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From this, one can see that the methods for a Soul Master to strengthen their Martial Soul origin are by no means limited to the single act of absorbing soul rings.
Whether based on the philosophy of the Extream Stream or the Fusion Stream, the evolution and transformation of a human's Martial Soul share immense similarities with the evolution of a soul beast's bloodline.
One could even say they share the exact same essence.
Logically, there should be a certain degree of similarity in their cultivation as well.
Human Soul Masters possess a Martial Soul origin, while soul beasts possess their own bloodline origin. Soul Masters use the absorption of soul rings as their primary means to expand their origin power.
Soul beasts, however, cannot absorb soul rings.
Even though some carnivorous soul beasts can increase their cultivation and strengthen their bloodline by devouring the flesh and blood of other beasts, their efficiency is usually incomparable to the process of a Soul Master's Martial Soul absorbing a soul ring.
Furthermore, there are always soul beasts that do not consume flesh, such as herbivores and plant-type soul beasts. They rely more on slow cultivation and the excavation of their own potential to strengthen their origin power.
This proves one thing: pure soul power can also strengthen a soul beast's bloodline origin. This also explains why, compared to human Soul Masters, the cultivation speed of soul beasts appears to be significantly slower.
Applying this to the cultivation of human Soul Masters, soul power itself can enhance the Martial Soul origin besides just absorbing soul rings, though the nourishing effect of soul power is not nearly as obvious as the impact of a soul ring.
Thus, even without considering other methods to strengthen the Martial Soul origin, the fact that soul power alone can do so is enough to explain why Hu Liena's path toward the Nine-Tails and the cultivation of ordinary Tool Martial Souls do not fall behind in the later stages.
While they may appear disadvantaged in the beginning compared to those born with top-tier Martial Souls, they will not be inferior in the end.
The reason is that the tier of a Martial Soul determines the upper limit of the origin power a Soul Master can possess at their current cultivation level.
It is true that top-tier Soul Master can absorb rings from beasts with powerful bloodlines starting from their first ring.
Because their racial bloodline is strong, they will be more powerful after absorption even if the ring's age is the same, thanks to their naturally superior origin foundation.
However, take Hu Liena as an example.
Even if she cannot choose soul beasts significantly stronger than her Charming Fox during the early stages of Devouring Evolution—meaning she must settle for mid-tier beasts—and even if this causes her origin power to seem weaker than a top-tier Soul Master's at the same ring age...
This is only true in the early stages.
As long as Hu Liena follows her cultivation path and evolves her Charming Fox into a top-tier Martial Soul, she will eventually possess the same origin power limit as those born with top-tier souls.
Once she reaches the nine-ring stage, even if her origin power is initially lower than theirs, the nourishment of her soul power over time will allow her to expand her origin to the absolute limit allowed by her current Martial Soul tier.
She will truly display the power of a top-tier Martial Soul. She won't be weaker than others in the late game just because her early soul rings were relatively weak.
The same applies to the cultivation of ordinary Tool Martial Souls.
This principle is mirrored in soul beasts as well.
If a soul beast with a lower bloodline tier manages to cultivate to the One Hundred Thousand-Year level, its bloodline will undergo a transformation and evolve into a top-tier beast.
With continued cultivation, its total origin power will be no different from a beast born with a top-tier bloodline.
The same is true for ordinary plants or animals that, by chance, gain a sliver of intelligence and learn to absorb the energy of heaven and earth to evolve into soul beasts, eventually upgrading their race to the top-tier.
Take Tang San's mother, for instance.
She began as a common Blue Silver Grass, but she eventually cultivated into the top-tier soul beast known as the Blue Silver Emperor, and she was in no way inferior to other top-tier beasts of the same level.
In a sense, this is a manifestation of heaven's fairness.
Whether it is a human's Martial Soul or a soul beast, even if they start out weak, there is a possibility of reaching the absolute peak. They will not be even slightly inferior to those born with powerful bloodlines.
It is no longer a matter of pure "bloodline theory."
The achievements of a living being are not entirely determined by birth. Even a naturally weak Martial Soul or bloodline has the potential to stand at the summit of the world.
Moreover, for Hu Liena, it isn't strictly true that she must exclusively choose the Devouring Evolution path and settle for mid-tier soul beasts in the beginning to reach the Nine-Tails state.
If she is lucky enough to find a superior species from the Charming Fox race or its sub-branches, she can undergo Fusion Evolution with a more pronounced effect.
For Martial Souls below the high-tier rank, this strengthens the origin more significantly than the self-based growth of Devouring Evolution.
Furthermore, because it is a superior species of the same "Fox" category, even if she is influenced by the soul ring's power, it won't derail her path toward the Nine-Tails.
For example, Hu Liena's first soul ring came from a Charm Heart Fox with a cultivation of just over four hundred years.
The Charm Heart Fox is a branch of the Charming Fox race, naturally possessing impressive spiritual power and specializing in the power of charm.
For the Hu Liena of that time, who was positioned as a Spirit Control System Soul Master, this was extremely suitable—no worse than a pure-blooded Charming Fox.
After all, while the Charming Fox race also has strong spiritual power, they do not specialize in charm as exclusively as the Charm Heart Fox. The Charming Fox race possesses spiritual control but is also skilled in spiritual attacks.
Simply put, in terms of innate talent for charm, the Charming Fox is inferior to its branch, the Charm Heart Fox, though its overall spiritual abilities are more comprehensive.
Therefore, the Charm Heart Fox was not only a branch of her own race with high compatibility, but its specialization also made it easier for Hu Liena's first soul skill to manifest as a Charm-type skill.
This helped her learn how to trigger her Martial Soul to exert charm through her own strength. More importantly, the Charm Heart Fox hunted back then was no ordinary one—it was a three-tailed Charm Heart Fox.
In terms of racial bloodline, a normal Charm Heart Fox is the same as a normal Charming Fox; both are mid-tier soul beasts. However, as they cultivate and their rank increases, they grow more tails, and their bloodline undergoes a transformation.
For fox-type soul beasts, three tails, six tails, and nine tails are the three most critical stages. Whether it is a Charming Fox, a Flame Fox, or any other fox-type beast and its sub-branches, they are usually mid-tier soul beasts when they have only one tail.
Once they grow three tails, their bloodline reaches the peak of the mid-tier. After breaking through to four tails, they formally promote to high-tier soul beasts. Six tails represent the peak of the high-tier, and so on.
Seven tails mark the promotion to a top-tier soul beast, while nine tails represent the absolute peak of top-tier soul beasts—not a single bit inferior to the origin levels of Martial Souls like the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon or the Clear Sky Hammer.
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Enjoying the story? Support the translation and get early access to future chapters here: www.patr eon.com/c/FanficTranslator
Thanks for reading!
I have 100+ advanced chapter now on Patreon. I will post 5 advanced chapter on Patreon everyday except Sunday