"We have 873 options for ten-year white spirit souls and 321 options for one-hundred-year yellow spirit souls at East Sea Spirit Pagoda. The price for a ten-year white spirit soul is seventy thousand, and the price for a one-hundred-year yellow spirit soul is one million. Which would you like to purchase?"
Over the years since his last spirit soul purchase, Lin Xiuran had been saving money. Using his previous life's business acumen combined with his advantages as a soul master, he had earned quite a bit despite his young age.
But it was still far from a million Federation Coins. Over the years, he had only saved up 510,000.
He had remembered the prices from last time. If he couldn't afford it, he wouldn't have come. Fusing a ten-year spirit soul was still insufficient—it was meant to be his second spirit ring.
"Here's my student ID."
The staff took Lin Xiuran's ID, glanced at it, then nodded. "You're entitled to a fifty percent discount."
East Sea Academy had a close relationship with East Sea Spirit Pagoda. Every student received half-price discounts on their first three spirit rings.
Lin Xiuran spent some time choosing from the large screen before selecting a green bird spirit soul. It appeared to be wind-elemental, which suited him relatively well.
After choosing, the rest was simple. The staff brought over the spirit soul sphere and handed it to him. The process was quick. Fusion itself was convenient—one only needed a quiet place; no staff assistance was required.
"Can you help me find a room? I want to fuse this spirit soul." Lin Xiuran looked at the sphere in his hand and asked the nearby staff.
Of course, that was no problem. While fusion could be done anywhere, the Spirit Pagoda provided a quiet space for buyers.
Lin Xiuran didn't have a better place to go, so using the Pagoda's room was the best option—at least no one would disturb him.
Once inside the provided room, he didn't hesitate and began the fusion.
At the same time, the Spirit Pagoda staff obtained Lin Xiuran's basic information. It was simple, as he had awakened his martial soul here.
"High mental power, but unfortunately the martial soul's quality is too low."
The East Sea Spirit Pagoda head reviewed Lin Xiuran's data. He was amazed and perplexeda soul master with such high mental power but such a low-quality martial soul was unusual.
Gu Yue also saw Lin Xiuran's profile, her eyes narrowing slightly. She had just seen him in the lift, leaving a strong impression.
However, her memory of the lift incident was vague—she couldn't recall exactly what had happened, only that she had seen Lin Xiuran.
After exiting the lift, she had suddenly felt weak, attributing it to her own power seal being unstable. Part of her had been missing—Na'er—but she didn't suspect Lin Xiuran at the time. She hadn't noticed anything unusual about him. Now, however, it wasn't that simple.
Gu Yue's eyes narrowed as she stood on the higher floor of the Spirit Tower, gazing into the distance. She felt something was missing in her heart but couldn't determine what, leaving her confused.
Meanwhile, in the room, Lin Xiuran encountered a serious problem while absorbing the spirit soul.
Having fused a spirit soul before, he knew the process and began confidently.
However, it wasn't so simple this time. Century-old spirit souls had a faint will, which the soul master could sense during absorption. Lin Xiuran clearly felt the green little bird flaring up when it entered his mental sea, flying wildly without purpose.
This caused temporary chaos in Lin Xiuran's mental sea, affecting him.
He hastily meditated to stabilize his mind, and the bird calmed somewhat. But just then, his mental sea was suddenly engulfed in flames.
The fire came swiftly. Neither Lin Xiuran nor the spirit soul reacted in time.
The bird spirit, which had just settled, was instantly burned to ashes, its pure energy merging into the depths of his mental sea.
His century-old spirit soul had been burned alive in his own mental sea!
Where the flames came from, Lin Xiuran had no idea. His martial soul had always been wind-elemental.
The sudden fire confused him. Before he could think further, the heat seemed to flow from his mental sea into his body.
He felt his entire body burning. Sweat poured from him, soaking his clothes and sticking uncomfortably to his skin. Beads of sweat streamed down his face, finally dripping to the floor.
The heat didn't subside. At its peak, it gradually lessened, but a tingling, itching sensation appeared throughout his limbs, as if thousands of tiny insects crawled over his body.
Lin Xiuran almost wanted to scream, but in meditation, he couldn't make a sound.
This ordeal lasted a long time, dissipating only when he was nearly at his limit.
His body calmed, but the flames in his mental sea persisted. His first spirit soul was also destroyed by the unknown fire, transformed into energy that sank into the depths of his mental sea.
Finally, after the flames burned through his entire mental sea, they subsided.
But it wasn't over. Almost immediately, his mental sea was enveloped in dazzling, nine-colored flames.
The flames slowly formed the shape of a phoenix—a nine-colored phoenix.
Though only an energy shape without a physical body, Lin Xiuran could still see its beauty, its magnificence.
When the nine-colored phoenix appeared, Lin Xiuran felt an extraordinary sense of familiarity, as if connected by blood.
After a while, the phoenix slowly dissipated, vanishing from his mental sea.
At the same time, Lin Xiuran was forced out of his mental sea, returning consciousness to his body and opening his eyes.
What he didn't see was that deep within his mental sea, the phoenix had transformed into two energy spheres.
One was green, representing wind; the other was red, representing fire. The red sphere seemed less full than the green, as if something was missing. The two spheres hung side by side in the depths, calm and peaceful.
Beneath them floated a purple energy sphere, occasionally shimmering with rainbow-coloured lights.
(End of Chapter)