Rasengan! A Breakthrough in Self-Created Soul Skills!

At dawn the next morning, Lan Tian woke up.

He had slept well the night before. The Soul Power boost brought by his third soul ring had left his entire body brimming with energy, and even waking up felt more refreshing and efficient than usual.

He packed up camp, ate some dry rations, and continued south.

After walking for roughly two hours, the terrain ahead gradually shifted from hills into a relatively open, level stretch of forest. The trees stood farther apart, the layer of fallen leaves on the ground was much thinner, and his view was considerably broader than before.

Soul beasts generally did not move about too frequently in this kind of terrain, since there was not enough cover. He relaxed his guard slightly and turned part of his attention to something else.

As he walked, he raised his right hand, palm facing upward and fingers slightly spread. He drew a strand of Soul Power from his dantian and slowly gathered it into a rotating mass in his palm.

Rasengan.

He had borrowed the name from a manga in his previous life.

A year ago, when his cultivation had stalled at level twenty-nine and refused to rise or fall, he had spent the time left over after daily meditation pondering whether he could develop some self-created offensive techniques.

Although Blue Silver Grass could bind and restrain, Endless Life could heal and restore, and Spring of Vegetation could nurture and catalyze growth, he had always lacked a sufficiently powerful single-target soul skill when it came to a head-on clash.

He had read plenty of manga and novels in his previous life, and the form and principle of the Rasengan had remained etched in his memory. It compressed and condensed Soul Power or energy into a sphere through rapid rotation in the palm, relying on the tearing and penetrating force generated by that rotation rather than sheer impact.

In theory, this form of attack was compatible with the Soul Power system. As long as his control over energy was precise enough, it should have been entirely possible to replicate.

Theory was theory. Once he actually tried it, he discovered that it was unimaginably difficult.

Keeping Soul Power rotating in his palm was extremely unstable. The slightest distraction caused it to disperse, while compressing it into a complete sphere was even harder.

He tried for an entire month and could not even form a prototype the size of a quail egg. Every time it was about to take shape, it scattered into a chaotic current.

But he did not give up. He treated every failure as experience, adjusting the direction of rotation, the force of compression, and the rhythm of his Soul Power output, polishing it bit by bit and treating every failure as experience.

Later, he discovered that Blue Silver Grass vines could serve as a stabilizing "framework." He first wove an extremely fine mesh in his palm from vines, then injected Soul Power into it and rotated and compressed it. Its stability improved by more than one level.

With that breakthrough, the subsequent progress became much faster.

Yet until he absorbed the third soul ring from the Sun-Moon Grass, the largest one he could form was only the size of an egg.

It was fine for smashing a rabbit, but it was basically useless against a real soul beast or enemy.

But now, things were different.

He had tried mixing the Sun and Moon Power brought by Sun and Moon Shine Together into the Rasengan's formation process.

After the golden essence of the sun and moon mixed with his Soul Power, the rotation's stability abruptly rose to a new level. The sphere visibly expanded, growing from egg-sized until it finally stabilized at the size of his palm.

Lan Tian stopped and lowered his gaze to the pale golden sphere slowly rotating in his palm. The corners of his mouth curved upward slightly.

This was the finished product he could finally bring out after a year of repeated attempts and hundreds of failures.

It was palm-sized and translucent pale gold throughout, its surface covered in dense spiral patterns. Light currents spun at tremendous speed inside, producing faint, layered buzzing sounds.

It was still far from perfect, but it had at least gained practical combat value.

He looked around. Not far ahead stood a grayish-white rock half-buried in the soil, roughly waist-high. Moss covered its surface, and it looked like it weighed several hundred jin at least.

It was perfect for testing its power.

Lan Tian stopped about five steps in front of the rock, lowered his center of gravity slightly, supported the Rasengan with his right hand, and held his left arm across his body to steady his stance.

He drew a deep breath, suddenly drove off with his feet, and charged forward. His right palm, wrapped around the spinning sphere of energy, slammed fiercely into the front of the rock.

The instant the Rasengan touched the stone surface, there was no tremendous explosion, only a dull, continuous hum.

The pale golden energy sphere bored into the rock at an extremely high speed. The moss and outer layer of stone were pulverized into dust and scattered in an instant. Its spinning trajectory pierced straight through with overwhelming penetrative force, forcibly drilling a fist-sized hole through the middle of the rock. The stone around the hole was as smooth as if it had been finely polished with sandpaper.

The cracks spreading around the hole were denser than a spiderweb, radiating outward from the center in all directions and covering the entire surface of the rock.

Then those cracks could no longer bear the rock's own weight. It collapsed inward from the center, and the entire stone shattered into dozens of large and small pieces, clattering across the ground and kicking up a cloud of gray stone dust.

Lan Tian withdrew his hand and stood still, staring at the pile of rubble before him. The light in his eyes was astonishingly bright.

The power of that strike was even greater than he had expected.

A palm-sized Rasengan could bore straight through a waist-high boulder on a direct hit, shattering everything around it. If that blow landed on a person or a soul beast...

He could not claim it would kill in one strike, but he could at least be certain that the vast majority of opponents at the same level, or even those above his level, would never be able to withstand it head-on.

Still, he noticed several problems.

The Rasengan took too long to form. From the moment he began shaping it until it took form required around two or three breaths, a window that could easily be interrupted in actual combat.

Moreover, maintaining its rotation required a continuous expenditure of Soul Power. With his current reserves, five or six consecutive uses were probably his limit.

In addition, while palm-sized was not small, its power could rise another level if he could make it one size larger.

"Take it slowly. This is only the beginning."

"At least it proves that the path of self-created soul skills can work."

He drew back his right hand and clenched his fist, feeling the lingering warmth and vibration in his palm. He now had a rough plan for the Rasengan's future development.

The enhancement from the Sun and Moon Power had only just begun to show its effects, and he was still not proficient enough in controlling this new energy. As his familiarity improved, both the Rasengan's formation speed and size should be further optimized.

He was also considering whether he could mix Blue Silver Grass's life energy into the Rasengan, allowing it to continuously erode the target after impact, or combine it with Sun and Moon Power to create additional damage similar to scorching sunfire.

Those were all directions he could slowly explore in the future.

He crouched down, picked up a fragment of stone shattered by the Rasengan, and examined it. Its broken surface was flat and smooth, marked by faint brown traces of high-temperature scorching.

He tossed the fragment away, dusted off his hands, and continued south.

As he walked, he raised his right hand again and tried to form another Rasengan.

This time, he deliberately slowed the process, carefully sensing every detail of the Sun and Moon Power and Soul Power rotating and merging in his palm.

Golden streams of light wound through his fingers, gradually gathering into a sphere. Though it was somewhat smaller than before, its rotation was actually more stable.

"Good. This state can be used in real combat."

"I can finally be said to possess a true combat soul skill."

Lan Tian was fairly satisfied with the results of his year of effort.

He quickened his pace toward the unexplored region to the south.

The small golden sphere in his palm lit up and faded from time to time. Along the way, he repeatedly formed it, dispersed it, and formed it again, seizing every moment as he traveled to refine and improve this hard-won self-created soul skill.

Whatever awaited him in the depths of this forest—whether the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well or some other opportunity—it was worth facing with stronger means.