One Month, Human and Soul as One!

"Kaa~"

"Nice to meet you for the first time, my Martial Soul. I'm glad to meet you this way, rather than through the monotonous Martial Soul Possession."

As Ning Wuque spoke, excitement shone in his eyes.

Were Martial Souls and Soul Masters truly one entity? Were they one body with two souls? Or were they two independent individuals?

Ever since discovering that Beast Soul Spirit possession would affect his future, Ning Wuque had constantly pondered and sought to unravel this question.

On the Douluo Continent, most Soul Masters generally believed that they and their Martial Souls were one. A small minority believed that Martial Souls and humans were two independent entities.

The former simply never thought about the question and naturally took it for granted.

The latter arose because of detached Martial Souls, which prompted certain scholars to reflect deeply and put forward this hypothesis.

But Ning Wuque believed that all those answers were right, yet none were entirely accurate. The connection between Martial Souls and Soul Masters was far from so superficial.

They could be one entity, completely different individuals, or even one body with two souls!

Why?

It was simple. Because of the difference between Beast Soul Spirits and Tool Souls during Martial Soul Possession, Ning Wuque had arrived at this bold conjecture.

The characteristics of Beast Soul Spirit possession had been mentioned before. It was a process of changing from human to beastman. Whether the Martial Soul was powerful or the Soul Master was powerful, both would ultimately move toward that point.

This was the foundation of one body with two souls. In Ning Wuque's view, the process of a Beast Soul Master growing stronger was the process of two souls gradually merging.

If the human failed to suppress their Martial Soul, the beast would take the lead. Conversely, the human would take the lead.

There were two especially obvious examples!

The first was powerful Martial Souls such as giant dragons, tigers, and bears, which centered on savagery, predation, and the body. The beastly nature they carried would influence the Soul Master from the very beginning.

Take Ning Tian's little tagalong, Wu Feng. Her personality was already flamboyant, and after being influenced by her Martial Soul, she would only become more arrogant and selfish. This was clearly reflected in the original work.

The second—and most evil—example was Evil Soul Masters!

If ordinary Soul Masters were initially led by their human side,

then Evil Soul Masters were individuals who gradually came under the control of their Martial Souls from the moment of awakening. The vast majority were Beast Soul Masters, utterly consumed by their Martial Souls' ferocity and savagery, to the point of awakening the defining trait of growing stronger by devouring.

Whether it was eating infants and playing with corpses, draining essence and plundering souls, it was all the same. They fed on their own kind, just as Soul Beasts could devour one another to increase their cultivation years or kill those above them to take their place!

For completely separate entities, he only needed to look to a certain scumbag from ten thousand years ago. There were few such cases, and they were of little help, so Ning Wuque did not study them further.

As for the claim that they had always been one entity, that was even simpler—everyone could awaken a Martial Soul. Was that not enough to prove the connection between humans and Martial Souls?

Perhaps they were weapons forcibly bestowed upon humans by some powerful existence. Perhaps humans originally possessed only Tool Souls, until one Soul Master got drunk and happened to encounter a fox in heat...

In conclusion, Ning Wuque believed that Beast Soul Masters possessed one body with two souls, a rare dual form of symbiosis, while Tool Soul Masters existed in a state of complete unity.

After this series of deductions and hypotheses, Ning Wuque decided to communicate with his Martial Soul and have them attain a state of unified coexistence like that of Tool Soul Masters.

Although this would unquestionably weaken the bonuses granted by Martial Soul Possession in the early stages, its prospects would certainly be better!

Like a ferocious beast replacing its teeth, Ning Wuque was bringing this process forward, exchanging an earlier loss of baby teeth for iron bones and steel fangs in the future!

But Ning Wuque initially failed.

The basic theory of the "Human-Soul Unification Method" was to forcibly enter one's Sea of Consciousness through deep meditation, then find one's Martial Soul and communicate with it.

Ning Wuque achieved a state of semi-deep meditation through the native meditation techniques of the Douluo Continent, coupled with his high degree of control over Soul Power.

Moreover, Soul Masters were naturally most likely to enter deep meditation when they were weak. A weak Sea of Consciousness was like a young girl just beginning to understand love—easy to fool into falling for someone.

However, deep meditation itself was a state akin to sudden enlightenment. Forcibly entering that state meant that one's consciousness was too clear, making enlightenment impossible.

It was like how, when playing games normally, you would never think about scientific research and would simply play as usual. But if you happened to see the right bug or piece of equipment at the right time, inspiration might suddenly strike and give you an idea.

Thus, Ning Wuque's deep meditation possessed only the traits of deep meditation, not its abilities. This was the state of semi-deep meditation.

Fortunately, he did not demand any of that. As long as he could communicate with his Martial Soul, it would be enough!

But he failed. After entering his Sea of Consciousness, it felt as though he had returned to the womb. Everything was pitch-black, and his connection with his Martial Soul dropped directly to nearly zero!

He guessed that he needed a lamp to illuminate the path and keep him from losing his way.

He also needed a rope that could form a strong connection between himself and his Martial Soul, allowing him to follow it to the Martial Soul itself.

Then the answer was obvious.

That was—a Soul Ring!

The only thing on the Douluo Continent capable of perfectly linking a Soul Master and a Martial Soul together! It could not have been more suitable as the "boat" that would carry him through the Sea of Consciousness.

And with the connection between his Martial Soul and Soul Ring, he would certainly be able to find his Martial Soul. It was merely a matter of time.

"Kaa~"

A cry rang out beside Ning Wuque's ear.

Though the language was different, he could completely understand its meaning.

This cry contained his Martial Soul's confusion over his arrival:

"Who are you?"

"Me? I am the human body that walks among the living, while you are the soul companion that walks beside me on my journey."

"Kaa~"

One human and one soul began communicating continuously.

Ning Wuque patiently answered all of its questions.

As they communicated, Ning Wuque also noticed changes in his Martial Soul. At first, it had only been a shell, a tool for others to wield. Gradually, it became a companion—with a soul!

Who knew how much time had passed.

When Ning Wuque woke again, he saw Zhang Can quietly keeping watch at his side, with food and nutritional supplies already prepared.

Seeing that he was awake, Zhang Can hurriedly picked up a bottle of liquid food and poured it down Ning Wuque's throat.

It was precisely because Zhang Can acted without a word that the instant his body cried out in anguish, Ning Wuque began to recover.

"It feels awful!"

Ning Wuque's body seemed to truly restart. When a decayed body began moving again, it was often accompanied by an unbearable sensation.

Like a wolf starved to the extreme, his body greedily absorbed the nutrients in the liquid food. That allowed Ning Wuque to endure the discomfort in less than a few seconds.

"Grandpa, what happened to me?"

As he took the Soul Beast meat and water Zhang Can handed him, Ning Wuque began eating frantically while asking the question.

Beside him, Zhang Can nodded as though finally relieved, then said:

"You were in deep meditation for a whole month. I nearly thought something had happened to you. Luckily, I asked an old friend to examine you. Deep meditation is good—deep meditation is wonderful!"