Cultivating Both Life and Spirit

Thinking of this, a bitter smile tugged at the corners of Yu Xiaogang's mouth.

Although his own Martial Soul had suffered a malignant mutation into Luo Sanpao, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had still arranged for his first soul ring to be a thunder-attribute sub-dragon soul beast.

Unfortunately, he had given up on himself and chosen a random ring for his second.

At that time, his cultivation speed had already slowed to a desperate crawl.

By the time his cultivation broke through to level twenty, he was already a well-known failure across the continent.

A direct descendant of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, yet a piece of trash who couldn't even break through to level thirty.

Such a disparity caused him to collapse completely.

Under the weight of multiple blows, he had chosen a soul ring at random, effectively cutting off his own path forward.

As for the ultimate evolution of Luo Sanpao, the situation was clear.

If Luo Sanpao had undergone a benign mutation instead of the malignant one it suffered, there would only have been two possible outcomes for its evolution.

One was his ancestral Martial Soul, the inherited Martial Soul of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's direct line: the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon.

The second, which Yu Xiaogang believed to be the most likely, was not the ancestral Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul, but the Golden Sacred Dragon—the Martial Soul Fusion Skill formed by the trinity of himself, Flender, and Liu Erlong.

No one understood better than he did the principles behind this trinity Martial Soul Fusion Skill, which boasted a ninety-nine percent fusion rate—a rarity even in the history of soul masters.

In this trinity Martial Soul Fusion Skill, Flender, the Horn of Flight, provided the flight capability and his own Soul Power, while Liu Erlong, the Horn of Slaughter, provided the dragon body.

As the Horn of Wisdom, he provided the most crucial element of this trinity: Luo Sanpao, the host.

Luo Sanpao was the vessel for the descent of the Golden Sacred Dragon, the container that merged the powers of Flender and Liu Erlong; without Luo Sanpao, this Martial Soul Fusion Skill could not exist at all.

Thus, it was evident that if the defects could truly be resolved, Luo Sanpao's final evolution would be one of two things: the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon from before the mutation, or the Golden Sacred Dragon after a complete transformation.

Yu Xiaogang slowly closed his eyes.

Two possibilities.

Either one would be enough to help him escape his current predicament.

If it were truly as Lin Mo had said earlier, and he had started absorbing thunder-attribute sub-dragon soul beasts—whose bloodline quality was superior to Luo Sanpao's—to strengthen the origin of his Martial Soul.

And if he had changed Luo Sanpao's diet to include the flesh and blood of those sub-dragon soul beasts.

After all these wasted years, he should have been able to grind his cultivation up to level thirty, right?

Level thirty.

A rank that an ordinary soul master could reach in just a few years was something he had failed to touch for the better part of his life.

If he hadn't given up on himself back then, if he had been able to calm down and think carefully, if someone had been there to guide him like Lin Mo had today.

Would everything have been different?

Thinking of this, Yu Xiaogang couldn't help but smile bitterly again.

Unfortunately, there were no "ifs."

Moreover, he was now facing a much more realistic problem.

With his and Luo Sanpao's current strength, how could he possibly hunt such sub-dragon soul beasts?

Even the weakest sub-dragon soul beast was far beyond what he, a level twenty-nine Soul Grand Master, could handle.

Not to mention those with higher-grade bloodlines.

Back when he was in the Soul Hunting Forest with the two children, if not for Lin Mo's timely intervention, he and Tang San would likely have perished at the hands of that Datura Snake.

Thinking of this, Yu Xiaogang took a deep breath and made a silent resolution.

It seemed his plans would have to be moved forward.

He had originally intended to wait until the end of this school year to recommend Lin Mo for Shrek Academy.

Now, it seemed his contact with Flender needed to happen sooner.

Whether it was the thousand-year second soul ring of that kid Lin Mo, or the high-level dragon flesh he needed for the evolution of his own Luo Sanpao, neither was something he, a mere two-ring Soul Grand Master, could obtain on his own.

He needed help.

And apart from Flender, he couldn't think of anyone else who could assist him.

He just didn't know if his old brother would still recognize him as his second brother after so many years of silence.

For all these years, he had deliberately avoided all contact with Flender and Liu Erlong, just as he had deliberately avoided all contact with his family.

It wasn't because he didn't cherish the old bonds, but because he felt he had no face to see them.

What right did a piece of trash who couldn't even break through to level thirty have to call them brothers?

But now, he could no longer run away.

Time flew by.

After the semester began, Lin Mo's life returned to its original track.

He would wake up early in the morning to cultivate, spend his mornings reading and studying, and devote all his remaining time to cultivation.

He no longer obsessed over breaking through the Inversion of Three.

Instead, he chose to let nature take its course, beginning to polish his body, spirit, and Soul Power.

Based on the information he had gathered, whether it was the Inversion of Three or techniques like the Golden Light Incantation, they were merely external tools in the world of Under One Person—nothing more than walking sticks used to climb a mountain.

While these things could certainly help one walk faster and more steadily, they were ultimately just auxiliary.

On this path of cultivation, one truly had to rely on the cultivation of their own life and nature.

Nature cultivation focused on the primordial spirit, encompassing the spirit and the heart of the Dao.

Life cultivation focused on the physical vessel, tempering the foundation of the flesh.

Cultivating both nature and life meant simultaneously advancing one's spirit, willpower, and physique.

In the context of the Douluo Continent, life cultivation undoubtedly represented one's physical body—that is, physical fitness.

Everything was rooted in this body.

If the body was strong, the power it could bear was great; if the body was weak, even with the most formidable Soul Power, it would be difficult to unleash its true might.

As for nature cultivation, it was far more metaphysical than life cultivation.

However, he could roughly deduce that in the Douluo Continent, nature cultivation was absolutely linked to the strength of one's spiritual power—the soul—and was inextricably tied to the strength of one's willpower.

Since that was the case, he would polish his body, improve his physical fitness, train his willpower and spirit, and then let his Soul Power cultivation improve naturally.

As long as he had no shortcomings in these three areas, maximizing his spiritual power and physical strength while his willpower reached an extreme, then no matter how flashy the opponent, he would shatter them with a single punch.

This was the cultivation path Lin Mo had set for himself.

He would not pursue flashy soul skills, nor would he rely on complex methods.

The path he wanted to walk was to crush all obstacles with absolute power.

What surprised Lin Mo, however, was that a month after the new semester began, Yu Xiaogang left a letter and suddenly departed without saying goodbye, disappearing for a long time.

In the letter, Yu Xiaogang only said that he had urgent matters to attend to and needed to leave for a while, telling Tang San to cultivate diligently at the academy and not to neglect his studies.

As for where exactly he had gone or when he would return, the letter did not mention a single word.