Dual Martial Souls, the Possibility of Increasing Soul Power

To celebrate Yang Ming's successful awakening of his Martial Soul, the moment village chief Old Jack returned home, he cast all his former principles of educating Yang Ming to the back of his mind. He spent a hefty sum at the market on a basket of ingredients and prepared a table overflowing with delicious food.

Steamed crab, fried tofu, steamed pork with preserved vegetables, sweet-and-sour pork tenderloin, braised ribs...

Yang Ming had taught Old Jack how to make these dishes before, based on his memories.

After pouring himself a full bowl of rice wine, Old Jack downed it first. Joy put him in high spirits, and his face was flushed red from drinking. He slapped his thigh hard, gave Yang Ming a thumbs-up, and laughed.

"Good grandson, you did brilliantly today! You should've seen Cao Mengyun's gloomy face when he left. It looked like his parents had died, hahaha! That was satisfying! We should drink to that!"

Old Jack threw back his head and gulped it down, emptying the bowl of rice wine in the blink of an eye.

Perhaps because he drank too quickly, Old Jack soon choked and began coughing softly.

"Grandpa, drink less." Yang Ming hurried behind Old Jack and gently patted his back to help him catch his breath. "Look at you choking like that. What if you choke yourself sick?"

"I'm not old yet. With this sturdy body of mine, I can still drink at least two jin of rice wine!"

"Grandpa! Drinking too much is bad for your health."

"I know, I know." Unable to win against Yang Ming's persuasion, Old Jack muttered, "You little monkey sure have a lot to say. Your grandpa can't argue with you."

After much persuasion, Yang Ming finally managed to stop Old Jack, that old drunkard.

Old Jack lowered his head and narrowed his eyes as his nimble hands peeled the crab shells. He picked out all the crab meat into a bowl and handed it to Yang Ming, his brows and face full of smiles.

"There are still three months until enrollment at Nording Junior Academy. Although our village only gets one spot each year, this year both you and Old Tang's third boy qualify to become Spirit Masters, and both of you have pretty good talent. When the time comes, I might have to take you two to the city and pull some strings to see if we can secure one extra spot this year."

Yang Ming did not interfere much with Old Jack's arrangements.

In his previous life, he had only been a middle school student. He did not understand much about this sort of social networking and pulling strings.

Yang Ming accepted the crab meat and dipped it into the vinegar sauce.

The crab's distinctive fresh sweetness spread across his tongue. It was especially delicious.

Then he took a bite of fried tofu. It was amazing!

After the meal, Yang Ming returned to his room and lay on his bed, taking a rare moment to rest.

With his hands folded beneath the back of his head, Yang Ming stared blankly at the snowy-white ceiling.

Yang Ming was thinking about how the Martial Soul he awakened during today's ceremony had become the Mysterious Sword. Did that mean that any item he obtained from future system lotteries might become a Martial Soul?

For a moment, numerous famous pieces of equipment came to Yang Ming's mind.

Thanos's Infinity Gauntlet from the Marvel Universe, the Light Flame Sword—Sun Judgment from Dungeon Fighter, the Fire Qilin from CrossFire, Black Cleaver from League of Legends, Ryujin Jakka from Bleach, Excalibur from Fate, Thor's Hammer from Honkai Academy, Frostmourne from World of Warcraft...

He might even obtain the equipment of mythological figures.

Eastern Emperor Bell, Xuanyuan Sword, Pangu Axe, Haotian Pagoda, Fuxi Zither, Nuwa Stone, Kunlun Mirror, Demon Refining Pot, Shennong Cauldron, Golden Cudgel, Cosmic Ring, Sky-Muddling Sash, Fire-Tip Spear, Exquisite Pagoda, Nine-Toothed Rake...

If that were the case, wouldn't he be set for life?

Unfortunately, Yang Ming could not simply shout out a few lines and obtain these powerful pieces of equipment.

The system section had specifically explained:

"Whenever the opportunity arises, if the host speaks the classic lines of a film, novel, anime, or game character in front of others, the host may obtain one lottery draw and randomly acquire that character's abilities or items.

If lucky, the host may even summon the character."

The key point was that the opportunity had to arise.

In other words, he could only gain a lottery opportunity by speaking a certain character's classic line in an appropriate setting.

If he merely said it casually, it would be useless.

To put it bluntly, these lines only worked if he used them to show off in front of people.

And besides...

During the awakening ceremony, Yang Ming had actually awakened Dual Martial Souls!

Yang Ming raised both hands. The Mysterious Sword Martial Soul had already awakened in his right hand, but his left hand had only half-awakened.

He still needed an item to completely activate the Martial Soul in his left hand!

Or perhaps he needed something else?

After all, Martial Souls were divided into two types: Weapon Martial Souls and Beast Martial Souls.

Yang Ming's Mysterious Sword belonged to the Weapon Martial Soul category.

However, the system lottery contained everything imaginable. What concerned Yang Ming even more was that the skins appearing in League of Legends and Honor of Kings were apparently also lottery items.

Could it be that as long as he drew those skins, they could become a type of Beast Martial Soul?

Yang Ming shook his head and stopped dwelling on it.

A meal had to be eaten one bite at a time, and a road had to be walked one step at a time.

Take too big a step, and you would tear your balls.

Yang Ming got up from the bed, crossed his legs, clasped his hands before his abdomen, and closed his eyes. Not daring to slack off in the slightest, he tried to increase his soul power according to his understanding of the original work.

One of the many methods of Spirit Master cultivation was absorption.

Soul power was scattered throughout heaven and earth. Spirit Masters relied on their talent and hard work to absorb it. The advantage was steady progress, while the disadvantage was that the process was slow. Relying solely on this method, even cultivating for an entire lifetime would make it difficult to break through to the realm of a Titled Douluo.

For Spirit Masters with ordinary aptitude, absorbing the soul power of heaven and earth into their bodies was no different from a construction worker moving bricks at a worksite. They had to expend tremendous effort to gradually carry soul power into their bodies, accumulating little by little until sand formed a tower, slowly raising their level.

Of course, Yang Ming was somewhat special.

He possessed Innate Full Soul Power—ten levels of soul power.

A Soul Scholar at level ten who wished to advance into a Spirit Master needed to hunt a Soul Beast and obtain a Soul Ring before successfully advancing.

Yang Ming could feel that the soul power in his body had already accumulated to the limit. It was like a fish tank filled to the brim with water; he needed to replace it with a bigger pool.

Just then, the system notification sounded beside Yang Ming's ear:

"Ding!"

"Detected that the host meets the requirements to advance into a Spirit Master. Two options are now available:"

"1. Hunt a Soul Beast and obtain a Soul Ring."

"2. Obtain a lottery opportunity and convert a prize suitable for becoming a Soul Ring into a Soul Ring."

Generally speaking, the most common way for Spirit Masters to obtain Soul Rings was to hunt Soul Beasts.

After a Soul Beast died, it would produce a Soul Ring. Based on the Soul Beast's age, these were divided into ten-year white, hundred-year yellow, thousand-year purple, ten-thousand-year black, hundred-thousand-year red, and golden rings for those over a million years old.

Spirit Masters also faced limits when hunting Soul Beasts and absorbing Soul Rings. If they exceeded the age limit their bodies could endure, they would explode and die. Soul Beasts died with resentment toward Spirit Masters, making the absorption process extremely painful.

Furthermore, a Spirit Master's attribute had to match that of the Soul Beast they hunted in order to produce powerful soul skills.

But now, the system had given Yang Ming another possibility!