The Uses of the Mustard Seed Space

"This brat..." Snake Spear Douluo's mouth twitched twice, and his expression darkened.

A mighty Titled Douluo had actually lost track of a seven-year-old child. If word got out, where would he hide his old face?

But on second thought, something felt off. Zhao Ming was only a level 23 Grand Soul Master. No matter how gifted he was, he could not have vanished without a sound right under Snake Spear Douluo's nose.

"Looks like this brat is hiding some secrets!"

Snake Spear Douluo recalled Zhao Ming's absurdly good luck in Sunset Forest, as well as the confident look on his face when he had volunteered to train alone. He became even more certain.

"Forget it. I'll go back and report the truth to the young master." With that, Snake Spear Douluo sighed and flew away.

Meanwhile, Zhao Ming stood in a vast expanse of land and sky, stretching lazily.

This was his Mustard Seed Space, a hidden world completely independent of Douluo Continent.

The sky was a spotless blue, with a few white clouds drifting leisurely overhead. Mountain ranges rose and fell in the distance, veiled in mist, while waterfalls and flowing springs could faintly be seen cascading down sheer cliffs.

Nearby lay an open plain carpeted in lush grass and scattered with wildflowers. A clear stream wound through the center, its waters murmuring softly.

At the end of the plain, near the foot of the mountains, stood a crooked wooden cabin. Zhao Ming had built it during one of his earlier visits as a temporary residence.

This Mustard Seed Space was the grand gift package the system had left him when it ran off. It was no ordinary storage soul tool, but a blessed hidden realm.

The sun, moon, stars, mountains, and rivers within it all truly existed. It possessed a complete ecosystem, circulating spiritual energy, even alternating day and night and changing seasons. Its area was roughly as large as all of Heaven Dou City, and as Zhao Ming grew stronger, the Mustard Seed Space would expand as well.

Here, he could grow medicinal herbs, raise soul beasts, cultivate in seclusion, or even live out the rest of his life without any problem.

Yet the Mustard Seed Space's greatest value lay in its concealment.

This space existed completely apart from Douluo Continent's real space. Its entrance was bound to Zhao Ming's soul, meaning only he could open it.

Unless someone possessed the power to shatter space, like an Ultimate Douluo or even a god, or a spatial-type soul master happened to be nearby and sensed the spatial fluctuations, then even a hundred Titled Douluo would never find him.

This was Zhao Ming's greatest trump card for preserving his life, and the source of his confidence in shaking off Snake Spear Douluo and acting alone.

However, while the Mustard Seed Space was safe, it had one neither-small-nor-large drawback: wherever he entered from was the only place he could exit.

In other words, he had hidden in the Mustard Seed Space now, but when he came out later, he would still appear beneath that ancient tree.

If Snake Spear Douluo stayed there without leaving, Zhao Ming truly had no way to slip away unnoticed.

To make sure Snake Spear Douluo would leave, Zhao Ming planned to cultivate in the space for a few days first.

After taking a few steps, he stopped again, lowered his head to look at his body, and suddenly grew interested.

"Perfect. I can take this chance to practice Intangibility some more."

Intangibility was a "self-created soul skill" Zhao Ming had figured out based on the properties of the Mustard Seed Space.

The inspiration for this skill had come from an anime he had watched in his previous life, Naruto—Obito Uchiha's Kamui Intangibility.

When Zhao Ming had first studied the Mustard Seed Space, the more he examined it, the more he felt that it was practically identical to Obito's Kamui dimension.

Both were alternate spaces independent of real space. Both could store objects. Both could be opened and closed at any time according to their owner's will.

The only difference was that Obito's alternate space was activated through the Mangekyo Sharingan, while Zhao Ming's Mustard Seed Space was activated through spiritual power.

But fundamentally, both possessed an independent space of their own outside real space.

Since the principles were the same, why could Obito do it while Zhao Ming could not?

The principle behind Obito's Intangibility was not actually complicated.

When an enemy attack was about to strike him, he would transfer the attacked part of his body into the alternate space at extreme speed, while leaving behind an afterimage formed from chakra at the point of impact.

Because the transfer was so fast, the naked eye could not distinguish it at all. It looked as though the attack had passed straight through his body.

To accomplish this, two key conditions were required.

First, the transfer speed had to be fast enough—fast enough to finish at the instant the attack landed.

Second, his control over space had to be precise enough to transfer only part of his body without affecting the rest.

Zhao Ming could fully meet the first condition. The Mustard Seed Space was bound to his soul, so it responded perfectly to his will. Entering and exiting required only a thought, faster than blinking.

The second condition, precise control, required extensive practice.

But Zhao Ming had lived two lives, and his spiritual power had always been stronger than that of ordinary children. Moreover, he had awakened his spiritual sea early because of the grand gift package from the system.

On top of that, Nine-Breath Qi Absorption was a cultivation technique that cultivated both life force and nature. While cultivating, it not only cleansed the body and strengthened his physique, but also raised his spiritual power and evolved his martial soul at the same time.

This was also why Nine-Breath Qi Absorption did not cultivate soul power as quickly as one might imagine.

It advanced on all fronts, raising the body, soul power, and spiritual power together. It built an incomparably solid foundation while gradually pushing the martial soul to evolve on its own.

Every time Zhao Ming circulated Nine-Breath Qi Absorption, he could sense his Steel Whip growing stronger bit by bit, while his connection with the Treasure-Dropping Coin became increasingly closer.

Zhao Ming remembered that when the God of Wealth had demonstrated the whip techniques for him, he had wielded a golden whip. Zhao Ming had firmly memorized what that golden whip looked like, and he intended to evolve his martial soul toward the God of Wealth's golden whip.

Once he became a god and his martial soul evolved further, then it would evolve toward the God-Striking Whip.

Under the combined effects of all these factors, although Zhao Ming's soul power was only level 23, his spiritual power had already reached the level of a Soul King.

Soul King-level spiritual power was already enough to support his initial use of Intangibility.

Its duration, however, was still far from ideal. With his current reserves of spiritual power, he could maintain the Intangibility state for only around two minutes at most.

Beyond that, his spiritual power would drain sharply. In serious cases, it might even damage his spiritual sea.

But two minutes were already enough to turn the tide in a fight to the death.

Besides, even if he could no longer maintain Intangibility, he could directly hide his entire body in the Mustard Seed Space. That was true foolproof safety.

Zhao Ming hid in the Mustard Seed Space for three days, unaware that Snake Spear Douluo had left on the very first day. When he emerged and confirmed that no one was nearby, he immediately ran toward Notting City.

He had already looked into it. The primary soul master academies of the Heaven Dou Empire would begin enrollment in three months. In other words, this was just when that little bastard had awakened his martial soul. Three months were enough for Zhao Ming to familiarize himself with the wonders of the Treasure-Dropping Coin. With Intangibility added to the mix, the Blue Silver Emperor soul bone was as good as his.