Chapter 9: The Soul Palace
As the last cerulean light from the astral projection vanished into his glabella, a blue glimmer appeared in Xu Kai's eyes, and he underwent a sudden transformation!
His sense of smell increased by several folds. His body felt unimaginably powerful, and instead of feeling strange, he felt as if the sea was his home.
Turning around, he saw the Skylark Shark's corpse so deep in the sea that he was bewildered to see it at all.
But something was different. This new form, this sharp killer instinct, now resided in him. He swam into the dark blue depths and encountered the Red Fury jellyfish, a ferocious sea beast known to be a terror of the depths and for some reason, always angry!
The jellyfish studied this unique-looking shark and withdrew its tentacles. The shark it saw was 10 feet long—not too big for it to kill—but the mysterious ethereal patterns and its strange aura made the Red Fury jellyfish wary.
However, just as the thought crossed his mind, Xu Kai suddenly transformed into his human form, melting away the Ref Fury jellyfish's apprehensive feeling.
His powerful Spirit Qi, and intimidating form vanished. 'I don't understand what's going on but I can't lose this corpse,' Xu Kai said, ignoring the flashing of a beautiful chamber in his subconsciousness and swimming toward the corpse.
All of a sudden, a red tentacle latched around his leg and pulled him downward. His head nearly collided with a rock on the seabed, but he managed to evade it, landing instead on the soft sand.
Despite losing his breath because of the sudden attack, Xu Kai discovered he could breathe perfectly well underwater!
'What's going on?!' His pupils were constricted.
"AHH!" A sharp pain shot from above his ankle, signaling the release of the Red Fury venom into his body!
At that moment, a cold glint flashed through his eyes, and he swam towards the beast, moving through the water so quickly that he failed to notice how it bent and moved, helping him swim faster!
[Raging Thunderous Fists!]
Bam—! Bam—!
Ripples spread outward from the point of impact to the rest of the jellyfish's body as Xu Kai launched one punch after the other.
Although he was nowhere close to the finesse of the Raging Tide Technique First Form, just his basic knowledge borrowed from the past helped him coordinate his strength with his fist.
He expected the impact to be less due to the water, but instead it became faster and more powerful!
He could feel it. His strength has experienced a breakthrough.
When Xu Kai stopped unleashing punches, he gazed at the Red Fury jellyfish, badly beaten to death while breathing heavily.
That was an intermediate-stage ferocious beast from the Marrow-Unleashing Realm, lying dead before him. He waited for the astral projection of the beast to appear but saw nothing, even after a long while.
He was quite shocked that the Red Fury jellyfish's poison had no effect.
'Hmm,' He scratched his short black hair, which was currently defying gravity. After he made sure no other beast was around, Xu Kai sat cross-legged.
As if sensing his intent, his consciousness was transported into a space in his glabella. He found himself standing on a vast ocean so calm that he mistook it for a mirror in the first few seconds of his arrival.
As his soul-body gazed at the ocean surface, his reflection stared back at him. The reflection had the image of a pair of large red eyes, short jet black hair, a sharp-looking face with a well-defined jawline, a structured nose, and sun-tempered skin.
Begging under the sun did no justice to his skin tone. Sometimes Xu Kai was shocked by his well defined facial structure. He was too good looking to be an ordinary beggar but reality was reality.
He could see a fog wall around three hundred meters on each side, and in the center of this vast space stood a grand building that no other building on the island, not even the manors of the lineage families, could compare to!
This building wasn't made of wood! He was staring at a non-wooden building for the first time in his life.
'How does this structure even work? Those pillars are so big. Is this thing even built by a human? Is it from the mainland?'
He kept asking internal questions as he examined the front. Ascending the short staircase, he approached the 20-foot-tall golden doors, looking pitifully small and inconsequential.
The palace door opened, revealing a brilliant white light, which blinded him for a split second before his eyes adjusted.
Walking into the colossal hall, Xu Kai gazed at the depictions of unknown yet imposing beasts drawn on the marble walls and tiles.
The golden pillars had paintings of mysterious dragons, creatures that had vanished a thousand years ago.
Each dragon was different from the one on the next pillar. Not long after, Xu Kai noticed a pattern in the pillar settings. Two mighty pillars would be positioned a few meters apart, followed by a large space before another pair of pillars, both of which would be precisely the same distance apart.
'It seems like there's something that is supposed to be in between these pillars. I believe they have a protective purpose in mind.'
Finally, he arrived at the end of the hall and saw a tall, round platform. The platform was two meters high, with a 1.5-meter-tall column atop it.
This was the soul column.
The soul column shimmered like polished jade and had cerulean patterns that resembled the sea's waves. Hovering above it in a transparent sphere was a miniature Skylark Shark!
Suddenly, the soul column vanished and appeared in the middle of two close-distance pillars. Their shimmering white color quickly became a cerulean design.
Xu Kai approached the soul column, astonished and bewildered by everything he saw. As he touched it, an open scroll appeared above it. Information began to appear on the scroll, which was four feet long and two and a half feet wide. Shimmering gold wrote the words.
*Noble Guardian Beast Soul: Young Skylark Shark
*Description: A ferocious sea beast with the faint noble lineage of a descendant of a primordial guardian. Blessed with the talents of water and ice. When consumed with bloodlust, an adult is known to cause a storm.
*Ascended Rank: Mortal.
*Realm: Marrow Unleashing Realm - initial stage.
*Advanced form: Spirit Skylark Shark...
The list included both the adult Skylark Shark's powers and the resources required to advance the young Skylark Shark.
And there were other forms with paintings that, though they looked formidable, were simply out of the Skylark Shark's advancement because they needed a beast soul with thicker bloodlines.
Writings about the Skylark Shark's effect on him and how to activate it began to scroll down, as if the information could go on forever.
'So that's why I feel stronger? It increases my strength in human form by two folds and in beast form by five folds! ... Oh? As long as the column is on the platform... Wait, what?!'
His eyes widened to their limit!
Gifts
-- Gift
received Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone