Outside the ice cave, a group of people and soul beasts surrounded Ma Hongjun and the Ice Bear King.
The Ice Bear King was stunned, unsure how to express this strange feeling.
"Little White, go into the soul space first and experience it, then tell them what the benefits of the soul space are,"
Ma Hongjun said.
At this moment, he and the Ice Bear King had only just signed a soul contract and were still in the process of gradually getting to know each other.
This was a bond between humans and beasts.
The real, tangible benefits for both parties lay in cultivation.
Ma Hongjun condensed a soul seal in his right hand, and a white circular soul pattern appeared in his hand.
With Ma Hongjun's mental control, this ring slowly grew larger, forming an array pattern, and the black hole at the center also became larger.
As the black hole expanded, the Ice Bear King felt a summoning power.
Ma Hongjun looked at it sincerely and said gently,
"Little White, jump in!"
The Ice Bear King looked at the black hole, paused slightly, and hesitated. Although it could feel a familiar aura from inside, it was still somewhat wary of this two-dimensional space.
This was utterly illogical!
Ma Hongjun didn't urge him, waiting for the Ice Bear King to prepare itself.
However, it didn't hesitate for long. The Ice Bear King glanced at Ma Hongjun's serious expression,
then slightly bent its four legs and sprang up.
The enormous black hole shadow, like a spatial vortex, or rather, a spatial gate, appeared.
The Ice Bear King's body was enormous, seemingly exceeding the size of the spatial gate Ma Hongjun had created.
However, the moment the Ice Bear King's body touched this plane, it instantly transformed into a beam of white light and entered it. Its
entire form vanished.
Ma Hongjun retracted the white ring, and everything returned to calm.
Looking at the suddenly vanished Ice Bear King, not only the Snow Empress and Ice Empress, but even Shui Bing'er and the others were dumbfounded and shocked.
"Where's Xiaobai!"
the Snow Empress asked anxiously.
Because she couldn't sense where the Ice Bear King was.
It had simply disappeared in an instant.
For these people and soul beasts, this was unbelievable; it was the first time they had ever witnessed such a thing.
The Ice Bear King had clearly disappeared from Ma Hongjun's grasp, yet Ma Hongjun, despite being so close, couldn't sense any of its presence.
"Don't worry, it's alright!"
Ma Hongjun quickly reassured him.
"Little White is in my soul space; this is the relationship between a Soul Pet Master and their Soul Pet."
Outsiders couldn't sense the Ice Bear King, but Ma Hongjun, as its insider, could clearly perceive it.
Without even closing his eyes, in his sea of consciousness, there was a milky-white area, like an endless starry sky, without boundaries, and the Ice Bear King, Little White, was there.
Ma Hongjun could clearly feel it, and this feeling was exceptionally intimate and familiar!
The Ice Bear King was freely surveying this world, but in this endless white ocean, only it, the bear, existed.
This was its own world, its private space.
In this milky-white ocean, the Ice Bear King felt incredibly comfortable, almost wanting to lie down and sleep there.
Furthermore, it could feel its power increasing; this was a real feeling.
It was more than a hundred times faster than its cultivation speed outside.
Suddenly moving from a cultivation environment that was only one time as strong as another to one that was over a hundred times stronger was incredibly acute. Aside
from its monotony, this environment seemed perfectly fine. Moreover, there was no need for deliberate cultivation; simply resting and dozing was enough to fill the body with milky-white energy. This spiritual ocean was created using the spiritual power of the dragon soul, connecting it to the outside world and absorbing external energy. This was a very mysterious rule. The Ice Bear King's spiritual power was also connected to Ma Hongjun, allowing their cultivation to be mutually beneficial. In other words, a portion of the Ice Bear King's increased strength would also be used to enhance Ma Hongjun's. Conversely , the same applied to both. This was the bond! Mutually restrictive yet mutually reinforcing! A person's cultivation speed, depending on their talent, could be ten, a hundred, a thousand times faster than a soul beast… like Ma Hongjun, who had only cultivated for a few years, but whose cultivation was equivalent to hundreds of thousands of years for some soul beasts. This was essentially transferring this cultivation speed to the soul beast through a soul connection. But once the soul beast became powerful, some of that power could be fed back. Furthermore, they could fight with telepathic understanding.
This is why Soul Pet Masters and Soul Pets can achieve a win-win situation.
The spiritual two-dimensional space opened up by Soul Pet Masters provides different enhancements to the cultivation of Soul Beasts.
The reason why Ma Hongjun's current soul space can provide such a high cultivation speed for the Ice Bear King is because his basic spiritual power is abundant.
Dragon Soul's spiritual power has recovered.
According to the classification of Soul Pet Masters, Dragon Soul's spiritual power has reached the peak of Soul Pet Masters.
The classification of Soul Pet Masters is similar to that of Soul Masters.
It is divided into ten ranks and one hundred thoughts!
Soul Warrior, Soul Master, Soul Venerable, Soul Sect, Soul King, Soul Emperor, Soul Saint, Soul Lord, Soul Master!
Every ten thoughts advance one rank.
Each rank can open up a layer of soul space and condense a soul imprint, and one soul imprint contracts with a Soul Beast.
After contracting a Soul Beast,
one breaks through the realm and advances. This is the same principle as Soul Masters obtaining soul rings and advancing.
The cultivation system is largely the same.
When Soul Pet Masters initially only have ten thoughts of Soul Warrior, they cannot contract such powerful Soul Beasts, nor can they open up a soul space capable of supporting a 100,000-year-old Soul Beast.
One can only form contracts with young soul beasts and then slowly nurture them.
Furthermore, the growth rate of a soul beast in its soul space is related to the strength of the soul pet master's spiritual power.
Generally, a soul pet master at the Soul Warrior level can only provide ten times the growth rate through their spiritual ocean, and so on, roughly ten times for Soul Masters and below.
As cultivation increases, this increase continues—ten times, twenty times, thirty times…
However, soul cultivation is extremely difficult, and very few soul pet masters can cultivate to the Soul Master level!
In the Five Elements Continent, a Soul Master is equivalent to a Titled Douluo in the Douluo Continent, but the number of cultivators is far greater, and correspondingly, there are many more peak experts.
However, the Five Elements Continent is more advanced; the overall strength of soul pet masters is greater than that of soul masters. The Five Elements Continent is vast, and their cultivation systems are numerous, not just the soul pet master system.
According to Dragon Soul, there are also systems like warrior, sorcerer, and mystic!
Ma Hongjun cultivates the Soul Meditation Method by assimilating Dragon Soul's spiritual power; his soul power has now reached the Ten Thoughts Soul Saint level.
It wasn't that Dragon Soul's spiritual power only reached the Soul Saint level; in fact, it had already reached the Soul Master level. One more step and Dragon Soul would become a god.
However, Ma Hongjun could only assimilate to the Ten-Mind Soul Saint level.
This seemed to be like his soul power, stuck at the threshold of level eighty.
After contracting the Ice Bear King, Ma Hongjun felt that the constraint of his Dragon Soul Martial Soul's fifth soul ring was gone.
This was an unexpected discovery, one that even Dragon Soul hadn't anticipated.
This phenomenon meant that contracting the Ice Bear King was equivalent to filling the fifth soul ring of Dragon Soul Martial Soul.
Ma Hongjun was the first person to dual-cultivate the Soul Master and Soul Pet Master systems, and no one could explain this unexpected turn of events.
However, careful consideration revealed that the two cultivation systems seemed quite similar.
Both involved soul beasts, except one required a living soul beast, and the other a dead one.
This change proved that these systems could coexist, but trade-offs were necessary, with advantages and disadvantages.
Contracting a soul beast meant not being able to attach a soul ring; one could only choose one.
However, thinking about it another way, he now had two paths to break through his cultivation level.
When soul power is blocked, one can try spiritual power first!
But another problem arises!
Ma Hongjun has three martial souls with synchronized soul rings. Does this mean he also has synchronized soul imprints?
Then, the remaining soul ring slots of Ma Hongjun's three martial souls can also be used to condense soul imprints and contract soul beasts.
At this moment, the Dragon Soul answered Ma Hongjun's question!
"In the Five Elements Continent, there are also soul pet masters with powerful, heaven-defying talents.
Just like the heaven-defying talent of twin martial souls in your Douluo Continent.
The special and powerful talents of soul pet masters are manifested in two aspects.
First, they possess innate attribute affinity for spiritual power!
Spiritual power also has attribute affinity, but most people's spiritual power is normal. Only a few exceptionally talented people have spiritual power that is affinity for one or more attributes.
Metal, wood, water, fire, earth, light, darkness, wind, thunder, ice!
These are the ten common attributes, with the five elements as primary and the other five as secondary."
Soul pet masters with a certain attribute affinity find it easier to contract soul beasts of that attribute, and their cultivation boosts for soul beasts of the same attribute are much stronger than those of ordinary soul pet masters.
Secondly, there are dual souls.
This is similar to the concept of twin martial souls; while others can only contract a maximum of nine soul pets, dual-soul masters can contract eighteen.
However, this extraordinary talent also has drawbacks.
Cultivation is extremely difficult; typically, the journey from cultivating to breaking through to the first thought of soul power is several times harder than for ordinary people.
But the rewards are proportional to the effort.
Because they are dual-soul beings, their soul power is twice as strong as that of a Soul Pet Master of the same realm.
Actually, there's a third type: dual-soul beings with attribute affinity.
"Then what type do I belong to?"
"You belong to the fourth type, or more directly, the fifth.
If there's a fourth type—three souls—then you're the fifth,
a three-soul being with attribute affinity!"
"That sounds incredibly impressive!"
"Indeed, it's incredibly impressive. In the Five Elements Continent, dual-soul beings are extremely rare, even rarer than twin martial souls in the Douluo Continent.
Let alone three-soul beings; I'd never even heard of one before."
"Hehe! I was the first one in the Douluo Continent!" "
This is really powerful. The Soul Pet Master system is similar to that of Soul Masters, so it's not hard to understand.
Ma Hongjun already has 7 + 5 + 4 = 16 Soul Rings.
If we calculate based on three Souls,
there are still 27 - 16 = 11 slots left. These 11 slots can be used to attach Soul Rings or to contract Soul Pets.
He's already contracted the Ice Bear King, so he can contract ten more Soul Beasts.
Good heavens!
If the Soul Beasts he contracts later are all over 100,000 or 200,000 years old,
that's like having an entire army with him!
Such a powerful lineup isn't just invincible below the gods; Ma Hongjun feels he could even challenge the gods!
No wonder Soul Pet Masters are so powerful. A typical Soul Pet Master, at their peak, can contract nine Soul Pets, and all nine can be cultivated to over 100,000 years old.
How could a Title Douluo possibly be a match for a Soul Master at the Soul Lord level?
Dual Souls ..." A Soul Pet Master with eighteen Soul Pets—that's even more terrifying!
It's chilling to think about!
Just imagining it filled Ma Hongjun with awe for the Five Elements Continent.
Mortal power far surpassed that of the Douluo Continent.
No wonder a powerful being like the Dragon Soul was merely a Soul Pet in the Five Elements Continent.
Even with god-level strength, it remained there, ultimately having its physical body shattered.
It seems that god-level strength isn't the most powerful in the Five Elements Continent, or rather, the realm of gods is vast.
While Ma Hongjun and the Dragon Soul were having a spiritual conversation, the Ice Bear King, Xiaobai, had entered a semi-sleep state of cultivation within his spiritual sea.
The feeling here was wonderful. Originally, Xiaobai only wanted to experience the pleasure of cultivation, but unknowingly entered a state of enlightenment.
Moreover, it seemed to be deeply engrossed in its cultivation, even its body emitting a red light.
"It seems to be about to break through!" "
Dragon Soul suddenly transmitted his voice, somewhat surprised.
The Ice Bear King's current cultivation level is around the peak of 170,000 years, and it should be attempting to break through to the 180,000-year realm.
For a soul beast, this is equivalent to a breakthrough of a small realm. Although it's not as dangerous as a major breakthrough of 100,000 years, it's still a significant improvement.
It seems that suddenly entering such an excellent cultivation environment, a hundred times better than the ordinary world, is similar to suddenly consuming a celestial herb for a soul beast.
The Ice Bear King was already on the verge of a breakthrough, and its power had accumulated to a great extent.
Now, suddenly being nourished in the spiritual ocean of the soul space, it broke through naturally.
This was mostly due to the stimulation brought by its first experience.
At this crucial moment, the Ice Bear King came into contact with the soul space, so naturally, all aspects of its power would react!
"What do I need to do to help it?" Ma Hongjun
was a little nervous. The Ice Bear King's breakthrough at this moment was incredibly good for him, a true blessing. Even
disregarding the Ice Bear King's increased strength, which was tantamount to an increase in his own, the fact that it broke through at such a crucial time was convincing!
Nothing
could better prove the brilliance of the Soul Pet Master path!
"You don't need to do anything, just wait quietly. Do what you need to do, as long as you don't engage in battle, don't cause fluctuations in your spiritual sea, and don't disturb it.
This kind of minor breakthrough shouldn't be a problem, especially in the soul space."
Calming his excited heart, he could only wait.
Ma Hongjun opened his eyes and saw Xue Di, Shui Bing'er, and the others looking at him.
"How long has it been?"
Ma Hongjun asked Shui Bing'er.
"A little over an hour."
"It's been so long, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. It's our first time, everyone's still figuring things out, we need to properly experience the changes."
"Where's Xiao Bai?" "
Xue Di also asked with concern, but seeing that Ma Hongjun seemed a little apologetic but otherwise normal, she was just a little worried because she hadn't seen Xiao Bai yet.
Ma Hongjun smiled slightly,
"Little White is fine, it's in the Soul Space now!"
"Where is the Soul Space? Why can't we sense it?"
Titan Snow Demon King asked coldly, more than an hour had passed.
"Of course you can't sense my Soul Space,"
Titan Snow Demon King immediately retorted, displeased.
"Human, are you playing us? Quickly let Little White out."
"No, can't Little White come out now?"
Ma Hongjun resolutely refused.
"Why? According to you, it's possible to summon and leave the Soul Space at will, so why can't Little White come out now?"
Ice Emperor also asked, puzzled.
Snow Emperor's eyes slowly turned cold, and Shui Bing'er and the others also became somewhat tense.
The atmosphere suddenly became heavy.
Ma Hongjun slapped Titan Snow Demon King and rolled his eyes at it.
Then, looking at the Snow Empress and the Ice Empress, he asked,
"How long does it typically take for your soul beasts to break through a minor realm, like Xiaobai, who took 170,000 years to break through the 180,000-year barrier?"
The Snow Empress and the Ice Empress exchanged a glance, then said,
"If they succeed, it will take about ten days. If they haven't broken through after ten days, they've basically failed."
"Alright, then let's wait ten days!"
(End of Chapter)