Time passed, second by second.
Jiang Xia continued traveling back and forth between Heaven Dou City and Eastsea City.
In Heaven Dou City, he practiced the Body Sect's combat techniques under Mu Ye and learned Spirit Forging techniques from Zhen Hua.
Compared to Tang Wulin's breakthrough at his limits, Jiang Xia's approach to Spirit Forging was more scientific, and his progress was steadier.
While in Eastsea City, he accumulated experience while studying techniques for creating illusory spaces and digesting the technique for turning illusion into reality.
At the same time, he combined Spirit Detection and Imitation in the Spirit Ascension Platform to develop more abilities.
Half a year after beginning his push toward Spirit Forging, Jiang Xia successfully mastered the technique.
Afterward, he went straight to getting certified as a fifth-rank blacksmith.
Of course, he did not get certified at the Blacksmith's Association headquarters, but at the Eastsea City Blacksmith's Association.
Mu Chen conducted the certification.
Jiang Xia was also speechless at Zhen Hua's peculiar sense of humor.
In the time that followed, Jiang Xia continued cultivating quietly.
Naturally, Jiang Xia could reproduce the model for creating an illusory space. What he was studying now was the theory.
Merely knowing how to use it was the first step.
Only by understanding its inner workings could he go further.
At present, Jiang Xia still needed someone else's mental will to bear a new illusory space for him, and the limit was one.
He had also tried connecting to multiple people, but he could not directly create multiple illusory spaces.
After researching it, he confirmed that he was actually the one bearing this illusory space.
Indeed, it appeared that Gu Yue, or rather Han Tianyi, was helping bear a new temporary illusory space, but in reality, Jiang Xia himself was bearing it.
It was just that he needed a bridge to do so.
Jiang Xia was now at the stage of pondering and researching how to remove that bridge.
After all, dependence on others was ultimately a weakness.
In the blink of an eye, three years had passed since the Skysea Alliance Tournament ended.
Class Zero.
"Let's go. Shrek City."
Wu Zhangkong was brief and to the point, giving the signal everyone had long awaited.
In Class Zero, apart from Jiang Xia and Gu Yue, Tang Wulin and the other two all looked excited.
They left Eastsea Academy, boarded a soul train, and headed toward Shrek City.
Shrek City.
As in the original story Jiang Xia knew, Tang Wulin obtained the final heavenly treasure he needed to absorb the second Golden Dragon King Seal in Shrek City.
In a hotel in Shrek City, he began his second absorption.
Likewise, since Tang Wulin had entered seclusion to digest the second Golden Dragon King Seal, the others had to wait.
Naturally, Class Zero's assessment was postponed.
Jiang Xia stayed in his room, wasting no time as he continued his own cultivation.
Over these three years, he had not sought out Tang Wulin to further analyze the Golden Dragon King Bloodline.
The main reason was that Tang Wulin had offered it himself, which gave Jiang Xia the creeps.
He was afraid Old Tang had specifically asked Tang Wulin to do it.
However, although he had not sought out Tang Wulin to refine his work on the Golden Dragon King Bloodline, Jiang Xia continued thinking about the problem.
Occasionally, he would put forward some conjectures.
This time, while Tang Wulin was digesting the second Golden Dragon King Seal, Jiang Xia once again imitated the Golden Dragon King's blood essence within his own Broken Dream.
Both form and spirit were complete.
It was exactly the same as the Golden Dragon King Blood Essence Power Tang Wulin displayed while fighting in the Spirit Ascension Platform.
However, the enhancement this blood essence power gave Jiang Xia was barely better than nothing.
It did not provide anything like the terrifying enhancement it gave Tang Wulin.
Jiang Xia suspected it lacked an origin, a source of that power.
The principle behind the Spirit Ascension Platform was to reproduce scenes that could manifest in reality.
Under the influence of the mental will of the soul masters who entered it, whatever would happen in reality would happen within the Spirit Ascension Platform!
Jiang Xia imitated something, and the Spirit Ascension Platform transmitted it to reality, which then transmitted it back to the Spirit Ascension Platform.
Thus, the Golden Dragon King's blood essence could not enhance Jiang Xia because no such setting existed in reality.
Yet Tang Wulin could enjoy that enhancement.
This should be the Golden Dragon King Seals within him providing feedback.
His blood essence truly came from his bloodline power, and that bloodline was also the standard the Spirit Ascension Platform referenced.
A soul master's body, and a testing ground.
In Tang Wulin's case, the ascension pod could stimulate his body and detect the bloodline's enhancement.
In Jiang Xia's case, he could only seek feedback within a testing space that had no connection whatsoever to Tang Wulin's bloodline.
To put it plainly, this bloodline existed only within Tang Wulin, not in the real world.
The Dragon God split in two, becoming the Golden Dragon King and the Silver Dragon King. The Golden Dragon King was sealed directly within the Divine Realm and never appeared on the Douluo Continent. It's perfectly normal for there to be no imprint of him on this continent.
Jiang Xia pondered.
Of all the hypotheses he had proposed over the years, this was the theory he considered most reliable.
This time, Tang Wulin's absorption of the second seal will form a blood essence Soul Ring.
No matter how unusual its form, it's still a Soul Ring in the end. And Soul Rings are the most characteristic products of the Douluo Plane!
So, once Tang Wulin merges with the second seal, his Golden Dragon King Bloodline will already be interacting with the entire plane.
Through its interaction with the plane, something like a blood essence Soul Ring is born.
His blood essence and bloodline both become legitimate and compliant.
On the other hand, the plane also records the imprint of his bloodline!
Of course, this was only speculation.
Jiang Xia had to wait.
At that moment, within Broken Dream, the Golden Dragon King's blood essence manifested as Jiang Xia tried throwing punches again and again.
Finally, three days later...
As a dragon's roar rang out within Broken Dream, Jiang Xia felt tremendous power.
It's finally here!
That abundant strength, the enhancement from the Golden Dragon King Blood Essence Power, gave Jiang Xia a shock beyond words.
It really was like that.
Jiang Xia smiled.
This was a good thing.
It meant there was nothing wrong with his imitation of Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon King Blood Essence Power.
This power is far too efficient at washing through the body. It's so much better than the cultivation method Mu Ye taught me.
Jiang Xia had not even turned illusion into reality. Simply enjoying the Golden Dragon King's blood essence washing through him within Broken Dream and enhancing his physique, he could already feel waves of weakness coming from his actual body.
Even an enhancement within a dream is transmitted to my body, giving it the desire to eat.
After eating naturally came digestion-frenzied digestion and frenzied improvement.
Jiang Xia did not suppress his needs and ate ravenously in the hotel dining hall.
By the time he finished eating, Wu Zhangkong and the others had finally found him.
"Brother Jiang, why did you come over here?"
Xu Xiaoyan stared at the plates piled like a small mountain beside Jiang Xia, her eyes nearly popping out.
Despite knowing him for three years, Xu Xiaoyan truly had not known Jiang Xia had such a huge appetite.
Gu Yue's gaze settled on Jiang Xia.
Jiang Xia's appetite really was not large.
But today, Jiang Xia seemed to have eaten quite a lot.
At the same time, Gu Yue sensed a familiar presence from Jiang Xia.
"You've made a breakthrough."
Gu Yue spoke calmly.
Naturally, she did not mean a breakthrough in Soul Power, but a breakthrough in the project he was cultivating.
Jiang Xia nodded, his smile radiant.