Inside the soul-powered elevator rising toward the tenth floor, Hua Yichen glanced at Huo Yuhao beside him and asked, "Since you want to understand Spirit Souls, have you heard the legend of the founding Tower Master?"
"The Spirit-Ice Douluo?"
Huo Yuhao kept his expression neutral, letting a measured trace of curiosity show through. "There's so little told about him. All I know is that he founded the Spirit Transmission Tower and developed the Soul-Spirit Method. Beyond that, I'm not sure."
And no wonder there was so little told. Ten thousand years ago, he had been a reclusive Douluo to rival even the Haotian Sect in obscurity. Apart from the period following the Tower's founding, when his movements had of necessity become more visible, he had rarely appeared before others in his true face. What the world knew of him amounted to a single Martial Soul the Ice-Jade Emperor Scorpion. Not even his Spirit Eyes had ever come to light.
Which was precisely why he felt safe walking into the Spirit Transmission Tower now, wearing his original face and his Spirit Eyes Martial Soul.
Hua Yichen nodded. "The founding Tower Master left behind very little in the way of legend. But the inheritance he gave the Tower has endured without fading and it was because of him that the world today is one where Spirit Beasts and humans live in something resembling peace."
He paused there, then continued plainly:
"You haven't studied any of this yet, so some of the concepts may be difficult to follow. For now, think of it as a story."
"In practical terms, the Federation today has more than enough strength to raze any Spirit Beast settlement it chose. By rights, the relationship between humans and Spirit Beasts should be deeply hostile. But the founding Tower Master seems to have foreseen exactly that outcome. The Soul-Spirit Contract Method and the Contract Dissolution Method he left behind are what eased the tension between the two sides."
As he listened, Huo Yuhao turned over the memories of those early days the painstaking, piece-by-piece work of building the Soul-Spirit system from the ground up.
The Soul-Spirit Method he had left behind was not the same as the one the original Huo Yuhao had created in the story.
Because his Electrolux was still alive.
With Electrolux's knowledge and experience behind him, his research into Spirit Souls had gone far deeper than the original. He had been able to refine the system, introduce meaningful improvements and safeguards, and most importantly embed the Soul-Spirit Contract into the framework itself.
Under that contract, absorbing a Spirit Soul required the Spirit Soul's own consent before the contract could be formed. Without that consent, the attempt would simply fail.
Once a contract was established, the Spirit Soul could grow alongside its Spirit Master. If the Spirit Master became powerful enough, the Spirit Soul could even evolve on its own initiative. The Spirit Master, in turn, could communicate with the Spirit Soul through the contract in advance and freely choose which Spirit Ability to receive.
For this Soul-Spirit Contract, Huo Yuhao had drawn reference from the Blood Contract of the Holy Demon Continent, deliberately excluding any element of a forced master-servant bond. It eliminated at the root any possibility of Spirit Beasts being kept in captivity and enslaved the way they had been in the original story.
Want to force a Spirit Soul into a contract against its will? Certainly provided you could first dismantle the twenty-eight security layers Electrolux had embedded within the contract's architecture, and reverse-engineer the entire cultivation system of the Holy Demon Continent from scratch. Otherwise, it was nothing but a waking dream.
Beyond the Soul-Spirit Contract, he had also introduced the Contract Dissolution Method, allowing both parties in an established contract to dissolve it by mutual agreement.
In the early days, when Spirit Souls were brand new and the old method of hunting Spirit Beasts was the only thing anyone had ever known, every Spirit Master had no choice but to follow his approach.
That meant going through two steps: finding a Spirit Beast willing to become a Spirit Soul and then formalizing the contract at the Spirit Transmission Tower.
But willing Spirit Beasts were not exactly plentiful.
This was where Huo Yuhao had opened another door.
His alliance with Emperor Tian and the Snow Empress.
With the leaders of two great Spirit Beast communities lending their endorsement, no small number of Spirit Beasts volunteered for the role. The supply of willing Spirit Souls surged.
And then the Contract Dissolution Method came into its own.
A Spirit Soul was a form of life that could grow. If, before a Spirit Master died, they dissolved the contract and passed the Spirit Soul on to a successor and that successor did the same for the next generation what would happen after several such cycles?
Hua Yichen gave the answer.
"…Because of the Contract Dissolution Method, the most powerful category of Spirit Soul was born the Inherited Spirit Soul."
"In certain Spirit Master families, a Spirit Soul passed down through generations of continuous growth would climb higher and higher in age and power. Its bond with the family would deepen over time, its voice and standing within the household would grow year by year until it became, in every meaningful sense, a part of the family itself. A Guardian Spirit."
"The successors of those families are chosen by the Guardian Spirits, not the other way around. After all, a Soul-Spirit Contract requires the Spirit Soul's consent to form and only a Spirit Soul that has formally contracted can dissolve that contract and survive the death of its Spirit Master."
The soul-powered elevator doors slid open. Hua Yichen led the way out, speaking to Huo Yuhao as they walked.
"With Inherited Spirit Souls standing on the side of the Spirit Beasts, those who wanted to capture and farm them for research were left without any foothold. That's why certain people began spreading slander claiming the founding Tower Master was a Spirit Beast who had taken human form. Since you've joined the Tower, you'll inevitably hear these rumors sooner or later. Don't let them get to you."
"Also ,when you're studying Spirit Souls, don't let yourself get carried away. Harming them carries consequences."
Huo Yuhao nodded, then asked, as if from simple curiosity: "In these rumors which Spirit Beast is the Spirit-Ice Douluo supposed to be?"
"The Ice Empress."
"The… Ice Empress?"
An indescribable expression crossed Huo Yuhao's face.
Hua Yichen gave a small nod and sighed.
"Correct. The Ice Empress ranked seventh among the Ten Great Savage Beasts ten thousand years ago the Ice-Jade Emperor Scorpion. After all, the Spirit-Ice Douluo's own Martial Soul was the Ice-Jade Scorpion."
In the era when the Spirit-Ice Douluo had appeared, the Ice Empress of the Extreme North had vanished gone for years, with no word reaching the outside world. The logical inference was that during that same period, the Ice Empress had completed her recultivation and ultimately re-emerged in the form of the Spirit-Ice Douluo.
The reasoning behind it went like this: during her recultivation, she had witnessed the growing might of the human world and sensed that the age of Spirit Beasts was drawing to a close. Drawing on her own identity as a Spirit Beast, she had crafted the Soul-Spirit Contract system, weaving humans and Spirit Souls into a bond of deep mutual dependence ensuring Spirit Beasts a permanent place in the world going forward.
That was the theory those who maligned the founding Tower Master had put forward.
And honestly it held together rather well. Well enough that Huo Yuhao himself wore an expression that could only be described as profoundly complicated.
What was he supposed to say?
If the Snow Empress weren't still around, would Su Tong have ended up cast as the Snow Empress in disguise? Would the Spirit Transmission Tower have been reframed as a secret operation built by the Extreme North for its own benefit?
The imagination of later generations truly knew no bounds.
The two of them walked in companionable silence into a room.
It was nearly a hundred square meters in area, filled with various large instruments. Scattered throughout were clusters of yellow light Spirit Souls of all varieties.
That was not, however, what Hua Yichen had come for.
He waved off the staff members present, crossed to the instrument at the room's center, and operated it briefly. Three pillars rose from the floor before them, each bearing a softly glowing yellow orb of light.
"These three Spirit Souls are a seven-hundred-year Ice Silkworm, a six-hundred-year Purple Spirit Wolf, and a seven-hundred-year Silver Eagle Beast. According to the Tower's research, all three offer excellent Spirit Abilities."
Hua Yichen gestured toward the row of yellow lights and gave Huo Yuhao a slight smile.
"Which would you choose?"
Without much deliberation, Huo Yuhao who knew all three Spirit Beasts rather well walked directly to the Ice Silkworm Spirit Soul. "This one."
Hua Yichen raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.
"Why?"
"Of the three, the Ice Silkworm is the only one that looks unremarkable on the surface yet it stands alongside the other two as an equal offering. That implies something exceptional that isn't immediately visible."
A perceptive child.
Hua Yichen gave a satisfied nod at the answer. "Correct. And that is the first lesson I intend to teach you. In the age of Spirit Souls, you can choose your Spirit Ability according to your own needs which means the old way of evaluating Spirit Beasts no longer applies."
"Take this Ice Silkworm. It is a Spirit Beast with almost no offensive capability whatsoever. But for a spirit-attribute Spirit Master, it can provide a divine-grade ability Imitation."
"Through spiritual fluctuation, it warps space, using yourself as the anchor to replicate any form. It carries no offensive power, but as a Spirit Ability for support, misdirection, and escape, it is without equal."
He spoke of misdirection and escape with perfect composure.
Raw combat strength was worth nothing if you did not survive long enough to use it. Only a genius who was still alive could become a true powerhouse.
He had no intention of watching a talent he had personally unearthed wither before ever reaching full bloom.
Huo Yuhao's expression was equally unbothered.
Misdirection was no crime. Retreat was always justified.
Everyone had enemies. Everyone needed a strategic withdrawal at some point.
A genius who made it through the fire became a powerhouse. One who did not became a mound of earth.
On this point, he and Hua Yichen were in complete agreement.