Soon,
Lin Ximeng and Zhao Tao arrived at the Spirit Pagoda branch in the heart of Aolai City.
It was an octagonal building, three stories tall, square, and spacious.
While not as impressive as the eighty-first-floor Spirit Pagoda headquarters, it was still one of the most impressive structures in Aolai City.
After explaining their purpose, the receptionist explained the value of souls to Zhao Tao:
a random soul draw cost 30,000 Federation Coins, but there was a chance of receiving a defective one;
a ten-year-old white soul cost 70,000 Federation Coins;
a hundred-year-old yellow soul cost one million Federation Coins!
"I want to buy a hundred-year-old soul!"
Zhao Tao answered without hesitation.
While one million Federation Coins was a small sum, it was still an affordable figure for Zhao Tao.
After all, as a reborn being, Zhao Tao was a true all-around master!
Before his rebirth, Zhao Tao had already advanced all four of his secondary professions—forging, mecha design, mecha manufacturing, and mecha repair—to level nine.
While Zhao Tao certainly wouldn't be able to perform spirit forging or battle armor design due to his limited soul power after his rebirth,
forging Thousand Forged Metal or designing mecha blueprints was no problem for him!
With the income from these secondary professions, a million Federation Coins was nothing to Zhao Tao right now!
"Okay, before you choose your soul, let me give you a mental strength test."
After paying for the soul,
the spirit master kindly led Zhao Tao to a room filled with various instruments and fitted him with a metal helmet.
With a humming sound, numbers on the soul guide screen beside Zhao Tao began to flicker and eventually stabilize.
"One hundred and fifty points, early stage of the Spiritual Communication Realm! This, this is simply incredible!"
The Spiritual Master's face was filled with disbelief as he gazed at the Spiritual Power figures displayed on the screen!
During the Dragon King Legend era, a soul master's spiritual power was divided into six levels: the Spiritual Origin Realm, the Spiritual Communication Realm, the Spiritual Sea Realm, the Spiritual Abyss Realm, the Spiritual Domain Realm, and the Divine Origin Realm.
Generally speaking, for a child as young as Zhao Tao, reaching 30 points of Spiritual Power—the mid-stage of the Spiritual Origin Realm—was considered exceptionally gifted.
Even this Spiritual Master himself only had a mere sixty or seventy points of Spiritual Power.
Zhao Tao's Spiritual Power, however, reached a staggering one hundred and fifty points. This
result was nothing short of astounding! Zhao Tao wasn't surprised.
As a time traveler, Zhao Tao's spiritual power was already stronger than that of an average child.
While refining the "Time Meditation Method," Zhao Tao had also specifically incorporated a method for tempering spiritual power.
After all, Zhao Tao understood that in this age of souls, the importance of a strong spiritual force was no less than that of soul level!
Given these two factors, it was no surprise that Zhao Tao's spiritual power had reached the Spiritual Realm.
Of course, the Spiritual Master and Lin Ximeng, witnessing this scene, looked dejected, even suspecting a malfunction in the equipment. They helped Zhao Tao retest his spiritual power.
"It's actually the Spiritual Realm. Unbelievable."
"It's a shame your innate soul power is a bit of a disadvantage..."
"Otherwise, you would have grown into a formidable warrior in the future!"
After confirming Zhao Tao's spiritual power, the Spiritual Master quickly retrieved his file.
Upon seeing Zhao Tao's innate soul power, he could only sigh deeply, his face filled with regret as he led Zhao Tao to the soul storage vault.
"These souls represent all the available century-old souls in Aolai City, including all common basic souls."
"Of course, if there aren't any souls you like, you can request rarer ones from the Spirit Pagoda headquarters." "
But the price isn't just one million,"
the Spirit Master explained, presenting a dazzling array of century-old souls.
"Yes, I see. This is it,"
Zhao Tao nodded, pretending to carefully select one before finally settling on a soul named "Spring Silkworm."
While not a traditionally powerful soul, the Spring Silkworm is a perfect match for the Spring and Autumn Cicada.
It can absorb the power of time to continuously evolve, eventually emerging from its cocoon into a Butterfly of Time, and even further evolve!
Before his rebirth, one of Zhao Tao's souls was the Butterfly of Time, which had proven its strength and compatibility with the Spring and Autumn Cicada.
This was precisely why Zhao Tao chose it as his own soul.
"As a bonus for purchasing a Centennial Soul, you can achieve a breakthrough within our Spirit Transmission Tower. Come with me."
The Spirit Transmission Master personally retrieved the Soul Orb containing the Yearly Silkworm and handed it to Zhao Tao. The Spirit Transmission Master then led Zhao Tao to the training room at the Spirit Transmission Tower branch.
"Before fusing the Soul Orb, help the Spring Silkworm complete its evolution!"
Closing the training room door, Zhao Tao summoned his Spring and Autumn Cicada Martial Soul and then retrieved the newly acquired Spring Silkworm Soul from the Soul Orb.
Looking at the Spring and Autumn Cicada Martial Soul and the Spring Silkworm Soul before him, Zhao Tao's mind stirred.
The long-accumulated power of time within the Spring and Autumn Cicada, manipulated by Zhao Tao's mental power, was transmitted strand by
strand to the Spring Silkworm Soul. With this constant influx of time power, the Spring Silkworm Soul grew and expanded, markings appearing on its surface, as if bearing the marks of time.
After a while, as if it had reached a critical point, mysterious bronze growth rings suddenly appeared on the surface of the spring silkworm soul's body, and thousands of silver silk threads appeared on its body.
At this moment, after absorbing a vast amount of the power of time, Zhao Tao's Spring Silkworm Soul finally evolved, becoming a Millennium Soul—the Yearly Silkworm!
This wasn't the limit, of course. As long as the Yearly Silkworm Soul continued to absorb the power of time and spiritual energy, after reaching ten thousand years, it could further evolve into the Time Butterfly.
Of course, for Zhao Tao right now, this was still a bit far-fetched.
What he needed to do now was to fuse the evolved Yearly Silkworm Soul with it and achieve a breakthrough to the Soul Master realm.
Perhaps for other Level 10 Soul Masters, the thought of fusing a Millennium Soul as their first Soul would be unrealistic.
After all, only those with spiritual power reaching the Spiritual Communication Realm could fuse with a purple Millennium Soul.
If a Spiritual Yuan Realm Soul Master attempted to forcefully fuse beyond their level, they would be severely injured at best, or even permanently unable to advance.
However, for Zhao Tao, whose spiritual power had already reached the Spiritual Communication Realm, fusing a Millennium Soul was a piece of cake!
At the same time, the thousand-year spirit ring created by the fusion of thousand-year souls also places high demands on the spirit master's physical fitness.
However, as a reborn being, Zhao Tao had long ago prepared a special secret method that could significantly reduce the physical stress of fusing the spirit ring and thus avoid such problems!
After a brief rest, Zhao Tao, with a thought, sat cross-legged, held his breath, and began the fusion of souls.
In the blink of an eye, the Spring and Autumn Cicada martial spirit and the Year Silkworm spirit before Zhao Tao tightly pressed together and began to fuse!
As the souls merged, a surge of soul power surged from Zhao Tao's body, frantically attacking the newly reached bottleneck of the spirit master!