Forbidden Love Between Human and Beast

What pleased Wukong was that the bookstore had a rich selection of books.

There were not only educational books, but also literary novels, art, lifestyle, and more.

After all, this world truly had extraordinary powers and extraordinary creatures.

Soul Masters were only a small minority, while most people were ordinary folk.

So ordinary people fantasized about becoming Soul Masters, carving out a path to the heavens, and turned those fantasies into stories.

These books were quite popular among ordinary people, since they could evoke emotional resonance.

However, such books were very cheap, costing only a tenth of what educational books did.

Wukong opened a novel titled Overbearing Soul Saint Falls in Love with Me. After quickly skimming a few pages, he could not help rolling his eyes.

What the hell was this supposed to be?

The writing was crude, and the plot was so clichéd it was practically fossilized.

The entire story was nothing but romance, with misunderstandings piled atop misunderstandings over trivial nonsense.

The thrills were monotonous. Other than the male lead occasionally releasing his Soul Rings to show off, there was nothing worth reading.

Books of this quality simply could not satisfy Wukong, a veteran bookworm of ten years.

He flipped through several more books in succession.

Reborn, I Have Innate Full Soul Power and Peerless Love Between Human and Beast.

They were all the same old formula with a different coat of paint.

Wukong shoved the books back onto the shelf and could not help voicing his complaint.

"The literary standards of Douluo Continent are way too backward."

Still, complaints aside, Wukong was secretly overjoyed.

The fact that these novels exist proves that the common people of this world also need spiritual nourishment.

And the market is a completely untapped blue ocean.

As long as Old Sun brings over the masterpieces from his past life, they'll crush everything here from a higher dimension and dominate the entire market!

Suppressing his excitement, Wukong selected four supernatural tales that were at least somewhat readable.

He intended to take them back and study the formatting and wording conventions of this world's literary works.

After choosing the novels, Wukong turned and headed for the educational books section.

The books here were noticeably much more expensive.

After carefully selecting them, Wukong took five books.

One was a dictionary for teaching basic literacy, meant to fill in any gaps in his knowledge.

One was Classification Illustrated Guide to Common Soul Beasts, for learning about Soul Beast classifications.

There were also guidebooks explaining the basic application of Soul Skills and close-combat fighting.

Of course, the most important book was the main target of his trip.

Universal Meditation Technique.

This kind of meditation technique was not considered particularly secret in this world.

Any child with the aptitude to become a Soul Master could learn it upon attending a Soul Master Academy.

What was truly valuable were the advanced meditation techniques exclusive to great clans and powerful factions.

Those were priceless and simply did not circulate on the market.

The one Wukong held in his hands was the most commonplace universal version.

Its efficiency in absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was certainly inferior to the secret techniques of great clans.

But having something was better than having nothing.

He would make do with it for now and find something better once he had the chance.

Just as Wukong was about to pay for his books,

he spotted a thick, hardcover volume on the very bottom shelf.

Its title was Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul Theory.

The author was listed as Yu Xiaogang.

Wukong raised an eyebrow and pulled the book out.

"Oh? Isn't this the master's work?"

Wukong opened it and took a look. Its pages were densely packed with all kinds of theoretical material.

The price was actually as high as one Silver Soul Coin.

That was absolutely an astronomical price in this store.

No wonder nobody cared about it...

After some thought, Wukong still decided to buy a copy.

Although the master had a poor reputation online, with people saying all his theories were plagiarized and stitched together,

it did not matter where he got these things from, as long as they were useful to Wukong.

Wukong tucked the thick book into his arms as well and walked toward the counter.

The shopkeeper had been working his abacus. Seeing a little boy carrying such a huge stack of books over, he hurriedly stood up to help.

"Young master, you're buying quite a lot of books."

The shopkeeper counted the books while quickly calculating the bill.

"Four novels, six basic guidebooks, and a theoretical masterpiece by a famous master."

"That comes to six Silver Soul Coins and three Copper Soul Coins."

"Since you're buying so much, I'll waive the three copper coins. Six Silver Soul Coins will do."

Wukong readily took out six Silver Soul Coins and handed them over, all while calculating in his head.

Novels are really worthless in this world. Four of them are worth only one Silver Soul Coin...

Good thing I'm not relying on writing novels to make a living. Cheap is fine—it'll make them easier to promote.

After paying, Wukong left the bookstore with a bag of books and headed toward the tavern along the street.

His steps were light as he eagerly anticipated returning to try out the meditation technique.

Back in his room at the tavern,

Wukong shut the doors and windows, then immediately opened Universal Meditation Technique.

The contents of the book were not complicated.

It mainly taught Soul Masters how to empty their minds and sense the wandering soul power around them.

Then, through specific meridian pathways, they could guide that soul power into their bodies.

Wukong read through it word by word.

With his powerful spiritual force and the internal-vision assistance of his Truth-Breaking Golden Eyes,

he fully understood the circulation paths of this meditation technique in less than the time it took to burn an incense stick.

"Doesn't seem that difficult."

Wukong sat cross-legged on the bed, closed his eyes, and began meditating according to the method in the book.

At first, he was somewhat unaccustomed to it.

After all, when he had been a Soul Beast, soul power had always been absorbed directly and brutally into his Soul Core.

Now that he had to guide and control it with precision, it felt as awkward as using chopsticks with his left hand.

But Wukong had the foundation of a body tempered by the Heavenly Tribulation.

The breadth and toughness of his meridians far surpassed those of ordinary people.

After only half an hour, he entered the proper rhythm.

Threads of cool spiritual energy from heaven and earth slowly flowed into his body along specific routes.

After circulating once through his meridians, they finally gathered in his dantian.

Wukong opened his eyes and sensed the changes in his soul power.

"The efficiency really is much faster than blindly cultivating by instinct like before."

"About five times faster, I'd say."

"But this Universal Meditation Technique has about reached its limit."

"At this pace, it'll take me at least half a year to break through to level twenty."

Wukong smacked his lips, clearly dissatisfied with that rate of progress.

Since this technique was created by people, why can't Old Sun modify it himself?

Wukong decided to personally improve this meditation technique.

For ordinary children, internal vision was nothing more than a fantasy.

Even lower-level Soul Masters could not inspect their own meridians internally.

Only after spiritual power reached a certain threshold could they vaguely sense the flow of soul power within their bodies and the direction of their meridians.

The higher one's strength, the more clearly one could see.

The reason Tang San could inspect himself internally as soon as his martial soul awakened in the original work was mainly because he cultivated the Mysterious Heaven Skill and Purple Ultimate Devil Eyes, giving him spiritual power far beyond that of ordinary people.

This also explained why major sects and great clans could possess top-tier meditation techniques.

It was because they had powerful experts overseeing them generation after generation.

These experts would continually adjust and optimize soul power circulation routes according to the martial soul attributes of their clan members.

Passed down from generation to generation, their meditation techniques naturally grew more advanced.

With his Truth-Breaking Golden Eyes, Wukong could inspect the human body's meridians in greater detail than anyone else.

Every tiny branch meridian and the location of every acupoint were laid bare before his eyes.

That was his greatest source of confidence in optimizing the Universal Meditation Technique.