Back in Heaven Dou City, Lin Mu entered the imperial palace alone.
"Where exactly have you been all this time?"
Qian Renxue asked softly, leaning contentedly against Lin Mu's chest in his private bedchamber.
"Helping Tang San actively hunt for spirit rings. His grueling eighth trial for the Sea God is almost completely finished," Lin Mu replied truthfully.
With Tang San's highly successful fusion with the terrifying 100,000-year-old mantis shrimp, his overall spirit power had naturally increased significantly, fully reaching over Level 98.
With Lin Mu's direct help, Tang San's Clear Sky Hammer spirit now only desperately needed one single more spirit ring to be completely full.
Moreover, all eight of his currently existing spirit rings actively came from top-tier, pure power-type spirit beasts. Apart from the formidable Dark Gold Terror Claw Bear and the bizarre Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, the others were all genuine 100,000-year-old spirit beasts.
The 100,000-year-old mantis shrimp, in particular, had provided a spirit ring extremely suitable for the heavy, blunt force of the Clear Sky Hammer spirit, and its two uniquely accompanying spirit skills possessed utterly overwhelming, explosive power.
Furthermore, now officially acting as a soul spirit, the 100,000-year-old mantis shrimp could easily fight powerful enemies entirely alone.
In terms of pure physical strength and raw attack power alone, even the ancient Myriad Demon King honestly couldn't compare to it in a direct clash.
Although the Clear Sky Hammer's current spirit ring configuration is two black and six red, once Tang San finally completes all Nine Trials of the Sea God, the effective age of all his spirit rings will permanently increase by 50,000 years. At that specific point, the Clear Sky Hammer will instantly become a horrifying, fully red configuration.
However, because Xiao Wu mercifully did not have to sacrifice herself this time, Tang San did not have to painfully remove the first four relatively low-level spirit rings of the Blue Silver Emperor.
Therefore, the Blue Silver Emperor unfortunately cannot seamlessly reach a fully red configuration.
Fortunately, the specific spirit rings Lin Mu had carefully selected for Tang San were all extremely suitable for his current combat style, so there was absolutely no pressing need to forcibly remove them using the divine power of the Sea God's Trident.
A quiet moment later, Lin Mu quickly glanced at Qian Renxue and was surprised to find that her soul power had actually managed to break through to Level 99. He immediately asked, "You finally passed the eighth trial?"
"That's right, just a few short days ago," Qian Renxue said perfectly calmly.
"So incredibly fast?!"
Lin Mu's purple eyes were filled with genuine shock and complete disbelief.
He had originally estimated that Qian Renxue would realistically need at least another full year to pass the grueling eighth trial, but he absolutely didn't expect it to go so smoothly for her.
But then he quickly thought about it again. Qian Renxue was originally documented as the fastest inheritor to ever successfully become a god.
Moreover, with his massive, constant help, Qian Renxue's current cultivation base was already much higher than in the original timeline, so it was actually entirely reasonable for her to complete the difficult divine test two or three full years ahead of the original schedule.
"If you don't officially complete your own divine test very soon, I'll definitely have to beat you to it."
As she confidently said this, Qian Renxue's golden eyes held a distinct, playful hint of provocation.
After being physically and mentally suppressed by Lin Mu for so many long years, she finally saw a real chance to turn the tables on him.
As long as she successfully completed the final divine test first, she absolutely didn't believe Lin Mu could possibly still suppress a true god.
Although Lin Mu's casual challenge and defeat of those vastly above his own level had practically become commonplace, the absolute gap between true gods and mere mortals was far beyond what was used to be; it was an almost entirely insurmountable, fundamental chasm in the laws of reality.
"Hehe, even if you do miraculously complete the divine trial first, I can still easily control you."
Lin Mu gently lifted Qian Renxue's delicate chin, staring intensely and directly into her beautiful eyes, his deep voice filled with absolute, unwavering confidence.
Even if Qian Renxue fully became a god first, he was completely confident he could still easily subdue her in combat.
After all, he had already successfully condensed four complete soul cores, a feat completely surpassing the absolute peak realm of any normal soul master.
With the massive, elemental amplification from Thunder Atlas Armor, his raw combat strength was already perfectly comparable to that of a true god.
Even if Qian Renxue successfully completed the final Angel God Trial, her combat strength would only realistically be considered to have just barely entered the god-priest level, leaving her entirely unable to fully unleash the true, terrifying power of a veteran first-class god right away.
Furthermore, Lin Mu was currently actively preparing to condense his own fifth soul core.
Once he successfully managed to condense his fifth soul core, his overall strength would definitely increase dramatically again, absolutely crushing any ordinary, newly ascended god-level beings.
As for actually completing all the remaining trials of the God of Destruction, that would likely take a considerable amount of time.
After all, to finally complete the God of Destruction Trial, he must first actively help Ye Lingling completely finish the Goddess of Life Trial.
Only when the current Goddess of Life officially passed his divine position down to Ye Lingling could he then successfully inherit the opposing God of Destruction's position.
"Hmph, once I officially become a god, I will definitely forcefully conquer you first."
As she proudly said this, Qian Renxue's eyes gleamed with a burning, intense light, looking exactly as if she had been eagerly anticipating this exact day for a very long time.
Having been thoroughly "tormented" by Lin Mu so many times behind closed doors, she deeply longed to finally rise up and take total physical control.
Moreover, Lin Mu had previously violently attacked her physical dark side during a trial, and she could only watch completely helplessly.
Although she had ultimately passed the eighth trial, a small, lingering trace of deep dissatisfaction remained in her heart.
Seeing her acting like this, Lin Mu openly sneered. Without another word, he forcefully suppressed Qian Renxue entirely beneath him, enthusiastically burying himself in his "work."
In practically no time at all, Qian Renxue's proud, godly arrogance completely vanished.
The very next day, Qian Renxue quietly left the Heaven Dou Empire and quickly returned to Spirit City to formally undergo the final, ninth trial of the Angel God.
Lin Mu wasn't idle either, immediately setting about actively helping Ye Lingling quickly complete her next trial.
More than half a year quietly passed in the blink of an eye.
During this relatively peaceful time, Ye Lingling successfully completed the third to fifth trials of the Goddess of Life.
The newly opened sixth trial strictly required her to fully acquire all six main soul bones and successfully break through to exactly Level 97 soul power.
Relatively speaking, the sixth trial honestly wasn't too difficult, since Ye Lingling currently only lacked one single soul bone to complete her set.
Although they had certainly left over quite a few highly valuable 100,000-year-old soul bones while previously helping Tang San hunt for his soul rings and soul spirits, those were all pure strength-attribute soul bones, making them entirely unsuitable for Ye Lingling's healing role.
Since Ye Lingling had already fully collected nine spirit rings, she physically couldn't forcefully subdue any more Emerald Swans to act as her soul spirits.
Another highly crucial reason was that her Nine Heart Begonia martial soul had already fundamentally transformed into an ultimate life attribute.
Furthermore, she already permanently possessed Bi Ji, the undisputed strongest healing-type soul spirit on the continent.
Furthermore, she already possessed an incredibly rare external soul bone and Bi Ji's incredibly powerful right arm soul bone, making it entirely unnecessary to absorb any more redundant life-attribute soul bones.
Therefore, the final, remaining soul bone should ideally be heavily elemental or strongly control-oriented in nature to round out her abilities.
After some careful consideration of their options, Lin Mu definitively decided to go to the Extreme North.
Besides actively helping Ye Lingling eagerly find suitable soul bones, he personally was still currently missing two powerful soul spirits, and Tang San's Clear Sky Hammer martial soul was still missing its final, crucial soul ring.
Having fully made up his mind, Lin Mu immediately took Tang San and Ye Lingling and set out for the Extreme North.
After a long period of rapid travel, the three finally arrived at the freezing outskirts of the Extreme North; this was their first time visiting this harsh region.
Because the total number and overall combat strength of the soul beasts naturally residing in the Far North are generally far inferior to those found in the lush Star Dou Great Forest, Lin Mu hadn't previously bothered to set his sights on the Extreme North for resources.
However, he had already thoroughly explored the entirety of the Star Dou Great Forest, the distant Sun Moon Continent, and the vast, open ocean.
Although there was a very high mathematical probability that some ancient 100,000-year spirit beasts were still deeply hidden in the crushing deep sea, searching blindly for them would be exactly like hopelessly looking for a tiny needle in a massive haystack; it might realistically take several long months to actually find a suitable 100,000-year soul beast.
Therefore, Lin Mu could only practically set his sights on the legendary Three Heavenly Kings of the Extreme North.
Soon, the three rapidly arrived at the freezing core area of the Extreme North.
Here, heavy, blinding snow fell year-round, and apart from the massive, snow-covered glaciers, absolutely not a single living being could be easily seen.
The sky above was a deep, freezing icy blue, and the biting air was thickly filled with dense, aggressive ice elements, making it feel exactly as if it could instantly freeze the entire surrounding space solid.
Looking at the totally desolate, pristine snowy world spread out before him, Tang San looked over at Lin Mu with a deeply puzzled expression and asked, "Master, are there actually really any living beings that can constantly survive in this?"
"For pure ice-attribute soul beasts, especially those incredibly rare ones blessed with extreme ice attributes, this environment is simply absolute paradise," Lin Mu said perfectly calmly.
As for the allegedly extreme, deadly cold here, he personally was almost entirely unaffected by it, since ice is fundamentally just a type of water element, which he controlled perfectly.
Hearing this simple explanation, Tang San's face still showed a clear expression of lingering disbelief.
Even he, with his immense power, found the base temperature here somewhat highly uncomfortable; how could ordinary living beings possibly survive here permanently?