The Second Martial Soul!

On the system panel, Glastrier's brand-new stats were clearly displayed before him.

Xu Linjiu nodded in satisfaction.

Though a level-one stat panel was indeed rather shabby, as long as he had enough EXP Candies, nothing would be a problem.

Just as he was about to sort through his quest rewards, a strange sensation suddenly came from the depths of his sea of consciousness.

"Skydream! What are you doing in my sea of consciousness?"

"Huh?"

Skydream Iceworm's voice came from overhead. Xu Linjiu looked up and found it still lying atop the Ten Thousand Year Ice Marrow, looking utterly bewildered.

"You weren't in my sea of consciousness just now?"

Xu Linjiu frowned slightly. If it had not been Skydream Iceworm, then what had caused that strange sensation?

Skydream Iceworm flew down from above and landed before Xu Linjiu. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

"It's nothing. I suddenly sensed something strange in my sea of consciousness and thought you were up to something again."

"What! Do you take me for that kind of guy?" Skydream Iceworm looked deeply displeased.

But Xu Linjiu said nothing more. He closed his eyes, calmed his mind, and sent his consciousness into his sea of consciousness.

The moment he entered, that strange sensation became even more obvious.

Following the feeling, he found that its source was the golden rings of Skydream Iceworm, which hung high above the sea of consciousness in the form of ten golden suns.

For some reason, the ten golden suns were trembling simultaneously, sending out wave after wave of fluctuations.

"And you say this wasn't your doing? What exactly is going on?"

Xu Linjiu glanced at Skydream Iceworm beside him, which had followed him inside.

Looking at the golden rings overhead, it rubbed its hands together and gave an embarrassed laugh. "Well, I don't know either. It's not like I'm controlling them on purpose."

"Forget it."

Xu Linjiu waved a hand. "We'll know once we go up and take a look."

With that, Xu Linjiu took the lead, controlling his consciousness form as it flew into the air.

The closer he got to the golden rings, the stronger that strange sensation became.

The instant his consciousness form touched one of the golden rings, a stream of information surged into his mind along with the fluctuation.

It was the power Skydream had left within the ten golden rings during its sacrifice—the power exchanged at the cost of a million-year soul bone.

But the source of the trembling was not the golden rings themselves. It came from outside, from Glastrier.

His consciousness withdrew from the sea of consciousness, and he slowly opened his eyes.

Glastrier stood before him with its head raised, staring at him. A faint icy-blue gleam shone within its snow-white eyes.

The rhythm of that gleam was completely identical to the trembling rhythm of the ten golden rings in his sea of consciousness.

They were resonating.

Skydream Iceworm followed him out as well. After staring at Glastrier for a while, it suddenly understood. "So that's it. It's that unfinished second martial soul!"

Xu Linjiu nodded. He had already learned the answer from the information within the golden rings.

When Skydream Iceworm sacrificed itself, it had paid the price of its million-year soul bone's disappearance to leave Xu Linjiu with an unfinished ice-attribute second martial soul.

Glastrier was an ice-type Pokémon, and it was connected to his soul with an exceptionally high degree of compatibility. That was what had triggered the second martial soul's resonance.

Xu Linjiu reached out and stroked Glastrier's forehead. After pondering for a moment, he turned to Skydream Iceworm. "Skydream, I've decided! My second martial soul will be Glastrier!"

Skydream Iceworm froze for two seconds. "What? Ice Empress is one of the Three Great Kings of the Far North!"

"Glastrier is also a Legendary Pokémon. Its potential won't be inferior to Ice Empress's!"

Xu Linjiu's tone was calm, but incomparably firm. "And it's already here, isn't it?"

Skydream opened its mouth, but in the end, all that came out was a long sigh. "Sigh, fine, fine!"

"I know what you're thinking. Don't worry. When the opportunity comes, I'll tell Ice Empress about this place and help her survive her four-hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation!"

Skydream Iceworm's old face reddened. "I wasn't thinking that! But if you insist on seeing it that way, there's nothing I can do about it!"

Xu Linjiu chuckled and said no more, closing his eyes once again.

His consciousness sank back into his sea of consciousness. This time, he did not condense it into a humanoid form. Instead, he directly wrapped tendrils of consciousness around the ten golden rings.

The ten golden rings shook in unison. Then, the origin power of Skydream Iceworm's ice attribute surged forth like a tidal wave, intertwining with Glastrier's soul connection under Xu Linjiu's guidance.

Outside, Glastrier seemed to sense Xu Linjiu's summons. It let out a long neigh toward the heavens, then gently pressed its forehead against Xu Linjiu's.

Between man and horse, icy-blue light continuously intertwined, fused, and resonated.

The light grew increasingly brilliant. Glastrier's body gradually became transparent before finally turning into a streak of light that entered Xu Linjiu's body.

After roughly the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the icy-blue light gradually faded.

Xu Linjiu slowly opened his eyes. The pain he had imagined would come with the fusion never appeared. Instead, he felt an indescribable sense of comfort.

Perhaps it was because Glastrier had been born because of him, or perhaps because Glastrier's current strength was far inferior to Ice Empress's.

Now, he could sense that there was another presence within his body.

Unlike using a martial soul to form contracts with other soul masters or soul beasts, this was truly an independent existence fused together with him.

Xu Linjiu raised his left hand, and an icy-blue pattern appeared on the back of it.

Soul power flowed. The pattern on the back of his hand blazed with blue light, and Glastrier stepped out from within it.

"Looks like my second martial soul is a detached martial soul, just like Yu Xiaogang's!"

Xu Linjiu laughed inwardly. That pig Yu Xiaogang, what makes him worthy of having the same type of martial soul as my Glastrier!

He summoned the Pokédex Martial Soul and checked his current attributes.

[Xu Linjiu (Named)]

[Attribute: Psychic]

[Level: Lv.53]

[Abilities: Inner Focus, Protean]

[Moves: Psychic, Light Screen, Reflect, Calm Mind, Hypnosis, Substitute, Gravity, Shadow Ball, Ice Beam, Misty Terrain, Rain Dance]

"Huh! How did this happen?"

Xu Linjiu hurriedly checked and found that Glastrier's information panel still existed, though its level had changed.

[Glastrier]

[Level: Lv.10 (Lv.24)]

[Ability: Chilling Neigh]

[Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Double Kick, Avalanche, Stomp, Taunt]

The level change was understandable. After all, it had been incorporated into the martial soul system and required soul rings to break through its bottlenecks.

But why were they displayed as two separate panels?

Tang San's twin martial souls were clearly displayed by the system as belonging to the same Pokémon.

Xu Linjiu placed a hand on Glastrier's back. He could clearly feel the soul power flowing through Glastrier's body.

"Strange. Could it be because it's a detached martial soul?"

"Then let's try this."

Xu Linjiu did not remove his hand from Glastrier's back. Instead, he chose to pour his own soul power into it.

"Glastrier! Use Ice Beam!"

Upon receiving the command, Glastrier raised its forehooves and let out a neigh toward the heavens.

Then, icy-blue light gathered around its horn.

Boom!

An icy-blue beam streaked across the sky and exploded into a massive ice blossom the instant it struck.

This kind of power!

Xu Linjiu's eyes lit up. "It's definitely Ultimate Ice!"

This power, along with the chill radiating from the beam as it flew, was unquestionably far stronger than that of ordinary ice-attribute soul masters!

Crack!

A crisp cracking sound came from overhead.

Xu Linjiu looked up. The icicles on the dome, which had been struck by the energy pillar when the Pokémon Egg hatched, had been hit by Glastrier's Ice Beam and were now shattering and falling one after another.