Five minutes later, Yue Guan walked to the center of the Martial Arts Arena.
"The core of Soul Skill training comes down to one word—control."
Yue Guan raised his right hand, and a golden petal took shape at his fingertips. It was no bigger than a fingernail, its golden light shimmering.
"The power of a Soul Skill is proportional to your Soul Power Level. That can't be changed. But you can improve its precision through training."
Yue Guan flicked his finger. The petal shot away, curved through the air, and sliced cleanly through a dead branch atop the stone railing. The branch split in two, its cut surface smooth and even.
"First exercise. Each of you will use your most basic Soul Skill to hit the targets on that wall. I want to see how precise you are."
Five wooden targets hung on the eastern wall of the Martial Arts Arena, spaced about three meters apart.
"Begin!"
Yan went first. His First Spirit Ability, Hell Magma Rush, surged forth. A torrent of scalding magma roared toward the target, burning it to ash and scorching a large patch of the stone wall beside it.
Yue Guan's face darkened.
"Yan, I told you to hit the target, not tear down the wall. Hold back a little."
Yan scratched his head and gave a couple of sheepish laughs.
Xie Yue stepped up. His Moon Blade traced a silver arc through the air and struck the exact center of the target. Clean and precise.
Yue Guan nodded in satisfaction.
Hu Liena stepped up. She released her Soul Skill, and pink mist drifted toward the target. But Charm was a psychic ability, so it had no effect on a wooden target. The mist dispersed before it reached the target.
"Never mind, Hu Liena. Your Soul Skill is special. I'll arrange a separate exercise for you later."
It was Qin Chuan's turn.
Qin Chuan raised his right hand, and the Zhu Xian Sword appeared in his palm. His black Soul Ring flashed once.
He didn't use a Soul Skill. He merely pointed the Zhu Xian Sword forward. Sword energy silently shot out and pierced the exact center of the target. A fist-sized hole appeared in its backing board, its edges perfectly smooth, without a single splinter.
Yue Guan stared at the hole for several seconds. "You didn't use a Soul Skill for that strike?"
"No."
A Martial Soul without any Soul Skills attached had produced such an effect through nothing but the sharpness of its blade. Just how extraordinary was the Zhu Xian Sword?
"Good." Yue Guan suppressed his astonishment and continued the training.
The morning's training lasted four hours. Yue Guan took them through physical combat, Soul Skill precision, and reaction-speed tests, one by one, with meticulous care.
Of the four, Xie Yue gave the most consistent overall performance.
His combat skills were solid, his control over his Soul Skills precise, and his battle experience extensive. Yan had the fiercest attacks, but precision and control were his weaknesses. Hu Liena was the weakest in close combat, but her mental perception surpassed everyone else's.
Qin Chuan's performance surprised Yue Guan.
He hadn't opened his Samsara Eye, and he'd deliberately restrained the Zhu Xian Sword's output. Even so, his speed and ability to anticipate his opponents were clearly superior. He got the best results in every reaction-speed test Yue Guan put him through.
What impressed Yue Guan even more was Qin Chuan's ability to learn.
Yue Guan had demonstrated a fist technique's mechanics just once that morning, but by the afternoon Qin Chuan could reproduce them. He wasn't simply copying what he saw. He truly understood the mechanics, then reinterpreted them in his own way.
This kid is an uncut jade. Yue Guan thought. No, he's already more than that. He's a gemstone that's begun to take shape. All he needs is a little polishing around the edges.
A few days slipped by in the blink of an eye.
After settling into Spirit Hall, Qin Chuan quickly adapted to life there.
Every day, he woke at six and went to the Martial Arts Arena to train with Yue Guan.
In the mornings, they practiced physical combat and Soul Skills, and Yue Guan taught them with painstaking attention to detail. He broke down everything step by step: the path of force in a fist technique, how much to compress Soul Power when releasing a Soul Skill, and how to position and move in battle.
In the afternoons, Qin Chuan meditated. He found a quiet place to sit and cultivated with Heavenly Dao Power. His efficiency far exceeded that of the other three, but he deliberately suppressed any fluctuations in his Soul Power so no one would notice how absurdly fast he was progressing.
In the evenings, Qin Chuan returned to the study in Flying Cloud Pavilion and read through the books and handwritten notes on the shelves.
Spirit Hall's theoretical framework differed greatly from Shrek Academy's. Shrek Academy's theories focused more on practical teamwork and evaluating individual combat strength. Yu Xiaogang's approach emphasized data and patterns.
Spirit Hall's theories focused more on pushing the limits of Soul Power. How could someone wring the greatest possible power from a Soul Skill with the same level of Soul Power? How could they exploit their Martial Soul's unique traits to develop distinctive combat techniques?
Each system had its strengths. Qin Chuan compared the two, using each to verify the other, and learned a great deal.
The relationships among the four of them also began to change.
Yan was the simplest of the group. He was straightforward and didn't have many twists and turns in his mind. For the first two days, he'd been wary of Qin Chuan. But by the third day, after they'd trained together a few times, he'd started calling him "brother."
The reason was simple. Qin Chuan had beaten him three times during sparring, and Yan had accepted the result.
Xie Yue didn't change much. He remained quiet, cool-eyed, and decisive. But his wariness toward Qin Chuan gradually gave way to quiet acceptance. The clearest sign was that he began asking Qin Chuan to practice team coordination with him during training.
Hu Liena changed the most.
For the first few days, after every training session, Hu Liena lingered around the Martial Arts Arena until Qin Chuan had finished packing up, then walked back with him. The walk from the arena to Flying Cloud Pavilion wasn't long—about seven or eight minutes.
During those seven or eight minutes, Hu Liena asked all sorts of questions.
"Qin Chuan, what about that 'Memory Kill' of yours? Can you look through other people's memories?"
"No."
"Really?"
"Would I get candy for lying to you?"
"Hehe, now that's an honest answer."
They had conversations like that every day. Hu Liena talked a lot, while Qin Chuan said little, but as they chatted back and forth, the distance between them gradually narrowed without either of them noticing.
On the evening of the fifth day, Qin Chuan was reading in the study.
A book on the shelf titled Introduction to Psychic Spirits caught his attention. After reading a few pages, he found a chapter devoted to how different types of psychic-control Soul Skills countered each other.
"The penetration rate of active psychic interference against passive psychic defense is positively correlated with the caster's total spiritual power and the quality of the Soul Skill, and has little to do with the age of the Soul Ring."
Qin Chuan paused at that sentence.
All of his Illusion Bell's Soul Rings were white and pitifully young. By ordinary theory, his psychic-control abilities should have been bottom-tier. But in reality, Memory Kill could make Tang Hao stop in his tracks, and Flowers Falling in a Dream could plunge anyone into sorrow.
The crucial factor was the quality of the Soul Skill itself, not the age of the Soul Ring.
This differed from the theory Yu Xiaogang taught at Shrek Academy. In Yu Xiaogang's framework, the age of a Soul Ring was the key measure determining a Soul Skill's strength. But this book from Spirit Hall put forward another view: for psychic Soul Skills, the age of a Soul Ring was just one contributing factor. The Skill's "quality" was what mattered most.
Qin Chuan read the passage several times, committing it to memory.
"Knock, knock, knock."
Qin Chuan put down the book and went downstairs. When he opened the door, Hu Liena was standing outside.