After being struck by lightning, anyone who endures it will undergo some form of transformation.
The experience of being baptized by the lightning tribulation would at least grant a hundred-thousand-year soul beast some resistance to thunder.
Of course, if one is left with trauma due to insufficient strength, that might lead to an even greater fear of thunder in the future.
However, it was clear that Star Lord hadn't been severely injured.
Not only was its current form as a spirit soul special, but simply resisting alongside Xu Yuan, the abundant life force had also been providing comprehensive and timely healing. This alone made its transformation quite successful.
Moreover, the inherent racial talent of the Evil Eye Tyrant was undeniable. Their talent lay in wielding elemental forces with their spiritual power, albeit at the cost of dispersing pure spiritual impact, which meant the more attributes they possessed, the weaker they became.
However, there were special methods to control unique elements without splitting the damage of spiritual impacts.
That was to evolve these special attributes through spirit, such as stars or destruction.
Among the Evil Eye race, the destruction attribute was considered a hidden attribute, with opportunities for awakening as their strength increased.
Destruction was linked with thunder, so it was quite normal for Star Lord to grasp related elemental control through the lightning tribulation.
"I can't fully control thunder, but I have developed a resistance to it, and my spiritual power is sufficient to manipulate it to some extent," Star Lord truthfully stated.
Huan Xing inwardly confirmed his suspicions.
Although it hadn't awakened the thunder attribute, this ability was already sufficient.
Xu Yuan smiled.
"It's fine; this is enough. I will prepare a body for you to see if you can master it."
Controlling a puppet body wasn't difficult; the challenge lay in perfectly inheriting the innate talents of the puppet itself.
However, the puppets created by Xu Yuan's manifestation were different. They were purely energy replicas. The so-called talents weren't deep-rooted bloodline abilities but rather modular structures akin to the limbs of the puppet.
Huan Xing had the perfect talent for controlling multiple bodies, enabling Xu Yuan to use this method to develop the Five Elements Secret Techniques with five puppets each possessing mastery over one of the five elemental forces.
Star Lord didn't need five puppets—just one would suffice.
A human body perfectly replicated from Xu Yuan's own.
"Star Lord, there might be a task for you to complete soon," Xu Yuan said seriously, not beating around the bush.
Before becoming Xu Yuan's spirit soul, Star Lord had nearly a hundred thousand years of cultivation. Even considering the high talent and fast cultivation speed of the Evil Eye race, which didn't require suppressing progress to mitigate the pressure of lightning tribulations and subsequent heavenly tribulations, it would still take tens of thousands of years to reach a hundred thousand years.
Even accounting for tenfold compression, Star Lord must have lived for nearly ten thousand years.
Throughout this time, it had possessed intelligence and independent thinking for at least eight to nine thousand years.
After all, the Evil Eye race was known for their remarkable spiritual talents.
This didn't even consider the time after it became a spirit soul.
Perhaps Star Lord had been kept hidden in the Spirit Pagoda for several thousand years after becoming a spirit soul.
Such a long span of time meant that Star Lord's insights and thoughts were mature, unlike Yao Yao's naivety. Xu Yuan didn't need to beat around the bush.
"Specifically, I need Star Lord to recall the sensation during the lightning tribulation, using the tribulation to control the thunder power to circulate in the body I provide, achieving the best tempering effect on my physical form."
Star Lord remained silent for a long time before gently moving its tentacles.
"I need to try first."
It was uncertain about the level of control it could achieve over the thunder power.
"It's fine. Within the Dream Space, my Heavenly Origin Brush's manifestation ability is stronger, making the manifested body easier to control, and your spiritual power can more easily manipulate elemental forces."
The Dream Space had always been Xu Yuan's ultimate tool for cultivation and research.
Even now, it continued to shine brightly.
Yao Yao flew around Star Lord once, then condensed its energy body into small hands, crossed them over its chest, slightly raised its head, and its big eyes looked quite spirited.
"The Dream Space is an illusionary space that has been perfected to the point of simulating reality, capable of time acceleration and restoring the body." It introduced a lot, then seemed to condense a thumb with its little hand, pointing at itself.
"This Dream Space was created by me!"
Star Lord's eyes fluctuated, seemingly curious about the Dream Space.
Yao Yao enthusiastically sent it into the Dream Space.
After just a few minutes, they returned to the sea of spirit.
"Star Lord, did you get to try out the environment of the Dream Space?" Xu Yuan looked at Star Lord, waiting for its response.
Star Lord moved its tentacles, emitting mental intent.
"There, I can control the thunder power, no less effective than mastering a thunder element control soul skill."
"That's good," Xu Yuan said, "For the Thunder Tempering Method, we first need a subject, then refine and correct based on the subject to achieve the best tempering effect. This subject I choose is the process of the lightning entering the body. Since you personally experienced the tribulation, you are most suited for this task."
"I'll try to recall the feeling at that time."
Upon joining this new group, it neither remained silent nor acted arrogantly. Instead, after getting acquainted with many of Xu Yuan's spirit souls, it began to fulfill its duties.
"If you forget, you can let Yao Yao help you recall the feeling. I have saved it in the Dream Space. However, the lightning tribulation seems to involve special laws, which I couldn't capture. Even though the Dream Space forcibly absorbed part of the tribulation's power, after the tribulation dissipated, it turned into ordinary thunder, and even those law fluctuations disappeared."
Xu Yuan spread his hands, feigning helplessness.
How could he not attempt to collect such a unique power as the lightning tribulation?
Unfortunately, when he absorbed the tribulation's power into the Dream Space, it initially seemed fine, but as the tribulation dissipated, the lightning power in the Dream Space gradually faded, turning into ordinary thunder.
Although it was still powerful, stronger than the lightning gathered by ordinary thunder-attribute soul masters, what Xu Yuan valued more were the law fluctuations and spirituality within it. Unfortunately, after the tribulation dissipated, all of that was gone.
However, although he hadn't retained the power of the tribulation, he preserved the experience of it, recording it in the form of an illusion.
Especially the sensations he focused on while the tribulation's power circulated within his body.
Star Lord's tentacles, which had been waving, paused slightly.
Clearly, it hadn't expected such clever utilization.
Moreover, under Xu Yuan's hands, this Dream Space played so many roles.
It had to be said that even in this short time, Star Lord had already acknowledged Xu Yuan as its soul master. It no longer obeyed merely out of gratitude for successfully mutating with Xu Yuan's help, but began to believe that Xu Yuan could lead it further.
"Soul power at seventy-five levels, not far from seventy-six. I estimate meditating for about half a month should allow me to break through. As for spiritual power..."
Xu Yuan couldn't precisely sense the numerical value of his spiritual power, but based on his current feelings, it should be nearing the peak of the Spirit Abyss realm. His spiritual power was already subtly hindered, and that barrier sensation reappeared.
"The Spirit Domain realm, where spiritual power forms its own domain, evolving into a spiritual field."
This was a significant milestone in the development of human soul masters.
In the past, even if a soul master's spiritual power reached this level, they couldn't evolve a spiritual field. Perhaps they had special talents manifested in their martial souls, but there was no separate domain derived solely from spiritual power.
The key naturally lay in spirit souls.
The existence of spirit souls made soul masters' cultivation closely related to spiritual power, making all their cultivation from the first soul ring resonate with their spiritual origin.
Xu Yuan had marveled at the existence of spirit souls more than once.
He held the highest respect for Electrolux, who developed the spirit soul system.
It could be said that Electrolux' development of spirit souls ushered soul masters into a new era, an era of 'spirit'.
The current blacksmithing system was also a system of spirit, wasn't it?
Ordinary people could never become true blacksmiths. They might be able to perform basic forging, but they couldn't achieve quality results or communicate with spirit, let alone perform spirit or soul forging.
Because they lacked spirit souls.
The existence of spirit souls gave soul masters the qualification to feel the fluctuations of spirit, at least to some extent.
Of course, this had minimal impact on Xu Yuan. After all, his first soul skill of the Brain Martial Soul, the Spiritual Link, wasn't just for show—it was a soul skill that could directly communicate with spirit.
Xu Yuan didn't dwell on the numerical value of his spiritual power. Now that Star Lord had broken through to a hundred thousand years, his goal for this trip had been achieved, so there was no need to stay in the Demon Plane any longer.
Returning to Sea God Island, Xu Yuan had just regained consciousness from the disorienting spatial shift when he saw Yun Ming in front of him.
"Peak of the Spirit Abyss realm?"
Xu Yuan nodded, saying, "Yes, Master. Star Lord successfully broke through to a hundred thousand years, and I have already absorbed the seventh soul ring."
Yun Ming understood.
Fusion first, then breakthrough?
This indeed would give more nourishment to spiritual power.
This had been studied and could even be quantified numerically.
Because the numerical division of spiritual power was already precise enough, there had been research on the feedback of fusing spirit souls on a soul master's spiritual power.
Through extensive research data, it was basically determined that after fusing with a nine-hundred-year-old century spirit and then completing its ascension at the Spirit Ascension Platform to break through to a thousand years, the soul master's increase in spiritual power during this period would be comparable to directly fusing with a three-thousand-year-old spirit soul!
Even without breaking through the bottleneck of a thousand years, after fusing with a thousand-year-old spirit and ascending it to three thousand years, the feedback on spiritual power far exceeded that of directly fusing with a three-thousand-year-old spirit soul.
Therefore, Yun Ming quickly understood Xu Yuan's intention in choosing this near hundred-thousand-year Evil Eye Tyrant.
Unfortunately, Xu Yuan really didn't know about this research result.
His innate talent in spiritual power was already sufficient, so he basically never paid attention to such 'special techniques' for improving spiritual cultivation.
However, even without paying attention, Xu Yuan had still been benefiting. After all, he had a total of five spirit souls; apart from the recently obtained Star Lord, among the other four spirit souls, Yao Yao had ascended from five hundred years, Shan He was fused immediately after being created, Jue had been sealed since its creation until it became Xu Yuan's spirit soul, and Huan Xing initially started at twenty thousand years but was later increased by more than double its duration using the platform's spiritual energy.
"Having reached the peak of the Spirit Abyss realm in spiritual power, you can start considering the condensation of a spiritual domain. In fact, accurately speaking, the breakthrough to the Spirit Domain realm also requires prior preparation for condensing a spiritual domain. Otherwise, even if your spiritual power continues to increase by chance, it wouldn't count as a true Spirit Domain realm."
Yun Ming explained the next focus for Xu Yuan's spiritual power cultivation.
"Don't use soul power, and don't use any force other than spiritual power. If possible, don't even use spiritual power—use your purest consciousness to perceive the world around you, feel every blade of grass and tree."
Xu Yuan carefully noted all the details Yun Ming mentioned before returning to his dormitory to cultivate.
This cultivation lasted through the night.
The next day.
"Uncle, you mentioned earlier that you had some things to tell me after I fused with Star Lord. I wonder what they are."
Xu Yuan activated the soul-guided communication.
From the other end came the voice of Xu Shengqun.
"Did you successfully fuse with that spirit soul?"
"Yes, it broke through smoothly, and the soul skill it granted me is quite good." Xu Yuan was very satisfied with this soul ring.
"Since it's something your father prepared for you, it must be the result of his reasonable reasoning—it definitely won't disappoint." Xu Shengqun visibly relaxed.
After a pause, Xu Shengqun continued, "Actually, your father was involved in all three spirit souls of your Brain Martial Soul. I don't know how he was certain that you would have soul power and a martial soul compatible with these three spirit souls, and that you would qualify to consecutively fuse with them, but undoubtedly, his arrangement of these three spirit souls was perfect."
Xu Yuan didn't interrupt his uncle.
He listened attentively, not missing a single detail.
"Your father said that if you want to know the truth, you can go to a place. Once you get there, you'll find answers. But I've been there too—it's where your paper spirit soul, Shan He, was created. There's only one spatial rift there. When your aunt and I entered, we only felt a dense spatial force. However, since he told you to go there, I think it'd be better for you to visit when you have time."
Xu Yuan took a deep breath.
"After I return from the Blood God Legion next time, I'll make a trip to the Tian Dou Continent."
"No rush, just go before you become a Title Douluo."
Xu Yuan's lips twitched.
No rush?
How can I not be in a hurry?
Uncle, do you know how far I am from becoming a Title Douluo?
A year and a half ago, Xu Yuan was at level fifty-nine, and today, a year and a half later, Xu Yuan has reached level seventy-five!
He had advanced a full sixteen levels.
And now, he was still sixteen levels away from becoming a Title Douluo. If he went before becoming a Title Douluo, which meant going at level eighty-nine, he would only have fourteen levels left!
Moreover, Xu Yuan himself was extremely curious about how his father knew so much and could leave behind so many things and materials in advance.
After all, even if Xu Zhi was a transmigrator, it was impossible to keep the original plotline intact.
Xu Yuan was certain that before he came to this world, the development of this world hadn't been affected at all.
The only change Xu Yuan thought wasn't caused by him but actually happened was Na'er's trajectory. She didn't meet Tang Wulin but was adopted by Yun Ming and his wife after splitting off.
And this clearly had nothing to do with Xu Zhi.
So, what exactly was Xu Zhi?
What role did he play?
"In one year, within one year, I'll raise my soul power to level eighty-nine and then go to the Tian Dou Continent to investigate the truth." Xu Yuan made up his mind.
By then, he would only be nineteen years old.
Achieving Title Douluo status before turning twenty would be legendary across the entire continent.
But Xu Yuan didn't feel it was unachievable.
"Besides, I hadn't realized until yesterday that it was my eighteenth birthday."
Was Star Lord the birthday gift his father gave him for his eighteenth birthday?
Or was this entire system forming the real eighteenth birthday gift?
"Never mind, thinking about these useless things won't help. It's better to consider how to level up first. The appearance of the starry sky anomalies might delay the final battle I know of, but it won't be for long. Before I turn twenty-five, I must ascend to godhood with my own abilities."
Xu Yuan didn't waste time and continued his cultivation.
Before returning to the Blood God Legion, he spent a few more days meditating peacefully.
Time passed, and two and a half months had elapsed since Xu Yuan left the Blood God Legion.
"Soul power at seventy-six levels, spiritual power at 19,999. But regarding the condensation of a spiritual domain, I still haven't found any clues."
According to Yun Ming, sincerely perceiving the world with one's consciousness, as one interacts with the outside world, the most fundamental talent deep in one's soul would manifest, guiding the formation of the spiritual domain.
"It's time to return to the Blood God Legion."
Xu Yuan went to the Dragon Valley and called out Jiang Wuyue.
During this period, while Xu Yuan was cultivating, Jiang Wuyue was also practicing. The difference was that Jiang Wuyue was undergoing blood essence cultivation in the Dragon Valley, a place that suppressed soul power. His goal was to transform his Blood Essence Martial Soul!
"How's the transformation of your Blood Essence Martial Soul going?"
Jiang Wuyue grinned widely.
"The Blood Essence Martial Soul is even more powerful than I imagined!"
After signing the Blood Essence Contract and transforming his Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul into a Blood Essence Tyrant Dragon, he felt that manipulating blood essence power was smoother, the burst of blood essence power was more direct, and even the enhancement of Tyrant Dragon strength seemed to have no barriers.
"Mm, you haven't truly experienced the power of an Original Body Martial Soul yet." Xu Yuan gave Jiang Wuyue a look that said, "Good luck with that."
Soul masters of the Original Body Sect would undergo their second awakening of their Original Body Martial Soul around levels fifty to sixty.
Postponing the second awakening wasn't impossible, but it would involve more suffering.
Jiang Wuyue was already at level seventy-four now. Who knows what level he would attempt the second awakening at, or how much suffering he would endure.
Jiang Wuyue smiled bitterly.
He understood Xu Yuan's implication.
Xu Yuan had previously mentioned it to him.
But he wasn't afraid of suffering. Soldiers of the Blood God Legion weren't afraid of hardship either.
"I can only leave for three months at most. My application to extend the duration was rejected by the Federation's higher-ups, so I have to return to the Blood God Legion now."
"Mm, Master has already made plans. He should help you complete the second awakening within the Blood God Legion."
"Is Master also joining the Blood God Legion?" Jiang Wuyue was shocked.
Xu Yuan waved his hand.
"Master has four disciples: Senior Brother, me, you, and Wang Jinyang. All of us will be staying in the Blood God Legion. Isn't it normal for him to join the Blood God Legion too?"
Jiang Wuyue's lips twitched.
"So, out of our master-disciple group of five, four of us are joining the Blood God Legion?"
"Wrong, maybe all five of us will join." Xu Yuan corrected.
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