Martial Soul Traits and a Flash of Insight During the First Workout

My first cultivation session gave me a basic understanding of how Martial Souls were cultivated on the Douluo Continent.

A Martial Soul could be seen as a semi-living thing that depended on the human body, as well as the key that opened the path to cultivation.

Before that first session, I had always wondered whether my inability to sense the Soul Power in the world came from my Martial Soul not having awakened or from some failing of my own. No matter what I tried, I had never felt a thing.

After my Martial Soul Awakening, that doubt vanished. There was nothing much wrong with my ability to cultivate. The problem had simply been my unawakened Martial Soul.

The Soul Power in the world was like an encrypted channel. Only someone with the key—a Martial Soul—could access it.

No, a Martial Soul together with Innate Soul Power was the real "key."

It did not seem all that different from cultivation in the usual immortal-cultivation novels.

Cultivating immortality required spiritual roots; cultivating on the Douluo Continent required a Martial Soul and Innate Soul Power. There was hardly any difference.

Come to think of it, the Douluo Continent was a fairly decent place. At least it had no demonic cultivators constantly talking about using mortals as food.

However harsh its society might be, the Douluo Continent was still, at its core, a mix of slavery and feudalism. It had some degree of order. In most immortal-cultivation novels, society seemed to have already skipped ahead to the law of the jungle, where only the fittest survived.

But social problems were not something I needed to worry about for the Douluo Continent right now. My first concern was my own cultivation.

Yesterday's idea had been a little too optimistic. Whether Father could use the spatial pressure of Teleportation to temper my body still needed further study...

Tang Shan put down his pen and shook out his hand. He looked over the recent findings he had organized, nodded in satisfaction, then lit a firestarter and burned the "diary" he had written without hesitation.

When he went outside, Su Haichao had already left for Spirit Hall. Only Tang Shan and his older brother, Su Yuntao, remained at home.

Seeing his little brother emerge, Su Yuntao stood up from the dining table. "Little brother, are you going to start training?"

Tang Shan's mouth twitched. "Big brother, I haven't had breakfast yet. And why are you sitting around at home instead of helping Dad at Spirit Hall?"

"In a few days, I'll be going to the villages to awaken the children's Martial Souls. I've got plenty of free time for now. Besides, what could Dad possibly need my help with?"

Tang Shan shook his head and sat down at the table.

"I'll train in a bit. Watch if you want, but don't slack off on your own training."

"Don't worry. I can finish my current training easily."

Su Yuntao patted his chest, looking thoroughly unconcerned.

Tang Shan could not help frowning at that.

Looks like the training methods from my previous life aren't doing much for Big Brother anymore. Now that my Body Martial Soul has awakened, perhaps I can use my sharper awareness of my body to develop another body-tempering exercise or two.

Tang Shan quickly finished breakfast. After a short rest, he went outside with Su Yuntao following behind him.

He did not begin training immediately. Preparation would pay off. Yesterday, he had only tried cultivating; he had yet to properly examine what his Martial Soul could do.

He activated his Martial Soul by following his body's instincts. That instinct had come with its awakening, and using it felt as natural as moving an extra limb.

Bones popped throughout his body. As faint Soul Power rippled from him, Tang Shan felt unprecedented strength surge through every part of him.

He grew ten centimeters taller, and the outlines of muscles appeared. Though he was only six, he suddenly looked fierce.

Tang Shan narrowed his eyes at the training equipment piled nearby, walked over, and gripped a large dumbbell.

The muscles in his upper arms and forearms contracted, releasing surges of strength. His five fingers clamped around the dumbbell like an iron vise.

"Up!"

With a shout and a flex of his muscles, he lifted the ten-kilogram dumbbell and performed a textbook biceps curl.

Tang Shan paid close attention to the contraction of his muscles and sinews. When he set the dumbbell down again, he frowned.

Compared with others, he believed his awareness and control of his body already surpassed that of most Soul Masters. He could even tell whether his movements distributed force properly. Still, he was not satisfied.

Other Martial Souls aside, he was a Body Martial Soul Master. In his view, complete control of his own body ought to be the bare minimum, yet he had not even reached that point.

It seems I know what I want from the Soul Skill of my First Soul Ring.

And this boost to my strength... My Body Martial Soul must have an inherent attribute. That attribute is probably strength.

Tang Shan continued to study the subtle changes in his body without deactivating his Martial Soul.

Compared with Tool Soul Masters and Beast Soul Masters, Body Martial Soul Masters had another useful advantage.

Because their Martial Soul was their own body, keeping it active consumed very little Soul Power. As long as they did not use Soul Skills, maintaining it for a long time was hardly a problem.

Su Yuntao watched Tang Shan activate his Martial Soul, lift a dumbbell, put it down, then alternate between brooding and frowning. By now, he was used to it.

His little brother was surely studying Martial Souls again. Su Yuntao had seen him like this countless times over the past six years.

After a while, when Tang Shan finally came back to himself, Su Yuntao promptly said, "Little brother, let's start."

Tang Shan nodded. No amount of thinking could give him as clear an understanding as trying it himself.

"What should we train first, little brother?"

"Let's start with push-ups."

As he spoke, Tang Shan planted his hands on the ground and got into position.

"Little brother, aren't you forgetting something?"

Su Yuntao could not resist reminding him. He looked delighted to have caught Tang Shan making a mistake.

Tang Shan set his hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and kept his back and legs straight in a single line.

Then he bent his arms, slowly lowered himself until he was barely an inch from the ground, held there for a moment, and slowly pushed himself back up.

Only after completing a perfect push-up did Tang Shan answer Su Yuntao.

"Big brother, don't underestimate a Body Martial Soul. I don't need to warm up. Once I activate my Martial Soul, my body naturally reaches its best condition."

With that, he completed another perfect push-up.

"What? A Body Martial Soul can do that?"

Su Yuntao had never imagined that, for a Body Martial Soul Master, all the warm-up exercises he did before training could be replaced by simply activating a Martial Soul.

When he had first started training, Su Yuntao had not made a habit of warming up either. Then one workout had given him a terrible cramp. The agonizing pain had taught him never to forget the importance of warming up.

Having a strong will was one thing. Skipping a warm-up just to make himself suffer was another.

Tang Shan, still in his Martial Soul's active state, continued doing push-ups at an unhurried pace. He was not fast, but every movement was precise enough to belong in a textbook.

Strength must be my Body Martial Soul's inherent attribute. This boost to my physical abilities is impressive.

And while my Martial Soul is active, my physical condition seems to improve much faster than it did during my previous workouts.

That's probably the combined effect of my Body Martial Soul and Innate Soul Power.

"Ninety-nine, one hundred..."

Beads of sweat rolled down Tang Shan's forehead. He had long since stopped drawing on his Martial Soul's boost, and after struggling through his hundredth push-up, he slowly sat down cross-legged.

"Little brother, was that too much?"

Su Yuntao's face grew grave as he hurriedly handed him a bottle of salt water.

Tang Shan opened it and took a small sip, then drank the rest in several slow swallows.

Phew!

Tang Shan shook his head as he felt a little of his strength return.

"No. Now that my Body Martial Soul has awakened, I understand my body even better. When it comes to controlling it, you might not know as much as I do, even after years of training."

Tang Shan's reasoning just about convinced Su Yuntao, but he remained worried.

"Little brother, didn't you make me wait until I absorbed my First Soul Ring before letting me train this hard? Your Martial Soul has only just awakened. Are you sure this won't affect your growth?"

At the question, Tang Shan nodded, then shook his head.

"That was sensible for you, Big Brother, but it doesn't apply to me. My Martial Soul is my body. In a sense, the moment my Martial Soul awakened, my body took on some of its properties.

"What makes a Martial Soul stronger? Soul Power and Soul Rings. Putting aside how absorbing a Soul Ring improves our bodies, the traits my Martial Soul gives me mean that even intense training won't affect my growth and development—as long as I don't push myself to the point of death."

As he explained, inspiration flashed through Tang Shan's mind. Everything he knew from Douluo II and its sequel about Body Martial Souls, the Martial Soul Second Awakening, the Third Awakening, and the Immaculate Golden Body replayed in his head.

He took a deep breath. Rather than rush to think it through, he fixed every one of those ideas firmly in his memory.

"Don't worry, Big Brother. I won't do anything reckless. Help me up first, then heat me a piece of Whale Rubber when we get back."

Seeing how confident his little brother was, Su Yuntao finally believed the intense training would not cause irreversible harm. He hurried over and hoisted Tang Shan onto his shoulder.

As he walked back, Su Yuntao grumbled, "Why try to tough it out? Help you up? Carrying you back is quicker and easier."

Tang Shan's whole body ached. Helpless, he let his older brother do as he pleased.

By the time they reached home, the formidable recovery of Tang Shan's Body Martial Soul had restored his ability to move around without much trouble.

Once Su Yuntao was sure Tang Shan could take care of himself, he took a piece of Whale Rubber into the kitchen.

Tang Shan went into the bathroom, wiped away his sweat with a towel, then turned on the tap and let cold water wash over him.

Some damage was unavoidable whenever anyone trained. The tiny capillaries were especially fragile;

indeed, training itself was a process of breaking the body down and letting it recover beyond its previous state.

By washing with cold water, Tang Shan could make the tiny traces of blood from ruptured capillaries clot quickly before his body reabsorbed them, so they would not affect the next day's training.

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