After having Tang San leave Notting Academy to register as a Soul Master at the Spirit Hall Branch.
Tang Yin turned around, preparing to head to the back mountain to train.
The Soul Power he had gained from the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone had pushed his cultivation straight to Level 20!
That was good news.
But since he couldn't apply to the academy for help hunting a second Soul Ring,
Tang Yin felt a headache coming on.
According to one piece of Martial Soul Theory that a certain Gangzi had plagiarized from Spirit Hall,
once a Soul Master reached a bottleneck, he would still generate Soul Power even if he continued training.
It was just that the Soul Power produced would build up inside his body, unable to manifest for the time being.
It would only manifest after he absorbed a Soul Ring and broke through.
So continuing to train wouldn't cause him any problems.
Still, practicing the Tang Sect Secret Arts, such as the Mysterious Heaven Skill and the Purple Demon Eye,
was part of Tang Yin's daily routine. He naturally wouldn't slack off.
But what was he supposed to do with the rest of his time?
Even before hunting his First Soul Ring, back when he had decided to choose a thunder attribute,
Tang Yin had already made plans.
If he obtained a thunder-attribute First Soul Skill, he would use it as a foundation to try creating his own Soul Skills.
For example: a staple of the fantasy novels from his past life—Thunder Body Tempering!
Thunder Body Tempering, combined with the second Soul Bone Skill of the fused Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone, "Wildfire Never Dies; Spring Winds Bring It Back to Life"—
would surely improve his physical fitness at a rapid pace!
On top of that, Tang Yin planned to develop at least one ranged and one close-combat Self-Created Soul Skill based on his First Soul Skill, rounding out his offensive arsenal.
And since he was also learning a whole host of Tang Sect Secret Arts, such as Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, Mysterious Jade Body, and Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon,
he had ideas for his footwork, too.
When the time came, he could combine them with Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track.
As for Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon, Tang Yin had also thought of using his First Soul Skill to develop a Self-Created Soul Skill that could stack with it for an even greater effect!
When his cultivation had broken through to Level 20 ahead of schedule,
Tang Yin had quickly thought of a way to improve his cultivation without changing his Level 20 rank.
That was to compress his Soul Power!
In Tang Yin's view, a cultivation level represented the volume of Soul Power that his dantian could hold.
Since that volume was fixed and couldn't be changed for the time being,
if he wanted to improve the quality of his Soul Power and raise his cultivation, he naturally had to increase its density!
In other words, he needed to compress his Soul Power!
His Second Martial Soul was the Purple Demon Eye, so Tang Yin figured it was probably of the Mental Attribute.
After all, he could already remember everything at a glance. He could also clearly feel that he had excellent control over his body and exceptionally keen senses.
And that was on top of the physical enhancement brought by fusing the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone.
So Tang Yin felt he could definitely compress the inner force of his Mysterious Heaven Skill.
That would make him stronger!
From then on,
at Notting Academy, Tang Yin spent his mornings in class and found time in the afternoons to read in the library.
The rest of his time was split up: some went to making beauty and skin-care medicine with Tang San, as well as those, uh, aphrodisiacs.
Most of it went toward compressing Soul Power and creating his own Soul Skills.
Since his Second Martial Soul was the Purple Demon Eye, Tang Yin was also a Soul Master of the Mental Attribute, and his spiritual power was naturally stronger than that of other Soul Masters.
On top of that, fusing with the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone had previously enhanced his physical fitness and also given his Second Martial Soul, the Purple Demon Eye, a considerable boost.
Moreover, when he activated the Purple Demon Eye Martial Soul and then used the Purple Demon Eye,
the two effects stacked, greatly increasing Tang Yin's spiritual power and control over his body!
So in less than three months,
Tang Yin successfully compressed his Level 20 Soul Power again and again, until it reached the limit his body could currently withstand.
Meanwhile, he was also making smooth progress with his Self-Created Soul Skills.
As a transmigrator, Tang Yin already had an astonishing imagination.
He could draw inspiration from the cultivation methods, martial techniques, and secret arts found in all kinds of novels and anime from his past life.
On top of that, Tang Yin had fused with the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone and gained the second Soul Bone Skill, "Wildfire Never Dies; Spring Winds Bring It Back to Life," which gave him the powerful ability to regenerate severed limbs.
That meant he could go all out when creating his own Soul Skills.
Even if he accidentally suffered some internal injuries in the process,
with the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone and its second Soul Bone Skill, "Wildfire Never Dies; Spring Winds Bring It Back to Life," Tang Yin would be back in fighting shape within a few days.
So, over the course of a little more than a year,
Tang Yin created three Self-Created Soul Skills: Palm Thunder, Bullet Fist, and Thunder Flash.
Palm Thunder compressed and condensed the thunder power produced by his First Soul Skill, Mysterious Jade Divine Thunder Arm, into the palm of his hand, then released it as an attack.
What shot from his palm wasn't a scattered burst of lightning,
but a compressed ball of thunder, as powerful as a grenade and even better at piercing through targets!
It had an effective range of more than ten zhang, making it his strongest single-target ranged attack for now.
Bullet Fist, meanwhile, was a fist technique.
When he used it, the lightning on his Mysterious Jade Divine Thunder Arm wasn't meant to attack directly. Instead, it flowed at tremendous speed along precise paths through specific meridians and acupoints in his arm, forming a powerful electromagnetic field.
This field repelled the Earth's magnetic field, giving his fist an explosive burst of acceleration the instant he threw a punch.
His punching speed and impact force surged, like a bullet fired from a gun.
Hence the name: Bullet Fist!
With his Mysterious Jade Arm Martial Soul and the added hardness of his fist from the Tang Sect Secret Art, Mysterious Jade Hand, the attack packed astonishing power!
Thunder Flash, on the other hand, was a movement technique.
Its principle was similar to Bullet Fist, but more complicated.
It used thunder power to stimulate the muscles and acupoints in his legs, while sending that power racing through specific meridians and acupoints to form a powerful electromagnetic field that repelled the Earth's magnetic field.
It allowed him to accelerate, stop abruptly, or change direction at astonishing speed.
However, Tang Yin still couldn't perfectly fuse Thunder Flash with the Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track footwork and use them as naturally as his own arms and fingers.
He could only combine the two for crucial bursts of acceleration, emergency dodges, or sudden changes of direction.
Even so, Tang Yin thought it was more than powerful enough!
When accelerating in a straight line, he was probably faster than Agility Attack-type Soul Masters several realms above him!
Meanwhile, with the help of Xiao Chenyu's connections,
the beauty and skin-care medicine Tang San made, "Goddess Tears," and the aphrodisiac, "Dragon Tiger Pill," had become wildly popular among the nobility in Nuoding City and even the surrounding cities.
In just over a year, they had brought in a staggering profit of more than five hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins!
Tang Yin spent most of that money on spirit medicines, Soul Power food made by Food-type Soul Masters, Soul Beast meat dishes, and medicinal dishes made with Plant Soul Beasts, all to improve his cultivation and training speed.
And under the pretext of making Dragon Tiger Pills, Tang Yin also bought large quantities of Whale Rubber.
In the end, the two brothers took it themselves to improve their physical fitness.
Since taking Whale Rubber came with the side effect of making them feel hot and restless,
Tang San even did some research and used cold-natured medicinal ingredients like Cinnabar Lotus to concoct a supplementary medicine that could dispel Whale Rubber's heat.
Nourished over the long term by large amounts of high-quality Whale Rubber,
Tang Yin and Tang San grew stronger and stronger.
The most obvious change was their height.
In just over a year,
Tang Yin, who had already been tall and striking, shot up to a little over 1.7 meters. Broad-shouldered and long-legged, with long, powerful arms and a trim waist, his conspicuous blue-silver hair and handsome face made him a head-turner around the academy.
Tang San had also grown to over 1.6 meters. He was lean and sturdy, gradually shedding his childishness and nearly catching up to Wang Sheng.
Besides that, Tang Yin also had Tang San buy materials for making Hidden Weapons with much of the money they had earned.
At their current strength,
Hidden Weapons were a trump card for self-defense. They absolutely had to make as many as possible!
The more powerful, the better!
Over the past year or so, Tang San had already made Sleeve Arrows, Sand-Shooting Shadow, and the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow.
As for Willow Leaf Blades, Coin Darts, and Bone-Piercing Nails...
Those went without saying!
But to make higher-grade Hidden Weapons, they needed even better materials, such as Deep Sea Sunken Silver.
With Tang Yin and Tang San's current status and finances, they had no way to get their hands on rare metals like those.
As for Hair Gold, there was nowhere to find any by chance, either.
They could only give up on that idea.
Otherwise, if they made arrows from Hair Gold and coated the tips with poison, the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow would be even deadlier!
Before you continue