Three days later, with everything arranged, Mu Yang and Shui Bing'er departed from the Slaughter City and returned to the academy.
Using the Asura God Sword brand at the center of his brow as a guide, he activated the divine power within the Asura statue in the temple, regranting the Law Enforcement Team the authority to use spirit abilities inside the Slaughter City.
With a formation that included one Titled Douluo at the nine-ring level, seven Soul Douluo at the eight-ring level, more than twenty Soul Sages at the seventh-ring, and over a hundred Soul Emperors at the sixth-ring, they were more than capable of maintaining order in the Slaughter City.
And Mu Yang had not neglected to arrange a backup plan. He entrusted the High Priest "Shang" within the Asura secret realm to intervene should an unexpected crisis occur.
With a god-level expert holding the field, Mu Yang had no worries of unforeseen accidents—unless another god-level powerhouse came.
But what god-level being would dare act recklessly in the Slaughter City?
The Asura deity had tolerated the Rakshasa God's ambush on Tang Chen only because it was part of Tang Chen's divine trial. Any other god-level being who dared stir trouble here would likely be struck down immediately by an Asura Judgment descending from the heavens.
After returning to the academy, Mu Yang did not rush to challenge Qian Daoliu or Bo Saixi.
After all, those two half-gods were only half a step away from true godhood, standing at the very peak beneath divinity. With even a single amplifying soul ability, their strength could temporarily rise to the god level, no weaker than his Ice Phoenix Flame Shadow. They were not at all comparable to the half-crippled evil-obsessed Tang Chen.
Furthermore, Mu Yang's own strength still had considerable room for improvement, and since there was no time limit on the trial, he felt no urgency.
He planned to wait until he had completed the eighth and ninth spirit rings of the Iceflame Holy Shadow and condensed his third spirit core before attempting the trial.
But completing those spirit rings in the near future seemed impossible.
Among the many existing rings on his two Martial Souls, quite a few were of extremely high years. With his current physical condition, he could not bear to once again condense a ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine-year Iceflame Holy Shadow eighth ring, let alone a ninth.
If he were to directly use a god-bestowed spirit ring to forcefully condense the eighth ring now, it would be nothing but a wasteful loss.
Unable to raise his soul power level further, he needed to change his condition another way. That meant condensing a third spirit core, enhancing the quality of his soul power, and then raising his body's fitness through pushing the training thresholds of Solar Body Refinement.
Or else, he could deduce a secret technique to increase the age of spirit bones, allowing his physical strength to rise alongside their years.
The former option seemed unlikely. His soul power had surged from level 90, quasi-Titled Douluo, to level 98, Titled Douluo, in just a few months. Naturally, his soul power control had dropped dramatically. In addition, his previous advantage of overwhelming spiritual power compared to soul power was gone. Condensing a third, yin-yang complementary spirit core would be unimaginably difficult—it was definitely impossible in the near future.
The latter option, however, seemed much more promising. Mu Yang could faintly sense that the long-awaited secret method for enhancing spirit bone years was not far from being revealed.
Of course, it was only something he could look forward to.
Even if the secret art emerged, actually increasing the age of his spirit bones through it would be a process, requiring dual progress in both practice and development.
Thus, after returning to the academy, aside from deducing secret methods, Mu Yang spent nearly all his time improving his soul power control.
Time passed swiftly. In the blink of an eye, more than a month had gone by.
One deep night, beneath the moonlight on his balcony, Mu Yang sat bathed in silvery radiance, activating his talent of deduction to derive new secret methods.
Suddenly, the ripples of spiritual power emanating from him calmed. Opening his eyes, a faint smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
The secret method to enhance spirit bone years… had finally been born!
And to Mu Yang's delight, the technique not only worked on spirit bones but was equally effective for spirit rings—there was no distinction between them.
Which meant he no longer needed to separately deduce a method for raising spirit ring years.
"Let's call it… the Spirit Ascension Method."
After pondering briefly, Mu Yang named this art, capable of raising both spirit ring and spirit bone years, the Spirit Ascension Method.
Its name derived from the Spirit Ascension Platform of later generations, where one could enter and slay spirit beasts to increase the years of spirit rings.
Without delay, Mu Yang immediately began running the Spirit Ascension Method.
At once, the surrounding heaven and earth energy surged toward him, flooding into his body, then transforming into a strange spiritual force that streamed directly into his head.
With the Spirit Ascension Method complete, Mu Yang chose to prioritize increasing the years of his spirit bones rather than his spirit rings.
After all, raising ring years would only increase the strain on his ability to bear them, hindering his chances of condensing the eighth and ninth god-bestowed rings for his Iceflame Holy Shadow.
By increasing the years of his spirit bones first, he could enhance his physical condition, which would instead aid him in condensing the higher rings sooner.
External spirit bones could evolve in years naturally as his level rose, so he didn't need to target those. The ones requiring ascension were only the six from the six standard spirit bone slots.
Yet, Mu Yang's first choice was not the trunk or limb bones, which improved physical fitness, but rather the Wisdom Skull of Spiritual Condensation, which increased spiritual power.
The Wisdom Skull was the weakest of his bones, only sixty-thousand-plus years old, while the others in his trunk and limbs were all over a hundred-thousand years. Its presence was glaring, dragging down the overall caliber of his spirit bone configuration.
More importantly, for Mu Yang at this stage, what he urgently needed was not only physical strength but also spiritual power.
Greater spiritual power would aid him in condensing his third spirit core.
Once the third core was formed, the quality of his soul power would leap dramatically. At that point, his physical constitution could then be strengthened further through the supreme art of Solar Body Refinement.
Thus, he decided to raise the Wisdom Skull to the hundred-thousand-year level before working on the others.
Time trickled on. The moon sank, the sun rose, and morning arrived.
"Tch~, the efficiency is a little lacking."
As he ended his cultivation, Mu Yang felt the slight increase in years within his Wisdom Skull and couldn't help but feel a tinge of regret.
Indeed, there were shortcuts in the world, but even a shortcut was rarely a straight and easy road.
From the pace of the Wisdom Skull's growth last night, it was clear: bringing all his spirit rings and bones to ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine years was not something that could be accomplished quickly. It would take at least three years, perhaps even more.
Yes, ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine years—not a million.
Perhaps because the million-year level had already crossed into the divine realm, the upper limit of the Spirit Ascension Method was the same as god-bestowed spirit rings: one step short of a million years.
A single year's difference, yet the divide between mortal and god. Mu Yang felt no small measure of regret at that.