At this point, Kong Deming's voice grew solemn.
In his aged eyes, there was an eager anticipation usually seen only in the young—an almost feverish expectation.
"It may be very painful at first."
"But you must hold on."
"Because once you succeed, you'll become the first person in history to truly control the Sun Moon Twin Martial Souls."
"When that happens, the future of this continent will change because of you!"
Kong Deming's words struck Xu Tianyao's heart like a heavy hammer.
As he looked at the trust and anticipation in his grandfather's eyes, Xu Tianyao's tense heart gradually calmed.
He nodded firmly. "Grandfather, don't worry. Go ahead and begin."
"I'll hold on to the very end."
"Good!"
Seeing how much Xu Tianyao trusted him, Kong Deming took a deep breath and pressed both hands onto the control panel.
In an instant, the entire Sun Moon Twin Coexistence Ring Device began to operate, gradually picking up speed.
A deep, heavy rumble echoed through the secret chamber.
"Tianyao, remember the mantra I'm about to teach you!"
Kong Deming fixed his gaze on the monitoring screen before him and spoke loudly to Xu Tianyao, who was gravely injured.
"Sunlight follows the left meridian; Bright Moon travels through the right palace."
"The sun makes nine revolutions; the moon turns seven cycles."
"Yang must not suppress yin; yin must not extinguish yang."
"Use the soul as a bridge and the will as a guide."
"Make them flow, not fight. Let them reach a state of balance. As long as they're balanced, we'll succeed!"
Xu Tianyao endured the churning agony within him and began circulating the meditation method Kong Deming had taught him, following the steps he remembered.
Within his Sea of Consciousness,
a golden Sunlight Martial Soul and a silver Bright Moon Martial Soul appeared at the same time.
The instant the two great Martial Souls appeared, a terrifying repulsive force erupted.
The blazing golden Soul Power and the icy silver Soul Power clashed wildly.
His meridians seemed to have become a battlefield, as two utterly different, mutually repelling currents of Soul Power surged through his body.
Every collision made Xu Tianyao feel as if his body were being torn apart.
The veins on his forehead bulged, and his muscles convulsed all over. The moment sweat emerged, the Sunlight Martial Soul's terrifying heat evaporated it into white mist.
But the next second, the Bright Moon Martial Soul's Soul Power froze it into ice crystals.
Under the alternating extremes of heat and cold, patches of his skin even turned a bizarre mixture of scarlet and pale white.
"Hold on!"
Kong Deming shouted gravely, his gaze fixed on the data on the monitoring platform. If Tianyao showed any sign of danger, he would pull him out at once.
At the same time, the two special ores at the center of the ring finally lit up completely.
One was like a burning sun; the other, like a fathomless cold moon.
The device continuously extracted energy closely resembling that of Sunlight and Bright Moon.
It flowed along the Sun Moon Ring and into Xu Tianyao's body.
Then, something miraculous happened.
The two Soul Power currents, which had been clashing violently, seemed to find an outlet.
The energy released by the device was like two invisible hands.
One drew the Sunlight Martial Soul's Soul Power along, while the other soothed the Bright Moon Martial Soul's Soul Power.
They guided both currents to flow slowly along the routes prescribed by the meditation method.
Once, twice, three times.
As time passed, the number of cycles continued to increase.
To Xu Tianyao's astonishment, the violent collisions between the two kinds of Soul Power within him began to subside.
In their place came a strange sensation he had never experienced before.
The golden and silver Soul Power began to touch one another. They still repelled each other, but no longer fought to the death.
They were more like two beasts testing each other's territory.
And as they continued to make contact, a wisp of extremely subtle, colorless Soul Power quietly came into being.
The instant that wisp of power appeared, Xu Tianyao's whole body jolted.
He could clearly feel that its quality was astonishingly high, and that it no longer carried any sense of mutual repulsion.
It was the product of the Sunlight and Bright Moon Soul Power fusing together!
"It worked!"
Kong Deming had naturally noticed the wisp of Soul Power as well. He clenched his fists and cried out, unable to contain himself.
On the monitoring device, the two energy curves that had once fluctuated wildly had met at a single point for the first time.
It was only one point, but it left Kong Deming's fists trembling with excitement.
Decades!
Decades of research!
Countless theories, countless experiments, countless failures, countless deductions.
Today, he had finally caught sight of success.
"So that's how it is..."
Kong Deming murmured to himself as he recorded his observations.
"My theory was right from the beginning. The Sun Moon Martial Souls were never incapable of coexisting."
"What they lacked was a point of balance."
"A medium that could withstand the conflict between the two forces."
"And that medium is the fused Soul Power itself!"
His eyes grew brighter and brighter as countless theories in his mind swiftly connected.
At the same time, on the Sun Moon Dual God Fusion Soul Guidance Device, the cycle inside Xu Tianyao's body gradually stabilized.
The Sunlight and Bright Moon Soul Power flowed continuously through his meridians.
Together, they formed a complete great circuit.
With each completed cycle, his Soul Power grew stronger.
The rate of growth was so astonishing that even he was shocked.
If the cultivation speed of a single Martial Soul had once been one,
then now it had reached at least two, perhaps even close to three.
More importantly, before this, he could only cultivate one Martial Soul at a time, while the other remained stagnant.
But now, both great Martial Souls were growing simultaneously.
This improvement was far more than a simple one plus one.
It was a transformation in every respect.
Who knew how much time had passed? When the final cycle was completed,
the Sunlight and Bright Moon Martial Souls finally formed a stable balance within his body.
A golden and a silver beam of light revolved slowly around that wisp of fused Soul Power.
Like the sun and moon circling the heavens, they continued without end.
Xu Tianyao slowly opened his eyes.
Deep within them, his left eye had turned brilliant gold, while his right had become a cool silver.
A wave of Soul Power far beyond anything he had felt before spread out from his body.
Feeling the unprecedented abundance of power within him, Xu Tianyao finally wore a satisfied smile. He wasn't content to remain silent in that moment. Instead, he seized the opportunity and threw himself into savoring the feeling of cultivation with all his might.
Meanwhile, Kong Deming felt little joy.
Instead, he sank into deeper thought.
He had realized that this success was only a temporary fix.
Xu Tianyao still needed to rely on the Sun-Moon Dual Coexistence Device to maintain this cycle.
If he went too long without the device, the balance within his body might be disrupted once more.
Even so, Kong Deming felt more certain than ever before.
Because just moments ago, an almost unhinged idea had fully taken shape in his mind.
If a device could maintain balance from the outside,
could he one day create something else—
a core that could exist permanently within a Soul Master,
one that could replace the device and become the pivot for the eternal circulation of Sun Moon power?
If this idea could be realized,
Xu Tianyao would be completely free of the device's restraints.
He would truly gain the ability to cultivate both Sun Moon Twin Martial Souls at the same time.
He might even create an entirely new kind of power.
Then, what could replace this device?
Kong Deming instinctively thought of something: the Soul Core.
Before you continue