Spirit Soul Evolution

Note: Early chapter because i'm gonna hang out with friends for new years.

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After a few minutes, the rest of Gloxinia's classmates came out of the Spirit Ascension Platform, all looking tired and raggedy.

I mean, it's to be expected as they had just fought a soul beast and lost, Xie Xie even got injured heavily inside!

When they all gathered together again, a Spirit Pagoda Staff member walked into the watching room.

The Spirit Pagoda staff member exclaimed sincerely, "Geniuses! They truly are geniuses worth nurturing! Are you sure these children are only nine-years-old?"

The gaze of the staff member was burning with expectation, especially when he turned his gaze to Gloxinia.

He had watched their whole performance.

The most breathtaking scene was undoubtedly when Gloxinia had commanded his martial soul to create that beautiful golden web that took down hundreds of soul beasts at once. This was a task that even a 5 ringed or higher Soul Master may be unable to complete. Absolutely amazing!

Gu Yue's performance was equally worthy of admiration. Her coordination with Tang Wulin had been amazing. She had used a variety of elements at optimal moments to aid him, and it was also thanks to her that Tang Wulin hadn't been harmed at the end. She had actually used her own body to hold up his crystallized form, which weighed over five hundred kilograms, to prevent it from shattering.

The staff member knew that in situations like those, people normally wouldn't have the time to consider whether things were real or virtual. The fact that Gu Yue had been able to make such a quick decision to save Tang Wulin meant that even in reality, she would have been just as decisive.

They were only nine-year-old children! With such a strong friendship, how could their coordination not be this deep?

'No wonder Eastsea Academy is willing to spend so much money to bring them here. Although they weren't in the spirit ascension platform for long, they were faced with the greatest obstacles the whole time!'

And Xie Xie at the end… Despite knowing he was no match for the wolves, he had stayed behind for the sake of his comrade! He had continued to protect Tang Wulin until the crystallization disappeared and was finally sent out only when Tang Wulin had been freed!

Although one wouldn't truly die in the spirit ascension platform, the injuries they sustained all felt exceedingly real.

Xie Xie had suffered tens of cuts on his body, yet he had still continued to fight and protect Tang Wulin all the way until the end. During that whole time, he had been minimizing the injuries he sustained while maximizing the number of enemies he killed! He had simply been extraordinary!

This staff member had never seen such outstanding first-time performances from Soul Masters before. Even more so astonishing was the fact that these children only had either one or two rings, with Gloxinia being the exception.

Wu Zhangkong slowly walked over to the four students, his dull voice filling their ears. "From now on, you four are a mini battle squadron. The captain is Tang Wulin, and the vice-captain is Gloxinia. Let's go."

Finished speaking, he began leading them toward the elevator.

The four looked at each other in dismay and shock as a single thought entered their heads. 'Mini squadron?'

On the road home, the four students were still brooding over the events in the spirit ascension platform. Xie Xie was full of remorse, while Tang Wulin pondered over the situation inside of the spirit ascension platform, the battles replaying over and over inside his mind.

Gloxinia suddenly felt warmth spread from his spine to his whole body. At first, it was so faint that he could barely feel it, but the closer they got to the academy, the more apparent the feeling became. As the warmth diffused into his four limbs and seeped into his bones, he felt exceptionally comfortable, but at the same time, exhaustion washed over him.

To his side, Tang Wulin discovered that Gloxinia's entire body was swaying as he stumbled forth. He quickly supported him, worriedly asking, "Gloxinia, what's going on?"

"I don't know, I just feel really sleepy." With Tang Wulin's support, it was like a switch had been flipped. His entire body went weak and collapsed into Tang Wulin's arms.

At the same time, Tang Wulin suddenly also felt the same feeling, and felt tired all of a sudden aswell.

This caused him to fall backwards, straight into the ground.

Wu Zhangkong halted mid-step and quickly turned around, astonishment coloring his face. The others had also started to notice Tang Wulin's aand Gloxinia's abnormal behavior.

Wu Zhangkong quickly went towards them and stopped them from falling. As he held them, he place his hands on both their wrists, feeling for something.

Gloxinia's skin shone with a rainbow luster, causing all insects, specially those with a butterfly lineage, to come closer to him, relishing in his presence. On the other hand, Tang Wulin's skin shined with a golden-blue layer of light as he lay unconscious, his breathing haggard.

"This kind of situation…" When Long Hengxu arrived and saw the state that Gloxinia and Tang Wulin were in, he couldn't help but think of a certain possibility. His gaze grew rapt with attention.

Wu Zhangkong hefted Tang Wulin onto his back and passed Gloxinia to Long Hengxu. "They're fine, it's just that their spirit souls are evolving."

"Ah?" both of the conscious students exclaimed in unison.

Spirit soul evolution?

On their way to the spirit ascension platform, they had already explained to them how it was possible to evolve his spirit soul inside of it, but he had only been speaking of a possibility! A spirit soul evolution was so rare that it was like winning a lottery ticket.

The opportunity to enter a spirit ascension platform even once was hard to come by, much less a chance to kill powerful soul beasts.

In such a situation, everyone who had paid a large price to enter the spirit ascension platform would always dispute over who would land the final strike on the soul beast and reap the rewards. However, either way, they would suffer many casualties fighting against such a powerful soul beast.

Under the shocked stares of everyone, Wu Zhangkong spoke calmly. "Their spirit souls are naturally weak, so it's easier for them to evolve. For every soul beast you kill in the spirit ascension platform, you obtain one-tenth of its cultivation energy. That energy, in turn, will be spread evenly among your soul rings. In other words, if you kill a ten year soul beast, your spirit soul will gain one year's worth of cultivation energy. If your spirit soul has 110 years of energy, then it will become 111 years of energy. When it accumulates till it reaches 1000, then it will evolve. Tang Wulin's spirit soul is only ten years. He gained at least twenty year's worth of energy from killing the hundred year soul beast, and one hundred year's worth of energy from the thousand year soul beast. Furthermore, since he only has one soul ring, all of the energy was concentrated into that one ring, allowing him to evolve his ten year spirit soul into a hundred year spirit soul. As for Gloxinia, his situation should be the same. As for the rest of you, you will need to kill at least 18 or 19 thousand year soul beasts to evolve your spirit soul. With this in mind, do your best in the future."

After returning to the academy, Wu Zhangkong silently dismissed everyone to return to their dorms and cultivate. They needed to digest today's combat experiences, and Tang Wulin and Gloxinia would remain muddle-headed until their spirit souls finished their evolution. An analysis of today's events was better left for tomorrow.

Wu Zhangkong brought Tang Wulin back to his dorm while Long Hengxu brought Gloxinia to his dorm. The only thing was… Wu Zhangkong stayed, even after dropping Tang Wulin off.

For anyone else, Wu Zhangkong wouldn't do such things, but Tang Wulin was different. Tang Wulin had a unique, mutated martial soul. Wu Zhangkong had to ensure that Tang Wulin wouldn't be endangered during his spirit soul's evolution.

So, even knowing that another student was also going through the same danger, he chose to still stay and watch over Tang Wulin. (biased bruh)

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As Gloxinia's spirit soul evolved, he felt as if he was soaking in a warm pond. This warmth penetrated into the bones of his body, gently circulating inside of him. He was completely free of any worries in such a comfortable state. His body was beaten and his spirit exhausted, but his tiredness gradually dissolved under this warmth.

Gloxinia didn't even want to open his eyes as he basked in this wonderful feeling.

As he continued to soak in the warmth, the rainbow halo around his body gradually turned green.

Motes of light suddenly appeared around his body, as if it was a cocoon surrounding a caterpillar about to become a butterfly.

As the motes of light combined, they gained a dust-like texture, as if made of magical fairy dust from legends.

Gradually, energy channels grew within the cocoon, slowly covering the entirety of it.

These energy channels glowed with a faint, rainbow light. Together with the faint, green glow of the cocoon itself, it greatly resembled the fairies of legends.

Right at that moment, Gloxinia's martial souls went outside of his body and gradually changed, gaining a more fairy-like appearance and became more rainbow-colored.

A dark, yellow light erupted from all the martial souls, indicating the end of the evolution process.

As for Tang Wulin's evolution, it was a bit similar but also different, as he was surrounded by blue silver grass and a golden glow from his bloodline.

Wu Zhangkong considered himself to be a realistic person, but when seeing someone like Tang Wulin, who goes against all odds every day, he can't help but think that he might be the next one to ascend to godhood, just like the Spirit Pagoda's Founder had done 20,000 years ago.

The radiance from Gloxinia's body gradually dimmed and the cocoon also dissipated, causing his martial souls to go back inside his body and sleep like always.

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Words: 1782

Author's Note: I kinda rushed this chapter a bit because it's new years but I still think it keeps up with the quality of the past chapters, I can redo it later if enough people want it but i think its fine..

Also, HAPPY NEW YEARS!

Thank you all for so many collections and powerstones!