The Crucible.
And then a strange ring floated up. It was purple, but had greenish corona around that seems to add special power and enhancing its might. Also, it had an additional crown in the very center of it.
"What is that?"
= Scanning in progress, but expect nothing. That is unheard of. During the inner force cultivation era, cultivators could not see these rings. It is said that the destruction of the cultivation world shifted the very laws of the world, thus creating spirit masters. It was so because the source of the power of these demons lay in primal chaos that they brought during invasion messing up this world for good.
"So that's a soul ring of demons?"
= Presumably yes.
"Let's hope I won't grow horns."
= Do it through the same method of Horont-Krondan pair. This demon is unpredictable, it might have a very tenacious mind and even a fraction of a soul in the ring can endanger your life.
Aiden readily agreed. No one wants to die young. But just as Horont touched it, his snake spirit unexpectedly felt agitated and Aiden felt it intent.
"You want the crown?" – he asked without expecting the answer, but to his astonishment silver snake nodded! It really nodded! – "Holy moly… okay… fine… you want the crown… well… go ahead, I guess."
Aiden guided aura of his snake to the crown with bewilderment still present on his face. This beautiful part of the ring, after Nexus finished its scan, went out in a puff like it was never there, but what happened next made Aiden's day.
The snake suddenly roared to the sky, unleashing tremendous aura of such divine ancientness, that he felt like an ant in front of a god. Silver aura went out of his body in waves, cleansing his flesh and bones, making it anew. His eyes turned platinum with a purple corona around the edges and his hair although never changed color, now had a strange feel to it. They almost felt metallic, shining with platinum luster, making Aiden's appearance very attractive and mysterious.
Snake spirit grew in size tremendously, but that's just a premise for earth-shattering change. On its forehead, second horn protruded proudly, facing the heavens in defiance. It firmly stood on its four mighty legs and spread huge wings on the back.
'Snake? That is no snake, that is a true-blue western dragon!'
And then a name of renewed spirit came to mind.
Two Horned Platinum Dragon.
What Five Clawed Golden Dragon? Here he, your father, has a platinum one, dare to compete?
But what astonished, even more, is the feeling of regal dominance with which it suppressed demon ring and made it integrate with Aiden's body out of its own volition. Nexus was right in his conjecture that the ring might have a hidden danger. This crafty demon not only tried to attack his mind, but the ring was tainted with its corrupt force. Perhaps, all the rings of demons are such.
It will simply give birth to another demon after a period of time if not purified properly!
"This is really sinister." – said Aiden while comfortably surveying how platinum aura expelled all harmful substances and purified everything. But what made him stare at disbelief is that silver power seized the place of a greenish one, enhancing the ring and making it way stronger. Its pressure jumped to extra heights. Ring integration went as easy as breathing and his body could withstand it with ease. – "Nexus, what is the optimal age for second spirit ring?"
= Master, you went over four times the level possible. Normally the second ring of spirit master will be yellow and at a maximum 764 years old. The platinum-purple ring you integrated with is 3156 years old! And I have excellent news for you. That spirit of yours is not simple at all. It enhanced your body and helped you build a very solid foundation. Now you can withstand ten thousand years of age of spirit rings. And your body changed in aura too. Try using your sword.
Aiden held a bone sword in his hand and felt Dragon Sword Aura of regal platinum color with golden shine flow into it. However, it wasn't mastered yet and he will need some time to merge the two together thoroughly.
"I finally reached the level of sword aura and it mixed with dragon aura of my spirit, strengthening it."
He then unleashed his second ring and found out new abilities. His dragon spirit gave him a very useful ability to summon a sword of platinum ice and purple lightning, which felt somewhat demonic!
It was called Hell's Bane and had a very tyrannical nature. What's more – the more age the ring has, the sturdier and sharper it becomes. Even now it was over two times better than the bone sword he created.
As for spirit power, it was required only for summoning and repair, other than that it consumed nothing.
What slightly dampen his excitement is that damned twig.
Although ability was exceptional, boosting attack power by half for a minute with no side effects with a possibility of doing it again for the same target after just five minutes, he saw second flower bloom with platinum color.
Well, that gave a sure kill answer. Yes, after the third ring he would face a bottleneck that would be unsurmountable unless he found a way to grow more buds for this damned stick.
'Seven Tiled Glazed Pagoda. I feel you. Rong Rong, poor little cutie.'
"I better hide its body and then dispose of it. Horont, it's your entrance."
= Master, while you are at it, I want to tell you something. Have you noticed that the demon never used his demon ring?
"Well…" - that put Aiden in a pinch because it was true. In a sense, he was extremely lucky. Who knows what abilities that demon had?
= My point is, for three thousand years old who already had its powers sealed and could barely move with no way to utilize anything it still could hurl a fireball and had a halberd, that was neither skill, nor a summon, but an actual soul bound artifact that was destroyed with its death. Why is that?
"Its spirit power was sealed… meaning it can use another path of cultivation like me? And what's more… their civilization seems to be significantly more advanced." – the threat these creatures pose to the world went a notch higher.
= I believe yes, it's a dual path cultivator and they can forge powerful artifacts. And also, its soul rings seem to be very peculiar and more powerful. The crown inside was a very potent life force crucible. If my guess is right – this crown is a key to perform a proper aging process, not a pseudo one from your novel knowledge.
"That's unexpected. Can we synthesize one?"
= We can, but I would need time to tune it for your rings.
"Wait… I feel something wrong. This demon in terms of spirit cultivation resembled a spirit beast more than a human, it had only one ring as a core of its life, so… now, this can be terrible news."
= Master, you mean it can age itself through devouring others? That is indeed troubling matter…
"And if it has a method to do so, what spirit beast won't be tempted? Well, it's just a hunch, but the one that might ally spirit beasts with demons." – Aiden pulverized the demon body with Horont and filled some rare ingredient spaces of Lonzaik. That was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.
He then stood up completely refreshed and stretched joints, which clicked giving pleasure.
"That felt good. Eh? I feel like I grew taller."
= Not only that, although your bone age remained the same, your body also reached a level of an eight-year-old child. With each consequent ring, this process will go on. Technically, reaching a Spirit King realm will let you be an eighteen to twenty years old youth regardless of actual age.
"I didn't know that!" – Aiden rejoiced inside. He can grow up prematurely and doesn't have to wait for many years.
= I believe I mentioned it before.
"You did?"
= Master. You have an eidetic memory, don't you?
"Not really eidetic, but close to it. Well, whatever." – he waved it off and returned to the cave not minding this minor issue. This ring didn't propel his cultivation further than to the twenty-second layer. That was amazing, but it should be the dragon's fault. It took much to evolve. He set down to meditate and cultivate, and the process went several times faster and smoother.