Chapter 126 – Exploring the Soul Core

With his mastery of the unity between man and nature and an incredibly fine level of perception, Xu Yang's cultivation comprehension was no weaker than the martial arts grandmasters of his previous life. What he lacked was theoretical knowledge—and now, the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record had filled in that gap.

Combined with the detailed annotations written by Tang San, Xu Yang quickly integrated all pre-innate stages of the Mysterious Heaven Skill into his cultivation of Sun Soul Power. The newly refined soul power now carried the qualities of the Mysterious Heaven Skill—endless vitality, life-enhancement, and even a degree of health-nurturing effect.

More importantly, Xu Yang could feel his control over his soul power had grown significantly more refined. At this point, he had absolute confidence that within two years—before reaching Rank 70—he could successfully create a new cultivation method and advance it to the level of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, Five Energies Returning to the Origin.

After Mysterious Heaven Skill came the Purple Demon Eye. Xu Yang made no alterations to this technique, as his first soul skill, Morning Light, was perfectly suited for channeling the Eastern Purple Qi—making it the ideal foundation for cultivating this technique.

In less than a few days, Xu Yang had already reached the third stage: Mustard Seed Realm of the Purple Demon Eye. Of course, this rapid progress was partly because his spiritual power was already at the level of an Extreme Douluo, and he had also cultivated the Sun Golden Eye, enhanced through the legendary Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew.

Then came Mysterious Jade Hand. Only after actual practice did Xu Yang understand why this technique primarily trained the hands. Though its principles could theoretically be applied to the entire skeletal system, the sheer amount of energy required made full-body training impractical. Thus, focusing on a specific body part was the most efficient route.

But for Xu Yang, that wasn't a problem. His Sun Martial Soul could only absorb part of the incoming sun energy while cultivating. The surplus would naturally diffuse into the surrounding air, raising the ambient temperature. This excess energy was perfect for training the Mysterious Jade Body.

Perhaps due to the Sun's inherent harmony, the transformed color on Xu Yang's skin after practicing this technique wasn't stark white jade—but a warm, reddish jade hue, nearly indistinguishable from his natural skin tone. One wouldn't even notice it without careful inspection.

And so, Xu Yang continued studying the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record, spending his days alongside Dugu Yan, enjoying both cultivation and more intimate "unspeakable" indulgences, while waiting for the Heavenly Imperial Battle Team to arrive. A full month passed before they finally reached Soto City.

What followed was the Heavenly Imperial Battle Team steamrolling through their opponents in the Soto Great Spirit Arena. Inside a private viewing box, Xu Yang, Dugu Yan, and Yu Tianheng sat watching the match between the Heavenly Imperial Battle Team and the Mad Battle Team, all of them visibly bored.

"I thought Soto City might offer some real competition," Yu Tianheng scoffed. "Turns out they're all just small fry. Not even optimal soul ring setups. What a waste of time. Let's wrap this up quickly and head back to Heaven Dou City."

He looked at the opposing team's lackluster soul ring configurations with undisguised contempt. No matter how well they coordinated, they had no chance against the Heavenly Imperial team.

"Tianheng, why get so worked up?" Xu Yang replied with a laugh. "The whole point of this trip was to relax. If you think this level isn't giving them enough pressure, why not just have the team enter the Spirit Ancestor-level arena?"

Xu Yang was actually enjoying the show. Right now, Yu Tianheng's soul power had reached Rank 44, five ranks higher than his counterpart in the original timeline. The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, wanting to ensure his fourth ring reached the ten-thousand-year level, had even helped him obtain a skull-type soul bone and slay a thunder-type pseudo-dragon over ten thousand years old.

This made Tianheng nearly unbeatable among Spirit Ancestors. To keep pushing his limits, he regularly took the Heavenly Imperial Team to participate in Spirit Ancestor-level team battles at the Heaven Dou Great Spirit Arena. Though their win rate was low, it still honed his abilities.

"Forget it," Yu Tianheng shook his head. "That might work for me, but it's too much for Shi Mo and the others. Let them wait until they reach the Spirit Ancestor rank."

Xu Yang and Dugu Yan smiled and didn't argue.

With the Shrek Team no longer competing, the Heavenly Imperial Battle Team essentially steamrolled all opposition. After a few more unchallenging matches, Shi Mo and the others grew bored, and the group returned to Heaven Dou City.

Back at the academy, life settled down. Xu Yang lived a fulfilling and disciplined routine: training, researching the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record, and experimenting with soul tools.

He had even used Deep Sea Sunken Silver to craft a small metal sphere capable of storing soul power. Though technically a Grade-5 Soul Tool, its durability easily rivaled some future Grade-9 devices.

His goal in creating it? To study the formation of the Soul Core—and the process of condensing a core like forming a golden pill.

This soul tool allowed Xu Yang to fully contain his violent yet pure soul power within it. Even if the soul power became unstable and exploded, the damage would be negligible.

On the balcony, Xu Yang sat cross-legged on his bed, his Sun Martial Soul floating above his head, continuously drawing and refining the Sun's power.

Holding the soul power storage tool in his hands, he began injecting Sun Soul Power into it. Under the guidance of his spiritual perception, the soul power inside the tool quickly liquefied. He continued feeding more and more in, his spiritual force compressing the energy further. Soon, the liquefied soul power had thickened into something akin to mercury, nearly filling the entire vessel—just one step away from solidification.

Under his spiritual manipulation, the dense soul power began to spin—slowly at first, then faster and faster. As it rotated, he poured in even more energy, causing the mass to grow denser and larger.

Before long, the soul power had transitioned from liquid to solid form. At this stage, Xu Yang immediately noticed a tenfold increase in the difficulty of control. Maintaining high-speed rotation now required far more spiritual energy.

So, he doubled down—pushing his spiritual power to the limit, continuing the cycle of rotation, compression, rotation, compression...

As the process repeated, the solid soul power gradually condensed into a soul power vortex, accompanied by a terrifying suction force that began to radiate beyond the soul tool itself.

Soon, the sun power drawn by his martial soul was pulled into the soul tool as well—funneling into the rotating vortex inside.

With Xu Yang's continuous injection of soul power, the spinning vortex expanded. A surrounding soul power magnetic field began to form, distorting and compressing the very space around it.

"If I remember correctly, the key to condensing a Soul Core is maintaining its stability. If it loses balance—boom—the vortex will explode."

"The second step in forming the Soul Core is full elemental attribution of the solidified soul power. But I already handled that early in my cultivation journey by allowing my soul power to resonate with my martial soul. It's already infused with the Ultimate Fire and Ultimate Light properties of the Sun Martial Soul. So I can skip that step—all I need to do now is keep pouring in soul power."