Four Martial Soul Fusion Skills

"Tell me, what exactly is the drawback here?"

Xiao Hongchen spoke indignantly.

"Hehe?"

"This third soul skill is practically giving you three whole soul skills. First, it boosts all your attributes and creates clones; second, it lets you merge those clones; third, it lets you swap places with your clones."

"Yes."

"What a terrifying soul skill. As expected of a skill gained after awakening."

Everyone began discussing it.

"You're amazing, Brother!"

Huo Yuyao spoke happily.

Seeing the girl's slightly silly expression, Lin Mo shook his head with a laugh.

If only my second martial soul could emerge sooner.

Just as he was thinking that, a rather unfriendly female voice suddenly sounded in his mind.

"Hmph. If you want to awaken it sooner, hurry up and strengthen your body. You're this weak, yet you still have the nerve to ask for an awakening?"

*???*

*???*

The two instantly bewildered were Lin Mo and Electrolux, who was inside his Sea of Consciousness.

"Huh?"

A jumble of gibberish suddenly drifted before Lin Mo's eyes.

"Since you're as stupid as a pig, I'll spell it out for you. Go to the ruins of the Ice Dragon King and the Fire Dragon King and absorb their power. When the time comes, I'll help you awaken it."

"..."

Lin Mo entered his Sea of Consciousness and scratched his cheek awkwardly.

"Um, Teacher, did I just get scolded?"

"..."

After a brief silence, noticing that the voice had not spoken again, Lin Mo stopped fooling around and began thinking seriously.

The ruins of the Ice Dragon King and the Fire Dragon King... In other words, the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. Looks like I'll have to go there. First the Star Dou Great Forest, then the Sunset Forest, and finally the Far North.

He did not wonder about or investigate the speaker's identity, since he felt there was little point. Even his teacher could not uncover any information about her, so he certainly could not.

Rather than investigate something he could not get to the bottom of, he might as well take care of everything before him first.

Since this trip will let me obtain my second martial soul, I might as well tell them beforehand. I could use the opportunity to get some benefits, too. Right, speaking of benefits, she just said I needed to strengthen my body.

Once he made his decision, he stood up and addressed everyone with a serious expression tinged with delight.

"Everyone, actually, I gained something else."

Having heard that he had gained such an outrageous soul skill and still had something extra to show for it, everyone turned curious gazes toward him.

"Actually, I have twin martial souls, too."

That simple sentence took everyone present from curiosity to stunned silence, then shock.

Especially with Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen, he could clearly see their pupils slowly contracting.

"What?!"

Everyone present except Huo Yuyao looked shocked. Even a Titled Douluo like Ye Yulin was astonished.

"You're not joking, are you?"

"How could I joke about something like this?"

He stepped forward and began explaining.

"Here's what happened. Just after the awakening, my martial soul revealed some information to me. First, it can still improve twice more. Second, my second martial soul is currently unawakened."

After hearing that, Jing Hongchen was so excited he nearly started jumping.

After all, he was the dean of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy. Even though Lin Mo and Huo Yuyao were not his disciples and he had never taught either of them, having two Soul Masters with twin martial souls appear in the academy under his management was a major achievement, no matter how one looked at it.

"Then-then I'll help you awaken it right now."

He had not brought Awakening Stones specifically in preparation for anything. His storage space was simply rather large, and he had put a few stones in it so long ago that he had forgotten about them.

When sorting through his belongings, he had not thought to throw them away, either. They hardly took up any room, and he figured they might come in handy during an emergency someday.

As he spoke, he took out six stones.

"W-wait, Dean. You've seen how unusual my first martial soul is. Naturally, my second martial soul is the same. It can't be drawn out through a conventional awakening. I need to keep strengthening my body, then spend some time training in the major soul beast forests to awaken it."

He did not explicitly say he wanted to go to the Sunset Forest. After all, some things could not be made too obvious.

"I see. Still, judging by your description, it's probably an extremely powerful martial soul."

Xuan Ziwen's face was full of curiosity. Watching Lin Mo break through and observing his martial soul was one of the few occasions when he was not occupied with soul tools.

He genuinely liked the boy. Over the past six months, Kong Deming had assigned him to teach Lin Mo and Huo Yuyao, and their talents were even more extraordinary than his own. Not only did they learn quickly, they could put what they learned into practice. More importantly, they had the ability to innovate.

The Sun Moon Empire had never lacked Soul Engineers, nor did it lack high-level ones. Class 7 and Class 8 Soul Engineers were indeed precious, but across the entire Sun Moon Empire, there were still handfuls upon handfuls of them.

The most precious were Soul Engineers who could innovate and carry out their own research and development.

He had always firmly believed that developing better soul tools required constant innovation.

Naturally, he was fond of two Soul Engineers capable of independent innovation.

More importantly, Lin Mo and Huo Yuyao actually shared certain similarities with his way of thinking. In particular, regarding the Sealed Milk Bottle he was currently researching, both had offered different perspectives. After testing them in practice, he discovered that they truly led to significant breakthroughs.

Likewise, this had shocked Lin Mo. He had never imagined Huo Yuyao's talent in the Soul Tool Department would be so extraordinary. He still had to rely on knowledge from the novels he had read, whereas Huo Yuyao had genuinely learned and thought of everything herself.

Sure enough, if the protagonist had come to Sun Moon to study soul tools from the very beginning, she would definitely have achieved even more.

That had been his thought at the time, and his second thought was:

Once I help Xuan Ziwen finish developing the Sealed Milk Bottle, I'll bring him straight into the Spirit Pagoda.

Back to the matter at hand.

Even Kong Deming, who normally never let his emotions show, wore a somewhat excited smile.

Two exceptionally talented Soul Masters with twin martial souls, both possessing outstanding talent in soul tools as well.

Even he could not help imagining the Sun Moon Empire's future.

"You said awakening your second martial soul requires an extremely strong physique, correct?"

He had already made his decision.

"Yes."

Looking at Kong Deming and his manner, Lin Mo smiled inwardly.

"In a couple of days, I'll have someone deliver some herbs that strengthen the body to your dormitory. Take your time; there's no need to rush. With talent like yours, you must be all the more careful not to chase quick results. Your trip to the Star Dou Great Forest still requires some preparation, so you can cultivate without worry."

"Thank you, Elder Kong."

With everything settled, everyone was about to discuss leaving.

Huo Yuyao reached out and poked Lin Mo's waist.

"Brother, Brother, now that your martial soul has awakened, shouldn't we take this opportunity to try our martial soul fusion skill?"

Huo Yuyao's words reminded Lin Mo of precisely that.

"Right. We have the perfect place for it right now. Let's give it a try."

The two exchanged smiles, then embraced right in front of everyone.

Some onlookers were startled, some surprised, and others covered their mouths.

The four adults, however, were puzzled by the sight. They had not expected the two to suddenly hug, but recalling their relationship, they merely assumed it was excitement over learning that the other's talent had reached new heights.

Yet what happened next shocked them-or rather, completely exceeded their expectations.

As the two held each other tightly, they released their martial souls at the same time.

The soul imprints of the Spirit Eyes and the Yin-Yang Mystic Sword appeared behind them simultaneously.

A surge of soul power flashed out, enveloping them both.

The sharp-eyed among them, especially Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen, immediately recognized what the two were doing.

"N-no way. This... this looks like a martial soul fusion skill."

"What's going on? How did this happen out of nowhere?"

Before they could react, threads woven from soul power had already slowly intertwined around the two figures, enclosing them in a cocoon.

The cocoon slowly rose into the sky. Cracks appeared across its shell like glass, then suddenly spread outward.

The powerful fluctuations of soul power instantly made Xiao Xiao and the others farther away instinctively release their own soul power to resist.

The first thing to break out of the "shell" was yin-yang qi. As it continued expanding, a vertical eye formed entirely from soul power and spiritual power appeared in midair.

The vertical eye snapped open, revealing not an ordinary eye-or rather, not a normal eye color-but the yin-yang diagram they had seen only a short while earlier.

The yin-yang diagram slowly revolved within the eye, leaving everyone present utterly shaken.

"It really is a martial soul fusion skill. They actually have a martial soul fusion skill, too."

While they were still reeling, countless black-and-white sword phantoms suddenly shot from the eye in the sky, resembling a pouring rain of swords. Yet as they fell to the ground, there was none of the expected thunderous noise. Instead, the sword phantoms pierced the ground without the slightest sound, then slowly vanished.

"It looks like a soul skill that affects the mind."

As the martial soul fusion skill's effects slowly ended, the two landed back on the ground, exchanged a glance, and happily hugged again.

"Hehe, this is wonderful, Brother Xiao Mo! Our martial soul fusion skill finally worked."

"Ah, we've been looking forward to this for more than half a year."

"This soul skill is pretty outrageous. It has both control and group weakening effects."

As they discussed it, they finally noticed that everyone had surrounded them.

"Don't you two owe us an explanation for keeping something this important from us?"

Meng Hongchen asked with a playful smile, though her lips were pursed in a pout.

"Hahaha, about that..."

Huo Yuyao scratched her cheek awkwardly.

"Brother Xiao Mo said we should keep it secret. Yes!"

"Hm?"

Huo Yuyao pointed both index fingers at Lin Mo beside her and giggled, while Lin Mo looked at her in confusion.

"Well, that's more or less true. We did discover it before, but apparently, since my martial soul hadn't fully awakened then, the martial soul fusion skill kept failing. So we didn't tell you ahead of time. We thought we'd tell you once we succeeded."

"I see."

"Incidentally, Little Yao and I actually have one hundred percent martial soul compatibility."

"One hundred percent?!"

The shocked exclamation came from Xiao Hongchen. After all, aside from the Hongchen family, none of those present had such a skill themselves, so they had never made a point of studying these things.

But because the Hongchen siblings possessed a martial soul fusion skill, their family had researched the subject.

"Is that really true?"

"Ah, does one hundred percent compatibility have some special effect?"

Xiao Xiao was a little puzzled.

"Unlike ordinary Soul Masters who can perform a martial soul fusion skill, two Soul Masters with one hundred percent martial soul compatibility not only create more powerful fusion skills, but more importantly, they can cultivate using a special Martial Soul Fusion Cultivation Method. Their cultivation speed is several times faster than normal solo cultivation."

"So that's why you two have been cultivating so quickly over the past six months?"

The two nodded at Xiao Xiao.

"Wait. If that's the case, and you both have twin martial souls, wouldn't that mean...?"

Ji Juechen asked.

"Exactly. Just as you're thinking, Senior Ji, our martial souls can combine in pairs. In other words, we'll ultimately have four martial soul fusion skills."

Hearing that number, they all involuntarily twisted their mouths.

"You might not find even one martial soul fusion skill among a thousand Soul Masters across the entire continent, yet you two alone can produce four."

"All right, explain its effects."

Ignoring everyone's amazement and envy, Kong Deming began questioning them.

"This martial soul fusion skill is called Mystic Spirit: Eyes Open, Splitting the Two Principles. Its effect is just as you saw: we turn into that enormous eye."

Mystic Spirit: Eyes Open, Splitting the Two Principles:

The instant the vertical eye in midair opens, it releases a powerful burst of Mental Interference, then continuously shoots black-and-white sword phantoms.

Anyone struck by a white sword phantom has their attack and defense reduced; anyone pierced by a black sword phantom has their speed and reactions reduced. All reductions are twenty percent.

At the same time, anyone struck suffers brief Mental Interference. The higher their spiritual power or soul power, the weaker the effect.

"It sounds like a group weakening soul skill with a control effect."

"Yes."

"It really is powerful. Oh, right, can't you use another one, too? I want to see it! I want to see it!"

"Give it up, Xiao Xiao. They've only just managed to release their first martial soul fusion skill. Forget releasing a completely new second one-even using the first one again will require three days to a week of recovery."

"Ah, all right, all right."

Once everything had finally come to an end, everyone left. Lin Mo and Huo Yuyao had only just returned to their dormitory and sat down for a short while when they heard a knock at the door.