Chapter 142

In the core circle.

For the past two days, Shu Yan and the others had not been in a hurry to leave the Extreme North Land.

The reason was simple: Shu Yan was preparing to begin condensing his first soul core.

After a Soul Master's soul power reaches the Titled Douluo level, the soul power throughout their body begins to transform from its original liquid state toward a solid state.

When a Soul Master completes the solidification of their soul power, they reach the bottleneck of a Titled Douluo. Only by successfully condensing the first soul core can they break through the Titled Douluo realm, and only after obtaining the ninth soul ring can they officially possess a title and become a true Titled Douluo.

However, this bottleneck is extremely difficult for the vast majority of Soul Masters to cross. The number of Soul Douluo on the continent is at least six to seven times that of Titled Douluo. Many people clearly have the potential to break through to Titled Douluo, but end up stopping at level 89. The reason lies right here.

The cultivation of solid-state soul power is extremely difficult and completely different from the cultivation of liquid-state soul power. Solid-state soul power can no longer circulate and flow through the meridians, and at this time, the function of the soul core is revealed.

A soul core, as the name implies, is the core of soul power. It usually only appears when a Soul Master is about to break through to Titled Douluo, but Shu Yan was different. His martial soul was too powerful and carried the bloodline of a god. The total amount of soul power he could store was already greater than that of an average expert who had just entered the Titled Douluo level, and the quality was also higher.

Condensing a soul core might be an extremely difficult task for an average Soul Master, but for him, it was not difficult at all.

His total amount and quality of soul power fully met the requirements, and there was even a trend of transformation from liquid to solid. His physical fitness was also fully qualified; so many opportunities and transformations over the years had given him a tough body far exceeding that of Soul Masters of the same level. As for mental power, that went without saying.

The function of the hundred-thousand-year Wangchuan Qiushui Dew was far beyond what ordinary people could compare to. It not only greatly widened and stabilized Shu Yan's spiritual sea but also significantly improved his mental power. The characteristics of the Ice Heaven Snow Maiden martial soul kept his mind at a "pure" level, which was also a great benefit to the improvement of his mental power. At the very least, did he really think Elder Yi was just eating for free? Sitting cross-legged in the center of the Snow Empress Palace, Shu Yan adjusted his breath and then began to circulate his soul power according to the secret method gifted by Xu Jiawei.

Faint ice-blue soul power appeared around him, and then slowly condensed in front of him. Shu Yan continued to slowly inject soul power; the soul power gradually increased and began to rotate slowly.

Under Shu Yan's control, the rotation speed of the soul power became faster and faster, and it began to compress slowly. In this process of rotation and compression, Shu Yan slowly increased the output of his soul power. Visibly to the naked eye, the ice-blue soul power began to change toward a viscous form, but the rotation speed of that small vortex became faster and faster. Shu Yan's mental power firmly guarded the surroundings, ensuring that not a single bit of this soul power leaked out.

On the other side, Empress Bing had a trace of worry in her expression. She leaned against the cold wall, choosing to stay here to protect Shu Yan—first, out of concern that some accident might occur, and second, out of pure worry for Shu Yan.

In a trance, Shu Yan's figure and the Snow Empress's figure appeared alternately. Empress Bing shook her little head in annoyance, not understanding what she was thinking. The distress continued to spread; she was clearly not as clear-sighted as the Snow Empress, or rather, she was forcing herself to accept everything she thought instead of facing reality.

As time passed, the soul power in front of Shu Yan finally transformed from liquid to solid. Shu Yan's expression became a bit more serious; the next steps could not have a single error, otherwise, everything would fall short of success.

The soul power was still rotating rapidly, repeating the process of compression and rotation. Slowly, a soul power formation with a shape identical to a small funnel appeared. As soon as it appeared, the surrounding heaven and earth energy seemed to be greatly attracted, gathering toward this side at high speed.

The core circle of the Extreme North Land was the best gathering place for ice-attribute heaven and earth energy. The ice-attribute heaven and earth energy here was even richer than that of the Cold Extreme Yin Spring. Actually, the Cold Extreme Yin Spring was not bad originally, but because the amount absorbed by Shu Yan and the others was too much, the ice-attribute heaven and earth energy there became a bit "kidney deficient" and needed a period of time to replenish. But the Extreme North Land was vast, and the heaven and earth energy was incomparably abundant. As long as Shu Yan wasn't a bottomless pit, it could fully satisfy any of his requirements.

A steady stream of heaven and earth energy was absorbed by the small funnel, and a faint vortex phantom appeared over the entire Snow Empress Palace. Empress Bing yawned, then suddenly paused. She looked at Shu Yan in disbelief; the heaven and earth energy Shu Yan was absorbing was truly too vast.

If it stabilized successfully, that would be fine, but if something went wrong, Empress Bing didn't dare to think about the final result. I'm afraid a radius of several miles would be directly flattened...

However, seeing Shu Yan's still calm and composed expression, Empress Bing sighed softly and chose to believe in him.

... Time passed bit by bit. The solid-state soul power in front of Shu Yan had already absorbed more than 70% of his own soul power, and the heaven and earth energy it absorbed was unimaginably vast. Faint golden light burst out near the solid-state soul power, and then slowly took on a hint of ice-blue. This was the attribute-ization of solid-state soul power. Shu Yan only had one martial soul, which was the Extreme Ice Ice Heaven Snow Maiden martial soul, so his first soul core would only be of the Extreme Ice attribute. And now, the condensation of Shu Yan's soul core had also entered the final step.

Black cracks appeared around the solid-state soul power, from which countless spatial forces surged out and were finally absorbed by Shu Yan's soul core.

In this process, Shu Yan's Space Origin right leg bone was also shining brightly, with silver-white light flickering. Shu Yan only felt that his understanding of spatial power had deepened a bit more. This was undoubtedly a huge opportunity. If he could thoroughly comprehend it, Shu Yan's mastery of spatial power would reach a higher level in the future, and he could even reach the point of manipulating space at will for his own use.

The rotation speed of the solid-state soul power was approaching its limit, and the space around it was twisting. Shu Yan took a deep breath, and after adjusting his state, he suddenly activated the final step.

The solid-state soul power trembled slightly, and then, it strangely stopped directly. From extreme motion to extreme stillness, this was undoubtedly an incomparably painful process. Shu Yan frowned tightly, and the cold sweat was frozen directly before it could slide down.

In his eyes, ice-blue, gold, and black colors were interweaving. The next moment, with him as the center, the nearby space collapsed instantly. Empress Bing protected the Snow Empress Palace and took a deep breath, looking at Shu Yan with some surprise; it seemed she really didn't expect Shu Yan to be able to reach this step.

The original solid-state soul power had completely disappeared, and in its place was a small black hole vortex. In the perception of mental power, there was only boundless darkness in this black hole vortex, and he couldn't even detect how much soul power was stored within it.

But Shu Yan could clearly perceive the connection between himself and this black hole vortex. He exhaled a turbid breath gently, and his expression slowly relaxed. Finally, he had succeeded...

Soft ice-blue light continued to spread toward the surroundings, and the entire black hole vortex was constantly changing. Shu Yan felt the familiar Extreme Ice aura from it. This was his first soul core, the Extreme Ice soul core! This innate sense of intimacy made a smile appear on Shu Yan's face. He didn't pause, but directly guided the soul core toward his dantian.

The ice-blue and golden light slowly entered his body, but the expected pain did not appear again. Shu Yan only felt that the soul power he had just output was recovering at a very fast speed. The two colors soon covered his entire body. Outside Shu Yan's dantian, the ice-blue soul core was rotating slowly, and energy and essence from the endless space were continuously attracted and finally absorbed by Shu Yan.

Spatial power permeated around Shu Yan, and the Space Origin right leg bone was cheering. This was the benefit of having a soul core and mastering spatial power. With such a soul core, the martial soul itself could directly draw energy from the endless space without needing to absorb the heaven and earth energy in the real world. Shu Yan's future cultivation speed and recovery speed in battle would also leap several levels, becoming more powerful and swift.

After an unknown amount of time, Shu Yan opened his eyes suddenly. His soul power had increased directly from level 73 to level 74. With the soul core, plus the buff of increased cultivation speed after an Extreme Attribute Soul Master breaks through level 70, Shu Yan was expected to break through to Soul Douluo in a very short time, after which he could continue to soar and break into the Titled Douluo level.

Empress Bing walked up and said with some envy: "Successfully condensing the first soul core at the Soul Sage level, and it's even such a perverted first soul core. It was truly a correct decision to take you to hunt the Void Predator back then, allowing you to have some understanding of spatial power in advance, which would actually bring such benefits today..."

After finishing her serious analysis, Empress Bing soon exposed her true nature.

She pinched the soft flesh on Shu Yan's waist and said with some grief and indignation: "You bastard, why are you so perverted? I'm afraid only Di Tian's soul core in this world can surpass yours. But you are still young and your cultivation is still weak, so the future is really hard to say. Why don't I have such good luck as you? Just condensing the first soul core back then almost caused irreparable damage to my origin."

Shu Yan slapped away Empress Bing's hand, which didn't know its own strength, and then knocked on her forehead.

Empress Bing was already used to such intimate actions from Shu Yan, but she inexplicably felt a bit strange. Looking at it this way, it was like a younger sister playing with her older brother...

The key was that Shu Yan's age wasn't even a fraction of hers! Bah, she should clearly be the older sister, so why did it feel like this now...

(End of chapter)