Five Years Later

"Relax your mind, close your eyes, and focus on visualizing your martial soul..."

Inside his Thatched Cottage, Gu Ziyi sat cross-legged on a mat and attempted to cultivate.

This was the meditation method the Village Chief had taught Gu Ziyi after returning.

This Meditation Technique was very simple. There was no need to memorize meridians or acupoints, so Gu Ziyi had remembered it after hearing it once.

It was also the most widespread Meditation Technique on Douluo Continent, with an extremely high rate of adoption.

However, to achieve anything through cultivation, one still needed Soul Power.

Otherwise, cultivation would be completely useless!

Gu Ziyi would not be attending the Junior Soul Master Academy until three months later. Naturally, the Village Chief would not let him waste those three months, so he taught Gu Ziyi the Meditation Technique for cultivating Soul Power right away.

Buzz—

Very soon, Gu Ziyi recreated the scene from the martial soul awakening ceremony. Within his consciousness, he saw his martial soul.

However, unlike the talisman that had been accompanied by all sorts of phenomena during his martial soul awakening, the martial soul in Gu Ziyi's consciousness was now merely an ordinary talisman.

"What exactly is going on?"

"Could it be that my martial soul hasn't truly awakened yet? Do I need a second awakening?"

Gu Ziyi vaguely had such a suspicion. He simply felt that his martial soul should not be so utterly unremarkable.

But Gu Ziyi quickly calmed himself. What mattered now was trying to cultivate.

Feel the martial soul, then focus all his attention upon it, achieve Human-Soul Fusion, and finally use the martial soul to sense the outside world.

Gu Ziyi did not know whether it was because his soul was relatively powerful, but in any case, he quickly achieved Human-Soul Fusion and began sensing the outside world through his martial soul.

An indescribably wondrous sense immediately opened up. Through his martial soul, Gu Ziyi sensed an entirely new world.

Through his martial soul, he could clearly perceive the energy drifting around his body.

Reaching this step proved that Gu Ziyi was able to cultivate.

"Come on, start absorbing this energy!"

Gu Ziyi murmured inwardly. Then, imagining his martial soul breathing, he slowly began drawing the energy drifting around his body into himself.

This was the most common and simplest Meditation Technique for cultivating Soul Power.

By absorbing the energy outside, Gu Ziyi could clearly sense his Soul Power increasing little by little.

This feeling of continuously growing stronger in Soul Power was incredibly addictive.

Once Gu Ziyi began cultivating, he completely lost track of himself.

Only when Gu Ziyi felt an inexplicable sense of saturation did he realize that he had more or less reached his limit for today's cultivation.

However, Gu Ziyi did not stop. Instead, he tried to continue cultivating.

Yet only a few minutes later, Gu Ziyi began experiencing a feeling completely opposite to before.

If his previous cultivation were compared to eating, every bite had filled his stomach while allowing him to savor the food, leaving him brimming with happiness.

But now, it was like continuing to eat after he was already full. The happiness was gone, leaving only the bloated discomfort of overeating. Every bite he forced down under such circumstances was incomparably painful, and the pain only grew worse and worse.

Only by enduring the bitterest hardships could one rise above others.

Gu Ziyi silently encouraged himself and continued cultivating for another half hour or so.

"Ah..."

"I can't do it anymore..."

Gu Ziyi flopped directly onto the mat and completely gave up on continuing his cultivation.

This kind of saturated cultivation was truly more trouble than it was worth. Not only was the pain unbearable, but he got half the results for twice the effort, with his absorption speed becoming lower and lower.

"I don't think I cultivated for that long. My martial soul's quality is still too low!"

Glancing at the sky outside, Gu Ziyi silently sighed.

Buzz—

But when Gu Ziyi summoned his martial soul and looked at the talisman floating above his palm, he was once again filled with excitement.

No matter what his talent was like, he had truly gained extraordinary power.

"Starting tomorrow, I need to begin physical training too!"

"Improving my physique can also speed up my cultivation!"

As he quietly admired his martial soul, Gu Ziyi began devising a cultivation plan for himself.

Thus, Gu Ziyi spent the next three months cultivating.

Gu Ziyi knew that his talent was poor, so he could only rely on diligent cultivation. Every day, he pushed his Meditation Technique to saturation.

He would persist for as long as he could! Gu Ziyi also added physical training to his daily routine.

At first, there was no obvious effect. However, as Gu Ziyi gradually improved his physique through exercise, the results of his cultivation slowly began to show.

His cultivation speed had indeed become a little faster.

Even so, three months later, when Gu Ziyi arrived at the Junior Soul Master Academy in town to register, his Soul Power Level was still only level 1.

It was truly frustrating.

Gu Ziyi suspected that even if he studied at the Junior Soul Master Academy for six years and graduated, he might not necessarily break through to level 10.

No wonder Tang San and Xiao Wu had been able to dominate the entire Notting Academy just after entering it and absorbing a soul ring to become Soul Masters. Even the sixth-year students had been no match for them.

That was because, at Junior Soul Master Academies in small towns, only a handful of sixth-year students could break through level 10 and become true Soul Masters.

The small town Gu Ziyi had come to was called Quicksand City, and the Junior Soul Master Academy he joined was also called Quicksand Junior Soul Master Academy, or Quicksand Academy for short.

Gu Ziyi entered Quicksand Academy as a Work-Study Student. Aside from studying, he also had to work to earn money.

After arriving at Quicksand Academy, Gu Ziyi began learning about the current world of Soul Masters alongside his studies and cultivation.

He wanted to know what point in the original story's timeline this was.

"Qian Xunji is currently the Pope of Spirit Hall. It seems it's still early—not to mention Tang San, even the Blue Silver Emperor may not have transformed into human form yet!"

Based on the information he had gathered, Gu Ziyi quickly determined the approximate point in time.

He still did not know the exact date. After all, Quicksand City was not some major city. He only knew that Qian Xunji was currently the Pope, and he did not even know whether the current Saintess was Bibi Dong.

Gu Ziyi only knew that Tang San definitely had not transmigrated here yet.

That was undoubtedly good news for Gu Ziyi.

Because that meant Gu Ziyi could snatch some of Tang San's opportunities.

Especially the immortal herbs, one of Douluo Continent's greatest cheats.

They were also what Gu Ziyi needed most, since immortal herbs could allow his Martial Soul to evolve and improve its quality.

For now, though, he could only think about it. With his current strength, he had no way of coming into contact with immortal herbs.

Before he possessed a certain level of strength, Gu Ziyi did not dare reveal the existence of immortal herbs. Even if he wanted to cooperate with others, he needed sufficient strength of his own first.

Otherwise, it would be no different from seeking hide with a tiger!...

Five years later.

In Back Hill Grove behind Quicksand Academy.

"Phew—"

"I've finally broken through to level 10!"

It had taken Gu Ziyi five years after entering Quicksand Academy to finally break through to level 10.

For someone with Innate Soul Power of only level 1, this speed was unbelievable.

In the entire Quicksand Academy, only two sixth-year students had currently broken through to level 10.

Moreover, those two students both possessed Innate Soul Power of level 3, far superior to Gu Ziyi's.

Gu Ziyi had been able to break through so quickly entirely because he persisted in intensive cultivation and physical training every day.

Of course, he had not neglected the Martial Soul Knowledge taught by the academy during his cultivation either.

As a modern person, Gu Ziyi understood the importance of knowledge all too well.

Although Gu Ziyi believed that his perspective far surpassed that of the people of Douluo Continent, when it came to knowledge about Martial Souls, he still needed to understand it thoroughly.

He could not rely solely on the little he had learned from the original novel and anime and assume that he already understood everything comprehensively.

Still, Quicksand Academy was ultimately only a Junior Soul Master Academy, and the knowledge it taught was limited.

However, as a transmigrator with a mature mindset, Gu Ziyi would ask the Teacher about anything that had not been covered in class.

Whenever he encountered something he did not understand, Gu Ziyi would seek the Teacher's guidance.

If even the Teacher did not know, then there was nothing Gu Ziyi could do.

Gu Ziyi's bold behavior also earned him the nickname Bold Gu from his classmates.

Fortunately, Gu Ziyi did not care and continued doing things his own way.

As a result, in the eyes of Quicksand Academy's teachers and students, Gu Ziyi was the most exceptional one. Not only was he diligent in cultivation, but he was also tireless in his pursuit of knowledge.

He was the perfect straight-A student, the kind of child every parent wished for.

On top of that, Gu Ziyi was handsome and had a distinctive temperament. Ever since third grade, he had received no shortage of confession letters from girls.

It had to be said that children on Douluo Continent matured rather early as well.

Emmm... Gu Ziyi remembered that in his previous life, he had written his first love letter to a girl in third grade too. He had even asked his older sister, who was one year older than him, to deliver it to that girl.

Alright, they were all the same! But that had been in his previous life. In this life, Gu Ziyi naturally had no intention of dating early.

Girls would only affect the speed of his cultivation.

"Now that I'm level 10, I can finally try out my idea!"

A strange glint flashed in Gu Ziyi's eyes.

After several years of cultivation, Gu Ziyi understood his own cultivation talent all too clearly. If he cultivated step by step, his achievements would be quite limited.

With his current strength, an Immortal Herb was something he did not even need to think about.

So Gu Ziyi planned to find another path.

Ever since he began cultivating soul power, Gu Ziyi had harbored a bold idea.

That was to create soul rings himself! Back when he watched anime in his previous life, Gu Ziyi had found it very strange that soul masters on the Douluo Continent had to absorb soul rings in order to break through.

Cultivation was one's own affair. Breakthroughs should also come from oneself.

How could there be such a bizarre rule where advancing one's cultivation required relying on external objects?

Gu Ziyi understood very clearly that cultivation on the Douluo Continent was tightly bound to martial souls. Once Tang San cultivated his own Mysterious Heavenly Art to Soul Power Level 10, he could no longer break through.

Only after absorbing a soul ring could he continue cultivating.

So it was true that cultivation in this world was inextricably linked to martial souls. If the martial soul did not break through, then one's Soul Power Level or other cultivation techniques could not break through either.

And a martial soul's breakthrough meant adding a soul ring to it.

But adding a soul ring to a martial soul did not necessarily mean absorbing a soul beast's soul ring!

On the Douluo Continent, self-condensing soul rings truly existed.

For example, after a 100,000-Year Soul Beast Transformation, one could cultivate all the way to Level 60 without hunting soul beasts, condensing soul rings on one's own.

Tang San's fifth soul ring had also been self-condensed after his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul awakened into the Blue Silver Emperor.

So why could soul masters not find a way to condense soul rings themselves?...

A new book sets sail. Please bookmark and keep reading.

P.S.: Completed works include "Douluo: Starting by Detonating Soul Rings," "In Douluo, I Ate the Blue Silver Emperor," "Douluo: My Martial Soul is a Simulator," and "Douluo: My Martial Soul is Actually Bibi Dong." All are premium works.