The arrival of the Evil Fire Phoenix caused barely a ripple at Shrek. Xiao Wu, however, complained that the newcomer was another boy. When would a few girls finally come?
Right now, among the students—no, more than that, in the entire academy—she was the only girl. Tang San also spent all his time training with Xiang Yang and the others, leaving him hardly any time to keep her company. Tang San had invited her to join them, but Xiao Wu had only tried it for a little while before giving up. As she put it, girls were supposed to smell nice, so how could she get herself so sweaty? The boys beside her, in particular, reeked of sweat from head to toe. Just thinking about it made her uncomfortable.
The academy teachers had little to say about the children taking the initiative. They generally only trained students over twelve; those under twelve were essentially still laying their foundations and usually needed little instruction. Even if a student wasted their talent through laziness, the teachers would not interfere much. That would only show they did not have what it took to become strong. Perseverance was an essential condition for becoming strong, but it could not be forced upon someone from the outside. They had to come to that realization themselves.
So the teachers were pleased that this batch of students were all quite good, Xiao Wu included. Though she did not train with the others, she never wasted the time set aside for basic Soul Power cultivation and went to the Soul Fighting Arena every day.
"Hongjun, your Martial Soul mutated from an ordinary barnyard chicken into an Evil Fire Phoenix. That means you—or rather, your Martial Soul itself—possess a phoenix bloodline. The Evil Fire only appeared because of the direction of the mutation or because the bloodline wasn't pure."
Over the past few days, the newly enrolled Ma Hongjun had eagerly joined the daily group training. His main reason for coming here was to find a solution to his Martial Soul's problem. If it remained unresolved, continuing to cultivate would eventually cause him to burn himself to death.
As for giving up cultivation? That was practically impossible. As mentioned before, many people with poor aptitude wanted to make up for it with time. Didn't they know the danger? They did, but they chose that path anyway.
After its mutation, Ma Hongjun's Martial Soul could be considered fairly strong even among top-tier Martial Souls. Add to that his innate level-nine Soul Power, and he was supposed to give up cultivation? Just because it was dangerous?
If word got out, who knew how many people would want to take his place? What was a mere mortal danger?
Even this little fatty, who seemed the laziest in the original story, would not give up cultivation over something like that. Besides, very few people lost their lives to problems with cultivation. The vast majority of Soul Masters met their ends in Soul Beast gathering grounds or at the hands of other Soul Masters.
After several days of observation and experimentation, Xiang Yang laid out the solutions directly. "There are two approaches right now. The first is to get rid of the Evil Fire. Your cultivation isn't very high yet, and the Evil Fire isn't particularly strong either. We can start by using medicinal herbs and appropriate Soul Skills to help you suppress and regulate it. Then you can absorb Soul Rings from Soul Beasts with abilities that counter the Evil Fire's attribute, such as light or purification. Fire-attribute birds would be best. I estimate the problem should be resolved by your fifth Soul Ring, a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring, at the latest. Unfortunately, you've already absorbed your First Soul Ring, and that first step has a major influence on everything that follows."
Judging by how a Soul Master's absorption of a Soul Beast's Soul Ring affected their Martial Soul, Ma Hongjun's Evil Fire was not that difficult to deal with. Even when he was already over level thirty, it had not reached the point where an Immortal Herb was needed to resolve it. Besides, Evil Fire itself could not be considered either good or bad. Its special attribute simply made it difficult to control like an ordinary attribute, and it was easy to be influenced by it instead.
"Whew, I see. Then what's the second one?" Ma Hongjun had not expected the problem that had plagued him for years to be solved so easily, or for there to be two solutions. As expected of the Grandmaster's personal disciple—or so others saw him.
"The second is to let you gain control of the Evil Fire. After all, this attribute is extremely rare. Combined with your fire in particular, it not only makes the flames cling tenaciously, but also lets them affect emotions." Xiang Yang favored the second option, though it was more difficult.
"If you could gain complete control of the Evil Fire, imagine this: you'd only need to spread your flames across the ground, and the emotions of everyone within that area would be subject to your influence. How would that be any different from an Innate Domain?" In a sense, he was the one better suited to the divine position of the God of Emotion. Strong Spiritual Power alone could not compare with Ma Hongjun's innate talent when it came to the concept of emotion.
"This..." It was a path Ma Hongjun had never imagined. After all, he had suffered from the Evil Fire for years and had always regarded it as a raging flood or a savage beast.
"How do I do it?" He could tell which of the two options was better. The first could only make him a normal fire phoenix Soul Master, which was already quite good, but the second was clearly stronger. In any case, it was not time for him to absorb his Second Soul Ring yet. There was no harm in listening first and choosing afterward.
"Losing control only means you don't have enough control over it. Since Evil Fire acts on emotions, the only way to address the root of the problem is to strengthen your Spiritual Power. Spiritual Power grows too slowly on its own, so your only option would be to absorb Soul Beasts with the Mental Attribute, but that would be too wasteful. Leaving aside how little of the Mental Attribute the early hundred-year and Thousand-Year Soul Rings provide, your Martial Soul doesn't possess the Mental Attribute itself, so the boost you receive is bound to be limited. For now, that path won't work."
"Huh?" Ma Hongjun was dumbfounded. After all that analysis, the answer was that it wouldn't work?
"Right. So there's only one way: balance! To look at it another way, your Evil Fire goes out of control because the powers within it are distributed unevenly. You only need to bring them into balance, and naturally it won't go out of control anymore."
Ma Hongjun scratched his head. "Uh, I don't really understand..." What does that mean? Can you make it clearer...?
The others had been listening nearby. Tang San spoke up when he heard this. "For example, people have two legs, and they need both to function normally. If one is longer or shorter than the other, walking becomes much harder, and they have to pay attention all the time. They're also more likely to run into danger."
Ma Hongjun said, "Oh, oh, I get it now."
In Xiang Yang's view, if Ma Hongjun's Evil Fire were classified according to yin and yang, its yin outweighed its yang. Its clinging quality and ability to stir emotions were particularly similar to oil fires and the fire of the liver and gallbladder. Yin fire could not be forcibly suppressed; it could only be guided.
If he had not suffered a serious illness in his previous life and taken a great deal of Chinese medicine, he presumably would have had to use an Immortal Herb like Tang San. But using a top-grade Immortal Herb to remove the Evil Fire and purify it was far too wasteful. It was like subtracting first and then adding: at least half the herb's medicinal power would be wasted.
Hmm, that sounded reasonable. Although Ma Hongjun also favored the option that would make his power stronger, he was still somewhat afraid of the Evil Fire. "Then what kind of Soul Rings should I absorb for this plan?"
"At first, there's no difference from the first plan. You still need to start by absorbing some Soul Rings that can purify your Evil Fire, but afterward you'll need to balance yin and yang at the same time. As long as you don't let them get too far out of balance, there won't be a problem.
"If you still can't manage it, you'll have no choice but to absorb Soul Rings from some Soul Beasts with the Mental Attribute. By then, the Soul Rings you can absorb will be at least ten thousand years old. In theory, helping you gain control of the Evil Fire shouldn't be too difficult. But Evil Fire itself contains some attribute power related to the mind. If it happens to receive a boost from a Mental Attribute Soul Ring instead, that would make things even worse. It's still up to you to choose."
The first option was safe and stable. Following the original story's path, its theoretical upper limit was a First-Level God, the God of Fire. The second came with dangers as well as opportunities, but in theory, if he could truly develop yin and yang together, he might reach the God King level. At the very least, he would not be much weaker than supreme gods at their peak, like the Sea God or the God of Emotion.
However, Xiang Yang actually had another idea: "reverse purification," removing the powers other than Evil Fire to make the power of Evil Fire "pure." Although the difficulty of controlling it would be nearly insurmountable, if it succeeded, it could theoretically create a "complete God of Desire." And as it happened, the Divine Realm already had an Evil God King.
As far as he knew, the Divine Realm already had seven First-Level Gods, each governing a different desire, so it was quite reasonable that a god governing all desires would reach the God King level. But it was too dangerous, so he had not mentioned it. Even Xiang Yang thought it was unlikely to succeed, much less when he would not be the one doing it himself but would have Ma Hongjun do it. The chances were even lower.
By that reckoning, with Evil Fire, there were theoretically two paths, and both had good prospects.
Still, it was clearly supposed to be a major Martial Soul defect, yet it seemed the problem could be solved simply by absorbing suitable Soul Rings. It could only be said that this was how the Soul Master system worked: every Soul Ring was a chance to add points. With the right combination, a wild chicken could become a phoenix, and even weeds on the ground could reach the sky.
"What about me?"
Dai Mubai, who had long been unable to contain himself, finally found an opening and hurriedly asked.
By rights, he had arrived quite a bit earlier than Ma Hongjun and had previously asked Xiang Yang for help. But Xiang Yang had seen through his background at a glance, asked him a few questions about his family, and then told him to bring his fiancée over before they looked into it properly.
Dai Mubai had wanted to say that he could bear it all himself, but before he could speak, a string of words had choked the reply back down. Fortunately, he had not come alone: his family had arranged for some followers to accompany him. Otherwise, he would have had no way to send a message back. Though in a sense, those people also served to keep an eye on him.