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Xu Yuan's soul power communicated with the paper spirit soul, and his spiritual force resonated with it.
The half-contract hidden deep within the paper spirit soul was activated, and streams of energy runes shimmered in the air, forming a connection between Xu Yuan and the paper spirit soul.
The paper spirit soul transformed into a beam of light and merged into Xu Yuan's body.
The Heaven Origin Brush (Tianyuan Brush) appeared in Xu Yuan's crossed palms, and a purple soul ring slowly descended from above his head, encircling him.
Gradually, Xu Yuan's soul power began to fluctuate.
Outside his body, another purple soul ring began to coalesce around the existing one.
At first, this new purple soul ring was unstable. But as time passed, it seemed to adapt to the mechanism of soul ring formation. The paper spirit soul then surged forward, fully solidifying this soul ring.
Two purple soul rings now intermingled outside Xu Yuan's body.
Opening his eyes, Xu Yuan felt something different.
"You are a spirit soul exclusive to my Heaven Origin Brush martial soul," Xu Yuan said, summoning the paper spirit soul.
After the two forms of his martial soul split, Xu Yuan had been gradually separating them completely. He no longer intended to use the Heaven Origin Brush or integrate it further, and even its connection to its soul rings was being severed.
In the future, he would only provide soul rings for the Heaven Origin Five Elements Spear.
However, neither of the two forms of his martial soul had absorbed a new spirit soul yet.
This was the next step in the splitting process.
As for the Heaven Origin Five Elements Spear, Xu Yuan didn't plan to fuse it with a new spirit soul. Therefore, he needed to fuse the Heaven Origin Brush with a new spirit soul.
Thus, the paper spirit soul came into play.
After the fusion, it wasn't just about adding another soul ring—it was about making the Heaven Origin Brush martial soul more complete.
At this moment, Xu Yuan felt a sense of stability.
While spirit souls were a burden on one's spiritual force, they also served as a foundation for martial souls.
If the essence of a martial soul became unstable, having a spirit soul as a medium could help stabilize it and allow him to endure the process.
He didn't have the paper spirit soul add too many soul rings at once.
First, he added the second soul ring. After adapting for a few days, he would gradually add the third and fourth soul rings.
Meanwhile, Xu Shengqun and Ye Yuan strolled through the inner court of Shrek Academy, eventually arriving at the shores of the Sea God Lake, marveling at the abundant spiritual energy here.
"The Sea God Lake is one of the continent's great wonders. I've heard that the inner court's matchmaking events are also held on this lake," Ye Yuan remarked in awe.
"Who are you?"
A young man approached them, looking puzzled.
Though not everyone in the inner court knew each other personally, they at least had some familiarity.
The number of students in the inner court was small enough that everyone had an impression of one another.
Xu Shengqun and Ye Yuan not only looked unfamiliar, but their appearance also clearly marked them as non-students.
"We're family members."
"Family members?"
Who brought family members to the academy?
The young man was utterly perplexed.
Students of Shrek Academy were allowed to bring followers or family members from outside to live and train within the academy, but they couldn't stay permanently.
"Whose family members are you?"
Whose family?
The young man was curious.
Then, he chuckled lightly.
"Sorry, my curiosity got the better of me. If it's inconvenient to share, that's fine." His demeanor was casual.
There was no deeper motive—he simply greeted people out of habit.
An outgoing personality.
Xu Shengqun didn't feel annoyed; instead, he found the young man's tone and demeanor quite pleasant.
"Xu Yuan."
He mentioned his nephew's name.
"Who?" The young man's eyes widened as he stared at Xu Shengqun and Ye Yuan, raising his voice. "Who?"
The repeated display of shock left Xu Shengqun and Ye Yuan baffled.
---
Li Qiankun was speechless.
He was almost guaranteed to become an inner court student. After being defeated by Xu Yuan a month ago, he had spent this time reflecting, organizing his thoughts, and introspecting.
Over the past month, he had wandered around the shores of the Sea God Lake countless times.
Whenever he encountered a senior, he would strike up a conversation, chatting casually to clear his mind.
That was why he had approached Xu Shengqun and Ye Yuan—out of sheer boredom.
Xu Shengqun could now sense that Li Qiankun and Xu Yuan had some kind of history, likely involving a loss to Xu Yuan.
Judging by Li Qiankun's soul power fluctuations, he was no weakling—though not yet a Soul King, he was certainly close.
"It seems you and our little Yuan have some history?" Xu Shengqun asked with a smile.
Li Qiankun's face flushed with indignation.
"No, I just lost to him in a match."
"A match?"
"The outer court exchange match. Our class lost to him," Li Qiankun sighed.
Were Xu Shengqun and Ye Yuan Xu Yuan's elders?
His eyes darted, and he began probing them for information about Xu Yuan's cultivation journey.
In turn, Xu Shengqun learned about Xu Yuan's performance in the exchange match from Li Qiankun.
"Prodigal brat!"
Upon learning that Xu Yuan had forged an entire Yellow-Rank mecha using Spirit-Forged materials, Xu Shengqun erupted in curses.
My dear nephew, why didn't you tell me earlier how skilled you were at forging!
I practically emptied my coffers for this!
Had he known, he would have made Xu Yuan forge day and night, producing batches of Spirit-Forged materials to exchange for spiritual energy.
---
After fusing with the paper spirit soul, Xu Yuan headed to the small courtyard beneath his dormitory.
He lived alone in a detached courtyard, which was highly convenient for practicing soul skills.
Holding the Heaven Origin Brush, two purple soul rings hovered outside his body.
The second soul ring flashed.
A scroll emerged under Xu Yuan's brush.
Silver in color, adorned with five elemental patterns dotted with starry lights, the scroll unfurled slowly.
Xu Yuan paused to think, then began sketching on the scroll.
Special patterns took shape under his brush, forming intricate, closed symbols.
"Second soul skill, Record."
The scroll gradually faded away.
Xu Yuan pointed the Heaven Origin Brush into the void, and instantly, a rune appeared at its tip.
Ambient energy surged forth, transforming into roaring flames.
With each stroke, Xu Yuan painted five runes in the air, each attracting ambient energy and manifesting as the five elemental forces: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
The five elements converged.
Sweeping his brush over the five runes, Xu Yuan generated a cascade of additional runes, connecting them into a larger whole.
The five elements intertwined, generating and restraining one another, forming a perfect circle.
It was seamless.
Xu Yuan was satisfied.
He unfolded the scroll again, refining the runes and modifying them into representations of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
Once finished, he rolled up the scroll.
With another flick of his brush, the characters for metal, wood, water, fire, and earth appeared, each gathering the corresponding elemental force.
He then reopened the scroll and began recording other arrays he had previously studied.
"With this soul skill, I won't need to reserve space in my battle armor or mecha for the arrays used in soul ring fusion. I can directly record them in the paper spirit soul and draw them in the void during battle, integrating them into my mecha and battle armor alongside the soul rings."
Integrating soul rings into battle armor and mecha was a technique Xu Yuan had already implemented in his mecha and planned to apply to his battle armor. However, it would take up significant space, delaying the inscription of other arrays.
Now, it seemed the paper spirit soul could compensate for this.
Other arrays that didn't affect the normal amplification of battle armor could also be replaced by the paper spirit soul, freeing up space in his battle armor and mecha to enhance other aspects.
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