Chapter 133: One Year, Strength Progress, Zodiac Hall (Seeking Subscriptions, Seeking Monthly Votes!)

Afterwards, Gu Xuan cultivated peacefully within the academy, and when he had nothing to do he would play with Ye Lingling to deepen their feelings.

Gu Miao also, thanks to Ye Lingling's guidance, emerged from timidity and inferiority in her cultivation; although she still called Ye Lingling 'madam', Ye Lingling treated her like a younger sister.

Aosi Luo might truly have felt he had found true love; during this period he no longer went out carousing, instead constantly circling Gu Miao all day.

Finally Gu Miao couldn't take it anymore, she asked her master to throw that lovestruck nuisance far away; originally Gu Xuan hadn't planned to intervene, but seeing Gu Miao truly couldn't bear it, he simply gave Aosi Luo a beating, telling him not to bother Gu Miao again.

But what Gu Xuan didn't expect was that Aosi Luo actually refused to give up, still shamelessly following Gu Miao every day; it seemed he had truly had a change of heart.

During this period, Xue Qinghe also occasionally came to see Gu Xuan to deepen their feelings, because the Primordial Unity Pill Gu Xuan gave her really helped her a lot, allowing her strength, which was already close to that of a Soul Saint, to increase extremely quickly.

As for Xue Qinghe's overtures, Gu Xuan naturally gave a superficial agreement; as for how things would ultimately turn out, that wasn't for Gu Xuan to worry about.

Besides that, Gu Xuan would occasionally observe the movements of Shrek Academy nowadays, after all they were already at his doorstep, so knowing a bit more was certainly no harm.

However, nothing major happened during this time; Tang San, who had already let go of Xiao Wu, is now mingling with Meng Yiran, and their feelings are heating up rapidly.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye a year had passed, leaving only half a year until the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament.

Within that year, Gu Xuan's strength rose steadily, breaking through from mid-rank forty-six to rank fifty, which works out to an average of one rank of soul power every three months—a speed so terrifying it leaves people stunned.

Now Gu Xuan only needs one soul ring to advance to Soul King strength; his fifth soul ring is still to be obtained in the Star Dou Great Forest, because Gu Xuan now absorbs soul rings above his level, so it's not suitable to prepare a fifth ring for him, thus he must go directly to the Star Dou Great Forest.

Besides Gu Xuan himself, the other members of the Royal Battle Team also improved significantly, with each person's soul power rising by an average of three ranks; Yu Tianheng, who was at rank forty-four, has now reached rank forty-seven.

Shi Mo, who was at rank forty-three, has reached rank forty-six. Aosi Luo, Yu Feng, and Shi Mo all rose from rank forty-two to rank forty-five.

Although Ye Lingling is a support-type Soul Master, her soul power level is the highest besides Gu Xuan's, having reached rank forty-eight, not far from rank fifty.

Gu Miao also improved: in five months she broke through to rank twenty, and after obtaining a soul ring she reached rank twenty-one; then, over the next seven months under Gu Xuan's cultivation, she reached rank twenty-five.

In seven months she gained four ranks, which equates to about a little over two months per rank; this is naturally due to the resources Gu Xuan gave her and her own perseverance.

In that year, Gu Miao absorbed a total of three thousand-year-grade whale gelatin, making up for her previous cultivation deficiencies and foundation.

Gu Xuan still hasn't given her the Primordial Unity Pill, because she hasn't fully digested the power she has absorbed; after some time he will give it to her to increase her strength.

And it was also because of Gu Miao's improvement that Gu Xuan discovered some special aspects.

That is, after a martial soul mutation like Gu Miao's causes bodily aberration, a Soul Master's physique is naturally different from that of ordinary people, somewhat resembling the fusion of a soul beast's body.

Soul beasts cultivate slowly, but their bodily strength far exceeds that of humans, which is why soul beasts of the same rank are stronger than humans.

And beings like Gu Miao, half-beast people, not only possess the cultivation talent of human Soul Masters, but also have the bodily quality of soul beasts.

However, this also has a drawback: after this point, such Soul Masters can only absorb soul rings from soul beasts of the same lineage and origin.

Just like Gu Miao, she can now only absorb soul rings of the spirit-cat type, or put another way, soul rings of the same lineage such as lion, tiger, leopard, and dog; only the spirit-cat soul ring can perfectly match her, while other soul rings are more or less defective unless their quality is sufficient.

Other types of soul rings are thus unavailable to Gu Miao. However, due to her own changes, her training speed in the mimicry training ground is much faster than Aosi Luo's, perhaps because she has acquired martial soul traits.

So in fact this has both advantages and disadvantages, but overall the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

And because of this discovery, Gu Xuan wondered whether he could find a batch of Soul Masters like this to cultivate well.

Besides the drawbacks in appearance and soul ring absorption, Gu Xuan felt their potential far exceeds that of ordinary human Soul Masters.

Take Gu Miao for example: with an innate soul power of rank seven, her training speed in the mimicry training ground is comparable to that of a Soul Master with innate rank eight soul power.

This discovery greatly moved Gu Xuan, and it's not just a mere idea—he has already put it into practice, after all the Seven Treasure Glazed Sect currently lacks nothing more than manpower.

Resources are also available; if this batch of Soul Masters can be cultivated, it would not be a bad source of assistance, or rather it would pioneer an alternative path of Soul Master cultivation.

Moreover, Gu Xuan also explained the benefits and drawbacks clearly to Ning Fengzhi, who ultimately agreed with Gu Xuan's idea and put it into practice.

Now, half a year has passed since Gu Xuan originally had Ning Fengzhi look for people, and within the Seven Treasure Glazed Sect there are already over twenty half-beast individuals like Gu Miao.

Among them, the youngest has just awakened his martial soul, the oldest is already ten years old, and those older than that have no need for cultivation, but Gu Xuan has also placed them in the Seven Treasure Glazed Sect.

Gu Xuan alone established a Zodiac Hall for them, selecting twelve individuals with extraordinary talent from among them for primary cultivation, after all resources are limited and he cannot pour funds into them all at once.

Only after these twelve showed results did Ning Fengzhi dare to invest heavily.

Those who are too old to be cultivated serve as minor attendants in the Zodiac Hall, responsible for assisting the others.

Because they are all people who have been despised and sold, sharing the same plight, there is no mutual disdain among them; instead they huddle together for warmth.

The reason this hall is named the Zodiac Hall is that the existing individuals with the best talent have martial souls that correspond exactly to the twelve zodiac animals.

Since Ning Fengzhi had not yet seen any results early on, it was naturally impossible for him to make a large investment, so Gu Xuan simply established the Zodiac Hall from the start, first cultivating twelve people.

Moreover, the lowest innate soul power among these five people actually reaches rank seven, while the highest individual's innate soul power reaches eight and a half ranks; Gu Xuan sometimes wonders whether the people of the Douluo Continent are just too stupid.

With such innate soul power, even if their bodies differ from humans, wouldn't cultivating them still make a fine enforcer?

However, this point truly reflects Gu Xuan's thought, except that most martial soul mutations are not powerful martial souls, and cultivating them yields only ordinary strength.

However, the people Ning Fengzhi sent out to search reported that they encountered several half-beast individuals whose strength was at the Soul Emperor level or above, experts specially trained as enforcers, and whose combat power at the same rank rarely has an equal.

However, cultivating such a person consumes too many resources; merely needing soul rings of the same lineage and origin to advance is already hard to satisfy.

A hundred-year soul ring is still manageable, but a thousand-year one is already hard to find, and a ten-thousand-year one, besides requiring luck, also demands a certain level of strength, so cultivating them also consumes considerable effort.

(End of chapter)