"Lady Bi Ji, please cooperate."
Chen Fu pulled Ma Xiaotao along and guided Bi Ji to a clearing in the forest.
"Yes, I've heard the general procedure. Don't worry."
A gentle, airy voice flowed from the woman's lips.
Chen Fu glanced back at her. He was quite curious himself. Although his ideal candidate for this experiment was indeed the super soul beast Bi Ji, he had not expected Di Tian to act with such astonishing efficiency.
"I've optimized and improved the soul-tool used for soul-ring engraving. Don't worry. Many steps have been simplified."
He raised a hand and tossed a spatial soul tool toward the clearing. As spatial ripples shimmered, layers of neatly arranged metal blocks unfolded from the void.
With a series of heavy metallic clanks, an octagonal metal disk nearly sixteen meters in diameter automatically assembled within seconds and settled on the ground.
Dense, faint-blue inscriptions covered its surface, exquisite and full of orderly beauty.
"Xiao Tao, sit in the Li position. Lady Bi Ji, please sit at the central Yin-Yang point."
After instructing the two to sit in their respective positions, Chen Fu began to slowly activate the newly designed soul-ring engraving soul tool, inspired by the Eight Trigrams. He named this new series the Awakening Soul Diagram.
In addition to refining the soul-separation and soul-summoning matrix techniques, he incorporated a dual-system logic based on the inner and outer trigrams, allowing the Awakening Soul Diagram to achieve differentiated soul-power conversion through specific combinations of the inner and outer lines. With a total of sixty-four hexagrams, it was sufficient to handle the differences between soul masters and soul beasts.
As Ma Xiaotao and Bi Ji settled into place, the Awakening Soul Diagram began to rotate. Ma Xiaotao's area activated first. The inner and outer rings rotated, and the two Li trigrams, representing fire, overlapped at her position. The entire diagram began emitting red soul-power fluctuations.
At the center, Bi Ji felt a gentle pull beneath her, and her soul power began to flow involuntarily into the soul tool below.
Because she was prepared mentally, Bi Ji did not panic. Instead, she followed the guidance of the soul tool and cooperated with the output.
The fire evolved from Ma Xiaotao's soul power and the fire evolved from Bi Ji's soul power circled together counterclockwise under the guidance of the Eight Trigrams.
As time passed, the two flames spun faster and faster, drawing closer and closer. The initially weak phoenix flame was strengthened little by little during the convergence, nourished until it finally merged completely with Bi Ji's soul power.
"Do you understand this soul tool?" Di Tian asked.
"Sir always prefers to demonstrate his results directly to us. And conveniently, this is the first demonstration," Jin Lin replied while quietly recalling a similar conversation she once had with Chen Fu.
"Sir, don't you need to test and discuss your inventions with others?" she had once asked when she first began studying soul tools.
"I'd like to, but at the moment there isn't anyone who can discuss it with me…"
"But why do you always succeed in the end?"
"The failures are all stored here."
Chen Fu had tapped his forehead with a smile.
"In short, we just need to watch," Jin Lin concluded to Di Tian.
Di Tian fell silent, watching the two fireballs,one yin, one yang,spin rapidly for around ten minutes before finally merging into a perfectly rounded crimson fire pearl.
"His mastery over the soul has deepened again."
The crimson fusion pearl contained immense soul power. In Di Tian's perception, it held a faint, unreal aura,similar to Bi Ji, yet not. It was a false soul, created by the spiritual-power resonance between Ma Xiaotao and Bi Ji under the special environment of the Awakening Soul Diagram. Bi Ji's actual soul did not need to leave her body at all.
With a wave, Chen Fu guided the fire pearl into the reserved socket at the center of the Eight Trigrams, then signaled Bi Ji to step away and called Ma Xiaotao to sit at the Yin-Yang junction for her breakthrough.
There was still room for improvement in terms of practicality, he thought. The internal structure and layout should be further optimized to avoid unnecessary movement. He quietly made note of this.
[Task List Updated]
"Lady Bi Ji, are you feeling unwell?"
"I am fine,well within acceptable limits."
After silently checking her condition, she found she had indeed lost nearly one layer of her soul power. She shook her head at Chen Fu to indicate she was unharmed.
Bi Ji then turned her gaze to Ma Xiaotao, now at the array's core. A deep crimson soul ring radiating tremendous pressure had appeared above the girl's head.
Eighteen years old, seventy-second rank Soul Saint, and after receiving another soul-ring upgrade, her ring configuration had become purple, purple, purple, black, black, red, red.
Super Ma Xiaotao indeed.
"Yes, very good. That works."
Chen Fu praised her with a smile, pushing away the excited girl who tried to throw herself into his arms.
"Good soul skills?"
"Two excellent support-type soul skills!"
"Oh?"
So unlike the seventh ring that usually granted only a Spirit Body ability, this pseudo-sacrifice even retained an extra soul skill from the sacrificed soul beast?
Ma Xiaotao clung to Chen Fu's arm, nodding vigorously. Her orange-red eyes sparkled.
"That's good."
Chen Fu turned toward Di Tian in his black dragon robe, as well as the many undisguised gazes from the depths of the forest.
"Lord Di Tian, have I met your expectations?"
"Beyond expectations."
The speed at which this human iterated his soul tools was nearly incomprehensible to Di Tian.
"Then for future experiments, would you still be willing to continue cooperating?"
Di Tian studied him quietly for a moment before asking an unrelated question:
"In your eyes, what are soul beasts?"
A bit surprised, Chen Fu hesitated only briefly before replying:
"What soul beasts are depends on what you want to become."
"You can be demons who devour flesh and marrow, immortals born of morning dew and evening glow, or carefree wanderers who indulge freely in life."
"These are for you to define. No one else can,and no one else has the qualification,to define you."
The black-robed man pretended to ponder, as if carefully considering the answer. Chen Fu knew he was pretending, because his spiritual senses detected a faint gold divine thought enveloping Di Tian's head,something that did not belong in the black-and-white spiritual landscape.
"I want your true opinion."
The Di Tian-translator act was clearly active. And indeed, these were his real thoughts. The sense of danger this human gave him was almost tangible. Even if ten more Limit Douluo appeared in the human world overnight, Di Tian would not feel this threatened.
No matter how many Limit Douluo existed, soul beasts could simply take a nap and those humans would be swept into history's dustbin. But this man,if Di Tian dared to close his eyes, Chen Fu might reshape the world into something unrecognizable.
Some of the information Jin Lin had given Di Tian even suggested that, if Chen Fu wished, he could already organize a group of low-level soul masters to hunt a hundred-thousand-year soul beast.
Perhaps the cost would be a little high? But what did it matter if a few low-level soul masters died to exchange for a hundred-thousand-year soul beast?
…
"When asked this question by the Black Dragon ancestor of the soul beasts, Mentor Chen Fu gave an answer that can still make the soul beast clans erupt in outrage to this day. Although they try their best to deny it, it is undeniable that for quite a long time afterward, we humans enjoyed benefits from them, so much so that later laws continued to tilt in their favor."
'Materials.'
"That was Mentor Chen Fu's answer. Truly, the mentor was remarkably straightforward."
,from That Year, Those Beasts, Those Stories
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