The Distinction Between Self-Created Soul Skills and the Nature of Soul Rings

"It was all right. I still have a little over a fifth of my Soul Power left," Tang San said off the cuff, clearly having known he would ask.

"Mm, about what I thought," Xiang Yang said with a nod. This move had only been completed yesterday, and it was the first time it had been used in actual combat. The timing had worked out: today happened to be one of the two days each month they had scheduled for Soul Fighting.

"Judging by how you performed just now, you could restrain at least three Power Attack System Soul Masters of the same level at once." Their Martial Souls couldn't be too weak, either. At the very least, most intermediate Martial Souls would have a hard time breaking through its defenses.

In the Soul Master World, group-area Soul Skills were understood to be exclusive to Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Skills.

Yet Tang San had mastered such a skill as a Soul Elder. Compared with that Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Skill from the original story, it was far superior in both strength and range, though it couldn't be activated instantly.

But the greatest advantage of a Self-Created Soul Skill was that it could be continually improved!

"Mm, I think so too. It was my first time, so I wasn't very practiced, and there were still plenty of openings when I controlled it. If my opponent had been an Agility Attack System Soul Master like Zhu Zhuqing, I might not have been able to trap her." Tang San had already reviewed the fight on his way back.

"Mm." Xiang Yang curled his left hand into a fist and tapped his chin with his thumb, pondering something.

There had actually been quite a few flaws. First, Tang San didn't have enough Soul Power to activate it directly. He had to rely on his third Soul Skill, using the seeds on the Iron Bamboo Flowers to increase its strength and reduce its Soul Power consumption.

The original effect of this Soul Skill was to increase strength and defense by 60%, and attack by 30%, for three minutes.

The former increased basic physical attributes, while the latter amplified the final attack power. The Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul's evolution had reached a certain point; by Martial Soul grades, it had just reached the strength of an advanced Martial Soul.

In Xiang Yang's view, however, Tang San's case couldn't be applied universally. After all, he also had the Blue Silver Emperor in his bloodline. For now, all that could be said was that he was using power with similar attributes to draw out potential that had already been there.

If three Soul Rings could turn a Trash Martial Soul into an advanced Martial Soul, Martial Soul Evolution would be far too easy.

Returning to the Blue Silver Bamboo Net Formation's shortcomings, using the third Soul Skill to cast it resulted in a main control bamboo. If that bamboo was destroyed, the bamboo formation wouldn't disappear outright, but its strength and flexibility would be greatly reduced.

The originally envisioned "moving bamboo forest" couldn't be fully realized either. The skill had been intended to move along with whoever was trapped inside. Judging by its current effect, however, anyone who didn't escape before the Soul Skill activated would have no way of getting out.

Combining area control, battlefield division, attack, interference, and many other capabilities, it could be called a fairly perfect skill. But at Tang San's current Soul Power Level, he couldn't bring it out perfectly.

Besides that, Xiang Yang suddenly thought of something...

He spoke as soon as it occurred to him. "Did you use the Soul Incantation just now?"

Yes, the originally envisioned Self-Created Soul Skill naturally had a Soul Incantation.

The Blue Silver Bamboo Net Formation's Soul Incantation:

"In the shadowed bamboo grove, no sky is seen; on perilous paths, no meeting can be!"

With the Mysterious Heaven Skill as a foundation, there hadn't been much need to consider the Soul Power circuit. During the naming process, they had drawn on poetry from Xiang Yang's previous life. At first, he had thought of the line about sitting alone in a shadowed bamboo grove, but unfortunately, its imagery hadn't quite fit.

One purpose and function of creating a Soul Incantation for a Self-Created Soul Skill was to let the user focus and imagine what the Soul Skill looked like, so they had changed it.

After all, there was no medium like a Soul Ring that only needed to be lit up. Every use had to rely on the Soul Master alone, though once sufficiently practiced, there was no need to rely on a Soul Incantation for assistance.

"Mm... I did use it, but it didn't feel like it did much. My Soul Power just naturally took the shape I wanted. I didn't have to control it myself at all." Tang San shook his head as he recalled the fight.

"Then it looks like my idea was right. If you're only modifying a Soul Ring Soul Skill, you can do it without a Soul Incantation, because it's essentially just a variation of that Soul Ring Soul Skill. At its core, it's still activated through the Soul Ring."

What did that mean?

To understand that, one first had to know something: the Soul Master World's definition of a Self-Created Soul Skill was vague. As long as a skill wasn't provided by a Soul Ring and could be used with Soul Power, it was a Self-Created Soul Skill.

So whether it was Feng Xiaotian's Gale Thirty-Six Consecutive Slashes, which he could only use with the assistance of other Soul Skills, or the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer, which could be used with nothing more than a hammer and Soul Power, both counted as Self-Created Soul Skills.

Leaving difficulty and power aside, strictly speaking, the former should only have been a fighting method produced by linking Soul Ring Soul Skills. Outwardly, it resembled the latter: both were new Soul Skills that continually built up power through special methods. In reality, though, they were fundamentally different.

Of course, given Feng Xiaotian's abilities, perhaps later on he wouldn't need the assistance of other Soul Skills.

From this, it could be concluded that Self-Created Soul Skills should be divided into fully self-created and partially self-created ones.

With the former, both the Soul Skill's effects and the circulation of Soul Power had to be worked out entirely by the Soul Master. The latter merely changed how a Soul Ring Soul Skill was used or released.

As a serious researcher of Martial Soul Theory, Xiang Yang had to distinguish between the two. Previously, he had been the only one who sensed this distinction; no one else could tell the difference at all.

Now, Tang San's case showed that this line of thinking should be correct. By the above classification of Self-Created Soul Skills, aside from Xiang Yang, only Xiao Wu's Moon Rabbit's Light among everyone in Shrek counted as a fully Self-Created Soul Skill. Everyone else's were partially self-created.

As for what use this theory had? It was immensely useful.

First, it showed even more clearly how important Soul Rings were. To take someone from a later era as an example, each of his Soul Skills gave him control over a different elemental power.

He then manipulated the elements to create all kinds of skills. At first, there were simple wind blades and fireballs, and when combined, they became fire tornadoes. He could even release them instantly. That kind of strength... was easy enough to understand, right?

It was very difficult for a purely Self-Created Soul Skill to possess percentage-based boosts, or abilities involving mechanics such as teleportation, golden-body protection, or forcibly controlling someone for one second regardless of Soul Power Level. At least, that was how it seemed for now.

Then there was this: according to Xiang Yang's memories from his previous life, after Xiao Wu sacrificed herself in the original story, her soul resided in the Soul Ring she had sacrificed to Tang San. Not only could she come out, but she could also assist with casting skills. Besides her, there were also Da Ming, Er Ming, and the "child of fortune" from ten thousand years later. He didn't know the Blue Silver Emperor's situation, so he wouldn't use it as a reference here.

The former should have been because they were originally transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts with sufficient intelligence and cultivation, but the latter showed that Soul Rings could store souls.

That meant one of the components of a Soul Ring was a Soul Beast's soul power. Otherwise, it wouldn't be able to touch a soul at all, and the soul would leak out.

Then, if he could somehow make contact with a soul, wouldn't it be possible to make... an External Soul Ring!

And if he installed the circulation circuit of a Self-Created Soul Skill in it, wouldn't that mean freedom with Soul Rings?

Though it sounded a little like a demonic and unorthodox path, it really was a possible approach. Besides, Xiang Yang wasn't thinking of using someone else's... some other beast's soul. For something like this, using his own was naturally safer.

But... splitting a soul. Why did that sound a little familiar?

"What is it?" Tang San had been talking with Xiao Wu, but his keen spiritual power sensed Xiang Yang staring at him. When he turned around, he found something indescribably strange about that look.

"Uh, nothing. I just understand the nature of Soul Rings a little better now."

Xiang Yang waved a hand. In that case, the effect Soul Rings had on Martial Souls also made sense. It was precisely because Soul Rings contained the souls of Soul Beasts that they could have such a great effect. Otherwise, if it were merely a skill, it shouldn't cause such a great change in a Martial Soul.

Before, he had seen the outward appearance; now, he could be said to understand its essence.

And his previous failure to construct a Soul Ring with Soul Power was probably also because he hadn't included soul power.

Though even if he had succeeded, he wouldn't have been able to absorb it. Not only had he not reached the right level, but there were also the age and a whole pile of other problems left unsolved. Still, no matter what, he had finally made a start. Cause for celebration!

As Xiang Yang pondered Soul Rings, Tang San and Xiao Wu saw him fall silent and knew he was thinking about some theory again.

After a while, the others from Shrek finished their matches one after another. Some won and some lost.

After they returned, Tang San pulled Xiang Yang over to the smithing area he had specially built at the academy. It covered nearly a hundred square meters, much larger than many commercial smithies.

All that could be said was that whatever else Shrek lacked, it had few people and plenty of empty space. For Grandmaster's sake, Flender had gritted his teeth and charged a token amount: only a hundred Gold Soul Coins a year.

Xiang Yang looked at the long, tubular objects hanging on the wall and felt somewhat gratified. It was just a pity there was nowhere to use them now, so they could only sit here gathering dust.

"Why do you keep standing there? Come and look at this." At Tang San's urging, Xiang Yang continued forward.