In the Xuanbing Cave, Xiao Bai was absorbing the remaining Ten-Thousand-Year Xuanbing Marrow.
Once familiar, Xiao Bai was actually quite adorable.
It had always been raised as a pet by the Snow Empress, so it was very good at being affectionate. Moreover, it didn't have many thoughts; it was a simple little bear.
Ma Hongjun, on the other hand, was opening up his soul space. After being persuaded by the Dragon Soul, the three Heavenly Kings of the Far North all agreed to become Ma Hongjun's soul pets.
This was what Ma Hongjun meant by "worth it"!
A misunderstanding proved mutual trust.
He directly persuaded the three Heavenly Kings to become his soul pets.
The Ice Empress and Snow Empress, due to the Heavenly Tribulation, had no way out; whether they liked it or not, following Ma Hongjun's path was their only choice.
With a divine dragon like the Dragon Soul guiding them, they would have a great chance of surviving the Heavenly Tribulation or becoming gods in the future!
As for the Titan Snow Demon King, it was more of a herd mentality. Now, all the prominent beasts in the Far North were following Ma Hongjun; everyone wanted to ascend to heaven.
It also had a little hope of becoming a god.
Opening up a soul space wasn't difficult, but it would take some time.
The Snow Empress was 700,000 years old, the Ice Empress was 400,000 years old, and the Titan Snow Demon King was over 200,000 years old.
Such powerful soul beasts naturally required sufficiently solid soul spaces to contain them.
These soul spaces were layered, each corresponding to a soul pet, much like soul rings.
With the help of the Dragon Soul, Ma Hongjun progressed rapidly.
A month later, Ma Hongjun condensed a soul imprint again, contracting with the Titan Snow Demon King!
Two months later, he condensed another soul imprint, contracting with the Ice Empress.
Three months later, he contracted with the Snow Empress!
At this point, all the powerful soul beasts of the far north became Ma Hongjun's soul pets.
Dragon Soul Martial Soul, four soul rings, four soul pets!
Ma Hongjun finally broke through level 80, obtaining the title of Soul Douluo!
Because they were contracted soul pets, it didn't bring Ma Hongjun much of a breakthrough in soul power; after advancing, his soul power reached level 82.
Although he lacked soul rings and soul bones, he gained the Four Great Ferocious Beasts.
Each soul ring and soul bone could only grant Ma Hongjun a maximum of two soul skills, while the actual soul pets could fight entirely for him.
While his soul power didn't break through much, his spirit power directly reached the peak of the Soul Lord realm.
At this time, the ice attribute power within Ma Hongjun's body also reached a very strong level, breaking the balance with the fire attribute once again, with ice attribute soul power suppressing fire attribute soul power.
Ma Hongjun could also absorb the Vermilion Bird Feathers. He had obtained the Vermilion Bird Feathers at the bottom of the Heavenly Fire Pool in the Fire Domain, but only absorbed a portion. There were
still over a dozen Vermilion Bird Feather bones that hadn't been absorbed and fused.
His body could now accommodate these soul bones,
all over 200,000 years old.
Another month passed, and Ma Hongjun fused all the Vermilion Bird Feather bones into the Wind Dragon Wing Bone.
The fusion of each soul bone enhanced Ma Hongjun's soul power.
After all the fusions, Ma Hongjun's soul power reached level ninety!
This was the benefit of resources, saving the time of accumulating soul power through cultivation.
At this time, the Fire Feather Wind Wings had also reached a terrifying level. The fusion of
twenty Vermilion Bird Feather bones over 200,000 years old and one Wind Dragon Wing Bone over 100,000 years old—
twenty-one soul bones in total—caused a qualitative change in Ma Hongjun's body.
Soul bones are essentially fused with the body's skeleton, directly enhancing physical strength and various attributes.
Currently, Ma Hongjun's physical strength alone is enough to contend with the Titan Snow Demon King. His
fire attribute abilities are even comparable to the Snow Empress's ice and snow power.
His Fire Feather Wind Wings can easily break through the Snow Empress's domain.
Only the combined fusion skill of the Snow Empress and Ice Empress, Snow Dance Shining in the Sun, can restrain Ma Hongjun's Fire Feather Wind Wings.
After absorbing the remaining Ten Thousand Year Profound Ice Marrow, Xiaobai has arrived at the Two Hundred Thousand Year Heavenly Tribulation as expected!
Now, the Four Great Ferocious Beasts—
Xiaobai, Ice Empress, and Snow Empress—all need to face the Heavenly Tribulation.
Therefore, the three of them are in seclusion in their soul spaces, receiving guidance from the Dragon Soul on how to best cope with the Heavenly Tribulation.
The Dragon Soul also imparts to them special soul beast cultivation methods.
In the Douluo Continent, very few soul beasts can awaken intelligence; they generally only develop intelligence after one hundred thousand years.
Their cultivation methods were far too simplistic, or rather, nonexistent; they relied entirely on being nurtured in blessed lands with abundant spiritual energy.
Now, with the instruction of the Dragon God from the Dragon Soul, they can cultivate systematically!
According to the Dragon God, soul beasts can cultivate to become human, unlike in Douluo Continent where they must dissipate their power, transform into human form, and start cultivating again!
The Dragon Soul is currently teaching them the techniques for transformation, because the human body is the true path to cultivation, and a physique more easily recognized by the Heavenly Dao.
Cultivating into human form will make tribulations easier for them.
This mainly focuses on Ice Empress and Little White.
Titan Snow Demon King and Snow Empress aren't needed, as they are essentially humanoid.
Titan Snow Demon King is a giant species.
The Dragon Soul passed on to it a physical cultivation method, the cultivation system of warriors from the Five Elements Continent.
This allows it to utilize its strengths; its physical body is incredibly powerful, and it possesses ice-type soul skills.
There's a high probability it can achieve physical godhood and cultivate into a War God!
As for Snow Empress, she's somewhat similar to a celestial spirit!
She's an spirit born from heaven and earth, the embodiment of ice and snow elements.
The Dragon God taught her a sorcerer's cultivation system, focusing on ice and snow magic to attempt to reach the dual-elemental godhood!
The Dragon God has high hopes for both of them; they have the potential to become gods!
Godhood doesn't necessarily require inheritance; one can achieve it through self-cultivation!
The Dragon Soul itself reached godhood through its own cultivation!
Ma Hongjun's ice-type soul already occupies eight slots, leaving only one.
However, there are no ice-type soul beasts in the far north that can tempt him, or perhaps none at all in the entire Douluo Continent.
Dragon Soul told Ma Hongjun not to rush to find the last Soul Pet, but to keep the position for now, as they might need to travel to other worlds later.
The Five Elements Continent alone has a vast ice plain where the Soul Beasts are even more exceptional.
In short, keeping one might bring future surprises!
Next up are Shui Bing'er and her four teachers!
They have been cultivating the Soul Meditation Technique and have already established a certain foundation.
In fact, spiritual power naturally increases with soul power, though not significantly.
Their spiritual power isn't weak; they just hadn't cultivated it before and didn't know how to use it.
Now, after cultivating the Soul Meditation Technique, they are utilizing all their spiritual power and have opened up their Soul Space.
Based on the relationship between Soul Rings and Soul Imprints, the four Soul Saint teachers still have two Soul Positions.
Shui Bing'er has three!
All five of them are willing to form contracts with Soul Pets instead of hunting for Soul Rings.
Currently, the Ice and Snow Emperors and Xiao Bai are in seclusion in their Soul Space, so Titan Snow Demon King will lead them to acquire Soul Pets.
Of the five, Shui Bing'er possessed the strongest spiritual power; the soul space she created was sufficient to support the survival of a 100,000-year-old soul beast!
While the other four teachers had level 80 soul power, their soul power wasn't as strong as Shui Bing'er's; their soul spaces could only support soul beasts of 80,000 to 90,000 years at most.
It seems there's a reason Shui Bing'er was chosen by the gods.
Soul beasts under 100,000 years old lack sufficient intelligence; reasoning with them is generally difficult. Only the local overlord, Titan Snow Demon King, could help them become soul pets.
However, this required the mutual consent of both the individual and the soul beast. The selection began with Ice Scorpions and Ice Jade Scorpions.
Ice Jade Scorpions were generally over 10,000 years old.
Among the four teachers was Shui Xin, whose martial soul was an Ice Scorpion. She was very familiar with and fond of Ice Scorpions.
Finally, through the Titan Snow Demon King's negotiations, Shui Xin formed a soul contract with an 80,000-year-old Ice Jade Scorpion!
With Shui Xin's level 80 soul power, even her eighth soul ring might not be able to withstand an 80,000-year-old soul ring.
Now that they had contracted an 80,000-year-old Ice Jade Scorpion as their soul pet, they were incredibly excited.
The Ice Jade Scorpion itself had sensed a familiar aura from Shui Xin, and upon entering the soul space, it was even more delighted!
The Ice Jade Scorpion was a high-level soul beast; in the far north, it was considered one of the highest-ranking soul beast races. An
80,000-year-old Ice Jade Scorpion was comparable to a level 91 Title Douluo.
The Titan Snow Demon King continued its journey through the far north, with Ma Hongjun and the other six standing on its shoulders, following it to various places inhabited by soul beasts.
The other three teachers successively obtained their own soul pets:
an 80,000-year-old Ice Fox King,
an 80,000-year-old Polar Snow Leopard Cat,
and a 90,000-year-old Ice Phoenix Butterfly ! The one
who obtained the 90,000-year-old Ice Phoenix Butterfly was Teacher Crystal, who left the deepest impression on Ma Hongjun!
Finally, it was Shui Bing'er.
"Big White, Bing'er's martial soul is an Ice Phoenix. Are there any powerful 100,000-year-old soul beasts here suitable for Bing'er to contract with?"
Big White was a name Ma Hongjun gave the Titan Snow Demon King for convenience; although it didn't like it, its resistance was futile.
Ma Hongjun hoped to contract a 100,000-year-old soul beast for Shui Bing'er to improve her self-defense capabilities!
"Yes, there are quite a few soul beasts over 100,000 years old in the far north, but they generally don't stay in one place.
Or they're in seclusion in places unknown to other soul beasts. They're not easy to find.
In the north, there's a Phoenix Ice Mountain with a 100,000-year-old Ice Crystal Phoenix there, which should be very suitable, but I don't know if it's home."
"Let's go take a look!"
Arriving at Phoenix Ice Mountain, they were fortunate to find the 100,000-year-old Ice Crystal Phoenix there.
The arrival of the Titan Snow Demon King easily startled the secluded Ice Crystal Phoenix.
This Ice Crystal Phoenix was exactly the same as the statue in the Phoenix Ice Cave, only much smaller.
Ma Hongjun even thought that the original phoenix might not be a statue at all.
Its body was entirely composed of ice crystals, even its wings!
The Ice Crystal Phoenix dared not make a move against the sudden visitor; the Titan Snow Demon King's enormous size was too intimidating.
Therefore, it was easy to sit down and talk with the Ice Crystal Phoenix.
Ma Hongjun and the other four teachers showed their respective soul pets to the Ice Crystal Phoenix.
Then the Titan Snow Demon King recounted his personal experiences and the benefits they had gained.
Finally, Shui Bing'er displayed her Ice Phoenix Martial Soul and the Phoenix Divine Might within her Phoenix Ice Wings.
The Ice Crystal Phoenix finally happily agreed to become Shui Bing'er's soul pet.
This Ice Crystal Phoenix was very strong, comparable to a Title Douluo of around level 93!
Moreover, within Shui Bing'er's soul space, its growth would be even faster.
Shui Bing'er's soul space possesses not only ice attributes but also phoenix attributes.
Having resolved these matters, the next issue to consider is the far north!
Ma Hongjun has already contracted with all the powerful ferocious beasts of the far north.
Without a true Soul Beast King to govern this place, if a human Title Douluo powerhouse were to invade, it would inevitably cause severe harm to the soul beasts!
Ma Hongjun cannot remain here indefinitely; if he leaves, he must take these ferocious beasts, which have become his soul pets, with him.
To promote the Soul Pet Master cultivation system, it needs to start from a localized point.
The far north is the best place; this gathering place for soul beasts is already under his control.
If he were to further control the human soul masters outside the far north who source their soul rings from the Frost Forest, it would be tantamount to ruling the entire northern region, requiring a human power.
This power, along with the soul beasts, needs to begin experimenting with the Soul Pet Master system.
Ma Hongjun's thought is of Tianshui Academy, with Shui Bing'er and four teachers already serving as a precedent.
If he were to support Tianshui Academy in becoming a power in the Frost Forest primarily based on the Soul Pet Master system...
The source of Soul Pets is the Frosty Forest and the Far North Ice Region.
And between these two, a mediator is needed!
Just like how the Titan Snow Demon King helped Shui Bing'er and her four teachers obtain Soul Pets.
Shui Bing'er is the most suitable mediator!
With her strength and talent, plus her prestige at Tianshui Academy, Ma Hongjun can completely assist her in becoming the Dean of Tianshui Academy!
Then, he can also pass on the Snow Emperor's Far North Control Order to Shui Bing'er.
She will then become the true ruler of this northern land, developing the first force in the Douluo Continent based on Soul Pet Masters!
(End of Chapter)