Controlling three vortexes nearly drained the last of Lin Chuan's mental power in an instant.
He was at a critical juncture.
Under his control, the circulation vortex and the absorption vortex were about to be enveloped and fused by the massive vortex taking shape in his dantian.
Then Giratina's voice suddenly rang out:
"You want to form a Boundary Point inside your body, one that can both speed up Soul Power circulation and accelerate Soul Power absorption?"
"But in your current condition, I'm afraid the Boundary Point will dissipate before it even takes shape."
"With your current Soul Power, you'll collapse halfway through. No matter how well you've done so far, even with the Blue Silver Emperor Spirit Bone's healing ability as a backup..."
"The Boundary Point you're trying to form probably won't even manage simple compression, let alone stabilize."
"But since I'm such a kind soul, and still have plenty of energy inside me, I'll help you!"
Most of the energy with special properties was beyond Lin Chuan's ability to touch or refine, but Giratina could handle it.
That made Giratina an excellent filter. It swallowed many things, and the energy it gained benefited them both.
But if the Martial Soul Origin was lacking or had suffered severe damage, most of that energy would go toward replenishing, transforming, and strengthening the Martial Soul.
Giratina demonstrated this especially well, swallowing and absorbing energy Lin Chuan couldn't withstand.
The dark energy of Ghost-type Soul Beasts, the evil energy of the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger...
Absorbing those would have affected Lin Chuan himself. But after Giratina swallowed them, the energies were purified into pure energy.
That was also why Lin Chuan, despite absorbing several dark, Ghost-type, and evil Spirit Rings, didn't fear powers like Angel Holy Light, which countered evil and the supernatural.
Suppressing the turbulence in his dantian, Lin Chuan was about to reply.
But the moment his attention wavered, the three vortexes came close to collapsing, beginning to wobble violently.
The next moment,
two mighty streams of energy appeared inside him. The two vortexes, which had been weak and ordinary, instantly swelled in size.
Giratina's sigh rang out again:
"Alas, if you used that energy to cultivate, it would be more than enough to take you from your current level of seventy all the way to Soul Douluo."
"Still, I'm curious to see how this Boundary Point of yours turns out. Don't worry; I'll give you everything I've got."
"Just hope you don't get blown to bits."
After all,
a Soul Master's rise in rank was like climbing a slope: the farther you went, the steeper it became!
It might take only a small river's worth of Soul Power to advance from Soul Grandmaster to Soul Elder.
But advancing from Soul King to Spirit Saint required a surging, mighty river.
And for a Titled Douluo, every single rank required an ocean of Soul Power.
One could imagine just how much Soul Power it took to advance from Spirit Saint to Soul Douluo.
Feeling more and more pure energy fill his body, Lin Chuan no longer hesitated and continued with what he'd been doing.
He knew Giratina's personality by now. It just wanted to sigh and grumble a little.
But that was fine. He had thick skin.
Besides, once they reached the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, he'd make sure Giratina had a proper feast.
Under Lin Chuan's precise control, the circulation vortex, now nearly twice its former size, was swallowed by the much larger vortex, which had grown two or three times bigger.
Once the two were stable, the absorption vortex that had been drawn in earlier was slowly fed into them.
Compression and fusion.
An unceasing tide of mighty Soul Power compressed and tightened the two vortexes, both radiating terrifying force.
The moment they fused, the two settled into a kind of equilibrium.
The process dragged on as the Soul Core entered its final, steady formation.
But Lin Chuan still couldn't stop himself from coughing up a mouthful of blood, mixed with bits of his internal organs.
Each time the Soul Core stabilized, it was as if a violent collision had erupted in his dantian, leaving his internal organs aching.
His face pale and his expression twisted with pain, Lin Chuan crumpled to the ground and curled tightly into a ball, trying to lessen the agony.
His chest and abdomen burned. Every breath felt like swallowing razor blades, so he could only draw in shallow mouthfuls of air.
Just then, the energy from the Blue Silver Emperor Spirit Bone, which had been blocked off, began to flow.
Lin Chuan had already dropped his hand seal, and the obstructed meridians had reopened.
The rich force of life soothed the injuries caused by condensing the Soul Core and began healing his battered body.
His choice to absorb the Blue Silver Emperor Right Leg Bone while blocking several meridians and storing its energy there had paid off.
The injuries in his meridians were torn open and healed, again and again.
Only after the pain in his chest eased did Lin Chuan dare to breathe in great, gasping gulps.
He used his mental power to look inward and inspect the Soul Core in his lower dantian, in his abdomen.
Its outer ring spun, milky white, while its interior was pitch-black, like a space storm brewing for countless ages as it devoured the surrounding energy of heaven and earth.
The earlier ordeal had come from the stabilized Soul Core, more like the shockwave of positive and negative Soul Power vortexes colliding and rippling through his abdomen, leaving him in such agony.
Fortunately, everything had gone more or less perfectly.
He could now clearly feel the Soul Core autonomously absorbing the energy of heaven and earth, while the Soul Power he'd spent was quickly replenished.
All Lin Chuan wanted now was to rest. He was utterly exhausted. He marveled inwardly:
"The Soul Core... It's finally formed!"
Seeing that everything had settled, Giratina's voice sounded in his mind:
"This concentration of Soul Power is impressive. My infusion of all that pure energy wasn't wasted."
"Quickly, sit cross-legged and meditate. There's one last step!"
"Guide the thing to sense my presence and connect to my Inner World. I'll take care of the rest. You just get some rest."
"That'll not only strengthen your Soul Core, but I'll also be able to use its enhancement in battle."
"Then I'll show you what a real black hole looks like!"
The Inner World naturally meant the world inside Giratina.
Its inner world was terrifying and boundless. Its endless darkness seemed capable of swallowing everything, more real and fearsome than any so-called black hole.
Hearing this, Lin Chuan, nearly recovered, let out a long breath and suppressed his excitement at having formed a Soul Core.
Once his mind quickly settled into meditation, he began guiding the stable Soul Core to sense Giratina and connect to its Inner World.
And he remained in that meditative state for a full half month.
Time slipped by unnoticed during cultivation...
When Lin Chuan's aura began to flow again, Ling Yuan, keeping watch at the cave entrance, sensed it and turned to look.
Half a month earlier,
she had guarded Lin Chuan from outside and naturally noticed the life energy that had escaped, followed by the sudden outburst of mental power and Soul Power.
Still, she knew her place and hadn't come over to see what was happening.
Even now, she was curious, but wouldn't ask.
After that, the fluctuations abruptly stopped, and then there was not a sound for two whole days.
She had no choice but to enter the cave to check on him, only to find Lin Chuan sitting in meditation like an old monk.
He wasn't cultivating. There wasn't even a trace of energy stirring around him. He had simply sat there in stillness for half a month.
"Now there's finally a fluctuation of Soul Power around him. Does that mean he's about to wake up?"
Ling Yuan's beautiful eyes fixed on the Soul Power swirling around Lin Chuan as she wondered.
Suddenly, a terrifying force of suction, powerful enough to devour all things, erupted from Lin Chuan's dantian.
The surrounding energy of heaven and earth vanished at an astonishing rate, swallowed up without a trace.
As his eyes opened and closed, something uncanny flowed through them, like a river of stars pouring backward, time regressing. It was a chaotic darkness, deep and utterly free of impurities.
P.S. I haven't read Peerless, so please bear with me, everyone. I did look things up, though.
Then, based on how difficult and dangerous the process of forming the Soul Core would be, I pieced together the fusion process.
If you can't accept this process, just consider it my own headcanon!
About the part where he dared to form a Soul Core:
The story explained that, at first, it was because he had the Blue Silver Emperor to fall back on.
Later, Giratina said that with this level of Soul Power, he couldn't even compress it.
After giving him energy, it wished him luck and told him not to get blown to bits.
It was all a change in circumstances.
The protagonist wasn't recklessly bold. Just wanted to explain, and I've taken up a moment of your time.