Chapter 221 Another Breakthrough! First Soul Core?
Inside the side hall, Du Bu Si and Elder Chen peered through the window, their gazes fixed on the bamboo grove halfway up the mountain.
The fluctuations in soul power had gradually subsided, but they couldn't mistake that aura of breakthrough.
Elder Chen leaned back in his chair, his smile still on his face.
He glanced at the ointment on his left hand, then looked out the window and shook his head.
"Looks like he's alright. He's just channeling all his energy into his cultivation."
Poison Undying didn't speak, but his expression was noticeably more relaxed than before.
He picked up the teacup on the table, took a sip, and the tea had gone cold, but he didn't care.
"It's good that he's alright." Poisonous Death put down his cup, his voice low.
"I was afraid he wouldn't be able to figure it out and would cause himself problems. The fact that he was able to level up shows that his spirits haven't been dampened."
Elder Chen nodded: "This child is stubborn, but fortunately he's not confused."
The two remained silent for a while.
Elder Chen stood up and stretched his stiff shoulders.
He still can't use his left arm, but he can already perform simple movements without much difficulty.
"Sect Master, now that everything is alright with Liu Yuan, we should go back and properly recover from our injuries. We can't keep putting off these wounds."
Du Bu Si responded and stood up, supporting himself on the armrest of the chair.
His movements were somewhat slow, and a faint stinging pain emanated from the bandage on his left shoulder, but his expression remained unchanged.
"Let's go. If that kid makes any more noise, just have someone come and report it."
The two walked out of the side hall one after the other and returned to their respective residences.
Liu Yuan was unaware that Du Busi and Elder Chen were watching him.
The room was dimly lit, with only a few soul-guiding lamps on the walls emitting a faint glow.
Liu Yuan sat cross-legged on the futon, his soul power had stabilized.
Level 61.
He felt the more condensed soul power in his meridians, but he didn't feel much joy.
This breakthrough wasn't due to years of accumulated experience, but rather because he pushed himself too hard.
For the past two weeks, he has hardly had a single day of proper rest.
He spent every day, from morning till night, doing nothing but cultivation. He wanted to use this method to drive those images out of his mind.
But the results were not good.
The image of Poison Undying lying in a pool of blood still pops up from time to time.
Liu Yuan took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and began to circulate the "Body Body Secret Technique" again.
He didn't want to stop, nor did he dare to stop.
As soon as you stop, those thoughts creep in.
He needs to find something to do to keep his mind occupied with recollections.
Soul power flowed slowly through the meridians, one circle, two circles, three circles.
Liu Yuan's breathing gradually became steady, and his soul power, which had been somewhat agitated due to emotional fluctuations, began to become docile.
He didn't know how long he had been cultivating.
In this enclosed space, time becomes blurred.
There is no day or night, only the rhythm of soul power circulation.
He felt he had entered a very strange state.
Everything around him became very quiet, so quiet that he could hear the sound of his own blood flowing and sense the direction of every strand of soul power within his body.
He could even hear the sound of the wind blowing through the bamboo leaves outside the secret room.
In this state, his soul power circulated much faster than usual.
It wasn't that he deliberately sped up; rather, his soul power was flowing more and more smoothly on its own.
Those meridian nodes that originally required deliberate guidance to pass through now seem to have been cleared, and the soul power passes through without any hindrance.
Liu Yuan did not resist this feeling.
He knew this was a very rare state, one that many people would never encounter in their entire lives of cultivation.
Since we're already here, let's just go with the flow.
Days passed by.
Outside the secret room, the bamboo forest had turned from lush green to deep green, and then tinged with a touch of gold.
Time was passing, but the people inside the secret room were unaware.
Liu Yuan was immersed in that state every day, eating a few bites of the dry food he carried with him when he was hungry, and drinking some water when he was thirsty.
The rest of the time is spent circulating soul power.
His promotion was rapid.
It happened so fast that even he himself was somewhat surprised.
One morning, two weeks later.
Sunlight streamed through the cracks in the stone gate, casting a thin beam of light onto the ground.
Liu Yuan sat cross-legged on the futon, and his aura was undergoing a dramatic change.
The soul power within his meridians seemed to be drawn by something, frantically converging towards his dantian. The force arrived so suddenly that Liu Yuan's body trembled uncontrollably.
He opened his eyes, and a flash of purple-gold light passed through his three pupils.
Level 62.
They've been promoted another level.
Liu Yuan was somewhat stunned.
He looked down at his hands, feeling the soul power within him that was even stronger than it had been half a month ago, and couldn't quite describe the feeling in his heart.
That's too fast.
Even he himself felt that this speed was abnormal.
But he didn't have time to think about it, because he discovered that the changes in his body hadn't stopped.
At the dantian, the originally liquid soul power is undergoing a qualitative change.
The soul power no longer flowed freely like water, but began to compress and condense inward.
They seemed to be kneaded by an invisible hand, gradually becoming sticky and heavy.
Liu Yuan's heart started racing.
He looked inward into his dantian and saw that in the center of that sea of soul power, an extremely small but slowly forming solid core was gradually condensing.
Soul core.
Liu Yuan recognized the object.
In the cultivation system of Douluo Continent, the Soul Core is the symbol of a Title Douluo.
When a Soul Master's cultivation reaches level 90 or above, the liquid Soul Power within their body will be further compressed and solidified to form a Soul Core.
With a soul core, the quality and recovery speed of soul power will experience a qualitative leap.
But that's a matter for Title Douluo.
He's only at level 62.
The cultivation trajectory of Huo Yuhao in the original novel flashed through Liu Yuan's mind.
Huo Yuhao condensed his soul core at level 70, which was already considered a miracle and an existence that defied common sense.
But he's only at level 62.
He was a full eight levels lower than Huo Yuhao.
"This isn't right…" Liu Yuan said in a low voice.
But the changes within his body will not stop because of his doubts.
At the center of the dantian, that solid core is slowly but steadily taking shape.
With each rotation, it draws a portion of energy from the surrounding liquid soul power and integrates it into itself.
As the core grew stronger, the speed at which the soul power circulated within his body increased, to the point that his meridians could no longer withstand it.
Liu Yuan felt the pressure.
The pressure didn't come from the outside, but from his own body.
The soul power was circulating too fast, causing the walls of the meridians to swell and ache slightly.
He wanted to slow down the flow of his soul power, but he couldn't.
That power that condenses the soul core is spontaneous, like an instinctive reaction of the body, and is not under his conscious control.
Liu Yuan gritted his teeth, stopped trying to stop him, and instead fully cooperated.
He guided his soul power to accelerate its circulation according to the route of the "Secret Technique of the Body," attempting to make the entire process smoother.
Inside the secret room, Liu Yuan's aura became increasingly unstable.
Sometimes, the overflowing soul power would cause the walls to vibrate and hum.
Sometimes it suddenly retracts inward, as if the whole person is being sucked into the dantian.
This violent fluctuation lasted for a long time without any sign of abating.
Side hall of the main hall.
Poison Undying was sitting in a chair, flipping through the sect's affairs reports.
After half a month of rest, his injury has recovered considerably. Although he still cannot move his left shoulder vigorously, he can perform daily activities without much difficulty.
Elder Chen sat opposite him, with an ancient book about the types of soul beasts on his lap, which he was reading.
Neither of them spoke, each going about their own business.
Then, that fluctuation came again.
This time it's even more obvious than it was two weeks ago.
It wasn't a smooth breakthrough, but rather one with a chaotic, uncontrolled feel.
Poison Undying put down the report in his hand and frowned.
"Upgraded again?" Elder Chen also raised his head, his tone carrying a hint of uncertainty.
"It's only been half a month, right?"
Poison Doesn't Die didn't answer.
He stood up, walked to the window, and fixed his gaze on the direction halfway up the mountain.
His perception was more acute than Elder Chen's.
He could sense that the soul power fluctuations emanating from Liu Yuan's residence were not simply a matter of leveling up.
The frequency of the fluctuations was chaotic, as if something inside the body was undergoing violent changes, causing the soul power to lose its proper stability.
"Something's not right." Poison Undying's voice turned somber. "His aura is off, too chaotic."
Elder Chen also stood up, walked to Du Busi's side, concentrated on sensing for a moment, and his expression changed.
"What's going on? Has he gone mad from his cultivation?"
Poison Doesn't Die didn't answer.
He had already started walking towards the door, moving quickly. The movement pulled at the wound on his left shoulder, and he frowned, but didn't stop.
"Let's go take a look."
The two walked out of the side hall one after the other, their steps hurried.
Elder Chen followed behind Du Busi, his left hand still wrapped in bandages, but his pace was not slow at all.
After passing through the corridor and the training ground, the two walked briskly up the stone steps towards the mountainside.
Several disciples along the way saw their expressions and wanted to pay their respects, but Du Busi waved them off.
The closer they got to Liu Yuan's residence, the clearer the chaotic fluctuations of soul power became.
A sense of oppression permeated the air, as if something heavy was pressing on the chest, making it hard to breathe.
Poison Undying quickened his pace.
His expression grew increasingly serious.
Liu Yuan was his most valued disciple, the future of the Body Sect. He couldn't accept it if anything happened to him at this time.
At the end of the stone steps, Liu Yuan's residence came into view.
Behind that tightly closed stone door, the fluctuations of soul power were churning violently.
(End of chapter)