Martial Soul Characteristics, Sudden Flash of Inspiration in Initial Training

Through my first session of cultivation, I gained a basic understanding of the practice of martial souls on the Douluo Continent.

A martial soul could be considered a semi-biological entity interdependent with the human body, as well as the key to unlocking the path of cultivation.

Before my first cultivation session, I had always harbored a sliver of doubt: was it because I had not awakened a martial soul or because of some personal reason that, no matter how I tried before, I was never able to sense the Soul Power between heaven and earth?

After the Martial Soul Awakening, this doubt completely vanished. Clearly, there was not much wrong with my own practice; it was purely the fault of not having an awakened martial soul.

The Soul Power between heaven and earth seemed to exist within an encrypted channel, and only by obtaining the key that was the martial soul could it be unlocked.

No, it should be that the martial soul paired with Innate Soul Power constituted the true "key."

This situation somehow felt not much different from the immortal cultivation found in ordinary immortal cultivation novels.

Immortal cultivation required spiritual roots, while cultivation on the Douluo Continent required a martial soul paired with Innate Soul Power. It seemed there was not much difference.

Come to think of it, the environment of the Douluo Continent was already quite good, at least lacking demonic cultivators who spoke of "flesh and blood of mortals" at every turn.

No matter how harsh the social environment might be, the essential nature of society on the Douluo Continent was at the very least a combination of slavery and feudalism, still possessing a certain order. The true social nature of the vast majority of immortal cultivation novels felt as though it had "fast-forwarded" to the law of the jungle and the survival of the fittest.

To return to the matter at hand, whatever social issues existed were ultimately not something I needed to worry about for the Douluo Continent; my primary focus right now should be my own cultivation.

Yesterday's idea was still a bit taken for granted. Whether Father could actually borrow the spatial compression of Teleportation for body-tempering was a point that warranted further study...

Flicking his hands and stopping his pen, Tang Shan looked at the recently sorted harvest, nodded with satisfaction, and then unhesitatingly ignited a fire starter to burn the "diary" he had written.

Walking out the door, Su Haichao had already headed to the Spirit Hall at this time, leaving only him and the Su Yuntao brothers at home.

Seeing his younger brother emerge, Su Yuntao stood straight up from the dining table. "Little bro, are you starting your physical training today?"

The corners of Tang Shan's twitched slightly. "Big bro, I haven't eaten breakfast yet. Besides, why aren't you at the Spirit Hall helping old dad? What are you squatting around at home for?"

"I'm going to awaken martial souls for the children in the villages down below in a few days, so I'm plenty idle right now. Besides, what kind of busywork could old dad possibly have that I'd need to help with?"

Tang Shan could not help shaking his head as he sat down at the dining table.

"Later on, I'll train. You can watch if you want, but you yourself shouldn't slack off, big bro."

"Relax, I complete my current training with ease."

Su Yuntao patted his chest, his face full of nonchalance.

Hearing this, Tang Shan could not help frowning.

It seemed that his past life's training methods no longer provided much help to his big bro. Now that I had awakened a Body Martial Soul, I wondered if I could continue to research a style or two of body-tempering Method through my acute perception of the body.

Quickly finishing his breakfast, Tang Shan rested briefly before heading out the door, with Su Yuntao following closely behind.

He did not begin training immediately; after all, sharpening the axe did not delay the job of cutting wood. Yesterday he had merely tried cultivating, and he had yet to earnestly experience the specific effects of his martial soul.

He stimulated his martial soul following the instincts of his body. This instinct came naturally after the Martial Soul Awakening, easily mastered like an extended pair of hands and feet.

A series of popping bone cracks came from his body, accompanied by faint fluctuations of Soul Power. Tang Shan felt an unprecedented, abundant strength pervading his entire body.

His height shot up by ten centimeters, and vague muscle contours emerged. A child of merely six years old gave people a fierce and formidable feeling.

Looking at the training equipment piled to one side, Tang Shan narrowed his eyes, stepped forward, and grabbed a huge dumbbell.

The muscles of his upper and lower arms contracted. As a surge of abundant strength erupted from within them, his five fingers tightly clenched the dumbbell like iron tongs.

"Up!"

Accompanied by an explosive shout, amid the contraction of his muscles, the ten-kilogram dumbbell was lifted by him as he performed a standard bicep curl.

Carefully sensing the contraction of his muscles and sinew, Tang Shan put the dumbbell back down and could not help frowning.

Although compared to others, Tang Shan believed that his perceptual mastery of his body far exceeded that of the vast majority of soul masters, and he could also sense whether the exertion of force between these movements was coordinated, he was still somewhat dissatisfied.

Putting aside other martial souls for the moment, as a body soul master, having 100% mastery over his own body should be the baseline in his view, but his current self had not even achieved that most basic requirement.

It seemed his target for the soul skill of his first Soul Ring had a direction.

There was also this kind of amplification for strength. It appeared that my martial soul was also a Body Martial Soul with attached attributes, and the attached attribute should be strength.

Carefully sensing the subtle changes within his body, Tang Shan did not deactivate the state of opening his martial soul.

Compared to tool soul masters and beast soul masters, body soul master had another fine advantage.

That was because the martial soul itself was his own body, so the consumption of Soul Power for opening the martial soul was extremely small. As long as he did not use soul skills, keeping it open for long periods basically posed no major problems.

Looking at Tang Shan—who had opened his martial soul just to grab a dumbbell, exercise with it for a moment, and put it down again, alternately pondering and frowning—Su Yuntao was already unfazed.

His little bro was definitely starting to research his martial soul again; Su Yuntao had seen this state plenty of times over the past six years.

After a long while, seeing his little bro snap back to his senses, Su Yuntao hurriedly spoke up, "Little bro, let's start."

Tang Shan nodded in agreement. No matter how much he thought about it, it could not compare to experiencing and feeling it personally with his own hands.

"Little bro, what are we training with first?"

"Let's start with push-ups."

As he spoke, Tang Shan already had his hands braced on the ground, assuming the ready position.

"Little bro, did you forget something?"

Su Yuntao could not help reminding him, his face bearing the smugness of catching Tang Shan in a mistake.

His hands were braced slightly wider than shoulder-width, with his spine and legs extended straight to form a single line.

Next, his arm muscles contracted and folded, his body slowly lowering until it was a mere inch from the ground. After maintaining that position for a moment, he pushed himself back up slowly.

After completing a single, standard push-up, Tang Shan replied to Su Yuntao.

"Big bro, don't underestimate a Body Martial Soul. Any kind of warm-up exercise is unnecessary for someone like me with a martial soul body. When the martial soul is activated, the bodily state naturally reaches its optimum."

Finished speaking, he completed yet another standard push-up.

"What! A Body Martial Soul has this kind of effect?"

Su Yuntao never imagined that the warm-up exercises he performed before every workout were, for a body soul master, simply a matter of opening their martial soul.

One had to know that when he first started training back then, Su Yuntao had not yet formed the habit of warming up; it was purely because he once worked out hard enough to give himself a muscle cramp that the bone-deep agony forced him to engrave the necessity of warm-ups into his memory.

Having a strong willpower was one thing, but stubbornly skipping warm-ups just to court suffering was quite another.

At this moment, Tang Shan, who was still maintaining his activated martial soul state, continued doing push-ups unhurriedly. His speed was not particularly fast, but they were extremely standard, precise as a textbook.

The strength attribute should be the innate attribute of my Body Martial Soul. This kind of amplification to physical fitness is indeed not bad either.

Also, under the condition of the martial soul being active, I feel that the improvement in physical fitness is much faster than my past training improvements.

This should be the joint effect of the Body Martial Soul and Innate Soul Power.

"Ninety-nine, one hundred..."

Beads of sweat slid down Tang Shan's forehead. Having long since exited the state of martial soul augmentation, Tang Shan laboriously finished his hundredth push-up and slowly sat cross-legged on the ground.

"Little bro, was the load a bit too heavy?"

With a stern expression, Su Yuntao hurriedly handed over a bottle of saltwater.

Tang Shan opened the bottle, took a small sip first, and then slowly drank in multiple small gulps.

Hoo!

Feeling his physical strength recover a fraction, Tang Shan shook his head.

"No. Now that I've awakened my Body Martial Soul, my understanding of my body has gone a step further. When it comes to mastery over the body, even you, big bro, who have trained for several years, might not necessarily surpass my proficiency."

Tang Shan's reasoning barely convinced Su Yuntao, but the latter was still somewhat worried.

"Little bro, didn't you make me wait until I absorbed my first Soul Ring before letting me undergo high-intensity training? Why are you jumping straight into such massive intensity just as your own martial soul has awakened? Are you sure this won't stunt your growth?"

Hearing the other's inquiry, Tang Shan nodded, then shook his head.

"Big bro, your thinking is good, but it's not practical when applied to me. My martial soul is my body. From a certain perspective, the moment my martial soul awakened, my body already possessed the nature of the martial soul to a certain extent.

What do martial souls rely on to improve? They rely on Soul Power and soul rings. Leaving aside the promotional effect that absorbing a soul ring has on our bodies, relying purely on the traits bestowed upon my body by the martial soul, as long as I don't risk my life seeking death in my training, no matter how high the intensity, it won't produce any impact on my growth and development."

While explaining to Su Yuntao, a flash of inspiration struck Tang Shan's mind. All descriptions from Douluo II and Douluo III concerning Body Martial Souls, Martial Soul Second Awakenings, Third Awakenings, and the Immaculate Golden Body—every bit of information replayed continuously in his mind.

Taking a deep breath, he did not rush to continue pondering further, instead firmly engraving all these inspirations into his memory.

"Big bro, don't worry, I won't mess around. Help me up first, and go heat up a piece of Whale Rubber for me."

Seeing his little bro so confident, Su Yuntao finally believed that Tang Shan undergoing such high-intensity training truly would not cause irreversible damage and impact to his body, and he hurriedly stepped forward to hoist the other up in a carry.

Walking back, Su Yuntao said with exasperated annoyance, "What are you acting tough for? 'Help you up'—wouldn't it be much more convenient and slick to just carry you back directly?"

Tang Shan, whose whole body ached with soreness, felt a surge of helplessness and simply let his big bro have his way.

Returning home, relying on the terrifying recovery power of the Body Martial Soul, Tang Shan's basic movements were no longer a major issue.

Confirming that Tang Shan already possessed a certain degree of self-care ability, Su Yuntao took a piece of Whale Rubber and entered the kitchen.

Tang Shan entered the bathroom, first wiping away the sweat on his body with a towel, and then turned on the shower, letting the ice-cold water rush over his physique.

Whenever anyone exercised, damage was unavoidable, especially those tiny capillaries, which were exceptionally fragile;

Or rather, training itself was a process of breaking down followed by supercompensation.

Tang Shan rinsed with cold water, which allowed the minute blood clots caused by ruptured tiny capillaries to rapidly coagulate and subsequently be reabsorbed by the body, ensuring it would not affect the next day's training.

PS: Station message received, everyone rest assured to recommend, read, bookmark, follow, and leave plenty of comments. Any questions regarding the plot are welcome to be discussed with the little author.