Chapter 51: Space-Time Martial Soul
Zhang Ruochen channeled his true qi into his right arm, clenched his fingers into a fist, and punched the ground.
"Boom!"
A loud crash rang out as the ground shook violently, leaving a three-meter-wide crater in its wake.
Cracks spread all around the pit.
Observing the destruction his punch had caused, Zhang Ruochen roughly estimated his current strength and muttered to himself, "Without using the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm, I can unleash seventy-eight oxen of force. If I use the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm, I should be able to reach eighty-eight oxen of force."
"I've only just reached the Great Perfection of the Yellow Extreme Realm, so there's still plenty of room for improvement. Maybe I can even reach the limit of one hundred oxen of force."
In the Yellow Extreme Realm, no one could surpass the limit of one hundred oxen of force.
However, if one's martial body was sufficiently heaven-defying, they could infinitely approach one hundred oxen, or even reach it.
In his previous life, Zhang Ruochen's peak explosive force in the Yellow Extreme Realm had reached ninety-four oxen. In that era eight hundred years ago, it represented invincibility in the Yellow Extreme Realm.
Now that he had reached the Great Perfection of the Yellow Extreme Realm, further improving his strength would be extremely difficult. Every single oxen of increase was no easy feat.
"With my current strength, I should be able to sweep through those Yellow List martial artists."
"Let me try the power of the soul meridian."
The soul meridian was the most special of the thirty-six meridians, connecting the physical body and the soul.
For ordinary martial artists, the soul was a rather mysterious thing—real, yet invisible and intangible.
Zhang Ruochen sat cross-legged on the ground, breathing and exhaling, calming his mind, and focused entirely on sensing the sacrificial power within his qi pool.
That sacrificial power had separated from the blood essence force, flowing like a thin, blood-red river through the qi pool.
This was the soul meridian.
"Swoosh!"
He infused true qi into the blood-red soul meridian, and it began to tremble, bursting through the top of his head like a seven- or eight-zhang-tall red pillar of light.
A soul phantom, identical to Zhang Ruochen in appearance, appeared above his head, completely enveloped in red light, seemingly also breathing and exhaling.
Of course, this scene was visible only to Zhang Ruochen himself.
To outsiders, they would only see Zhang Ruochen sitting cross-legged in cultivation, unable to see the red pillar of light or the soul phantom.
Affected by the soul's power, gusts of eerie wind swept through the entire courtyard, making a whooshing sound.
"I can actually communicate with the soul—how incredible!"
"Only martial artists at the Heavenly Extreme Realm can achieve soul out-of-body, yet I've done it at the Great Perfection of the Yellow Extreme Realm!"
Zhang Ruochen's physical body and soul were connected by the soul meridian. The longer the soul meridian, the farther the soul could leave the body. Martial artists at the Heavenly Extreme Realm had no such restriction.
Zhang Ruochen's current cultivation was too weak; his soul meridian was only eight zhang long. That meant his soul could leave his body by a maximum of eight zhang.
For comparison, a martial artist at the Heavenly Extreme Realm could have their soul leave their body by up to a hundred li. With a single thought, they could know what was happening dozens of li away.
Moreover, Heavenly Extreme Realm martial artists could channel true qi to refine their souls, strengthening them into martial souls.
By mobilizing the power of a martial soul, one could control heaven and earth, borrowing celestial spiritual energy to attack enemies.
Thus, every Heavenly Extreme Realm martial artist was a martial arts myth.
Zhang Ruochen had once been a peak expert at the Great Perfection of the Heavenly Extreme Realm, so he had naturally cultivated his soul into a martial soul. Moreover, it was a rare lightning martial soul.
It could transform celestial spiritual energy into lightning power.
That meant Zhang Ruochen could now mobilize celestial spiritual energy to unleash lightning power. Of course, he could only draw from the spiritual energy within an eight-zhang radius. Beyond that, he couldn't access it.
"Lightning Halberd!"
Following the technique from his previous life, Zhang Ruochen mobilized celestial spiritual energy, attempting to unleash lightning power.
Unfortunately, he failed.
"Why is this happening? Even though I've been reborn eight hundred years later, my soul's power hasn't weakened. Why can't I unleash lightning power?"
Zhang Ruochen fell into deep thought, then suddenly seemed to realize something. "Could it be... my Divine Martial Mark has become a Space-Time Divine Martial Mark, and my martial soul has changed as well?"
To resolve his doubts, Zhang Ruochen released Xiao Hei, who was sealed in the Cosmic Divine Wood Map, and asked him about it.
"At the Great Perfection of the Yellow Extreme Realm, you can achieve soul out-of-body? And you've cultivated your soul into a martial soul? Who are you trying to fool?" Xiao Hei didn't believe Zhang Ruochen's words.
Then he added, "Only martial artists at the Great Perfection of the Heavenly Extreme Realm can cultivate their souls into martial souls. Do you think I have no common sense?"
Zhang Ruochen didn't explain. He simply sat cross-legged and infused true qi into his soul meridian.
"Swoosh!"
An eight-zhang-long red pillar of light shot out from the top of Zhang Ruochen's head.
A soul phantom floated within the pillar of light, looking exactly like Zhang Ruochen.
Soul out-of-body!
Other martial artists truly couldn't see Zhang Ruochen's soul phantom. But Xiao Hei was different—his eyes were unlike ordinary people's, possessing extraordinary vision, and he could actually see the soul phantom floating in the pillar of light.
"You... your soul... has really reached the martial soul level? How is that possible?" Xiao Hei's eyes flickered incessantly. "You must be hiding some secret. A normal person can't cultivate a martial soul at the Great Perfection of the Yellow Extreme Realm."
Zhang Ruochen said, "Don't ask about other things. Just tell me, what kind of martial soul is mine?"
"You awakened a Space-Time Divine Martial Mark, so naturally, you've cultivated a Space-Time Martial Soul." Xiao Hei shook his head, feeling that Zhang Ruochen's talent was too monstrous, even hard for him to accept.
"Space-Time Martial Soul?" Zhang Ruochen said.
Xiao Hei said, "Take out the Space-Time Secret Scripture and turn to the third page. There's an explanation about the Space-Time Martial Soul there."
Zhang Ruochen immediately retrieved the Space-Time Secret Scripture, flipped to the third page, and indeed saw four ancient characters at the top: Space-Time Martial Soul.
The third page was densely packed with small text, recording a great deal of content about the Space-Time Martial Soul.
After reading for an entire afternoon, Zhang Ruochen memorized all the content.
However, he understood less than a tenth of it.
"By cultivating a Space-Time Martial Soul, I can begin to practice the Space Domain and Time Imprint." Zhang Ruochen closed the Space-Time Secret Scripture and continued pondering the knowledge he had just recorded.
Xiao Hei said, "Young man, I have to remind you—your cultivation is still too weak. With your current true qi reserves, you can't sustain a Space Domain, nor can you condense a Time Imprint. It's best to wait until you break through to the Mysterious Extreme Realm before starting to cultivate the Space Domain."
Zhang Ruochen said, "You don't need to remind me; I understand that principle. The power of space and time is too profound and too strong. With my current cultivation, it's hard to control those two forces."
Zhang Ruochen put away the Space-Time Secret Scripture and said, "I'll wait until I break through to the Mysterious Extreme Realm before cultivating the Space Domain. My cultivation has reached the Great Perfection of the Yellow Extreme Realm, but I've only mastered two palms of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm. I can start cultivating the third palm now."
Cultivation techniques and martial skills must achieve a balance.
Only by successfully mastering the third palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm could its power be elevated to the Human-grade High-rank level.
In the following days, Zhang Ruochen spent most of his time cultivating the third palm of the Dragon-Elephant Prajna Palm.
At the same time, he also devoted a lot of time to continuing to practice the "Zhang-type Inscription Rune" and "Shrink-type Inscription Rune," hoping to master all eight basic space inscription runes as soon as possible.
Once he mastered all eight basic space inscription runes, he could refine space rings with larger internal spaces. By selling those space rings, he could solve his financial difficulties.
Then, he could use large amounts of silver coins to buy pills and quickly improve his martial arts cultivation.
After all, he had spent all his savings to buy the alchemy furnace, leaving him broke—unable to even scrape together a thousand silver coins.
If he still couldn't master all eight basic space inscription runes in a while, he wouldn't even be able to afford blood pills anymore.
That day, the Ninth Princess came to Yushu Palace again.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen practicing palm techniques in the garden, she immediately rushed over and said, "Ninth Brother, how can you still be in the mood to practice palm techniques? Don't you know that the heavenly proud daughter of the Lin family has gotten engaged to Seventh Brother?"
Zhang Ruochen withdrew his true qi and stopped, asking, "Which heavenly proud daughter of the Lin family?"
The Ninth Princess gave him a speechless look and said, "Of course, it's your cousin, Lin Ningshan! The news just spread from the palace. It's said that Father King and the Queen have already agreed, and the wedding is set for next year's Danqiu Festival."
"Oh."
Zhang Ruochen nodded lightly, showing no emotional change, and walked toward his room.
"Hey? What do you mean? Ningshan is about to marry Seventh Brother, and you're not even a little sad? From now on, you'll have to call her sister-in-law!" The Ninth Princess chased after him.
Zhang Ruochen changed into a new martial arts uniform and wore the Ice Fire Qilin Armor underneath it. He said, "What does the Lin family and the Seventh Prince's engagement have to do with me? Why should I be sad? Ninth Sister, since you're here, come with me to the Yellow-level Martial Combat Palace again."
"Going to the Yellow-level Martial Combat Palace? Could it be..."
The Ninth Princess's pretty face showed a hint of surprise. She covered her lips with a delicate hand and said, trembling slightly, "I heard you cultivated in the Mana Divine Pool for twenty-four consecutive days. Have you broken through to the Great Perfection of the Yellow Extreme Realm?"
Zhang Ruochen smiled and nodded.
"What a freak! How can your cultivation speed be so fast?" The Ninth Princess's beautiful eyes widened like saucers, her jaw nearly dropping to the ground.
She was also a martial arts genius, only sixteen years old and already at the Middle Position of the Yellow Extreme Realm. But compared to Zhang Ruochen, she felt like a mediocre talent.
Zhang Ruochen and the Ninth Princess drove a luxurious ancient carriage out of the palace gate, heading toward the Yellow-level Martial Combat Palace.
The Yellow-level Martial Combat Palace was a great place to make money. If he could win ten more consecutive matches, he would receive a reward of one million silver coins.
With so many silver coins, Zhang Ruochen could buy a large number of pills to use in breaking through to the Mysterious Extreme Realm.
As for the eight basic space inscription runes, he would take his time learning to carve them.
Haste makes waste. The more anxious he was, the harder it would be to carve them successfully.
"Your Highness, the Ninth Prince, you've finally left the palace again. This time, you won't be as lucky as last time." Han Qingluo stepped out from behind a palace wall, hands clasped behind her back, staring at the departing carriage, a cold chill on her face.
Just as Zhang Ruochen and the Ninth Princess left the palace, Han Qingluo, one of the four great disciples of the Queen, also left the palace, heading toward the Yellow-level Martial Combat Palace.
...
There's another chapter today, but it will be later! Please vote for recommendations!