Chapter 133: A Hundred-Thousand-Year Ambition
The violent energy fluctuations within the secluded stone chamber finally ebbed, settling into a heavy, suffocating calm. Liu Yuan slowly rose from the cold stone floor. He rolled his shoulders, the joints popping in sharp succession as he stretched limbs that had grown stiff from days of motionless meditation.
Beneath his skin, soul power surged. It did not merely flow; it roared through his meridians like a torrential river bursting its dam. The sheer density of this newfound strength filled every fiber of his being with a rich, heavy vitality. A rare, razor-thin smile touched his lips. The sensation of absolute power was intoxicating.
Yet, he did not immediately push open the heavy stone doors to end his seclusion. Patience was the bedrock of his strength.
Within his eyes, the overlapping images of his Double Pupils rotated with a slow, hypnotic grace. Breaking through to Rank 50 was a monumental threshold. It brought far more than just a qualitative transformation in his soul power capacity; it triggered a complete sublimation of his physical and spiritual senses. Dust motes drifting in the dim light appeared frozen in time. The faint scuttling of insects deep within the rock walls echoed clearly in his ears.
Deep within his spiritual sea, he felt his Origin Soul stirring restlessly. It pulsed with a primal hunger, yearning for the completion of a deep contract—the acquisition of his next soul ring.
With a flick of his wrist, a heavy, leather-bound encyclopedia of soul beasts materialized from his storage soul tool, landing solidly in his palm.
Over the past few days of isolation, his time had been carefully divided. When he was not uncovering the arcane depths of necromancy under the tutelage of the slumbering calamity, Electrolux, he had been ruthlessly analyzing his own combat trajectory. A true powerhouse left nothing to chance.
As it stood, his combat system was terrifyingly complete.
The first soul skill granted by his Double Pupils, Spirit Ray, served as his primary offensive spear. It delivered devastating long-range, single-target destruction with unmatched armor-piercing capabilities.
His Undying Body ensured his survival in the most brutal of attrition battles, granting him a monstrous regenerative factor that defied common sense.
The Qilin Precious Technique perfectly covered the innate weakness of a long-range control-system Soul Master, granting him explosive, devastating melee burst damage should an enemy dare to close the distance.
Finally, Ultimate Sublimation stood as his absolute trump card. With a single thought, it could instantly elevate his spiritual power to a terrifying tier, allowing him to forcibly suppress opponents far above his own cultivation rank.
In one-on-one combat, Liu Yuan was a flawless killing machine. He possessed zero blind spots.
"But I still lack a true Domain," Liu Yuan murmured, his voice a low rumble in the quiet chamber. His calloused fingertips dragged slowly across the ancient parchment of the encyclopedia, tracing the faded ink of legendary beasts.
Ancient texts spoke of the Double Pupils not merely as a tool of destruction, but as a divine medium capable of splitting the Grandmist and forging an independent world.
If he could secure a spatial-attribute crowd-control soul skill, he could project an independent Double Pupil pocket dimension onto the battlefield.
Within that isolated space, the rules of reality would belong to him. Enemies would find their perception violently distorted, their senses crippled, and the very flow of their soul power suppressed by the crushing weight of spatial distortion.
Conversely, he would receive absolute environmental buffs. He could bend the distance between himself and his prey, achieving instantaneous displacement akin to true spatial teleportation.
A Domain-type ability was the absolute prerequisite for pushing his Double Pupils toward their true, god-like peak.
His overlapping pupils flicked rapidly across the dense text, filtering thousands of entries in seconds. Finally, his gaze locked onto an incredibly obscure, near-mythical classification.
Spatial-type Soul Beasts.
These creatures were anomalies of nature. They rarely possessed overwhelming physical strength or thick armor, but they were born with the innate, terrifying authority to manipulate the very fabric of spatial nodes.
They were ghosts. Phantoms of the wilderness. Even in the deepest, most dangerous core zones of the Star Dou Great Forest, tracking one was considered a fool's errand. They slipped between the cracks of reality at the first sign of danger.
Because of their extreme scarcity and the near-impossibility of hunting them, historical records regarding the soul skills they provided were frustratingly sparse. Yet, every single documented instance pointed to one obvious truth: they granted absolute spatial dominance.
"This is the one." Liu Yuan snapped the heavy book shut. The dull thud echoed off the stone walls. His eyes were cold, sharp, and utterly resolute. He had chosen his target, and reality would simply have to bend to accommodate his will.
He pressed his palms against the massive stone doors of the seclusion chamber. With a casual flex of his muscles, the multi-ton slabs ground open, spilling harsh daylight into the room. Stepping out into the crisp mountain air, he followed the winding, cloud-wreathed paths directly toward the towering main hall of the Body Sect.
The atmosphere within the grand hall was unusually boisterous. Du Busi lounged in the massive central throne, his imposing frame radiating a casual, yet suffocating pressure. Gathered below him were the core disciples of the younger generation—Long Aotian, Chen Lu, and Wang Yanfeng.
While Liu Yuan had been buried in cultivation, the rest of the team had not been idle. They had just returned from a bloody deployment at the empire's borders, tasked with suppressing a series of violent disturbances, and were currently delivering their post-mission debriefing.
"Sect Master, the objective is secure," Long Aotian reported, his posture straight, his tone carrying the sharp edge of recent combat. "The hostile elements at the border have been entirely eradicated. No survivors were left to cause secondary issues."
The heavy wooden doors of the hall swung open. Liu Yuan stepped over the threshold, his footsteps completely silent against the polished stone floor.
Every head in the room snapped toward the entrance. Chen Lu blinked, momentarily stunned. As a seasoned Soul Master, she immediately detected the dense, suffocating aura radiating from Liu Yuan's body—a residual pressure from his recent breakthrough that he had not yet fully suppressed. Her eyes lit up, and she jogged over to him, her voice bubbling with excitement.
"Senior Brother Liu Yuan! You're finally out!" She stopped a few paces away, instinctively giving his heavy aura a wide berth. "Looking at your soul power fluctuations... did your cultivation jump again?"
Long Aotian turned, his sharp gaze sweeping over Liu Yuan's relaxed posture. A flicker of genuine shock crossed the chief disciple's stoic face. Having fought alongside Liu Yuan on numerous occasions, Long Aotian understood better than anyone just how monstrous the younger boy's progression speed truly was.
Liu Yuan offered a brief, polite nod to the group. He saw no reason for false modesty. "Your senses are sharp," he replied, his tone perfectly even. "I broke through the Rank 50 bottleneck just moments ago."
Dead silence descended upon the grand hall. The crackle of the braziers suddenly sounded deafening. Then, a collective intake of breath shattered the quiet.
"Rank 50? A Soul King?!" Chen Lu's eyes practically bulged out of her skull. She ran a hand through her hair in sheer exasperation. "Senior Brother, your speed is completely inhuman! We just spent weeks out in the wilderness, risking our necks in life-and-death slaughter, and barely scraped together half a rank of improvement. You just sit in a cave for a few days and shatter a major realm barrier!"
Up on the dais, Du Busi shot up from his throne. The massive stone chair groaned under the sudden force. His weathered face split into a ferocious, ecstatic grin. The emerald light within his own eyes flared with intense pride as he let out a booming laugh that shook the rafters. He strode down the steps toward Liu Yuan.
"Excellent! Hahaha, good lad! Don't just stand there, release your martial soul! Let your master see it!"
Liu Yuan exhaled slowly. He centered his focus, and in the next microsecond, his soul power erupted.
A violent shockwave of energy swept through the hall. Four dazzling soul rings rose from the floor, spiraling around his body in a captivating display of power. Though the fifth ring slot remained conspicuously empty, the sheer density and oppressive weight of his aura were undeniably that of a genuine Soul King.
The most terrifying aspect was his eyes. Infused with this newly ascended soul power, the overlapping images of his Double Pupils spun rapidly. A cold, ancient, and heart-palpitating pressure radiated from his gaze, making even Long Aotian instinctively tense his muscles in defense.
Du Busi circled Liu Yuan like a predator inspecting a prized kill. He reached out, his massive hand clamping down on Liu Yuan's shoulder. Feeling the iron-like density of the boy's muscles and the incredibly resilient meridians thrumming beneath his skin, the Super Douluo's satisfaction reached its absolute peak.
"Your foundation is as solid as a mountain," Du Busi praised, his voice thick with smug triumph. "The purity of this soul power completely eclipses anyone in your generation. Hah! If that hypocritical old fossil, Elder Mu, found out you stepped into the Soul King realm this fast, he'd probably cough up another three liters of blood in sheer regret!"
His booming laughter faded, replaced by the calculating, serious demeanor of a sect master. Du Busi crossed his arms, his gaze narrowing. "Since you've hit Rank 50, securing your fifth soul ring is our absolute highest priority. Tell me, have you decided on a specific type of soul beast for your target?"
Liu Yuan nodded, the overlapping rings in his eyes slowing their rotation. "I have," he replied, his voice steady and pragmatic. "I intend to hunt a spatial-type soul beast. The Double Pupils require the foundational support of spatial attributes to properly manifest a Domain-type soul skill. Securing a Domain now is critical for the next phase of my combat evolution."
"A spatial-type?" Du Busi's thick brows furrowed for a fraction of a second before smoothing out. "Viciously ambitious. Good eye, kid. Spatial-type soul beasts are notoriously slippery and a nightmare to track down, but they are undeniably the most perfect match for the Double Pupils' evolution. Since you've set your sights on it, the Body Sect will not allow you to settle for anything less than perfection."
Du Busi clasped his hands behind his back. He lifted his chin, his tone shifting into one of absolute, overbearing arrogance—a man who viewed the laws of the world as mere suggestions.
"Then our objective is clear. We will hunt down a hundred-thousand-year spatial-type soul beast. Only a spatial attribute of that supreme caliber is worthy of occupying your fifth ring slot."
The casual declaration dropped like a bomb in the center of the hall. Long Aotian, Chen Lu, and Wang Yanfeng, who had been listening with rapt attention, instantly froze. Their expressions went completely slack.
"A... a hundred-thousand-year beast?" Long Aotian stammered, his usual stoicism shattering entirely. He stepped forward, unable to stop himself. "Sect Master, are you entirely serious?"
He stared at Du Busi as if the old man had suddenly grown a second head.
Long Aotian knew perfectly well that Liu Yuan's physical constitution was heaven-defying. He knew the boy's tolerance for absorbing high-level soul rings shattered all conventional logic. But aiming directly for a hundred-thousand-year soul ring at the fifth slot? That wasn't just ambitious; it was absolute madness. It was a concept completely unheard of in the entire recorded history of the Soul Master world.
The other disciples exchanged horrified glances. The energy backlash from a hundred-thousand-year ring would obliterate a normal Soul King's body into bloody mist. Wasn't this leap in logic a bit too suicidal?
Du Busi merely scoffed, shaking his head at their lack of vision. He swept his piercing gaze over the stunned disciples.
"Surprised? What is there to be surprised about? You lot are thinking like ordinary men." He gestured proudly toward Liu Yuan. "There is zero risk here. Liu Yuan's fourth soul ring was already at the forty-five-thousand-year level! Since then, he has completely absorbed the Gold of Life, forging an incredibly tyrannical physique. His internal resilience is beyond your comprehension. Absorbing a hundred-thousand-year soul ring right now? For him, it won't be a problem at all!"
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