage.
At the final moment of this stage, Bai Chen suddenly crouched down and slammed both hands onto the ground.
The spiritual power within his sea of consciousness surged outward violently.
The scorpion tiger's body trembled violently before collapsing to the ground.
From its corpse, a spectral form identical to its body slowly emerged.
Under Bai Chen's control, this soul projection drifted toward the human host.
"Tick… tick…"
Sweat began dripping down Bai Chen's face.
His vision blurred.
The Bai Chen who mastered the soul spirit ritual was his third-era self, who possessed Level 23 soul power.
But this version of Bai Chen from the first era didn't even have half that level.
If it weren't for the immense spiritual power granted by the Three-Eyed Golden Ni, he would have collapsed already.
After all, this was a ten-thousand-year-level soul spirit ritual.
Not only did it demand immense spiritual power from the host—
It also required tremendous strength from the spirit master performing the ritual.
Fortunately, the ritual had now reached its final stage.
The scorpion tiger's soul slowly merged with the man's body.
The man looked terrified, but under Di Tian's overwhelming pressure, he didn't dare resist.
Finally—
A brilliant golden light erupted.
The glowing formation suddenly went dark.
All the floating golden particles surged into the man's body.
He fell to his knees as six soul rings slowly rose around him.
The sixth ring was a deep black.
Moments later—
With an excited roar, the scorpion tiger reappeared from the man's body.
It looked full of vitality, completely different from its previous dying state.
All traces of aging had vanished.
Powerful energy radiated from its body.
Seeing this scene, Di Tian and the Silver Dragon King instinctively exchanged a glance.
At this point—
The soul spirit ritual was essentially a success.
A Level 60 soul master normally could not possibly absorb a 50,000-year soul ring.
But through the soul spirit ritual, the impossible had become reality.
And judging from the scorpion tiger's restored vitality, it proved that everything Bai Chen and the Three-Eyed Golden Ni had described about soul spirits…
Was completely true.