There are five stages of grief— Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

Ja Sun had experienced four of them.

He was first in denial that his martial soul was tailor-made to help others. It was basically useless to himself unless he brought some other techniques to the table.

He was then angered for the same reason. After his bloodline improved once and thus, his martial soul improved in tandem, his basic skills were still made to help others more than himself.

He then began to bargain in the form of screwing with others just to feel better and it did help him quite a bit.

Depression... was skipped. His life is too lit to feel depressed about regardless of the situation.

And finally, Ja Sun was in a state of acceptance. He had accepted that no matter how he tried to not present benefits freely... he simply oozed a treasure's aura. His spit must be worth a fortune and his piss must be sold in the weight of castles.

His fully developed martial soul— The Three-Eyed Silver Sage had many auxiliary passive skills.

1) It increases comprehension of all the elemental attributes.

2) It increases comprehension of the spatial attribute.

3) Raises the speed of cultivation by 100%.

4) Raises the speed of cultivation of spirit masters and spirit beasts around the spirit master by 50%: Limit— 50-kilometer radius.

5) Raises the pace of comprehension of spirit masters and spirit beasts around the user by 20%: Limit— 50-kilometer radius.

6) The more spirit beasts or spirit masters affected by the blessings, the greater the additional enhancement of the user's own comprehension by 0.1% per living being.

These were the basic abilities exclusive from his innate domain that came with this top-class martial soul and subtly different spirit ring skills.

In fact, the 20℅ increase in comprehension of other parties was the reason why Ja Yin and Violet were even able to learn so much about arrays so quickly! Similar to him, Ja Yin's Three-Eyed Golden Empyrean increased her comprehension of several traits, doubled her pace of cultivation, and instead of raising the pace of comprehension for those around her, she blessed them with a better fortune... one of the major reasons why so many spirit beasts happened to chance upon spirit bones and other treasures to gift Ja Sun for his wedding.

In essence, the duo's basic abilities were broken, much less their further skills.

Ja Sun didn't think it was unfair. The amount of time and resources he had invested in this martial soul had made it sure if the results had been even the tiny bit worse, he would have receded to the second stage of grief— anger.

But Ja Sun's main issue came that he was finally stripped off from his luxuriously lackadaisical lifestyle now that Bibi Dong had left everyone back 'home' and would probably be having the time of her life in the war.

Why?

Because even his spirit rings had abilities to fucking assist others! The thought of it made Ja Sun finally accept his situation. No matter how much he tries to be a miser... he's just destined to help others grow at a quicker pace. With Ja Yin's 50℅ enhancement of cultivation for others and his own enhancement of 100℅, Ja Sun didn't worry about his own cultivation. Although he was still a rank 96 Titled Douluo, it's only a matter of time before he would peak his spirit energy similar to his physique and divine intent.

And his base enhancement of comprehension had reached a total of 38.9℅ since there were 189 individuals in the area of effect and thus providing additional feedback of 18.9℅.

Any spirit master in these conditions would thrive and Xie Xan was no stranger to it. He was one of the 'normal' powerhouses of the team. He was agile like Jun'er, deadly like Erlong, and quite crafty when it came to fighting and using his Deathgod Domain to stun others. Too bad it didn't work on Ja Sun.

Once he had imparted Violet and Ja Yin their daily knowledge of array and the dose of mental acupuncture technique, they were out for their hunt. Well, Violet was. Ja Yin was merely bored.

This left Xie Yue wildly cheering for his father with his mother as Ja Sun calmly evaded Xie Xan's attack with a thoughtful look.

Bibi Dong had left them here with the hope of their strength increasing at a greater pace but it wasn't just the cultivation. Stagnated fighting instincts of theirs needed to be rudely awakened... but Ja Sun wasn't interested in fighting with any of them. So, as he dodged another strike, Ja Sun quickly gave Xie Xan a ruthless backhanded paw smack.

Yet, instead of flying back, Xie Xan was confused for a second. Instead of attacking... he suddenly turned and performed the same attack again but with much greater precision.

"What the..." Xie Xan gasped.

"I'm a sage," Ja Sun scoffed, "Even my slaps are a blessing," he gestured towards his first million-year-old ring.

His first spirit soul— Bright Goddess Butterfly gave him a spirit skill called silver burst that would enhance his limbs.

After reaching the million-year level, the enhancement for each limb was a mind-numbing 300℅! But more than that, Ja Sun had another skill on his first spirit ring.

Sage's Kindness:

Activates the mental energy of the user. Each physical strike will cause the opponent to feel more and more intuitive about the mental block they are experiencing. A Sage's kindness is revealed even in battle as the opponent should never be defeated due to ignorance.

Again, Ja Sun only used this skill now to notice and assess its effects and clearly, it was enhanced since Ja Sun's mental energy had long evolved into divine intent, allowing Xie Xan to easily understand the problems of his attacks and make improvements at a speed visible to the naked eyes.

Xie Xan looked at Ja Sun with confusion while dispersing his Moon Blades martial soul as the Beast God looked at everyone.

"You all should first make breakthroughs. As much as you can. Use all the spirit bones you got from Bibi Dong and when you finally reach the step where making rapid improvement is no longer possible, we can start sparring and what not to get your strength in control and check."

"And you will do the sparring?" Xie Xan looked at Ja Sun. Of course, out of all of them, while Bibi Dong and Ah Yin COULD spar with Ja Sun with a sense of casualty, it was Erlong and Xie Xan who were interested in the experience. After all, just one gentle fist technique of his had made Oscar quite the capable fighter.

"Sure, but when you're at least strong enough," Ja Sun shrugged, "Heck, we can make a good game out of it. We can make bets. Of course, mine would be spirit bones that could help you... and in return, you guys could bet for a dare... hehe, I can wring out some worthy dares."

Everyone's eyes practically glowed... admittedly, those who were single didn't mind deep down whatever dare he had and winning would mean a shot at strength.

"It's good. You all get a month to stabilize your cultivation after digestion of the spirit bones and I can be the referee." Ah Yin called out, "Others can join in, too, right?"

"Of course," Ja Sun chuckled, "All 'humans' who win with certain conditions have a chance at a spirit bone... and all 'beasts' who think they are up for the challenge might get a good spirit core. But if you lose..."

His smirk felt scarier than his killing intent at this point... but they were all in!

---

Although Ja Sun had invited 'all', it was clear at a glance that he wouldn't entertain fighting just any and everyone. He would have made a quest should his slot for making a quest had been free but it wasn't and he understood that giving other many beasts some wanky dares wouldn't be as fun as doing the same for his closed ones. Teammates, friends, and family...

While the coming month would be the most chaotic for the group in the King's Lair, the same couldn't be said for the outside world.

The first thing Bibi Dong did after returning to the Spirit City was assemble all the elders of the Spirit Hall in the Supreme Pontiff's Palace as she internally remarked how much she would prefer Ja Sun's 'hut' to this chunk of glamor. But she wouldn't deny the rise she got from sitting on the throne... maybe she could do stuff on this very chair? Maybe someone special could be sitting on it and act as a delectable cushion for her to further lay on?

Heck, she now realized that Ja Sun wasn't present during her coronation... as a wife... Bibi Dong felt she needed to appropriately punish her husband. Maybe tie him down to this very throne... maybe ring his cock again since he liked it so much and maybe... she shook her head and quickly pulled her head out of the debauched gutter.

She didn't have her family with her now and she needed to remain cautious. Spirit City was her turf but that didn't mean it was without any internal disagreements.

Setting her rose-gold scepter on the ground as it didn't fall but remained erect, Bibi Dong looked at all the elders converged. She knew full well that disappearing without notice just for her personal reasons during such a delicate time in this 'war' was not the best course of action given that the previous Supreme Pontiff had yet to reappear but... Bibi Dong wasn't a machine. She enjoyed herself and was happily married, and now she was back.

Leaving against the wide spine of her throne, Bibi Dong observed each and every Titled Douluo as if they weren't the powerhouses of the continent. If it wasn't for the two Empire's Army, Bibi Dong reckoned that this much firepower would be enough to rule over the continent. It was a good thing now that Emperor Xue of the Heaven Dou Empire was under her control.

Ghost Douluo (Gui Mei)

Chrysanthemum Douluo (Yue Guan)

Snake Lance Douluo (She Long)

Porcupinefish Douluo (Ci Xue)

Qian Jun Douluo (Qian Jun)

Pale Scholar Douluo (Jiang Long)

Firebird Douluo (Feng Liu)

Massive Fist Douluo (Lo Kei)

Bibi Dong stared at the impressive lineup that would shock every other power but... this was no longer enough. King's Lair made Bibi Dong realize that the Spirit Hall wasn't tapping the full potential of the continent.

If beasts can think to hide and concentrate their highest strength in a small region then Bibi Dong could bet her crown that there still remained many mysterious experts on the human side that only strived for cultivation and paid the conflicts no heed. Well... she was about to change that soon enough.

***

A/N: The total elders of the spirit hall is still confusing since many others join during the final war itself so I didn't add many already present in the fandom because of that reason. Meanwhile, Lo Kei (or lowkey, heh) is a Titled Douluo who would have died while attacking the Blue Tyrant Clan in the og.

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