"I just don't know… in the future, will the Asura God be able to make up for this final missing year?"
Mu Yang could not help but wonder inwardly.
Looking through the original story, aside from the tenth ring that appeared upon reaching level one hundred and becoming a god, other million-year spirit rings were not unheard of. Tang San's second Martial Soul—the Clear Sky Hammer—had one as its ninth ring.
Tang San's ninth ring for the Clear Sky Hammer came from the Deep Sea Demon Whale King. Yet, the Deep Sea Demon Whale King was not truly a million-year-old beast; its actual age was only close to a million.
That Tang San was able to absorb it and transform the near-million-year Deep Sea Demon Whale King's ring into a crimson-gold million-year ring—if one said the Asura God or Sea God Poseidon had not secretly intervened, Mu Yang would never believe it.
Since Tang San in the original received such treatment, as the successor to the Asura God's position, should Mu Yang not also be entitled to a similar privilege?
At this thought, Mu Yang could not help but feel a surge of expectation.
He was not asking for the Asura deity to grant him the same reward Poseidon had given Tang San in the original—when Tang San became Sea God, all his rings were raised by fifty thousand years. He only hoped that the Asura deity might grant him something like: all spirit rings and bones increased by just one year.
Compared to fifty thousand years, a single year was very little, was it not?
Mm, hopefully the Asura deity could lend him this much strength.
Given how heaven-defying the Spirit Ascension Method was, Mu Yang spent another half month deducing a special secret technique, during which he also produced weakened versions of the Ascension Method, dividing it into three versions.
Spirit Ascension Method 1.0: maximum increase of ten thousand years for spirit rings and bones.
Spirit Ascension Method 2.0: maximum increase of one hundred thousand years for spirit rings and bones.
Spirit Ascension Method 3.0: the complete version, maximum increase of ninety-nine-thousand-nine-hundred-and-ninety-nine years.
Ordinary academy students were not considered. The 1.0 version would only be available to gifted students and teachers who would remain at the academy for life—true insiders.
The 2.0 version would only be taught to academy upper ranks who had already reached nine rings.
As for the perfect 3.0 version, for now Mu Yang would pass it only to Shui Bing'er.
Of course, in the future, if Huo Lie, Mu Xiyue, Shui Yue'er, Huo Wu, and others opened their divine trials and had already mastered the 2.0 version, with all their spirit rings and bones reaching one hundred thousand years and finding no further progress possible, then the 3.0 version would also be opened to them.
Weakening the Ascension Method was not particularly difficult. With the complete version already deduced, creating two weaker ones was an easy task—Mu Yang finished it in just one day.
The bulk of those two weeks he had devoted to deducing that special secret method.
Undeniably, the Spirit Ascension Method was too heaven-defying. Even the weakest 1.0 version would be enough to drive soul masters of the outside world insane.
With Ascension 1.0, any spirit master with optimal ring configurations could raise their first to fourth rings to the ten-thousand-year level, making all of their rings begin at that baseline.
Even if one purchased a set of mediocre, low-priced hundred-year spirit bones, using Ascension 1.0 they could transform them into an entire set of ten-thousand-year bones.
Though raising ring and bone years via Ascension did not increase one's soul power level, the improvements in physical functions provided by the rings and bones themselves still fully applied.
Four rings raised to the ten-thousand-year level, plus a complete set of ten-thousand-year bones—this would be enough to push many higher-level soul masters stuck at bottlenecks through their nine-level limits into the next realm.
And that was merely the 1.0 version. With the 2.0 version, the upper limit for rings and bones was one hundred thousand years.
It was easy to foresee: once the Ascension Method's true effects became known, no matter how strong the Elemental Sacred Academy was, they could not ensure the method would never leak out.
After all, if it could not be seized openly, would they not simply kidnap someone who knew it, and have a mental-type expert with hypnotic techniques force it out of them?
To prevent any leak of the secret art entirely, Mu Yang deduced a spiritual secret method, which he named the Heart Demon Lock.
The effect of the Heart Demon Lock was simple. The caster activated the technique and, provided the target did not resist, condensed within the target's sea of consciousness a lock rooted in their soul, removable only by death.
Once the target swore upon the lock, they would be utterly incapable of breaking that oath in any way. Should they attempt to, the lock would unleash backlash upon them.
The Heart Demon Lock had a precondition: the caster's spiritual power could not be weaker than the target's, or else it would not take effect.
And since the lock was rooted in the target's very soul, as the target grew stronger, the backlash power of the lock would rise in kind.
In other words, once the Heart Demon Lock was planted, the target could never withstand its backlash, ensuring that the secret could never be leaked.
Mu Yang even considered special cases: what if the target had innate immunity to spiritual attacks? Or used soul-based food or amplifying skills to temporarily resist backlash? Or was mind-controlled by a spiritual master?
To address this, Mu Yang changed the backlash from a one-time strike to a continuous punishment. Once the oath was broken, the lock would unleash ceaseless torment until the target's soul was annihilated.
With the Heart Demon Lock, Mu Yang no longer had to worry about the Spirit Ascension Method leaking.
And not just for the Ascension Method—for elemental meditation arts, secret techniques of forging, the art of crafting battle armor, Lunar Spirit Refinement, Solar Body Refinement, Ring Condensation, and so on—the Heart Demon Lock provided airtight protection. Whether or not to spread them could then be decided freely.
The only thing that might bypass the Heart Demon Lock was perhaps the Spirit Core Method.
For its essence lay in concepts and inspiration. Even if outsiders did not know the precise method, with a rough idea and experimentation they might yet recreate it.
After finishing, Mu Yang wasted no time. He summoned the academy's senior staff to a meeting in the main teaching hall.
The heaven-defying Spirit Ascension Method and the oath-binding Heart Demon Lock—both had to be implemented for teachers and students cultivating the academy's various secret arts.
As for those who resisted the Heart Demon Lock?
So long as one had no intention of leaking the secrets, the lock was harmless. The oaths pertained only to the techniques themselves. Surely no one would resist.
Of course, if someone did resist—then let them vanish from the world. Mu Yang had no use for ingrates.