Chapter 7: Soul Skills Transform into Secret Techniques

Qin Sheng landed in the city he had noticed.

In one part of the city lay a noble’s residence, but at this moment, it was filled with the color of blood, with corpses strewn everywhere.

Qin Sheng arrived at a small courtyard, pushed open the door, and walked inside.

Beside the bed in the room lay a middle-aged woman who had already passed away; one of her hands was reaching under the bed, while the other was outside.

Qin Sheng moved the body aside and looked down.

Hiding under the bed was a young girl. Her face was pale and covered in tear tracks, her eyes were vacant, and her mouth had been covered by the woman’s hand. She was so terrified that she could no longer make a sound.

The movement Qin Sheng made caused her to curl up and tremble uncontrollably.

The girl’s soul power was also at level 20. Qin Sheng already had a guess as to her identity.

"Zhang Lexuan?"

"Kill me, just kill me..."

The girl muttered to herself, already broken.

Qin Sheng shook his head, caused her to faint, and then took her away from there.

Chiling City.

This was a city of decent size, governed jointly by the City Lord’s Mansion and the Luo family, a soul master clan.

Of course, the Chiling Advanced Soul Master Academy, founded by Qin Sheng’s grandfather, was also highly respected.

In fact, soul master academies were inherently pure organizations dedicated to cultivating and supplying talent to the continent. Every nation placed great importance on every advanced soul master academy and would not target or suppress them.

The only exception, from ancient times to the present, was Shrek Academy, which acted like an emperor above emperors—a nation within a nation.

Inside Chiling Academy.

Qin Sheng sat with his father, Qin Ding, and his mother, Ning Huang'er, and recounted what he had encountered.

"We ran into evil soul masters. Grandfather sent me away and held them off by himself. There has been no news since."

Qin Ding and Ning Huang'er wore expressions of grief, remaining silent for a long time.

They both knew that it was impossible for his grandfather to have survived.

No one had expected that a Soul Douluo taking a quasi-Great Soul Master to obtain a soul ring would encounter such a thing.

This was the era they lived in.

"With Soul Douluo-level evil soul masters present, and in groups at that, could it be that the evil soul masters have an organization?"

"Xiao Sheng, don't be afraid, and don't blame yourself," Qin Ding comforted him.

"Your grandfather would be happy to see that you returned safely."

There was sorrow and killing intent in Qin Sheng’s eyes. He said firmly

"I will avenge Grandfather."

"What about the girl you brought back?" Ning Huang'er asked.

"Her entire family was slaughtered. I found her."

Qin Ding sighed, "A poor child. Let her stay."

"You haven't added your second soul ring yet. Once we have handled your grandfather's affairs, we will take you to find one."

Qin Sheng nodded in agreement.

Qin Ding and Ning Huang'er left in a hurry; with Qin Sheng’s grandfather gone, they had too many things to attend to.

In the room next door, Qin Sheng pushed the door open and entered. The girl suspected to be Zhang Lexuan had already woken up.

"This is Chiling City. You are safe now."

The girl sat on the bed, hugging her legs, not moving an inch.

Qin Sheng shook his head and said, "I will have someone bring you food."

"Thank you."

A very faint voice sounded. Qin Sheng heard it, but he still left the room.

This kind of thing could not be comforted by an outsider; she had to walk out of it herself.

Right now, the girl needed a quiet space, not self-righteous guidance.

Qin Sheng found a place to continue studying his martial soul, the Spirit Control Banner.

His first soul skill was called "Mental Berserk." It allowed his mental power to enter a berserk state for a short time, increasing the power of his output while also greatly increasing his resistance to various negative mental states.

Normally, a mental-type soul master would choose a purely offensive skill for their first soul ring. Qin Sheng’s choice of this buff skill was clearly based on the knowledge from his past life.

Once he obtained offensive soul skills later, his berserk mental power would undoubtedly be even more potent. This was an ability meant to be used in combination with other soul skills.

It was a pity he hadn't been able to wait for his soul skill system to take shape.

"I don't lack means of attack, so for future soul rings, I should consider buffs or other special effects," Qin Sheng thought.

"Constantly buffing the foundation, and using martial arts or secret techniques for combat."

This was an extremely radical way of adding soul skills; besides Qin Sheng, no one else could play like this.

He lit up his first soul ring and activated Mental Berserk, carefully experiencing the sensation.

"Most soul masters use soul skills by rigidly triggering the soul ring, without knowing the specific principles behind the skill."

"I wonder if I can present soul skills in the form of secret techniques so that my other selves in other worlds can use them too?"

Some soul skills in the Douluo Continent were quite trashy, like making plants entangle an opponent...

But others were very eye-catching, like Invincible Golden Body, Eternal Wound, and so on.

Invincible, ignoring physical defense... what would it be like if it were converted into a universal secret technique?

Thinking of this, a bit of interest sparked in Qin Sheng’s eyes. This was an interesting question.

"There are many bizarre soul skills in this world, and there is much worth my study."

As mentioned before, Qin Sheng was now in a real world.

What he needed to do was not to look down on it, but to extract as much nourishment as possible from this world to improve himself.

Even a martial arts world could bring him benefits, let alone a fantasy world like Douluo.

The capabilities of the martial soul system were varied and were indeed excellent references.

"In the Shrouding the Heavens world, one begins to touch upon the laws of heaven and earth and control space starting from the Four Extremes realm. The gods of Douluo are the same. Although they are different worlds, if I become a god in this world, I can at least gain more insights into the laws."

"The collision of systems from different worlds and the convergence of insights into the Great Dao are in themselves a tremendous opportunity that others can only dream of."

Qin Sheng continuously used Mental Berserk, deeply perceiving the operation process of this soul skill, and gradually gained his own insights.

Mental Berserk stimulated mental power in a unique way, causing the mental power to split into two parts, creating a clash, and finally erupting.

"It's very simple to do; after all, it's only a hundred-year soul skill. Perhaps I can try to increase the age of the soul skill..."

If even the Skydream Iceworm could do it, there was no reason Qin Sheng couldn't.

However, regarding soul rings, after careful consideration, Qin Sheng still chose to obtain them from soul beasts.

He needed those unique soul skills as subjects for research.

For Qin Sheng, this body in the Douluo Continent was more useful for research than for combat power; as long as it could provide a fixed boost to his combat power, that was enough.

Not long after, Qin Sheng figured out the essence of his first soul skill. Even if he lost this soul ring in the future, it would not affect his ability to perform Mental Berserk.

At the same time, Qin Sheng also had this body switch to practicing the Yijin Jing (Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic) internal energy technique.

The three Qin Shengs in the martial arts worlds had now become martial arts myths, proficient in all kinds of martial arts.

Even the Xuantian Skill of the Western Shu Tang Sect could dominate the Douluo Continent; the Yijin Jing could simply be called a supreme divine skill.

The girl also gradually calmed down and became capable of communication.

She was indeed Zhang Lexuan.

After all, a level 20 at eight years old, and a noble whose entire family had been wiped out—this was likely the only such case in the entire continent within the last hundred years.

Qin Sheng felt a bit of emotion; he hadn't expected to pick up this genius.

Zhang Lexuan—if one didn't count the cheater Huo Yuhao—could even be considered the greatest genius after Mu En.

Promoted to Soul Douluo at twenty-two or twenty-three; the Shrek Seven Devils of ten thousand years ago were nothing compared to her.

The appearance of Zhang Lexuan also allowed Qin Sheng to confirm the timeline.

It was still three or four years before Huo Yuhao was born, and even longer before he entered Shrek.

With a shift of thought, Qin Sheng stopped paying attention to that.

He didn't care about any Child of Destiny or Savior of the Continent.

"Zhang Lexuan."

Qin Sheng said, "Do you know who harmed your family?"

Zhang Lexuan was silent. After a long while, she said in a low voice

"I don't know. Mother didn't tell me about family matters."

Qin Sheng nodded. That was true; how would an eight-year-old child know so much?

The original work said the Zhang family was persecuted by a great noble of the Heavenly Soul Empire. To be called a "great noble" and dare to slaughter other nobles at will, they had to be at least a Marquis, right?

Once the scope was narrowed down, it wouldn't be hard to investigate.

"Stay at Chiling Academy and cultivate well. You have great talent; in the future, you can take revenge with your own hands."

"Revenge... I don't know who to seek revenge from, and I don't know if I can do it," Zhang Lexuan said, her mood low.

"As long as you cultivate to Title Douluo, finding out the truth will be easy. Cultivate to Super Douluo, and revenge will be just as easy."

"You have Innate Full Soul Power, right? That is the best talent. You can do it."

"Yes, I have Innate Full Soul Power."

As Zhang Lexuan spoke, she summoned her martial soul—a moon.

"Moon, a very powerful martial soul." Qin Sheng looked at it for a few moments; the essence of this martial soul was extraordinary.

It was only because this was the Douluo Continent; if it were any other world, things related to the sun and moon would be incomparable to hammers or butterflies.

As for whether Zhang Lexuan’s moon martial soul had any connection to the Sun Moon Empire’s royal family?

Who cares.

"In a few days, I will take you to add your second soul ring. Get some rest."

Qin Sheng left after saying this.

Zhang Lexuan looked at his back, feeling very grateful in her heart.

This little brother is really kind.

Qin Sheng had always acted very maturely, but he overlooked one point.

His current body was only eight years old, and his actual birth month was even later than Zhang Lexuan’s...

Five days later, Qin Ding and Ning Huang'er, both Soul Saints, personally set out, taking Qin Sheng and Zhang Lexuan to obtain their soul rings.

Don't think that because Shrek Academy’s upper echelons had so many Soul Douluos and Title Douluos, and even top inner-court students under twenty had soul power approaching Soul Saint, that Soul Saints were not rare.

In reality, on the Douluo Continent, the upper echelons of most advanced soul master academies were only Soul Saints, and the students, even the most outstanding ones, were only Soul Ancestors.

Chiling Academy was just such an ordinary academy.

"This time we won't go to the Star Dou Great Forest; we'll go to the Yaoguang Forest."

Qin Ding and Ning Huang'er were extremely wary of evil soul masters; they weren't sure if those four evil soul masters were still in the Star Dou Forest.

"Xiao Sheng, Lexuan, we will find the most suitable soul beasts for you." Ning Huang'er patted Zhang Lexuan’s head.

Qin Sheng nodded, though in his heart he was thinking about finding a nine-thousand-year soul beast for himself.

With the boost from the Infinite Land, his physical fitness had already surpassed what ordinary people imagined for a Great Soul Master.

If it weren't to experience the difference between hundred-year, thousand-year, and ten-thousand-year soul rings and skills, and to deepen his understanding of soul rings, he could have even chosen a ten-thousand-year ring for his second one.

Soul shock? It would be good if Qin Sheng didn't shock those soul beasts instead.

First ring: hundred-year; second ring: thousand-year; third ring: ten-thousand-year; fourth ring: hundred-thousand-year. This was Qin Sheng’s plan.

One step at a time; it could be considered a standard configuration.

(End of chapter)