Su Ming walked between the densely packed bookshelves. At last, in the corner of the final row, he found an ancient notebook whose cover had turned completely yellow and whose edges were somewhat tattered.
The notebook had been left behind by a Titled Douluo senior from several centuries ago. It recorded his lifelong insights into Self-Created Soul Skills.
Su Ming opened the notebook and carefully read every line.
When he had read more than half, a clear passage caught his attention:
[Self-Created Soul Skills do not spring from nothing.]
[In essence, they are the product of a perfect union between the innate properties of one's martial soul, the circulation of Soul Power within the body, and the physical movements of the bones and body.]
[Many Soul Masters have attempted to create their own skills, but most focus solely on controlling Soul Power and neglect to guide it with their bodies. Thus, most attempts end in failure.]
"The physical movements of the bones..."
Su Ming looked at the words and murmured them under his breath.
The concept that had been blurry in his mind began to take shape.
His previous idea had been to rely solely on his mental power to forcibly twist the circulation of Soul Power within his body, making it spin as it condensed.
But the words in the ancient book had opened his eyes.
Soul Power was incredibly violent. Forcibly twisting it with mental power would only cause intense clashes of energy within his meridians.
Soul Power flowed through the meridians of the human body, and the meridians were supported by the bones and muscles.
If his mental power couldn't easily make the violent Soul Power spin, why not use the body's physical rotation to guide it along, drawing the Soul Power inside into a spiraling vortex?
Having found a theoretical basis, Su Ming returned the ancient book to its place. Without the slightest delay, he went straight to the dedicated Mimicry Cultivation Room inside Spirit Hall.
He opened up a desolate mountain valley mimicry room, filled with an aura of death and destruction.
After closing the room's doors, Su Ming sat cross-legged, drew a deep breath, and began experimenting with fine-tuning his third Soul Skill.
The first step was to see the original path of his third Soul Skill clearly.
Su Ming closed his eyes and used his mental power to look within himself.
He activated his third Soul Ring. In an instant, the Black Phoenix Soul Power within him surged out from his dantian, traveled upward along his main meridians, passed through his right shoulder and arm, and finally compressed in a straight line at the tips of the five fingers on his right hand, becoming a razor-sharp beam of light.
The entire process was direct and swift.
The second step was to try adding rotation.
Following his earlier idea, Su Ming tried to use his mental power to twist the Soul Power surging straight ahead into a spiral the moment it entered his right arm.
He knew it might not work, but he had to try.
Failed experiments were an indispensable road to success.
Sure enough, the moment his mental power intervened, the violent Black Phoenix Soul Power began to tremble fiercely.
The energy rushing straight ahead lost its balance as soon as it encountered the lateral twisting force. It slammed wildly against the meridians in Su Ming's right arm, generating a searing heat.
"Ugh..."
Su Ming groaned. A thread of blood escaped the corner of his mouth as he forcibly cut off the flow of Soul Power.
He opened his eyes. The skin on his right arm had turned bright red, and his meridians throbbed with pain.
Forcibly twisting it with mental power had indeed triggered the martial soul's fierce, instinctive backlash.
Su Ming didn't lose heart.
He stood where he was, wiped away the blood at the corner of his mouth, and recalled the passage in the ancient book from the great Library Pavilion.
"I have to coordinate it with my body's movements."
Su Ming stepped forward and assumed a standard Power Attack System combat stance.
This time, he didn't rely on mental power alone.
The instant his third Soul Ring lit up and Soul Power surged into his right arm, Su Ming's gaze sharpened. His core strength erupted, and his whole body followed through with a wide sideways twist!
At the same time, his right arm swung out with the momentum of his rotating body, his wrist twisting violently clockwise through the air in a tight spiral.
Boom!
The physical rotation of his body and the twist of his wrist generated a powerful centrifugal force.
The Extreme Evil Soul Power that had been shooting straight through his meridians didn't clash when it flowed along the path twisted by his bones and muscles.
Instead, as it followed the bend in his meridians, it naturally split into a rapidly spinning black vortex of energy.
"It's working!"
Su Ming's heart leaped with delight.
However, he remained very cautious. To prevent his Soul Power from exploding halfway through, he didn't immediately release his third Soul Skill at full power.
He suppressed his output, keeping it at a faint level of around one-tenth of its usual amount.
Driven by the rotation of his body and wrist, a miniature black beam of light, no larger than his palm, slowly took shape at the tip of his right index finger.
This palm-sized beam was no longer a stationary straight line. Beneath Su Ming's fingertip, it began to rotate slowly.
The rotation wasn't fast; he could even count the turns with the naked eye!
But that was enough to prove his method was right.
Su Ming's first attempt at fine-tuning had achieved initial success.
For the rest of the time, Su Ming shut himself away in the Mimicry Cultivation Room, day and night.
He had only one task each day: to repeat the training of rotating his body, twisting his wrist, and releasing miniature beams of light.
He had to turn this technique, which coordinated his body with the flow of Soul Power, into muscle memory.
For a week, Su Ming worked furiously to stabilize the rotational structure, making sure it wouldn't collapse at any angle.
A week later, the rotational structure had stabilized, and Su Ming began trying to reduce the range of his body's movements.
In a life-or-death battle, having to rotate his body in a wide arc every time he released a Soul Skill would leave him far too exposed. It would be easy for an enemy to see through his move and dodge.
He began trying to pass the rotational force from his core upward, bit by bit, until he could concentrate it in a twitch of the shoulder, a burst of force from the elbow, and the final violent turn of his wrist.
Another half month passed. Su Ming could now complete the spiraling flow of Soul Power within his body with a subtle twitch of his right arm and wrist alone, without moving from his spot.
But the rotation still hadn't gotten any faster!
A month later, Su Ming began his final experiments in increasing the speed and pressure.
With the full driving method in place, all he needed to do was increase the force behind it!
Of course, it couldn't be done all at once. He had to raise it gradually so his meridians could withstand the strain.
Once his meridians could endure the rotation, he would increase the Soul Power output of the slash, gradually raising it from one-tenth to three-tenths, five-tenths, seven-tenths, and finally a full-power burst.
Another month later, inside the Mimicry Cultivation Room.
Su Ming stood quietly in place. Fifty meters in front of him was a huge Defensive Black Stone, set up to test the destructive power of Soul Skills.