Chapter 12: First Spirit Skill - Fusion
In Soul Land's Spirit Master cultivation, apart from Tang San who cultivated the Mysterious Heaven Skill, the concept of a Dantian doesn't exist. They have the "thing" called a Dantian, but have never utilized it. In a sense, their spirits serve as an alternative kind of Dantian.
Xia Tianling, however, was different. His spirits were merely carriers for his power, while the source of his cultivation, the Qi Sea, was still located in his lower Dantian.
Xia Tianling felt enveloped by a warm power, like a fledgling swallow returning to its nest, slowly flowing through his spirit into his meridians and circulating throughout his body. He subconsciously circulated the Dao Sutra, guiding this warm current through the Great Zhou Heavenly Cycle.
The anticipated mental impact never arrived, perhaps because creatures like Slimes only possess instinct; with their low intelligence, they simply lack desires like "resentment."
Scavenging, unintelligent, then becoming food for plant-type spirit beasts or spirit rings for Spirit Masters... truly a selfless creature. A sudden thought flashed through Xia Tianling's mind, but only for an instant, before he refocused on absorbing the spirit ring.
The hammer and axe of the Two-Piece Set continuously rotated around each other. As time passed, they actually turned into two colors, one red and one yellow. The two constantly merged, separated, and merged again.
Chrysanthemum Douluo, standing guard nearby, watched dumbfounded. He had cultivated for so many years but had never seen such changes occur when someone absorbed a spirit ring. Hmm... then again, he hadn't seen a 'set' type spirit either.
Meanwhile, Xia Tianling, still diligently absorbing, had reached a critical moment. The power absorbed from the spirit ring within his body was continuously refined, compressed, and transformed into his body's own spirit power. This spirit power then continued to circulate through his meridians along the Zhou Tian cycle.
As the power accumulated within him reached a critical point, the extremely compressed gaseous spirit power finally atomized within his Dantian, forming a single drop of liquid. Subsequently, more and more liquid appeared, eventually gathering together to form a gleaming golden liquid sphere. The stray spirit ring power within his body madly accelerated its flow into the Dantian until the meridians became empty, all power converging into this liquid golden ball.
Outside, the yellow spirit ring produced by the Slime dissipated.
Core condensation, complete!
The appearance of this liquid Golden Core signified that a cultivator was only half a step away from the true Golden Core realm, commonly known as the False Core stage or Core Condensation stage.
As long as Xia Tianling absorbed one more spirit ring, relying on the vast spirit power accumulated from the rings, it would be enough to refine and compress his own power once more, making achieving the true Golden Core an easy matter. This was the benefit of complementary rules.
If placed in an orthodox immortal cultivation world, achieving the Golden Core realm requires years of continuously tempering bones, body, meridians, and flesh, making them capable of withstanding greater power first. Then, through several more years of arduous cultivation to accumulate power, one could condense the Golden Core or False Core in one go. For him here, it was much simpler: cultivate to level 20, then rely on the external assistance of two spirit rings to directly condense the False Core and Golden Core. If other cultivators knew about this, they would surely die of envy.
As for why a Golden Core cultivator capable of wielding divine abilities in other worlds becomes a weak chicken Grand Spirit Master of only level 20+ in Soul Land... don't ask. The answer is rule constraints. While enjoying the convenience, without undergoing arduous cultivation and without passing through lightning tribulations, having this much strength is already good. One should be content.
Having completely finished absorbing, Xia Tianling slowly withdrew his power, stood up, and moved his body a bit. He had grown taller, and his physique had become sturdier. The feeling of being filled with power in every movement was incredibly intoxicating. Soul Land's unique spirit power was truly magical; this additional ability to promote physical development was almost non-existent in other cultivation civilizations.
Strengthened by a nine-hundred-year spirit ring, coupled with the triple enhancement from the True Dragon spirit and Dao Sutra tempering, Xia Tianling's physical strength was already comparable to, or even surpassed, a level 30 Battle Spirit Ancestor. Absorbing a thousand-year spirit ring would be a natural progression.
"Tianling, how is it?" Chrysanthemum Douluo asked.
Xia Tianling sensed his spirit, couldn't help but feel joyful, and punched the air. "It worked! Just as I expected. Woodworking Two-Piece Set, appear!"
The crossed hammer and axe appeared in the air. Xia Tianling grabbed them, and a deep yellow spirit ring slowly pulsed beneath his feet.
"First Spirit Skill, Fusion!"
The deep yellow spirit ring lit up. The hammer in his left hand vanished into light, while the axe in his right hand grew much larger and longer. On the back face of the originally faint gold axe head, a thick cylindrical striking surface protruded, like half a hammerhead. On the other side, a thicker, heavier blade edge extended out, resembling a battle axe from Earth in his previous life. The sharpness of the axe and the weight of the hammer merged perfectly. Even in this strange form, this peculiar two-handed battle axe remained balanced on both sides, capable of chopping and smashing, without affecting swings from either side.
Xia Tianling lifted the axe, swung it whoosh whoosh a few times, and nodded with satisfaction.
"Tianling, what are the effects of this first spirit skill? What about the consumption?"
"The effect of my first spirit skill is very simple: it increases my strength and spirit skill effects by one hundred percent. But at the same time, my spirit power consumption also doubles compared to the dual form, and increases further with other activities. After I actively cancel the fusion, the spirit power consumption returns to normal speed." Xia Tianling pondered for a moment, "The spirit power consumption when activating Fusion is almost negligible."
Doubling spirit power consumption for a hundred percent increase in power – this trade-off sounded fair and quite worthwhile. Originally, Xia Tianling could remain active for about an hour after spirit possession. If he used Fusion, even standing still, he would be drained after half an hour. If fighting in the fused state, the duration would be even shorter; adding other spirit skill releases, he might not even last ten minutes.
Then again, this was just after obtaining it, and fusing took relatively long. However, spirit skills could be optimized through constant practice. If Xia Tianling could instantly fuse or defuse the two in the future, he could totally use it as a short-duration, instant-cast, minor burst/amplification skill, and even use it to trick opponents.
After hearing the description of the Fusion skill, Chrysanthemum Douluo's eyes lit up. "Tianling, this skill of yours is excellent, very practical! Even the spirit rings provided by many strength-type thousand-year spirit beasts are likely inferior to yours. Truly worthy of a uniquely blessed paired spirit. By the way, this... uh, axe, formed after your weapons fused, does it have a name?"
Xia Tianling looked at the axe in his hand, thought about the lightning power he controlled, and pondered briefly.
"Let's call it... Storm Battle Axe!"
(End of Chapter)