Han Qiu slowly gathered his thoughts. He stood up and stretched, no longer absorbing Soul Power.
As a proper transmigrator on the Douluo Continent, how could he be content to follow the old path of ordinary Soul Masters? He had to try out some cultivation ideas of his own.
He remembered the Soul Cores mentioned in Douluo II. Analyzed through the knowledge of his previous life, they were still fundamentally rooted in the physical body.
If his own conditions were lacking, there would naturally be no point in discussing it. But Han Qiu knew perfectly well that he had everything he needed to try.
His formidable reforged body, his Martial Soul of Light, and the various trump cards bolstered by Qi-State Origin-Flow gave him the confidence to take this path to its extreme.
Han Qiu sat cross-legged in the forest. As the Golden Light Mantra circulated, the Soul Power within him compressed continuously. Only when it could be compressed no further did he stop.
Han Qiu suddenly opened his eyes, and a flicker of purple light flashed through them!
A phantom of a human figure wreathed in purple lightning appeared behind him.
Immediately afterward, a Soul Ring of deep, pure purple slowly rose from beneath his feet!
"Two-and-a-half times Soul Power compression. Not bad... Wait..."
"Holy crap, I really am the chosen one! My Martial Soul of Light evolved from the single light attribute into dual lightning and light attributes. It looks like it even awakened a second form."
Feeling the mass of Soul Power in his dantian, much smaller in volume but purer and more condensed than ever, Han Qiu's lips curved into a confident smile. "The total amount of Soul Power is only about equal to a sixteenth-level Soul Master's, but when I actually use it, my staying power is far beyond an ordinary Soul Master's."
This cultivation cycle, unique to him, had only been built on the strength of his formidable body, Qi-State Origin-Flow, and his own Martial Soul.
At this stage, ordinary Soul Masters on the continent had no concept of compressing Soul Power.
When ordinary people cultivated to level twenty, their Soul Power reached a bottleneck, and they could only continue to break through with the help of a Soul Ring.
But Han Qiu had carved out a different path, forcibly refining and compressing his Soul Power. Without a body reforged by a Soul Ring and strong enough to withstand the crushing pressure, he could never have achieved this.
Before advancing to Soul Douluo, probably no one could replicate his almost unorthodox approach.
The further Soul Power compression goes, the harder it gets, but the gains are just as terrifying. In the future, I might be able to condense it tenfold, or even a hundredfold. The foundation of it all depends on how much my body can bear, Han Qiu silently calculated.
"I still need to train!"
The higher the realm, the greater the base amount of Soul Power contained in each level. And this was the cultivation path he had chosen.
When I become a Titled Douluo, if I can compress my Soul Power a hundredfold... tsk, tsk, even a God King might not be beyond my ability to fight. If I create my own Godhood afterward and refine my origin once more, I could roam the Divine Realm unhindered and undefeated.
Of course, all of this was merely Han Qiu's speculation. Even he had no way of knowing where the road ahead would lead.
"Wait, let me try my first Soul Skill first."
Han Qiu activated the pure Soul Power he had just compressed and refined, pouring all of it into the phantom of the humanoid Martial Soul floating behind him.
In an instant, wisps of purple lightning coiled around the Martial Soul, crackling as electric light coursed over it.
One gentle and one fierce, the two utterly different forces merged into one, granting the humanoid Martial Soul a divine majesty all its own!
The next moment, the Martial Soul's light suddenly blazed!
A dazzling mass of purple lightning and light slowly drifted out of the humanoid Martial Soul. It then broke apart into countless motes of light carrying purple lightning, falling like a sky full of starlight and merging into Han Qiu's limbs and bones, his meridians, flesh, and blood.
Boom!
An unprecedented surge of vast power swept through his body in an instant, filling every limb and bone with a force both violent and docile!
Han Qiu's eyes lit up, and scarcely concealed delight flooded his face. "Just as I thought! The seven-thousand-year Purple Lightning Mane Lion Soul Ring grants a boost to every attribute!"
Strength, speed, physical endurance, and bodily resilience all soared!
"The overall boost is more than seventy percent-almost double!"
A pale purple halo surrounded Han Qiu's body, shining like rosy clouds, and his bearing suddenly grew several times sharper.
What shook him even more was that this Soul Skill was a group boost!
Sensing the purple light energy gathering once more in the Martial Soul behind him, Han Qiu couldn't help marveling at how overpowered the ability was.
He clearly remembered that in the original story, Dai Mubai of the Shrek Seven Devils had gained White Tiger Vajra Transformation as his first Thousand-Year Soul Ring skill, which likewise doubled all his attributes.
But that Soul Skill only worked on its user, and it lasted a mere half hour.
Yet his own boosting Soul Skill, born from an ultimate seven-thousand-year Soul Ring, not only had a base boost that was no weaker, but also crushed those of the same level in duration!
"By a conservative estimate, it can last well over an hour!"
Endless power surged and boiled within him.
His flesh, meridians, and every bone in his body trembled wildly, his whole body brimming with vast explosive power that had nowhere to go.
Han Qiu clenched his fists, fighting spirit burning like fire in his eyes. Every part of him was itching to fight, eager to throw himself into a battle at once!
As Han Qiu felt the power surging within him, he pondered silently and began seriously considering a name for this first Soul Skill.
Ordinary Soul Masters' skill names were either crude and straightforward or dull and commonplace. None were worthy of his seven-thousand-year Soul Ring, which combined the effects of light and lightning attributes and carried the heaven-defying effect of a group boost.
His Martial Soul had long since transformed into a light-and-lightning Martial Soul, possessing both the healing power of holy light and the destructive might of purple lightning.
This Soul Skill combined boosts to strength, doubled speed, maximized endurance, and other effects. Tyranny and holiness coexisted within it, gentleness and thunder born together.
No ordinary name could do justice to such a unique, heaven-defying ability!
"Lightning Light Boost is too mediocre. It doesn't live up to the mighty foundation of my seven-thousand-year Purple Lightning Mane Lion."
"Vajra Lightning Body leans too heavily toward the physical body and buries my Martial Soul's dual light and lightning attributes."
Han Qiu rejected one ordinary name after another.
This Soul Skill came from the Purple Lightning Mane Lion's thunder origin, refined by a thousand years of lightning tribulations, and was harmonized by the divine power of the Martial Soul of Light. It refined the body and boosted Soul Power, and could be used on himself or his companions. With thunder as its edge and holy light as its foundation, it united offense, defense, and support in one, and could be called flawless.
After a moment's thought, a name overflowing with style and presence suddenly appeared in his mind!
"Radiant Thunder Holy Body!"
Han Qiu's eyes flashed brightly. The more he thought about it, the more fitting it seemed.
Thunder represented the Purple Lightning Mane Lion's tyrannical thunder origin, the ultimate power of destruction and slaughter.
Radiance was the dazzling brilliance of his light-and-lightning Martial Soul, the holy light that shone over the whole body.
Holy Body represented holy light refining the flesh, an all-around boost to his constitution, and a transformation that shed the old and forged the new!
It had both the tyrannical might of thunder and the sacred quality of holy light, perfectly capturing every aspect of this Soul Skill!
"It's a little edgy, but it sounds imposing... Besides, what's the point of being young if you can't be a little edgy? I'll call you Radiant Thunder Holy Body."
And so, the first Soul Skill of Han Qiu's light-and-lightning Martial Soul was officially named Radiant Thunder Holy Body.