Xu Qing swallowed the walnut-sized Mystic Ice Marrow,
A stream of cold flowed down his throat into his stomach, then quickly spread, surging along his meridians to every part of his body.
Whoosh!
His total Soul Power doubled in an instant!
"Hrng... I'm starting to feel a little bloated."
Xu Qing got to his feet and tried using all his Soul Power to condense Mystic Ice Marrow. After all, he could store the stuff,
make it ahead of time and take it out whenever he needed it. Wait...
Maybe he didn't need to take it out at all. Mystic Ice Marrow could be integrated into the Sea of Consciousness, so why bother taking it out and swallowing it?
Wouldn't digesting it directly with his mind be more convenient—and wouldn't it work faster, too?
With that sudden realization, Xu Qing got down to the busy work of making shaved ice.
Walnut-shaped ice marrow and ice cream-shaped ice marrow poured out of him without end.
The Soul Power he used up was replenished by his own astonishingly fast recovery. He couldn't run out of it at all!
What about when the effects wore off?
Well, why not eat another piece?
The "cannot be used repeatedly" note in the Soul Skill information only meant that it couldn't be used again within one minute.
After that, he could simply chain another piece of ice marrow right onto it.
He wasn't relying on a Soul Skill to boost himself. His boost came from eating the ice marrow.
Clatter, clatter...
After a while,
countless pieces of Mystic Ice Marrow piled up into a small hill in front of Xu Qing, about half as tall as the Ice Empress.
There were probably a few hundred of them.
"That should be enough... The ice marrow from before only let me force my Soul Power Level up with the elemental energy it contained. I still have to use Ring Fusion to make it on the spot."
Xu Qing waved his hand, and the little hill on the ground was swept into the Sea of Consciousness.
It was rather interesting. As his spiritual power increased, Xu Qing's unusual Sea of Consciousness seemed able to store some objects from the outside world.
Of course, for now, it could only hold small things, like clothes and socks.
As for the ice marrow, it was made from Xu Qing's Soul Power and spiritual power combined, so he had always been able to keep it in the Sea of Consciousness.
"As for the second piece..."
Xu Qing looked at the ice cream-shaped ice marrow in his hand, studying it from every angle before taking a bite.
"Boom—!"
It was as if his whole body had been shoved into a freezing ice cavern, yet he felt no cold at all.
Then his heartbeat began to speed up. Thump, thump, thump...
His field of vision widened, and everything before him began to slow down.
Elder Yi stroking his beard, the thoughtful look on his face as he studied the Mystic Ice Marrow.
The tiny specks of dust drifting in the air, the Skeleton Soldiers wandering aimlessly in the distance, the Soul Fires flickering in their eye sockets, the Skeleton Horse Knights hunting on the hillside...
It was as if someone had pressed the world's slow-motion button.
Whoosh—!
"Hah... hah... hah... What was that..."
Xu Qing panted heavily. The scene he had just witnessed replayed with crystal clarity in his mind.
He had only been looking with his naked eyes, yet they had gained the same capabilities as his past spiritual-power probes. And it seemed...
Before Elder Yi could ask, Xu Qing gathered his thoughts again, trying to enter that profound, mysterious state from earlier.
"Whoosh—!"
The world slowed down once more.
"Heh, hahaha... I understand. By speeding up my thoughts, focusing my mind, widening my field of vision, optimizing my reactions, and all the rest..."
"I'm speeding myself up, which makes everything else seem slow. Hehehe..."
Whoosh...
Silver Self appeared in an instant! An even greater power to control his body surged from deep within him!
Time slowed even further.
No... he had gotten faster.
Xu Qing slowly exhaled. Silver Self returned to the Martial Soul Space and continued diligently refining Soul Power.
Only this time, it refined it at a speed more than half again as fast as before.
"Little fellow, it seems you've just done something quite remarkable..."
Elder Yi had naturally sensed the gaze that had fallen on him several times in that brief moment.
Yet, to his eyes, Xu Qing still looked exactly as he had before, without the slightest change.
But when Elder Yi instinctively tried to summon his divine sense, he was astonished to find that Xu Qing was moving at an incredible speed.
Xu Qing's movements had already surpassed the limits of the human eye.
Even Elder Yi couldn't see them clearly through the eyes of this body, formed from his spiritual power, unless he used his divine sense.
Still, he could sense them through intuition.
"Elder Yi, just now, I surpassed myself and reached a realm I'd never experienced before..."
Xu Qing's mind was clear, and his thoughts turned inward from an entirely new angle.
"The so-called Martial Soul is nothing more than an extension of one's Willpower, another form of power."
"Whew... You may not understand my current state, but that's all right..."
"Stop right there."
Elder Yi sensed that something was off about Xu Qing.
Why was this boy acting just like that great sage he'd met while traveling through countless worlds, a person who had left a deep impression on him?
Had eating ice marrow put him into Sage Mode??
Xu Qing's gaze was as still as an ancient well. He reached out and seized the strongest Mystic Ice Marrow, the one produced by Ring Fusion, as it floated in midair.
Ice-blue Soul Power wrapped around his silver-white palm.
After consuming this piece of Mystic Ice Marrow, Xu Qing seemed able to use two Martial Souls at the same time.
Dark blue light flashed in his eyes.
"Now, while I'm using my Second Martial Soul, Self, I can freely call upon the first Soul Ring of the Mystic Ice Marrow."
"Beyond that, it seems something is blocking the way. But once there's a first step, there can be a second, and a third."
"Elder Yi, keep watch over me. I'm going to absorb this piece of Mystic Ice Marrow while I'm still in this state."
As he spoke, a speck of golden light drifted toward Xu Qing's brow, helping to steady his mind.
Then Xu Qing crushed the Mystic Ice Marrow in one grasp, wrapped its fragments in spiritual power, and carried them into his Sea of Consciousness!
"Boom—!!"
Refined in an instant!!
An enormous torrent of ice-elemental energy beyond description flowed from the Sea of Consciousness into every part of his body!
It crashed recklessly against his indestructible meridians!
An indescribable, bone-deep chill swept through his entire body!
Yet there was no pain. The energy spread its power in perfect order, then returned to the Lower Dantian and came to a halt in its very center.
By then, it had used up almost all its elemental energy, leaving behind only a solid-looking blue speck of light.
And yet this tiny speck, glowing with a faint blue light, was as immovable as a boulder. It neither dissolved nor budged beneath the surging Soul Power in his Dantian!
Instead, it began to absorb that Soul Power on its own, solidifying itself!
Outside.
The instant the ice marrow entered the Sea of Consciousness, Xu Qing's body burst into a cloud of blood mist.
He felt as though a wild, arrogant Ferocious Beast had been forced inside him. His meridians were being stretched by brute force, and his muscles groaned in agony.
"Boom—!!"
An invisible shock wave surged out, blasting away all the surrounding rubble and dust.
His Soul Power Level rose another step! Level fifty-five!
Xu Qing grunted. His spiritual power began to guide the immense elemental energy inside him.
He wanted to use this opportunity to try following the steps for condensing a Soul Core.
Before you continue