He spent hours trying to perfect the Spirit Blade and combine it with the other Element. But no matter the approach he took, the merge was never adequate.
He could feel the resistance of the Spirit Mana to merge with other elements, that even his Master Rank MANA MANIPULATION didn't have a chance to force it to happen, which was a first.
Nonetheless, he had made some progress by studying the energy of the seashell, which seemed to be the mana of the spirit child that it released to the environment. It was a combination of Spirit and Water Mana, but its structure was completely different; that's why Shingi didn't recognize what it was. He could use it to make some water elemental of his own, but if he used just the energy and no part of the Spirit Child, he had to control them manually since they had no 'soul.'
But this gave him an idea, and he tried to combine this energy with his GOLEMANCY spell.