Thank you to our new Patrons: fluffiemonster, Colby Sooy, ArcherArchX, pande tusan, Alberto Cervantes, jaycehunter, nkdmon, Drako343, Shisui34, Keith Lighthill and Damass 13! You are what makes this possible! We are up to Chapter 100: Yun Ming's Notice, The Butterfly's Wings on Patreon!
There's something for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Currently, Xu Yuan's Tianyuan Brush and Tianyuan Spear were akin to Xie Xie's twin martial souls, sharing a single spirit soul.
Of course, Xu Yuan's situation was incomparably better than Xie Xie's.
Xie Xie's twin martial souls had diverged awkwardly. Though the Light Dragon Dagger and Shadow Dragon Dagger were two distinct martial souls, they could only share a single spirit soul.
In contrast, Xu Yuan's situation involved a single martial soul with two forms that hadn't yet split. Xie Xie, on the other hand, had two martial souls that seemed to be mutating toward fusion—but only halfway through the process.
"The best choice for a Five-Element attribute spirit soul would naturally be the Five-Element Qilin..."
The Five-Element Qilin wasn't suppressed by the bloodline of the Gold and Silver Dragon Kings, making it one of the rare bloodlines capable of fusion.
"My spiritual power is still a bit far from the Spirit Abyss Realm, but I can already attempt to fuse a third purple thousand-year spirit soul."
At the Spirit Sea Realm, one's spiritual power could handle three purple spirit souls or one black spirit soul. Alternatively, one could opt to fuse five yellow spirit souls.
With his current spiritual power exceeding 2,000 points, fusing three purple spirit souls wouldn't pose any issue for Xu Yuan. However, if he were to fuse another spirit soul for the Tianyuan Brush, his brain martial soul would need to fuse a new spirit soul at level forty—and he wasn't far from reaching that milestone.
With three soul rings, Xu Yuan was confident he could eventually bear the burden of all his spirit souls and soul rings in the later stages of cultivation. For now, though, he still needed to prioritize.
"For now, I'll see how things go. If I encounter a suitable spirit soul, I'll fuse it; otherwise, I'll set it aside. After all, the Five-Element control capabilities of my Tianyuan Brush martial soul are already sufficient for my current development needs."
As long as his spiritual power continued to grow, the upper limits of his Five-Element control would also increase. Thus, Xu Yuan's development of the Tianyuan Brush martial soul never ceased, and its Five-Element control remained highly effective in combat.
But what about when he encountered a suitable spirit soul? What would happen to the fourth soul ring of his brain martial soul?
"Going forward, I'll focus more on cultivating my spiritual power while subtly hinting at my need for spirit-attribute heavenly treasures."
Given Shrek Academy's resources, obtaining something like Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew should be feasible, right?
Setting aside the myriad of thoughts swirling in his mind, Xu Yuan picked up the Tianyuan Brush and began his cultivation.
The Five Elements seemed to come alive under his brush.
He drew a circle in the air with the tip of the brush, and the Five Elements flowed smoothly at the brush's tip, forming a ring of mutual generation.
The ring landed on a distant boulder.
BANG!
The Five Elements reversed, triggering an explosion.
The boulder shattered.
"It's still not working. The binding force must be maintained by the Five-Element Ring itself, not remotely by me. After all, this was originally a control-type soul skill," Xu Yuan muttered.
Initially, he had developed the Five-Element Ring to leverage the resilience of the Five Elements' mutual generation to restrain enemies. However, during development, he had the idea of incorporating the concept of mutual destruction, transforming it into its current ability to trap enemies and then explode.
Of course, he could still maintain the mutual generation remotely by expending spiritual power to bind his enemies.
But doing so was extremely taxing.
"I need to set a threshold. When the Five-Element Ring is subjected to overwhelming force, the Five Elements will destabilize, converting into mutual destruction and triggering an instant explosion."
Unfortunately, while the idea was clear, actual implementation would require significant effort.
Fortunately, the Dream Realm allowed him to accelerate his conceptualization process. However, practical experimentation couldn't be done within the Dream Realm—it still had to be tested in reality.
After jotting down the development plan and adding it to his training list, Xu Yuan continued wielding the Tianyuan Brush.
With swift strokes and intricate movements, he rapidly sketched a complex pattern in the air.
It was evident that Xu Yuan wanted to refine the patterns derived from core formations into a more text-like form, but he hadn't succeeded yet.
The Tianyuan Brush descended.
The pattern shimmered, drawing in ambient energy.
He moved the brush again, sketching another pattern.
The energy of heaven and earth flowed into Xu Yuan's body, restoring his soul power slightly faster than his normal meditation rate.
"Great brainstorming," Xu Yuan praised himself, though he sighed in regret. "Sketching these patterns still takes too long, and they're easily disrupted, rendering them ineffective in combat."
The cultivation of the Tianyuan Brush martial soul lasted for two hours.
Practicing spear techniques and calligraphy left Xu Yuan's body somewhat fatigued. He sat cross-legged and began developing his brain martial soul.
Switching martial souls.
Three purple soul rings appeared around Xu Yuan's body, arranged in sequence.
The second soul ring flashed.
Dream Realm
"Yao Yao, help me organize the core formations," Xu Yuan assigned the task.
"Hmph~ Hmph~" Yao Yao grumbled discontentedly.
Child labor exploitation!
Though only three thousand years old, Yao Yao was almost purely spirit-attribute, surpassing the intelligence of most ten-thousand-year soul beasts and rivaling that of a ten-year-old human child.
Combined with her immense spiritual power, her low intelligence didn't hinder her ability to complete tasks efficiently.
Over the past two and a half years, Xu Yuan had visited Tiantou City three times, returned to Tianhai City twice, entered the Ascension Platform three times, raised Yao Yao to three thousand years, and increased the Five-Element Spear Spirit to four thousand years due to fewer soul rings and shared burdens.
After assigning the task, Xu Yuan focused on studying the improvement plan for the Five-Element Ring.
Grumbling unhappily, Yao Yao complied with Xu Yuan's request, organizing the intricate patterns of numerous core formations and presenting them to Xu Yuan in the form of illusions for easier study.
"Yao Yao, thanks for your help. Without you, my development efficiency would drop significantly."
Xu Yuan didn't forget to express his gratitude and praise Yao Yao.
Yao Yao's ghostly form materialized two small hands, which she crossed while tilting her head to the side.
"Hmph~"
Three hours in the real world equated to three days in the Dream Realm.
This was the optimal uninterrupted duration for maintaining the Dream Realm without overexertion.
After concluding his development in the Dream Realm, Xu Yuan was both physically and mentally exhausted.
"Meditation."
He transitioned to the next phase of cultivation.
For Xu Yuan, meditation wasn't just about cultivating soul power—it was also about refining blood and qi and spiritual power.
Within the meditation space, the three forces mingled yet remained distinct, rotating around the "three" martial souls, resonating with them and gradually refining and enhancing them.
---
Three Days Later
"Brother Yuan, it's time to depart."
Xu Yuan, who had been in deep cultivation for "over ten days," emerged from his training state after being notified by Xu Lizhi.
"Brother Yuan, you're too hardworking. You even went into seclusion for three whole days," Xu Lizhi said admiringly.
Xu Yuan rolled his eyes.
Three days?
I spent nine days in the meditation space, plus the remaining three days minus nine hours in the real world—totaling over ten days.
Talk about grinding.
Too much grinding!
Oh? So the one leading the grind is actually me?
Well, no problem then.
------------------------------------------------------
Support my writing journey: patreon.com/EphemeralShadow