"Greetings, Grandmaster. I am Yu Tianxin of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan. My Martial Soul is the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. I'm fifteen years old this year, Level 34 Assault System Spirit Elder."
Yu Tianxin spoke respectfully toward Chen Ming, without the slightest trace of arrogance on his face. Instead, his expression was filled with excitement, the kind one would show when meeting a respected senior expert.
"I'm Yu Tianheng. My Martial Soul is also the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. I'm fourteen years old, Level 32 Assault System Spirit Elder."
Compared to Yu Tianxin, Yu Tianheng's expression was somewhat complicated.
After all, from a chronological standpoint, Chen Ming should technically have been his junior at the academy. Yu Tianheng had also heard many rumors about Chen Ming within the academy itself.
But before he even had the chance to properly interact with him, Chen Ming had already undergone a complete transformation.
In one leap, he had gone from being an academy student to an honorary elder of Spirit Hall, becoming a recognized authority across the continent in the field of Spirit Power research.
Although Yu Tianheng had already prepared himself mentally beforehand, when he actually saw Chen Ming in person, he still couldn't help feeling somewhat awkward.
"Hello, Grandmaster. I'm Ning Rongrong. I just turned ten this year, Level 23 Spirit Grand Master."
Compared to her first appearance in the original story, the current Ning Rongrong looked even younger and more immature.
She wore a white dress, her hair hanging down to her shoulders. Her bright eyes sparkled with curiosity, and two small dimples rested at the corners of her smile, giving her face a faint trace of baby fat. Even though she was trying her best to appear composed, there was still an unmistakable tension about her.
Looking at Chen Ming, who was only a few months older than herself, Ning Rongrong blinked repeatedly, seemingly trying to figure out what exactly allowed him to achieve such accomplishments at such a young age.
Because Ning Fengzhi had previously purchased medicinal pills from Chen Ming, Ning Rongrong's cultivation was slightly higher than it had been in the original story. However, because support-type Spirit Masters cultivated more slowly by nature, and because she hadn't consumed all of the pills herself, the difference wasn't especially large.
"Hello to all of you. For the next period of time, I'll be personally guiding your Spirit Master cultivation," Chen Ming said with a smile as he nodded toward the three of them.
"Entrusted by the sect master of your respective clans, I'll be helping each of you develop a specialized meditation method suited specifically to your own Martial Souls."
"Today, we'll first conduct a basic assessment to see how much you understand about Spirit Power and Spirit Masters. I also want to see how deeply you understand meridians and just what level your Spirit Power control has reached."
"In truth, anyone who has cultivated the Douluo Heart Method should already understand this. The traditional meditation methods used by Spirit Masters simply provide far too little enhancement."
"The older generation already missed the golden age most suitable for cultivation. Even if they switch to a more efficient meditation method now, their future improvements will still remain limited. But all of you are still young and talented. If you make changes now, your future growth potential will be far greater."
"I hope none of you hold back and that you fully cooperate with my research. This won't only benefit you personally — it will also benefit your sects."
Chen Ming was being completely serious.
Because the cultivation speed of these three truly didn't match the level of their innate Spirit Power.
And this wasn't just their individual problem — it was an issue with the entire Douluo Continent's cultivation system itself.
Aside from the protagonists in the original story, nearly every so-called genius had cultivation speeds that clearly failed to match the level of their innate Spirit Power.
There were many reasons behind this, but a large part of it was simply that these geniuses had never fully developed the cultivation speed they should have possessed in the first place.
Only during the era of Douluo II did this situation begin to improve somewhat.
As for Douluo III, the widespread use of Spirit Souls and various technological advancements had already altered the cultivation environment so drastically that comparisons with ordinary Spirit Masters were no longer particularly meaningful.
"Understood," the three of them replied as they nodded.
Chen Ming arranged tables and chairs before taking out a set of examination papers he had recently prepared from his soul tool. He handed the papers to the three of them and instructed them to answer the questions according to the knowledge written on the test.
Although Spirit Masters often gave people the impression of relying on sheer instinct and "I think this should work" logic, becoming a true expert still required a solid foundation of knowledge.
Originally, Chen Ming had assumed that the three of them, coming from major sects, would at the very least possess excellent basic education. Especially since they had spent this period studying the Douluo Heart Method within the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy, their fundamentals should have been perfectly fine.
But after reading through their exam papers, Chen Ming's brows immediately furrowed.
Honestly, at that moment, he only wanted to ask them one thing:
Did the three of you never read while cultivating?
The cultivation knowledge possessed by these three was indeed somewhat better and more solid than the students Chen Ming had seen back in the Junior Spirit Master Academy.
But it was only slightly better.
They made mistakes when identifying meridians, their understanding of the meridian system was incomplete, and the answers they provided to many questions were overly broad and impractical.
If Ning Rongrong's shortcomings were due to her young age and lack of exposure to such material, that was understandable.
But Yu Tianheng and Yu Tianxin were already fourteen and fifteen years old. No matter what, it shouldn't have reached the point where they hadn't even properly learned this much.
True, discussing military tactics on paper alone wasn't necessarily useful.
But the problem here was that they hadn't even read the military manuals in the first place. They didn't even know how to discuss strategy theoretically, nor did they understand what military tactics truly were.
If someone like that were suddenly asked to command an army in real battle, what exactly could they possibly communicate?
There certainly were geniuses who didn't know the proper methods but could still rely on instinct alone and somehow stumble upon the correct path.
But the three people standing before Chen Ming were clearly not that kind of genius.
Holding the examination papers, Chen Ming immediately began relentlessly questioning them about why they had answered incorrectly.
Only after quite some time did he finally get an explanation.
Yu Tianheng and Yu Tianxin actually had studied this sort of knowledge before. However, they hadn't retained it deeply and had focused almost entirely on cultivation instead. As time passed, they simply forgot most of what they had learned.
As for Ning Rongrong, part of the issue was indeed her young age and lack of proper education in these subjects. But another part was her playful personality — she had never truly taken the lessons seriously while learning them, which resulted in weaknesses across the board.
In the end, Chen Ming had no choice.
For their very first lesson, he could only begin by teaching them how to properly understand these basic concepts — how to comprehend the most fundamental yet most important aspects of Spirit Power and meridians.
The three of them were all somewhat bewildered, completely unable to understand why Chen Ming wasn't directly teaching them advanced cultivation methods, but instead making them study these seemingly worthless basics.
However, a person's reputation carried weight.
At present, Chen Ming was no longer some unknown junior. He was a universally acknowledged grandmaster.
So even though they didn't understand, they only assumed the fault lay with themselves and obediently continued studying under him.
After an entire day, none of the three showed any particularly obvious improvement.
Ning Rongrong's learning speed was still acceptable.
As for Yu Tianheng and Yu Tianxin…
The two of them were practically blocks of wood.
Just helping them relearn the fundamentals would probably take at least a month, according to Chen Ming's estimates.
Still, he was being paid to tutor them anyway. At worst, he could simply charge more afterward.
Besides, his primary goal was researching the characteristics of their Martial Souls in the first place.
Stretching out the process actually benefited him overall.
It was just that dealing with these two dense-headed dragon brothers was causing his blood pressure to rise slightly.
After teaching them like this for another week, Chen Ming finally adjusted his strategy somewhat.
He arranged for Ning Rongrong and the Yu brothers to come at different times, allowing him to provide targeted instruction tailored to their respective Martial Souls.
Ning Rongrong would attend for two days, followed by Yu Tianheng and Yu Tianxin attending together for the next two days, forming a repeating cycle.
Only in the absence of outsiders could Chen Ming properly study their Martial Souls and Spirit Rings in detail.
...
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