Disclaimer!
Besides my original characters, the other characters do not belong to me (I'll name them when they appear). I am not making any money off this story, and am merely writing Fan Fiction.
I hope you enjoy Soul Land: Generation Talents Journey :)
"40?" Qi Long's eyes widened. To the side, Ning Tian Cheng asked. "Teacher, you can't be mistaken, right?"
"Absolutely not, other reasons I'll tell you in the future, but the reasons I listed so far completely factor in."
"The future is the future," Gu Yan Ling said, almost jumping half a metre forward toward Cao Li Yang. "Teacher! What's my spirit power? It should be something less than Big Brother Qi since I'm a year younger, but it can't be too low!"
"Over rank 30,"
"Rank 30?" Before she could ask more questions the other 5 children were all asking about their own spirit power. Cao Li Yang calmly answered. "Zu Que, Dan Guo and Ning Tian Cheng are also around rank 30 while Ning Tian Cheng and Bai Shu are over rank 30. Lan Jing Hua is over rank 10. You each have different ages so the ranks are naturally different. As for your precise spirit power, it's something you should know after finishing getting all of your required spirit rings at the moment," Among the 7 of them, aged eldest to youngest was Qi Long, Gu Yan Ling, Zu Que, Dan Guo, Ning Tian Cheng, Bai Shu, and Lan Jing Hua. From the 1st to the 2nd, they had only a year of age in between them, as goes for the 2nd and 3rd, 3rd and 4th, and so on.
"Teacher Cao," Lan Jing Hua asked. "How come I also have over ranked 10 spirit power? I thought I only had my spirit awakening a while back?"
"There is something called innate spirit power," Cao Li Yang said. "It's when upon spirit awakening one's spirit power is already at the maximum. There may be some cases where the spirit power is over rank 10, as all of you. Xiao Jing is quite interesting, it seemed to be a little over rank 20." In his heart, the one he was most worried about was Lan Jing Hua. Out of all of them she was the one who started following him at the youngest age, but at the same time, she was the most peculiar one. There were thousands of spirits in the world, even so much so that he couldn't be aware of every single one of them, especially when variants and other rare ones kept on showing up. Perhaps her cultivation in time would even surpass Qi Long's, but it was because she was only 6 now that he wasn't sure if it would have any other problems arising.
"Teacher Cao," Bai Shu said. "Our spirit power is already so high, why can't we absorb higher level spirit rings?"
"Although spirit power does play a factor into what age limit spirit ring a spirit master can absorb, it isn't everything. An example of another factor is your body's limit, this is still the first spirit ring, and your first time absorbing."
"Then how come your first spirit ring is black?" Bai Shu asked.
"My first spirit ring was initially yellow as well. I know you want to ask about this, but it is something I'll tell you in the future. Trust me,"
"We'll still be reaping several spirit rings this time then," Zu Que remarked. "Teacher Cao, what are your suggestions for which spirit beasts? You said that certain spirit beasts will be more likely to give certain abilities, right?" As a god, Cao Li Yang also had the ability to give god-blessed spirit rings which could be considered much better than regular ones. However, even having all 10 spirit rings, he was contained on the mortal planet. The best rings would naturally be given to the more important ranks, or higher ranks, Cao Li Yang had decided on the latter for them. He didn't believe that these children wouldn't be able to reach Title Dou Luo level, and even more so unable to withstand an older spirit ring he could bestow upon them. However the rarity of these spirit beasts was quite high, so rather than try giving lower level rings on a rank such as 30, he chose to give god-bestowed rings at rank 70 and beyond. That would mean 21 spirit rings in total. My, Cao Li Yang had thought to himself. I better not slack off too much either, even if I am constrained here, I can still improve my skills.
"Correct," Cao Li Yang answered. "I already have in mind several spirit beasts, but it'll depend on how well things go. On the way, I'll tell you about spirit beasts and how you can tell it's age. These indications will naturally be different for certain spirit beasts, but that is something we'll get to later,"
There were several different spirit beast forests on the Dou Luo continent, however out of all of them there were 3 that were the largest. Out of those top 3, the Star Dou Forest ranked first, it's area taking a large amount of both empires, and a few kingdoms in between. It was this spirit beast forest that they were going to, not only incredibly large, it also was the best quality spirit beast forest that was closest to them.
They walked for at least a week before arriving at Star Dou Forest. Soon they found themselves in the outskirts of the forest. "Remember to always be alert," Cao Li Yang reminded as they trekked ahead. "Right now it's better since you have me with you, but in the future I'll send you out to kill spirit beasts by yourselves. Even then, although you'll have spirit abilities, you'll be trying to kill much stronger spirit beasts. I truly believe you are able to do this, but I really don't want the young to perish before the old,"
"Yes!" They went around the forest for several hours, encountering all sorts of spirit beasts, however none that suited them to Cao Li Yang's wishes so far. Out of the 7 of them, after so long only Zu Que managed to get a spirit ring which Cao Li Yang was satisfied with. "Teacher Cao," Bai Shu said. "We already used up a lot of food. Shouldn't we try leaving as soon as possible? What if we run out?"
"Spirit ring hunting will take a lot of time. If we rush it, this trip will definitely not have some of the greatest benefits possible," Cao Li Yang smiled then rustled his hair. "Don't worry. This idea of yours is right, but you're with me. Rations are not a problem, with my years of experience I can easily tell what plants in this forest are edible,"
"Teacher Cao," Lan Jing Hua said, after much thinking. "I somewhat feel that you're tricking us. You're so powerful, so your domain must be as well. Spirit beasts and spirit masters are not so different in many aspects, so wouldn't that revealing skill of your domain work on spirit beasts too?"
After a moment's pause, Cao Li Yang gave a hearty laugh. "Seems I've been figured out, but this is still for all of your experience. Like how Xiao Shu said, people will be impatient and want to leave. Throughout this trip, I'll tell you more about spirit beast hunting as well as what plants you can eat,"
"Teacher Cao," Dan Guo asked. "Have you been leading us in circles though?"
"Don't worry. I'm just going in random directions, it's up to you to get a feeling of this, and also use what you see in your surroundings to spirit beasts you think have been nearby. I won't always be with you," They continued walking for a small while before stopping at the notice of some marks of a scuffle on the floor. "A fight," Dan Guo noted. "We're still in the outer parts of the forest, so it had to be with lower aged spirit beasts. I'm assuming that younger spirit beasts probably won't worry too much about territory unless the area is very valuable. If not then it should be food, or spirit beast clan grudges. Either way these scuffle marks show that it was probably strong hundred thousand beasts, probably at least over 500 years,"
Cao Li Yang gave a nod. "Good, very perceptive,"
"Although the marks are really messy," Qi Long added. "They seem to be heading more to the east," Both of these intuitions were right and led them straight to two spirit beasts. In the beginning since all of them didn't have any spirit rings, they couldn't do much and only let Cao Li Yang do most of the work before the spirit beast was killed by one of them. Though the work wasn't too much for their Teacher Cao either. Cao Li Yang's spirit configuration was really strange, and didn't want it to be seen if they accidentally ran into other spirit masters. Another reason was a certain sense of pride, in the end, he was still a god ranked Dou Luo! In his opinion, having to use spirit abilities to deal with 100 year spirit beasts was quite shameful. Thus he only released some of his aura towards the spirit beast, giving them an opportunity to try killing it.
However, now that Zu Que had an ability. He would give even less pressure from his spirit power, which gave more openings for the spirit beast to escape, but also gave more for Zu Que to attack. Her first ability was from a fire type spirit beast whose age was precisely 821 years of age. It was called Vermillion Flame Cannon. She was able to fire a large flame-based cannon-like attack that had great power, explosiveness, as well as range. It would continue to fire in that direction without halt, never mind stopping after a distance, unless she chose for it to, ran out of spirit power, or it hit something that overcame its ability, then it would continue. Though, she still had to be wary about how much power she released lest she killed the spirit beasts whose rings her friends were to absorb or harmed an opponent in just a friendly match.
The absorption process's speed depended on factors such as the spirit master's own spirit power, the spirit ring's age and such. So all of them didn't take over 10 minutes to absorb their spirit rings. After a couple minutes, both Gu Yan Ling and Ning Tian Cheng, who the spirit beasts suited, had gotten up with their first spirit ring. "Sister Gu! Brother Ning!" Lan Jing Hua asked. "What are your new abilities?"
Gu Yan Ling smiled and put an index finger to the centre of her lips. "It's a secret for now, but you'll witness it the next time we find a spirit beast. Zu Que, that ability of yours looks pretty good, wait until you all see mine!"
Ning Tian Cheng gave a light cough to the side.
Gu Yan Ling corrected herself putting an arm around his shoulders. "Ours. Though I truly have to hold back. The Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda must give me some extraordinary boost,"
"Unfortunately, it won't be maximized for you," Ning Tian Cheng gave a small shake of his head. "My first spirit ability increases strength by 35%. I'll get a speed assisting effect in the future for your agility though,"
"Sure! Thanks," Gu Yan Ling smiled, and gave a small sigh. "My first ability has restraints as well. It's called Dash. It is great for escape, and I don't think there's a scenario I can't escape from with this ability, but it doesn't have any offensive power. I'll have to make up for it with later abilities,"
It's been a while! How is everyone? I feel like I'm thinking too much about math for their spirit power ranks and should just go with the flow. Next chapter some familiar faces from the Canon Universe are going to appear!