"Teacher, what exactly are we waiting for?" Jiang Xia could not help asking.
Han Tianyi smiled. "Don't you want an Ice Silkworm Soul Spirit? I'll try to get the pagoda to help you farm a top-tier Ice Silkworm Soul Spirit."
Hearing Han Tianyi's seemingly joking words, Jiang Xia froze on the spot.
What did that mean? What did he mean, farm a top-tier Ice Silkworm Soul Spirit?
Watching his stunned disciple, Han Tianyi did not keep him guessing. He explained simply, "Soul Spirit technology is already very mature. Have you ever considered where else we replenish our Soul Spirits from, apart from artificial Soul Spirits?"
Replenish Soul Spirits?
Jiang Xia really had never considered that question.
Because the Spirit Pagoda had become corrupt, Huo Yuhao's policy of governing the Spirit Pagoda jointly with soul beasts had been overturned. The Spirit Pagoda hunted soul beasts everywhere, converting them into Soul Spirits. Humans had occupied almost all the soul beast habitats on the continent, and those soul beasts had all become sealed Soul Spirits.
Naturally, the high-quality Soul Spirits were sealed in the Soul Spirit Tower, where people could obtain them by challenging the tower.
Ordinary Soul Spirits were sold directly.
Yet even under these circumstances, the continent's soul masters' demand for Soul Spirits had not decreased, and the Spirit Pagoda had never experienced a shortage.
Although artificial Soul Spirit technology had been developed, it was nowhere near enough to make up for the current consumption of Soul Spirits.
Han Tianyi said, "Because our Spirit Pagoda has mastered a method of reproduction in Soul Spirit form."
They could reproduce even after becoming Soul Spirits.
Jiang Xia found that somewhat absurd.
They no longer even had bodies, yet they could still reproduce.
But he also felt that it seemed quite reasonable.
"Without the constraints of a physical body, and with the gradual refinement of our technology, low-level soul beasts like Ice Silkworms reproduce even faster and more rapidly in Soul Spirit form than they do normally."
"Furthermore, we have the Spirit Ascension Platform. We can assess an Ice Silkworm's aptitude as quickly as possible, then infuse it with spiritual power to raise its cultivation."
"When I spoke of farming an Ice Silkworm with top-tier aptitude, I meant repeatedly breeding Ice Silkworms, then selecting the best one out of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands."
Even listening to it, Jiang Xia found it rather inconceivable.
"Wouldn't the consumption be terrifying?"
Han Tianyi said, "Even waste can be reused. The Spirit Pagoda will also recover as much cultivation as possible from the Ice Silkworms with poor aptitude."
Jiang Xia opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out.
This was the power of technology.
When soul tool technology developed toward the technological side, many technologies that ordinary people found difficult to understand would emerge in response.
Because the technological side was not a solo battle.
Perfecting a technology was the result of generations, or even dozens of generations, of effort.
Reproducing that technology was by no means something one person could accomplish, either.
Even merely operating the corresponding machinery required the cooperation of a top-notch professional team.
If artificial Soul Spirits and spirit ascension technology could be realized, then breeding living beings from existing Soul Spirits and recovering their cultivation was entirely acceptable.
"What you need are the Soul Skills Imitation and Spirit Detection, with as strong a boost as possible within your dreams. I'll find a way to have the pagoda's researchers induce mutations in that direction."
"Half a year should be enough. The reason it might take a year is that we also need to test the top-tier Ice Silkworm Soul Spirit we farm to ensure it has no defects."
Jiang Xia nodded.
"Teacher, let's farm it, then."
In the days that followed, Jiang Xia studied three secondary professions under Han Tianyi's guidance.
First came learning the relevant knowledge.
Alongside that came constructing dreams.
Han Tianyi's Martial Soul was not dream-based, but he practiced illusions. He understood how to construct illusory realms, and his brain Martial Soul could also briefly open up an illusory world. Directly overlaying that world onto reality and making slight alterations to reality produced the best illusion effects.
Han Tianyi's spiritual power had already reached the Spirit Domain Realm, and he had mastered spiritual materialization. But spiritual materialization did not mean turning the illusory into the real.
These were two different concepts to begin with.
Spiritual materialization meant that spiritual power had a strong ability to interfere with reality, giving illusory spiritual power tangible form so that it could affect reality.
Turning the illusory into the real meant making illusory things real, and was not limited to spiritual power.
They were similar, but by no means the same.
If that was difficult to understand, the latter could be understood as making dreams come true to a certain extent.
Spiritual materialization manifested the force known as spiritual power, and that force could then carry out the actions the soul master wanted.
What it manifested was the cause.
Turning the illusory into the real, on the other hand, manifested the desired result.
The difference was that spiritual power was not omnipotent even after being manifested. With turning the illusory into the real, however, even if one could not define that "result" entirely at will during the illusory stage, it was still easier to achieve than through reality.
Han Tianyi had Jiang Xia connect to his illusory realm through his Broken Dream Martial Soul. Then, directly within that illusory domain, he taught him hands-on, giving Jiang Xia basic construction abilities within dreams.
Three days later.
Han Tianyi received word that the investigation in Heaven Dou City had uncovered the truth behind the misappropriation of Jiang Xia's parents' estate. He passed the news on to Jiang Xia.
"Do you want to go back and deal with it yourself?"
Jiang Xia nodded.
"I have to know who the culprit was who made me spend these past three years in hardship, living in fear every day."
Beside him, Han Tianyi sighed helplessly.
After spending these three days together, he could tell that his disciple was very mature.
His mind was so mature that he did not seem like a child.
"I'll take you there. We returned in such a hurry last time that I forgot to take you to visit some acquaintances there."
Han Tianyi had already set the project to farm a top-tier Ice Silkworm in motion.
The corresponding project team was also putting their hearts into the work. Reportedly, in just three days, they had already screened out Ice Silkworms that possessed both Imitation and Spirit Detection.
Heaven Dou City.
Once again, the Spirit Pagoda.
Yao Hongchen received master and disciple and gave a more detailed account of how Jiang Xia's parents' estate had been misappropriated.
"Your parents' deaths were indeed no accident. Evil soul masters may have been involved."
Jiang Xia's expression remained calm. The information Han Tianyi had received at the Spirit Pagoda headquarters had already included this point.
Yao Hongchen was also testing Jiang Xia's reaction to see whether he could accept it.
Seeing that Jiang Xia did not react particularly strongly, he now knew how much Jiang Xia could bear.
"Your parents were targeted by evil soul masters. It's very likely that even their souls were extracted. As for the family that embezzled their estate, they provided cover for the evil soul masters."
As he said this, Yao Hongchen's expression was grim.
A group of evil soul masters had been hiding right here in Heaven Dou City, and even their frequent hunts had been covered up without a trace.
What did that mean?
It meant that behind the evil soul masters were people even higher up.
Without anyone cooperating with them, that family alone could not have handled Jiang Xia's entire affair so cleanly from beginning to end.
Had Yao Hongchen not been able to force confessions through sheer strength, there would have been no way to investigate at all.
All the records and household registrations had been concealed without a trace.
Unfortunately, they had failed to account for Jiang Xia's talent.
"Looking at it that way, I was actually lucky. Those evil soul masters didn't kill me while they were at it." Jiang Xia took a deep breath and spoke with a hint of self-mockery.