Chapter 5: Xu Yuan's True Advantage

"Xiao Yuan, you must remember this—what's most important in a soul master's cultivation is strengthening oneself, not focusing solely on countering opponents. Of course, while strengthening yourself, finding ways to deal with enemies is naturally even better."

Xu Shengqun was speaking from his own personal experience.

Only by becoming strong oneself can one begin to consider other matters.

"The so-called intimidation of the True Dragon martial soul affects beast-type martial souls almost instinctively, as long as they aren't also True Dragon martial souls. This is a suppression based on rank—a kind of innate hierarchy that's extremely difficult for a soul master to overcome through cultivation alone, unless they're fortunate enough to undergo a martial soul mutation and surpass the opponent's bloodline quality."

"You and I are different, Xiao Yuan. We have weapon martial souls, and more importantly, our weapon martial souls have no connection whatsoever to beast martial souls. Essentially, our pure weapon martial souls won't be affected by hierarchical suppression."

"And without hierarchical suppression, all we need to focus on is strengthening ourselves."

"As for the so-called draconic aura, it's nothing more than an inherent advantage of dragon-type martial souls. You can think of it as a passive group-wide weakening ability tied to their spiritual attributes."

"As long as a soul master has sufficiently strong willpower, this effect can be negated. After that, everything still comes down to the soul master's own strength."

Xu Shengqun's explanation caused a sudden realization to dawn on Xu Yuan.

He had only thought about how absurdly high the Golden Dragon King's rank was, and how overwhelmingly oppressive its presence was against any dragon or beast martial soul—even if there wasn't direct hierarchical suppression, the terrifying draconic aura alone was enough to overwhelm opponents. But he had forgotten that, at the end of the day, the only aspect of the Golden Dragon King's bloodline he needed to deal with was its draconic aura.

And as Xu Shengqun had pointed out, draconic aura was essentially just a passive, group-weakening ability tied to the dragon-type martial soul.

At this point, strengthening one's spiritual power and honing one's willpower were the best ways to counteract draconic aura.

Moreover, this wasn't just about dealing with draconic aura—it was also part of the fundamental training every soul master should undergo.

Although Xu Shengqun didn't fully grasp how terrifying the Golden Dragon King's rank truly was, and was merely giving advice on how to handle True Dragon martial souls, his words still gave Xu Yuan a clear direction.

"As long as I'm not inferior to the Golden Dragon King's bloodline in terms of rank, the only thing I'll need to deal with is the impact of draconic aura on my willpower."

When it came to willpower, Xu Yuan couldn't guarantee anything—but he was confident in his spiritual power.

In terms of spiritual power, Xu Yuan dared to compare himself even to Gu Mei (the Silver Dragon King), who had retrained her spiritual energy after reaching god-level status.

{T/N: Mei means 'little sister', Gu little sister, referring to the Silver Dragon King's human alias Gu Yue/ Gu Yuena.}

The adult soul from his previous life, though converted into spiritual power in this fantasy world, had still provided him with a higher baseline. In fact, his spiritual power had been growing based on this elevated starting point.

A normal human might start with only a negligible amount of spiritual power at birth, but Xu Yuan could potentially have started with ten points. Without considering any external factors, and simply accounting for natural physical development, a normal human might reach two or three points of spiritual power by the age of six, whereas Xu Yuan could reach twenty or thirty!

But that wasn't all—his martial soul was his brain. Even before awakening, his spiritual power had been passively increasing due to his natural growth, effectively doubling its natural rate of increase.

The moment his martial soul awakened, this surge pushed him to possess a staggering eighty-one points of spiritual power right from the start.

And that was only at the time of his martial soul's awakening.

After awakening, the influence of his brain martial soul on his spiritual power would only grow stronger. If he absorbed spirit-attribute spirit souls, his spiritual power would skyrocket even further.

"Spiritual power is my true advantage—and it perfectly aligns with Uncle's advice on how to deal with dragon martial soul users."

Xu Yuan suddenly felt a weight lifted off his shoulders.

It wasn't that he feared being unable to deal with the challenge—it was the fear of not even seeing a possibility for dealing with it. Even if the solution required his spiritual power to be monstrously exceptional for his age, it was still a glimmer of hope.

"Uncle missed one point, though—the spirit souls." Xu Yuan lowered his head, continuing to ponder what had been overlooked.

The Golden Dragon King's rank was absurd—it might even influence soul masters through spirit souls.

Therefore, spirit souls related to dragons or beasts were best avoided.

Realizing this, Xu Yuan felt a headache coming on.

He wished he hadn't thought of this.

Because now that he had, he couldn't help but feel apprehensive. It was hard to imagine any goals that didn't involve absorbing beast-type spirit souls.

Plant-type spirit souls?

"It might work early on, but Tang Wulin awakens the Blue Silver Emperor bloodline, the Sea God bloodline, and eventually becomes the Child of Nature. At that point, plant-type spirit souls won't cut it anymore."

Xu Yuan knew he was being overly cautious.

But these were necessary considerations.

"One drastic solution would be to eliminate Tang Wulin altogether."

For a brief moment, Xu Yuan entertained the idea, but he quickly discarded it.

With the minimum of three interventions from the God King Tang San, not to mention Tang Hao as one of the Plane Masters, such a plan was doomed to fail from the start.

"Alas, aside from beast-type and plant-type spirit souls, what other options are there?" Even Xu Yuan found himself stumped.

As Xu Yuan sat deep in thought, his expression changing, Xu Shengqun observed silently.

He didn't know what was troubling his nephew or what difficulties he faced. However, in his understanding, his nephew possessed a mature mindset, rivaling that of an adult. For this reason, even though Xu Yuan appeared to be facing a significant challenge, as long as he didn't ask for help, Xu Shengqun wouldn't interfere.

"Uncle, do you have any plans for my spirit souls?" After much deliberation, Xu Yuan decided to seek some guidance from Xu Shengqun.

"Spirit souls?" Xu Shengqun was momentarily taken aback.

Then he remembered—Xu Yuan had mentioned earlier that he had already broken through to level eight after completing the circulation of soul power. This meant he was already very close to level ten.

Given Xu Yuan's displayed talent, it was certain he'd reach level ten within a year—or possibly even within half a year.

If that was the case, preparations for spirit souls needed to begin soon.

Compared to ten thousand years ago, in today's era, it wasn't uncommon for soul masters to prepare spirit souls several years in advance when conditions allowed.

"Your martial soul is the Tianyuan Brush, and there are quite a few suitable spirit souls for it. Vine-type spirit souls are the most compatible. Additionally, beast-type spirit souls might integrate into your Tianyuan Brush as a means of combat."

There were indeed powerful figures in the Douluo Continent who used brushes as their martial souls—one of them was the Legendary Divine Brush Douluo, Yu Guanzhi. He was a Limit Douluo, one of the three military giants, and the commander of the Central Legion! 

Yu Guanzhi used his brush martial soul to paint images of soul beasts, which he then materialized into real entities to use in battle.

Whether the Tianyuan Brush had similar potential, Xu Shengqun wasn't sure—but he still considered this possibility for Xu Yuan's development.

To his surprise, Xu Yuan immediately shook his head, rejecting the idea outright.

Absolutely not!

If he had to rely on painting soul beasts to summon them into battle, wouldn't that be practically handing himself over for defeat?

"Uncle, the path of the Divine Brush Douluo isn't suitable for me. As for vine-type spirit souls for the Tianyuan Brush… rather than going down the control route, I'd prefer to develop along the lines of a powerful offensive system."

"Hmm?" Xu Shengqun furrowed his brow and looked at Xu Yuan, waiting for his explanation.

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