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The Heavenly Book merged into a phantom world.
Su Wen resonated with this illusory realm, and the soul power within his body circulated, naturally falling under its influence.
Simultaneously, the phantom world projected by the Heavenly Book was an "imitation" based on the entire Douluo Planet. As Su Wen resonated with it, the phantom world synchronized with the actual planet. In essence, Su Wen utilized this bridge to complete a resonance with the Douluo Plane itself.
At this point, the condensation of his Soul Core was a certainty.
His soul power flowed as if guided by heaven, gathering the strength of the world to complete the core's formation. The soul power was perfectly constrained, crystallizing into a solid core that felt like a microcosm of a universe.
In the current era of the Douluo Continent, most Title Douluos relied on serendipity to break through. They explored their own martial souls to achieve a breakthrough strongly linked to their soul's specific properties, forming various types of solid soul power cores.
Compared to the systematic "Soul Core Method" of the future, this ancient way was incredibly difficult and entirely dependent on luck. However, its advantage lay in an incredibly high—albeit unstable—ceiling.
This "instability" didn't just refer to the power a soul master could draw; it encompassed every aspect, including the efficiency of soul power circulation.
A modern Soul Core (from the future) rotates constantly, forming a closed loop with the body's soul power. It acts as a core that transforms the state of soul power with extreme fluidity. The current methods of the Douluo Continent lacked this structural advantage. However, if the soul power solidified perfectly through the ancient way, it could reach the same level of efficiency—or even surpass a standard Soul Core—despite lacking the "automated" conversion process.
But such perfection was a rare, sought-after miracle.
The two methods each had their merits.
Currently, Su Wen had used the concept of the future Soul Core method to condense his power, yet by chance, he had also fused the solidification characteristics of the current ancient method. The result was a Soul Core that mirrored his simulated phantom world.
Inside the core, the solid soul power seemed to be in motion, forming a complete mini-world. The core itself performed a "self-rotation," while outside the core, layers of liquid and gaseous soul power swirled in orbit.
Essentially, Su Wen's Soul Core—situated in his middle Dantian—was composed of three parts: a solid central core, an outer liquid envelope, and a gaseous ring.
Under these conditions, the "self-rotation" of the core still drove the exchange between the core's energy and the soul power flowing through the meridians to the middle Dantian.
Standard Soul Cores rely on rotation to facilitate this exchange: soul power flows from the meridians into the Dantian, merges into the core following the direction of its spin, and is then "flung" out into another meridian, creating a ceaseless cycle.
Su Wen's addition of the gaseous and liquid layers made this exchange even smoother. It eliminated the clunky transition of states. During the core's rotation, there was only the flow between gas and liquid, avoiding the direct friction of converting solid to liquid during the external exchange.
The solid-to-liquid conversion happened internally within the core itself. Thanks to the traits inherited from the ancient method, Su Wen's core possessed the innate ability to convert liquid and solid soul power internally and continuously.
With these two forms of conversion coexisting, the efficiency of Su Wen's Soul Core was astronomical—far exceeding the theoretical limits he had previously calculated.
Having successfully condensed this new form of Soul Core, Su Wen gained a deeper understanding of the two paths of solidification.
"The future Soul Core method focuses on the operating mechanism—the 'interaction' between the solid core and the rest of the body's soul power. The ancient method currently used on the Douluo Continent focuses on the internal development of the core."
Specifically, the ancient method leaned toward merging the core with the Martial Soul itself.
As the degree of fusion deepened, the integration between the soul master, the martial soul, and the soul core would become increasingly powerful.
When the Soul Core merges with the Martial Soul, and the Martial Soul merges with the soul master, the Soul Core effectively merges with the master.
A Trinity.
Consequently, the conversion of soul power within the core would no longer rely solely on the body's meridians. Instead, it would use the Martial Soul as an intermediary converter. The core would merge with the soul, which in turn merged with every drop of soul power in the body, completing the exchange holistically.
Su Wen had not yet achieved the latter. He had only just laid the foundation for an "ancient-fused" core. Even so, this hybrid core already showed efficiency beyond his theoretical models.
If he continued along the ancient path, further integrating the core with his martial soul, Su Wen felt the core's power would become unprecedented. By the time he condensed a second core—even if he used the "Same-Position Resonance" method—it would be more than enough to compensate for the lack of the "Yin-Yang Complementary" method.
"Same-Position Resonance focuses on developing the internal nature of the cores, while Yin-Yang Complementary focuses on the development of the external operating system," Su Wen mused, his inspiration exploding. He now held a different perspective on the two types of dual soul cores.
From this viewpoint, a dual core system using Same-Position Resonance fused with the ancient method was essentially a way to fix the "undeveloped" flaws of that method, allowing it to catch up to the Yin-Yang method. If two cores of the same strength result in a massive power gap, it simply means one method is incomplete—it only went halfway. Fixing that half-step bridges the gap.
"As for applying the ancient method to the Yin-Yang Complementary path..." Su Wen pondered the possibility.
He shook his head.
Merging two opposing Yin-Yang cores with a Martial Soul—what kind of soul could possibly withstand that? At the very least, Su Wen didn't seem to meet the requirements himself. The internal conflict within the soul would be inevitable.
However, it wasn't impossible. As he scanned his knowledge of various martial souls, one specific possibility came to mind.
"If it were a Twin Martial Soul... where the two souls inherently have conflicting powers yet are capable of fusion and mutual support. Perhaps one could use the ancient method to condense two separate cores, merging each with its respective martial soul."
This condition couldn't be met by simple pairs like the Blue Silver Emperor and Clear Sky Hammer, or two types of spiders. Even among the many twin soul examples in Su Wen's memory, most didn't fit.
Two daggers? No.
Hell Civet and Evil Eye White Tiger? Also no.
Opposing souls that are also capable of Martial Soul Fusion...
Su Wen turned his gaze toward the direction of Radiant City.
(End of Chapter)