I'd planned to test someone else, only to end up being tested myself. What kind of situation was this?
At that thought, Xu Mochen gave a wry smile. Then, without putting on airs, he began to explain in detail what he knew. "According to Senior's views in Origin of Martial Souls, the souls of living beings in nature are actually divided into two parts: one is the soul-body, and the other is the spirit-body."
"The soul-body, also called the consciousness-body, is a nonmaterial existence that governs and controls the body it inhabits. Only living beings possess a soul-body. Its form is relatively fixed, it comes from the cycle of heavenly law, and it has no strength of its own. But it is our most primitive form."
"The other part is the spirit-body, also called the cultivation-body. It absorbs the essence of heaven and earth, embodying nature in all things. Its form can undergo all kinds of changes in response to internal and external factors. It is precisely because spirit-bodies exist that extraordinary Soul Masters and Soul Beasts have appeared in the world. In fact, what we call a Martial Soul is one kind of spirit-body."
"Spirit-bodies aren't limited to living things. Even inanimate objects possess them. Take the teacup in my hand, for example. It has a spirit-body of its own. Spirit-bodies are ever-changing and vary in quality and strength. They come in countless types, and they can alter the strength of the bodies they inhabit."
"For both Soul Masters and Soul Beasts, the quality and rank of their spirit-bodies determine their fundamental strength. Since spirit-bodies themselves have no consciousness, they need a soul-body to absorb and control them. In essence, a Martial Soul is a new spirit-body formed when a Soul Master's soul-body controls and absorbs spirit-bodies from all things in heaven and earth, then fuses them with itself."
"Senior also mentioned in Natural Gene Decoding that human Martial Souls depend on both innate and acquired factors. The innate factors, also called genetic factors, are the main ones that determine a Martial Soul's form. Generally, a Soul Master inherits the Martial Soul of either their father or mother, with a higher chance of inheriting the one of better quality."
"That's mainly because a soul-body has limited energy and can usually control only one spirit-body. Before Martial Soul Awakening, the genes of different, unbound spirit-bodies struggle against one another inside a person, killing and devouring each other like the law of the jungle. In the end, a single 'winner' emerges: the only spirit-body gene left standing. That spirit-body becomes the person's Martial Soul, and when their Martial Soul awakens, it fuses completely with their soul-body."
"Acquired factors are the secondary cause of changes to a Martial Soul. Such changes often come from living in a special environment, absorbing spirit medicines, or prolonged contact with things that possess unusual spirit-bodies. These can lead a person to take in spirit-bodies from the outside world, altering their Martial Soul. Their influence on a Martial Soul's form is smaller than that of innate genetic factors, but many mid- and high-rank Martial Souls today came about because of acquired factors."
"In terms of physical fitness, the human body is usually innately inferior to the bodies of beasts. But the human body is far better at absorbing spirit-bodies from the outside world. Human Soul Masters' Martial Souls likewise come from absorbing spirit-bodies from outside themselves."
"Mutated Martial Souls appear largely because, while the winning spirit-body gene is eliminating and devouring other spirit-body genes, it is also affected by some of the defeated genes, which alters its original sequence."
"This change may cause the winning spirit-body gene and the surviving remnants of the defeated genes to reject one another, making the Mutated Martial Soul weaker than the winner's original Martial Soul. But the remnants of the defeated genes may also happen to suit the winning gene's sequence, making the Mutated Martial Soul even stronger than the winner's original Martial Soul."
"Of course, there's also an extremely rare possibility: innate and acquired factors cause two spirit-bodies that don't devour each other—and may even complement each other—to coexist inside the human body! That's what we call Twin Martial Souls! This goes against the 'law of the jungle theory' in spirit-body genetic inheritance."
"But Twin Martial Souls have appeared only three times in the entire history of the Sun Moon Empire, leaving too few cases to study. So we still don't fully understand how they form. We only know that, aside from innate factors, certain special external factors must also be involved."
"As for Soul Power, put simply, it's a kind of molecule born between heaven and earth as nature runs its course. It has no color, taste, shape, or substance. Just as photosynthesis helps plants grow, Soul Power molecules can be absorbed by spirit-bodies to help them improve."
"So the essence of Soul Power cultivation isn't, as many people think, creating Soul Power to strengthen a Martial Soul. Rather, a Martial Soul, controlled by a Soul Master's soul-body, filters and purifies the energy in the world around it, extracting Soul Power molecules and fusing them into itself."
"Some spirit-bodies are poor in quality, like a coarse filter that can't remove impurities from the surrounding Soul Power well enough for a Martial Soul to absorb. That's why their cultivation is slow, or even impossible. Martial Souls that can't be cultivated are what we call Trash Martial Souls."
"As for Soul Rings, after a Soul Beast dies and its soul-body leaves its physical body, its spirit-body doesn't immediately vanish like a Soul Master's spirit-body does after death. It can remain for a time. For a while after the Soul Beast dies, its spirit-body won't immediately break apart and return to nature. Instead, drawn unconsciously by the spirit-body, the Soul Power throughout its body quickly gathers and condenses, eventually forming the Soul Ring we see."
"The special genetic mechanisms of the human body mean that, once a Soul Master's soul-body is born and arrives, their ability to absorb spirit-bodies from the outside world is greater than a Soul Beast's. But the corresponding drawback is that when a Soul Master dies and their soul-body leaves, their spirit-body quickly breaks apart. That's why Soul Masters don't produce Soul Rings when they die."
"The color of a Soul Ring is determined by the laws of nature, then perceived through the human eye and brain and interpreted through our life experiences. Its changes follow the objective laws of nature set by the Creator."
"..."
Xu Mochen had indeed rattled off everything he knew. Kong Dehan, standing beside him, was long past being surprised. Instead, he wore an amused smile as he watched Cang Ming's astonished expression. He'd been through this too many times over the past year. By now, he'd grown accustomed to just how ridiculously gifted the Crown Prince was.
What could he do? The seven-year-old Crown Prince was so monstrously talented that he defied all reason. For now, Kong Dehan simply wanted to savor the look on his old friend's face—a man who usually took every upheaval in stride, now looking as though he'd seen a ghost. The thought filled him with glee.
"Old Kong, tell me honestly. Is this child really only seven?" Cang Ming turned to stare at Kong Dehan in disbelief. Astonishment no longer came close to describing how he felt.
Kong Dehan had brought up Xu Mochen more than once before, praising him as a once-in-a-generation genius and making him sound almost superhuman. Back then, Cang Ming hadn't entirely believed him. He'd even wondered whether Kong Dehan was having some kind of mental problem, his brain gone haywire. But now he could hardly deny it.
Though most of what Xu Mochen knew came from Cang Ming's own works, wasn't it still absurd for a seven-year-old to possess such a wealth of knowledge? Kong Dehan merely shrugged, his expression saying, "I told you so. You should've believed me."
Cang Ming could only give a wry smile. Looking at Xu Mochen, who wore a solemn expression, he sighed. "Your explanations of these topics are very detailed. They aren't quite comprehensive yet, but you're already a once-in-a-million genius! In fact, just as you said earlier, a Soul Ring appears when a Soul Beast dies and its spirit-body unconsciously gathers the Soul Power within its body."
"To create an Artificial Soul Ring, we have to create something like a Soul Beast's spirit-body and gather enough Soul Power for it. My approach has always been to extract a Soul Beast's spirit-body genes and use them to recreate the spirit-body that Soul Beast possessed."
"But the problem is, how can we reproduce more spirit-bodies using only part of a Soul Beast's genes? A Soul Beast's spirit-body genes are difficult to influence from the outside. It's probably not realistic to have them devour other spirit-body genes to strengthen themselves."
"Besides, I can't extract spirit-bodies from inanimate objects for experiments. Remember, one of my key hypotheses is that although all things have spirit-bodies, those spirit-bodies are latent. They generally can't be seen or touched, so deliberately extracting them is almost impossible. Only spirit-bodies that have awakened and fused with a soul-body can form Soul Rings."
"I do have an idea about that." Xu Mochen understood Cang Ming's line of thought, though he couldn't be sure whether his proposed solution would actually work. "The spirit-body genes of Soul Beasts and Soul Masters each have their advantages and disadvantages. Soul Beast spirit-body genes are rarely influenced by external factors and can survive much longer after leaving the soul-body. Soul Master spirit-body genes are more easily influenced from the outside, but they can barely survive at all after leaving the soul-body."
"If we could find a way to make up for each other's weaknesses, combining the strengths of Soul Master and Soul Beast spirit-body genes, altering their sequences and producing a new kind of spirit-body gene, then perhaps we could create the corresponding Artificial Soul Ring."
Cang Ming's eye twitched slightly at those words. Then, in an uncertain tone, he asked, "Combine the spirit-body genes of Soul Masters and Soul Beasts to create an entirely new Soul Beast spirit-body gene? I've considered that too, but it's incredibly difficult to pull off, and the odds of success are vanishingly small. At least, the few experiments I've tried have all failed."
"With current technology, it's extremely difficult to distinguish and extract the necessary parts from the two kinds of genes, then combine them. Unless we can find something else to help us extract and combine the two kinds of genes."
Xu Mochen smiled faintly. "Actually, there may be a way. From the methods our ancestors left behind for creating God-Bestowed Soul Rings, it's clear that divine genes are pure and exalted enough that neither Soul Beast nor Soul Master spirit-body genes can resist them. In fact, under the influence of divine-level spirit-body genes, the two can be combined perfectly. If we could make use of spirit-body genes at the divine level, we might be able to do it."
"I'm afraid I'm not worthy of the title, but the spirit-body genes in my bloodline, while not truly divine-level, do possess divine blood. They're also genes from a divine beast bloodline. And since I'm human, my own spirit-body genes have also taken on the human form of a Soul Master. If I let you extract my spirit-body genes for study, Senior, perhaps we could make a breakthrough."
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