The Secrets of Martial Souls and the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower (Part 2)

The Secrets of Martial Souls and the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower (Part 2)

"Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon? Could our family's Martial Soul really be of such high quality?"

Although the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had been reduced to a mere backdrop for Spirit Hall, its Martial Soul was exceptionally powerful. The further the story progressed, the more highly the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon was praised. By Douluo Continent 4, it had even been touted as comparable to Di Tian, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King.

This Martial Soul was a pure-blooded True Dragon. Its strength, speed, and attributes were all recognized by the Silver Dragon King. Even if it was not a super Martial Soul, it was still among the very best of top-tier Martial Souls.

Chen Ming truly did not believe it could theoretically reach that level.

Put it this way: if it could reach even seventy percent of that, the Chen Family would have produced at least one Soul Douluo every generation. With a little luck, the continent's first poison-type Titled Douluo would not have been Dugu Bo. Forget hiding away in Biluo City—living in Heaven Dou City would have been no problem.

Chen Ming seriously suspected that their ancestor had either been bragging or simply duped.

"Ahem. There is always a little discrepancy between theory and reality... Anyway, let me finish."

Chen Shijie explained without batting an eye. When he had been Chen Ming's age, he had wondered about the same thing, so he naturally understood what Chen Ming was thinking.

"It is difficult for a Bilin Seven Absolute Flower to become a Soul Beast. Even when it does, it is generally only at the ten-thousand-year level. But that was obviously far too long for humans to wait, so our ancestor came up with a method."

"Biluo City was built several centuries ago by our ancestor using his fief as a foundation. The reason he chose this place for his fief was Bioluo Gorge outside the city."

"You should know full well that Biluo City is far too close to Bioluo Gorge. Strictly speaking, it is not a place suitable for ordinary people to live. When the city was first built several centuries ago, Biluo City was even more inhospitable than it is now. Nothing could be grown in the soil, and anything that did grow by chance was poisonous."

"Our ancestor chose Bioluo Gorge because a Hundred-Thousand-Year poison-type Soul Beast once appeared there. That Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast was ultimately killed beneath the Heavenly Tribulation. Its body exploded, and its venom contaminated the land. Through a series of fortunate coincidences, Bioluo Gorge became one of the continent's rare gathering grounds for poison-type Soul Beasts."

"Our ancestor built the city here for the legacy left behind by that Hundred-Thousand-Year poison-type Soul Beast. Near the core region of Bioluo Gorge, he established a cultivation ground for Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers, using the unique terrain and large numbers of poison-type Soul Beasts as nourishment to cultivate them."

"Yet although this place was special, Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers were not so easily cultivated. Before the first Bilin Seven Absolute Flower Soul Beast appeared, our ancestors of every generation cultivated near the flowers. On one hand, they nurtured the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers with Soul Power; on the other, they used the area for mimetic cultivation."

"But the seeds of disaster were planted there as well..."

"Our ancestors' Martial Souls had originated from mutation, and their foundations were not particularly high. Bioluo Gorge contained the power left behind by the fallen Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, and our ancestors had also cultivated Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers there. Cultivating in such a place affected our Martial Souls."

"At first, the quality of our inherited Martial Souls began to rise. Everyone thought it was a good thing, so they intensified their cultivation. As time passed and generations changed, the family's Martial Soul quality gradually rose, but problems began to emerge with the Soul Power awakened alongside them."

"At first, the decrease was not significant and fell within normal fluctuations. By the time it became a major problem, no one could find its source."

"If one's talent is poor, then cultivate more..."

Chen Shijie was somewhat speechless at this point. After falling silent for a while, he continued.

"When the first Bilin Seven Absolute Flower Soul Beast appeared, the problem erupted. The family split into two extremes: either a member's Martial Soul quality rose dramatically, or they could not awaken Soul Power at all. By then, someone in the family had identified the problem, but there was no way to solve it."

"On Douluo Continent, lacking strength is a grave matter. Even knowing the problem, the family could not reject the powerful cultivation boost brought by the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers. So they continued cultivating while searching for a solution."

"As more and more Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers bloomed, the problem grew increasingly severe. Later, by chance, one of our ancestors met a Qian Family heir who was traveling the continent in disguise. That was Senior Qian Daoliu, later known as Sky Invincible. Only with the Qian Family's help did we learn the true cause and the answer."

"Our Martial Souls had been contaminated by the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers and the remnants of the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, forcibly raising their quality. But the foundation of our family's Martial Souls was not strong. This forced increase instead drained Innate Soul Power as nourishment, while low Innate Soul Power caused the Martial Soul to regress to a certain extent and affected the talents of later generations..."

"To put it more concretely, it was like a fire. The fire forcibly burned our Innate Soul Power in exchange for a higher-quality Martial Soul. But as the firewood dwindled, the flames would eventually weaken and even go out."

"If the Martial Souls inherited by other families were buckets of roughly equal size, then the Chen Family's buckets grew larger with every generation, while the water inside grew less and less. And every bucket had a hole in its bottom."

"This evolution could not be interrupted through external means. Unless a god intervened, ordinary outside forces could not stop it. Moreover, our dependence on the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers became so severe that once we left them, later generations of the family could not even awaken Soul Power. Our Jade Scorpions could already be considered a subspecies that relied on Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers to survive."

"The original Innate Full Soul Power of level ten would be drained down to level nine, then eight, seven, and even lower... There was even the theoretically impossible problem where the higher the Martial Soul quality, the lower the Soul Power Level."

"Below level five Innate Soul Power, members of our Chen Family branch could not awaken Soul Power at all, because that portion of Soul Power was consumed during the formation of the Martial Soul. Then, without Soul Power, the Martial Soul that should have increased in quality instead ended up weaker than before."

"Our branch is already the Chen Family's last remaining Martial Soul inheritance. Theoretically, Innate Soul Power Levels would be cut in half, or even by more."

"My Innate Soul Power was level four. Theoretically, even if I did not possess Innate Full Soul Power, I should have had at least level nine. Your father had two and a half levels of Innate Soul Power, also dragged down by his Martial Soul. Otherwise, for an ordinary Jade Scorpion, he would have had talent above level seven."

"I originally thought your second uncle's three and a half levels of Innate Soul Power were the last possibility for the Chen Family. But I never expected your Soul Power Level to be even higher than mine..."

"Huh?! What?!"

When he first heard there was some treasure involved, Chen Ming thought he had stumbled upon something good. Instead, what he heard was terrible news. Still, it cleared up one of his previous doubts.

By all rights, with how much he had trained, he should not have had only level five Innate Soul Power. So Martial Soul Evolution had forcibly consumed it.

"Don't panic. Theoretically, we may still be able to solve this problem..."

"The Qian Family told us there were three ways to resolve it. The first was for the family to produce a Titled Douluo or a high-level Soul Douluo to improve the bloodline and forcibly reverse the situation. The second was for the Angel God to manifest and directly use divine power to improve the foundation of our Martial Souls. The third..."

"Our family's problem arose because of the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers, and only the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers can cure it."

"As long as someone can complete their Martial Soul Evolution before their third Soul Ring by absorbing the Soul Rings of a Bilin Seven Absolute Flower and a high-quality Jade Scorpion, that family member's Martial Soul will undergo a tremendous transformation. Furthermore, because our Martial Souls have been altered by the Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers, our adaptability to them has become extremely high. After evolving, the Martial Soul could even reach or surpass the level of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, and the bloodline of later generations would improve as well."

"But the greatest problem is... after our family obtained this solution, we did not have many chances left to resolve the issue."

"High-quality Jade Scorpions may be rare, but they can still be found. Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers, however, are truly twelve parts troublesome."

"There were very few Bilin Seven Absolute Flowers that became Soul Beasts, and our family did not have many members either. Several ancestors with fairly good talent had attempted it, only to be unable to withstand the Bilin Seven Absolute Flower's deadly poison and die without even leaving behind their bones."

"Forget the first or second Soul Ring—even for the third, one could not absorb a century-old Bilin Seven Absolute Flower Soul Ring."

"My uncle had level four talent. For the sake of testing it, he attempted to absorb a Bilin Seven Absolute Flower that had just passed a hundred years as his fourth Soul Ring. He barely survived and managed to absorb it, causing his Martial Soul to partially evolve and greatly increasing his strength. But the absorption process damaged his foundation, and he died only a few years later."