Cultivators and Soul Masters

They could fly!

That meant Immortal Cultivators always held an absolute advantage and the initiative in the early stages of cultivation.

They could fight when they wanted and leave when they wanted. Other systems that could not yet fight airborne opponents really had no way to deal with Immortal Cultivators.

On top of that, the flying swords Immortal Cultivators controlled were tremendously powerful. Before the third tier, there was practically no defense they couldn't pierce.

And before Foundation Establishment, Immortal Cultivators had acute senses. After Foundation Establishment, they had divine sense, essentially a built-in radar positioning system. It was downright overpowered and shameless.

Yet it also felt perfectly scientific!

Wasn't that how modern combat systems worked? High mobility, high damage, air-to-ground attacks, and radar and satellite positioning.

Modern combat systems still required coordination between different units.

Immortal Cultivators needed none of that. An Immortal Cultivator was an entire modern combat force rolled into one person.

At present, aside from Soul Masters with flying Soul Skills, Chen Mo could slaughter anyone below the Soul Saint level.

Of course, that only counted one-on-one fights, not group beatdowns. Chen Mo still had too little spiritual power at present.

Above the Soul Saint level, Chen Mo could only deal with certain Soul Masters. Most could still beat him to a pulp. In the end, he had too little spiritual power. If he had magical power at the Late Qi Refining Stage now, he could even kill Soul Douluo.

Titled Douluo were fourth-tier, after all. They could fly freely, and although they couldn't withstand the sharpness of his flying sword, Chen Mo likewise couldn't withstand their Soul Skills.

Chen Mo believed he would only be truly powerful once he reached the Foundation Establishment Stage. As long as he refined a spiritual artifact, he was confident he could beat even Titled Douluo to a pulp.

After reaching the Golden Core Stage, he could even kill gods.

More than a year had passed, and Chen Mo had unlocked another world.

The system could unlock one world for him every year, rather like drawing cards: one world was randomly drawn from a pool of fifty-four.

One great thousand world, three middle thousand worlds, and fifty small thousand worlds.

The first draw was also face-up, so of course Chen Mo had chosen the great thousand world. But he hadn't been there yet, so he still didn't know what kind of world he had drawn.

Because he hadn't anchored his main world, once Chen Mo went to that world, he would have to wait until the system had gathered a certain amount of energy before he could return to the Douluo World.

That was why Chen Mo had chosen not to cross over. He wasn't short of cultivation methods or resources now; what he lacked was time to grow.

Chen Mo was still in his development phase. Even if he went to the great thousand world, how much could he gain?

With his strength so weak, never mind gaining benefits, even protecting himself would be a problem. That was why Chen Mo had chosen not to cross over.

Time flew, and four and a half years soon passed. Chen Mo had spent six years at Haier Junior Soul Master Academy, and it was time to graduate.

It counted as graduation, anyway. Nobody got a diploma.

Most of his classmates had received invitations from intermediate Soul Master Academies, and a few had even received invitations from advanced Soul Master Academies. Only Chen Mo had received nothing.

Who told him not to be a Soul Master yet?

There was no helping it. He couldn't equip a Soul Ring. If he did, the system would default to the Soul Ring System as his primary discipline and other systems as secondary disciplines from then on.

The result would be that the highest tier the other systems could reach would be limited to the tier of his Soul Master System.

The Soul Master System could currently only reach the fifth tier. Wouldn't that be setting himself up for a fall?

Chen Mo could equip a Soul Ring, but only after his Cultivation System reached the second-tier Foundation Establishment Stage.

By then, he would also have more or less begun tempering his body through the Blood Refiner System. His physique would only be stronger than a Titled Douluo's, not weaker.

And at the Foundation Establishment Stage, he would already have divine sense, and his soul would grow even stronger. He wouldn't have to worry about the Soul Shock of a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast either.

At that point, Chen Mo could easily equip a Soul Ring over ten thousand years old as his first ring. He could even try one over a hundred thousand years old.

Over the past few years, Chen Mo's parents had also given him a younger sister. She was already six; his mother had become pregnant shortly before Chen Mo's awakening.

She was born not long after Chen Mo enrolled.

Her given name was also a single character, Mo, though hers had the three-dot water radical in addition to Chen Mo's.

Around that time, Qian Xunji, the Pope of Spirit Hall, had just died, and Bibi Dong had succeeded him as the new Pope.

Come to think of it, Chen Mo's sister was about the same age as Tang San.

His sister had only awakened a few days ago. Her Martial Soul had actually been an "iron coffin," and a pretty creepy one at that.

A girl awakening a Martial Soul like that was a bit of a clash in styles!

At first, Chen Mo had even suspected she was a transmigrator like him, but when he recalled the childish things she'd done over the years, he immediately dismissed the idea.

It was all a coincidence.

Still, on closer thought, it seemed quite reasonable.

Father Chen, Chen He: Martial Soul, box.

Mother Chen, Li Xiao: Martial Soul, kitchen knife.

Box = rectangular prism = coffin

Kitchen knife = made of iron = iron

Box + kitchen knife = iron coffin.

It really made sense!

As for her Innate Soul Power: rank zero.

Chen Mo was a little dumbfounded by the result!

That was impossible! What Chen Mo had taught her was an immortal cultivation method, and she had already reached the First Layer of Qi Refining. This was an immortal cultivation method! Forget Innate Full Soul Power, shouldn't she at least have some Soul Power?

The answer Chen Mo received from the system was: the Cultivation System and the Soul Master System were mutually exclusive. Where one existed, the other could not.

That wasn't right. What about Chen Mo himself, then?

Chen Mo had both Soul Power and spiritual power in his body, so what was going on with him?

System: You have me!

Chen Mo: Suddenly, that made perfect sense.

System: That's why you can choose one system as your primary discipline and the others as secondary disciplines before the sixth tier without creating conflicts.

Chen Mo: Then what's the deal with the Blood Refiner System? And what about the Mysterious Heaven Skill Tang San cultivates?

System: The Blood Refiner System is pure body cultivation. It doesn't involve any energy system, nor can it communicate with the power of heaven and earth. That's why it won't conflict with any energy cultivation system, and no world will affect the Blood Refiner System, regardless of whether that world has supernatural energy.

System: As for the Mysterious Heaven Skill? How can martial arts be the same as immortal cultivation?

Chen Mo: ...

That made sense. Come to think of it, did that count as the system talking back to him?

System: On a broad scale, all energy cultivation is the same. It's merely a matter of conversion.

System: In the narrow sense, energy cultivation systems cannot coexist, especially those whose quality is extremely close. However, if the quality of two energies differs greatly enough, they can coexist.

The more energy systems one cultivated, the more likely conflicts were to arise. Chen Mo had the system, so he didn't need to worry about that, but even so, he still had a primary discipline and secondary disciplines.

A secondary system could never rise above the tier of the primary system.

Chen Mo: So the energy quality of the Soul Master System is about the same as the Cultivation System's?

System: The energy quality of the Soul Master System is far inferior to that of the Cultivation System, with a gap of at least three quality grades.

Chen Mo: Then why can't they coexist? Why is it that where one exists, the other can't?

System: The Soul Master System has the home-field advantage in this world.

One could understand it as the Soul Master System trying to stand on equal footing with the Cultivation System by relying on its home-field advantage, but the Cultivation System wouldn't give it the time of day, and then the Soul Master System wouldn't give the Cultivation System the time of day either.

That was why his little sister Chen Mo hadn't awakened Innate Soul Power.

Chen Mo exclaimed that it had been a close call.

Fortunately, he had taught his sister a cultivation method when she was five, and her aptitude was good enough that she had successfully reached the First Layer of Qi Refining. Otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to cultivate immortality now.

Her aptitude was considerably better than Chen Mo's, even though she had only advanced one level in a year.

But she was a little girl, after all. How could she be as self-disciplined as an adult?

Besides, Chen Mo spoiled her somewhat and hadn't pushed her much in her cultivation. She had basically played her way to the First Layer of Qi Refining.

Chen Mo himself had Water, Earth, and Metal Triple Spiritual Roots, an aptitude that could only be considered decent in the immortal cultivation world. His little sister Chen Mo, on the other hand, could be called a rarity.

Wood and Metal Dual Spiritual Roots: in the cultivation world, she would be a genius everyone fought over, so it was perfectly normal for her to cultivate a little faster.

Fortunately, Chen Mo's parents didn't have spiritual roots. Otherwise, Chen Mo would have regretted teaching them a cultivation method back then.

When his sister Chen Mo saw that she hadn't awakened Soul Power, she was quite disappointed, though her parents didn't think it was a problem.

After all, with the cultivation method Chen Mo had given them, one could become a Soul Master even without Innate Soul Power.

Chen Mo's parents had originally planned to teach his little sister a martial arts cultivation method, but Chen Mo stopped them outright.

What a joke. Wasn't the Cultivation System better?

Why cultivate the Soul Master System?

Even a dog would turn up its nose at it. (Dog-head emoji for protection.)

Chen Mo soon told his parents some things about immortal cultivation. Although he said a lot, they couldn't understand much of it.

They only understood roughly that the Cultivation System Chen Mo had arranged for his sister was better, and that if they hadn't lacked spiritual roots and been unable to follow the Cultivation System, Chen Mo would have wanted them to cultivate immortality too.

Father Chen, Chen He, could only sigh with emotion: he had never imagined that becoming a Soul Master, something he had dreamed of, would be so utterly worthless in his son's eyes.

Alas!

But as long as Chen He knew that his son shared his surname, Chen, was his own flesh and blood, was filial, and treated his family well,

that was enough.

No matter where Chen Mo went in the future, he would always be Chen He's son.

That was all Father Chen, Chen He, could think to himself.

Chen He: "Since you know what you're doing, I'll leave your sister's affairs to you."

With that, Chen Mo's parents had more or less handed their little sister Chen Mo's cultivation entirely over to him.

Chen Mo: "Dongzi, it's been almost a year, hasn't it? What have you decided?"

Lin Yaodong: "Boss, I'll listen to you. Whatever you say goes."

Chen Mo was twelve this year, and so was Lin Yaodong. Chen Mo was already 1.8 meters tall, while Lin Yaodong was even taller, nearly two meters. It was all thanks to the Blood Refiner System.

It wasn't that Chen Mo couldn't grow to two meters; he simply didn't want to be that tall. His current height suited him just fine, so Chen Mo consciously used his spiritual power and control over his body to regulate his height.

In fact, if Chen Mo wanted, he could suddenly grow to two meters, and could reach a maximum of five meters.

Chen Mo had nearly finished with the Life Nourishing Realm.