Uses of Soul Incantations and Self-Created Soul Skills
Soul Incantations were something few people paid attention to, used almost exclusively by support-type Soul Masters. Most people simply assumed they were unique to support-type Soul Masters and never gave any deeper thought to how they worked.
But Yu Xiaogang, who had squandered half his life, had a different opinion. Through observations in his early years, he had discovered that Soul Incantations appeared to emerge alongside the Soul Rings support-type Soul Masters acquired. In reality, however, they were like Soul Skills: Soul Masters named them themselves according to the effects of their Soul Skills.
For example, Oscar's original "Big Sausage, cured sausage" and his current "tofu, garlic clove" bore a strong personal touch. Meanwhile, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's identical "Seven Treasures Have Names, first, second..." was clearly created based on its Martial Soul.
The specific effects of Soul Incantations were as follows:
1. They helped support-type Soul Masters quickly enter a combat state. Support-type Soul Masters usually did not participate directly in combat, and words could stir their emotions and quickly bring them into a combat state.
2. They sped up the release of Soul Skills. Support-type Soul Masters' Soul Skills were generally more complicated than those of other Soul Masters, so their casting speed was undoubtedly slow compared with the mostly instantaneous skills of other types. They therefore needed this kind of "casting ritual," or "command," to assist them.
In short, a Soul Incantation was like a guiding program. With its help, support-type Soul Masters could barely keep up with other combat Soul Masters, but in practice the results could only be called barely satisfactory. Even with Soul Incantations, support-type Soul Masters still struggled to keep pace with combat Soul Masters.
So, was this program necessary? Of course not. Support-type Soul Masters could still release Soul Skills without Soul Incantations, but they were at least two to three times slower. If they were not proficient with a Soul Skill, they could even be more than ten times slower!
Take Ning Rongrong. As the daughter of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's master, she had a Heart Separation Control method passed down through generations. Even so, if she released a Soul Skill without a Soul Incantation, it still took her around five to six seconds. If that was true of her, there was no need to mention ordinary support-type Soul Masters.
Then why did assault, agility, and even control-type Soul Masters seem not to use Soul Incantations?
First, these types of Soul Masters generally used their Soul Skills directly in combat. Most were already in the thick of a fierce battle when they used them, so their emotions, or rather their mental state, were already in place. Moreover, their Soul Skills were not as complicated as those of support types, making their release almost instinctive. Thus, they had no use for Soul Incantations to speed them up.
Second, the names of Soul Skills themselves actually had an effect similar to Soul Incantations. When Soul Masters were not yet proficient in using their own Soul Skills, they could shout their names in battle to assist with casting. It was not simply to look cool. If one word could describe it, that word was "momentum." It seemed formless and insubstantial, but it actually had an effect on both the enemy and oneself.
But there was almost no need for them to use Soul Incantations specifically. After all, there was a limit to a Soul Skill's effect, especially for those that attacked directly. For them, Soul Incantations would only turn skills they could originally release in an instant into ones that required a countdown—a complete chicken rib.
The result of Yu Xiaogang's research was the Golden Iron Triangle's "Sun and Moon Radiance Golden Turn," a Soul Incantation tailored to their Trinity Martial Soul Fusion Skill, the Golden Sacred Dragon.
Anyone who paid attention could notice that, apart from theirs, other Martial Soul Fusion Skills, such as Hell White Tiger and Two Extremes Stillness Domain, had no Soul Incantations.
The reason was that Yu Xiaogang was both the core and the controller of the Golden Sacred Dragon Martial Soul Fusion Skill, yet he was only a Soul Grandmaster, while the other two were Soul Emperors or Soul Saints. With the strength of a Soul Grandmaster, even if the other two trusted him one hundred percent, controlling such a vast amount of Soul Power was still extremely difficult. That was why he had created a Soul Incantation to assist him.
As Xiang Yang had learned, the Grandmaster's original Soul Incantation had actually consisted of more than this one line. Only later, as their coordination and experience improved, had it finally taken its present form, which also meant the preparation time had been greatly reduced.
Xiang Yang, who could no longer continue accumulating knowledge because of external factors, was already interested in Soul Incantations. After learning this, he began his own research.
Had anyone noticed? Tang San's two Soul Skills and Xiang Yang's first Soul Skill were clearly all support skills, yet none of them had Soul Incantations.
After a period of research, he found that Tang San was like this because of his experience cultivating the Mysterious Heaven Skill and his combat awareness from his previous life, combined with the fact that he did not even know Soul Incantations existed.
Yu Xiaogang had overlooked this because Tang San had Twin Martial Souls, and because his plan for Tang San's Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul had always been support plus control.
As for Xiang Yang, it was because of his own "Martial Soul Fusion." He had originally thought it was merely a state similar to a Martial Soul Fusion Skill or an incomplete Martial Soul Avatar.
But after obtaining his Second Soul Ring, he no longer thought so. It was not that his original explanation was wrong, but that it was incomplete. More accurately, it was closer to the "affinity" brought about by a divine trial.
His reason for thinking this was simple: the effects of "Martial Soul Fusion" were permanent, increasing his "base" and his "upper limit." To use a game analogy, it increased his base stats and the percentage of his passive boosts.
Leaving the other benefits aside, his talent for controlling his Martial Soul and Soul Skills alone could be called outstanding. He would not claim there had never been anyone like him before or ever would be again, but no one he had met so far could match him in this regard.
Thus, after obtaining a way to shape Soul Power from his Second Soul Ring, he developed the skill Sunlight Cannon.
The golden disc gathered the sun; filled to the brim, it gave birth to light.
This referred to using his Martial Soul to gather Sunlight Energy and Soul Power until they reached the limit he could control, which was very simple for him.
The gathered force took shape; nine turns condensed the core.
This was the most crucial part: shaping and compression. Pure energy had little offensive power and had to be processed. Just like Dai Mubai's White Tiger Fierce Light Wave and Ma Hongjun's Phoenix Fire Line, it could only achieve such an effect after being processed through a Soul Ring.
Nine turns were really only an aspiration, drawn from memories of his previous life, such as the Nine Turns Mysterious Skill and the Nine-Turn Golden Elixir. Without Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Skill and the boost to his spiritual power from his Soul Skill, Xiang Yang could manage at most two turns before he could go no further. With their assistance, he could compress it four times at most—that was the attack Zhao Wuji had taken head-on.
One shot tore through the air; all things were wounded.
The former specified the attack method as firing a "high-speed cannonball," similar to a "light wave" or a "fire line." The latter represented its attack range and, finally, bolstered his momentum to stabilize it. Otherwise, it was liable to "burst in the barrel." At first, Xiang Yang had not thought of this, so the explosion left him covered in soot. Fortunately, he had not put too much energy into it at the start.
In the end, he succeeded. Although it had drawbacks, such as requiring a long time to charge, this meant the threshold for "Self-Created Soul Skills" had fallen. They were no longer something "reserved for geniuses." Moreover, once there was a first, there could be a second. After succeeding once, everything that followed became less difficult.
In the time that followed, the members of Shrek successively cultivated Self-Created Soul Skills of their own.
Dai Mubai's Golden Radiance Fierce Light Slash: Metal attribute was added to his original light wave and condensed into a blade that cut in a straight line, with burning and armor-piercing effects.
Zhu Zhuqing's Eroding Shadow Kill: She compressed and condensed the dark element onto her claws, making them slightly sharper and adding an erosion effect that could eat away at Soul Power defenses and flesh.
Ma Hongjun's Phoenix Fire Cannon: He changed his original continuous, linear stream of flames into cannonball attacks, giving it stronger single-point burst damage and a larger area of destruction. Similar to a "fireball spell," it could fire multiple "fireballs" or condense them all into one "big fireball."
Xiao Wu's Moon Rabbit's Light: At present, it had three main uses. First, cannonballs, which likewise provided single-point burst damage and area destruction. Second, circular blades for piercing armor and cutting, which could also turn and track targets to a certain extent. Third, she could use this Soul Power directly to enhance her physical abilities. The current limit was around thirty percent, which, for her with her Waist Bow, was like adding wings to a tiger.
She was also currently thinking of shaping it into weapons, such as a big stick or a whip...
Xiang Yang felt that Xiao Wu's control over Soul Power was so exceptional probably because of her origins. Although Soul Beasts had no Soul Rings, they had something more convenient—bloodlines. A Soul Beast's innate bloodline contained some skills created by its ancestors.
Tang San's Blue Silver Wood Armor: He used Soul Power to grow and strengthen Blue Silver Grass, turning it into close-fitting armor. Three layers had enough defensive power to withstand one of Dai Mubai's White Tiger Fierce Light Waves head-on, and they could be quickly replenished after being destroyed.
There was also Blue Silver Illusion. Simply put, Tang San mixed hallucinogenic toxins he had prepared himself into Blue Silver Grass and combined it with his existing Blazing Velvet Explosion. Emmm... all Xiang Yang could say was that it was too brutal. However, this move could not be used in competitions. After all, outside items were prohibited in the Soul Fighting Arena in most cases.
Oscar's Food God Martial Soul and Soul Skills were both far too unusual, so he did not currently have any Self-Created Soul Skills. But after a reminder from Xiang Yang, Oscar began studying cooking.
As it turned out, he really did have a talent for it. Although he had not developed a Self-Created Soul Skill, it had considerably increased the speed at which he cultivated his Soul Power.
Speaking of this, Xiang Yang rather wanted to complain. Food-type Soul Masters actually did not study food and dishes? Wasn't that as plain as day?
Then there was Ning Rongrong. She truly lived up to her reputation as a favored daughter of heaven among the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile, a genius Soul Master said to have the potential to evolve her Martial Soul into the Eight Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda.
Seven-Colored Light Wave: Its effect was to turn single-target support Soul Skills into area support, and the light wave could contain the effects of all her Soul Skills. At present, she could only bestow them all at once, without precision, but as time passed, she would surely achieve perfect accuracy.
Its effect complemented the Heart Separation Control method passed down through generations of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Even teachers such as Flender and Zhao Wuji had gained considerable insights. For example, Wind Claw condensed the power of wind and greatly strengthened its cutting ability, while Great Strength Vajra Fist changed a palm strike into a punch, increasing its power by around fifty percent.
Xiang Yang, meanwhile, had developed several more Self-Created Soul Skills:
Sunshine Bright: Inspired by Plants vs. Zombies, it was a modified version of his first Soul Skill, Sunlight Seed. He condensed a small sun and bestowed it on someone else. Its effect was much the same, but it did not need to be eaten, and it had another use...
Sunlight Beam: Commonly known as a ray or a light cannon, though for now it could only be maintained at the thickness of a finger and for a very short time.