Mind Interference

The next day, Spirit City, a quiet room.

Bibi Dong, who had returned after handling some matters, was teaching Xia Tianling how to cultivate. Earlier, she had already witnessed Xia Tianling's two skills and Spirit Ring Lifespans, along with Chrysanthemum Douluo's supplementary account, and had greatly praised him for them.

Bibi Dong's presence put even greater pressure on him than before. Familiar with the Original Work, Xia Tianling guessed that her three-month disappearance had likely been to complete one of the Rakshasa Inheritance trials.

However, the Original Work had very little introduction to Bibi Dong in its early stages, so things like the timeline could only be guessed at vaguely.

"Twin Martial Souls are no different from ordinary Martial Souls. Both are parts of our bodies, so as long as the body can withstand it, it is entirely possible to manifest both at once. Therefore, we only need to..."

Bibi Dong was explaining to Xia Tianling the greatest advantage—and greatest difficulty—of Twin Martial Souls: how to use both Martial Souls simultaneously.

"In summary, that is the secret of using Twin Martial Souls together. Do you understand?" Bibi Dong asked blandly.

"This disciple understands," Xia Tianling hurriedly replied.

This technique was difficult, yet also simple. There were only two key points.

First, one had to be extremely proficient in using both of one's Martial Souls and understand them deeply enough for them to complement and support each other.

Second, one's physical constitution had to be strong enough to withstand the power of two Martial Souls appearing at once.

Fortunately, his two-piece Martial Souls had extremely high compatibility, and they also possessed the trait of fusion. As for his physical constitution, there was no need to mention it. The enhancement provided by the True Dragon Spirit, the bodily transformation brought by two spirit rings, and the body refinement of the Foundation Establishment stage were enough to make Xia Tianling's physique comparable to that of a Soul Ancestor.

"Good. Circulate your Soul Power and give it a try."

Xia Tianling did as instructed and effortlessly released both Martial Souls at once.

In this state, his combat ability rose even further, but maintaining it required far more Soul Power. If he also used the Storm Axe in battle now, he would probably end up like the fearless Original Ultraman—a real man for only three Minutes.

"Maintain it. Release the power of lightning and exhaust all your Soul Power." Bibi Dong's voice remained cold, but at the same time, she enveloped her disciple with her Spiritual Power.

As time passed, Xia Tianling's Soul Power was depleted. The Dao Scripture circulated naturally, and the Golden Core gave off a soft hum as his Soul Power recovered at an extremely fast rate.

"You did not meditate using the Soul Power circulation route I gave you? Where did this method of circulating Soul Power come from?" Bibi Dong frowned.

Before leaving to handle her affairs, Bibi Dong had naturally given Xia Tianling the meditation method summarized by Spirit Hall. This circulation route was vastly superior to the haphazard cultivation methods of unaffiliated soul masters.

But compared to the Dao Scripture, it was like comparing a firefly to the moon—too crude for words.

With Bibi Dong's discerning eye, she could naturally see the brilliance of the Dao Scripture's Lesser and Greater Heavenly Cycles.

"Reporting to Teacher, this cultivation method simply appeared in my mind on its own." Xia Tianling blinked and said without changing expression, "Sometimes, I can see fragments of strange events. They may come from the future, or they may be things that happened at some unknown time. Because of that, when I was young, people in the village called me the Prophet."

Bibi Dong stared directly at Xia Tianling and fell into thought.

She had secretly investigated Xia Tianling's background. He was an unknown orphan, found and adopted by Old Jack in the back hills. For six years, he had never left Holy Soul Village or interacted with anyone outside the village. Old Jack's family had been poor farmers for eighteen generations, his background clean beyond question. There could be no issue there.

This Soul Power circulation route was simply unheard of. Not even Tang Hao could possibly possess it. Could Xia Tianling truly have been born knowing? Did such people really exist in this world?

Yes, Bibi Dong had always known that Tang Hao was living in seclusion in Holy Soul Village. After Xia Tianling awakened, she had also learned that Tang San was Tang Hao's son. With Spirit Hall's influence spread across the world, was finding someone difficult? She had not acted against Tang Hao and his son simply because there was no need. She had Tang Hao to thank for allowing her to backstab Qian Xunji.

So... perhaps people with such extraordinary talents truly existed. He possessed such unusual Martial Souls, so having such strange gifts did not seem all that strange.

"Fine. Continue cultivating this way, then. This meditation method is very advanced." Bibi Dong sighed inwardly and decided not to dwell on the matter further.

"Yes, Teacher."

Xia Tianling answered aloud, while secretly letting out a breath of relief and breaking into a cold sweat. Based on Bibi Dong's personality in the Original Work, he had genuinely feared that she would slap this unstable factor to death or imprison him to eliminate future trouble.

Fortunately, another function of the system—Mind Interference—had taken effect.

Mind Interference sounded impressive, but in reality, it merely passively made others more likely to believe his words and less likely to become suspicious. Besides, what he said still had to be reasonable and logical. If he activated Mind Interference and jumped out to tell Bibi Dong something like, "You're actually my wife," he was guaranteed to die swiftly and cleanly.

This was Mind Interference, not mind alteration. It did not possess such overpowered power.

Of course, when not actively used, Mind Interference's effect was extremely weak and could basically be ignored.

To actively use this function, he also needed to make a wish using Fate Power. The greater the amount, the better the effect. Once actively used, it greatly enhanced the credibility of his words while reducing the other party's suspicion. But if the other party's will regarding a certain matter was extremely firm, they might still refuse to believe him.

Just like Tang San's behavioral patterns from the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record's general principles, Xia Tianling had used the small amount of Fate Power gained by changing the Holy Soul Village residents to continuously alter Tang San. It had taken a full six years before results first began to show.

Just now, he had made a wish to the system and invested half of his remaining Fate Power to activate Mind Interference. Xia Tianling had not used only half because he was stingy. The main reason was that he had other plans ahead, and if he used it all here, his later plans could easily fall apart if they failed.

Changing the life trajectories of Su Yuntao, Tang San, Grand Master, and Bibi Dong had earned him an enormous amount of Fate Power. Although the system did not provide exact numbers, if all the Fate Power he had gained were compared to a large bottle of soda, the standard amount needed to activate Mind Interference once was only about as much as a small can of soda.

That night, after finishing his daytime cultivation, Xia Tianling finally had time to move about freely. Unlike his usual routine of reading in the library, he went to the Archives Room today.

As the name suggested, the Archives Room was where Spirit Hall stored its records from past years, much like an archive.

His purpose today was to look up Spirit Awakening records from the past two years.

Thanks to Spirit Hall's year-after-year public service, whenever a soul master underwent awakening at Spirit Hall and possessed Soul Power, the person responsible for the awakening would record it and send it back to Spirit City for filing.

Among the vast sea of records, Xia Tianling first opened this year's awakening records for Nuoding City and the surrounding villages.

"Wang Sheng, male, Nuoding City, Farnos Province, Heavenly Dou Empire. Commoner family. Beast Spirit: War Tiger. Level Two Innate Soul Power. Work-Study Student at Nuoding City Junior Soul Master Academy."

Was this the fool who fought Tang San in the Original Work? Xia Tianling wondered whether he had fought Tang San yet. Ignoring the miscellaneous information recorded below, he opened another scroll.

"Tang San, male, Holy Soul Village, affiliated with Nuoding City, Farnos Province, Heavenly Dou Empire. (Crossed out) (Smudged) farming family. Plant Spirit: Blue Silver Grass. Innate Full Soul Power. Work-Study Student at Nuoding City Junior Soul Master Academy."

Hm? Little San's file had been altered?

Xia Tianling scratched his head, held the parchment scroll close to a Spirit Guiding Lamp, and examined it carefully.

The first crossed-out section had only been struck through a few times, making it easy to make out: "Father is a blacksmith, single-parent family."

The second smudged section faintly revealed, "xxx Douluo xxxx's son."

"Could it originally have said, 'son of Clear Sky Douluo Tang Hao'?" Xia Tianling broke out in a cold sweat. Had Spirit Hall known Little San's identity all along? Upon careful thought, it was entirely possible, and a lingering fear rose in his heart.

Thankfully, he had invested a large amount of Fate Power to activate Mind Interference back then. Otherwise, Bibi Dong, who knew his origins like the back of her hand, would certainly have become suspicious of such an absurd explanation. It seemed he would have to reevaluate Spirit Hall's grassroots intelligence-gathering ability in the future.

Tang San's matter was likely something they did not want too many people to know, so someone had altered the original content. If Xia Tianling had not been familiar with the Original Work's plot, he could not have inferred the original content from those two words alone.

Xia Tianling shook his head and continued flipping through the records in front of him.

Now that Bibi Dong was his teacher, the stronger Spirit Hall was, the better.

"There's no record of my own file? The news was probably sealed off."

As he finished reading more and more records, Xia Tianling drew closer and closer to what he wanted to find.

Finally, a familiar name entered his sight.

"Ma Hongjun, male, Sichen Village, affiliated with Suotuo City, Balak Kingdom. Farming family. Beast Spirit: Mutated Grass Chicken. Level Nine Innate Spirit Power."

Found you, Little Fatty!