Soul Succession

"That damned monkey..."

Li Hao broke open a fragrant crispy cake, slowly tasting it while telling the three little fellows, who were craning their necks in anticipation, the rest of the story.

In the pavilion, Uncle Zhao and Li Fu watched from afar, both smiling helplessly and bitterly.

Who knew where the young master had read these storybooks from? If he were willing to put all this thought into body refinement, he would surely accomplish something in the future too.

However, after watching Li Hao be so idle for so long, they had come to see many things more openly. Let nature take its course. Just as that Second Master had said, the vast Li family did not lack one body-refinement expert, but that child might lack a happy childhood. After all, with no parents by his side, this was probably the only happiness that child had.

At sunset and dusk, when the story was finished, Li Hao coaxed the three little fellows away, and in passing gave a warning to Li Yun, the jumpiest one among them:

"Behave yourself when you get back. Don't get beaten by your mother again."

Earlier, when this fellow heard the part about wreaking havoc in the Heavenly Palace, he had been beside himself with excitement. At such a young age, rebellious bones had already grown in him; he had argued a few words with his own mother and wanted to switch from practicing the sword to the staff. Afterward, under his mother's personal guidance, he still felt the sword suited him better.

"Mm." Li Yun's face reddened, and he ran off in a flash.

"Brother Hao, I'll come see you again tomorrow," his younger sister Li Zhining said with a soft, delicate smile.

"Brother Hao..." the little fatty Li Yuanzhao also hesitated, wanting to speak.

"Go, go, go."

Li Hao waved them all away.

After the children had all left the rear courtyard, Li Hao also settled his mind and continued painting.

After gaining several dozen points of painting experience, moonlight had already emerged on the horizon.

Li Hao ate dinner together with Li Fu and Uncle Zhao, then returned to his room. He picked up a martial arts book taken from Listening Rain Pavilion and began flipping through it.

This book was not a cultivation method, but a general explanation of knowledge regarding the various realms.

"Soul Succession Realm, as the name implies, is to inherit a former soul!"

"If one has no background, an ordinary person seeking soul succession may enter the Martial Temple. If they can receive the favor of a heroic soul, they may also succeed in soul succession."

"Furthermore, one may join the army and pay respects to the military souls of Great Yu's past generations who died in battle, obtaining from among them the bestowal of a thread of soul-thought inheritance from a heroic soul!"

"Also, one may enter famous mountains, study under renowned masters; within sects there are also heroic souls of ancestors..."

Li Hao flipped through it quietly, light flickering in his eyes.

He called up the panel and looked at it.

Name: Li Hao

Age: 8

Cultivation: Circulation Realm, tenth level

Sword Dao: third stage (Flying Section) (Hidden Bow)

Sword skills: Boundless Sea - Tide (Supreme Perfection) Falling Snow Sword Art (True State)

Path of the Physical Body: fifth stage (Myriad Manifestations) (Tiger Pressure)

Physical body skills: Stone Skin Thousand Refinements (True State) Thousand Dragons Sacred Body, fourth layer (Thousand Dragons Body entry-level) Primordial Beginning, third layer (Profound Passage Body perfected) Dragon Cicada Vacuum Body, fourth layer (Dragon Soul Body entry-level)...

Imperial Dao: third stage

Imperial skills: Tian Gang Heavenly Circulation Art (perfected) Hundred Battles Heavenly Circulation Art (perfected) Dragon River Divine Meridian (perfected) Nine Revolutions Star Art (perfected)...

Chess Dao: fourth stage (28/10000)

Fishing Dao: second stage (97/1000)

Painting Dao: second stage (231/1000)

Path of Cooking: second stage (736/1000)

Chess manual illustration collection: Myriad Manifestations, Tiger Pressure, Flying Section, Hidden Bow

Fishing illustration collection: none

Famous painting illustration collection: Thousand Mountains Bird Flight Painting, Snow Mountain Spirit Fox Painting, Qilin Steed Painting

Cooking recipe collection: none

State of mind: Chess Heart (embedded)

Art Skill Points: 0

The current panel was clearly much longer than before. Even though Li Hao had omitted several dozen body-refinement methods, it was still a dense, long string.

He had used all 6 Art Skill Points obtained from painting, cooking, and fishing. Path of the Physical Body rose from the third stage to the fifth stage, and when crossing from the third to the fourth stage, there had unexpectedly been a threshold like with the Chess Dao; one needed to enter the heart before continuing to level up.

At that time, after the panel's prompt, that condensed Chess Heart from before was unexpectedly like a chess manual, able to be embedded.

Only, after the Chess Heart was embedded into the Path of the Physical Body and smoothly rushed through the barrier, Li Hao's love for chess did not diminish in the slightest.

On the contrary, though the Path of the Physical Body had passed the state-of-mind barrier, his fondness for the Path of the Physical Body had not increased extra either. It was still the same normal feeling as before.

Although the panel could transfer state of mind, it seemed unable to transfer the power of emotion.

And when the Path of the Physical Body reached the fourth stage, those many original low-grade body-refinement arts underwent strange changes, all shedding their shells on their original foundation and transforming into higher-level methods.

Stone Skin Hundred Refinements transformed into Stone Skin Thousand Refinements, Wild Bull Strength became Bull Demon Brutal Strength. The methods strengthened, and their effects strengthened along with them, all bringing a huge boost to the physical body.

The same was true of many other low-grade methods, causing every aspect of the organs throughout his body to undergo new transformations and enhancements. Now, the power of his physical body alone had reached eighty thousand jin! As for several supreme body-refinement arts, although their grades had not transformed, they had all stepped into the fourth layer.

Only, at the fourth layer, they encountered some special problems.

Relying purely on the energy of heaven and earth could no longer satisfy the cultivation conditions for these supreme body-refinement arts. Even if his Path of the Physical Body continued rising to the fifth stage, it could not erase the requirements of external limiting conditions.

For example, to cultivate the fourth layer of Thousand Dragons Sacred Body, he had to personally slay a flood dragon, seize its soul, refine himself, and subdue and imprison its flood-dragon soul before it could help him break through Circulation and step into the Soul Succession Realm.

The Dragon Cicada Vacuum Body was the same. The fourth-layer Dragon Soul Body required a drop of true dragon essence blood before it could be cultivated successfully.

If the external conditions were not resolved, then no matter how much physical-body comprehension he had, even if he knew how to cultivate, it would still be like a clever housewife hard-pressed to cook without rice; there was nothing he could do.

Fortunately, these two cultivation conditions were not hard for Li Hao to satisfy.

As long as he opened his mouth, Li Muxiu could help him settle them in minutes.

Only, the soul succession methods of these two body-refinement arts both belonged to small paths that found another trail. Even if successful, within the Soul Succession Realm they would only be middle-of-the-stream and could not be considered outstanding.

The strength of the Soul Succession Realm depended on the strength of the inheritance brought by the heroic soul one inherited.

Therefore, great powers still maintained their advantage in this regard, opening up a huge gap with ordinary martial artists.

For example, grandmasters of famous mountains could have Personal Disciples worship before the hall of ancestral heroic souls. If lucky, they would receive the inheritance of an ancestral heroic soul and ascend to heaven in a single step. This was top of the top.

After all, those fellows who could pass down heroic souls were all old monsters from ages long past. To be able to leave their inheritance behind, at the very least, they were Four Establishments Realm existences who could defy heaven and change fate!

Such strength, looking across Great Yu, was among those who could be counted on one's fingers.

The inheritance of a single thread of their soul-thought was like a secret key to a treasure vault, with endless benefits.

As for martial artists without such foundation and background, unless their aptitude pierced the heavens and they became disciples of famous mountains, they could only choose to go to the Martial Temple for soul succession.

The heroic souls in the Martial Temple were all those with merits resounding through the ages. Some were strong, some weak, the good and bad mixed together; this depended on the soul successor's own aptitude and temperament, and which heroic soul in the Martial Temple would take a liking to them.

Only after that, at the very bottom, were demon kinds such as flood dragons, ghosts, and mountain spirits.

These great demons were not stingy about bestowing souls, but the soul-thoughts of mountain spirits and ghosts were too thin and weak, and what could be inherited was limited.

Born in the Li family, Li Hao had countless choices. Among them, the best choice was to enter the Li Family Ancestral Hall.

There, the Li family's ancestors of every generation were enshrined, from the first generation, that Founding God General who had followed Great Yu's former emperor to carve out Great Yu's rivers and mountains, down to the dozen-plus generations afterward, among whom there was no lack of top experts.

Moreover, because of the family bloodline, soul succession was easier. This was also one of the reasons martial Dao families endured and did not decline.

Foundation—what was foundation? It was an existence that could be passed down layer after layer.

After successfully undergoing soul succession in the Li Family Ancestral Hall, he could then continue cultivating the two supreme body-refinement arts, capturing a flood-dragon soul and true dragon soul-thought. That would only be to strengthen himself, not to enter the realm through them; the gap would be great.

However, before that, Li Hao planned to first make his own accumulation a little richer.

Imperial Dao, as he had thought, corresponded to normal cultivation.

Qi Circulation Method, opening meridians, the Imperial Soul of the future Soul Succession Realm, and even the Spirit Wandering Realm would most likely all have to rely on the existence of the Imperial Dao.

Relying on third-stage Imperial Dao, he cultivated both of the Li family's supreme Qi Circulation Methods, and perfected them.

One had to know that other people, even monstrous talents, only dared cultivate one. After all, every method cultivated was equivalent to cultivating the tenth level of the Circulation Realm all over again!

But with the comprehension of third-stage Imperial Dao, Li Hao's progress flowed as naturally as water into a channel. After several rounds of practice, he completed them with ease.

And the two top-tier qi circulation arts had some differences from the body-refinement qi circulation arts that came with the body-refinement techniques. This caused the overlapping portions between them not to be as large as between the two body-refinement qi circulation arts, with many crisscrossing differences. Thus, an extremely exaggerated situation appeared.

Li Hao's qi circulation heavenly cycles went from 143 cycles to one meridian...

248 cycles! That was right, an extremely exaggerated degree, a full 80 cycles higher than even the imperial clan's All Heavens Heavenly Circulation Art with its 168 cycles!