The Secrets of Martial Souls and the Divine Ascent

Mu Feng sat cross-legged on the bed and swallowed the pill in one gulp. Moments later, a faint burning sensation spread through his chest, followed by a warm current radiating outward. Whenever this current flowing through his body encountered an obstruction, the area would erupt with a twisting, burning pain.

Even Mu Feng's right-hand martial soul was drawn out by the pill's aura, unconsciously entering its martial soul possession state. A body-fitting noble battle armor covered him from head to toe, while his right hand gripped a small golden sword phantom.

As he absorbed the pill, Mu Feng sometimes felt refreshed by the warm current coursing through his body, yet at other times, the agonizing pain twisted his face into a grimace. The gilded runes on his armor flickered along with the changes in his aura.

By the time the torment of ice and fire ended, Mu Feng was already drenched in sweat. Many black patches had also congealed on the surface of his skin, giving off a foul stench.

Suppressing his discomfort, he summoned his martial soul. The previously dim sword phantom seemed far more solid now, and even the armor appeared brighter. More importantly, however, a golden ring of light had appeared beneath the martial soul's feet.

"Could a martial soul mutate again just because of a single pill?"

As for martial souls mutating a second time, Mu Feng only remembered Xu Sanshi's Darkworld Turtle from the original novel. But that had been achieved through a yin-yang union ritual passed down by his sect, with exceptionally stringent requirements for the woman involved. The odds of mutation occurring because of a single pill were practically zero.

Still puzzled, Mu Feng summoned Morgana in his left hand and found no changes at all. Only the martial soul in his right hand had changed. Frowning, he carefully recalled the details from the game.

He suddenly slapped his thigh, remembering a detail he had long overlooked—Kayle's core gameplay mechanic: the Divine Ascent. In the game, whenever Kayle reached a certain level, she would enter a different state.

There were four stages in total: Zealous, Ardent, Transcendent, and Exalted. Kayle would ascend once at every stage, gaining a substantial increase in strength. But what if this were applied to a soul master's cultivation? Mu Feng thought, rubbing his chin.

"The major qualitative turning points in a soul master's cultivation should be reaching Soul King and unlocking ten-thousand-year soul rings, reaching Soul Sage and unlocking the martial soul true body, and finally becoming a Titled Douluo. Those should correspond to the level requirements for triggering the Divine Ascent."

The appearance of this halo was undoubtedly related to the pill he had taken. Mu Feng thought that perhaps this pill had caused the Divine Ascent, which normally only activated at Soul King, to arrive early.

"Kayle has the Divine Ascent, so what special trait would Morgana, her twin sister, have?"

Mu Feng carefully recalled the League's lore. He seemed to remember that Morgana's wings had not originally been their current dark purple; that was the result of her deliberately binding them.

"Then could Morgana's martial soul mechanic be unbinding those restraints?"

Normally, exploring the various abilities of a martial soul required the accumulated experience of countless predecessors before its potential could be fully developed.

Mu Feng had not even realized that his understanding of his own martial souls could also be considered an innate advantage.

After thinking it over, Mu Feng felt that his idea made sense. Although Kayle and Morgana were martial souls belonging to his two hands respectively, they had originally been twin sisters of one whole.

"Perhaps once I unbind Morgana's wings, the two may be able to merge into one."

Mu Feng excitedly imagined what it would look like after the two angel martial souls fused, but all of that was merely speculation.

Unlike Kayle's Divine Ascent, there was no game mechanic in League for Morgana undoing the seal on her wings.

Still, Mu Feng held onto his idea. It seems that compared to increasing soul power, researching martial souls is just as important, he thought with a sigh.

Especially since his twin martial souls were not native martial souls of the Douluo Continent. Aside from the somewhat similar Six-Winged Angel of the Martial Soul Hall, he had no relevant research materials at all.

He could only make a few associations based on scattered fragments from the two sisters' backstory.

And when it came to the field of martial soul research, the one person impossible to avoid was Tang San's teacher from ten thousand years ago—the Grandmaster, Yu Xiaogang.

Mu Feng wondered, "Could it be that the Grandmaster really raised a god?"

Within the Blackstone Hall, eerie blue-green soul lamps hung from the pitch-black stone walls. Four people sat on each side of a massive oval table.

At the head of the table stood a large blackstone chair, where a middle-aged man with a full head of stiff white hair sat upright.

Beside him sat a beautiful woman with a cold yet seductive temperament. Most strikingly, two dark red demonic markings began at the corners of her eyes and extended all the way to her temples.

These two were Zhongli Wu, leader of the Holy Spirit Cult, and Feng Ling, its vice leader. The eight people seated around the table were the cult's Eight Great Elders.

A stack of paper documents lay before each of them. On the first page was a large portrait of Mu Feng.

These documents recorded Mu Feng's basic circumstances, but the main focus was the martial soul description on the final page.

The entire hall was silent. To become the Holy Spirit Cult's Holy Son, one's strength and talent certainly had to be monstrous.

But the boy on the paper seemed a little too monstrous. If Zhongli Wu had not invoked the Supreme Cult Leader, they would probably have thought he was joking with them.

After all, the Holy Spirit Cult's Holy Son possessed a sacred Six-Winged Angel martial soul. Who would dare believe that?

Zhongli Wu lightly tapped the tabletop with his index finger, finally drawing everyone's attention away from the documents.

"By order of the Supreme Cult Leader, the Holy Son will carry out an extremely confidential mission."

Zhongli Wu changed the subject, his tone becoming exceptionally grave as he continued, "Therefore, it would be inconvenient for him to move about too much within the cult, lest word of it leak out."

Sending the Holy Son into Shrek Academy carried both risks and opportunities. If he were discovered and Mu Feng, who had yet to mature, fell into enemy hands, it would be no different from handing the enemy a great gift.

But Ye Xishui's plan was simply too enticing. For a long time, he had been considering how to extend the Holy Spirit Cult's influence into the three great empires east of Ming Dou Forest.

If Mu Feng could thoroughly infiltrate the enemy's ranks, it would bring enormous benefits to the Holy Spirit Cult's expansion throughout the three great empires east of Ming Dou Forest.

The more confidential the intelligence, the fewer people who knew it, the safer it was. Therefore, Zhongli Wu had no intention of telling those present about this plan.

As the Eight Great Elders, they were already part of the cult's core leadership, yet they had no authority to know about the cult's confidential mission.

They might have objections, but since he had invoked Ye Xishui, even if they did, they could only swallow them down.

Feeling the silent atmosphere around him, Zhongli Wu smiled. This could be said to kill two birds with one stone.

On one hand, it stirred dissatisfaction with Ye Xishui among the others. On the other, once Mu Feng's espionage plan succeeded, the Holy Spirit Cult's strength would be greatly enhanced once again.

The thought made Zhongli Wu even more pleased. Seeing that no one spoke, he finally said, "If there is nothing else, then today's meeting is adjourned."

"Since ordinary cult members do not know the Holy Son's identity, how will the Holy Son contact the sect?" asked the black-robed man seated at the foremost position on the right, who wore the face of a man in his sixties or seventies.

The person qualified to sit in that position was the highest-ranked of the Eight Great Elders, the Netherworld Douluo—Li Lizheng, a ninety-fourth-rank Titled Douluo, only one step away from entering the ranks of Super Douluo.

Unfortunately, aside from his title, this Grand Elder of the Holy Spirit Cult had barely any presence in the original novel.

Zhongli Wu waved his hand. "The Holy Son holds my Cult Leader's token. Upon seeing it, they need only obey his orders."