The bright pink-purple liquid that had once been three separate souls floated in the void of Xiao San's inner world, shimmering with an otherworldly light that even Xiao San, barely conscious and drenched in cold sweat, found himself momentarily captivated by.
The pain had not lessened. If anything, it had settled into something worse than sharp agony — a deep, grinding burn, as though every thread of his existence was being unraveled and rewoven at the same time. His jaw was clenched so tightly that his teeth ached. Tears continued to fall silently from the corners of his closed eyes, not from grief, but from the pure involuntary response of a body pushed far past its limits.
Outside, Ao Boa watched with a sharp, unblinking gaze.
"Brother Ao, the ground around boss is cracking more." Said Molly in a low, tense voice. The earth beneath Xiao San's lotus position had long since been reduced to rubble and dust. Even the air around him shimmered with heat and pressure, the residual force of three souls colliding and merging pushing outward like a slow explosion that had forgotten to stop.
"I can see that." Said Ao Boa calmly. "But let's not interfere, the System is doing her job well. If we disrupt this now the three liquids could separate again and that would be far more dangerous for Little San than the current pain."
Molly fell silent but did not look away from Xiao San for even a moment.
Polly who was standing on a stone a few meters away, had also gone unusually quiet. The normally chatty wind beast was gripping the edge of the rock tightly with his talons, his eyes fixed on his boss with something that could only be described as barely contained worry.
Even he understood that this was not the moment for jokes.
Inside Xiao San's inner world, the System — who had been silent throughout most of the merger, her heart force acting as the invisible hand guiding the spiritual flame — finally spoke.
"Host." Her voice was calm and carried a warmth to it despite the gravity of the situation. "The purification is almost complete. In approximately one hour the three liquids will fully merge into a single mass. After that you will need to pour your remaining conscious strength into shaping the new soul. If you lose consciousness now, the soul will form on its own but it will be unstable and far weaker than what it could be. So I need you to stay awake."
Xiao San's brows furrowed slightly at her words, which was the only visible sign that he had heard her since the rest of his body was locked in the agony of endurance.
"Don't worry ." He replied through gritted teeth inside his mind. "I'm not planning to pass out."
"I know." Said the System and there was a small pause. "You never do."
Even through the haze of pain Xiao San caught something slightly different in her tone. He did not have the strength to think deeply about it, so he filed it away and refocused all his attention on the soul liquid that was now swirling in an increasingly tight spiral, the pink-purple light condensing, becoming smaller, denser, brighter.
The heat from the spiritual flame was fading now — not because the flame had weakened, but because it had done its work. The impurities had been burned away. What remained was pure.
Forty minutes passed in suffocating silence.
Then fifty.
Then, at the edge of the one-hour mark, the swirling stopped.
The liquid was no longer liquid.
What floated in the center of Xiao San's inner world now was a single sphere, no larger than a closed fist, glowing with a steady, deep violet light that occasionally flared with hints of white and gold at its surface. It did not look like any soul that Xiao San had ever heard described. It did not even look like the three souls it had been made from. It looked like something that had simply never existed in this world before.
"Now, Host." Said the System.
Xiao San did not hesitate.
He gathered the last of his conscious strength — a small, frail amount compared to what he normally had, but it was what he had — and pressed his will into the sphere.
He did not try to command it. He had learned enough from Ao Boa and from bitter experience to know that forcing a soul was like trying to force a river to flow uphill. Instead he simply let his will press against its surface with a single clear intention.
I am Xiao San. I will make my own path. No can stop me. thought Xiao San with an unveiling confidence.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then the sphere pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
On the third pulse, it expanded slightly, and in that expansion the deep violet brightened — the flares of white and gold at its surface spread inward until the whole sphere was shifting between all three colors at once, cycling slowly like a dim, breathing star.
And Xiao San felt it.
He felt it the way a man who has been deaf his whole life suddenly hears sound for the first time. The connection was immediate, total, and unlike anything his three separate souls had ever given him. The distance that had always existed between his human souls and his planet soul — the slight lag, the occasional resistance — was completely gone. There was only one center now, and it was his.
His body which had been trembling for hours went completely still.
His breathing, which had been shallow and ragged, steadied into something deep and slow.
The cracked earth around him stopped producing new fractures.
Outside, Ao Boa's eyes widened slightly.
"It's done." He said quietly.
Molly exhaled a long breath that she had been holding for what felt like hours.
Polly blinked and then immediately tried to look as if he had been perfectly calm this entire time and had not been gripping that rock hard enough to leave claw marks in it.
Inside his inner world, Xiao San looked at the sphere that was now his soul — his single, merged, semi-finished soul — and felt something settle inside him that he had not even known was unsettled.
It was not peace exactly. He was not the type to feel peaceful. It was more like the feeling of finally holding a weapon that fit his hand properly after years of fighting with the wrong grip.
"System." He called out.
"Yes, Host?"
"What is my current soul rank?"
A familiar panel appeared before him, though even in his exhausted state he noticed that the panel itself looked slightly different. The border that had once been simple and clean now had a faint violet glow around its edge that had not been there before.
[Soul Cultivation Status] Soul Type: Semi-Merged Transcendence Soul (Violet Grade — First of Its Kind)
Soul Rank: 1st Rank — Spirit Realm (Merged Foundation)
Soul Strength: Equivalent to 50th Rank Standard Spirit Realm
Special Properties:Planetary Gravity Domain (Active), Time-Space Domain (Active — Limited Use), Heart Force Resonance (Dormant — Conditions not yet met)
New Path Progress: 0%
Xiao San read the panel carefully, then read it again.
"Heart Force Resonance." He asked in confusion. "What is that?"
"It is a property that appeared during the merger." Said the System. Her tone had the careful quality of someone explaining something they themselves found surprising. "It seems the merger with my heart force left a trace within your new soul. What this will do exactly as you grow stronger is something even I cannot fully predict yet. But Host, I do not think it is something bad."
Xiao San was quiet for a moment.
"You're telling me something about my own soul that you don't fully understand."
"Yes."
"Good." He said simply. "Predictable things are boring."
"then, host i will enter into deep sleep mode to rest, so i will not be able to communicate with you regularly" said the system with a tone which is filled with exhaustion.
"Thank you, for your help this time and don't worry you can rest peacefully." said Xiao San will his heart filled with gratitude.
Outside, Ao Boa suddenly felt the pressure that had been radiating from Xiao San's body disappear completely, replaced by a calm and deep stillness that the old dragon turtle recognized immediately. He had felt this kind of stillness before — twice in his very long life — and both times it had come from individuals who went on to shake the world.
He floated down from the air and landed gently a few steps from where Xiao San sat.
Xiao San's eyes opened.
They were the same dark eyes as before, but for just a fraction of a second — short enough that only Ao Boa, with his ancient perception, caught it — there was a faint violet light in them that faded as quickly as it had appeared.
"Brother Ao." Said Xiao San in a hoarse voice.
"Little San." Said Ao Boa, and despite his usual serious expression there was something at the corner of his turtle mouth that was dangerously close to a proud smile. "How do you feel?"
Xiao San took a slow breath.
"Damn that was so painful still my body aches. But I felt like i was reborn " said Xiao San a exhausted but satisfied smile .
"That is because you were." Said Ao Boa simply. "Now rest. You will not be able to use your soul strength properly for at least three days while the new soul stabilizes. After that, the real training begins."
"Understood." Said Xiao San and closed his eyes again.
Molly quietly approached and sat down a short distance away, keeping her guard.
Polly hopped over to a nearby tree, positioned himself to watch the perimeter, and after making absolutely sure that no one was looking at him, quietly let out the longest sigh of relief he had ever sighed in his entire magical beast life.
Inside Xiao San's inner world, the violet sphere pulsed steadily in the dark — slow, deep, and patient, like something that had just decided to become a sun and was in no particular hurry about it.