Soul Inheritance

"That unruly monkey..."

Li Hao broke apart a Crispy Pastry, savoring it slowly as he continued the story for the three little ones waiting eagerly before him.

Inside the pavilion, Uncle Zhao and Li Fu watched from a distance, both wearing helpless, wry smiles.

They had no idea where the young master had read these tales. If only he would devote all that thought and effort to Body Refining, he would surely achieve something in the future.

Still, after watching Li Hao's easygoing ways for so long, they had learned to let many things go and allow nature to take its course. As the Second Master had said, the vast Li Family did not lack another Body Refining expert, but that child might lack a happy childhood. With neither parent by his side, this was probably the only joy he had.

As the sun sank into dusk and the story ended, Li Hao coaxed the three little ones into leaving, adding a warning for Li Yun, the most rambunctious of the bunch:

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

Earlier, when the boy heard the part about wreaking havoc in the Heavenly Palace, he had been beside himself with excitement. Already showing a rebellious streak at his tender age, he had argued with his mother, insisting on giving up the sword for a staff. After some personal instruction from his dear mother, however, he decided the sword suited him better after all.

"Mm." Li Yun flushed and ran off.

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

"Hao Ge..." The little chubby boy, Li Yuanzhao, also hesitated, wanting to say something.

"Go on, off with you."

Li Hao waved them all away.

Once the children had left the rear courtyard, Li Hao settled down and continued painting.

By the time he had gained several dozen points of Painting Dao experience, the moon had risen.

After eating dinner with Li Fu and Uncle Zhao, Li Hao returned to his room and picked up a martial arts book he had brought from the Listening Rain Pavilion.

The book did not contain a cultivation method, but basic knowledge about the various realms.

"The Soul Succession Realm, as its name suggests, involves inheriting the souls of those who came before!"

"Ordinary people without powerful backing may seek soul inheritance at the Martial Temple. If they earn a heroic spirit's favor, they too may inherit its soul."

"Another option is to enlist in the army and pay homage to the military souls of those who fell in battle throughout Great Yu's history, receiving a trace of soul thought as an inheritance from one of those heroic spirits!"

"One may also study on renowned mountains or under renowned masters. Sects likewise possess ancestral heroic spirits..."

Li Hao read quietly, light flickering in his eyes.

He brought up his panel.

[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 level (Thousand Dragons Body, beginner), Primordial Beginning, third level (Profound Passage Body, complete mastery), Dragon Cicada Vacuum Body, fourth level (Dragon Soul Body, beginner)...]

[Imperial Dao: third stage]

[Imperial skills: Tian Gang Heavenly Circulation Art (complete mastery), Hundred Battles Heavenly Circulation Art (complete mastery), Dragon River Divine Meridian (complete mastery), Nine Revolutions Star Art (complete mastery)...]

[Chess Dao: fourth stage (28/10000)]

[Fishing Dao: second stage (97/1000)]

[Second Stage of the Painting Dao (231/1000)]

[Path of Cooking: second stage (736/1000)]

[Chess manual catalog collection: Myriad Manifestations, Tiger Pressure, Flying Section, Hidden Bow]

[Fishing catalog collection: none]

[Famous painting catalog 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 panel was clearly longer than before. Even with several dozen Body Refining methods omitted, it remained a long, densely packed list.

He had spent all six Art Skill Points gained from painting, cooking, and fishing, raising his Path of the Physical Body from the third stage to the fifth. When advancing from the third to the fourth stage, he had actually encountered a threshold like the one in the Chess Dao: he needed to attain a heart before he could continue advancing.

At that point, a panel prompt revealed that the Chess Heart he had previously condensed could be embedded, just like a chess manual.

Yet after embedding the Chess Heart into the Path of the Physical Body and successfully clearing the threshold, Li Hao's love of chess had not diminished at all.

Conversely, although his Path of the Physical Body had passed the state-of-mind threshold, he had gained no additional affection for it. His feelings remained as they had always been.

The panel could transfer a state of mind, but seemingly not the power of emotion.

When his Path of the Physical Body reached the fourth stage, however, his many low-grade Body-Tempering Arts underwent a strange change, all transforming into higher-level methods upon their original foundations.

Stone Skin Hundred Refinements transformed into Stone Skin Thousand Refinements, while Wild Bull Strength became Bull Demon Brutal Strength. As the methods grew stronger, so did their effects, bringing enormous improvements to his body.

The same happened to his many other low-grade methods, causing organs throughout his body to transform and strengthen anew. His physical strength alone now reached eighty thousand jin!

His several supreme Body-Tempering Arts did not change in grade, but all advanced to the fourth level.

At the fourth level, however, he encountered some unusual problems.

The energy of heaven and earth alone could no longer meet the requirements for practicing these supreme Body-Tempering Arts. Even raising his Path of the Physical Body to the fifth stage could not eliminate those external prerequisites.

For instance, to cultivate the fourth level of the Thousand Dragons Sacred Body, he had to personally slay a flood dragon, seize its soul, and refine himself with it. Only by subduing and imprisoning that flood dragon soul could he break through the Circulation Realm and enter the Soul Succession Realm.

The Dragon Cicada Vacuum Body was the same. Its fourth level, the Dragon Soul Body, required a drop of true dragon blood essence to cultivate.

Without satisfying those external conditions, no amount of insight into the physical body would help. Even if he knew how to cultivate them, a clever cook could make no meal without rice; there was nothing he could do.

Fortunately, neither requirement was difficult for Li Hao to satisfy.

He only had to ask, and Li Muxiu could take care of it in minutes.

However, the soul inheritance methods of these two Body-Tempering Arts were both minor paths that took unconventional routes. Even if he succeeded, he would rank only in the middle of the Soul Succession Realm, far from outstanding.

Strength in the Soul Succession Realm depended on the strength of the legacy bestowed by the heroic spirit one inherited.

Thus, powerful factions retained their advantage in this regard, opening an enormous gap between themselves and ordinary martial artists.

For instance, grandmasters on renowned mountains could have their Personal Disciples pay homage before the Ancestral Heroic Spirit Hall. If they were fortunate enough to receive an ancestral heroic spirit's inheritance, they could ascend to the heavens in a single step. This was the finest of all options.

After all, those capable of passing down heroic spirits were ancient old monsters. To leave behind such a legacy, they had to be at least Four Establishments Realm beings capable of defying heaven and changing their fate!

Experts of such strength could be counted across all of Great Yu.

The inheritance of even a trace of their soul thought was like the key to a treasure vault, offering endless benefits.

Martial artists without such foundations or backing could only seek soul inheritance at the Martial Temple, unless their talents reached the heavens and earned them a master on a renowned mountain.

The heroic spirits in the Martial Temple were all figures whose achievements endured through the ages. Some were strong and others weak, their quality uneven. Which heroic spirit took a liking to a candidate depended on that person's aptitude and temperament.

Below even that came monsters such as flood dragons, Mountain Spirits and Ghosts, and the like.

Great monsters of this sort were not stingy about granting their souls, but the soul thoughts of mountain spirits and ghosts were too feeble, leaving little to inherit.

Having been born into the Li Family, Li Hao had countless options. The best among them was to enter the Li Family Ancestral Hall.

Enshrined there were the Li Family's ancestors through the generations, from the first-the Founding God General who had helped Great Yu's former emperor carve out its realm-to the dozen or so generations that followed. There was no shortage of supreme experts among them.

Moreover, shared blood made soul inheritance easier. This was one reason Martial Dao aristocratic clans endured through the ages.

Foundations-what were foundations? They were things that could be passed down, generation after generation.

Once he successfully inherited a soul in the Li Family Ancestral Hall, he could continue practicing the two supreme Body-Tempering Arts. Capturing a flood dragon soul and a true dragon soul thought would then merely strengthen him, rather than serve as his means of entering the realm. The difference was enormous.

Before that, however, Li Hao intended to deepen his own accumulated strength a little further.

As he had suspected, the Imperial Dao corresponded to conventional cultivation.

Qi Circulation Methods, Meridian Opening, Soul Commanding in the future Soul Succession Realm, and probably even the Spirit Wandering Realm would all depend on the Imperial Dao.

With his third-stage Imperial Dao, he had cultivated both of the Li Family's supreme Qi Circulation Methods to complete mastery.

Others, even those with monstrous talent, only dared to practice one. After all, practicing each method was equivalent to cultivating all ten levels of the Circulation Realm anew!

But with his third-stage Imperial Dao insights, everything flowed as naturally as water into a channel. Li Hao had easily completed them after just a few practice runs.

The two supreme Fortune Circulation Arts differed somewhat from the Body Refining Fortune Circulation Arts included in his Body-Tempering Art. They therefore overlapped less than two Body Refining Fortune Circulation Arts would, instead interweaving extensively and producing an astonishing result.

Li Hao's qi circulation had risen from 143 circuits to, in a single meridian...

248 circuits!

Indeed, it was an astonishing figure-a full eighty circuits higher than the Imperial Clan's All Heavens Heavenly Circulation Art, which achieved 168!

(End of chapter)