"Your Excellency, the latter of these two matters is fine. Given sufficient time, I am certain I can catch up to Master."
"However, regarding the battle with the senior students from the fourth grade, I am likely to lose right now."
Wang Zhong said with a distressed and helpless expression.
"You already possess the Wood Clone spirit ability. It has all your strength, can absorb the opponent's spirit power for its own use, and should be able to defeat those five. How can you possibly lose!"
Bibi Dong released Wang Zhong from her embrace, her gaze filled with curiosity. In her estimation, this challenge match was something Wang Zhong could achieve with the utmost ease.
"Your Excellency, you are being influenced by the performance of my Wood Clone just now."
"I can currently only control this one Wood Clone. If there were more, I would be completely overwhelmed."
Wang Zhong smiled bitterly, revealing his current predicament. The Wood Clone was indeed powerful, but if he couldn't control it, generating many of them would be useless, merely ornamental. It would be far less effective than generating wood thorns.
"Control one, and be overwhelmed."
"In other words, you can only multitask right now, correct?" Bibi Dong pondered Wang Zhong's words and stated.
"Multitasking, hmm, I suppose so."
Wang Zhong thought carefully and felt that this interpretation was not incorrect. He could indeed only control one Wood Clone at the moment.
"Heh, this kind of issue is easily resolved."
"Here, take this."
A brocade scroll appeared in Bibi Dong's hand, which she offered to Wang Zhong.
He reached out and accepted the scroll. It was inscribed with "Distraction Control."
Distraction Control was a method of multitasking, divided into four stages: Three-Orifice Heart, Four-Orifice Constant Heart, Five-Orifice Scattered Heart, Six-Orifice As You Wish Heart, and Seven-Orifice Exquisite Heart. With each advancement in a stage, one could control an additional spirit ability.
Bibi Dong ruffled Wang Zhong's hair as he stared intently at the scroll. She then stood up, stretched, and said with a hint of annoyance.
"Alright, let's rest for today."
"I'll find you again later. You must study this method diligently. I will check on your progress, and if I find you slacking off, I'll spank your bottom until it's bruised."
While ruffling his hair, Bibi Dong said to Wang Zhong with a light smile, feigning seriousness.
Before Wang Zhong could respond, Bibi Dong waved goodbye and departed.
Wang Zhong, holding the scroll, felt a sense of helplessness.
He had obtained the Distraction Control method from Ying Yan Yang seven days ago and had briefly scanned it. He deemed it incompatible with his own needs and set it aside.
Distraction Control was, in the initial impression of many soul masters on the continent, a unique skill of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School. However, for certain members of the nobility or powerful soul masters, this was not entirely true.
It circulated widely among them! As long as they desired it, they could obtain a copy.
Logically, if the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School possessed Distraction Control, a supreme skill, it would elevate their status to one of the Upper Three Schools. Others who possessed it would also experience significant strength increases. However, this was not the case; the skill was actually useless to them.
On the entire continent, each soul master could only unleash one spirit ability at a time. Although unleashed spirit abilities would remain on oneself or the opponent for a considerable duration, no soul master had ever been able to unleash two spirit abilities simultaneously.
Only after one spirit ability was released, or substantially completed, could a second one be initiated.
The reason for this restriction stemmed from spirit martial souls and spirit rings.
Spirit rings provided spirit martial souls with spirit abilities. Spirit martial souls formed spirit abilities by invoking spirit rings. Soul masters, in turn, released spirit abilities through their spirit martial souls. This three-tiered progression presented a unidirectional, single-channel flow.
This flow locked out the possibility of soul masters simultaneously activating two spirit abilities.
However, while simultaneously activating two spirit abilities was impossible, it was possible to have one released spirit ability affect two or more individuals.
Such a technique was useless for Assault-type or Agility-type soul masters, as their attacks were inherently single-target or multi-target from the moment they obtained the spirit ability. Only Support-type and Control-type soul masters would intensely desire this.
But there was a crucial difficulty to overcome: one must be proficient in multitasking.
It was precisely because of this difficulty that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, as the foremost Support sect, created the exceedingly agile Support method of Distraction Control through countless generations of effort.
It allowed soul masters with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda spirit martial soul to simultaneously support one teammate while also supporting another, or even multiple teammates. This number could extend up to seven.
Distraction Control maximized the support effects of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda!
Due to this exceptional effectiveness, Distraction Control held great appeal for Support-type and Control-type soul masters. Yet, even if these types of soul masters obtained Distraction Control, they could not achieve the results of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda. The reason lay in the unique properties of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
Upon activation, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda acted like a reservoir. The soul master had to fill this reservoir before unleashing a spirit ability. Although it consumed more spirit power, all spirit abilities were in a prepared state, ready for immediate activation.
This unique characteristic allowed Distraction Control to be fully utilized. By filling the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda once and maintaining sufficient spirit power within, one could repeatedly unleash spirit abilities to support teammates, reducing spirit power waste, shortening release time, and increasing spirit ability efficiency.
Unlike ordinary soul masters who had to inject spirit power to the point of evoking a spirit ability each time it was released, this method of consuming only what was needed reduced spirit power consumption significantly. However, it also lengthened the interval between the release of two spirit abilities.
If a soul master wished to release two spirit abilities consecutively like a Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda soul master, the spirit power consumed would not decrease, nor would it increase.
With no reduction in release time and no decrease in spirit power consumption, for other Support-type and Control-type soul masters, this Distraction Control became extremely cumbersome. Furthermore, cultivating this technique was very time-consuming and tedious.
Instead of distracting oneself to control two spirit abilities, it was more beneficial for other soul masters to focus wholeheartedly on mastering their current spirit ability.
Distraction Control was not inherently powerful. Its strength was derived solely from being in the hands of a Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda soul master!
Therefore, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School never placed much importance on Distraction Control. Without the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, this control method was merely a time-consuming and energy-draining burden.
If others needed it, they could give it away without pressure, earning a favor in return. Why not?
However, for Wang Zhong, Distraction Control was completely unusable in its current form compared to how he controlled his Wood Clone.
Controlling multiple spirit abilities sounded dazzling, but it was merely the accurate transmission of multiple targets and multiple actions of spirit abilities. However, for Wang Zhong's Wood Clone to behave as if it were a real person, such simple control was insufficient.
Although a person's movements involved actions and reactions, humans possessed more than just one type of action.
After a full half-month of exploration, Wang Zhong finally conceived of a method to split his consciousness into two to achieve perfect control over the Wood Clone. This so-called Distraction Control method was far from his approach.
"Although splitting my consciousness into two allows for exquisite control, two is my current limit. Any more, and I might become confused about priorities, or even develop a split personality and go insane!"
Wang Zhong clutched his head and wailed. He possessed a heaven-defying spirit ability but could not utilize it perfectly. Such pain was unfathomable.
"But without splitting my consciousness, unless the Wood Clone has its own thoughts, it's simply impossible to achieve!"
"But how can wood have its own thoughts! It's impossible!"
The more Wang Zhong thought, the more distressed he became, and the more outlandish his thoughts grew.
Even the Wood spirit martial soul itself had no thoughts, let alone these wooden figures that were manufactured.