Thank you to our new Patrons: Christopher Gärtner, Jose cabrera atzin, Luke Matthews, allen pellissery, mark74497, Charlie Puente-Duany, Anime fan123456 and DeathClan1980! Your support means the world to me <3 We are up to Chapter 275: The Mountain Dragon King's Residual Soul on Patreon!
There's something for free patrons too! Free Patrons receive 1 chapter in advance :)
I've also recently started a new translation, please check it out and show your support! It's called Douluo: Martial Soul White Tiger, I Am the White Emperor of Heaven! As always, Patrons will have unrestricted access to all of my stories including futures ones!
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Uncle, Aunt," Xu Yuan greeted.
He looked at the little boy standing unsteadily between the two of them.
"Brother, brother," the child, already one and a half years old, could now call out "brother."
"Hey, Xiao Tian," Xu Yuan stepped forward, crouched down, and lifted the little guy by his arms.
They had met before in video calls, so the child recognized Xu Yuan.
Not shy at all, the child felt close to Xu Yuan upon seeing him.
"Let's go inside," Xu Shengqun said, his gaze lingering on Xu Yuan's mech for a moment.
He couldn't help but feel envious.
His black-grade mech was only fully spirit-forged with spirit alloys.
And its core parts were made from just two pieces of soul-forged metal.
Xu Yuan retracted his mech and returned to the house with Xu Shengqun.
"How long do you plan to stay this time?" Xu Shengqun asked.
"I'll stay longer. My current cultivation isn't restricted by location. Besides, I need to enter the Spirit Ascension Platform multiple times. It's easier for you to get passes here in Tianhai City," Xu Yuan replied.
Xu Shengqun nodded.
Indeed, for the intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform, it was easier for him to operate here in Tianhai City.
Especially since Xu Yuan planned to enter frequently. Buying individual passes wasn't cost-effective. He could negotiate with the Spirit Ascension Platform for a long-term pass, paying a certain price to gain unlimited access to the intermediate platform for an entire month.
---
Time passed.
Two months flew by in the blink of an eye.
Xu Yuan's soul power remained at level forty-nine, still unbroken.
As for his spiritual strength, after testing, it reached 8,900 points.
During these two months, his primary focus had been on enhancing his spirit souls. However, with more soul rings, ascending spirit souls became significantly more challenging. Over the past two months, Xu Yuan spent most of his time in the Spirit Ascension Platform. Even so, he only managed to increase Yao Yao's age by two thousand years, bringing her total to eight thousand years, while the Paper Spirit Soul advanced from one thousand to six thousand years.
These two spirit souls each contributed three soul rings to Xu Yuan, making their enhancement extremely difficult. With triple sharing and the tenfold deduction rule of the Spirit Ascension Platform, they collectively ascended seven thousand years. However, the total lifespan of the soul beasts he hunted amounted to a staggering 210,000 years.
Even for ten-thousand-year soul beasts, he had to kill at least twenty-one!
Moreover, there weren't many ten-thousand-year soul beasts in the intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform of Tianhai City—only a handful existed. Additionally, every time Xu Yuan entered, Xu Shengqun reminded him not to hunt those few ten-thousand-year soul beasts, as it would disrupt the operation of the Spirit Ascension Platform.
Although Xu Shengqun could take responsibility for any disruptions, and the Spirit Pagoda could compensate for losses, the repeated trouble caused delays for Xu Yuan entering the platform.
Most of the spirit energy Xu Yuan obtained came from hunting soul beasts aged three to four thousand years.
By the end, Xu Yuan felt as though he had nearly exterminated all the soul beasts in the Spirit Ascension Platform. Finding them became increasingly difficult, forcing him to settle for thousand-year soul beasts and even dozens of hundred-year soul beasts.
Because of this, he decided to leave Tianhai City.
The amount of spirit energy in a single city's Spirit Ascension Platform was limited. Excessive hunting in a short period wasn't feasible, so Xu Yuan resolved to try the intermediate platforms in other cities.
His destination? Tiandou City.
---
Tiandou City
Blacksmiths Association
"Teacher, have you tried what I suggested earlier?" Xu Yuan asked Mu Ye.
Mu Ye understood what Xu Yuan was referring to.
He smiled, clearly pleased with the results.
"I can feel a difference. After some more adjustments, I should be able to achieve what you mentioned—having Little Red gather all the spirit essence within the mech."
"Mm," Xu Yuan nodded.
Mu Ye sighed.
"Never thought that after studying mechs my entire life, I'd end up following the path of formlessness surpassing form."
Under Xu Yuan's suggestion, Mu Ye regained motivation to improve his soul power. He prepared to transform Little Red into something akin to Xu Yuan's Five Elements Spear Spirit.
Little Red itself was the product of a spirit soul fused into a mech. The name "Little Red" originated from Mu Ye's original spirit soul. Due to this fusion, the compatibility between his martial soul and his body could never progress further, creating a barrier that prevented him from breaking through to level ninety-five.
Xu Yuan suggested fusing the mech with Mu Ye's body. However, given the mech's massive size and physical form, such a fusion with a soul master was impossible.
Undeterred, Xu Yuan devised another approach.
Turn the mech into a spirit soul, then reverse-contract it.
Much like Jue—a spear originally forged from First-grade Thousand-refined Jade Silver—it became a spirit soul under the Spirit Pagoda's technology, shedding its physical form and achieving a spirit body.
Without a physical body, yet retaining its essence, reconstructing its original form under the power of a soul master would be effortless. It inherited all the spirit essence—and thus the complete structure—of its original body.
This was similar to how normal spirit souls inherit all the genes and bloodline abilities of their original soul beasts, except without a physical body.
Transforming Little Red's entire mech into a spirit soul and recontracting it would likely result in a breakthrough. Its rank might directly reach ten-thousand-year levels—or even attain beast-level potential.
If successful, this could be considered a rare opportunity.
"Before coming here, I discussed the induction process with my uncle. He assessed your mech's situation. Little Red has long since fused with the mech, and considering your work, it's essentially like turning a real soul beast into a spirit soul. The loss is minimal."
Creating a spirit soul from scratch for a god-level mech would likely bankrupt the Spirit Pagoda due to the immense cost—not because the transformation was inherently overpowered, but because of the numerous technical flaws. It relied entirely on piling spirit energy to grant a soulless object spirit-like properties.
However, Mu Ye's case was special.
Mu Ye had been stuck at this level for nearly twenty years. The creation of this god-level mech certainly occurred before he reached level ninety-four. It's likely he integrated Little Red into the mech before becoming a Title Douluo, unaware of the problem back then. He focused solely on enhancing the mech until he realized the issue after failing to break through level ninety-four.
Decades of fusion and nurturing were key.
Otherwise, directly integrating a spirit soul into a mech, inducing the mech to become a new spirit soul, and recontracting it with a soul master would yield absurd profits.
Of course, even if it took ten to twenty years to elevate a thousand-year spirit soul to ten-thousand-year levels using this method, it wouldn't be a loss.
For Mu Ye, the only downside was being stuck at level ninety-four for too long, leaving him uncertain if he still had a chance to reach the limit.
"Hahaha, the limit?"
Upon hearing Xu Yuan's comment, Mu Ye paid it no mind.
"I've possessed four-word battle armor for many years. My understanding of the limit surpasses what you imagine." Mu Ye was filled with confidence.
"If Little Red can successfully return, I will definitely reach the limit within ten years!"
------------------------------------------------------
Support my writing journey: patreon.com/EphemeralShadow
40+ Chapters Ahead Guaranteed.