Chapter 16: The Unexpected Birth of the Five-Element Spear Spirit
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In the dim world of consciousness, a pen hovered in mid-air, occasionally transforming into the shape of a spear and dancing with an unstoppable momentum.
During his meditation, Xu Yuan focused on sensing his two martial souls.
The Tianyuan Brush alternated between its two forms as he explored their unique characteristics.
His other martial soul, the brain, was now directly linked to his own consciousness within this meditative state.
As soul power circulated through his body and stimulated several major acupoints simultaneously, Xu Yuan's blood essence surged, causing ripples in his consciousness. Gradually, the image of a brain began to materialize above his ethereal figure in this mental space.
By altering the method of stimulating his blood essence, Xu Yuan continuously experimented with manifesting his brain martial soul in this conscious realm.
This was the secret technique of the Body Sect—using the stimulation of blood essence to gradually materialize the Body martial soul within the conscious space. Once fully manifested, meditation efficiency would increase significantly, and both soul power growth and the quality of the Body martial soul would receive the maximum possible boost.
However, Xu Yuan couldn't sustain the practice for an entire night.
The Body Sect's secret technique consumed blood essence far too intensely. After only two hours of practice, he had to stop and focus solely on meditation, using the time to recover his depleted spirit and exhausted body while cultivating soul power.
Early the next morning, Xu Yuan ended his meditation feeling refreshed and full of energy.
There were no signs of physical weakness. The intense stimulation of his blood essence from the previous night had temporarily drained his body, but after a full night's rest, his body had naturally adjusted itself.
Still, consistently practicing this secret technique daily placed a significant strain on his blood essence. Without proper replenishment, his body wouldn't be able to self-regulate over time. Xu Yuan needed substantial nourishment every day to meet this demand.
"Uncle, can you tell me about the characteristics of that spirit soul beforehand?" Even the usually composed Xu Yuan couldn't help but ask impatiently now.
Though the spirit soul was so close at hand, he couldn't resist inquiring.
Seeing this, Xu Shengqun thought for a moment before deciding not to keep him guessing any longer.
"This spear spirit soul was originally prepared by your father for himself. Due to the connection of bloodline, the template it was modeled after is actually related to me."
"Related to you?"
Xu Shengqun nodded.
"My martial soul can evolve into the Heavenly Void-Piercing Spear, which possesses the ability to pierce through dimensions. This alone signifies that even if our family's martial soul is considered weak, it still has the potential to mutate in the direction of spatial attributes."
Xu Yuan nodded.
Just like how Blue Silver Grass, despite being weak, could mutate into Dark Blue Silver Grass with devouring abilities—after all, its tenacious vitality only needed to go a step further to achieve devouring.
"Therefore, your father incorporated my Void-Piercing Spear intent into the cultivation of this spirit soul."
Xu Yuan suddenly understood and became curious. Did this spirit soul inherently possess the Void-Piercing Spear intent, or had it merely been influenced by the properties of the Heavenly Void-Piercing Spear?
Facing Xu Yuan's curious gaze, Xu Shengqun let out a bitter smile and sighed. "It didn't inherit my Void-Piercing Spear intent. Being an artificial spirit soul, it was already highly unpredictable, let alone attempting to guide its development in a specific direction. After multiple failures, your father conducted numerous adjustments, gradually expanding the constraints and making the environment for the spirit soul's creation increasingly inclined toward spatial attributes."
Pausing briefly, he continued, "It was successful, but it didn't inherit my Void-Piercing Spear intent. It also failed to develop spatial attributes under the influence of pure elemental forces like water, fire, earth, and wind, as your father had anticipated. Instead, it unexpectedly developed into a spirit soul with the five-element attributes."
Xu Yuan blinked.
It sounded incredibly fantastical.
The initial goal was to achieve the Void-Piercing attribute. When that failed, they settled for something akin to spatial attributes. Unfortunately, that attempt also failed. Then they tried inducing spatial attributes through the purest forces of the four elements—water, fire, earth, and wind—hoping to force the spear spirit soul to evolve with spatial attributes. Unexpectedly, it ended up with five-element attributes instead.
This spirit soul seemed rather rebellious.
Of course, all those were just preconditions. The final emergence of the five-element attributes occurred at the moment of the spirit soul's birth, not as a result of post-creation development.
Everything else made sense, but one thing puzzled Xu Yuan: where did the wood attribute come from? His understanding of the five elements wasn't deep enough to grasp this point, so he looked at Xu Shengqun and voiced his question.
Even Xu Shengqun couldn't provide an explanation. He could only sigh bitterly and say, "Your father never figured that out either."
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Tianhai City Spirit Pagoda
Top Floor
The branch Pagoda Master respectfully stepped aside, escorting Xu Shengqun to the desk.
"Spirit Emissary Xu, the spear spirit soul you requested has arrived. Would you like to take it now?" The branch Pagoda Master hadn't expected the spirit soul to arrive just as the Spirit Emissary showed up.
Everyone could guess who this spirit soul was intended for. However, Xu Yuan had only awakened with level seven soul power, and barely a month had passed since then. Even if the spirit soul were retrieved early, it could only be admired and not absorbed yet. Thus, he hadn't anticipated Xu Shengqun coming today.
"I'd rather have it sooner to avoid any potential trouble," Xu Shengqun said indifferently.
The branch Pagoda Master forced a bitter smile, feeling wrongfully accused.
"Spirit Emissary, we naturally ensured the safekeeping of the spirit soul you had your eye on."
"Enough talk. Bring me that spear spirit soul."
"Yes, yes."
After the branch Pagoda Master left, Xu Yuan was puzzled.
"Uncle, isn't the branch Pagoda Master at least a Title Douluo—"
"Hmph, Xiao Yuan, you must understand that not all Title Douluos are equal. Even though this Zhao Qian is a Super Douluo with three-word battle armor, he's still insignificant in front of your uncle."
Xu Shengqun took the opportunity to teach Xu Yuan.
"After reaching level ninety-five, every single level represents a new realm. The advent of battle armor amplifies these gaps even further. Three-word battle armor corresponds to Super Douluos, but even within three-word battle armor, there are varying levels of quality. Combined with differences in soul master levels, the disparity in strength becomes even greater!"
Zhao Qian soon retrieved the Five-Element Spear Spirit and returned to the office.
He was eager to get rid of this troublesome item and hand it over to Xu Shengqun for safekeeping. That way, if anything went wrong later, it wouldn't be his responsibility as the branch Pagoda Master.
Xu Shengqun inspected the Five-Element Spear Spirit, stored it in a storage-type soul-guiding device, and left with Xu Yuan.
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Xu Family
Xu Yuan gazed at the spirit soul orb before him. The transparent sphere allowed him to see the scene inside.
A spear surrounded by five colors of light floated within the orb. Its design was ancient, covered with intricate patterns along the shaft. Around the spearhead were fang-like engravings, and the tip gleamed with a cold light.
It seemed to have noticed Xu Yuan's gaze, as the spear emitted an even more intense glow, clearly expressing something.
"I know, you're eager for me to absorb you, aren't you?" Xu Yuan chuckled.
The frequency of the spear's glowing increased.
"Don't worry. I've already reached level ten. I can absorb you now."
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