Chapter 28: Practice

Zhou Heng began his daily cultivation routine, following a four-point path between the Mimicry Cultivation Field, the canteen, the classroom, and the dormitory.

Time flowed by day after day, like a white horse passing a crack in a wall.

In the blink of an eye, two years had passed.

On this day, Zhou Heng sat cross-legged in the middle of a forest.

Around Zhou Heng's seated body, a special cyan-colored element was circling him.

It was being slowly absorbed by Zhou Heng's body.

This special element was Xin Metal Power, which Zhou Heng had subdued relying on his Battle Instrument and his third soul skill, a 9,700-year-old Evergreen Jade Lotus Spirit Beast.

This Spirit Beast did not possess powerful offensive capabilities, but it possessed extremely formidable healing and detoxifying abilities.

In fact, within a hundred-meter radius of an Evergreen Jade Lotus Spirit Beast, there would never be any poison-attribute creatures.

The third soul skill it added to his martial soul, the Element Spirit Tree, was Wood Element Manipulation; Zhou Heng used the wood elements collected through this soul skill and fused them with the previously collected Gui Water Power to derive this Xin Metal Power.

Once this Xin Metal Power was completely absorbed by Zhou Heng, he felt his body light and comfortable, and his soul power had improved significantly.

Zhou Heng opened his eyes and exhaled a breath of turbid white air; this breath of air traveled a full meter before it began to dissipate.

After sensing his state, Zhou Heng muttered to himself, "Already level 37! A 15-level increase in soul power over two years, not bad."

Zhou Heng felt the power within his body, and a smile could not help but appear on his face.

Soon, the smile was put away by Zhou Heng.

Zhou Heng raised his left hand, and his martial soul, the Element Spirit Tree, was released; at the same time, three purple soul rings appeared above the martial soul, bobbing up and down.

The three soul rings flashed simultaneously, and the soul skills within them were activated by Zhou Heng.

Gold Element, Water Element, and Wood Element—these three elemental powers were sensed by Zhou Heng's spiritual power, and through the power of his Element Spirit Tree martial soul, Zhou Heng began to manipulate these elements.

It had taken Zhou Heng three years to fully understand the source of the elemental power manipulation of his awakened Element Spirit Tree martial soul.

The Element Spirit Tree martial soul did not manipulate the elements between heaven and earth through soul skills, but rather relied on the martial soul's own affinity for elemental power, using spiritual power to manipulate these elements.

Especially after Zhou Heng cultivated his self-created "Heavenly Stem True Art," his physique underwent a transformation, and now his body had even greater affinity for the various elements between heaven and earth.

When Zhou Heng manipulated various elements now, it was far easier than before.

Zhou Heng's main means of attack now was no longer just manipulating elements, but using Xin Metal, Gui Water, and Yi Wood Power to conduct offensive and defensive control.

Moreover, Zhou Heng had already begun to research how to derive other Heavenly Stem Powers.

Zhou Heng put away his martial soul and walked toward a certain direction in the academy.

After walking for more than ten minutes, Zhou Heng arrived at a small hill.

This small hill was only eighty or a hundred meters high, but on the summit, there was a flat area covering two hundred square meters.

This flat area was built by servants from the Offering Hall at Zhou Heng's request; Zhou Heng practiced his combat methods here and tested his combat power in passing.

After arriving here, Zhou Heng released his Element Spirit Tree martial soul, the three soul rings flashed together, and the three soul skills were used at once.

The Gold Element, Water Element, and Wood Element within a fifty-meter radius were all brought under Zhou Heng's control, and subsequently, they transformed into three rings circling around Zhou Huan's body.

The three rings intertwined and fused; after two minutes, the three rings evolved into three new rings.

These three rings represented: the Xin Metal element, intertwined with gold and cyan-blue; the Gui Water element, a blend of blue and black; and the cyan Yi Wood element.

Zhou Heng manipulated the three derived elements, directly manifesting various blades, spears, swords, and halberds around his body; at the same time, a force of vitality bloomed on the ground, causing the originally flat ground to become overgrown with various vines and shrubs.

Furthermore, in the air around Zhou Heng, gusts of ice mist containing soul power appeared, completely obscuring his figure; at the same time, within the coverage of this ice mist, a thin layer of ice began to condense on the ground.

Three distinct powers, under Zhou Heng's control, actually appeared in the same place at the same time.

Zhou Heng's movements did not stop; the Xin Metal Power changed again, and those blades, spears, swords, and halberds shifted constantly, finally turning into strange-shaped objects, such as: tripods, bells, towers, and so on.

These objects had no strange abilities; Zhou Heng was merely manipulating the Xin Metal Power to take these shapes.

The Gui Water Power condensed, and ice crystals appeared out of thin air around Zhou Heng; manipulated by Zhou Heng, they changed into ice cones, ice spheres, ice spears, and other forms, spinning around him under his control.

The Yi Wood Power was absorbed by Zhou Heng; through his liver, he absorbed the Yi Wood Power, slowly converting it into soul power within his body to support the consumption of soul power by the three soul skills.

After Zhou Heng practiced on the flat ground for more than ten minutes, the soul power in his body could no longer support the consumption of the three soul skills; the three derived powers were manipulated and absorbed into his body, where they were converted into soul power through his lungs, kidneys, and liver.

Zhou Heng sat on a raised patch of earth to recover his strength, turned his head slightly to look at the damaged ground around him, and a smile rose on his face.

"These abilities are not bad, it's just that they consume too much soul power. It seems I have to consider the method of Soul Core condensation derived from the Douluo Dalu II world."

Zhou Heng felt the soul power in his body, which had been consumed by the three soul skills until less than five percent remained, and the smile that had been on his face collapsed.

Thinking about the matter of Soul Core condensation, Zhou Heng felt very troubled.

He currently had no clue about how to condense a Soul Core; in his past life, he had only read a little of Douluo Dalu II and III, and everything he knew about Soul Cores was from what was mentioned in those fan-fiction novels.

His understanding of this aspect was truly too little; wanting to complete the condensation of a Soul Core would likely take a lot of time and energy.

According to the theories of Soul Core condensation he had seen, the condensation of a Soul Core required using high-intensity spiritual power to control the compression of soul power as a core, and achieving energy form transformation through specific techniques.

A few fan-fiction novels he had read in his past life mentioned that this process could be specifically divided into five key steps: soul power gathering, compression and solidification, rotation and shaping, spiritual power stabilization, and core formation.

Among them, the prerequisite for condensing a Soul Core was possessing liquid soul power and powerful spiritual power.

Through the guidance of powerful spiritual power, the liquid soul power was compressed into solid soul power particles, and one also had to ensure that the structural form of the soul power was sufficiently stable.

Afterward, with the help of external force or special techniques (such as the Yin Yang Complementary method), the solid soul power was made to form a high-speed rotating sphere.

Subsequently, one used spiritual power to stabilize the structure of this soul power, and one also had to continuously adjust the soul power structure to maintain its stability.

Finally, when the rotation speed of the Soul Core reached a critical point and an autonomous soul power cycle was formed, the Soul Core would resonate with the Heaven and Earth Origin Qi, completing the final shaping.

At this point, the Soul Core was completely condensed.