Surpassing Oneself - The True Body, The True Self

Chapter 2: Surpassing Oneself—The True Self

The next day, early morning.

Having slept dreamlessly, Zhao Xuanzhen finished washing up, changed into fresh, clean clothes, and opened his door—only to nearly smack his head straight into a chest bigger than his own head.

Looking up at the two burly men blocking the doorway completely, tall and mighty with thick beards—in his past life, they'd definitely be top-tier eye candy on the must-try list—Zhao Xuanzhen teased: "Why are your heads pointy?"

"Yours is the pointy one! We came all the way here early in the morning for you!"

The Bai sisters retorted in unison, then burst like a popped balloon with a puff, reverting to their original lovely appearances.

"The Sky Phoenix has returned. She's waiting for you."

Bai Zhicen said irritably, reaching into space and conjuring a glass of milk like a magician. Bai Haoze activated his martial soul, the Bright Unicorn, to warm it up before handing it to Zhao Xuanzhen.

Taking the steaming milk, he gulped it down. Rich and fragrant, packed with nutrients from thousand-year snow mountain yaks, Zhao Xuanzhen felt a surge of emotion.

Starting out at the Spirit Pagoda—do you know what kind of life he'd lived these past six years? It was simply...

A heavenly life!

His teacher doted on him, his pocket money was seven figures, and he had two saintly older sisters with loyal-dog traits who cared for and protected him, fulfilling every request anytime, anywhere!

Joy here, no thought of home!

"Let's go. Don't keep Teacher waiting."

Time passed, the world changed. The Douluo Continent was no longer the era of Tang San, two thousand years ago, when the Martial Soul Hall's executives roamed the land helping soul masters awaken. Nor was it the era of Huo Yuhao, ten thousand years ago, when even awakening a martial soul was difficult.

Now, free martial soul awakening sites had been built across the continent. As one of the superpowers, the Spirit Pagoda naturally had its own dedicated awakening location.

The three boarded the high-level elevator, ascending straight to the ninth floor of the Spirit Pagoda—the Awakening Chamber.

As the elevator doors opened, Zhao Xuanzhen stepped onto the ninth floor and immediately noticed the entire Awakening Chamber had been cleared. Not a single Spirit Pagoda member was in sight. The hall was empty and silent as water, the crystal chandelier refracting a warm white light, the marble floor polished to a mirror-like shine.

Without a doubt, today was a private event. No outsiders were allowed in.

Some influential figure with vast abilities had taken a liking to Zhao Xuanzhen, providing him with a relaxed, quiet environment.

"Xuanzhen."

A call suddenly rang out. From the depths of the Awakening Chamber, a figure emerged. Sunlight streamed in from her side, illuminating her beautiful, picturesque features and her gracefully curved, exquisite figure, wrapped in a captivating halo that made it hard to look away.

Her green hair flowed like a waterfall or mist, light and soft. A pair of ruby-like phoenix eyes held a cold, frosty stillness, while her curved, willow-thin brows added a touch of tenderness to that chill.

"Greetings, Sky Phoenix."

Seeing the woman appear, the Bai sisters' eyes immediately filled with reverence. They bowed properly, for no other reason than that this woman's status, position, and personal strength were all beyond their reach.

The Spirit Pagoda Deputy Tower Master, a Four-Word Battle Armor Master—Sky Phoenix Douluo Leng Yaozhu.

"Teacher."

Zhao Xuanzhen quickly walked toward Leng Yaozhu. She bent down, reached out, and cupped his face, kneading it vigorously as she said with a smile: "About to awaken your martial soul—nervous?"

"No need to be nervous. A martial soul awakening doesn't decide a soul master's entire life. The Douluo Continent has plenty of treasures to make up for congenital insufficiency. To quote a famous saying: 'Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river—don't bully a youth for being poor.'"

Zhao Xuanzhen let Leng Yaozhu enjoy the bouncy texture of his face, making the Bai sisters watch with envy. Yesterday, they couldn't even touch his head—in the end, Teacher had more face.

"Young as you are, you're quite carefree." Leng Yaozhu withdrew her hand, her gaze warm. "But Teacher hopes you can inherit your mother's Spirit Phoenix martial soul. It's a rare mental-attribute phoenix bloodline, and I can pass on my skills to you to the fullest."

"Teacher, Teacher, the Spirit Phoenix is indeed strong, but it's still too reliant on technique. Do you have any simpler, more dominant martial soul recommendations?"

"There is." Leng Yaozhu nodded. "Your father's Silver Giant, paired with ancient martial arts boxing—simple and dominant."

The Leng Family was one of the ruling families of the Spirit Pagoda, inheriting the Sky Phoenix martial soul, also known as the Phoenix Family.

Zhao Xuanzhen's mother, Ye Ling, came from the collateral Spirit Phoenix lineage. Fifteen years ago, recommended by the Spirit Pagoda, she joined a legion to guard a certain key location, where she met and fell in love with Zhao Xuanzhen's father, Zhao Liuyun.

On the very day Zhao Xuanzhen was born, the evil creature guarding the legion's stronghold suddenly erupted in a riot—the largest in a century. His parents tragically perished, leaving behind their young son, Zhao Xuanzhen.

After the war ended in a bitter victory for the legion, a high-ranking general initially proposed adopting Zhao Xuanzhen, but Leng Yaozhu intervened.

Once renowned across the continent for both prestige and beauty, the two Leng sisters remained unmarried. The main Leng bloodline had no heirs and was cut off, making the collateral branch even more important. So Leng Yaozhu took Zhao Xuanzhen in, accepted him as her disciple, and hoped that one day he would become the family's leader after her.

Six years had passed. It was finally time to scratch the lottery ticket—would it be "Thanks for Playing" or a hidden grand prize?

"Xuanzhen, Teacher will awaken your martial soul. Big White, Little White, you two come along too."

Leng Yaozhu rose and walked inward, her demeanor gentle and graceful, exuding feminine charm. Zhao Xuanzhen and the Bai sisters followed closely.

At the center of the Awakening Chamber, Zhao Xuanzhen stood still. Leng Yaozhu extended a slender, jade-like finger and slowly infused soul power into the surroundings.

The awakening method was extremely simple. Even a Soul Grand Master could perform it without any danger, let alone the Sky Phoenix Douluo herself.

Throughout the process, Leng Yaozhu kept her eyes fixed on Zhao Xuanzhen. Bai Haoze and Bai Zhicen locked their spiritual senses onto him as well. They were his teacher and sisters, having watched him grow from a child into a youth, and they feared any accident.

As the martial soul awakening began, Zhao Xuanzhen felt a warm energy continuously seep into him. A power gradually awakened within, shifting from a faint ripple to a violent boil.

Guided by that warmth, something seemed to shatter. All the energy surged through his entire body!

In an instant, black-and-white two-colored mist billowed out. The entire ninth floor of the Spirit Pagoda blazed with dazzling light, like a surreal dream.

Zhao Xuanzhen stood silently in place, eyes tightly shut, an invisible force flowing outward as his body was shrouded in a mysterious black-and-white halo.

Mist billowed, and the three women seemed to float and sink within layers of black-and-white clouds. The person who had been right before their eyes suddenly became ethereal and distant, as if lost among the clouds.

The Bai sisters' composure was far inferior to Leng Yaozhu's; they couldn't help but gape. Bai Haoze murmured, "Xuanzhen's martial soul awakening is far more dramatic than ours was back then!"

Bai Zhicen nodded in deep agreement. The two sisters bore the top-tier martial soul Unicorn, yet when they were six, it had only manifested as a few slight anomalies.

Judging by the principle that the greater the awakening commotion, the fiercer the martial soul, their past worries...

Had been completely unnecessary!

Leng Yaozhu's phoenix eyes shimmered with brilliance. Though she had prepared a series of supplements like Mystic Water Pills, Whale Rubber, and Shark Pearls in advance, and had even steeled herself to pay a heavy price to trade for a celestial herb from the Tang Sect, not needing them was naturally the best outcome. Every teacher hoped their disciple's talent would be as formidable as possible!

Within the three women's field of vision, Zhao Xuanzhen's body was completely dyed by the black-and-white radiance, his entire form emitting a dazzling glow. Under the influence of the ancient, traditional ritual, the dormant martial soul was about to awaken.

Leng Yaozhu, with the highest cultivation and closest to Zhao Xuanzhen, saw a black-and-white pattern flicker on her disciple's brow. It rapidly spread in a web-like pattern through his limbs and bones, illuminating all the meridians in his body.

"Not a Spirit Phoenix..."

As the head of the Phoenix Family, Leng Yaozhu was intimately familiar with the Phoenix martial soul. In one second, she judged that this was definitely not a Spirit Phoenix!

"Could it be a Silver Giant?"

Just as Leng Yaozhu was racking her brains, Zhao Xuanzhen suddenly opened his eyes. A surge of soul power fluctuations erupted, accompanied by an obvious wave of mental fluctuations!

Three pairs of beautiful eyes immediately swept over Zhao Xuanzhen like searchlights from head to toe, trying to identify what kind of martial soul this was.

Martial souls on the Douluo Continent were broadly divided into two categories: Tool Martial Souls and Beast Martial Souls. Without exception, they caused great changes in the soul master. Yet Zhao Xuanzhen had neither gained any weapon nor displayed any soul beast traits—only a strand of black hair had quietly turned pale white.

"Hair?"

Bai Haoze blinked.

"Original Martial Soul..."

Bai Zhicen scratched her ear, where her white hair fell.

"It is an Original Martial Soul, but not the hair."

Leng Yaozhu spoke softly, then added, "Or rather, it's not just the hair!"

As if confirming Leng Yaozhu's words, the black-and-white mist radiating from Zhao Xuanzhen coalesced behind him. A human figure slowly took shape, unmistakably an enlarged version of Zhao Xuanzhen, with eyes as brilliant as stars and a Taiji Yin Yang diagram rotating steadily beneath his feet!

"Himself!"

The Bai sisters' pupils dilated slightly. On the Douluo Continent, martial souls were inherited through bloodlines, but there was one type that any soul master could awaken: a part of the human body, also known as the Original Martial Soul!

Among Original Martial Souls, the more vital the body part, the higher the martial soul's potential!

"Himself" was undoubtedly the most supreme Original Martial Soul!

"Himself... not bad."

Zhao Xuanzhen chuckled lightly, feeling the surging power throughout his body. To be honest, it was much stronger than he had psychologically expected.

While the Spirit Phoenix and Silver Giant were both high-level martial souls, the problem lay in this era of the Legend of the Dragon King.

Facing two Dragon King progenitors, a Beast Martial Soul had no way out. But an Original Martial Soul was completely different—its strength depended solely on Zhao Xuanzhen himself, with no fear of bloodline suppression like a caste system. It was truly the martial soul best suited for him to integrate the Dao techniques of his past life!

"Xuanzhen, test your mental strength and innate soul power."

Leng Yaozhu's expression held an irrepressible excitement. The Spirit Transmission Tower Headquarters had a Super Douluo with an Original Martial Soul stationed there, and she had learned many secrets about Original Martial Souls from conversations with him.

She had a feeling that Zhao Xuanzhen's "Himself" matched that description!

Taking a blue crystal ball from her Storage Soul Tool, Leng Yaozhu gestured for Zhao Xuanzhen to place his right hand on it. The next second, a metal helmet for testing mental strength descended from the ceiling, covering Zhao Xuanzhen's head.

The moment Zhao Xuanzhen touched the crystal ball, it lit up. A dazzling blue light rapidly spread from a single point, and a rich blue halo radiated outward, making the entire crystal ball shine like a brilliant gem.

The changes didn't stop there. A faint buzzing sound arose, and the helmet emitted a soft white glow. The three women looked at the connected Soul Guidance Screen, where data began to jump.

The numbers started from zero, soared upward, broke through three digits in the blink of an eye, and then slowly stabilized, stopping at one hundred and eighty-eight.

"Innate Full Soul Power!"

"Innate Spirit Connection Realm?"

The Bai sisters' expressions could only be described as dumbfounded. Their beautiful features twisted in shock.

A single trace of reaction from the soul power crystal ball was enough to prove that the test subject had soul power within them. Now, the crystal ball in Zhao Xuanzhen's hand was blazing with dazzling light, so the answer was obvious.

Innate Full Soul Power.

After a human's martial soul awakened, besides the type of martial soul determining a soul master's combat strength, innate soul power was equally crucial. Innate Full Soul Power was the highest soul power a normal soul master could achieve innately, giving them a huge advantage in future cultivation.

Innate Full Soul Power was rare, but not enough to make Bai Haoze and Bai Zhicen lose their composure like this. What was truly outrageous was that mental strength of one hundred and eighty-eight points!

In the current Douluo Continent, soul spirits had almost replaced soul beasts. Powerful soul spirits required sufficiently deep mental strength to communicate with, making mental strength no less important than soul spirits. There were six major realms.

Spirit Origin Realm, Spirit Connection Realm, Spirit Sea Realm, Spirit Abyss Realm, Spirit Domain Realm, and the legendary God Origin Realm.

Spirit Origin Realm signified the beginning of all things, with 1 to 100 points—the most basic mental level, allowing contracts with two ten-year soul spirits or one hundred-year soul spirit.

Spirit Connection Realm meant the mind connected with the spirit, intent reaching where thought went, with 100 to 500 points—allowing contracts with two hundred-year soul spirits or one thousand-year soul spirit!

Reaching the Spirit Connection Realm marked the formal entry into mental strength control, manipulating mental strength for one's own use. Innate Spirit Connection Realm meant Zhao Xuanzhen could contract a thousand-year soul beast as his first soul spirit!

"Sis, what martial soul do you know of that has both Innate Full Soul Power and Innate Spirit Connection Realm mental strength?"

Bai Zhicen looked like he was questioning his life—apparently, he had made a fool of himself without meaning to yesterday.

"Me? Never heard of it!"

Bai Haoze shook his head like a rattle drum.

Zhao Xuanzhen overheard the two women's conversation and couldn't help but smile. That guy Huohuo next door got a soul mutation and ended up with super alchemy talent—so what if my Mental strength has a little too much presence?

"The perfect self... so Phantom Brain wasn't just blowing smoke back then..."

Leng Yaozhu's crimson eyes fixed deeply on Zhao Xuanzhen, her gaze carrying relief, contemplation, hesitation, and...

Ambition!

After a long moment, her expression shifted from complexity to a single emotion—determination!

"Xuanzhen, your Martial Soul is not 'yourself.'"

The moment Leng Yaozhu said this, Zhao Xuanzhen and the Bai Sisters froze for an instant, casting puzzled looks at her. The former didn't drag it out and spoke slowly:

"You should know that on the Douluo Continent, there is an Ancient Sect of Ten Thousand Years—the Body Sect.

All disciples of the Body Sect possess Original Martial Souls. They are the ones who understand Original Martial Souls best.

Original Martial Souls correspond to various parts of the human body. Just as Douluo Continent divides traditional Martial Souls into Tool Martial Souls and Beast Martial Souls, the Body Sect splits Original Martial Souls into Two Branches—Flesh and Spirit.

'Oneself,' in the Body Sect's definition, refers to the entire body of flesh and blood, encompassing limbs, torso, skin, and so on... It is the pinnacle of the Flesh Branch.

You've all heard of the pinnacle of the Spirit Branch—our Spirit Pagoda's founder, Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao's Asura's Eye, a Mental Attribute Martial Soul that encompasses the eyes and the brain."

"Flesh and Spirit..." Zhao Xuanzhen narrowed his eyes. "Sounds familiar—kind of like how the Golden Silver Dragon King each took half of the Dragon God's power."

"You're right." Leng Yaozhu nodded lightly. "For tens of thousands of years, the Body Sect has relentlessly pursued the perfect form of the Original Martial Soul. It should be like the Dragon God—merging the Golden Dragon King's ultimate physique with the Silver Dragon King's astonishing wisdom—to give birth to the supreme Original Martial Soul.

Xuanzhen, your 'Self,' which possesses the Mental Attribute, is exactly the God-level Original Martial Soul the Body Sect has dreamed of...

The True Self!"