Breath Concealment Technique

[At fifteen, your accumulated soul power reached level forty-three.]

[The Ancestral Land brimmed with spiritual energy, and Ah Yin's origin power nourished you constantly. Your cultivation progressed far faster than it would in the outside world.]

[Feeling that you had perfected your foundations, you asked the Blue Silver King to help you hunt a nine-thousand-year Formless Source Beast on the outskirts of the Blue Silver Forest.]

[This was an exceedingly rare and unusual soul beast. Its entire body was translucent and jellylike, with no fixed shape, sometimes spreading out like flowing water, sometimes contracting into a transparent sphere the size of a fist.]

[It had no eyes, mouth, or nose. Its entire body was a mass of translucent, flowing gelatin, and it found its bearings solely by sensing the life auras around it.]

[This soul beast had no powerful means of attack. Instead, it possessed extraordinary, immense vitality and an almost perfect ability to disguise itself-]

[It could freely change its texture and color to match its surroundings. When attacked, its body could stretch and twist like rubber. Ordinary blades would only sink into a mass of slippery gelatin, making it extremely difficult to inflict fatal damage.]

[Fortunately, the Blue Silver King stood by to assist. This guardian of the Blue Silver Clan, whose cultivation ran deep, merely raised a hand, and Blue Silver Grass filled the air and formed a cage, suppressing the beast's shapeshifting with absolute power.]

[You seized your chance, drew the Fine Steel Longsword, and pierced its core with a single thrust.]

[A deep purple soul ring slowly rose.]

[You sat cross-legged, focused your mind, calmed your breathing, and drew the soul ring into your body.]

[The instant the soul ring entered you, a cool, supple power spread along your meridians. It was not violent, yet it seeped like a tide into every inch of your flesh, sinews, and bones.]

[At the same time, a strand of pure, peculiar energy rose straight to the point between your brows. Like a spring breeze turning to rain, it slowly nourished your Sea of Consciousness.]

[Half a day later, you opened your eyes.]

[Your martial soul's appearance had changed little. Only its leaves had grown clearer and more translucent, with a faint glassy sheen and a soft halo shifting across them in the sunlight.]

[Your perception improved greatly, and your control over every inch of muscle and every strand of soul power grew more precise.]

[Your soul power level reached forty, and you also gained your third soul skill-]

[Myriad Forms Mimicry: a thousand transformations, all at your will. Your Blue Silver Grass could change its texture, density, and shape in an extremely short time according to your thoughts. You could also precisely regulate the properties of its different parts to suit countless forms.]

[You concentrated on carefully comprehending how this soul skill worked and soon grasped its true potential-]

[It did more than mimic appearances. You could also choose what to retain according to your needs, strip away irrelevant characteristics, and concentrate soul power on a single point, strengthening one property to its utmost and making the mimicked objects more realistic and practical.]

[You stood and opened your palm.]

[Blue Silver Grass emerged from your palm, rapidly changing shape and solidifying as you poured soul power into it. In mere moments, it became a short blade roughly two feet long. Its edge was as thin as a cicada's wing and gleamed with a cold metallic luster.]

[You swung it casually, and a dead branch as thick as an arm snapped cleanly beside you. The cut was smooth and even, without a single splinter.]

[You nodded in satisfaction. Then, with another thought, the short blade flowed and changed like quicksilver, becoming a round shield half a person's height in the blink of an eye.]

[You tapped it with a finger and felt its dull solidity. Although it was not as hard as true hundred-refined fine steel, the Blue Silver Grass's tremendous toughness and regenerative ability made up for that shortcoming.]

[You picked up the Fine Steel Longsword and struck the shield hard with greater force. The blow left a sizable gash but failed to penetrate it. Then the gash slowly wriggled like a living thing, repairing itself until the shield was soon restored.]

[Your interest grew. You drew the Blue Silver Grass back into your palm, then activated it again.]

[This time, Blue Silver Grass emerged from either side of your back, rapidly weaving together and extending. Within a few breaths, it formed a pair of broad blue-green wings.]

[You tried flapping them. Air currents churned between the wings, and your entire body actually rose several feet off the ground, hovering in midair.]

[Unfortunately, after only a few breaths, excessive soul power consumption forced you back to the ground, and a wave of dizziness washed through your head. Yet instead of being annoyed, you were delighted, for you had achieved the brief flight that only a Soul Saint could master.]

[After returning to the Ancestral Land, you could not wait to share your joy with Ah Yin.]

[She took spiritual form and quietly watched your demonstration, sunlight reflected in her eyes and a faint smile at the corners of her lips.]

[Time flowed like water, and several more months passed in a flash.]

[Nourished in return by the countless Blue Silver Grass plants in the Ancestral Land, Ah Yin smoothly broke through to eighty thousand years of cultivation.]

[Her true body grew ever sturdier and more luxuriant. Her gnarled vines sprawled like ancient trees, flowing light rippling wherever the wind passed, and the majesty of an emperor revealed itself naturally.]

[Her spiritual form became fully solid. Her blue skirt trailed along the ground, and her features were gentle. She had shed the childish innocence and bewilderment of her first awakening, gaining a measure of clear-minded composure.]

[Through the days and nights you spent together, the bond between you deepened.]

[However, as Ah Yin's cultivation drew closer to the hundred-thousand-year threshold, your worries grew with each passing day.]

[With her current reserves, trying to withstand the heavenly tribulation through her own strength alone would almost certainly mean death, with no hope of survival. The only path before her was transformation and cultivation.]

[In the original story, Ah Yin had only been able to enter her mature stage so quickly after her resurrection because of the intervention of Sea God divine power.]

[Now, you were in the Blue Silver Ancestral Land, growing through its power without the favor of a deity, and you could not guarantee that she could reproduce that encounter.]

[If she could not accomplish it all in one step, she would have to enter human society again, steeping herself in human presence amid the smoke and fires of the mortal world, slowly stabilizing her human form and growing anew.]

[In that case, the origin of a hundred-thousand-year soul beast within her would be like a keen blade hanging over her head, liable to bring utter disaster upon her at any moment.]

[There had been quite a few methods of concealment in the original story-]

[During Douluo I, Xiao Wu had used the Lovesick Heartbreak Red to conceal her aura; during Douluo IV, Silver Dragon King Gu Yuena had used her own dragon scale to help Bai Xiuxiu conceal her origin.]

[In essence, these methods all used supreme treasures to forcibly cover a soul beast's origin. As long as no one probed deep inside the body, they could indeed deceive the heavens and cross the sea unnoticed.]

[But you did not have the Silver Dragon King's Dragon Scale. As for the Lovesick Heartbreak Red, although you had always kept it safely stored, this immortal herb had extremely stringent conditions for acknowledging a master-]

[Only someone utterly true in feeling and nature, thinking of their beloved without a single stray thought, could make it acknowledge them by watering it with hot blood from their heart.]

[Looking into Ah Yin's clear, bright eyes, you were not certain whether she could successfully pluck it.]

[After turning it over in your mind, you finally made your decision: rather than rely on external objects, you would create a method that allowed transformed soul beasts to restrain the aura of their own origin.]

[To solve a problem, you first had to uncover its essence.]

[You intended to begin by thoroughly understanding the true nature of a soul beast's origin.]

[You found several Soft Bone Rabbits on the verge of becoming ten-year soul beasts. Using your own soul power as a guide, you spurred their lives to leap to the next stage, observing every detail of their transformation from ordinary beasts into soul beasts with your spiritual power throughout the process.]

[After repeated comparisons and deductions, you gradually discerned the pattern-]

[The transformation of soul beasts was, in essence, very similar to the martial soul awakening humans underwent at six years old.]

[Heaven and earth soul power accumulated in a beast's flesh and blood over the years, repeatedly mingling with its vitality and the will of its soul until it finally condensed into an origin core.]

[Through this, an ordinary beast transformed into a soul beast.]

[A soul beast's origin was this core: in essence, a mass of special energy tempered by life and soul, far purer than ordinary heaven and earth soul power.]

[It was the true vessel of all the soul beast's cultivation and will, deeply bound to its soul. The two lived and existed together and were difficult to separate.]

[Once a soul beast died, this energy lost its support and left the body under the influence of the laws of heaven and earth, carrying a small portion of the beast's memories and combat instincts before finally becoming a soul ring.]

[To verify your conjecture, you also specifically consulted Ah Yin and the Blue Silver King about the details of a hundred-thousand-year soul beast's transformation-]

[Soul beast transformation essentially converted the beast's body into a human one, while its soul shed its bestial nature and adapted anew to its new body.]

[This process consumed most of its origin energy. The remainder did not disperse, but entered the new body along with the soul and lay dormant within it.]

[Whenever its cultivation broke through a major realm, a portion of this origin would gradually be released and condense into a soul ring on its own: the self-condensed soul rings of transformed soul beasts.]

[After transforming, hundred-thousand-year soul beasts could usually only condense their first six soul rings themselves. This was not because of some restriction imposed by the laws, but because the transformation consumed too much. Their remaining origin and the strength of their souls were no longer sufficient to support the condensation of more soul rings.]

[In theory, if its origin was abundant enough and its soul strong enough, a transformed soul beast could absolutely condense all nine soul rings itself.]

[Having understood the essence of a soul beast's origin, you actually already had the two simplest methods before you-]

[First, after a soul beast transformed, you could directly strip the remaining origin from its body. Without its origin, a transformed soul beast would be no different from an ordinary human, and naturally no one could see through its identity again.]

[But its origin was connected to its soul, so stripping it away would inevitably damage the soul beast's foundations.]

[Moreover, deprived of the soul's support, the origin would rapidly condense into a soul ring and soon dissipate between heaven and earth. That would be far too great a waste.]

[Second, you could use overwhelming power to place an isolating seal on the origin, stopping its aura from leaking out at the source.]

[But establishing such a seal required strength at least close to the divine level, and you currently had no way of meeting that requirement.]

[Neither path was viable, but you were not discouraged.]

[Since directly sealing it and forcibly stripping it away were both impossible, why not seek inspiration in the innate instincts of soul beasts?]

[You noticed that some soul beasts in the forest specializing in concealment and ambush naturally possessed the ability to hide their own auras-for instance, Shadow Snakes, Phantom Bone Lizards, and Thousand-Faced Foxes...]

[You asked the Blue Silver King to capture several kinds of soul beasts skilled in concealment from deep within the forest. Using your spiritual power as a blade, you dissected their soul power circulation circuits one by one, carefully studying their intricacies.]

[The concealment methods of different soul beasts each had their own merits-]

[The Shadow Snake relied on a special structure.]

[When stimulated by soul power, its scales and skin formed a slippery film of soul power over its body, deflecting external spiritual probes like stones skipping across water and preventing them from reaching its true body.]

[The Phantom Bone Lizard went further.]

[It could actually reverse the process of a soul beast's transformation, temporarily merging its origin into its flesh and blood so that its aura "regressed" to that of an ordinary beast, blending completely into its surroundings.]

[The most remarkable was the Thousand-Faced Fox.]

[When this soul beast used its innate skill, it could distort the fluctuations of its own origin, briefly turning its aura into nothingness and vanishing entirely from perception. Alternatively, it could directly mimic a human Soul Master or even another soul beast, achieving complete mimicry and passing the false off as real.]

[As you watched the illusory image mimicked by the Thousand-Faced Fox, an idea stirred within you.]

[Your third soul skill, Myriad Forms Mimicry, was essentially a form of simulation as well, only it focused on changes at the material level. The Thousand-Faced Fox's concealment, meanwhile, was simulation at the level of energy and aura.]

[Matter and energy were two sides of the same coin to begin with. Why could they not blend and connect?]

[You immediately used your third soul skill as a template, drawing on the concealment mechanisms of various soul beasts in an attempt to create a secret method specifically for hiding your own aura.]

[First, you observed the energy circuits inside soul beasts with your spiritual power. Then you compared the differences in how human and soul beast meridians functioned, making adjustments and experimenting bit by bit.]

[You experimented on yourself, driving your own soul power to simulate different auras, repeatedly compressing, grinding, and shaping it until it finally condensed into a film of soul power as thin as a cicada's wing. Then, inch by inch, you slowly wrapped it around your own martial soul origin...]

[Day after day, you sank almost all your attention into these endless deductions.]

[Ah Yin could not understand your intricate deductions, but she could understand the anxiety in your eyes.]

[She never pressed you for the reason. She simply stayed quietly by your side each day, using the Blue Silver Emperor's origin power to soothe the soreness and swelling in your meridians, and her gentle aura of life to ease the weariness between your brows.]

[Sometimes, as you sat motionless in thought, you would suddenly feel a slightly cool blade of grass gently support the back of your head. Its pressure was just right, neither off-center nor askew, allowing your neck, taut as a bowstring, a moment's respite.]

[Gradually, your aura grew increasingly varied, repeatedly shifting between human and soul beast, sometimes hidden and sometimes apparent. Even the Blue Silver King, whose perception was the keenest, would sometimes freeze before you, momentarily unable to identify what you truly were, as though your entire being had become a cloud of elusive mist.]

[Spring came and autumn went. Another half year passed.]

[On an ordinary morning, you sat quietly cross-legged beneath Ah Yin's true body. The soul power within you completed a cycle along the method you had finished deducing, and your aura withdrew inward layer by layer until it finally merged with the surrounding rocks, grass, and trees.]

[You were still sitting there, yet to the perception of others, that spot was utterly empty, without the slightest trace of a living person's aura.]

[-The Breath Concealment Technique was, at last, complete.]