Chapter 135: What’s Going On?

Chapter 135: Chapter 135: What’s Going On?

A Spirit Ghost, according to the records of the Soul Control Technique, was the perfect form originally envisioned for a Soul Slave. It has no self-aware Spiritual Wisdom, and after signing a contract, it can even be integrated into one’s body, allowing it to continuously refine Spiritual Power and increase cultivation speed.

As one’s Realm improved, the Spirit Ghost could even perfectly fuse with its master. At that point, not only would one have double the cultivation speed, but also twice the Spiritual Power reserves.

But after comprehending the Magic Veins of the Soul Control Technique, Liu Chen understood what a Spirit Ghost truly was. The True Spirit is the core of a soul; normally, one True Spirit corresponds to one soul. For a Soul Slave to completely lose its Spiritual Wisdom usually meant its True Spirit had dissipated.

Following the original process, the soul derived from the True Spirit would inevitably dissipate first. However, the process of Refining a Spirit Ghost used Spiritual Power to seal away a portion of the dissipating soul while allowing the True Spirit to scatter between Heaven and Earth.

Thus, that portion of the soul becomes the Spirit Ghost. The so-called Soul Contract then connects one’s own soul to the Spirit Ghost, allowing one to command it to refine Spiritual Power.

But this method had its hidden dangers. First was the compatibility between the Spirit Ghost and one’s own soul. Second was whether the True Spirit could bear such a burden—after all, its workload had just doubled for no reason.

’No wonder the Soul Control Technique has no recorded success stories. I’m afraid no one in Fire Dragon Valley has ever truly managed to fuse the two, or perhaps there hasn’t even been a Cultivator in Fire Dragon Valley who has successfully Refined a Spirit Ghost. If one’s mastery of the Soul Control Technique is lacking, this part would be left entirely to luck.’

Liu Chen opened his eyes. He wasn’t worried about this matter. Even if his Soul Control Technique hadn’t become unique yet, Liu Chen was confident he could refine a Spirit Ghost. This wasn’t just baseless boasting; it was a fact. After all, his Soul Crossing Technique had already transformed into a unique version, and the Soul Crossing Technique was meant to guide True Spirits.

With the two techniques combined, Liu Chen was ninety percent certain he could refine a Spirit Ghost right now. If he waited until his Soul Control Technique also became unique, his certainty would likely rise to ninety-nine percent. Barring any insurmountable accident, Liu Chen would succeed.

"Thunder Mountain won."

Liu Chen walked out of his room and glanced at the pillar of light activated at the distant volcano crater. This time, Purple Cloud Valley had not participated; in fact, none of its cultivators had even shown their faces.

In the courtyard, Xie Xichen gazed quietly into the distance. He desperately wanted to try again, but unfortunately, even if Qingxu Hall and Thunder Mountain had no objections, the Purple Cloud Valley disciples wouldn’t allow him to fight again tomorrow. There were only twelve matches in total, but more than twelve people were qualified to compete.

He had only been able to fight twice in a row because he had broken through to the Meridian Passage Realm ahead of schedule.

Their late-night exchange didn’t last long. Liu Chen yawned and went back into his room. He had originally wanted to go out and clear his head, but before he could even slip into the shadows, he sensed the other three were still in the courtyard. Going out now would likely lead to him being discovered.

So, Liu Chen had no choice but to abandon the idea and return to his room to continue practicing the Soul Control Technique.

Liu Chen’s plan for making this magic unique was quite simple. He wouldn’t modify the part about Refining a Soul Slave, or rather, a Spirit Ghost. In that respect, combined with his understanding of the Soul Crossing Technique, it was already what you could call perfect.

The area to be perfected, then, was the Soul Contract. If he could make the Spirit Ghost and his own soul completely interconnected, to the point they could even convert into one another, it would be equivalent to an Acquired transformation into one body with two souls, albeit sharing a single Spiritual Wisdom.

Under such circumstances, if faced with a fatal crisis, Liu Chen might be able to use the Spirit Ghost to die in his stead. But more than this substitution ability, Liu Chen wanted to figure out the most crucial question: could a single True Spirit support two souls?

If it could, then he wouldn’t have to worry about future problems. If not, the Spirit Ghost would have to be abandoned at a certain stage, or he would have to find a solution.

For two days, on the fifteenth and sixteenth of September, Liu Chen cultivated madly. Or rather, he had been cultivating madly ever since he began his journey, but after entering Fire Dragon Valley, he had even forgone rest.

This continued until dinnertime on the sixteenth of September. It was called dinner, but Liu Chen was somewhat distracted. His Soul Control Technique was just a tiny bit away from transforming into his unique version, and then he could tentatively attempt to glimpse a part of the True Spirit’s mysteries.

At the very least, he would be able to refine a few Spirit Ghosts. Even without signing a Soul Contract with them, Liu Chen could use the Soul Ring’s master-acknowledgment process to have the Spirit Ghosts stand guard in his room, allowing him to cultivate in peace for a while.

"Purple Cloud Valley has already lost two in a row. If we lose again tomorrow, it’ll be a three-loss streak."

Xie Xichen looked at the new pillar of light for Thunder Mountain, feeling torn. The more people who failed, the more acceptable his own failure would become to the other Purple Cloud Valley disciples. But these failures came at the cost of the valley’s interests. He was deeply conflicted.

"I heard today’s loss was a real injustice. What happened?"

Ren Xunchun couldn’t help but look over. He wasn’t unable to leave the courtyard; the signs of his poisoning were basically gone. As long as he didn’t use his Spiritual Power, no one would notice anything was amiss.

Under the circumstances, he had naturally gone out for a stroll. But after spending half the day asking a few familiar disciples, he still only had a hazy understanding of what happened today.

"The one who fought at midnight today was Yuan Hui from Cyan Cloud Peak. Well... his strength was about equal to the Thunder Mountain disciple he faced. In that situation, if he had used Spiritual Cuisine beforehand, he definitely would have been able to win."

Xie Xichen shrugged. Beside him, Yang Haichen’s face suddenly lit up with understanding. Both Ren Xunchun’s and Liu Chen’s eyes fell upon him.

"Junior Brother, do you remember that outrageously priced Spiritual Cuisine sold during the Inner Sect Disciple assessment?"

Yang Haichen looked at Liu Chen. He hadn’t known this Senior Brother Yuan at first, but later, when speaking with his father, he discovered that the Yuan Family behind Yuan Hui and his own Yang Family had a somewhat competitive relationship. While it wasn’t a life-or-death struggle, both sides were more than happy to cause trouble for the other.

That was why that senior brother had targeted him back then. The result, however, was that he ended up buying a serving of Spiritual Cuisine for ten times the price. To this day, he still hasn’t gathered all the Spirit Stones to pay for it!

"So it was that Senior Brother Yuan?"

Liu Chen asked tentatively. The twenty thousand Spirit Stones still hadn’t materialized, so of course Liu Chen remembered. But for the other party to have broken through to the Meridian Passage Realm and even be able to represent Purple Cloud Valley in battle... ’No wonder he had the guts to pick a fight with Senior Brother Yang back then,’ he thought.

"That’s him. He’s probably the only Inner Sect Disciple with the strength who didn’t choose to go into debt for Spiritual Cuisine. When he accepted the Spiritual Cuisine yesterday, he seemed completely out of it."

Yang Haichen actually admired him for it. If he himself hadn’t swallowed his pride and asked Junior Brother Liu back then, he might not have his current Cultivation. Yuan Hui couldn’t possibly have been unaware that Purple Cloud Valley disciples could buy on credit, but he never showed up. Yang Haichen figured he was probably just unwilling to be indebted to Liu Chen.

Unfortunately, this senior brother lost. If he had won, it would have become a legendary tale, and his future status among the Inner Sect Disciples might have even rivaled Xie Xichen’s. But alas, there are no ’if’s.