Although Chen Ming was certainly not at ease transplanting Ah Yin — someone deeply connected to Tang San — inside the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, he still treated her extremely well now that she was cooperating obediently.
He supplied her with more than enough nutrients, fertilizer, and nutrient solution.
After properly loosening the soil for Ah Yin and injecting a fraction of life essence into it, Chen Ming put Ah Yin away carefully, subsequently returning to his own room. Early the next morning, he summoned professional personnel and handed the grass seeds over to them, instructing them to begin small-scale cultivation and observation experiments.
After all, these were artificially accelerated mutant strains. Their actual effects were still uncertain.
Perhaps under the support of the Blue Silver Domain, they truly would perform exactly as perfectly as Chen Ming required.
But once separated from the Blue Silver Domain, what flaws or hidden problems might emerge?
At the moment, even Chen Ming himself couldn't say for sure.
Only after thorough cultivation and observation could they eventually be put into large-scale production.
Once he had arranged the general matters, Chen Ming summoned the clan chief of the Vigorous Bull clan that had recently pledged allegiance to him. He instructed the man to bring over the genius youth within the clan whose Martial Soul was the Vigorous Demon Bull.
Not long afterward, a young man with a strangely pointed head appeared before Chen Ming.
The youth was only fourteen years old, but his appearance was exceptionally mature, making him look well over twenty. The muscles across his body bulged exaggeratedly, his skin carried a bronze-like sheen, and he stood over two meters tall.
But compared to his massive physique, his head looked bizarrely out of place.
Not only was the top of his head unusually pointed, but the surrounding hair had been completely shaved clean, leaving only the hair at the center tied into a skyward braid. His eyes carried an oddly pure yet foolish-looking gaze.
Logically speaking, a Martial Soul like the Vigorous Demon Bull should grant its wielder a certain degree of spiritual aptitude. While not especially powerful or pure, it was still a genuine spiritual attribute.
Yet this youth's expression truly left Chen Ming at a loss.
"G-G-Greetings… L-L-Lord…" the youth stammered awkwardly, opening his mouth with an honest, somewhat simple expression.
At first, Chen Ming thought he was simply nervous.
Later, however, he realized that wasn't the case at all.
This boy was a natural stutterer.
Within the records of Spirit Hall, there had already been around twenty individuals born with innate full Spirit Power over the past century alone — and the real number was undoubtedly even higher. After all, many clans awakened Martial Souls internally within their own families, meaning talents like these were often never officially reported to Spirit Hall.
And this sharp-headed youth before him was precisely such a genius.
Due to a Martial Soul mutation, he had reached innate full Spirit Power.
At fourteen years old, he already possessed Level 32 cultivation. His Spirit Rings — two yellow and one purple — were also the standard optimal configuration, making him an obvious prodigy.
Aside from looking somewhat unintelligent, he practically had no flaws.
After speaking with him for a while, Chen Ming also confirmed that the youth named Niu Dali wasn't actually stupid.
When he was young, his clan had been hunted down by the Strength Clan. During the escape, he had accidentally fallen off a cliff and smashed his head against the rocks below.
Although the injury hadn't damaged his innate origin or Martial Soul, the delayed treatment had left his skull visibly deformed. Combined with the long-term stress and pressure he grew up under, it eventually caused him to develop his severe stutter as well.
This resulted in the fact that although he didn't actually have any intellectual problems, the way he behaved on the surface strongly resembled some simple-minded brute. His stammering speech often made people assume something was wrong with his brain.
After briefly evaluating the youth, Chen Ming nodded in satisfaction. None of his answers had revealed any problems. Afterwards, he tested the fundamentals of his abilities as a Spirit Master.
As a Spirit Master, Niu Dali didn't possess any especially outstanding traits, but neither did he have any obvious weaknesses. Overall, he was a fairly ordinary Spirit Master who relied heavily on his natural physical attributes.
It was simply because his base physique was exceptionally strong that his combat power surpassed that of normal Spirit Masters.
His specialties were strength and defense. His comprehension of elemental abilities wasn't particularly deep, but among his three Spirit Abilities, one of them was quite remarkable — a very rare weapon-type Spirit Ability.
The Vigorous Demon Bull was a Martial Soul resembling a minotaur. After activating his Martial Soul, the user would transform into a true bull-headed humanoid.
Whether due to stereotypes or because minotaurs were naturally suited for axes, his third Spirit Ability allowed him to summon a massive battle axe.
Even though he didn't truly know how to use it skillfully, relying solely on his brute strength and the raw power of a weapon-type Spirit Ability still gave it formidable destructive force.
He was the type of wild genius with little fame but undeniably solid talent.
In Chen Ming's eyes, talent like this combined with a clean background made him quite worth nurturing into part of his own inner circle.
Previously, after studying the body structure of the Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear, Chen Ming had developed a specialized body-tempering technique known as the Armored Body Art. However, this cultivation method was rather unique, belonging to the type that cultivated both internal and external strength simultaneously.
Not only did it require specialized adjustments to the Spirit Power pathways within the body and constant tempering through external force, but it also required medicinal supplements and even injections of medicinal liquids directly into the muscles as support during cultivation.
It was certainly an excellent technique, but the restrictions surrounding it were also quite severe. Furthermore, it could only be cultivated by strength-type Spirit Masters or defense-type Spirit Masters who specialized in physical power.
To Chen Ming, it was the kind of thing that felt too wasteful to discard, yet not useful enough for him to cultivate personally.
He definitely had no intention of training in it himself, but raising a proper human shield was still a fairly good option.
Especially with Niu Dali's appearance…
Honestly, the man simply looked like he had been born to cultivate this kind of technique.
...
After finalizing all the plans regarding city construction and leaving behind the prototype spinning machine he had invented long ago for the villagers of Holy Soul Village to use as a new-style textile machine, Chen Ming brought Niu Dali and Xiao Wu with him as they departed from his happy little hometown and returned to the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy.
With Chen Ming's current status, all it took was a simple greeting to the three education board members of the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy for Niu Dali to be directly admitted into the academy.
As for Xiao Wu, after some consideration, Chen Ming temporarily left her under Dugu Bo's supervision at home and planned to deal with her situation later.
Since he had long ago made agreements with various factions to have them send their younger generation members to the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy for his occasional guidance, members of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had already been waiting there for quite some time.
Among the younger generation of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, Yu Tianheng had originally already been a student of the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy.
Meanwhile, Yu Tianxin, who had originally studied at Thunderclap Academy, had also transferred over to the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy specifically because of Chen Ming, all so he could receive his guidance.
As for the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, they had sent their little princess, Ning Rongrong, to the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy as well.
Although Ning Rongrong didn't actually like a place such as the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, as the little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, she understood very clearly that the interests of the sect outweighed personal feelings and pride.
Normally, she could act willfully as much as she wanted.
But now that the sect needed her, she had to follow the sect's wishes.
Thus, during the period Chen Ming had been absent from the academy, Ning Rongrong had studied diligently within the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy while displaying her own talent and abilities.
Early the morning after Chen Ming returned to the academy, Yu Tianheng, Yu Tianxin, and Ning Rongrong were already waiting eagerly outside his cultivation grounds, anxiously anticipating his arrival.
Seeing the three of them appear, Chen Ming wasn't surprised in the slightest. He simply invited them into his cultivation grounds and officially began instructing them in cultivation.