"Ora Ora Ora Ora!"
"Muda Muda Muda Muda!"
Xiao Lin and Tang San were in the middle of a heated bare-handed sparring session, their fists clashing repeatedly.
"Brother Lin... why do you have to shout that?"
Tang San couldn't catch his breath in time and was struck by Xiao Lin's punch, breaking his defense. He rubbed his chest, slumped onto the ground, and asked in confusion.
"Nothing, really. The atmosphere just felt right, so I shouted it." Xiao Lin yawned and sat down next to Tang San.
"Besides, I feel like my momentum goes up when I yell it."
The two had been sparring like this for nearly a month.
Xiao Lin had gone from being initially defeated by Tang San's soft-style grappling techniques to now holding a slight upper hand. The hardship he endured during this time went without saying.
Tang San was a martial arts prodigy, and his mastery of techniques far surpassed Xiao Lin's. Unfortunately, being a "jack of all trades" sometimes meant being a master of none. To Xiao Lin, Tang San's versatility was his weakness.
His Mysterious Jade Hand wasn't as hard as Xiao Lin's Vajra Imperishable Divine Skill, and techniques like Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon, Purple Demon Eye, and Ghost Shadow Perplexing Step only gave Tang San a bit more room for error.
Xiao Lin, on the other hand, was "Vajra Imperishable," excelling in both offense and defense. After being caught a few times by Tang San's grappling and having his strength redirected, Xiao Lin found the flaw.
Sometimes, the best defense is an attack.
The simpler Xiao Lin's movements were, the fewer openings they left. If Tang San tried to use Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon to seize Xiao Lin's arm for a joint lock, Xiao Lin would simply follow the momentum of the pull to deliver a devastating strike.
Furthermore, Xiao Lin's physical strength had been forged through his training with the Eight Trigrams Staff Technique and the Horned Dragon Staff. His raw power was now even greater than Tang San's, despite the latter's daily blacksmithing.
This left Tang San somewhat tearful.
He hadn't expected that passing the Mysterious Heaven Skill to Xiao Lin would actually make his friend stronger than himself.
However, Tang San didn't regret it.
Since he had chosen to specialize in Vitality and his Blue Silver Grass, he knew his combat power wouldn't be as explosive as Xiao Lin's. Even the hidden weapons he could currently forge couldn't pierce Xiao Lin's defense.
In a way, Tang San had chosen to hide himself behind Xiao Lin.
As a possessor of Twin Martial Souls, he couldn't expose the Clear Sky Hammer. After learning from Xiao Lin about the grievances between his family and Spirit Hall, he was even more certain that he had to stay hidden.
Under Xiao Lin's guidance, Tang San also had a new goal: to eventually eliminate the corrupt, "corpse-eating" high-ranking officials of Spirit Hall, though he wouldn't harm the lower-level personnel.
After all, both he and Xiao Lin planned to collect gold spirit coins from Spirit Hall together.
The current Tang San didn't mind Xiao Lin surpassing him in strength.
They were brothers; there was no room for envy. Even in the original timeline's Shrek period, Tang San was willing to give his brothers Immortal Herbs, allowing their Soul Power ranks to exceed his own.
The current him cared even less.
"Little San, have you mastered that divine blacksmithing technique your dad taught you, the Disorder Splitting Wind Hammer Method?" Xiao Lin asked, watching Tang San use his Blue Silver Grass to heal his bruises.
"Almost. My strength is a bit lacking, so I can't pull off the later strikes," Tang San said calmly, eyes closed as he absorbed the vitality of the grass.
"Then hurry up and learn it, so you can teach me the Disorder Splitting Wind Staff Method!" Xiao Lin urged while also activating his Vajra Imperishable Divine Skill.
Soul Power cultivation doesn't stop just because one lacks a Soul Ring, so both of them continued to practice every day.
"I know, Brother Lin. About that theory of yours...?"
"OK, don't worry, it's a piece of cake."
Xiao Lin flashed an 'OK' sign—using a language Tang San didn't understand—and gave his assurance.
The two were progressing together, each with their own research topics. Tang San, the martial genius, would master the hammer method and adapt it into a staff method for Xiao Lin. He was even planning to create a "Disorder Splitting Wind Dance" for his friend.
Meanwhile, Xiao Lin continued to study their Martial Souls to provide cultivation advice.
Recently, he had discovered a new concept: the Soul Power Circulation Theory. In simple terms, when a human's Soul Power passes through their Martial Soul, it is influenced by the Martial Soul's attributes before returning to the body.
Xiao Lin's Martial Soul was very special; it didn't need the circulation process and directly transformed into the specific Soul Power of the Horned Dragon Staff.
Tang San was currently helping Xiao Lin test this conclusion.
Beyond himself, Xiao Lin had other "subjects": his memories of the original story and Su Yuntao. In the original story, after Tang San received the "sacrifice" of the Blue Silver King, his vitality increased significantly.
Furthermore, after his Martial Soul evolved into the Blue Silver Emperor, he automatically mastered abilities like the Blue Silver Domain. Xiao Lin believed these were all results of the Martial Soul transforming the attributes of one's Soul Power.
Another obvious example was Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan.
Both had suffered from soul toxins after obtaining poison-attribute Soul Rings and using their Martial Souls in battle. Was this not a case of Soul Power changing attributes and affecting the Soul Master's own body?
Xiao Lin had also contacted Su Yuntao for help.
According to "Brother Tao," after he used his second Soul Ring's Soul Skill while in his Martial Soul Possession state, his Soul Power became more violent and aggressive.
Initially, Su Yuntao thought it was just a lingering effect of the skill, but after Xiao Lin's explanation, he realized his Soul Power was indeed more restless than before.
Controlling it had become slightly harder, but since he had just become a Soul Grandmaster, he hadn't noticed at first. Additionally, the aggressiveness of Su Yuntao's Soul Power was actually increasing.
Although the percentage was small, Xiao Lin calculated that after repeated use of his second Soul Ring, the power might increase by 10%. This was a passive growth—if Su Yuntao wasn't paying attention, he wouldn't even notice it, much like a passive self-created Soul Skill.
Xiao Lin had even more examples.
For instance, Ning Fengzhi and Ning Rongrong of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. None of the first seven Soul Skills of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda are healing-based, yet after unlocking the Tool Soul Avatar, their Martial Soul gains a certain degree of healing ability.
Furthermore, their amplification grows stronger as they gain more Soul Rings and higher ranks; all seven rings can eventually reach an 80% boost.
In Xiao Lin's eyes, this was the same phenomenon. Their Soul Power, through the use of their Martial Soul, was influenced by both the Martial Soul and the Soul Rings, causing their amplification ability to gradually strengthen.
This was the ability Tang San was currently testing.
According to Xiao Lin's theory, by using the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul, Tang San's Soul Power would become as abundant and life-rich as the grass itself.
As long as he continued this conversion, even with the same amount of Soul Power, he would eventually be able to control far more Blue Silver Grass than before.
If Tang San's experiment succeeded, Xiao Lin would publish the theory through Spirit Hall, letting every Soul Master on the continent know.
Step by step, he would surpass the so-called "Grandmaster" Yu Xiaogang and slap him in the face—while earning a fortune in the process. Moreover, if this theory proved successful, Xiao Lin planned to use future Soul Rings to directly strengthen his own physical body.