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Chapter 18 - 18: Learning and Cultivation

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School's library could truly be described as all-encompassing, containing knowledge of astronomy, geography, soul beast encyclopedias, martial soul classifications, and countless other subjects. It even housed the most comprehensive collection of medicinal herb information in all of Douluo Continent, reflecting the fact that the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School served as one of the largest medicinal herb merchants throughout the entire continent.

Every morning, Yang Xiong would rapidly browse through various books in the library, showing particular interest in medicinal herbs and different self-created soul skills developed by past masters.

Unexpectedly, the library did indeed contain a small number of records concerning immortal herbs. Although these descriptions were somewhat vague, many specific names did appear throughout the ancient texts.

Among all the immortal herbs mentioned, the most prominent was naturally the Odd Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, which was also the most clearly described among all immortal herbs found in the collection.

As everyone knew, the Odd Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum served as the martial soul of Chrysanthemum Douluo from Spirit Hall, making him the only plant-type Titled Douluo in the entire Douluo Continent. His martial soul was definitely extraordinary in its capabilities.

Moreover, Spirit Hall and the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School were mortal enemies. Naturally, the sect would attempt to discover any possible weaknesses of Chrysanthemum Douluo's martial soul, since he represented one of their primary adversaries. Therefore, the information concerning the Odd Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum remained relatively complete compared to other immortal herbs.

Beyond this particular plant, other immortal herbs appeared in various ancient texts, including the Eight Petal Immortal Orchid, Lovesick Heartbroken Red, Fragrant Silk Immortal Treasure, and even detailed introductions of the Silk Tulip Immortal Treasure.

Among these, the Eight Petal Immortal Orchid was considered the finest of all orchid varieties. Since many people throughout Douluo world cultivated a love for orchids, relatively numerous records existed about this particular species.

The Fragrant Silk Immortal Treasure was documented in considerably more detail than others. After all, this represented an immortal herb that the Breaking Clan had been searching for across countless generations throughout the continent. They could not possibly have overlooked the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile School, which possessed the most widespread information network in Douluo Continent.

The Silk Tulip appeared on a very ancient piece of animal hide that looked extremely weathered and long-lasting. Moreover, it was actually placed on the seventh floor of the library, demonstrating that the sect attached tremendous importance to this particular information.

However, even these ancient books contained very limited descriptions of immortal herbs - far less detailed and comprehensive than Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record would be. Nevertheless, the available information proved sufficient for Yang Xiong's current needs.

Among all the immortal herbs documented, the one that Yang Xiong truly cared about was the Fragrant Silk Immortal Treasure. As long as he could locate relevant illustrations and descriptions, it would be enough to serve his purposes, since this herb represented the ultimate guarantee of safety for his ambitious cultivation path.

In addition to the extensive herbal knowledge, Yang Xiong had studied countless self-created soul skills developed by various masters, but he consistently felt that these so-called original techniques would not produce particularly beneficial effects for his situation. After all, many self-created soul skills were designed specifically according to their creators' unique martial souls. Without the corresponding martial soul type, it became impossible to exert their intended power. The Dragon Transformation technique of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon family, for example, had no effect on martial souls other than dragon-type variants.

By contrast, Yang Xiong had also studied the Seven Kill Sword Technique for some time. His father's martial soul was originally an iron sword, and Yang Xiong frequently asked his father for instruction in various boxing and kicking techniques. He had developed a certain understanding of swordsmanship and even practiced basic sword forms, but unfortunately, his martial soul was not compatible with such techniques, so he had not pursued deeper study.

Yang Xiong had been considering that, because Body Martial Soul techniques were expressed through physical movement, their variability remained relatively limited, making them easy for enemies to target and counter. This was why, ten thousand years in the future, the Body Sect maintained an iron rule: never expose your soul skills unless facing a truly critical moment.

However, as a Soul Master, if one avoided using soul skills entirely, the gap with enemies became far too great. Whether considering the amplification effects of beast souls or the direct power of weapon souls, the Body Martial Soul ultimately proved insufficient when relying solely on personal combat without techniques.

Yang Xiong thought carefully and concluded that he still needed to develop his own self-created soul skill, at minimum to handle ordinary battle situations effectively.

However, self-created soul skills were not easy to develop, and Yang Xiong did not want to spend excessive time on technique creation, since his current period represented the golden age of cultivation advancement.

In the original story, Feng Xiaotian had become obsessed with developing self-created soul skills. Although he was born with full soul power, his actual soul power level was significantly weaker than Spirit Hall's golden generation. One must remember that he was older than the golden generation, and as a direct descendant of Kamikaze Academy, his available resources were definitely substantial. Yet he had become somewhat of a disappointment among those born with full soul power.

After considerable contemplation, Yang Xiong developed his own ideas. Examining all his knowledge from both past and present lives, the simplest and most cost-effective technique was naturally the Spiral Pill from the Naruto series. In principle, it was not particularly complicated. The chakra system in Naruto corresponded to soul power in the Soul Master world, and it possessed tremendous value for later-stage development.

Yang Xiong had originally planned to absorb the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth in his future cultivation. If the Spiral Pill could incorporate the power of various elements during later stages, then its destructive capability would definitely become extremely terrifying, possibly even undergoing some form of qualitative transformation.

One must understand that certain connections existed between various elements, along with natural repulsions. If multiple elements were concentrated together, the result might prove highly unstable. If not handled properly, the power could increase geometrically like an explosive device. This concept bore resemblance to certain ultimate techniques used by powerful figures.

Yang Xiong felt particularly that the Spiral Pill would prove highly compatible with his Body Martial Soul. Because the Body Martial Soul could not be summoned separately from his physical form, his control over soul power would be more convenient and flexible. Moreover, any side effects from injecting elemental energy into this type of soul skill could be compensated by his Body Martial Soul's unique properties.

Since deciding to develop the Spiral Pill, Yang Xiong's afternoon training schedule, in addition to extreme body refinement, included time devoted to self-created soul skill development. However, he limited this practice to one or two hours daily, ensuring it would not interfere with his essential afternoon body training.

Unfortunately, the development difficulty of the Spiral Pill proved more challenging than he had originally imagined. Yang Xiong was currently just an ordinary Soul Master at the very bottom of the Soul Master hierarchy. His control over soul power remained insufficient for such precise manipulation.

After continuous development efforts over many days, although he could condense portions of his soul power within his palm, the energy quickly dissipated into the surrounding air. He could not control this soul power effectively for combat purposes, let alone condense the energy into a stable, formed technique.

Yang Xiong had attempted injecting water into his palm according to his theoretical understanding, but the water was immediately dispersed, and even water-filled balloons burst directly without any indication of proper formation.

Yang Xiong discovered a significant problem with his approach - he had been far too presumptuous in his assumptions. The original Spiral Pill was developed based on the flow of wind attribute energy, achieving its final form by rapidly rotating wind attribute energy through palm manipulation.

However, Yang Xiong had only absorbed a space attribute soul ring thus far. The space attribute was recognized as the most difficult and mysterious among all elemental attributes. With Yang Xiong's current strength level, mastering space manipulation was essentially impossible - he could barely achieve even basic comprehension.

The situation was further complicated because the Spiral Pill required extremely precise control over soul power. The energy concentrated in one's hand must respond like a natural extension of the body, demanding exceptionally high requirements for both soul power control and mental power focus. However, Yang Xiong's understanding of soul power manipulation within the Soul Master world remained far too elementary.

After continuous research efforts spanning three full months, even Yang Xiong began feeling somewhat discouraged, realizing that the Spiral Pill remained far beyond his current capabilities. Yang Xiong even considered whether he should modify his cultivation plan and absorb a wind attribute soul ring for his second soul ring to make this technique more feasible.

However, an unexpected event occurred that day which provided Yang Xiong with renewed hope for his ambitious technique development project.

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