The first stage of martial soul cultivation, an incomplete beast soul true body

Su Yuntao clearly still had doubts about Tang Shan's theory. Tang Shan did not rush to explain, simply releasing his martial soul instead.

His body rapidly swelled, muscles packed with explosive power bulging beneath his skin, every contour brimming with strength.

"Big brother, I'll help you try entering that state again first. I'll explain my theory in detail afterward."

Su Yuntao's expression grew grave. He immediately activated martial soul possession with his Lone Wolf, the two soul rings beneath his feet flashing as he went all out from the start.

Ever since Tang Shan obtained his first soul ring, Su Yuntao had been unable to gauge his true strength. If he could enter that special state again, perhaps he could catch a glimpse of it.

Tang Shan strode forward. With his soul power amplifying his movements, he closed the distance to Su Yuntao in an instant and struck straight at him with his palm. At the same time, his sole purple soul ring lit up beneath his feet. His palm rapidly expanded, turning blue-black, with sinews and bones coiling across it like dragons, its power dense and heavy.

Bam!

Su Yuntao took Tang Shan's blow head-on. His body staggered backward, his legs repeatedly driving against the ground before he barely managed to dissipate the tremendous force surging through his arms. But one blow had barely ended before another arrived. Before he could steady himself, a fist carrying crushing force smashed toward his head like a giant hammer.

An overwhelming sense of pressure swept through him. The relentless attacks made him feel trapped in an endless mire, unable to escape. Su Yuntao hurriedly ducked and rolled. Tang Shan's fist skimmed past him and struck empty air, making it crack as though it could no longer withstand the force.

Getting back to his feet, Su Yuntao barely managed a counterattack, thrusting ten sharp claws straight at the center of Tang Shan's back.

Rip!

A sharp sound of tearing fabric rang out. Tang Shan's shirt burst apart, exposing tightly knotted muscles that protected his back like solid armor. Although Su Yuntao's claws struck their target precisely, they felt as though they had touched highly elastic rubber, leaving only a few shallow scratches.

Su Yuntao instinctively retreated at speed. He had barely moved away when a massive palm swept past the tip of his nose. The fan-sized hand whipped up a fierce gust, and he instinctively shut his eyes.

Feeling the faint tingling from his back, Tang Shan nodded in satisfaction. His Seeing the Divine-level control over his body had not only allowed his physical capabilities to improve rapidly of late, but also produced astonishing results in actual use. Stretching his skin to its limit made it incredibly tough, while extending his sinews and bones brought his defense to its peak. Soul power reinforced the strength of his bodily tissues even further. Even with both of Su Yuntao's enhancement soul skills active, he still could not break through Tang Shan's defenses.

Turning toward Su Yuntao, who stood ready in the distance, Tang Shan abruptly expanded his arms. His fingers grew as thick as carrots, and his arms became as sturdy as an ordinary person's thighs.

"Big brother, be careful."

Tang Shan gave the warning and brought his Seeing the Divine-level control fully into play. He surged forward, striking at Su Yuntao with both palms. Despite their enormous size, his hands stirred no fierce gust as they had before. Under his exquisite control, they moved without disturbing the air at all. That made them even more terrifying: every last bit of force was under absolute control, with none leaking out.

A terrifying sense of danger abruptly rose in Su Yuntao's heart. He knew perfectly well that Tang Shan could control his strength, yet an inexplicable gloom settled over him, as though the Star of Death were flickering above his head. Spurred by that mortal danger, he finally caught hold of that special feeling again.

His martial soul fused further with his body. The various fighting instincts imprinted in his bloodline over countless years blended perfectly with his subconscious, maintaining a dynamic balance. One portion of his awareness directed the fighting, another maintained his body's basic functions, while Su Yuntao's main consciousness focused on decisions, accurately making the best possible judgment.

Jump. Use his force to dodge.

Deciding instinctively, Su Yuntao placed one hand on Tang Shan's incoming palm. Before Tang Shan could react, he used its force to flip upward, narrowly escaping the blow. His demeanor had now undergone a complete transformation. He possessed both a lone wolf's savage bloodlust and an utterly detached stillness, like the eternal heavens. Perhaps stimulated by his hunting instincts, his thoughts instead became increasingly calm and focused.

Tang Shan did not continue attacking. He simply studied Su Yuntao's current state. His body leaned slightly forward, his eyes shone with a dim green gleam, and sharp claws protruded from all ten fingers. On the surface, nothing seemed unusual, yet he faintly exuded an unsettling presence, as though some apex predator had locked onto its prey.

"Big brother, how does it feel? Do you need a certain amount of pressure to maintain this state?"

Although Su Yuntao's combat experience was growing rapidly, his consciousness remained completely unaffected. He answered clearly, "I don't need to deliberately concentrate on maintaining it, but this state consumes an enormous amount of stamina, soul power, and mental strength. I doubt I can sustain it for long."

"What about your soul power circulation? Is there any obstruction?" Tang Shan had not forgotten Su Yuntao's earlier mention that his soul power circulated automatically when he entered this special state.

Su Yuntao closed his eyes and focused on the sensation for a moment before opening them again to answer. "There's no obstruction at all. In fact, it's smoother than ever before, as though this is how soul power was always meant to flow. It's far more sophisticated than the meditation method I learned at Spirit Hall."

Tang Shan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "So that's how it works. I was worried that applying the soul beasts' experience in using soul power, stored within your bloodline, might cause problems for you. Now it seems this circulation route was most likely generated automatically to suit both your martial soul and your human body."

Afterward, Tang Shan had Su Yuntao perform a few simple experiments before letting him leave that special state. Once he voluntarily withdrew from it, the combat experience that had surged within him receded like a tide, though it still left faint traces in his body.

Reflecting on the feeling, Su Yuntao soon brought Tang Shan some good news. "Little brother, I just tried again. Although I still can't enter that state voluntarily, it was clearly a little easier than my previous attempts."

"In that case, my hypothesis is probably correct." Tang Shan withdrew his martial soul as well, and the two brothers sat down together on the rooftop, looking out over Star City below.

"Big brother, what sort of process do you think a soul master's cultivation involves?"

Su Yuntao answered with some confusion, "Is there a specific process to cultivation? Isn't it just raising your soul power level, then absorbing soul rings to break through?"

Tang Shan gently shook his head. Recalling everything he had seen, heard, and studied since transmigrating to this world, he slowly explained his understanding. "In my view, the first stage of a soul master's cultivation is the stage of bringing oneself and one's martial soul into harmony."

He pointed to himself as an example. "Take me. My goal at this stage is to fuse my martial soul completely with my body. After that, I won't merely possess a body martial soul. My body itself will be my martial soul."

Su Yuntao looked thoughtful and asked, "Then my first stage is also about improving my compatibility with my martial soul? What happens when that compatibility reaches its limit?"

Tang Shan smiled as he answered, "A martial soul avatar, of course. When a beast martial soul and its soul master achieve perfect compatibility, what could demonstrate that harmony better than a martial soul avatar that transforms the person into a soul beast?"

"What about tool soul masters?" Su Yuntao rapidly absorbed these new theories. An entirely new world of martial souls seemed to be slowly unfolding before his eyes.

"The key for a tool soul master is to improve how effectively they use their martial soul, eventually merging their soul into it and becoming a different sort of artifact spirit. That's the origin of the tool soul true body," Tang Shan patiently explained. "In theory, under normal circumstances, one must reach the Soul Saint realm to complete this first stage of cultivation. But body martial souls are an exception. Since a body martial soul is so closely connected to the body, the process of achieving compatibility is much faster than for other soul masters. Some body martial soul masters might therefore complete the first stage entirely at their fifth ring, or even their fourth."

What Tang Shan did not elaborate on was that without completing this stage of cultivation, a body martial soul had virtually no chance of achieving a second awakening by squeezing out its latent potential. After all, unless the body and martial soul were completely fused, the body would lack sufficient resilience and recovery ability.

"The body becomes the martial soul, the soul master becomes a soul beast, and the soul becomes an artifact spirit. Those are the core objectives of the first stage for the three kinds of martial souls?" Only now did Su Yuntao realize how many intricacies martial soul cultivation concealed.

"In theory, yes." Tang Shan added with some frustration, "But I can't yet determine the developmental path of plant-type martial souls. They seem able to develop in either the beast martial soul or tool martial soul direction. All I can say is that plant martial souls truly are unusual."

"Then how do you explain that special state I was in?" Su Yuntao brought the discussion back to the main point.

Tang Shan nodded. "That's why I called it an alternative form of martial soul avatar. If you can gain a soul beast's fighting instincts and the combat experience within its bloodline, doesn't that mean your body has partially entered the beast soul true body state?"

"So other beast martial soul masters will enter the same state I just experienced once they reach Soul Saint and activate their martial soul avatars?" Tang Shan's words surprised Su Yuntao considerably.

"Not necessarily. There's a reason I called it an alternative martial soul avatar. It has its own unique qualities. Even when other Soul Saints activate their martial soul avatars, their combat experience could never increase as rapidly as yours did, big brother."

"Why is that?"

"Because they normally focus on increasing their soul power, and what they learn are human fighting methods. The instincts and combat experience hidden in their bloodlines have long since fallen completely dormant during the lengthy process of cultivating to Soul Saint."

Tang Shan voiced his final conclusion about Su Yuntao's special state. "Big brother, that special state you entered isn't something everyone can achieve. You could even call it a treasure exclusive to beast martial souls, a great gift of combat experience bestowed on soul masters by their martial souls. Anyone who discovers it will surely be able to accelerate their compatibility with their martial soul, just as body martial soul masters do."

"It's just that the key to unlocking this treasure is far too complicated. On top of that, the vast majority of beast martial soul masters have never learned from the soul beasts corresponding to their own martial souls, so almost no one discovers it. Even the few lucky people who stumble into this state will probably be labeled 'combat geniuses,' causing them to overlook the mysteries behind it." Tang Shan shook his head with a trace of regret.

"If my guess is right, the vast majority of Beast Soul Saints on the continent probably haven't unlocked this treasure. That's also why their martial soul avatars always seem slightly inferior to tool soul true bodies. What they lack is precisely this combat experience inherited through their bloodlines.

"Just imagine a beast martial soul Soul Saint transforming into a soul beast, possessing all of that beast's fighting instincts while retaining human intelligence. How terrifying would their power be?"

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