After finishing the advancement assessment, Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong returned to their dormitory. Nothing else happened along the way.
Because the second-year advancement test was quite complicated, and there were still many students to evaluate, it was impossible to finish all the tests in one day. As a result, Huo Yuhao and the others gained an extra day of rest.
"Ugh, the more I think about it, the angrier I get! Why did Director Du deduct five points from me? I could have gotten a perfect score!" Back in the dorm, Wang Dong grumbled with clear dissatisfaction.
Her tone was full of complaints toward Du Weilun. After spending so much time with Huo Yuhao, she had also developed a certain resistance to authority, especially when it came to Du Weilun's decision.
She firmly believed that her tactical choices during the test had been sound. After all, the spirit bone within her provided much more than simple enhancements to her physical abilities and spirit power.
"As long as you know how well you did, that's enough. Whether you gain or lose five points, it's not going to increase your spirit power level, nor will it get you expelled."
Huo Yuhao glanced at her and said, "Go cultivate. I'm going to sleep. Wake me up for dinner. Good night."
"Huo Yuhao, all you ever do is sleep, sleep, and sleep!" Wang Dong raised an eyebrow. Though she also liked sleeping because of her weakened spirit, she had never seen anyone like Huo Yuhao who could sleep endlessly and still increase his spirit power while doing so. That was simply outrageous.
"Can't you teach me how you do that? I want to increase my spirit power while sleeping too. Regular cultivation is exhausting." Wang Dong leaned against his bed and shook him gently.
"You wouldn't be able to learn it," Huo Yuhao replied with a yawn. "But I can teach you how to sleep more soundly. Want to learn? Once you do, you'll have more energy for cultivation,and you won't bother me anymore."
"That's fine by me!" Wang Dong's eyes lit up immediately. After all, it wasn't often she got the chance to gain something from Huo Yuhao.
Every time she asked him for guidance, he'd make her buy food or treat him to a meal. Her little savings were running dangerously low.
"Read more, eat fewer snacks, and sleep more." Huo Yuhao joked lightly before getting to the point.
"First this, then that… and then like this, like this…" Huo Yuhao began to explain a method he had pieced together from books in the outer courtyard library. It was a technique involving using spiritual power to nourish one's soul during rest.
Originally, the techniques he referenced were meant to enhance energy or induce deep meditation. But after Huo Yuhao's reorganization, they could subtly nourish the soul through controlled mental focus during sleep.
By entering deep relaxation, the mind could gather in the Sea of Spirit, slipping naturally into a deep meditative state that gently repaired the soul.
The method's effects were slow and subtle, difficult to notice in the short term. But for Wang Dong, it was far better than nothing,since the soul was the hardest part of the body to heal or influence.
Her soul had been torn apart by Tang San. As the descendant of a god, perhaps because Tang San and Xiao Wu's divine positions were somewhat unstable, Wang Dong hadn't inherited true divine energy or "godhood."
Her body was that of an ordinary human,only purer and more refined in spirit.
Thus, she lacked the self-healing power of a divine soul. The damage left behind by Tang San's violent act still lingered, causing a chain reaction that affected both her spirit and body.
As a divine descendant, Wang Dong had grown up bathed in celestial energy and had even drunk the Water of Life,a divine elixir only the highest gods could consume.
Even so, her current mediocre strength compared to her peers on the Douluo Continent was largely because she was still spiritually wounded.
Without the Water of Life, which was beneficial even to the strongest gods, she likely would have died instantly during Tang San's "operation."
Now, her soul and spirit could only recover slowly through the growth of her spirit power. Perhaps one day, when her body completely energy-fused, her soul might heal as well.
But since soul and body affect each other, her damaged spirit also hindered her cultivation. To achieve energy transformation in such a state was nearly impossible,a dream within a dream.
For Wang Dong, becoming a god-level expert through her own effort was far more difficult than for anyone else.
Moreover, a damaged soul could not maintain a fixed form. Its broken integrity meant it was unstable and easily influenced. Even slight external spiritual contact could reshape it, making her essence conform to that of another.
For example, in normal cases, two people's spirits are like blocks with limited points of contact,they cannot fully merge.
A martial soul fusion occurs when those "blocks" happen to fit together perfectly.
But Wang Dong's spirit was like crushed powder,able to reshape itself to fit another's form completely.
As a result, she would gradually lose her individuality and become a mere extension of the other person.
That explained why, in the original story, Wang Dong could achieve martial soul fusion with Huo Yuhao despite their six vastly different spirits.
"Alright, go amuse yourself. I'm really sleeping now." After teaching her the soul recovery method, Huo Yuhao closed his eyes and ignored her.
The method, though cobbled together from various sources in the library, was refined under Electrolux's guidance,a true master of undead and spiritual arts. It was both real and effective. Even if others discovered it, they would only think it was one of Huo Yuhao's clever insights, as it involved no forbidden or extraordinary knowledge.
Huo Yuhao closed his eyes and entered his spiritual sea. "Elder Yi, what do you think of this spirit bone? It feels very different from the Clear Sky Demon Leopard bone I got before, but I can't quite explain why."
Two spirit bones appeared in his mental space. Huo Yuhao sat cross-legged, resting his chin on his hand as he studied them.
Meanwhile, the torso bone continued to fill in as Tianmeng Iceworm used mental detection to monitor Wang Dong, who was now deeply asleep through the soul recovery method.
A gray sphere circled around the bone before drifting back to Huo Yuhao. Electrolux's aged voice came from within it.
"It's not surprising you couldn't tell. Even I wasn't certain before, but now I'm about seventy to eighty percent sure."
"Oh? Of what?"
"It's a magic array,not something of this world. I recognized some of the rune structures I showed you before, which gave you that sense of familiarity."
"In the world I came from, magic arrays draw on the power of nature. They allow elemental forces to form and remain in specific patterns according to the caster's will."
"To this world, that concept is completely foreign. Here, people use spirit power drawn from their bloodline, not natural elemental energy."
"But ultimately, both paths lead to the same end. Soul masters depend on the world's energy just as magicians do, though in different ways."
"Anyway, back to the spirit bone."
"This spirit bone is different from those created naturally within soul beasts. It lacks any trace of an independent soul or will,it's purely an energy construct formed through unknown symbols."
"I can't fully interpret the runes due to memory loss, but I'm certain of one thing,this so-called spirit bone may look similar, but it's not a naturally occurring object of this world."
Huo Yuhao nodded thoughtfully. That meant it wasn't something from the Clear Sky Sect,it had to be something Tang San made.
Tang San, though born on Douluo Continent, later became the Shura God, one of the top gods in the divine realm. Since the divine realm ruled over many worlds, including some like magical realms, it wasn't strange for Tang San to have encountered similar systems. Even if he didn't create it himself, it was likely related to him.
"Elder Yi, could we replicate this spirit bone,create an artificial one?"
Electrolux fell silent for a long moment before replying, "It's possible, but very difficult."
"Even if we disregard technical limits,where would we get the necessary energy?"
"Such a crystallized energy mass would be immensely beneficial even without special abilities. But the energy required to form one far exceeds your current capacity."
"To gather such pure, vast energy, you'd have to draw it from something that already has an owner."
"So, in the end, it all comes back to the same thing,energy, attributes, elements," Huo Yuhao mused.
"Let's start with research then. I have some ideas, but I'll need to plan things out before connecting all the pieces."
Watching Huo Yuhao sink into deep thought, Electrolux sighed. A cold mental wave spread from the gray sphere, and Huo Yuhao suddenly lost consciousness.
As his spirit faded from the mental sea and returned to his body, Electrolux's weary voice echoed softly:
"Rest well, child. Haste makes waste. Do not rush, or you will only bring ruin upon yourself."
Since arriving in this world, Huo Yuhao's mind had never truly rested,his consciousness constantly drifted between the outside world and his spiritual sea, endlessly chasing strength.
That pursuit thrilled him. As a once ordinary person, he was intoxicated by the chance to transcend.
Even though that chance carried the malice of gods, the pressure only pushed him harder.
But Electrolux could see that Huo Yuhao, despite his powerful will, still had the heart of a mortal. His spirit wasn't tired, but his mind was. Trying to handle everything perfectly had driven him to the edge of obsession.
In Electrolux's eyes, Huo Yuhao was already walking a dangerous path,no better than Electrolux himself had been when consumed by vengeance.
Though sleep was unnecessary for a powerful cultivator, rest was essential. To master strength, one must know balance.
Without that balance, one inevitably falls into madness.
That was why Electrolux intervened,forcing Huo Yuhao to truly sleep for the first time since coming to this world.
And under Electrolux's watch, it was the most peaceful sleep he had ever known.
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