Chapter 13: Two Fires, One Soul
The next month passed in a whirlwind of calculated duality. Outwardly, Ayush was Huo Yuhao: diligent student, reliable teammate, and increasingly inseparable friend to Wang Dong. They trained together, ate together, and their combined control in battle drills became so seamless that even the strict Teacher Zhou Yi offered rare nods of approval. The "Golden Trio" was becoming a fixture at Shrek, their bond the subject of whispered admiration.
Inwardly, Ayush was a laboratory of converging worlds. Every night, in the absolute privacy of his spiritual sea, he cultivated not one, but two powers.
His Spirit Power grew steadily, fueled by the legitimate resources of Shrek and the hidden, dense energy of the Ten-Thousand Year Frozen Marrow. He was approaching the bottleneck for his second spirit ring, a progression that was expected, even slow for a champion. It was the perfect, unremarkable cover.
Alongside it, hidden in the furnace of his lower dantian, his Dou Qi churned. The Dou Qi Foundation Method from the Battle Through the Heavens realm was brutally efficient. It treated the ambient spirit energy of Douluo not as a gentle flow to be absorbed, but as raw fuel to be seized, compressed, and ignited. His progress here was explosive. Within weeks, he had condensed the Dou Qi seed into a stable, swirling vortex—a sign of a 3-Star Dou Disciple.
The Black Book monitored it all.
DUAL-CULTIVATION STATUS: STABLE.
SPIRIT POWER: LEVEL 19 (Peak).
DOU QI: 3-STAR DOU DISCIPLE.
SYNERGY DISCOVERY:
· Ultimate Ice Attribute (Spirit) can temporarily suppress Dou Qi's fiery volatility.
· Dou Qi's explosive nature can be used to momentarily 'overclock' spirit skill activation speed by 15%.
WARNING: Sustained simultaneous use risks energy signature collision. Caution advised.
The first practical test came during a solo assignment. As part of their advanced training, students were occasionally sent on supervised hunts for specific herbs or low-level spirit beasts in the safer outskirts of the Star Dou Forest. Ayush was tasked with retrieving Moonlit Dew Grass, a plant that only gathered spirit energy under the full moon near silent pools.
He found his clearing as dusk fell. The air was thick with the scent of wet earth and dormant spirit energy. This was the perfect place to experiment without prying eyes—mortal or divine.
As he waited for moonrise, he focused. He let his Spirit Power flow gently through his meridians, calming and expansive. Then, deep in his dantian, he stirred the Dou Qi vortex.
The effect was immediate. His senses, already sharp from his Spirit Eyes, blazed. The world didn't just glow with spirit energy; it crackled with potential force. He could see the stress points in the bark of a tree, the latent kinetic energy in a coiled vine, the faint heat signature of a burrowing creature ten meters underground. It was a perception of potential force, not just ethereal energy.
"Fascinating," Electrolux's voice murmured in his mind, a rare intrusion during active hours. "Your soul is… resonating on a new frequency. It is not of this plane."
"It's a tool, Teacher," Ayush replied mentally, keeping his physical body perfectly still. "A different kind of lens."
"Lenses can focus, but they can also distort what is seen," Electrolux warned, but did not press further. The old god was wisely cautious of the Black Book's mysteries.
When a century-old Thornback Boar, drawn by the concentrated energy around Ayush, charged from the undergrowth, he saw his chance.
He didn't use a spirit skill. Instead, he focused Dou Qi into his legs. The world seemed to slow. With a burst of speed that left faint afterimages of displaced air, he sidestepped the charge with impossible agility—a move impossible for a pure Spiritual System Soul Master. As the beast passed, he channeled a wisp of Dou Qi into his palm, not to form Dou Qi armor, but to reinforce a simple, spirit-powered chop to the beast's neck.
The result was devastating. There was a sharp crack, and the boar collapsed, stunned. The force was far beyond what his Spirit Elder body should have been capable of delivering.
It was a hybrid strike: Spirit Power providing the structure, Dou Qi providing the explosive, penetrating force. Clean, efficient, and utterly alien to Douluo's combat logic.
As he collected the now-blooming Moonlit Dew Grass, the Black Book pulsed.
COMBAT DATA LOGGED: HYBRID ENERGY APPLICATION SUCCESSFUL.
EFFICIENCY: 218% ABOVE PROJECTED SPIRIT-POWER-ONLY OUTPUT.
ENERGY SIGNATURE: SUCCESSFULLY MASKED BY LOCAL SPIRIT ENERGY FLUCTUATIONS.
REALM ASSIMILATION PROGRESS: 4.1%.
NEXT REALM UNLOCK THRESHOLD: 10%.
HUNGER DETECTED… SEEKING COMPATIBLE ENERGY SIGNATURES FOR [MARTIAL UNIVERSE].
The word "Hunger" was new. And unsettling. The Book wasn't just a passive library; it was an active consumer, and his cultivation was feeding it.
That night, back in his dorm, he accessed the Multiversal Chat. Wang Dong was already asleep, his breathing soft and regular.
Nexus_Prime: The Book is registering "hunger." It's pushing for faster assimilation. What are the risks?
Ancient_One_Theorist: Ah. The entity awakens. The Black Book is a symbiote, Nexus_Prime. It feeds on conceptual novelty—on the integration of new laws into its host. Your progress fuels it. Its "hunger" is its drive to become complete. The risk is that you, the host, may become merely the vessel for its appetite. You must remain the pilot, not the fuel.
Star_Plucker_42: Don't be so dramatic, Theorist. Kid, the Book chose you because you have the one thing it lacks: a point of view. Your fury at a story, your love for a mother—that's the compass. The hunger is just engine noise. But yeah, don't let it drive. Steer it. Ask it what it needs for the next realm. Maybe you can find a… local substitute.
A local substitute. Ayush pondered this. The next realm was Martial Universe. What defined that world? A supreme focus on physical cultivation, on tempering the body to universe-shattering levels, on the power of Martial Souls in a different context…
His train of thought was interrupted. Wang Dong stirred, mumbling in his sleep. "...Yuhao… don't be so reckless…"
Ayush froze, his mental processes halting. Even in sleep, Wang Dong's concern was for him. The warmth and the guilt returned, sharper now, tangled with the cold calculations of multiversal power.
He looked inward, at the Black Book. It hovered, dark and infinite, a gateway to countless worlds of power. Then he looked at the sleeping form of his friend, bound by a destiny written in lies.
He had the power to break scripts now. But power was a fire. It could forge a new future, or it could consume everything, including the reasons he started.
He closed his eyes, making a decision. He would steer. He would use the Book's hunger, not be used by it. Tomorrow, he would begin researching Shrek's archives for anything related to extreme physical tempering, for energies that felt "ancient" and "unyielding." He would feed the Book a Douluo-path to the Martial Universe.
And he would protect the human warmth sleeping across the room, even if it was the very chain he was meant to sever.
The path was no longer just about rebellion. It was about synthesis. About wielding the fire of other worlds to protect the embers of this one.
The Black Book pulsed once, softly, as if in agreement… or anticipation.
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Next Chapter Preview:
Ayush delves into Shrek's forbidden archives, seeking knowledge of ancient body-tempering methods that might resonate with the "Martial Universe." He discovers references to a lost cultivation ground: the Vault of Shattered Earth. Meanwhile, Dai Huabin's hostility boils over into a direct challenge, forcing Ayush to consider using his hybrid powers in a public duel. The Black Book's hunger grows, whispering of "stellar energy" and "gravity forging."