After returning from the Martial Hall, Chen Xiaojun sat cross-legged, focusing his mind and calming his breath. He concentrated his spirit, circulated his soul power, inhaling slowly through the nose and exhaling gently through the mouth—forming a beautiful cycle of deep, steady breathing.
Chen Xiaojun immersed himself in the Zhongzheng Sword Qi Method taught by his grandfather:
"Breath guided gently in secret rhythm, hard and soft refined in the inner cauldron;
Eyes closed, mind clear, guarding life's essence—tranquil inaction is the source.
Emerge from the soul nest, descend to the perineum, and travel the dragon's spine—energy surges from head to toe.
Rise to the Yang apex, pierce the brow, pass the throat lock, descend to the lower chamber at the middle core;
Qi nourishes the vital organs, repels evil, and clarifies the true self..."
(PS: self-composed verse, please don't judge too harshly)
"This 'hard and soft' refers to soul power and spirit. The 'cauldron' represents the physical body. 'Essence' should refer to the martial soul, and 'tranquil inaction' is about the state of mind—guarding one's true self.
The 'soul nest' is the lower dantian; the 'dragon spine' refers to the spine. The perineum and crown are the lower and upper orifices—'Haidi' (Sea Base) and 'Baihui' (Hundred Meetings). The brow is the upper soul nest, the upper dantian. The 'middle chamber' refers to the middle soul nest or middle dan tian. The vital organs are the five viscera and six bowels.
This follows the Daoist principle of the 'three passes and nine apertures', and is similar to the meridians from my past life. The original soul power starts from the lower soul nest, flows through the awakened fissures in the meridians and organs, draws in the energy of heaven and earth through the Yin and Yang apertures, combines with the viscera, spine, and head, and finally returns to the lower soul nest—leaving the spirit clear and refreshed.
This is still the early-stage route, the Minor Heavenly Cycle. After reaching Soul King, one can run the Major Heavenly Cycle. This meditation technique, using soul power alongside breathing to nourish body and spirit, is truly worthy of being called a top-tier method.
Grandfather said that generally speaking, other meditation methods—like the Common Meditation Method, yes, let's call it that—are low-grade, the most basic kind taught in all schools and used by all factions on the continent.
The Common Method draws soul power from the limbs, absorbed by the soul power leaking from the lower soul nest.
Since its meridian paths are simple and it draws from the four limbs, it's not too slow to cultivate—but it's rather crude.
Mid-tier meditation methods are slightly more complex, involving minor meridians leading from the limbs to the soul nest.
But both low and mid-tier methods have limited capacity for nourishing the meridians, and the soul power they refine isn't very pure. Also, since they mainly release soul power through the limbs during combat, they can't simultaneously absorb and release energy, making soul power endurance weak.
Only at the high-tier level do methods stop relying solely on the limbs and begin to involve other meridians—allowing for the simultaneous absorption and release of soul power. But even then, they still only move energy around.
Top-tier meditation methods, however, utilize special energy points (acupoints). Not only is the soul power quantity high and quality refined, but each method also has its unique traits and functions—and they are all kept secret.
The Chen Clan method involves the internal organs and combines with breathing, providing nourishment to both the physical body and the spirit.
It draws from both Yin and Yang apertures, and while its intake of natural energy per unit of time may be a little slower than those that emphasize speed, it's far more stable and balanced—and of course better than those used by turtle-type martial souls.
Around each acupoint, there's a concentration of many meridian nodes. Or rather, a cluster of meridian nodes forms an acupoint.
But with so many nodes mixed, you don't know which one is the acupoint—so on the Douluo Continent, acupoints are hidden and must be sensed on your own. This includes your soul nests—the most special kind of acupoints."
From that day onward, Chen Xiaojun added soul power techniques to his daily training list, which already included basic sword techniques, sword-drawing techniques, prelude forms of Sword Palm and Sword Finger, and the first three sword footwork forms. Even his morning runs and physical training began incorporating soul power application.
He also began cultivating the Zhongzheng Sword Qi Method, Sword Shadow Body, and Sword Eyes.
As for Unrivaled Sword Finger, later forms of Sword Footwork, Sword Control Art, and Seven Kill Aura Concealment Technique, those would be passed down only after he reached the level of Soul Elder.
In a short time, Chen Xiaojun's physique grew visibly stronger, and his combat power skyrocketed. His sparring partner, the chubby boy, was on the receiving end of "tough love" every single day—completely overpowered and outmatched.
Chen Xiaojun's Sword Palm stirred the wind, his sword techniques were sharp, and even his Sword Spirit Beads would occasionally shoot forth. Though his martial soul was still in bead form—not yet a true sword—it could still deal damage. Not to mention, he had ten beads, all infused with sword intent.
The poor chubby boy had a constant haunted look in his eyes lately. His family could only comfort him by saying that once he awakened his martial soul in a few months, everything would be fine.
…
Martial Hall, Zexi Study
"Every person's martial soul has its attributes, and the glow of one's soul power reflects that.
Thus, soul masters typically seek soul beasts with matching or similar attributes. While opposing attributes aren't impossible to absorb, they require much more effort and yield less powerful soul skills—whereas compatible ones yield significantly enhanced effects.
Compared to weapon-type souls, beast, and plant-type martial souls have an advantage—they can absorb soul beasts of their species with far less rejection.
Soul beast attributes include fire, water, ice, earth, wood, wind, lightning, metal, strength, poison, light, darkness, life, death, nether, shadow, undead, divine, evil, gem, purification, starlight, spirit, devouring, and so on.
Our Seven Kill Sword martial soul primarily aligns with metal, water, and spirit attributes. One of its strengths is its broad attribute compatibility—it can absorb nearly all types, even directly opposing fire-type beasts, though the effect is slightly diminished.
In your case, if your martial soul manifests as ten distinct swords, you could theoretically absorb soul beasts of any attribute.
According to the 17th-generation ancestor, Chen Qianhua, while a martial soul can absorb soul skills from other attributes, it usually doesn't change the martial soul's attribute—but it's not impossible. The first and seventh soul rings are the most likely to affect one's martial soul attributes.
However, since your martial soul is unique—each soul ring empowers a different divine sword—each sword may see the ring as its first ring. So whether to add extra attributes is something you must consider carefully.
Soul skills, based on function, can be categorized as close-range, long-range, area attack, speed attack, flight, defense, control, domain (non-martial-soul domain), locking, area effect, clone, divine light, control-break, buffs, debuff removal, healing, teleportation, illusion, spiritual, phasing, growth, etc.
Powerful soul skills often combine multiple functions. You'll need to build a coherent soul skill system for your martial soul—choosing each skill based on combinations of these types."
In addition to cultivation, Chen Xiaojun would attend the Martial Hall every day to learn theoretical knowledge from Second Great-Uncle Chen Cong—a personalized one-on-one elite education.
Lately, Chen Cong's lectures covered soul beast classifications, how to judge their age, innate abilities, common skills gained upon absorption, and especially rare soul beasts, as well as the book Chen Clan Soul Skill Targeted Research.
It was clear that this was all to help Chen Xiaojun prepare to choose his early soul skills.
Chen Xiaojun also poured over these books and others he found himself, like Illustrated Guide to Rare Soul Beasts and On Superior Soul Beasts—to the point of nearly wearing them out.
Not only that, he also sought advice from several elders.
Every night, he would expend spiritual power to communicate with and nurture his Sword Spirit Beads—cultivating their sentience. Since his lower soul nest hadn't fully opened yet, he could only awaken his martial soul and interact with it using soul power—a "clumsy method", but all he had for now.