Chapter 18: Learning and Cultivation

The Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect's library can be said to encompass everything—astronomy and geography, Soul Beast encyclopedias, martial soul differences, and so on; it even holds the Douluo Continent's most extensive collection of medicinal herb texts, and the Sect itself is also one of the largest medicinal material merchants on the Douluo Continent.

Yang Xiong spends each morning swiftly leafing through various books in the Library Tower, especially interested in medicinal herbs and the myriad self‑created soul skills.

Unexpectedly, the collection does contain a few entries on Immortal Herbs; though somewhat vague, many names do appear.

The most prominent, naturally, is the Heaven‑Connecting Chrysanthemum, which is also the most clearly described among all Immortal Herbs.

As everyone knows, the Heaven‑Connecting Chrysanthemum is the martial soul of the Spirit Hall's Jiu Title Douluo, and it is the Douluo Continent's only plant‑type Title Douluo, whose martial soul is unquestionably extraordinary.

Moreover, the Spirit Hall and the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect are mortal enemies; regarding the Jiu Title Douluo as their prime foe, they naturally go to great lengths to uncover weaknesses in his martial soul, and the information on the Heaven‑Connecting Chrysanthemum remains relatively complete.

Beyond that, some older texts also mention other Immortal Herbs, including the Eight‑Petal Immortal Orchid, Heart‑Breaking Red, Fragrant Charming Immortal Herb, and even an introduction to the Charming Tulip Immortal Herb.

Among them, the Eight‑Petal Immortal Orchid is a top‑grade orchid; the Douluo Shijie likewise has many orchid enthusiasts, so records of it are relatively abundant.

The Fragrant Charming Immortal Herb is recorded in comparatively greater detail, after all it is a herb that the Po Yi Zu has sought across countless generations on the continent; they could not have missed the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, which has the widest reach of information on the Douluo Continent.

The Charming Tulip appears on a very rustic beast hide, looking ancient and timeless, and it is even placed on the seventh floor of the library tower, indicating the sect places great importance on it.

Nevertheless, even these ancient texts describe the Immortal Herbs only sparingly, far less detailed and comprehensive than Tang San's Xuan Tian Treasure Record, yet it is already sufficient for Yang Xiong.

Among all Immortal Herbs, what Yang Xiong truly cares about is the Fragrant Charming Immortal Herb; finding a related picture is enough, as it is the guarantee of safety.

Beyond the wealth of herbal knowledge, Yang Xiong has examined countless self‑created soul skills and always feels they offer little benefit to him, since many so‑called self‑created soul skills are designed around one's own martial soul; without a matching martial soul they cannot manifest power, just like the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's Dragon Transformation, which works only with dragon‑type martial souls and has no effect with others.

Yang Xiong did spend some time studying the Seven Kill Sword Technique; his father's martial soul is an iron sword, and Yang Xiong often asks his father about fist and foot techniques, so he has a certain grasp of swordsmanship and even practiced a bit, but the mismatch with his own martial soul prevented deeper study.

Yang Xiong has been pondering that the Body Sect's martial soul, since its soul skill is manifested through the body, has relatively limited variability and is easily targeted and studied by enemies; therefore, after Yi Wan Nian, the Body Sect established a strict rule: one must not reveal one's soul skill before a critical moment.

Yet as a Soul Grandmaster, not using soul skills creates too great a gap with the enemy; whether it's the amplification of a Beast Spirit or the strength of an Artifact Spirit, the Body Sect's martial soul alone is ultimately insufficient in combat.

After careful thought, Yang Xiong decided he still needed to devise a self‑created soul skill, at least one that could handle ordinary battles.

But self‑created soul skills are not that easy to develop, and Yang Xiong does not wish to spend too much time on them, especially since this is his golden cultivation period.

In the original work, Feng Xiaotian became obsessed with self‑created soul skills; although he possessed Innate Full Soul Power, his soul power was far weaker than the Spirit Hall's Golden Generation. He is older than the Golden Generation and, as a direct disciple of Shenfeng Academy, has abundant resources, yet he became a disgrace of Innate Full Soul Power.

After much contemplation, Yang Xiong formed his own line of thought; reviewing all his past and present insights, the simplest and most cost‑effective option is the Spiral Sphere from Naruto. In principle it is not complex; the chakra in Naruto is the Soul Master World's soul power and holds great potential for later development.

Yang Xiong originally planned to later absorb Soul Rings of the five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, earth; if the Spiral Sphere can later be infused with various elemental forces, its power would be terrifyingly immense, possibly even undergoing a qualitative transformation.

One must know that the elements have inherent connections as well as mutual repulsion; concentrating multiple elements together could be highly unstable, and the power might increase geometrically like a bomb—doesn't that sound similar to a certain emperor's ultimate technique?

Especially, Yang Xiong feels the Spiral Sphere matches his Body Sect's martial soul perfectly; although the Body Sect's martial soul cannot be summoned alone, it makes manipulating soul power more convenient and flexible, and any future elemental infusion's side effects could be compensated by the Body Sect's martial soul.

Since committing to develop the Spiral Sphere, Yang Xiong has added self‑created soul skill development to his afternoon training regimen, in addition to extreme Body Tempering, limiting it to one or two hours so it does not affect his Body Tempering.

However, the Spiral Sphere proves more difficult to develop than he imagined; currently Yang Xiong is merely an ordinary Soul Grandmaster, essentially the lowest tier in the Soul Master World, lacking sufficient control over soul power.

After several consecutive days of development, although he could condense some soul power in his palm, it dissipated rapidly in the air, making it impossible to wield that soul power in combat, let alone shape it.

Especially, when Yang Xiong tried to pour some water into his palm as he imagined, the water was instantly dispersed, and even a water‑filled balloon burst immediately, showing no sign of forming.

Yang Xiong discovered a major issue: he had taken things for granted. The Spiral Sphere is devised from the flow of wind‑attribute energy, grasped in the palm and spun rapidly to solidify.

But Yang Xiong has only absorbed a Space Attribute Soul Ring; Space Attribute is reputed to be the most difficult and mysterious of all attributes, and with his current strength he cannot possibly master it, let alone glimpse its pathway.

Not to mention the Spiral Sphere demands extremely precise control of soul power— the soul power in the hand must be as deft as a finger on an arm—requiring the utmost from both soul power and mental force, and Yang Xiong's current research in the Soul Master World is far behind.

After three full months of continuous research, even Yang Xiong began to feel discouraged, thinking the Spiral Sphere remains too distant for him, and he even considered altering his cultivation plan to absorb a wind‑attribute Soul Ring as his Second Soul Ring.

But an event that day gave Yang Xiong a glimmer of hope.

(End of Chapter)