Speculating on a Strange State and an Unusual Beast Soul True Body

The moment they entered the room, Tang Shan fixed Su Yuntao with an eager stare, hoping he would explain what had brought on that state.

Su Yuntao thought for a moment, then hesitated. "I don't think I did anything else. I just activated my two enhancement Soul Skills and recalled the way I'd seen wolf-type Soul Beasts fight. Then it felt as though those wolves had merged into my body. Oh, right—my Soul Power started circulating along a different path, too."

"Even the path your Soul Power took changed?"

Tang Shan frowned. That was strange. He had thought that, however much the state resembled the Gene Lock, it wasn't the real thing. But this degree of control over the energy in Su Yuntao's body made him hesitate again.

No. Big Brother's Martial Soul is Lone Wolf, and he was thinking about how wolf-type Soul Beasts fight. But unlocking the Gene Lock requires accepting yourself as human. His state of mind at the time couldn't possibly have met that condition.

Could the Soul Skills be the key?

His First Soul Skill is a straightforward enhancement. Nothing unusual there. His second is also an enhancement: Bloodthirst. It boosts every attribute by ten percent and keeps him absolutely calm...

That doesn't seem odd either. Wait.

A thought flashed through Tang Shan's mind. He looked up sharply. "Big Brother, what exactly does the 'absolute calm' from your second Soul Skill do?"

Su Yuntao looked puzzled but described it in detail. "Once I activate it, I can almost completely ignore pain. It feels like cold energy is bathing my mind. I think much faster, and the ways to deal with an enemy become especially clear."

"Is that very different from the state you were in just now?"

"Quite different."

Su Yuntao sat on the bed and slowly gathered his thoughts. "When I'm absolutely calm, it still feels like me—just without physical exhaustion or distracting thoughts. But in that state just now, it was as if a Soul Beast had possessed me. Experience in hunting and responding to attacks kept surging up, yet I was still in control. Take that slap that beat Dao Long. I'm certain I could have torn out his heart with it if I'd wanted to, but I held that instinct back."

Absolute calm that shuts out bodily distractions. The feeling of being possessed by a powerful fighter. And Big Brother's Lone Wolf Martial Soul...

An idea began to take shape in Tang Shan's mind, though he couldn't be certain yet.

"Big Brother, activate only your Second Soul Ring and try to enter that state again."

Su Yuntao didn't know what Tang Shan was working out, but he wanted to regain that state himself. He followed the instruction, entering Martial Soul Possession. Soul Rings appeared beneath his feet, and the purple Second Soul Ring flickered.

"Remember the sight of wolf-type Soul Beasts pouncing on their prey. Try to let them merge into your body."

Tang Shan guided him softly from the side.

Su Yuntao closed his eyes and replayed what he had observed. But no matter how hard he tried to remember, he couldn't make the Soul Beasts merge with him again or regain that extraordinary strength.

"No. I can't seem to find the feeling."

Su Yuntao opened his eyes, disappointment showing in them.

Tang Shan didn't give up. "Big Brother, try again. This time, don't imagine wolf-type Soul Beasts. Imagine your own Martial Soul, Lone Wolf, pouring into your body."

"But I'm already using Martial Soul Possession. Wouldn't imagining it merging into my body again be wrong?"

Su Yuntao was thoroughly confused.

"Big Brother, do you think you've truly merged completely with your Beast Martial Soul?"

Tang Shan's reply was pointed. "The changes a Beast Martial Soul brings to the body after awakening can't be explained simply as 'turning a human body beastlike.' Some Soul Masters with low-level Beast Martial Souls are suppressed by the Martial Souls of those with higher-level ones. That means Soul Beast bloodlines truly exist. Part of a Soul Beast bloodline already lies hidden in the human body.

"You haven't seen many wolf-type Soul Beasts fight. Even if you mastered every move you saw, it shouldn't have transformed you so completely. Combat experience can't appear from nowhere. So I suspect the experience that surfaced in your special state came from the fighting instincts carried by the Soul Beast part of your bloodline. Those instincts, combined with Lone Wolf merging more deeply into your body, produced that result when your conscious mind separated perfectly from your body's subconscious."

"Little Brother, I don't think I followed all that."

Su Yuntao struggled to make sense of the flood of information, but it might as well have been another language.

"Don't worry about understanding it yet. Do as I say first and see whether I'm right. I'll explain it properly afterward."

Tang Shan held off on the explanation and had him test the theory first.

Su Yuntao nodded and closed his eyes. Even while using Martial Soul Possession, his mind remained calm. He went further, imagining his Lone Wolf Martial Soul merging into his body.

For an instant, something subtle changed about Su Yuntao's bearing. Then it vanished.

"I think I felt something. This should be the right approach," Su Yuntao said as soon as he opened his eyes.

"Then my guess is probably close to the truth."

Tang Shan's eyes flickered as he considered what had caused these changes.

His earlier research had led him to suspect that, besides increasing Soul Power, a Soul Master's early training was a gradual process of becoming more attuned to their Martial Soul. Body Martial Souls and Tool Martial Souls were one thing; they had little instinct of their own. But plant and Beast Martial Souls possessed some instinctive awareness. As they grew more attuned to their Soul Masters, could they affect them at a deeper level?

Big Brother's situation offered an excellent answer to that question.

After thinking it over, Tang Shan led Su Yuntao back up to the Attic. "Big Brother, I'll give you a rough explanation of why you entered that state. Then we'll spar and see if you can enter it again."

Su Yuntao nodded, sat cross-legged on the floor, and listened intently.

"Let's start with the subconscious. Big Brother, do you really understand every part of your own mind? Does everything you do come entirely from conscious intent?"

Su Yuntao frowned and thought for a while before shaking his head uncertainly. "Hunger and thirst probably come from the subconscious. Other than that, maybe not?"

Tang Shan smiled without answering and swept a hand past Su Yuntao's eyes.

Su Yuntao instinctively closed them.

"See? You closed your eyes without thinking. That's your subconscious at work."

"You caught me off guard. Try again. I'll be ready this time, and I definitely won't blink."

Whoosh!

A faint breeze brushed Su Yuntao's cheek as the hand flashed past his eyes again. Instinct took over, and he closed them anyway.

"That's the subconscious at work. Big Brother, activate your second Soul Skill and try again."

Convinced by Tang Shan's demonstration, Su Yuntao obediently activated the Bloodthirst Skill.

His abilities improved across the board, and Martial Soul Possession gave him a partly beastlike appearance. This time, Tang Shan feinted toward his face. Su Yuntao kept his eyes wide open without blinking.

"So that's what 'absolute calm' does? It shuts out interference from the subconscious?"

Su Yuntao had spotted the key before Tang Shan could explain.

"Exactly. The Bloodthirst Skill doesn't erase the subconscious. It stops the subconscious from interfering with your mind. Pain, for example, can make it hard for your muscles to exert force, but the skill automatically shuts out that negative effect. Once we understand what the subconscious does, there's a reasonable explanation for your special state."

Tang Shan clasped his hands behind his back and paced across the Attic. "Big Brother, your second Soul Skill, Bloodthirst, actually has only two effects. First, it boosts all your attributes by ten percent. Second, it shuts out subconscious interference in battle, keeping you absolutely calm. Your immunity to pain falls under that second effect."

Clues about cultivation, Martial Souls, and the subconscious surfaced one by one, gradually connecting in Tang Shan's mind.

"After you activated Bloodthirst, your conscious mind was effectively separated from your subconscious. You were also recalling how wolf-type Soul Beasts attacked. By chance, that allowed your Lone Wolf Martial Soul to merge further with your body. This time, though, it didn't possess your outward form. It possessed your body's subconscious.

"That gave you access to the vast fighting experience hidden in your Martial Soul and deep in your bloodline. Your Martial Soul then became almost perfectly attuned to you. You had human intelligence and composure, along with the combat experience of countless Soul Beasts carried in your bloodline. Perhaps that is an unusual form of Martial Soul Avatar."

Tang Shan's words were astonishing. He had called a state that a mere two-ring Soul Master entered by accident a Martial Soul Avatar. Anyone else who heard it would laugh, even if the claim came from the Grandmaster.

A Thousand-Year Second Ring, or even a ten-thousand-year fourth ring, still followed the progression from weaker Soul Rings to stronger ones. However outrageous, those cases had some precedent. But no one would believe a two-ring Soul Master could enter a Martial Soul Avatar state, even an incomplete one. Martial Soul Avatar was an ability exclusive to Soul Saints. Apart from using secret methods to perform it together, there was no record of anyone below Soul Saint doing it alone.

Su Yuntao also found the claim excessive. "Little Brother, isn't that going too far? I only have two rings. I'm nowhere near seven. How could I use a Martial Soul Avatar?"

"Why couldn't you? Big Brother, what are the usual traits of a Beast Martial Soul's Martial Soul Avatar?"

Su Yuntao recalled the books he had read and answered after a moment. "The Soul Master takes the Martial Soul's true form. Their abilities rise sharply, their other Soul Skills have no cooldown, and using those skills costs much less Soul Power."

Tang Shan grinned, showing his white teeth. "Then tell me, aside from lacking a Soul Beast's fighting experience and being able to maintain that state only for a limited time, how is a Beast Soul Master in that state different from a real Soul Beast?"

Su Yuntao fell into thought, but Tang Shan continued. "Except for a few unusual abilities, Soul Beasts don't have to wait between uses of their innate Soul Skills. In my view, apart from the time limit, a Beast Soul Master using a Martial Soul Avatar is no different from a true Soul Beast. Their Soul Ring skills become innate abilities. Your earlier state was similar. They gained a Soul Beast's ability to use Soul Skills, while you gained its experience of fighting and surviving. Both are Soul Beast abilities. As for not turning into a Soul Beast—perhaps a half-human, half-beast form is what a true Martial Soul Avatar should look like."

P.S. This book's version of Martial Soul Avatar takes precedence, since its effects differ between versions. Su Yuntao's state is an unusual form of Martial Soul Avatar. The next chapter will explain it and introduce the broad ultimate goal of Soul Master cultivation.