Chapter 417

Bang—!

With a crisp impact sound, a green figure was flung away; Song Lao quickly stabilized his stance in midair, landed on the ground, and said with satisfaction to the youth not far ahead: "Not bad, your strength has now reached the level of ninety‑seven. If it were me before, I probably couldn't defeat you now."

You overpraise me, Song Lao; I'm still far from it.

Tang Wulin withdrew his stance and plunged his spear into the ground.

Song Lao said helplessly:

Being too modest turns into arrogance, you know? You are now the Sea God Pavilion Master of Shilake Academy, the face of our academy; you can't keep being like this—you need a bit of 'if not me, then who' arrogance.

Yes.

Tang Wulin respectfully accepted the senior's teachings.

Compared to a year ago, the aura about him has undergone a change that could be described as earth‑shattering.

His height grew again, his posture became more upright, his features matured further, and his bearing now faintly carried the air of a superior.

Over the past year, with the aid of the Cosmos Creation Pill, both his and Huo Yutong's cultivation have leapt forward; shortly after finishing the last pill, their soul power levels have reached the bottleneck of the eightieth rank.

He wasn't in a rush to obtain soul rings; over the past year his soul power had risen too quickly, so it was time to spend some effort consolidating his cultivation.

You should know he originally thought reaching the eightieth rank would take at least five years; this speed is far, far beyond that.

Song Lao smiled kindly, approached Tang Wulin, and placed his aged hand on the youth's shoulder.

Child, you're heading to the main sect of the Body Sect tomorrow, right?

"Hmm." Tang Wulin nodded lightly, "I must facilitate a formal cooperation between our two sides; with the Ri Yue Di Guo and the Holy Spirit Sect as these two major enemies, we can no longer linger in the past."

Hehehe, you don't need to tell me this; although I also dislike the Body Sect, I understand these principles.

Song Lao's eyes narrowed slightly.

Just, if I'm not mistaken, that Old Poison Monster will likely test your strength given his temperament; you represent the face of Shilake Academy, so you can't afford to lose. Let me now tell you a cultivation method unique to Honored Douluo.

Unique to Honored Douluo?

Tang Wulin subconsciously repeated Song Lao's words.

Song Lao nodded.

Honored Douluo unique, but considering your current strength, you should be able to accomplish it. Oh right, go call Huo Yutong over too; her strength should be sufficient as well.

Sure.

Tang Wulin respectfully cupped his fists toward Song Lao, tapped the ground with his toes, and shot forward like lightning.

Song Lao watched Tang Wulin fly toward Shilake City, a hint of wistfulness rising in his eyes.

Elder Mu, your decision is correct; this child Tang Wulin is the academy's future. With him leading Shilake, our academy will surely usher in its most glorious era in ten thousand years.

Tang Wulin gave the Cosmos Creation Pill to Shilake Academy; one pill was stored away by them, the other was given to Huo Yutong, Yan Shaozhe, and Xianlin'er.

The reason for giving a pill to Song Lao is naturally that she is the current strongest in actual meaning of the Sea God Pavilion, while giving pills to Yan Shaozhe and Xianlin'er is because they are the most talented among the strong at the Super Douluo level.

With the aid of the Cosmos Creation Pill, Song Lao's cultivation has now reached the peak of the ninety‑eighth rank; in terms of the richness of her power, she even surpasses the previous Xuanzi. Although her talent limits her to this point, making a breakthrough to Limit Douluo impossible, she is quite satisfied, for without the Cosmos Creation Pill provided by Tang Wulin, she could not have reached the ninety‑eighth rank, let alone her present state.

She is now genuinely the continent's top agility‑attack system soul master.

With the help of the Cosmos Creation Pill, Yan Shaozhe and Xianlin'er each rose by one level, reaching the ninety‑seventh and ninety‑sixth ranks respectively.

Shilake Academy's overall strength has risen a notch, finally making up for the loss caused by Xuanzi's incident.

All of this is thanks to Tang Wulin.

Song Lao closed his eyes, the corners of his mouth turning up slightly.

Soon, Tang Wulin arrived with Huo Yutong.

Song Lao.

Song Lao opened his eyes, wasted no words, and got straight to the point.

Have you heard of a soul core?

The two exchanged a glance and shook their heads together.

Song Lao said lightly:

After a soul master's soul power cultivation reaches the Honored Douluo level, it transforms from its original liquid state to a solid state; once the soul master completes this solidification, he reaches the bottleneck of the ninetieth rank, and only after obtaining the ninth soul ring does he become an Honored Douluo. This bottleneck is difficult for the vast majority of soul masters to cross, which is why there are many Soul Douluo but very few Honored Douluo.

The biggest problem with the transformation from liquid to solid soul power is that cultivating solid soul power is extremely difficult; we won't consider those Soul Douluo unable to complete the conversion, and will only talk about those who smoothly became Honored Douluo. You've already interacted with quite a few Honored Douluo, haven't you? Even among peers of the same Honored Douluo rank, their actual strength can differ considerably—have you noticed that?

Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong nodded together.

Huo Yutong asked, "But Song Lao, isn't this due to differences in martial soul quality?"

Song Lao smiled faintly.

That's correct; this indeed relates to the martial soul. The stronger the martial soul, the greater the power it can unleash when combined with soul power. However, there's something you might not know: the stronger the martial soul, the greater the total soul power a soul master can possess during cultivation, because the martial soul itself can store a portion of soul power, and the stronger the martial soul, the more soul power it can store.

Can a martial soul store part of the soul power?

Tang Wulin and Huo Yutong looked astonished; they had indeed never heard of such a thing before.

Song Lao smiled and nodded.

That's right; in fact, you've only just reached this stage. Soul Saints and above can manifest their martial soul true body, and the martial soul itself helps the soul master store a certain amount of soul power. This knowledge is only accessible to those at Soul Saint level or higher; you haven't noticed it merely because your soul power has risen too quickly lately, dulling your perception.

After reaching Honored Douluo, when soul power turns solid, the biggest problem is that further cultivation becomes difficult—after all, you know gaseous and liquid states can flow normally, but what about solid?

After hearing Song Lao's words, the two thought for a moment and both shook their heads.

Song Lao laughed.

Therefore, the solution we devised is to condense the core of soul power, namely the soul core.

(End of chapter)