Chapter 66: The Advantages of a Disembodied Beast Spirit

"What a peculiar Martial Soul."

On the way back to the Kamikaze Academy, Chen Xin occasionally glanced at the Pidgeotto beneath Mo Hui, a hint of astonishment lingering in his eyes.

This Martial Soul, known as Pidgeotto, was neither a tool type nor a beast type, and it possessed an independent intelligence, completely transcending the conventional category of Martial Souls. It reminded him of Yu Xiaogang's Luo Sanpao.

However, compared to Yu Xiaogang's Luo Sanpao, this Pidgeotto was vastly more powerful. Not only could it remain manifested externally to protect the Spirit Master's safety, but the speed it displayed even surpassed that of the Swift Tail Rain Swallow, the fastest Martial Soul in his memory.

Seeing this, Mo Hui merely smiled faintly and said nothing.

Let alone others, even he himself was astonished by Pidgeotto's current state.

Perhaps because of Yu Xiaogang, many people in his past life believed that detached beast-type Martial Souls were weak. But was that really the case? Based on Mo Hui's experiences over the years, not necessarily.

Indeed, if you treated a detached beast-type Martial Soul as a standard beast-type Martial Soul, it did have quite a few disadvantages compared to others.

A detached beast-type Martial Soul could not grant bodily enhancements to its master, leaving the Spirit Master's physical combat capability quite weak.

When a detached beast-type Martial Soul was injured, the feedback of the pain would also be suffered by the Spirit Master upon recalling the Martial Soul.

The spirit abilities of a detached beast-type Martial Soul typically required the Martial Soul itself to be cast; the Spirit Master could not use them directly.

However, if you treated a detached beast-type Martial Soul like a tool-type Martial Soul, you would discover that, far from being weak, it was actually exceptionally powerful compared to other tool-type Spirit Masters.

It was true that a detached beast-type Martial Soul could not enjoy the extra bonuses of beast-type avatar fusions, but even so, the physical fitness of a detached beast-type Spirit Master was still superior to that of tool-type Spirit Masters of the same rank, to say nothing of comparison with auxiliary or food-type tool Spirit Masters.

As for injuries, when a detached beast-type Martial Soul was hurt, its master suffered as well—the exact same principle applied to tool-type Spirit Masters. The only difference was that when tool Spirit Masters released their abilities, they usually manifested avatars or projections, making it less visually obvious.

When the true body of a tool-type Martial Soul sustained damage, the Spirit Master was similarly affected: minor damage resulted in spitting blood, while severe damage caused their cultivation level to regress.

As for the limitation that detached beast-type Martial Souls could not cast spirit abilities independently of the Martial Soul itself, that was nothing more than a false weakness.

No Spirit Master could cast spirit ring abilities completely detached from their Martial Soul. For tool-type Spirit Masters, although it appeared as though they were casting abilities themselves, in essence, it was still their Martial Soul performing the action, which was no different from a detached beast-type Martial Soul.

Furthermore, compared to ordinary tool-type Martial Souls, a detached beast-type Martial Soul possessed independent intelligence—akin to having an artificial intelligence integrated into it—capable of independent thought and problem-solving.

Additionally, a detached beast-type Martial Soul could adjust its position at will, releasing spirit abilities from various locations, making it far harder to guard against than a standard Spirit Master. If someone tried to close in for hand-to-hand combat, he could simply dismiss the Martial Soul and resummon it instantly by his side.

Not to mention an anomaly like Mo Hui, who understood the true essence of spirit rings and could release spirit abilities from his own body. In actual combat, he could completely achieve the effect of a righteous two-on-one. The only reason Mo Hui rarely did so was that his opponents were simply too weak to warrant such effort.

The only person who had ever forced Mo Hui to deploy Pidgeotto in battle was Shui Bing'er. Yet, when faced with Pidgeotto—which far exceeded Mo Hui in both speed and strength, could execute all of Mo Hui's ultimate techniques, and shared all of Mo Hui's combat experience—she was instantly defeated with virtually no room for resistance.

As an extension of the Spirit Master, Pidgeotto's intelligence originated from Mo Hui, meaning Pidgeotto inherited all of Mo Hui's accomplishments. While spirit ability bonuses remained identical, Pidgeotto's physical stats were far superior to Mo Hui's own. Thus, Pidgeotto was essentially an even more powerful version of Mo Hui.

This naturally brings us to the greatest advantage Mo Hui experienced with a detached beast-type Martial Soul: although it was still constrained by the Spirit Master's spirit power rank, because it didn't need to constantly safeguard or additionally reinforce the master, the Martial Soul itself was actually stronger than those of ordinary beast-type Spirit Masters.

Whenever he thought of this, Mo Hui could not help but sigh. Yu Xiaogang had been far too obsessed with breaking through the level thirty bottleneck, thereby neglecting the development of Luo Sanpao's combat capabilities. Had he only spared a fraction of that time to develop Luo Sanpao's combat techniques, instead of wasting effort researching how a turnip could accelerate spirit ability recovery, Luo Sanpao would never have been that weak.

This could actually be seen from the Martial Soul fusion technique of Yu Xiaogang, Flender, and Liu Erlong. If you judged it purely as a tripartite Martial Soul fusion technique with a ninety-nine percent completion rate, the Golden Saint Dragon did indeed fall a bit short.

However, if you viewed Flender and Liu Erlong merely as fusion materials—two people barely patching up the missing origin of Luo Sanpao, allowing Yu Xiaogang, a mere twenty-ninth-rank Great Spirit Master, to unleash the combat prowess of a Spirit Saint-level Golden Saint Dragon—then this Martial Soul fusion technique was terrifyingly strong.

In fact, had Yu Xiaogang not been so utterly incompetent, and instead been replaced by a genuine Spirit Saint-level master who could trigger a super-evolution of his Martial Soul, this tripartite fusion technique could easily have beaten Dugu Bo to a pulp.

Since everyone in the group, apart from Mo Hui, was above the Spirit Emperor rank, and all of them possessed the ability to fly, their pace was naturally swift. Within a single day, the party returned to the Kamikaze Academy.

"Now that we have reached the destination, I will head back to the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect first."

Arriving at the gates of the Kamikaze Academy, Chen Xin bid farewell to the group.

Before leaving, Chen Xin glanced at Mo Hui and said, "Mo Hui, I look forward to your performance in the upcoming All-Continent Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament. Your emergence will undoubtedly send quite a shockwave through those geniuses, hahaha~"

With that, Chen Xin laughed heartily and vanished into the horizon as a streak of sword light.

Hearing Chen Xin's words, Mo Hui smiled faintly and murmured, "The All-Continent Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament? I hope the Spirit Hall's Golden Generation and the provoked Four Elements Academies can give me a few more surprises."

It wasn't that Mo Hui was boasting, but compared to the younger generation, his current strength was simply too formidable. Aside from the cheat-like Tang San and Spirit Hall's Golden Generation, the younger generation in the original timeline could no longer pose any threat to him.

Moreover, the Elite Tournament was still a year and a half to nearly two years away. By that time, Mo Hui's rank would likely be on the verge of breaking through to Spirit King, making him even more untouchable.

"Mo Hui, this spirit-hunting trip brought too many unexpected events. Fortunately, you have successfully obtained your fourth spirit ring. Next, you should cultivate peacefully within the Kamikaze Academy and not wander outside."

At this moment, Feng Qingcang turned and spoke to Mo Hui.

Although he was also curious about how Mo Hui had obtained a ten-thousand-year spirit ring, since Mo Hui chose not to explain, he naturally wouldn't pry.

After all, what genius didn't have their own secrets?

Among the powerhouses of the current spirit master world, which one hadn't encountered fortuitous encounters? Even he himself had once obtained a Wind-Calming Pearl; otherwise, his cultivation could never have suppressed the other academy heads to firmly claim the top spot.

Furthermore, through this battle of life and death, Feng Qingcang was pleasantly surprised to find that the level eighty bottleneck, which had trapped him for so long, had finally loosened. As long as he concentrated on cultivation from now on, he could attempt to break through to Spirit Douluo.