Chapter 5: First Spirit Ability, Laser Eye! Encountering Huo Yuhao!
In the depths of a rocky valley, just outside the jagged maw of a cavern, the metallic tang of fresh blood hung heavy in the air. The severed, mangled corpse of a Three-Eyed Demon Wolf lay discarded to the side, its lifeblood pooling into the dry earth.
Liu Yuan sat cross-legged mere feet from the carcass. His eyes remained tightly shut, his chest rising and falling in a steady, rhythmic cadence.
Hovering just above his head, a deep yellow hundred-year Spirit Ring pulsed with a rhythmic, almost breathing light. With every throb, the ring dissolved into wisps of pure, concentrated energy, sinking through Liu Yuan's pores and flooding his meridians with raw power.
Yet, the absorption was far from peaceful. The lingering, vicious resentment of the Three-Eyed Demon Wolf refused to fade quietly. Gathering the last dregs of its malice, the beast launched a final, desperate mental shock directly into Liu Yuan's Sea of Consciousness.
Within that dark mental expanse, the intrusion took the form of a miniature, spectral ghost wolf. It bared its translucent fangs and thrashed its claws, hurling itself forward to tear Liu Yuan's mind to shreds.
'I slaughtered you with a single glance while you drew breath,'Liu Yuan's consciousness sneered, his mental voice echoing with absolute disdain.'Did you really think death would give you the upper hand?'Deep within the Void world of his mind, a pair of colossal Double Pupils slowly opened. They carried a supreme, crushing majesty, looking down upon the spectral wolf with utter indifference. Under the weight of that single, god-like gaze, the arrogant and resentful wolf soul froze. A second later, it melted away like fresh snow dropped into boiling water, erased from existence without leaving a single trace.'Refine for me!'
With the beast's final resentment utterly crushed, the remaining spirit power flooded his pathways without resistance, settling into his core like a calm river.
Time lost its meaning in the quiet of the valley.
"Hoo—"
Liu Yuan finally exhaled a long, drawn-out breath of stale air. The force of his exhalation formed a visible white streak that hung in the cool valley breeze for several seconds before dissipating.
He slowly opened his eyes.
Within the pitch-black depths of his Double Pupils, a faint, mysterious glow now circulated beneath the surface, making his gaze appear infinitely deeper and far more dangerous than before.
"Success."
Liu Yuan pushed himself up from the rocky ground. He flexed his fingers, feeling the explosive surge of new spirit power coursing through his veins. The corners of his mouth curved upward into a sharp, satisfied arc. The sensation of his bodily limits being shattered and rebuilt was nothing short of intoxicating.
"My spirit power has completely shattered the level twenty bottleneck. Rank twenty-one."
He rolled his shoulders, listening to the satisfying pop of his joints. "Now, let us see exactly what this new Spirit Ability can do."
Liu Yuan calmed his breathing and turned his focus inward, sensing the fresh, yellow imprint that had permanently etched itself into his mind.
"First Spirit Ability... Spirit Ray?"
According to the instinctual feedback provided by the Spirit Ring, the activation method was brutally simple. He only needed to compress his mental force and spirit power together, funnel the volatile mixture into his eyes, and project it outward through the unique, overlapping structure of his Double Pupils.
It was a dual-threat attack. A mixed damage type.
The ability carried the raw, physical destructiveness of compressed spirit power, smoothly fused with the piercing, stunning deterrence of a mental attack.
'This... isn't this just a laser eye?' Liu Yuan muttered inwardly, a dry sense of amusement cutting through his intense focus.
"Regardless of what it looks like, the only thing that matters is the lethality."
Liu Yuan pivoted on his heel, his gaze locking onto a massive slab of hard granite, roughly half the height of a grown man, resting near the cave entrance. He took a slow, measured breath, drawing upon the fresh Rank twenty-one spirit power pooling in his core, and focused his mind to a razor's edge.
"First Spirit Ability, Spirit Ray!"
Hum!
A low, vibrating hum connected through the air. Liu Yuan's pitch-black Double Pupils suddenly ignited with a terrifying brilliance.
The very next second.
Pshhh—!!!
Two blinding red beams, no thicker than a human finger but condensed to an absolute extreme, erupted from his eyes. The air around the beams distorted from the sheer heat and pressure as they crossed the distance in a fraction of a heartbeat.
The beams struck the granite slab.
There was no deafening explosion. No shower of shattered gravel.
Instead, the red beams sank into the dense rock like a white-hot blade sliding through soft butter, meeting zero resistance.
Keeping the output steady, Liu Yuan slowly turned his head, sweeping his line of sight horizontally across the boulder.
Pshh, pshh, pshh...
A glowing, molten line trailed across the hard granite, leaving behind a cut so smooth it looked as though it had been polished by a master craftsman.
"Sever!"
Liu Yuan blinked, and the crimson light in his eyes instantly vanished.
Crack.
The upper half of the massive granite boulder slowly slid backward. With a heavy, echoing boom, it slammed into the dirt. The exposed cross-section of the rock was completely flat, the stone melted and cooled so perfectly that the surface actually reflected the ambient light of the valley.
"Hiss..."
Staring at the sheer destruction he had just casually unleashed, even Liu Yuan drew in a sharp breath.
"The lethality is absurd."
He stepped closer, running a hand over the perfectly smooth stone. "This goes far beyond simple physical cutting. In the exact microsecond the ray made contact, I could feel the fundamental material structure of the rock being annihilated. If this were to strike flesh and bone..."
Liu Yuan narrowed his eyes, running the tactical simulations through his head.
It did not matter how thick an opponent's physical armor was. They could not simply shrug off an attack that bypassed physical density by injecting a highly concentrated mental payload directly into the point of impact., the sheer mental deterrence woven into the beam meant that the instant an enemy was struck, their nervous system would short-circuit. They would be stunned, completely incapable of mounting a defense or launching a counterattack.
But the most crucial factor of all—
Liu Yuan closed his eyes, carefully measuring the reserves in his core.
"The consumption rate is practically non-existent!"
Maintaining that continuous, high-output beam for two full seconds had drained only a microscopic fraction of his spirit power and mental force.
The tactical implications were staggering.
This meant his Spirit Ray was not a trump card to be hoarded. It was a standard, spammable basic attack.
By comparison, the innate abilities granted by his awakened Double Pupils—Distortion and Insight—demanded a terrifying toll on his reserves. Distortion, in particular, was a heavy hitter. Unleashing a single full-power strike of spatial warping could instantly drain more than half of his total energy, and it came with a dangerous casting delay.
Spirit Ray, however, was instantaneous. It delivered continuous, sweeping damage, cost almost nothing to maintain, and possessed incredible range.
"This is what they call a flawless foundational skill," Liu Yuan noted, nodding to himself in the quiet valley. "With this addition, my core combat system has officially taken shape."
The strategy was simple and brutal. He would use Spirit Ray to suppress and kite his enemies from a distance. If an opponent managed to close the gap, he would activate Insight to perfectly read and dodge their strikes, reposition himself, and resume the barrage.
Highly efficient. Highly lethal.
After taking a few moments to properly bury the remnants of the Three-Eyed Demon Wolf and obscure any tracks that might draw unwanted attention, Liu Yuan did not immediately head for the exit of the Star Dou Great Forest.
He was already here, and he had already broken through to Rank twenty-one. It was only logical to secure his second Spirit Ring before returning to civilization.
"A truly dominant Spirit Master cannot afford to leave any glaring blind spots in their arsenal."
Liu Yuan leaped up, landing silently on the thick branch of an ancient tree. He leaned back against the rough bark, resting his muscles while his mind raced through the optimal choices for his next Spirit Ability.
"As it stands, I possess overwhelming offensive firepower and flawless reconnaissance capabilities."
He tapped a finger against his knee. "So, where is the fatal flaw?"
"Survivability. The margin for error."
The Douluo Continent was a meat grinder. No matter how perfect a combat system was, taking damage was an inevitable reality of high-level battles. With his current glass-cannon configuration, a single critical injury could spell a permanent end to his ambitions.
Relying on others was a fool's gamble. Finding a dedicated, trustworthy healing-type Spirit Master to act as a permanent tether was practically impossible, and Liu Yuan had no intention of placing his life in someone else's hands.
"I recall the ancient texts regarding the Double Pupils. When cultivated to the absolute pinnacle, the eyes themselves can generate boundless life essence. They possess the heaven-defying authority to reverse death, to literally regrow flesh and bone from nothing."
Liu Yuan stroked his chin, his eyes gleaming in the dappled sunlight. "I am still a hundred and eight thousand miles away from reaching that divine realm. However, I can artificially simulate that authority by absorbing the right Spirit Ring."
"If my second ring grants me a self-recovery skill, or the ability to siphon life force from my enemies, my sustained combat endurance will multiply exponentially."
The logic was airtight. If he could not overpower an enemy, he would retreat. If he could not retreat, he would outlast them in a war of attrition. If he took damage during that attrition, he would simply heal himself and continue the slaughter.
"The target is set. I need a mental-attribute Spirit Beast that possesses either innate healing properties or an overwhelming reservoir of life force."
He frowned slightly, running through the compendium of beasts in his mind. "The issue is rarity. Spirit Flowers, Spirit Butterflies... those types of Spirit Beasts are notoriously elusive, especially in the outer zones."
"I will just have to force my luck."
Liu Yuan dropped from the branch, landing without a sound, and vanished back into the dense foliage.
However, the forest seemed determined to test his patience.
For the next half month, his luck completely dried up.
Liu Yuan prowled the dangerous, shifting borders between the outer perimeter and the mixed zone of the Star Dou Great Forest. He tracked prints, analyzed broken branches, and stalked through venomous swamps.
Yet, his designated target refused to appear.
On the evening of the fifteenth day, the sky above the canopy bruised into shades of deep purple and orange.
Liu Yuan roughly shoved aside a thick cluster of thorny bushes. His breathing was slightly ragged, and the Class 1 Spirit Tool dagger gripped tightly in his right hand was stained with the corrosive, bright green blood of some nameless ambush predator he had just slaughtered.
"This is getting ridiculous," he muttered, wiping a streak of grime from his cheek.
Just as he resigned himself to finding a secure hollow to start a small, smokeless fire and choke down another meal of dry rations, the wind shifted.
"Sniff..."
Liu Yuan's nose twitched. He froze in place.
Carried on the cool evening breeze was an aroma so rich, so utterly enticing, that it felt like a physical blow to his senses. It was a complex, mouth-watering blend of charred animal fat, roasted cumin, crushed perilla leaves, and a unique, spicy seasoning that he could not quite identify.
It was the unmistakable, glorious scent of freshly grilled fish.
"Gurgle."
Liu Yuan's stomach let out a loud, demanding growl, completely betraying his usual stoic composure. After fifteen days of chewing on flavorless jerky and hastily roasted, unseasoned meat, the smell drifting through the trees was a fatal temptation.
But a fraction of a second later, the hunger in Liu Yuan's eyes was replaced by a razor-sharp, calculating coldness.
"Who in their right mind sets up a culinary camp in the middle of the Star Dou Great Forest?"
His mind raced, piecing the variables together.
"Unless..."
A spark of realization flashed through his Double Pupils. The location, the specific food, the timing. It all aligned perfectly with a major turning point in the world's timeline.
"Grilled fish... Star Dou Great Forest... Huo Yuhao?"
The original child of destiny.
"I need to see this for myself."
Without a moment of hesitation, Liu Yuan dropped into a low crouch. He activated his Double Pupils, pushing his innate Insight ability to its absolute limit. His breathing slowed to a crawl, his footsteps became lighter than falling leaves, and his entire presence smoothly melted into the darkening shadows of the forest.
He moved like a ghost, following the scent through a dense thicket of ancient roots.
The sound of bubbling water reached his ears. A clear, winding stream cut through a small clearing ahead.
The sun had nearly set, but the clearing was illuminated by the warm, crackling glow of a well-tended bonfire. The orange light pushed back the encroaching shadows, revealing three distinct figures gathered around the flames.
Liu Yuan pressed his back against the thick trunk of a massive oak, peering through a narrow gap in the broad leaves.
To the left sat a youth who appeared to be around fifteen or sixteen years old. He possessed a slender, upright posture and a face as refined as carved jade. His short, dark blue hair caught the firelight, giving him an aura of effortless elegance as he smiled and spoke to his companions.
To the right sat a young girl dressed in a crisp, light purple martial outfit. Her dark hair was tied back in a practical ponytail, framing skin as pale as snow. She possessed a pair of large, incredibly expressive eyes, though at this exact moment, those eyes were locked onto the fire with unblinking intensity. She was practically drooling, completely abandoning any pretense of ladylike grace.
And sitting directly between them, managing the makeshift grill, was a young boy who looked no older than eleven or twelve.
His clothes were simple, faded, and noticeably shabby. His frame was thin, speaking of a life lacking in proper nutrition. Yet, none of that hindered the absolute precision of his hands. He flipped the wooden skewers with practiced ease, his focus absolute as he pinched a mixture of spices and dusted them perfectly over the sizzling, golden-brown skin of the fish.
That heavenly, maddening aroma was radiating directly from his hands.
Taking in the sight of this iconic trio, the cold calculation in Liu Yuan's eyes softened into a look of deep, knowing amusement.
The corners of his mouth lifted slightly in the shadows.
"It really is them..."
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