Gu La swiftly approached, his mental power meticulously examining the area. Soon, he discovered several seeds in the center of the oldest and thickest mother plant of the Phycodrys species. These seeds, only the size of a fingernail, were newly matured yet brimming with concentrated life essence and marine quintessence, their deep blue hue shimmering faintly.
"It's you," Gu La whispered, carefully extracting the seeds as if handling the most precious gemstones.
Late at night, the cabins of the Star Luo ship were silent.
The students had long since fallen into deep meditation or slumber.
Gu La's figure moved like a ghost through the corridors. His mental power extended like invisible tendrils, stealthily probing into the rooms of elite students from the Star Luo Imperial Academy and the Sun Moon Federation delegation—those whose cultivation ranged from Soul Elder to Soul King, with relatively pure soul power.
"Sleep-inducing powder."
The powder was compressed to its utmost limit, affecting only the immediate vicinity of the targeted students. Like the lightest nightmare, it silently enveloped them.
The targeted students, still asleep, felt only a slight heaviness in their bodies, as if trapped in an exhausting dream. Their soul power flowed out like a gentle stream, converging into a profound vortex forming in Gu La's palm. The entire process was extraordinarily covert, undisturbing to anyone, leaving no trace behind.
The soul power of dozens of elite students merged into a massive, chaotic energy torrent. Gu La forcibly purified and refined it using his own soul power, transforming it into the purest essence of life and soul force.
Returning to his room, shielded by telekinetic force for isolation, Gu La still felt uneasy. He returned to the ocean.
Gu La retrieved the deep blue Phycodrys seed. The seed pulsed faintly in his palm, as if imbued with life.
"With the vastness of life as the foundation, and the soul force of all beings as the catalyst... Awaken!"
Gu La commanded in a low tone. The pure and immense soul energy in his palm, fused with the partial essence of dozens of Soul Elders and Soul Kings, surged into the tiny seed like an unleashed flood.
Buzz—!
The deep blue seed erupted in blinding light, rapidly expanding and growing as if inflated! The resilient emerald green stem stretched wildly, sprouting countless thread-like leaves that glowed with blue light. Within minutes, a "miniature" Phycodrys soul beast, towering tens of meters high and covering nearly half the room, stood before him.
It exuded a dense aura of life and pure water-element fluctuations, its age clearly reaching five thousand years.
But this wasn't enough. As the foundation for Gu La's sixth avatar, it needed… transformation, guidance across dimensions.
"Fourth Soul Skill—Forest Avatar!"
A chaotic glow swirled in Gu La's eyes. The accumulated spatiotemporal energy in his consciousness was consumed recklessly, distorting reality to create a fleeting timeline and summon a version of himself from a parallel world.
This time, he locked onto a desperate timeline from countless parallel universes—one where Tang San, the Sea God, had descended into madness, unleashing unimaginable divine power to flood the continents of Douluo Star with water, intending to sacrifice billions of lives to ascend beyond the realm of gods!
At the moment that timeline neared collapse and all things faced annihilation, Gu La captured and guided an unyielding will intertwined with water.
"Descend! The favored one from the depths of despair!"
Bzzzz—!
The space within the sealed chamber twisted violently. The colossal Phycodrys soul beast's shadow abruptly collapsed and condensed, and a towering figure slowly materialized amidst azure-purple light.
As the light faded...
A man nearly two meters tall, with an exceptionally robust and muscular build, stood before Gu La.
He possessed long, sea-blue hair resembling a deep-sea vortex, streaked with eerie purple highlights, flowing down to his waist.
His face was rugged, with sharp lines carved like a sculpture, exuding an ancient, oceanic gravitas and majesty.
Most striking were his eyes—like the purest sapphire, with flickering violet lightning deep within, as if capable of communing with the wrath of the ocean.
He wore peculiar armor woven from deep blue waves and resilient seaweed. His exposed, powerful arms were covered with fine, dragon-scale-like patterns in deep blue.
An aura of vastness, purity, supreme dominion over water, and a faint dragonic presence radiated naturally from him.
"Soul Beast: Walking Wake (Paradox Pokémon, Ancient Form/Paradox Form of Suicune)"
Dual attributes of Water and Dragon, inherently attuned to and controlling the laws of water, with extraordinary potential.
His soul power level was at fifty, just one spirit soul away from breaking through to Soul King.
After a moment's thought, Gu La named him: "Bo Xi!"
Bo Xi opened his eyes, a blend of deep blue and violet, and gazed at Gu La. His voice was like a dark undercurrent of the sea, low and filled with strength: "What do you want?"
Gu La observed this avatar, who emanated the aura of a Water Dragon King, feeling the pure water-dragon power within and its near-primal affinity with water elements. He nodded in satisfaction.
This avatar's foundation was even better than anticipated. Especially the nascent form of water dominion—its combat potential in the ocean would be absolutely terrifying once it grew.
However, a faint concern also arose.
"Level 50… a high starting point, but…" Gu La furrowed his brow slightly. The level of an avatar's birth depended on the resources invested—such as the age of the soul beast, the accumulated spatiotemporal energy, and the strength of his own soul skills.
This time, investing a five-thousand-year-old soul beast and accumulated space-time energy had resulted in Bo Xi at Level 50. This was almost the limit of what he could currently achieve.
"In the future, when cultivating the seventh and eighth avatars… their starting points might remain around Level 50. This is the most cost-effective level."
Gu La calculated internally. "A Level 50 avatar is a powerful asset in the early stages, but as my main body's strength rapidly increases, the combat effectiveness of a Level 50 avatar will increasingly lag behind. Unless…"
Unless he could find a hundred-thousand-year-old top-tier plant-type soul beast as an avatar core—but that was nearly impossible.
Hundred-thousand-year-old soul beasts were exceedingly rare and terrifyingly powerful. Capturing and refining one into an avatar core was as difficult as ascending to heaven.
Moreover, plant-type soul beasts were even rarer. And using such a precious resource to create an avatar would be inefficient and wasteful! It would be better to enhance the Golden Tree's foundation, hastening its evolution into a Life Ancient Tree.
"It seems the path of avatars also requires new breakthroughs."
Gu La looked at the inscrutable Bo Xi, his gaze profound. "Perhaps… answers must be sought from the spirit soul system itself or from higher concepts of 'existence'? For example, allowing avatars to possess a kind of 'parasitic' or 'symbiotic' ability with the main body's soul rings, sharing the growth of the main body? But this requires deeper mastery over the essence of souls and power…"
"But would it be worth the cost?"
Temporarily setting aside his thoughts, Gu La said to Bo Xi: "We're all on the same side, so don't pretend. Conceal your presence and stay hidden for now. The stage of the Star Luo Continent awaits you soon."
"Mm." Bo Xi avoided answering directly, responding in a deep voice. His towering figure slowly merged into the shadows of the room, vanishing as if he had never appeared, leaving behind only a faint hint of the deep sea.
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