Chapter Fourteen: One Month, Body and Soul United!
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“Kaa~”
“Nice to meet you, my martial soul. I am delighted that we can meet in this manner, rather than through the dull process of possession.”
As Ning Wuqian spoke, excitement shimmered in his eyes.
Were a martial soul and its soul master truly one entity? Or were they two souls inhabiting one body? Or perhaps two entirely independent individuals?
Ever since discovering that possession by a beast martial soul could affect his future, Ning Wuqian had been pondering and investigating this question.
Across the Douluo Continent, most soul masters generally believed that their martial souls and they themselves were one and the same. A small minority, however, believed that martial souls and humans were two independent entities.
The former held that belief simply because they had never considered the matter. They had accepted it instinctively and never questioned it.
The latter had been prompted to think more deeply by the appearance of martial souls capable of leaving the body, leading certain scholars to put forward this hypothesis.
But Ning Wuqian believed that all these answers were both correct and somewhat inaccurate. The bond between a martial soul and its soul master was far from so superficial.
They could be one entity. They could be two entirely different individuals. They could even be two souls sharing one body.
Why?
The answer was simple. The difference between possession by beast martial souls and possession by weapon martial souls had led Ning Wuqian to this bold hypothesis.
As mentioned earlier, the defining feature of beast martial soul possession was that it transformed a human into a beast-man. Regardless of whether the martial soul or the soul master was stronger, in the end both would be drawn toward that state.
This was the foundation of the concept of two souls sharing one body. In Ning Wuqian’s view, the process by which a beast martial soul soul master grew stronger was actually a process in which two souls gradually merged.
If the human could not suppress the martial soul, the beast would take precedence. If the human prevailed, then the human nature would remain dominant.
There were two particularly striking examples.
First were powerful martial souls such as dragons, tigers, and bears—beings defined by wildness, predation, and physical strength. The animal nature they carried would influence the soul master from the very beginning.
Take Wu Feng, Ning Tian’s ever-present shadow. Her personality had always been bold and overbearing. Under the influence of her martial soul, she only became more arrogant, self-important, and selfish. The original story had demonstrated this quite clearly.
The second example—and the most evil of them all—was the evil soul master.
If ordinary soul masters were human-dominated from the outset, then evil soul masters were individuals who gradually came under the control of their martial souls from the moment of awakening. Most of them possessed beast martial souls, and were utterly consumed by their savagery and brutality. This was why they developed the distinctive ability to grow stronger by devouring others.
Whether they were feeding upon infants and corpses or extracting essence and plundering souls, the principle was the same. They preyed upon their own kind, just as soul beasts could devour one another to increase their age, or kill those above them in order to take their place.
As for the theory that martial souls and soul masters were completely separate individuals, one need only look to a certain scoundrel from ten thousand years ago. Such cases were rare and offered little assistance, so Ning Wuqian did not devote much study to them.
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The final theory—that they were originally one—was even simpler. Everyone could awaken a martial soul. Was that not proof enough of the connection between humans and their martial souls?
Perhaps martial souls had been weapons forcibly bestowed upon humanity by some powerful existence. Perhaps humans had originally possessed only weapon martial souls, until one soul master got drunk and happened to encounter a fox in heat…
In conclusion, Ning Wuqian believed that beast martial soul soul masters were beings composed of two souls sharing one body: a rare symbiotic dual existence. Weapon martial soul soul masters, on the other hand, existed in a state of complete unity and coexistence.
After all his deductions and conjectures, Ning Wuqian decided to communicate with his martial soul and guide them toward the same unified coexistence achieved by weapon martial soul soul masters.
Although this would undoubtedly weaken the enhancement granted by martial soul possession in the early stages, its prospects were unquestionably better.
It was like a ferocious beast shedding its teeth. Ning Wuqian was simply bringing the process forward, replacing its milk teeth sooner in exchange for a future body of iron and teeth of steel.
Unfortunately, Ning Wuqian initially failed.
The basic theory of the Method of Human-Soul Unity was to enter one’s own spiritual sea by force through deep meditation, then seek out one’s martial soul and communicate with it.
Ning Wuqian managed to achieve a state of semi-deep meditation, relying on the native meditation techniques of the Douluo Continent together with his exceptionally precise control over soul power.
Moreover, soul masters were most easily able to enter deep meditation when they were still weak. Their spiritual seas were as fragile as the heart of a young girl awakening to love for the first time—one could lure them in with the slightest deception.
However, deep meditation itself was a state akin to sudden enlightenment. Forcing one’s way into that state would leave one’s consciousness too clear, making enlightenment impossible.
It was like playing a game normally: one would never think about scientific research, but simply play as one pleased. Then, at the right moment, one might happen to notice a particular bug or piece of equipment and suddenly have a flash of inspiration.
Thus, Ning Wuqian’s deep meditation possessed only the characteristics of that state, not its true ability. It was a state of semi-deep meditation.
Fortunately, he had never demanded perfection. As long as he could communicate with his martial soul, that would be enough.
But he failed. Once he entered his spiritual sea, he felt as though he had returned to the womb. Darkness surrounded him in every direction, while his connection with his martial soul fell almost to zero.
He speculated that he needed a lamp to illuminate the path ahead and keep him from losing his way.
He also needed a rope capable of establishing a powerful connection between himself and his martial soul, allowing him to follow it back to the martial soul itself.
The answer was already obvious.
A soul ring.
On the entire Douluo Continent, it was the only thing capable of perfectly linking a soul master with a martial soul. It would be the ideal vessel for carrying him as he roamed through his spiritual sea.
Furthermore, by relying on the connection between a martial soul and a soul ring, he would inevitably be able to locate his martial soul. It was merely a matter of time.
“Kaa~”
A cry rang out beside Ning Wuqian’s ear.
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Although the language was different, he could understand its meaning perfectly.
The cry contained the martial soul’s confusion at his arrival.
“Who are you?”
“Me? I am a human body walking through the mortal world, while you are the soul companion who walks beside me on that journey.”
“Kaa~”
A man and a soul began communicating without pause.
Ning Wuqian patiently answered every question it asked.
As they conversed, Ning Wuqian also discovered a change taking place within his martial soul. At first, it had been nothing more than a tool possessing only an empty shell for others to control. Gradually, however, it became something with a soul of its own—
A companion.
…
No one knew how much time had passed.
When Ning Wuqian awoke once more, he saw Zhang Can quietly keeping watch beside him, food and nutritional supplements already prepared.
The moment he saw Ning Wuqian awaken, Zhang Can hurriedly picked up a bottle of liquid nourishment and poured it down his throat.
That decisive, unquestioning action was precisely what allowed Ning Wuqian’s body to recover the instant it began to cry out in agony.
“So uncomfortable!”
Ning Wuqian’s body seemed to be restarting from the beginning. When a decaying body began moving again, the sensation was rarely pleasant.
His body greedily absorbed the nutrients in the liquid nourishment like a starving wolf. Thanks to that, the discomfort lasted less than a few seconds before he managed to endure it.
“Grandfather, what happened to me?”
As he accepted the soul beast meat and water Zhang Can handed him, Ning Wuqian asked the question while beginning to eat ravenously.
Beside him, Zhang Can nodded with a sigh of relief before speaking.
“You were in deep meditation for an entire month. I nearly thought something had happened to you. Fortunately, I asked an old friend to examine you. Deep meditation is good—deep meditation is very good indeed!”
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