Chapter 14: Speculations on the Second Awakening of the Spirit, the Direction of Future Cultivation
Just out of the bathroom, the rich aroma of fish in the room caught Tang Shan's attention.
On a pure white plate, the heated and softened Whale Glue emitted an enticing fragrance.
Tang Shan sat down at the dining table, picked up a fork, and cleanly put the Whale Glue into his mouth.
The rich flavor exploded on his taste buds, filling his entire mouth.
Thick and springy, it lived up to the name of Whale Glue.
Swallowing it into his stomach, waves of warmth flowed from his belly, surging towards his limbs and bones.
His muscles, sore from the previous intense training, seemed to be nourished; they felt warm, and the pain significantly lessened.
"Little brother, what about the side effects later?"
Previously, Su Yuntao had only thought about whether high-intensity training would damage Tang Shan's body. It wasn't until he saw Tang Shan swallow the Whale Glue in one go that he remembered the side effects of this medicinal material, and he couldn't help but frown.
"It's fine. I'll Cultivate and see if I can suppress it."
Tang Shan had long been prepared. He didn't return to his room, but simply sat cross-legged on the spot. Sensing his Spirit with his mind, he began to draw in the omnipresent spirit power between heaven and earth to Cultivate.
However, not long after he started his cultivation, a scalding energy erupted completely from his abdomen, rampaging freely within his body.
Any aches and pains left from training vanished instantly under the collision of this energy.
Tang Shan's skin, flesh, tendons, and bones almost greedily demanded the energy of the Whale Glue, strengthening themselves.
His physical fitness began to increase at a very noticeable speed.
Strength surged through his body, and the speed of the spirit power circulating through his Meridians also significantly increased.
As for the so-called Evil Fire—sorry, there wasn't even enough energy to heal the minor injuries, let alone any extra to turn into Evil Fire.
spirit power was rapidly drawn in and then gathered within his body, refined through his Meridians and transformed into spirit power that Tang Shan possessed.
Having Innately Full Spirit Power, Tang Shan had already reached a Bottleneck. His spirit power Rank could not increase further, but the quality of the spirit power in his body continued to improve slowly, gradually transforming toward a nebulous state.
Minutes and seconds passed. Over time, the aura around Tang Shan, which had been boiling from consuming the Whale Glue, gradually stabilized. Su Yuntao, standing aside carefully as a Protector, also couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Watching Tang Shan Cultivate today, his emotions had truly gone through a series of ups and downs. Fortunately, while it seemed dangerous, in the end, he had simply worried too much.
Another hour passed, and Tang Shan, having fully absorbed the effects of the Whale Glue, stood up again.
"Little brother, did you get taller again?"
How keen was Su Yuntao's vision; he was the first to notice the change in Tang Shan's body the moment he stood up.
Clenching his fists and carefully feeling the abundant vitality within his body, Tang Shan nodded.
"My Spirit is a Body Martial Soul, and its connection with my body is incredibly tight. My height shot up a bit when I first had my Spirit Awakening, and now that I've eaten Whale Glue, a Heaven And Earth Treasure that enhances physical fitness, growing taller is normal."
Su Yuntao looked at Tang Shan, whose height already reached his chest, with a somewhat strange expression.
"Little brother, you're only six years old and you're already almost 1.5 meters tall. How tall will you be when you grow up or even reach adulthood?"
Hearing this, Tang Shan, who had never thought about this point, couldn't help but have his expression freeze.
Being tall is a good thing, but being too tall isn't very ideal; it might be hard to find a girlfriend later.
"Let nature take its course."
Since there was no solution in the short term, Tang Shan could only comfort himself this way.
My body, I hope you have some self-awareness and don't grow too tall.
"By the way, little brother, when are you going to hunt for your first spirit ring?"
Hearing his big brother's question, Tang Shan set aside his worries about height and replied after a moment's thought.
"I still need to train for a few more days. My Spirit is a Body Martial Soul, so my training speed and growth efficiency should be much faster than yours were back then. Combined with the several pieces of Whale Glue Dad has already bought, I want to try to aim for a thousand-year first ring."
Hearing this, although Su Yuntao had experienced many surprises, he still couldn't help but feel shocked by Tang Shan's words.
A thousand-year first ring—Su Yuntao believed that with his little brother's long-term training and the assistance of Whale Glue, achieving this shouldn't be much of a problem. But hearing his little brother's tone, he intended to do it in a short time, which was a bit terrifying.
"Big brother, when you reach Rank 20, we can go hunting together. Hurry up and Cultivate; I'll only give you one year. If you haven't cultivated to Rank 20 by then, I'll have my father take me."
Originally, upon hearing the first part, Su Yuntao had thought about slowing down his own cultivation to let Tang Shan train longer, but now he nodded helplessly.
It seemed his little brother had anticipated his likely course of action and had closed the loophole in his words.
Returning to his room, Tang Shan took out paper and a pen and began to organize his thoughts once more.
Recalling the flashes of inspiration from his conversation with Su Yuntao that morning step by step, and combining them with information from the first three Douluo series, he organized his speculations on paper:
When it comes to the cultivation of a Body Martial Soul, aside from the so-called meditation methods, the most profound impressions left on people are the multiple Awakenings and Combat Techniques.
Setting aside Combat Techniques for a moment, while they have their own name, they are actually the Body Sect's unique Self-Created Soul Skills.
It's just that since basically only Body Spirit Masters can Cultivate them, they gained the alias of Combat Techniques.
Next are the Body Sect's Second Awakening and Third Awakening, as well as the Flawless Golden Body for forging a Divine Rank Physical Body from the douluo 3 era.
First is "Huo Gua's" Awakening. He underwent a Second Awakening after consuming the Look-Through-Autumn-Water Dew, and then, after receiving the Body Legacy of the Body Sect Master Du Busi, he underwent a Golden Awakening under the pressure of fighting the Sea Princess.
And in the douluo 3 era, that "Son of the Sea God" also underwent a Second Awakening under the pressure of medicinal herbs and external stress.
From this, it can be inferred that there are likely two main methods for Spirit Awakening, which can be used individually or together.
First is obtaining some kind of Heaven And Earth Treasure; after using it, the Spirit Origin might increase, leading to a natural Second Awakening.
Second is through the tempering of a life-and-death crisis or immense pressure, forcibly stimulating one's own potential to achieve a Second Awakening of the Spirit.
Among these, one point is open to debate: by the douluo 3 era, the Body Sect could already enable non-Body Martial Soul Spirit Masters with extremely high Blood-qi talent to undergo a Second Awakening. The seemingly difficult conditions were indeed not simple.
But if it could truly allow all non-Body Martial Soul Spirit Masters in the Body Sect to undergo a Second Awakening based on Blood-qi, then the Body Sect of that time should have had only two possible outcomes.
Either it would have reached its peak by recruiting talents with an inclusive mindset, or it would have been completely carved up by various major powers because it possessed a method for the Second Awakening of a Spirit.
Don't look at Blood-qi as if it's hard to Cultivate; throwing Heaven And Earth Treasures at it will always produce some effect. Using some medicinal herbs in exchange for a Second Awakening Opportunity—surely the leaders of those major powers could do the math.
Since the Body Sect during the legend of the dragon king era did not reach its peak, nor did it completely vanish from history but instead lingered on, there must be a reason.
Second Awakening used on ordinary Spirit Masters is clearly not that simple.
My previous casual remark about my Physical Body possessing certain characteristics of a Spirit gave me a general idea.
The Spirit body belongs to the Spirit body, and the Physical Body belongs to the Physical Body.
My current Body Martial Soul and my Physical Body ultimately belong to two different entities.
A life-and-death crisis squeezes the potential of the Physical Body. Even if the connection between the Physical Body and the Body Martial Soul is very tight, producing a change like a Second Awakening still feels a bit far-fetched.
Unless, by then, the Physical Body and the Body Martial Soul had long since become indistinguishable—the potential of the Physical Body is the potential of the Body Martial Soul. When the Physical Body's potential is squeezed out, the Spirit's potential is naturally squeezed out as well.
With this speculation, many questions seem to have a reasonable explanation.
Before the Second Awakening of a Body Martial Soul, there should be a transitional stage. In this cultivation stage, the Spirit will gradually merge with the corresponding part of the body. After that, the Spirit is the body, and the body is the Spirit.
Only once this stage is complete can one attempt a Second Awakening.
Huo Yuhao seemingly didn't go through this step, but he was a cheater.
Between the mental Origin, the million-year spirit ring, and the transformation from the Gold of Life, the stage of Fusion between his body and Spirit was likely paved over by those endless Opportunities.
The reason why no major powers in the douluo 3 era tried to seize the Body Sect's secret for the Second Awakening of non-Body Spirit Masters wasn't that they were fools, but that it was too much of a 'chicken rib'—useless.
The method for Second Awakening hasn't changed much in ten thousand years; it's still about squeezing potential and then stimulating the Spirit.
However, because a Body Martial Soul is so closely connected to the body—even indistinguishable from it—squeezing potential is relatively easy.
For non-Body Martial Soul Spirit Masters wanting a Second Awakening, there's no problem, and the operation is the same. It's just that whether it's a Tool Spirit or a Beast Spirit, their connection with the body simply can't compare to a Body Martial Soul's. When the potential squeezed from the Physical Body is transferred to the Spirit, most of it is likely lost in the process. To squeeze out more potential, a powerful physique and Blood-qi are necessary. Everything is for the best.
The reason why a struggling Body Sect could research a method to Cultivate a Divine Rank Physical Body also gradually becomes reasonable.
What they researched wasn't a Divine Rank Physical Body in the true sense, but how to elevate a Body Martial Soul to the Divine Rank.
When the Spirit reaches the Divine Rank, the Spirit is the body, and the body naturally reaches the Divine Rank.
Reasonable, this is simply too reasonable.
Tang Shan had a sudden moment of realization.
Everything makes sense now. Otherwise, it wouldn't make sense for the Body Sect to have a clear method for cultivating the Physical Body—the hardest thing to Cultivate—to the Divine Rank, while having no Divine Rank method for spirit power or the mental force that flourished in the douluo 3 era.
It turns out it wasn't the Physical Body reaching the Divine Rank, but the Spirit and Physical Body harmonizing, driving the Physical Body's improvement.
Casually burning the paper that recorded this shocking secret, Tang Shan didn't say the path for future Body Martial Soul cultivation was smooth, but he now had a clear direction for his efforts and experiments.
In the coming days, I must try to train while my Spirit is active and see if the spirit power required to maintain the Spirit is gradually decreasing.
If it is, then my speculation is correct—the Spirit is indeed gradually fusing with the Physical Body. If not, it proves the theory is wrong, and I'll have to switch to another research direction.
Also, regarding the acquisition of spirit rings, I must try to find Strength-type Spirit Beasts. Hopefully, I can obtain the Spirit Abilities I want in the future.
PS: Thanks to all the readers for the recommendation votes; this little author is extremely grateful. This chapter should be the one with the most words regarding Body Martial Soul and Spirit theory for a while. Next, the protagonist will start practicing his Spirit theories, begin to interact with characters from the original work, and truly set foot on the Douluo Continent. Any further theory-based plots will only be interspersed within.