"Splish splash~"
A clear stream split the forest in two. Su Wen sat cross-legged on a rock, cultivating. His golden core glowed faintly, dyeing all his meridians gold, visible beneath his fair skin like blue veins.
This golden core definitely had other uses.
But Elder Xuan and Elder Mu never mentioned it, so he didn't ask.
The golden core was in his dantian. Su Wen had thought it would grow larger, even worried about it bursting his body. But once it reached the size of a thumb, it started shrinking, now becoming more refined, but containing all his soul power.
Feels like… a soul core?
According to Grandmaster's Soul Power Theory:
The total volume of soul power a body can hold is fixed.
But gaseous soul power > liquid > solid in volume.
So, after your soul power fills the total volume as gas, to progress further, you have to turn it into liquid to hold more, then from liquid to solid—this is why going from Soul Douluo to Title Douluo is so hard.
As long as you can condense a solid soul core, you're a Title Douluo.
To go further, to Super Douluo, you have to turn the solid into granules, and manipulate them with gaseous or liquid soul power. This is dangerous and difficult, so most Title Douluos settle at rank 91 for life, not daring to try further.
Above that is Limit Douluo.
There are two ways: one is to turn a tenth of your soul power into a black hole state, but that's extremely hard to stabilize. The other is to condense a second soul core.
Normal Limit Douluos condense a twin-resonance soul core, but Di Tian took a different path—with his terrifying body, he formed a yin-yang dual core. Using his soul power, he caused space to collapse into black holes, absorbing the power of heaven and earth. Over time, his combat power became the best under demigod level.
In the original, Yuhao achieved a never-before-seen feat at the Soul Sage level—condensing a soul core, and a black hole one at that.
This made advancing to Title Douluo much harder, because to advance, you must form a second soul core, which is as hard as advancing to rank 98 Limit Douluo. But if you succeed, your future is limitless.
Condense a soul core early?
Su Wen thought to himself.
It's not an easy path, but for him… it shouldn't be hard.
Because the main difficulty in the original was—the transformation between soul power states is very dangerous; one mistake and you could explode. So an exceptionally strong body is required. In the original, the dragon pearl Elder Mu gave Yuhao was a big reason for his success—it gave him a powerful body.
Coincidentally, Su Wen's soul beast stats gave him huge physical feedback… his body strength was dozens of times that of others at the same level, and would increase as his soul beast improved.
When the time comes, he'll just ask Elder Mu for a dragon pearl and condense a core casually.
Also, you need strong spiritual power.
This was Yuhao's specialty, because transforming soul power states needs spiritual strength. This is also why most Super Douluos have strong spiritual power—otherwise, it's hard to break through that barrier.
This isn't hard for Su Wen either. Later, he'll get an Evil-Eyed Tyrant and solve it easily.
"Whoo…"
Su Wen slowly opened his eyes.
The golden light around him faded. He couldn't help but sigh, "This golden core… best to condense it into a black hole-level soul core, all at once. If Yuhao in the original could, and I'm a cheater myself, I should have no problem."
Elder Xuan said to rest, but who knows where he went.
Zhang Lexuan had secretly pulled Su Wen to a stream not far from the main group.
"What are you mumbling about? Come down here, the water's cool~"
The voice came from a distance.
Zhang Lexuan stepped on the stones in the stream, tottering toward him. She held her cloth shoes in one jade hand, her other hand lifting her green dress to keep it dry, revealing a fair calf that caught Su Wen's eye.
With her strength, she should easily stay dry, but at this moment, she seemed to have removed her mask, affectionately beckoning Su Wen to come play.
"You stepped on me!"
Zhang Lexuan complained playfully.
The two walked along the stream.
Su Wen, distracted, stepped barefoot on Zhang Lexuan's soft foot.
She glared at him, but kept a firm grip on his hand, then raised her foot to kick him.
Soft~
Su Wen, wearing shorts, felt her soft foot tap his bare calf, skin-to-skin. It felt wonderful—why was he being rewarded?
The two played in the stream.
…
An hour later—
"Splish~"
They sat side by side on a rock by the stream. Zhang Lexuan playfully dipped her fair feet in the water, laughing as fish nibbled at them.
Su Wen turned to look.
The senior sister's fair cheeks were now tinged with a blush. Soul Douluos shouldn't get tired, so this was genuine happiness…
"What are you thinking?"
Zhang Lexuan stretched out her foot to tap Su Wen's leg.
"Gulp~"
Su Wen blushed. He was genuinely shy. He used to enjoy making others blush, but facing a real mature woman… he felt like he was the one being played. Damn!
"Hahahaha~"
Zhang Lexuan scooted closer, watching Su Wen turn away, his body stiff with embarrassment, and felt more and more delighted.
She knew her own charm.
And as the very traditional inner court senior sister, this was the first time she'd been so close to another man.
She remembered the little boy, back then, who had stood in front of her, shielding her from a hundred-thousand-year soul beast. At that time, he'd only come up to her waist, so young and small. Now, he was over 1.7 meters, almost catching up to her.
It was a strange, enchanting feeling.
For others, it was just a legendary story—told and retold, exaggerated and spread. But only those involved knew, seeing that giant maw coming at her, with the small figure standing in front, how shocking it was...
Memory is like fine wine—the more you savor it, the sweeter it becomes.
Su Wen lay awkwardly on the rock, pretending to gaze at the sky.
But Zhang Lexuan wouldn't let him off.
She lay down too, propping her chin on her hand, gazing at Su Wen with a smile.
She had always wanted to know—why, all those years ago, Su Wen had stood in front of her. Just how much courage did that skinny little body hold, and what was he thinking then…?
"Can I interview you? Back then, why did you stand in front of me?"
Zhang Lexuan asked, her red lips smiling.
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Advanced chapter here: p-atreon.com/Sajaboyzzz
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