Xu Yang stared at the golden orb in his hand in silence. As the owner of this Martial Soul, he already knew exactly what it was.
Martial Soul: Sun. The top-tier Martial Soul once possessed by the royal family of the former Sun-Moon Continent. It holds the power of the sun—pure yang, indomitable. Its attributes closely approach the extremes of fire and light, and it can draw upon the sun's energy to empower itself and aid cultivation.
No wonder my meditation works better under the sun… So my Martial Soul is the Sun!
He had no idea why he possessed such a Martial Soul, but this was a top-tier tool-type Martial Soul—surely enough for him to reach the rank of Title Douluo!
At that thought, Xu Yang couldn't help but lose himself in a daze, grinning foolishly.
"Xiao Yang, hurry up and test your soul power!"
Ning Que, after carefully sensing the powerful energy radiating from the orb, quickly handed him the soul power crystal, his eyes shining with excitement.
"Just place your hand on it and channel your soul power in!"
Xu Yang placed his hand on the crystal orb in front of him, closed his eyes, and followed his meditation method to draw out his soul power and inject it.
The soul power within the orb slowly rose, and before long, it filled the entire crystal, radiating a brilliant light.
"Innate full soul power… No, wait—it's close, but not quite. Looks to be about level 9.5."
Ning Que noticed that the energy was just short of maxing out the crystal and couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.
"What's with the 0.5? Why not full innate soul power?"
Xu Yang was a bit speechless, but he was still overjoyed. Innate soul power represented one's potential. While 9.5 wasn't quite full, it still signified that he had the qualifications to become a Title Douluo. As long as he didn't waste this potential, reaching that rank was practically guaranteed.
Inside the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.
Ning Fengzhi was with a beautiful woman, his eyes brimming with joy.
He had only just learned today that his wife was pregnant, and immediately put aside all sect affairs to come celebrate with her.
Just then, an outer disciple rushed in, handed him a report, and silently withdrew, not wanting to disturb the couple—or get caught in a wave of public affection.
"Wonderful! What a double blessing today! Not only is Qing'er pregnant, but a child in our sect's orphanage has just awakened with soul power nearly at the innate full level—truly, heaven smiles upon our Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect!"
After reading the report, Ning Fengzhi excitedly shared the news with the woman beside him.
Nearly innate full soul power! Among tens of thousands of soul masters, you might not find one, and now such a genius had appeared right in the sect's own orphanage. If this wasn't heaven's favor, what was?
The beautiful woman craned her neck to read the report too. When she saw the mention of a top-tier fire-attributed tool-type Martial Soul, her eyes widened in shock.
"Fengzhi, what are you planning to do about this child?"
"I plan to take him as my disciple. With soul power this high, if nurtured properly, he'll definitely become a Title Douluo. And when our child is born, if it's a boy, they can become sworn brothers. If it's a girl, they'll be married. That way, the sect will prosper for at least a hundred years!"
Ning Fengzhi had already made up his mind after reading the report. His future child would need a battle-type soul master companion, and he wasn't about to let this genius slip away.
"I'm planning to meet the child in person soon to take a closer look."
"Alright, I'll go with you!" she replied.
At a small, remote courtyard in the orphanage.
Xu Yang stood in the center, a golden sun hovering above his head as he channeled his soul power for experimentation.
With the movement of his spiritual and soul power, the golden sun above him shot out thin streams of flame like serpents, striking wooden targets set up in the distance and instantly reducing them to charcoal.
After finishing, Xu Yang frowned, clearly dissatisfied with the Martial Soul's performance.
"The Sun Martial Soul's standard attack method is flame jets, and while the flame's temperature and speed are excellent, it's incredibly difficult to control. No matter how I manipulate my soul power or spiritual force, I can't direct these flames accurately. That's a problem."
Only after testing its attack methods did Xu Yang understand why even simple abilities like Entangling Vines required soul skills. Direct attacks from a Martial Soul were too hard to control—without soul skills, they simply couldn't be executed effectively.
"What's causing this inability to control the Martial Soul's attacks?"
"Is it the world's laws? My spiritual power? Or is it that my newly awakened Martial Soul hasn't fused well enough with me yet, making it hard to control?"
He boldly considered various hypotheses to test. If precise control absolutely required soul skills, the Sun Martial Soul's usefulness would be greatly diminished, disrupting his cultivation plans.
Over the years, he had read many books in the orphanage about Martial Souls, soul masters, and soul beasts. He had also studied Yu Xiaogang's Ten Core Theories and developed his own understanding, preparing for this moment of Martial Soul awakening.
The real Ten Core Theories contained far more than just ten statements—they were full of valuable knowledge. You could accuse Yu Xiaogang of plagiarizing theories from the Spirit Hall and seeking fame, but his theoretical knowledge was undeniably rich—there was no faking that.
Comparing these theories with memories from his previous life, Xu Yang realized the biggest difference between soul master cultivation and other systems was that advancement required soul rings, which made cultivation more influenced by them.
If a soul ring suited your Martial Soul, it would boost your progress. If not, it could slow you down—or stop you entirely.
Without fine control, Xu Yang would have to focus his future soul ring choices on offensive and control-type skills. But this clashed with his original cultivation plan.
He had planned for his first seven soul skills to be all amplification skills, with only the last two being offensive. This was a strategy of pushing everything to the extreme, aiming to cosplay One Punch Man.
Because the early offensive skills wouldn't be too strong, he thought that with refined control of his Martial Soul, he could make up for it by creating custom soul skills. But now, that seemed like wishful thinking.
Still, the experiment wasn't without gains. He discovered that, in addition to hovering above his head, the Sun Martial Soul could also float in his palm—and be thrown. This dramatically increased its offensive power.
But it came with risks: such attacks could easily shatter the Martial Soul.
The Sun Martial Soul wasn't made of metal like the Clear Sky Hammer, but composed of elemental energy, making it more fragile. However, the backlash wasn't too severe—like Tang San's Blue Silver Grass, which suffered damage many times with little effect.
So now, Xu Yang planned to study the impact of a broken Martial Soul, and see if he could use throwing it as a regular attack method.
(End of chapter)