At this moment, Yun Ming felt that the only thing hindering his progress was the evil soul masters.
Damn those evil soul masters, sneaking around like rats and causing trouble, disrupting others' cultivation!
They deserved to die!
Xu Yuan noticed a sudden and dramatic change in his teacher.
It wasn't just a shift in mindset—his demeanor had also changed completely from before.
Xu Yuan considered this transformation during their discussion normal.
But at the very last moment, did he sense… killing intent from his teacher?
Good heavens!
What had suddenly crossed his teacher's mind to evoke such strong murderous intent toward someone?
"Teacher?" Xu Yuan called out softly.
Yun Ming reined in his thoughts, took a deep breath, and gazed at Xu Yuan with a serious expression. "Little Yuan, everything you've said makes perfect sense, and I believe its feasibility is quite high."
Xu Yuan's heart leapt with joy.
So, these ideas would help his teacher break through?
"Unfortunately, I have some pressing matters to deal with first, or else I'd definitely go into seclusion to contemplate all of this. But for now, while there are no concrete results yet, I can still work on verifying the feasibility of your proposed path."
Yun Ming indicated that he could begin exploring this path while remaining ready to respond to any crises that might arise.
"Teacher, we do have results," Xu Yuan interjected.
He ignored Yun Ming's vague mention of a crisis and corrected him instead.
"We don't lack results?"
Yun Ming was taken aback.
He looked at Xu Yuan, and a term quickly surfaced in his mind.
"Heaven and Earth Runes," Xu Yuan said solemnly.
Recognition flashed across Yun Ming's face.
Xu Yuan continued without pause.
"The Heaven and Earth Runes are something I developed. They allow soul masters to enhance their acquired soul rings through their own cultivation. My fifth soul ring, based on my Heavenly Origin Brush martial soul, was created using the 'Seal' rune as a foundation. After this period of cultivation, I'm certain that the duration of my fifth soul ring has increased."
As Yun Ming listened to Xu Yuan's explanation, his eyes flickered constantly.
"Of course, soul rings cannot be entirely constructed from Heaven and Earth Runes. Although these runes evolve with the assistance of natural forces, their essence still lies in the soul master's own insights. What insights could a soul master who only possesses a martial soul possibly have?"
"Therefore, external soul rings are still necessary, and the soul skills they grant are indispensable."
External soul rings and their accompanying soul skills complement existing martial souls rather than merely guiding their inherent abilities.
The soul skills granted by soul rings act as foundational points for developing martial souls. For example, Xu Yuan's Heavenly Origin Brush martial soul had the potential to control natural forces, so he added a soul skill that allowed him to manipulate the five elements. This became the basis for developing various techniques to utilize the five elements within his martial soul.
Including subsequent advancements like materialization and manifestation, these soul skills provided stepping stones for his martial soul, enabling him to explore related fields.
This was the significance of external soul rings and skills—an indispensable step in the soul master system.
Otherwise, even if a martial soul possessed exceptional quality, simply mining its inherent power would lead to stagnation, failing to develop further. In the later stages of soul master cultivation, this would result in numerous limitations.
For instance, in Xu Yuan's proposed path to godhood, mastering the martial soul and integrating it with the world required extending one's perception through the martial soul.
If a martial soul remained unchanged from its awakening to maturity—and eventually to its peak—losing its malleability, how could a soul master achieve deep mastery over it through personal cultivation and insight?
"External soul rings enrich the martial soul's abilities and are indispensable, but they aren't entirely unrelated to my method of creating Heaven and Earth Runes," Xu Yuan smiled. "The key principle behind the Heaven and Earth Runes can be slightly refined to extract core runes from existing soul rings. Through the presence of these core runes, soul masters should be able to cultivate and enhance their soul rings independently."
Xu Yuan's explanation made Yun Ming's interest grow.
In other words, the problem of enhancing martial soul soul rings for soul masters had been solved.
The entire path to godhood had already been laid out.
Yun Ming's gaze kept flickering as he stared at Xu Yuan. In the end, he couldn't resist the temptation.
"Little Yuan, the method for condensing Heaven and Earth Runes…"
"Teacher, don't worry—I've already organized it all." Xu Yuan smiled and, after a moment of thought, added, "Actually, I want to try something."
"Oh?" Yun Ming looked at Xu Yuan curiously.
"Teacher, don't resist."
With that, Xu Yuan began pulling Yun Ming into the dreamscape.
---
Dreamscape
Yun Ming frowned as he observed his surroundings.
Carefully examining everything, he grew increasingly astonished upon realizing the illusory nature of this space.
His spiritual power spread out, enveloping the layer of the dreamscape that Xu Yuan had pulled him into.
As his spiritual power merged with this space, Yun Ming quickly discovered many unique characteristics of the area.
It was nearly indistinguishable from reality!
From illusion to substance?
Yun Ming took a deep breath, his eyes filled with shock.
He knew Xu Yuan possessed an incredibly powerful illusion technique capable of overwhelming soul masters at the same level, but he hadn't expected it to be this potent.
No, this wasn't solely due to the strength of the soul skill itself.
Upon closer inspection, Yun Ming noticed traces of extensive manual development by Xu Yuan.
In other words, Xu Yuan's soul skill was originally a pure illusion, but he had imbued this illusory space with substantial properties, granting it many realistic characteristics.
"Is this your secret?" Yun Ming murmured.
Observing this space, he finally understood why Xu Yuan's practice of the Seven Forbidden Techniques had yielded such extraordinary results.
Of course, being able to practice the Seven Forbidden Techniques in this way was itself a form of talent. Even with such a space aiding him, without sufficient insight into the Seven Forbidden Techniques, Xu Yuan wouldn't have achieved such remarkable progress.
As Yun Ming studied the surrounding space, he was both awestruck and contemplative, wondering if he could draw inspiration from it.
Possessing a controlled space of his own seemed unlikely.
Even under miraculous circumstances, fully controlling a real small world was impossible.
In the history of Douluo soul masters, no one had ever truly become the master of a small world.
But if one couldn't control a real small world, why not master an illusory one?
Transforming an illusory world into a real one was itself a process of understanding the heavens and earth. Through mutual reflection, the inspiration gained would be limitless.
"Teacher, if your spiritual power reaches the Divine Origin Realm, could you maintain unified consciousness both inside and outside this space?"
After Yun Ming had studied the space for some time, Xu Yuan finally asked the question he was most concerned about.
Upon hearing Xu Yuan's query, Yun Ming closed his eyes and connected with his physical body.
Even though Xu Yuan had pulled his consciousness here, Yun Ming, whose spiritual power had already reached the Divine Origin Realm, could break free at any time. Sensing the state of his physical body within this dreamscape was also no issue.
Indeed, Yun Ming had already reached the Divine Origin Realm.
Though his primary attribute wasn't spiritual power, he had still elevated his spiritual strength to the Divine Origin Realm level!
------------------------------------------------------
40+ Chapters Ahead Guaranteed: patreon.com/EphemeralShadow
There's something for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)