For the first half month after the Pill Pavilion opened, Feng Qingxuan personally oversaw the event every day. He didn't need to do anything; simply sitting in the grand master's chair in the inner hall and occasionally releasing a wisp of Titled Douluo's aura was enough to make everyone in line behave properly.
After half a month, Instructor Meng was already able to handle things independently, and the quality inspectors of Nine Heart Begonia were also familiar with the medicinal properties of each pill. Feng Qingxuan confirmed that the Pill Pavilion was operating smoothly before handing over all external affairs to Instructor Meng and returning to the academy.
Late January, behind the Godwind Academy.
Feng Qingxuan stood in front of the stone door of the secret chamber, followed by Feng Lingtian and Dugu Bo.
"Father, have you made up your mind?" Feng Lingtian asked.
"You students have all condensed your Soul Core. As the dean, I can't fall too far behind." Feng Qingxuan's tone was somewhat light, but there was a hint of seriousness in his eyes.
" Senior Dugu was able to condense Soul Poison Pill, which proves that the Soul Core theory also applies to Titled Douluo. I'll give it a try; if successful, it will be a trump card."
Dugu Bo leaned against the stone wall, a blade of grass dangling from his mouth. Hearing this, he scoffed, "Try it? You think this is a food tasting? Titled Douluo's dantian is different from an ordinary Soul Master's; the density of their Soul Power is an order of magnitude higher."
Your Soul Core compresses more than ten times the power of that kid Shi Yan's. If you're not careful, your dantian will explode, and even a god couldn't save you."
"That's why we asked Senior Dugu to come and protect us." Feng Qingxuan glanced at him.
Dugu Bo spat out the grass stem and straightened up. Although he was sarcastic, there was no hint of a joke in his emerald eyes.
"Let me make this clear first. Once Titled Douluo's dantian explodes, it's not something that kid Yang-Restoring Pill can fix by just biting off a Shi Yan."
If anything goes wrong, I'll have to use poison to seal off all your meridians and forcibly interrupt the condensation process. The pain will be no less than when you absorbed Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring. You should consider the consequences."
"I've already considered it." Feng Qingxuan pushed open the stone door and went inside.
The secret chamber was small, with stone walls on all four sides and a thick layer of cattails on the floor. Feng Qingxuan sat cross-legged in the center and closed his eyes.
Feng Lingtian stood at the door, holding two Yang-Restoring Pill in his hands—the exact same configuration as when Shi Yan condensed his Soul Core a month ago. But this time, he was even more nervous than before.
Dugu Bo walked behind Feng Qingxuan, sat down cross-legged, and held his right palm three inches above Feng Qingxuan's back, with a faint dark green light flowing in his palm.
"Let's begin," Feng Qingxuan said.
He paused for a moment, then said, " Lingtian, explain the method of condensation again."
Feng Lingtian was taken aback. All three people present knew this method by heart, and his father had heard him and Dugu Bo discuss it no less than ten times in the study.
But he quickly realized that there was no precedent for Titled Douluo to condense Soul Core. It was always better to confirm it once more than to make a mistake.
Feng Lingtian suppressed his nervousness and recounted the method for condensing the Soul Core from beginning to end. He spoke slowly and clearly.
After listening, Feng Qingxuan nodded slightly, closed his eyes, and began to guide the Soul Power in his dantian inward.
The Soul Power of Titled Douluo is on a completely different level from that of an ordinary Soul Master. When Shi Yan compressed his Soul Power, it was like squeezing a ball of cotton with his palm.
The Soul Power within Feng Qingxuan's dantian is like a mountain. To compress a mountain into a single bead requires a level of control and Spiritual Power that is unimaginable to ordinary people.
A quarter of an hour passed. Fine beads of sweat appeared on Feng Qingxuan's forehead, but his breathing remained steady.
Half an hour passed. His brows began to furrow, and a blue halo appeared in his dantian—the original Soul Power of the Gale Twin-Headed Wolf Martial Soul was resisting compression.
The stronger the Soul Power, the more difficult it is to compress. The Soul Power of Titled Douluo has already developed its own "spirit"; it is unwilling to be bound or compressed into a small core.
Feng Lingtian gripped the Yang-Restoring Pill tightly, his knuckles turning white.
Dugu Bo's right palm remained suspended three inches above Feng Qingxuan's back, without moving an inch. His emerald eyes reflected the blue halo, and his lips were tightly pressed together.
Others couldn't see it, but he did— the Soul Power in Feng Qingxuan's dantian was engaged in a silent tug-of-war with its master's will.
Soul Power surged outwards, while willpower pressed inwards. The aftershocks of each clash were enough to shatter an ordinary Soul Master's dantian into dust.
But Feng Qingxuan withstood it.
His level 93 foundation was not acquired for nothing. His physical body, honed by years of speed and wind pressure, combined with the meridians that had been stretched open when he absorbed Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring, became an advantage at this moment—his meridians were more resilient than those of ordinary Titled Douluo, able to withstand the enormous pressure generated by the clash of Soul Power.
Two hours later, the blue halo began to recede.
It didn't dissipate, but rather contracted inward. Little by little, it shrank from the size of a fist to the size of an egg, then to the size of a pigeon egg, and finally transformed into a rapidly spinning cyan-gold core, steadily suspended in the center of the dantian.
A long breath escaped from Feng Qingxuan's mouth and nose, as if he were exhaling years of pent-up stale air.
He opened his eyes. In that instant, a sharp, hawk-like blue light flashed deep within his pupils, then disappeared.
"It's done." Dugu Bo withdrew his right palm, his voice tinged with a rare hint of emotion. "Your meridians' capacity to bear weight is at least 50% stronger than before. It's a pity that if you had condensed this Soul Core before going to the Star Dou Great Forest, those bowls of blood I shed wouldn't have been wasted."
Feng Qingxuan looked down at his hands, a smile playing on his lips, "Those bowls of blood you gave weren't wasted. If your meridians hadn't been stretched open back then, you might not have been able to withstand the compression of your Soul Power today."
Dugu Bo was taken aback for a moment, then sneered, "So, all those bowls of blood I drank were used to pave the way for you today?"
Feng Qingxuan didn't reply, but just smiled. He stood up, stretched his limbs, and his joints cracked and popped.
His Soul Power Level did not increase; it remained at level ninety-three. Each level up for Titled Douluo requires a massive accumulation of power, which cannot be achieved with a single Soul Core.
However, after this condensation of the core, the capacity of his meridians and the speed of his Soul Power circulation were much stronger than before.
He turned around and looked towards the door of the secret chamber. Through the stone door, he could see more than a dozen figures practicing extra on the training ground behind the mountain. The faint sound of the bell from the Shi Yan could be heard, one after another, steady and far-reaching.
Feng Qingxuan's gaze passed over those figures and landed in the distance.
"Next," he said, "It's time for the children to truly experience and adapt to the Soul Core System. The Continental Elite Tournament is just around the corner."