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What special venues did the Sanbao City Advanced Soul Master Academy have?
Before coming, Xu Yuan had indeed investigated but found no clear leads.
The Celestial Star Soul Academy had memories from his past life to guide him, making it easier to uncover information.
As for the Sanbao City Advanced Soul Master Academy, Xu Yuan only learned about it through Li Zhilong's recommendation.
"Hahaha, do you know what our Sanbao City is famous for producing?" Chen Feiyang laughed and asked.
This, Xu Yuan did know.
His visit to Sanbao City also carried the intention of restocking supplies.
"Sanbao City controls three major mines, producing three rare metals in abundance: Spirit Crystals, Azure Iron, and Adamantine."
These three rare metals were among the scarcest on the continent, though not strictly controlled by the military. They were highly prized, and Sanbao City derived its name from them.
"Correct," Chen Feiyang nodded with a smile. "Among the three rare metals, Spirit Crystals can be forged into various elemental crystals to assist in converting and harnessing different elemental forces. Azure Iron enhances elemental affinity and conductivity, while Adamantine amplifies elemental potency."
The three rare metals also mutually reinforced each other, forming the unique characteristic of Sanbao City.
"The most distinctive training program at our Sanbao City Advanced Soul Master Academy is elemental refinement."
"Elemental refinement?"
Xu Yuan's eyes lit up.
With just a brief explanation from Chen Feiyang, he grasped the underlying principle.
A training venue constructed primarily from these three rare metals, huh? It sounded impressive.
Xu Yuan himself had mastery over the five elements and star power, and he often used these elements to refine his soul power and physical body.
However, there was a significant difference between one's own innate powers and external forces. Moreover, the effects of self-induced activation versus external pressure were vastly different.
"Our Sanbao City Advanced Soul Master Academy has an Elemental Sea—a structure built primarily from Spirit Crystals, Azure Iron, and Adamantine, combined with soul-guided formations. It continuously gathers vast amounts of elemental energy. Practicing within it allows one to use the ambient elemental energy to refine their soul power, physique, and even battle armor."
Listening to Chen Feiyang's explanation, Xu Yuan felt a sense of admiration.
Every advanced soul master academy had its unique features, especially those that weren't weak—they all had ways to attract students. The Sanbao City Advanced Soul Master Academy and the Celestial Star Soul Academy were both among the best second-tier academies with deep foundations.
Using elemental energy for refinement was likely the defining feature of the Sanbao City Advanced Soul Master Academy.
Xu Yuan didn't think this elemental refinement would bring any qualitative improvement to himself—it would only contribute incrementally—but it would greatly benefit those like Wu Siduo who hadn't been exposed to such training.
Xu Yuan's main objective this time was still the three rare metals produced in Sanbao City—he planned to purchase them in bulk.
Most of the students at the Sanbao City Advanced Soul Master Academy were power-type or defense-type soul masters. Soon, the academy's team gathered at the training grounds for an exchange match with Shrek's ten members.
As for Xu Yuan, Wu Siduo, and Xu Yucheng, they fought against the three Soul Kings arranged by Chen Feiyang.
Xu Yucheng narrowly won after giving it his all.
Xu Yuan and Wu Siduo, on the other hand, achieved decisive victories without question.
"Junior Xu, your body is too weak," Chen Feiyang remarked as he approached Xu Yucheng, shaking his head in resignation.
"Your Death Scythe martial soul is strong in all aspects, but I thought your four yellow soul rings were due to poor choices when selecting your spirit. I didn't expect your body to truly be this weak—unable to handle higher-level soul rings."
Xu Yucheng's face flushed red, hoping Senior Chen would stop talking.
How could a man be called weak?
But Xu Yucheng couldn't refute it.
His body really was too weak. In the earlier battle, if it were another Soul Ancestor—or rather, if he had the physical strength of any average Soul Ancestor—he wouldn't have struggled so much for victory.
"You should've experienced star power refinement at Old Li's place, right? How are you still so fragile?"
Chen Feiyang patted Xu Yucheng's shoulder and squeezed it lightly, feeling how frail this junior truly was.
Was the backlash from the Death Scythe martial soul this severe?
"Senior Chen, don't say anything more about him. I estimate that in a few years, once he breaks through to become a Soul King and completes his battle armor, things will change," Xu Yuan said.
Oh?
"His weakness stems from the backlash of his martial soul, so solving this issue requires addressing the martial soul itself. However, artificially inducing martial soul mutations is difficult and risky, so Xu Yucheng's plan is likely to compensate for this flaw with battle armor."
Currently, his martial soul was oppressing his body, making him appear weak.
In reality, once his battle armor took over and compensated for this flaw, Xu Yucheng's physical capabilities would immediately reach the top tier.
Yes, no one knew exactly how many rare treasures Xu Yucheng had consumed to boost his physical attributes or how much effort he had put into training his body.
At the very least, Xu Yuan could sense it. Yesterday, at the observatory of the Celestial Star Soul Academy, aside from exceptional cases like Ye Xinglan and Xu Xiaoyan, Xu Yucheng was the quickest to enter a state of refinement using star power, and his overall results were the best.
Under normal circumstances, Xu Yucheng might have needed two-word battle armor to achieve this level, as standard one-word battle armor only fused with the soul master while worn.
However, if crafted from spirit alloy, one-word battle armor would continuously fuse with and nourish the soul master.
With both Xu Yuan and Tang Wulin present, Xu Yucheng likely stood a chance of having his one-word battle armor fully crafted from spirit alloy.
It wasn't just Xu Yucheng who had hope. Many talented classmates, including several others in their group, had the potential to incorporate spirit alloy into critical components of their one-word battle armor.
During the transition from one-word to two-word battle armor, transferring and inheriting the spiritual essence was the most crucial and time-consuming step. If spirit alloy components were used in the one-word battle armor to carry this spiritual essence, upgrading to two-word battle armor would be much smoother.
"That valley ahead is the Elemental Sea. Go deeper inside, assess the concentration of elements you can endure, and then remain in place to refine your body using elemental energy," Chen Feiyang pointed toward the valley ahead.
The valley was filled with colorful elemental energy, converging to form a kaleidoscopic sea—it truly was the Elemental Sea.
Gu Yue stepped forward first. Being most familiar with elemental energy, she quickly entered the depths of the Elemental Sea and disappeared from sight.
Fang Yuan, Wu Siduo, and the others followed swiftly.
Finally, only Xu Yuan and Chen Feiyang remained outside.
"Junior, aren't you going to try it out?"
"Not yet. Actually, I wanted to ask you, Senior, how we can procure large quantities of Sanbao City's three treasures."
(T/N: Funfact, 'three treasures' in Chinese is pronounced as Sanbao, equivalent to him saying '... Sanbao City's sanbao' lol)
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