Chapter 53: Spirit Souls as a Burden and a Weight
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When it came to cultivating spiritual power, Xu Yuan had once entertained the idea of developing his own cultivation technique.
Unfortunately, the techniques he developed were only useful when his spiritual power was still constrained by his physical body. Now that this constraint had been lifted, those techniques were essentially obsolete.
"Ten thousand years ago, soul masters were still largely in the dark about cultivating spiritual power. Even soul masters with mental-attribute martial souls mostly relied on their martial soul's characteristics to grow their spiritual power alongside their soul power," Mu Ye began explaining. "However, the Tang Sect was an exception. The Tang Sect had the Eye Training Method known as the Purple Extreme Demon Pupil, which simultaneously trained the eyes and cultivated spiritual power. This was one of the earliest methods for cultivating spiritual power on the continent."
Xu Yuan was already well aware of this. He also knew that the Purple Extreme Demon Pupil was something stolen from another world by a certain someone.
"Spiritual power has always been a profound field. Even now, if a soul master suffers severe damage to their spiritual power, it is very difficult to heal. The soul master community is still in the exploratory stage when it comes to cultivating spiritual power."
"The emergence of spirit souls has significantly accelerated this exploration."
"Spirit souls?" Xu Yuan was surprised to hear that spiritual power cultivation was linked to spirit souls.
However, he quickly understood, as he had reflected on this before. After acquiring a spirit soul, a soul master could sense and communicate with the spiritual sea at just 100 points of spiritual power through the connection between the spirit soul and the spiritual sea.
Ten thousand years ago, 100 points might still have been the minimum threshold for sensing the spiritual sea. However, most soul masters back then wouldn't truly sense the spiritual sea until they reached 500 points—the Spirit Sea Realm—and even then, they often needed extraordinary luck.
Just this alone demonstrated the immense significance of spirit souls in advancing the exploration of spiritual power cultivation among soul masters.
"Not only that," Mu Ye said with a smile after hearing Xu Yuan's thoughts. "It's not just about aiding the development of the spiritual sea."
He paused to organize his words, then turned to Xu Yuan with a question.
"What do you think? Ten thousand years ago, at what level of soul power, or at what age, could a soul master reach 100 points of spiritual power?"
Xu Yuan hadn't considered this question before and was momentarily taken aback by Mu Ye's query.
Ten thousand years ago, would soul masters have reached 100 points of spiritual power as quickly as modern soul masters?
He shook his head.
This required data, and since Xu Yuan hadn't paid attention to it before, he naturally didn't know the numbers.
"To put it simply, soul masters who fused with a spirit soul before obtaining their first soul ring—relying on the spirit soul to grant their first soul ring—generally shortened the time it took to reach 100 points of spiritual power by 20% compared to those who obtained their first soul ring by hunting spirit beasts."
"And that's just the average data. For diligent soul masters, the reduction could reach 40% or even 50%!"
Mu Ye grew visibly excited as he spoke.
Indeed, such statistics shocked even Xu Yuan.
The effects of spirit souls were so significant?
"Spirit souls are a burden for spiritual power, but at the same time, they act as a weight."
"Weight?" Xu Yuan quickly grasped the essence of Mu Ye's analogy.
Weight!
Fusing with a spirit soul required spiritual power to sustain it. If the spiritual power was insufficient, the consequences could be dire. However, outside of fusion, during normal times, the spirit soul itself acted as a form of weight for the spiritual power.
Just as physical training benefited from added weight, carrying this spiritual "weight" naturally led to more noticeable improvements.
"Moreover, after fusion, the spirit soul itself becomes an extension of the soul master's spiritual power."
For a soul master whose spiritual power was operating at full capacity, the spirit soul extended their spiritual power. The natural growth of spiritual power also factored in the spirit soul's contribution.
These factors combined explained why modern soul masters' spiritual power improved so much faster.
"Based on this, all the major powers on the continent have developed their own methods for cultivating spiritual power." Mu Ye spoke from the fundamental essence of these cultivation techniques.
Clearly, he held high expectations for Xu Yuan.
Xu Yuan's most monstrous talent lay in his spiritual power. In just over a year of cultivation, he had developed the Great Devouring Heaven and Earth Technique and refined the bloodline contract. So, what would happen when he delved into spiritual power cultivation?
Could he develop his own profound technique for cultivating spiritual power?
The Body Sect's method for cultivating spiritual power was the Bloodline Crucible Method, practiced alongside meditation. It was a continuation of the secret technique for visualizing and solidifying body parts in the meditation space, requiring the condensation of bloodline energy before it could be attempted.
After receiving this secret technique from Mu Ye, Xu Yuan left Tiantou City.
This trip, spanning over ten days, yielded tremendous gains.
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Shrek Academy
"Little Fatty, how long until the assessment?"
"Teacher Shen said it will start in three days."
"Three more days?" Xu Yuan nodded, indicating he wasn't in a rush.
"Oh, right, Brother Yuan, the Mecha Association is holding an event. The promotional efforts are pretty big," Xu Lizhi suddenly remembered, slapping his forehead.
"What kind of event?" Xu Yuan asked curiously.
The Mecha Association had little presence at Shrek Academy because very few students aspired to become mecha pilots. Much of the association's funding came from renting out mechas for the academy's annual mecha operation courses.
The bulk of their remaining income came from collaborating with other factions through the academy to build mechas.
In short, the Mecha Association earned very few contribution points from students and had an extremely low profile.
"It's the Mecha Development Symposium, held once every five years. The Mecha Association invites high-level mecha designers, mecha manufacturers, and mecha repairers to discuss advancements in mecha technology and improvements."
"How does that concern us?" Xu Yuan asked dryly.
"It does! Many of our academy's secondary profession practitioners plan to attend. While the discussions are for the big shots, we're going mainly for the networking opportunities."
"Networking?"
"The Mecha Association is the broadest-reaching secondary profession association. It connects the most practitioners of the three mecha-related professions—designers, manufacturers, and repairers—and is a conference highly regarded by all three professions. As such, it attracts practitioners from all three fields to gather and exchange knowledge."
Xu Yuan understood.
Using the symposium as a platform, practitioners of the three professions would gather to exchange technical knowledge.
Not only would there be exchanges within each profession, but cross-profession interactions among the three would also occur.
This was one of the rare large-scale cross-profession exchange events involving three complementary professions.
Since Xu Yuan was studying all three professions, he was naturally interested.
"When does it start?"
"Many practitioners have already gathered, and the official start is in a week. It will last for half a month."
"Alright, thanks." Xu Yuan paused, then asked, "By the way, are you and Xinglan planning to attend?"
"Xinglan and I plan to attend after the assessment. Teacher Shen said the difficulty of the assessment is quite high," Xu Lizhi replied, his face showing signs of worry.
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