Chapter 5: Shocking: Is the Ling Bing Douluo the Ice Empress's Human Form?

In the elevator heading to the tenth floor, Hua Yichen looked at Huo Yuhao beside him and asked:

"Since you want to investigate spirit souls, have you heard the legend of the First Generation Tower Master?"

"Is that the Ling Bing Douluo?"

Huo Yuhao's expression showed nothing unusual, appropriately revealing a trace of curiosity: "There are too few legends about that person. I only know that he created the Spirit Pagoda and developed Spirit Soul Technology; as for anything else, I'm not clear."

Never mind legends—ten thousand years ago he was already a Hidden Douluo, rivaling even the Clear Sky Sect. Apart from acting more after creating the Spirit Pagoda, he rarely appeared before people in his true form at other times.

What the world knew of him was even less: they only knew of one martial soul of his—the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion—and not even the Spirit Eyes were clear.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have appeared at the Spirit Pagoda with his original appearance and Spirit Eyes martial soul.

Hua Yichen nodded: "Indeed, there are very few legends left by the First Generation Tower Master, but the inheritance he left to the Spirit Pagoda has endured, and thanks to him, the current environment of peaceful coexistence between soul beasts and humans was created."

Saying this, Hua Yichen paused, then spoke frankly:

"You haven't studied the relevant knowledge yet, so some concepts might be hard to understand; just treat it as a story for now."

"Actually, with the Federation's current strength, wiping out a spirit beast habitat would be easy. Logically, the relationship between humans and soul beasts should be very tense. But the First Generation Tower Master seemed to have foreseen this scene long ago. The Spirit Soul Contract method and Contract Dissolution method he left behind eased the contradictions between the two sides."

Huo Yuhao listened while recalling the bits and pieces of when he originally created the spirit soul system.

The Spirit Soul Technology he left behind was different from what the original Huo Yuhao left behind.

After all, his I Lao was still alive!

With I Lao's knowledge and experience, his research into spirit souls was more in-depth, and he had the ability to make certain improvements and restrictions, adding the Spirit Soul Contract to the spirit soul system!

According to that contract, to absorb a spirit soul, one needed to sign a Spirit Soul Contract with the spirit soul's approval, otherwise it would fail.

After signing the contract, the spirit soul could grow with the Soul Master; if the Soul Master was strong enough, the spirit soul could even evolve on its own. The Soul Master could then contact the spirit soul through the contract, communicate in advance, and choose soul skills freely!

This Spirit Soul Contract, Huo Yuhao only referenced the Blood Contract of the Saint Demon Continent, without adding a forced master-servant contract. Fundamentally, it eliminated the possibility of raising and enslaving soul beasts like in the original work!

Want to force a spirit soul to sign a contract?

You can, but first you must crack the 28 Security Procedures I Lao left in the Spirit Soul Contract, and reverse-engineer the cultivation system of the Saint Demon Continent; otherwise it's just daydreaming.

Besides the Spirit Soul Contract, he also introduced the Contract Dissolution Method, allowing both parties who signed the contract to dissolve it with mutual consent.

When spirit souls were first born ten thousand years ago, all Soul Masters could only obtain spirit souls by his method.

That is to say, they had to go through two processes: find a soul beast willing to be a spirit soul, then sign a contract at the Spirit Pagoda.

But where in the world were there so many soul beasts willing to be spirit souls?

At this time, Huo Yuhao gave everyone another clear path.

He reached a cooperation with Di Tian and the Snow Empress!

With two great Spirit Beast Leaders agreeing, naturally many sponsors were brought in, and the number of soul beasts willing to be spirit souls surged.

Then came the time for the Contract Dissolution Method to take effect.

A spirit soul is a life form that can grow. So if a Soul Master dissolved the contract before dying and passed the spirit soul down to a junior, over generations, what would happen?

Hua Yichen gave the answer.

"……Because of the Contract Dissolution Method, a strongest type of spirit soul was born, namely—the Hereditary Spirit Soul!"

"In some Soul Master families, powerful spirit souls that are continuously inherited and grown have increasingly high age limits, have close ties with the Soul Master family, and their say gradually increases year by year, eventually becoming part of the Soul Master family, turning into Guardian Spirits."

"The heirs of those families must be chosen by them, after all, the Spirit Soul Contract requires the spirit soul's consent to be signed, and only a spirit soul that has signed a Spirit Soul Contract can dissolve the contract, not disappearing with the Soul Master's death."

The Spirit Soul Elevator doors opened, and Hua Yichen led the way out, saying to Huo Yuhao who followed him out:

"With a Hereditary Spirit Soul standing on the side of soul beasts, those Radical Factions who wanted to raise soul beasts and study spirit souls completely lost their chance. So some people slandered the First Generation Tower Master as a soul beast that transformed into human form. Since you've joined the Spirit Pagoda, you'll inevitably hear these rumors; don't let them affect you then."

"Also, when studying spirit souls, don't be too reckless and harm spirit souls, or it will have a bad influence."

Huo Yuhao nodded, then asked curiously: "In the rumors, what kind of soul beast did the Ling Bing Douluo transform from?"

"The Ice Empress."

"The Ice... Empress?"

Huo Yuhao's expression was somewhat strange.

Hua Yichen nodded slightly and sighed:

"That's right. Ten thousand years ago, the Ice Empress, ranked seventh among the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts—the Ice Jade Emperor Scorpion! After all, the Ling Bing Douluo's martial soul is the Ice Jade Scorpion!"

In the era when the Ling Bing Douluo appeared, the Ice Empress of the Extreme North also disappeared, and had been missing for many years, with no news at all.

It can be reasonably inferred that during that time, the Ice Empress completed her re-cultivation and finally appeared in the form of the Ling Bing Douluo.

Because during re-cultivation, she saw the strength of the human world and had a premonition that soul beasts would eventually be eliminated one day, so relying on her advantage as a soul beast herself, she created the Spirit Soul Contract, deeply binding humans and spirit souls together.

This is the claim of those who slander the First Generation Tower Master.

To be honest, it's quite reasonable, making Huo Yuhao himself show an expression of mixed feelings.

What could he say?

If the Snow Empress were still around, would Su Tong have become the Snow Empress's human form? Was the Spirit Pagoda actually a reserve created by the Extreme North?

The brain holes of later generations are truly huge...

In silence, the two walked into a room together.

This room covered nearly a hundred square meters, equipped with various large instruments, inside which were yellow light balls—turns out to be all kinds of spirit souls.

But Hua Yichen's target was not these.

He dismissed the work staff here, came to the instrument at the center of the room and operated for a moment, and three pillars rose in front, each with a yellow light ball on top.

"These spirit souls are a seven-hundred-year Ice Silkworm, a six-hundred-year Purple Spirit Wolf, and a seven-hundred-year Silver Beast respectively. According to the Spirit Pagoda's research, the soul skills they can provide are quite good."

Hua Yichen pointed to a row of yellow light balls and smiled slightly at Huo Yuhao.

"Which one do you want to choose?"

Without hesitating for long, Huo Yuhao, who knew the three soul beasts quite well, walked straight to the Ice Silkworm spirit soul: "It."

Hua Yichen was somewhat surprised, the corners of his mouth slightly curving up.

"Why?"

"Among the three Spirits, only the Ice Worm appears ordinary, yet it can stand alongside the other two — clearly it has something extraordinary about it."

"This child is quite clever."

Facing Huo Yuhao's answer, Hua Yichen nodded in satisfaction. "Not bad. This is the first lesson I want to teach you. In the Spirit Era, one can choose soul skills according to one's own will, so one cannot select Soul Beasts with the old perspective."

"Take this Ice Worm, for instance. Although it is a type of Soul Beast with very weak attack power, it can grant a Spiritual Attribute Soul Master a divine skill — Simulation."

"Through Mental Fluctuation, it can distort space, using itself as the basis to simulate various forms. Though it has no attack capability, it is an excellent soul skill for support, trapping people, and running away."

While speaking of trapping people and running away, Hua Yichen's expression showed not the slightest change.

Strong combat power alone is useless; only living geniuses can become powerhouses!

He certainly did not hope that the genius he had unearthed would die halfway.

Huo Yuhao likewise remained impassive.

Trapping people is no crime; running away is justified.

Who doesn't have enemies, who doesn't have times when they need to retreat strategically?

A genius who grows up is a powerhouse; one who fails to grow up is merely a pile of yellow earth!

On this point, his thinking coincided with Hua Yichen's.

(End of Chapter)