"That Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion also has it?"
Hearing this, Shui Wuhen fell into thought.
Humans did not have it, but soul beasts did. Did this mean that this kind of thing was actually exclusive to soul beasts, and at the very least only existed in ten-thousand-year soul beasts or even higher-ranked ferocious beasts?
No, not necessarily!
Shui Wuhen shook his head. This method of compressing and condensing internal energy into a core was not limited to any specific race. In theory, human Spirit Masters could also achieve it.
If that was the case, then either this method had been monopolized by certain people in the Douluo Continent,
or the development of Spirit Masters on the Douluo Continent was still too primitive and had not yet researched a way to condense energy into a core.
Although Shui Wuhen usually viewed the Douluo Continent from a highly advanced perspective, the reality he had seen had to be admitted—the cultivation system here was indeed too primitive.
Spirit Masters' so-called cultivation did not even have a proper technique. It was entirely dependent on instinctive meditation.
If a Spirit Master had high innate spirit power and a high-quality martial soul, their cultivation speed would be fast.
Otherwise, it would be slow!
And those powerful clans mostly accumulated their strength through the selection of soul beasts.
These clans, through long years of experimentation, recorded what spirit skills their martial souls would produce after absorbing different soul beasts, and selected the optimal combinations as reference for their descendants.
Some clans even established a so-called "optimal solution," fixing exactly which soul beast should be absorbed for each spirit ring.
They focused entirely on this, and clans capable of passing down self-created spirit skills were extremely rare.
This was also one of the reasons Shui Wuhen did not want to join any faction—not only because he disliked restrictions on freedom, but also because these factions truly could not provide what he needed.
Experience in absorbing spirit rings? His martial soul, Articuno, existed only as a single instance—there was no predecessor's experience at all.
Self-created spirit skills? Most were created based on inherited martial souls. The Chaotic Cloak Hammer Method was already one of the most widely spread self-created spirit skills, but it was useless to him.
In the end, only spirit rings and spirit bones were somewhat useful to him, but not enough to make him give up his freedom.
Moreover, ten-thousand-year spirit bones did not interest him, and even Titled Douluo mostly did not possess hundred-thousand-year spirit bones.
Among all the factions, the only one Shui Wuhen felt had some sincerity was Spirit Hall, which had once offered hundred-thousand-year spirit ring and spirit bone conditions. The rest were not worth mentioning at all.
"That's right, but its manifestation form is slightly different from ours."
Articuno nodded.
Hearing this, Shui Wuhen snapped out of his thoughts and slightly nodded before shifting his gaze to the corpse of the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm.
Articuno also glanced at it and said, "I sensed a dense aura of Ten Thousand Years Profound Ice Marrow from this ice silkworm. I think the reason it reached this level was entirely due to the Ten Thousand Years Profound Ice Marrow."
"I think so too. Otherwise, there's no way to explain why its cultivation year is so high but its combat power is so weak."
At the moment Tianmeng Ice Silkworm was killed by Shui Wuhen, he had already discovered traces of Ten Thousand Years Profound Ice Marrow from its body.
It was just that Shui Wuhen found it hard to believe that a soul beast with nine hundred ninety thousand years of cultivation could be so weak—even if it was a creature at the bottom of the food chain like an ice silkworm.
Logically speaking, even if its original species was weak, after reaching such a level, its bloodline should have undergone transformation and become powerful.
This was why even a relatively weak hundred-thousand-year soul beast could rival a ninety-fifth-rank Titled Douluo.
The ice silkworm species was indeed weak, but at nine hundred ninety thousand years, it should at least be far stronger than ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul beasts, right?
Yet this Tianmeng Ice Silkworm was truly that weak—so weak it couldn't even defeat a mere Spirit Emperor like him. How could Shui Wuhen believe its words?
In the next moment, Shui Wuhen waved his hand and stored the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's corpse piece by piece into his storage soul tools.
Although most of its energy had already been converted into his spirit ring and spirit bone, the corpse itself was still a treasure. It still contained a large amount of Ten Thousand Years Profound Ice Marrow energy, which was an absolute heavenly material for ice-attribute Spirit Masters.
If used properly, Shui Wuhen would not need to worry about resources until at least reaching Titled Douluo level.
After a while, when the last piece of the Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's body was stored away, Shui Wuhen sighed.
"Fortunately I have enough storage soul tools, otherwise I really wouldn't have been able to take it all."
The Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's body was simply too large. Shui Wuhen filled three storage soul tools before finally finishing.
"Articuno, let's go!"
Immediately, riding on Articuno, he broke through the ice-and-snow barrier he had created and once again saw that deep, bottomless rift.
In the air, after seeing the rift, Articuno's expression suddenly turned solemn.
"There is something inside here that is very important to me. If possible, we must obtain it."
"I can feel it too. Something is calling me."
Shui Wuhen also stared into the rift below and continued, "With our current strength, we can go in and explore it."
After breaking through to Soul Saint, Shui Wuhen's strength had undergone a leap-like increase. His base combat power alone had more than doubled, not to mention after activating his Spirit Avatar.
For ordinary Spirit Masters, Spirit Avatar only increased spirit skill power by fifty percent, but Shui Wuhen's Spirit Avatar far exceeded that level.
After all, his seventh spirit ring could not be compared with others'. While most Spirit Masters' seventh spirit ring was at most fifty thousand years, his was—
nine hundred ninety thousand years!
Combined with the release of Articuno's power after his breakthrough to Soul Saint, along with enhancements in various domains—physical, spiritual, and otherwise—his true strength had risen by several levels compared to before.
Shui Wuhen even felt that he could instantly kill a peak Soul Douluo if one appeared in front of him.
As for Titled Douluo, since he had never seen one fight personally, he could not make a comparison.
However, he had heard that even Titled Douluo would need some effort to deal with peak Soul Douluo. If that was the case, then his strength might even surpass ordinary Titled Douluo.
"Alright, let's break into this dragon's den together."
Hearing this, Articuno flapped her wings, her body turning into a streak of ice-blue light as she carried Shui Wuhen into the rift.
If it were before, she might have been more cautious, but now—even if that Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion appeared again in front of her, she was confident she could still retreat completely with Shui Wuhen unharmed.