Chapter 45: You Chen Wasn't Pretending to Be Young!

"You Xing, don't you find it boring and tedious?"

Xiao Wu looked at You Xing, who was meditating on his bed, with a look of boredom, and suddenly suggested, "You've been focused on cultivating for days and haven't really gone out. Want me to show you around and see the world?"

"Sure."

You Xing surprisingly stood up and nodded.

Even though Xiao Wu was the one who initiated the invitation, when You Xing agreed, she was momentarily stunned.

After all... this wasn't her first time inviting You Xing.

And previously, without exception, she'd been rejected every time.

"What kind of wind is blowing today? The great You Xing finally wants to move out of his nest?"

"Are you saying you don't want to go with me? Then forget it, I'll get back to cultivating."

"No, no, when did I ever say that!"

"Oh, then let's go."

This skillful act of feigned passivity, while actually holding the initiative, played Xiao Wu like a fiddle. Naturally, it wasn't just an ordinary nine-year-old child.

To many, You Xing seemed like You Chen's illegitimate child, but in reality, You Xing was You Chen himself.

Some might have guessed bits and pieces, assuming You Xing was just a clone created by You Chen using his Starlight Avatar. However, it was quite the opposite.

Currently, You Chen couldn't maintain a clone for 24 hours; ten minutes was about his limit.

The adult You Chen seen in the dorm that day was actually a temporary clone he had created.

As for his true self, he had always been residing in the first-year dorm as You Chen (II), or little You Chen.

Oh? You ask about his job at Spirit Hall?

As mentioned in the first chapter, You Chen's initial plan was to continue marginalizing himself in this remote city until he could break away from Spirit Hall.

Whether he was dismissed, or his salary and benefits were cut, You Chen didn't care.

Upon deciding to create this "alternate account," You Chen began skipping work, leaving a message saying, "I'm going into closed cultivation; if there's anything urgent, come to my house," and stopped showing up at Spirit Hall.

For this month, he had worked enough days that no one had noticed his plan yet, but by next month, the branch might start reacting.

As for whether cultivating as little You Chen would lower his cultivation efficiency?

It would, but not significantly.

The main issue was that increasing soul power level at the soul master stage was far less efficient than cultivating as a soul king.

However, to the observant, You Xing attending school seemed secondary, more about experiencing life and getting along with peers to avoid missing out on childhood and social experiences. Real learning was expected to come from his personal teacher.

So, You Chen just needed to return home and continue cultivating his soul power through meditation.

In many fanfictions, there's a concept of "saturated cultivation," and You Chen found that there indeed was a daily limit for soul master meditation.

This involves the nature of meditation, which uses a resonance between personal will and martial spirit to absorb the spiritual energy free in the world, converting and purifying it into soul power.

This imposes a load on the soul master's body and martial spirit, requiring rest after reaching a certain level of cultivation.

He's not entirely sure how the Mysterious Heaven Method works, but given the original story's depiction, the Mysterious Heaven Method seems to function as a more refined meditation method in this world, fundamentally with no difference.

You Chen speculated that since martial spirits exist in this world, the Mysterious Heaven Method incorporates a connection with martial spirits, transforming internal energy into soul power.

Cultivating as little You Chen was not only for the upcoming disguise to approach Tang San or to divert attention from figures like Bibi Dong for future schemes, or to fully utilize his advantages to create a distinct identity from his main self.

There was also a hidden crucial purpose — for his cultivation.

After absorbing the fifth ring of big You Chen, he was now at level 54.

Theoretically, he could absorb the second and third rings of little You Chen, reaching level 60.

Then, by absorbing big You Chen's sixth ring, he'd reach around level 63, and then complete little You Chen's fourth, fifth, and sixth rings... reaching seven-ring Soul Sage as quickly as possible.

With the dual advantages, within a few years, while Tang San was still at three rings, he could surely become a Soul Douluo.

In ten, at most fifteen years, he could reach the Titled Douluo level.

But Titled Douluo was never You Chen's goal.

Even before acquiring the system, before being disheartened by his limits and fate's challenges, he never intended to stop at Titled Douluo.

Moreover, this approach wouldn't maximize the dual advantages.

At least in You Chen's theory, the first three rings and the seventh ring are extremely important and must be perfected.

When he absorbed the system's first soul ring, he was puzzled by its 12,000-year age.

That puzzle wasn't shelved; rather, You Chen had always kept it in mind.

After absorbing the fourth ring, logically, his next ring should be around 20,000 years.

Theoretically, little You Chen's first ring should be around 20,000 years.

However, it was almost halved in reality.

He considered that when he absorbed the system's first ring, the body's assessment strength was based on having no soul rings.

That was likely a reason.

In later stages, the physical strength of tool martial spirit soul masters wouldn't lag significantly behind beast martial spirit soul masters, largely due to soul ring enhancements.

Over 90% of this enhancement comes from the soul ring itself, with about 10% from the direct infusion of energy into the body upon absorbing the soul ring, causing transformation and strengthening — hence, if a soul ring is locked due to ring explosion or limb loss, the soul master's physical strength would drop significantly.

But this was just one reason.

You Chen never stopped physical training, so even as little You Chen with only the first ring, his physical strength matched an average Soul Elder.

Moreover, attaching a soul ring imposes a burden on the body, so theoretically, he could handle higher-aged soul rings.

His physical endurance was fine, and his mental power was formidable... eliminating all confusing factors, the remaining answer was clear.

Soul power level, or rather... the balance of essence, energy, and spirit.

The latter was understandable, but the former had always been an overlooked factor.

After all... every soul master absorbed soul rings at the same level at each stage, who cared about its impact on soul ring age?

Through research and analysis over this period, You Chen finally confirmed this point.

But... how would he calculate the optimal soul ring age at level 20, at level 30? Or even derive a formula?

He needed more data for research.

Sending Di Wan to collect such information was also for this purpose.

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