The Drawback of Pseudo-Twin Martial Souls, Exposed Again...

Having thought it through, Jiang Yu looked up at Wu Lie, who seemed delighted to sense his Soul Power, and said seriously:

"Grandpa Wu, I've discovered a serious problem."

Wu Lie paused. He looked Jiang Yu over but found nothing unusual, so he motioned for Jiang Yu to continue.

Jiang Yu lowered his head slightly, then said:

"Grandpa Wu, after I obtained my first Spirit Ring, I felt something like a Restriction appear inside me. As long as it's there, I don't think I can keep cultivating."

"Oh, you can't keep cultivating? That's no problem at all... Wait—what?!"

The meaning of Jiang Yu's words finally hit Wu Lie. His last word soared into a high note worthy of a professional singer.

In the next instant, Wu Lie flashed forward and pressed a hand to Jiang Yu's shoulder, sending a stream of Soul Power into his body.

A moment later, he withdrew it, his expression grim.

Jiang Yu hadn't lied. Deep within his body, a Restriction had cut off several of the most important meridians for the flow of Soul Power.

With those meridians blocked, advancing his Soul Power again would be next to impossible.

Wu Lie panicked.

"Don't worry, boy. I'll take you back to the sect and have someone examine you thoroughly to find the cause. If that doesn't work, I'll take you to the Grand Elder. He'll surely have a way..."

As he spoke, Wu Lie prepared to grab Jiang Yu and rush back to the sect at top speed. He looked even more anxious than Jiang Yu himself.

"Grandpa Wu, wait!" Jiang Yu finally managed to speak just before they took off.

"I know how to break the Restriction. It's just that the method might disappoint you and the sect..."

At Jiang Yu's words, the Soul Power surging through Wu Lie nearly reversed course. He brought it under control just in time to avoid injuring himself.

Before Jiang Yu had even steadied himself, Wu Lie rapped him hard on the head.

"You little brat! Couldn't you have said all that at once? I was worried for nothing."

"Now tell me how to break it. And what do you mean it'll disappoint me and the Sect Master?"

Jiang Yu rubbed his head at Wu Lie's scolding, then gave a rueful smile.

"Grandpa Wu, the solution I learned from my Martial Souls is to add another Spirit Ring to my Shadow Dragon Dagger. That will evolve the source of my Martial Souls and let me keep cultivating until I reach the next bottleneck."

"I think it's the only solution that will work."

Jiang Yu raised his head and met Wu Lie's gaze. He looked neither joking nor dishonest.

Ever since he had gained the Light Dragon Dagger and Shadow Dragon Dagger, Jiang Yu had known his Twin Martial Souls were somewhat weaker than genuine Twin Martial Souls.

The two daggers came from the same source and differed little from each other. They could not complement one another; together, they were merely one plus one equaling two.

Their most glaring drawback was that whenever his cultivation reached a bottleneck, he had to add Spirit Rings to both Martial Souls before he could continue. A true Twin Martial Souls wielder could add rings to just one Martial Soul first and wait until his cultivation was higher to add them to the other.

Jiang Yu had hoped he could cultivate like an ordinary Twin Martial Souls wielder because, once this flaw came to light, his value to the sect would fall.

After all, to anyone unaware of the Space-Time Dragon's power hidden within him, his pseudo-Twin Martial Souls held far less potential than genuine ones.

And if his potential fell, being a Twin Martial Souls wielder would not be enough to secure all the resources originally promised to him.

"You have to add a Spirit Ring to the Shadow Dragon Dagger before you can keep cultivating?"

Wu Lie stared blankly for a long moment. Then he sighed and gave Jiang Yu a conflicted look.

"In that case, let's find another spirit beast suited to your Shadow Dragon Dagger."

Jiang Yu: ...?

Was he serious? He wasn't even going to discuss it with the sect first?

Seeing Jiang Yu's surprise, Wu Lie sighed again, then chuckled.

"Boy, you're underestimating what ten thousand years of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's history means."

"As the only support-type sect with over ten thousand years of heritage, our ancestors amassed more than immense wealth. They also studied and theorized about strange phenomena in the world of soul masters, both those that had appeared and those that hadn't, far beyond anything you imagine."

"That includes Two Sources, One Soul and your case of One Source, Two Souls."

At Jiang Yu's astonished expression, Wu Lie stroked his beard, a smug smile spreading across his face.

"To tell you the truth, not long after you joined the sect, the Sect Master had several elders secretly observe your Martial Souls. After discussing it, we concluded you would very likely face the same problem as a Two Sources, One Soul wielder!"

"If the source attributes fall out of balance, one source suppresses the other completely, making further cultivation almost impossible."

"So before bringing you here to hunt for a Spirit Ring, we held a meeting. If your attributes really did fall out of balance, there'd be no point taking you back and wasting time. Aside from keeping the two attributes in balance, there's simply no way out."

Jiang Yu could only stare. It took him a long while to collect himself.

For the first time, he truly felt he had underestimated the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect and its ten thousand years of heritage. He also felt as though they had seen right through him.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Yu smiled helplessly.

"Grandpa Wu, you and the sect know more than just that, don't you?"

Wu Lie laughed and patted Jiang Yu on the shoulder.

"Remember what the Sect Master told you after I brought you back? About a descendant of Blood Moon Douluo?"

"His name was Xie Jue. When his Martial Soul awakened, it mutated into Two Sources, One Soul. The blood and darkness attributes that should have existed in a single Moon Blade appeared in two separate Moon Blades instead. His case was what first confirmed the problem of attribute imbalance."

"As for what else we know..."

Wu Lie's gaze suddenly grew intent.

"Boy, do you know what happened to Xie Jue after he reached the higher levels of cultivation?"

Under Wu Lie's stare, Jiang Yu's heart seemed to skip a beat.

He suppressed his shock and answered slowly:

"Did the sources of his Martial Souls merge?"

"Exactly!" Wu Lie's shout made Jiang Yu jump. "The sources of his Martial Souls merged! After he broke through to Soul Sage and gained his Martial Soul Avatar, the sources of his two Moon Blades—one with the power of blood, the other with darkness—miraculously fused. The blades became one, and their combined source underwent a transformation far greater than the sum of its parts! He went on to become one of the strongest people of his era."

Wu Lie gave Jiang Yu a sidelong glance, then snorted.

"You guessed that far too easily for it to have nothing to do with you. I underestimated you, boy. You're much more calculating than the Sect Master and I thought."

"Come on, Grandpa Wu. I grew up a beggar. If I wanted to survive and get a full meal, I had to learn to think ahead." Jiang Yu gave a self-deprecating laugh.

Wu Lie waved a hand, unwilling to discuss it further.

"Fine. I get it now. There's no judging you by ordinary standards. Come on, let's look around the Mixed Zone and see if we can quickly find a spirit beast that suits you."

Jiang Yu nodded. As he followed Wu Lie deeper into the forest, he asked the last question troubling him.

"Grandpa Wu, why does our sect know so much about Xie Jue's life?"

"Oh, that? Five thousand years ago, Xie Jue served as one of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's guardian Douluos. In every generation, the sect assigns someone to record the lives of the continent's leading experts in case the information proves useful someday. Your situation is unusual, and only a handful of people in the past ten thousand years have been in anything like it. We just had to check the Library Pavilion to find them."

Jiang Yu's mouth twitched, but he said nothing more.