A Swift Year

By a twist of fate, their destinies converged.

The ripples stirred by Lin Rong altered this world's original course.

Tang San and Tang Yuehua returned to the Clear Sky Sect.

Over matters concerning Tang Hao, Tang San had a serious clash with several elders of the Clear Sky Sect.

Six-year-old Tang San was not the level-fifty-nine Soul King of the original story, but merely a level-thirteen soul master.

As a result, Tang San was inevitably lectured by those elders, who were stubbornly bound by outdated rules.

Tang Yuehua possessed only level-nine Soul Power herself and had no ability to stop them.

Tang Xiao himself was somewhat rigid as well. Though he wanted to intervene, he did not dare do so because they were his elders.

This conflict caused the illness of the Clear Sky Sect's Old Sect Leader—Tang Xiao, Tang Hao, and Tang Yuehua's father, as well as Tang San's grandfather—to flare up. He died on the spot.

Naturally, those elders of the Clear Sky Sect placed all the blame on Tang San.

Thus, Tang San was driven out of the Clear Sky Sect before he had even stayed for a full day.

As for Tang San possessing Twin Martial Souls, in the words of the Clear Sky Sect's Seventh Elder:

"Twin Martial Souls? So what!"

"Come back and say that once that bastard can solve the conflict between Twin Martial Souls!"

After this ordeal, Tang San had wanted to return to Tang Hao's side, but Tang Yuehua refused and brought Tang San back to Moonlight Pavilion.

"Xiao San, from now on, Moonlight Pavilion will be your home!"

Meanwhile, because Xiao Wu had never encountered Tang San, Tang Hao captured and raised her, intending to have Tang San personally kill this hundred-thousand-year Transformed Spirit Beast in the future and absorb her Soul Ring and Soul Bone.

Xiao Wu was imprisoned inside a Soul Tool capable of storing living creatures. Even her once-daily meal was tossed directly into the Soul Tool by Tang Hao, giving Xiao Wu no chance to come out at all.

"Da Ming, Er Ming, where are you? Why haven't you come to save me yet?"

Xiao Wu regretted it terribly. She never would have imagined that such a godforsaken place would actually have soul masters of Soul Douluo rank or higher.

Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

"Young Sect Leader, the key to cultivating Heart Separation Control is... you need to... next is..."

"Um, I've already been studying for several hours. Can I rest for a while?"

"Young Sect Leader, I'm afraid not. The Sect Leader instructed that study time must be devoted wholeheartedly to studying. It will soon be time for your break."

"Is that even break time? That's clearly cultivation time!"

"The Sect Leader said that meditation is rest."

"I..."

Lin Duke Mansion.

"Hongjun, this is a training plan specially tailored for you. Take a look."

As Ma Hongjun looked at the densely packed words on the sheet of paper, even his hands could not help trembling.

"Uncle, look..."

"No, Hongjun. The Duke said that cultivating your Mutated Martial Soul will produce Evil Fire, and high-intensity training is currently the only solution without side effects."

"You don't want to become a big fat man in the future, or even be burned to death by Evil Fire, do you?"

"No, I don't want to become like that. When do we start training?" For the sake of his handsome looks and slender figure, he was going all in.

"Hongjun, don't worry. The training ground isn't here, and the workload will increase gradually. You don't need to worry about exceeding your limits."

Balak Kingdom, Shrek Academy.

Oscar lay on the ground in utter boredom, basking comfortably in the warm sunlight.

"Sigh! No younger brothers or sisters joined again this year. When will these lonely days of mine ever end?"

"Without any pretty younger sisters, what use is this handsome face of mine?"

"I might as well let this beard hide my handsome face. I'll shave it off when some younger sisters finally arrive."

"After all, shaving is such a hassle!"

Time flew by in the blink of an eye.

One year later.

After Lin Rong awakened his Nine Bend Vine Dragon Martial Soul, he had a patch of open land specially cleared within the Manor and planted a Banyan Forest there.

Aside from banyan trees, the Banyan Forest was also planted with a large number of vines that grew alongside them.

This was a "Mimic Cultivation Ground."

Over the past year or so, Lin Rong had spent nearly all his time cultivating the Marrow Cleansing Scripture within this Banyan Forest to increase his Soul Power.

At the same time, after absorbing the aura of the Nine Bend Vine Dragon, these banyan trees and vines grew increasingly lush, looking nothing like plants that had only been growing for a little over a year.

Complementing this, the Banyan Forest, as a Mimic Cultivation Ground, was also gradually becoming more effective at assisting cultivation.

Deep within the Banyan Forest, beneath an especially lush banyan tree.

"Whew~"

Lin Rong exhaled a breath of stale air and awoke from cultivation.

"Very good. At only seven years and three months old, my Soul Power has broken through to level twenty."

"Although the Heart of the Banyan Wood increased my total Soul Power by fifty percent, it also slowed my cultivation speed considerably."

"But so what? I still broke through to level twenty before turning eight."

"In one year and three months, my Soul Power increased by five levels—an average of one level every three months, a cultivation speed of four levels per year."

"I wonder how that kid Ma Hongjun is doing. The message sent last month said that his Soul Power Level was at the peak of level sixteen."

"From the peak of level twelve to the peak of level sixteen, he gained four levels in fourteen months—an average of one level every three and a half months, barely approaching a cultivation speed of three and a half levels per year."

"Now that another month has passed, that kid Ma Hongjun should have broken through to level seventeen."

Ma Hongjun's Martial Soul was the Fire Phoenix, so the Mimic Cultivation Ground best suited for him was naturally a volcano.

As it happened, Heaven Dou Royal Academy of Spirit Masters had a volcanic range.

Those spoiled young nobles at the academy never went there anyway, so there was no reason not to use it.

Thus, Lin Rong had Xu Guard take Ma Hongjun there to live long-term. His daily cultivation and various training tasks were all carried out there.

Heaven Dou Royal Academy of Spirit Masters covered an astonishingly vast area. In terms of both facilities and resources, it ranked first among all spirit master academies in the Heaven Dou Empire, with an enormous gap separating it from second place.

Unfortunately, the academy only admitted noble children, resulting in highly uneven student quality, with quite a number of them being spoiled rich heirs.

These spoiled heirs treated Heaven Dou Royal Academy as their own backyard, often bringing outsiders into the academy to indulge in pleasure.

As a result, the academy's already lax security was as full of holes as a sieve.

Because of this, Ma Hongjun and Xu Guard were able to use Lin Rong's Duke token to make their way to the volcanic range without obstruction.

Every month, Lin Rong sent people to deliver the supplies they needed while also checking on Ma Hongjun's cultivation progress.

Over the past year or so, Ma Hongjun had shown no resistance at all to the high-intensity training tailored specifically for him.

That was because Lin Rong had someone take Ma Hongjun to see several men who were both fat and ugly, then told him:

"If you don't burn away all that Evil Fire through high-intensity training, you'll grow up to look like this."

That immediately filled Ma Hongjun with motivation for training, and he never grew tired of it.

With such diligent cultivation and training, along with the support of the volcanic Mimic Cultivation Ground, Ma Hongjun was able to achieve a cultivation speed of three and a half levels per year despite having only ninth-level Innate Soul Power.

Twin Martial Souls had no drawbacks in Douluo 2, but they did in Douluo 1.

Moreover, only a Divine Examination could solve this problem.

Although the original work never explicitly pointed out this issue or explained it in detail, both Bibi Dong and Tang San only began cultivating their second Martial Soul after becoming inheritors of a Divine Legacy.