Chapter 141: Creation

Hearing Ning Fengzhi's words, Zhou Heng shook his head, no longer hiding his look of disdain.

"Thank you for your kindness, Uncle Ning, but I do not need it."

"The quality of a thousand-year soul bone is too poor, and the cost of replacing a soul bone is far too heavy."

"Although absorbing a thousand-year soul bone now would provide me with a temporary benefit, it would eventually become a burden to me later on."

"Once I grow stronger in the future, I will naturally go and find soul bones that are suitable for myself."

"Oh, Xiao Heng, then what is your purpose in attending this auction?" Hearing Zhou Heng's arrogant statement, Ning Fengzhi's expression remained unchanged, but his internal assessment of Zhou Heng began to fluctuate.

He found it somewhat difficult to discern whether the youth before him was merely young and frivolous, or truly confident in his own future.

"I am attending this auction because I wish to find some special items. I intend to use them to conduct further research."

"What kind of research?"

"Research on martial souls and Spirit Masters." Zhou Heng glanced at Ning Fengzhi and felt the timing was right, so he revealed some of his thoughts.

"Oh? Research on martial souls and Spirit Masters is a problem that every Spirit Master on the continent cares about, yet no one dares to claim they can fully understand it."

"Decades ago, someone on the continent called himself a Master and published the so-called Ten Core Competencies of Spirit Masters."

"But in reality, he merely gathered the summaries of his predecessors and crowned them with his own name."

"Most of the so-called Ten Core Competencies of Spirit Masters are nothing but meaningless nonsense; if any Spirit Master truly regards them as treasures and cultivates according to those so-called theories, they will inevitably meet a grim end in their later years."

"Stagnation in soul power growth is a minor issue; it is not impossible for their martial souls to conflict."

The person Ning Fengzhi was referring to in his words was none other than the self-proclaimed Master, Yu Xiaogang.

In fact, what most people failed to notice was that Ning Fengzhi and Yu Xiaogang were of the same generation, separated by only a year or two, and their backgrounds were also quite similar.

Both of their fathers were Sect Masters of the Upper Three Sects, and they were both the children their fathers favored most at the time, so they had already had some interactions before awakening their martial souls.

At that time, Yu Xiaogang gave Ning Fengzhi the impression of being excessively arrogant, as well as pathologically conceited.

However, because nine out of ten Spirit Masters from the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Family possessed this personality, Ning Fengzhi did not think there was any major problem with it.

After all, if a weak person is excessively arrogant and conceited, that is pure ignorance and stupidity.

If a person with strength is arrogant and conceited, that is just their personality. In the eyes of the Ning Fengzhi of that time, Yu Xiaogang should have been able to awaken a decent level of Innate Spirit Power, so his arrogant personality was normal.

It was not until after the martial soul awakening, when Ning Fengzhi normally awakened the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda martial soul while Yu Xiaogang awakened a mutated pig martial soul, that the two stepped into different worlds.

Ning Fengzhi relied on his own efforts to gain the recognition of most people within the sect, first becoming the Young Sect Master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Then, after his father's death, he became the new generation's Sect Master, brought the two Title Douluo, Sword Douluo and Bone Douluo, into the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, and led the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect to a new height.

As for Yu Xiaogang, he gave up on himself, abandoned his family after enjoying their resources to join the Spirit Hall, eventually published the so-called Ten Core Competencies of Spirit Masters, and was then ostracized by the Spirit Hall.

He was active for a time with the Golden Iron Triangle formed with other Spirit Masters on the continent, and then he hid away somewhere, with no news of him for decades.

Because of the problems with the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda, successive Sect Masters had scratched their heads thinking about how to break through its innate limitations, so they inevitably embarked on the path of researching martial souls.

In this regard, Ning Fengzhi was even better than his predecessors; he not only inherited the knowledge of the previous Sect Masters but also made his own breakthroughs.

Although most people did not know it, in terms of research on martial souls and Spirit Masters, Ning Fengzhi was actually a master-level figure of this era.

Unlike the self-proclaimed Master, Yu Xiaogang, Ning Fengzhi was a person with genuine ability.

Even setting aside his status as the Sect Master of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, his own research on martial souls alone would be enough to make him a renowned figure on the continent.

It was just that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda had massive problems, and even with Ning Fengzhi's level of development, he had not the slightest clue regarding the issues of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.

At this moment, hearing Zhou Heng dare to claim he was researching martial souls and Spirit Masters, Ning Fengzhi could not help but ask a sharp question.

"I wonder, Xiao Heng, what exactly gives you the confidence to say you are researching martial souls and Spirit Masters?"

"My talent."

Zhou Heng opened his palm, and the soul power, life force, and spiritual power within his body pulsed together, then condensed upon his palm; under Zhou Heng's control, the soul power and life force outlined the shape of a mouse.

Zhou Heng used his spiritual power to stabilize it, then injected his own Spirit into it.

After the Spirit was injected, the little mouse, which had previously been just an empty shell, seemed as if it had been infused with a soul, becoming a semi-independent life form.

Soul power and life force constituted its body, while spiritual power and the crucial Spirit endowed it with the simplest ability to think.

The confused little life form gently shook its limbs and tail in Zhou Heng's palm, sensing this world.

It crawled along Zhou Heng's arm onto his shoulder, and then, under Zhou Heng's guidance, came to his other palm.

Watching this scene, which could be called shocking, Ning Fengzhi opened his mouth wide, his eyes nearly popping out of their sockets.

He carefully brought his own palm in front of Zhou Heng's, and the little mouse, under Zhou Heng's guidance, crawled into Ning Fengzhi's palm.

Ning Fengzhi carefully used his own spiritual power and soul power to probe the little mouse in his hand, feeling that it did not look like a mass of soul power at all, but rather like an elemental life form born from soul power.

Within that precise and fragile body, there existed a fluctuation akin to a soul.

Seeing this, Bone Douluo flashed in front of Ning Fengzhi in an instant and, unable to believe it, reached out a finger to poke the little mouse in Ning Fengzhi's palm.

The little mouse subconsciously wanted to open its mouth to repel the giant monster's finger, but its forceful counterattack was unable to hinder Gu Rong for even the slightest instant.

It could only be subjected to Gu Rong's rough exploration of its internal body.

Seeing this, Sword Douluo could not hold back either.

He did not care about the soul bone auction, directly flashed through a spatial rift, arrived beside Gu Rong, pushed Gu Rong aside, and wanted to try out this little mouse himself.

The moment Gu Rong withdrew his soul power, the little mouse, which had been playing dead in Ning Fengzhi's palm, immediately jumped up and nimbly burrowed into Zhou Heng's palm, seemingly complaining to Zhou Heng about something.