Tang Mo felt that if he could add the first five Soul Rings to his first Martial Soul, Tang Sect Grandmaster, the power of the five elements would strengthen his five internal organs enough that, once he used Earth-Wood Flow Injection, his recovery would surely surpass the healing effect of Li Songnian's Healing Jewel's sixth Soul Skill.
After that little interlude, Li Songnian lost all desire to continue his psychological contest with Tang Mo. He simply finished the lesson, then took the group to the Mimicry Training Room.
The Mimicry Training Room could simulate the most suitable cultivation environment for the Soul Masters who entered it. Generally, only advanced Soul Master Academies and certain major powers had them.
Spirit Hall had vast wealth and resources, so it naturally spared no expense on its Mimicry Training Room. Every feature met the highest specifications.
Many Soul Masters' Martial Souls had more than one attribute, so the environment in the Mimicry Training Room could be fine-tuned to accommodate their multiple attributes.
The moment he entered the Mimicry Training Room, the power of the five elements washed over Tang Mo. He could sense that it was not only evenly distributed here, but also far more concentrated than outside.
The Mimicry Training Room provided a considerable boost to cultivation. Even after sitting cross-legged and cultivating for only a short while, Tang Mo could feel a fairly obvious increase in his Soul Power-at least one rank. It simply did not manifest because he had yet to obtain a Soul Ring.
However, this sort of improvement only occurred the first time someone used the Mimicry Training Room. Its effects would grow progressively weaker afterward.
This was not merely because the body adapted to the Mimicry Training Room, but also because the room itself had a limit to the enhancement it could provide.
After all, no matter how exquisitely human craftsmanship rivaled heaven's work, it still fell short of nature's own divine artistry, and even of the legacies certain powerful beings left behind upon death. The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, for example, was a treasured site formed after the deaths of the Water and Fire Dragon Kings.
Setting aside his thoughts, Tang Mo continued cultivating in the Mimicry Training Room. This time, however, he did not maintain an environment containing all five elements, instead filling it with only the powers of metal, water, and wood.
The second Soul Ring he had planned for himself was water-attributed and ten thousand years old. To adapt to it better, he needed to adjust his condition.
According to the principle of metal generating water in the five elements' cycle of generation, since his first Soul Ring was metal-attributed, his second would ideally be water-attributed, and his third wood-attributed.
He therefore chose to first strengthen the metal and water powers within his body, while increasing his wood power to a lesser extent.
Once he obtained his second Soul Ring, he needed to ensure that the metal and water powers within his body reached a delicate balance, thereby increasing his wood power and seamlessly preparing for his third Soul Ring.
Night soon fell. With little entertainment available and no raw materials for refining Magical Artifacts or making medicines, Tang Mo could only turn out the lights and go to bed early, sitting cross-legged on the bed to enter a state of cultivation.
The cultivation methods of his Tang Sect attended to both soul and body. The body grew stronger little by little through daily exercise and cultivation of the Five Treasures Body Protection Method.
The Five Treasures Body Protection Method could strengthen the Qi of the five organs and five elements, accomplishing precisely the internal training that body cultivators most desired.
As the saying went, train the sinews, bones, and skin externally, and a breath of Qi internally. External training could be done through daily exercise, through blows from external objects, or even through extreme methods such as holding a horse stance beneath a waterfall.
Internal training, however, was extremely difficult. Without a profound mental cultivation method to support it, one could only strengthen the internal organs through movements paired with specific breathing techniques.
As for how to train the soul, that relied on stillness practice and tempering within the Inner Scene.
Stillness practice had four realms: joy and pleasure born of seclusion, joy and pleasure born of samadhi, subtle joy and pleasure beyond joy, and purity through abandoning thought.
The four realms corresponded respectively to:
Casting aside the disturbances of the outside world and being able to quiet the mind.
Beginning to feel the happiness brought by stillness and being able to enter deeper meditation.
Fully comprehending the happiness brought by stillness, yet needing to relinquish that happiness little by little.
Feeling nothing at all, with only pure stillness remaining, as though everything had become nothingness.
From an outside perspective, the higher one's attainment in stillness practice, the longer one could sit in meditation.
The Inner Scene that complemented stillness practice was a unique product of the world of extraordinary people. It resembled a sea of consciousness, yet was different.
The Inner Scene was like a reflection of the mind. Because everyone had different experiences and personalities, the scenes that appeared after entering it differed from person to person.
He had originally thought that nothing like the Inner Scene existed on the Douluo Continent, yet when he first began cultivating, he entered it as soon as he settled into meditation.
At this moment, his body was cultivating Soul Power on its own, while his consciousness had entered the Inner Scene.
Within the Inner Scene, he sat upright in a forest. Around him was none of the city's clamor, only everything that belonged in nature.
A gentle breeze blew through the leaves, passed beside him, and swept over the soil, carrying a faint breath of nature.
There in the forest, he experienced the atmosphere of harmony between humanity and nature, while also sensing the sounds of heavenly music.
Zhuangzi had once divided music into three categories: human music, performed by people; earthly music, represented by natural sounds such as insects chirping, birds singing, wind blowing through trees, and rivers flowing; and finally, the indescribable, spontaneous heavenly music.
Human music was sound actively produced by people, earthly music was sound passively produced by nature, and heavenly music was nature itself.
Some believed heavenly music was the soundless sound of plants breathing, while others believed it was a manifestation of the Dao...
Thus, Tang Mo did not know exactly what heavenly music was either. It was simply that, as he sat in the forest, he could feel a peace far removed from the city's clamor.
While he cultivated, Bibi Dong appeared outside his door. The resonance between their Martial Souls still troubled her, leaving her afraid to get too close to Tang Mo, lest a Martial Soul Fusion Skill form.
Yet the resonance between Martial Souls was not something she could completely suppress. Otherwise, the two people who performed a Martial Soul Fusion Skill would not almost always be husband and wife.
At this moment, she stood there not because she wanted to observe Tang Mo, but because she wanted to approach him little by little, as though undergoing desensitization treatment, so that in the future she could stand beside him without being affected by Martial Soul Resonance.
But she had clearly miscalculated. The closer she came to Tang Mo, the more violent the Martial Soul Resonance became, until she could barely keep her footing.
She tightened her grip on the scepter in her hand and swiftly left before she completely lost the ability to move.
Back in her room, she took deep breaths for a while before finally suppressing her Martial Soul's agitation.
Then she removed her papal robes, changed into a nightdress, and stood before the full-length mirror, carefully studying her reflection.
She discovered that her cheeks were flushed, and fine beads of sweat had appeared on her forehead at some point.
She felt as though she were heading in Qian Xunji's direction, as though she were showing signs of becoming a Secret Chamber Douluo.
She closed her eyes and released a strand of Soul Power with a wave of her hand, turning the full-length mirror around. Now, she actually felt somewhat afraid to look her reflection in the eye.
Time flashed by, and three days soon passed. Having failed to rest properly for several days in a row, Bibi Dong finally received news that she was unsure whether to consider good: the Soul Beast Tang Mo needed had been found.
According to the report sent back by the fleet dispatched by Spirit Hall in Vast Sea City, a sea-blue Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast resembling an orca lived between the shallow and deep waters.
Judging by its color, it was most likely a pure water-type Soul Beast. Even if that guess was wrong, it would not be far off.
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