A/N: I've decided to change a few terms used in the novel.
Spirit Soul → Spirit Essence
Artificial Spirit Soul → Spirit Soul
This is due to the fact that it's becoming increasingly cumbersome to always make a clear differentiation between the two, as well as the fact that there's actually a type of Spirit Soul, that I've completely missed: Soul Beasts, that choose to become the Spirit Souls of Soul Masters. Those would fit in neither of the two categories so it's better to change it before it's too late.
(This is NOT a statement to say that Sheng Feilong will obtain a Soul Beast's Spirit Soul.)
I will gradually begin to change the terms in the previous chapters to keep confusion to a minimum.
(EDIT: The terms have been changed in all prior chapters.)
Without further ado, I hope you'll enjoy today's chapter!
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Looking at the small Purple Forest Witch in front of him, Sheng Feilong couldn't help but smile brightly. It had actually answered him! Well, it just asked a question back, but at least it was communicating with him; that's already more than he could currently hope to achieve with the Ancient Hypnotic Toad! Sheng Feilong took a moment to answer, trying to find the right words to explain the situation to the little Forest Witch.
Its small face turned into a frown, seemingly trying to understand before it slightly nodded and stared at Sheng Feilong again. After a moment, he heard its high pitched, childish voice in his head again. He was thrilled again, but his look quickly turned into a bewildered one as the Purple Forest Witch was asking where the pond was...
'Did it not understand me? Or does it expect a pond in my spiritual consciousness? No, something like that isn't possible and the little Forest Witch couldn't know about something like that... Then, its really not understanding what I mean?'
Sheng Feilong took a while to once again explain that the Purple Forest Witch wasn't in the forest where he presumed the pond to be at anymore, but was then asked where the pond had gone to instead... After bickering and explaining the situation a few more times and asking a few other things, Sheng Feilong finally came to a conclusion: This Purple Forest Witch couldn't comprehend the meaning of his words at all.
He really didn't know if it was because it was a Spirit Soul that was artificially 'aged' or if that was simply normal for Soul Beasts, as they weren't able to fully comprehend human language until they reached 100.000 years of age, but this little thing's really didn't get anything!
Having spend around an hour to communicate with the Purple Forest Witch to no avail, Sheng Feilong at least understood that it still knew how to use its powers to assist him. This also included actually controlling the Soul Skills Sheng Feilong would gain from it in future as well as the one he just got from breaking through to become a Soul Ancestor!
Having had enough from exhausting himself by talking to someone who didn't get his own meaning in full, Sheng Feilong exited his spiritual consciousness and prepared to leave his cultivation room. By now, he had already spent more than three and a half hours inside the room and expected his father and Master to have become slightly listless by now. Quickly walking out the door, he saw Sheng Lingtian standing on the opposite side of the hallway, keeping an eye on his room.
Sheng Lingtian gently smiled when he saw Sheng Feilong exit the room. He could clearly feel that the latter had become much stronger as Sheng Feilong wasn't fully able to control his newly elevated Soul Power yet.
"Congratulations on your breakthrough, Feilong. I had originally expected you to take a lot longer. Merely three and a half hours, you're really quick. Shall we go see Senior Song?"
Sheng Feilong smiled contently and quickly nodded to answer the question. The both of them then made their way over to Song Weihan's office where the latter was currently drinking some tea. When they entered, Song Weihan glanced at the clock on the wall shortly before smiling at Sheng Feilong.
"You're rather quick. Three and a half hours really is a good time for breaking through rank 40. Have you already tried talking to the Purple Forest Witch Spirit?"
Sheng Feilong smiled wryly and looked a bit lost before complaining to Song Weihan.
"Master, this little Forest Witch really is troublesome. I've spent an hour trying to explain that it was now my Spirit Soul, but it didn't understand and was just asking where the forest or some pond were... I tried changing the questions after a while because I couldn't take it anymore and asked about its abilities. I don't know about other stuff, but it should at least be able to take control over the Soul Skills I'll obtain from it to some degree."
Song Weihan was a bit shocked, but quickly made sure not to show it on his face. It was quite normal for a 10.000-years-old Spirit Soul to have a relatively low level of intelligence and comprehensive ability, but Sheng Feilong spent an hour communicating with it?
"So, you really just spend two and a half hours fusing with the Spirit Soul? That's incredibly fast, to be honest. Though, you don't need to worry about the Purple Forest Witch; It's quite normal for Spirit Souls not to know or understand what was going on. They'll get used to it after some time, especially humanoid ones like yours."
Sheng Feilong nodded his head to display he understood. As long as there wasn't a problem with the Purple Forest Witch, he wouldn't mind too much. Song Weihan once again smiled at Sheng Feilong and a slightly awkward silence filled the room where the two of them just smiled at each other, before Sheng Lingtian broke this silence with a faked cough.
"Feilong, why don't you tell us about your new Soul Skill? We're both quite interested as the Forest Witch's and your Spirit Essence's attributes contradict each other."
Sheng Feilong flinched lightly before glancing at Song Weihan with a complicated expression and spoke in a faint voice.
"Master, can Soul Master's name their own Soul Skills or do we need to take their 'original ones'..?"
Song Weihan frowned light, not expecting the question, but still answered near immediately.
"Well, usually people use the original names as it's more convenient, but if you can fully link the new name and effect together, you could make your own name. Imagine the name more like a shortcut to activate the effect you want to achieve like saving someone's name in your Soul Communicator instead of remembering their number."
Song Weihan then looked at Sheng Feilong, seemingly understanding something.
"You don't like your new Soul Skill's name? Well, I guess the names of poisonous Soul Skills are all a bit weird, but before you decide on a new name, you should at least tell us about it." Hearing his words, Sheng Feilong sighed before speaking of the name in a low voice.
"The Purple Forest Witch called this ability.. P-Playing The Dumbo Game..."
Song Weihan's lips twitched as he furiously tried to suppress a laugh, but Sheng Lingtian didn't manage to do so in time and let out a weird snort before turning his head to the side. Sheng Feilong naturally noticed both of their behaviours and his face became slightly red. This name was just too much to take, even for him...
Song Weihan faked a cough before speaking up with a neutral voice again, still keeping his stoic poker face.
"Well, that really is a... peculiar name. I can understand why you would ask if it is possible to change it. Still, can you tell us what it does?"
Sheng Feilong frowned when he thought about what he got to know about this new Soul Skill. Although the name was ridiculously childish, the effects were the complete opposite.
"It's essentially a spiritual poison attack. Using my Spirit Power to create a seed of sorts, the Purple Forest Witch's poisonous nature takes over and infests the Spirit Power. After that, it works like a normal Spirit Attack, but it plants this poisoned seed inside the opponents mind and spirit source. It takes a few moments for the seed to bud, but once it begins, it slowly corrodes the spirit and mind of the victim... Honestly, it's even worse than normal poison and truly dangerous. If it fully corrodes a persons spirit, the bud will turn into a flower and their whole spirit will collapse, essentially turning them into vegetables, and in the worst case, they will die on the spot because they can't support their own cultivation anymore. That's what the Purple Forest Witch refers to as 'making people be dumbo'... The most terrifying thing, though, is that it's nearly impossible to detect and even harder to remove. Though, I can will it to dissipate as long as it hasn't turned into a flower yet."
When Sheng Feilong finished his explanation, Sheng Lingtian took a deep breath while even Song Weihan froze with a frown. He knew that the Purple Forest Witch's poison affected the spirit and mind of it's victims, but to apply it with a spiritual attack? This is too terrifying! With this, Sheng Feilong could basically kill any and all Soul Masters who had a weaker Spirit Power than himself without them even noticing!
Song Weihan then abruptly stood up and walked in front of Sheng Feilong. Frowning deeply he looked at the latter with an extremely solemn expression and spoke in a deep, authoritative voice while looking his disciple directly into the eyes as his aura pressed down on the whole room.
"Feilong, you must only use this Soul Skill if there's no other possibility. Even when fighting your enemies, you must never let the poison seed fully bloom; You can only use this technique to its full potential against Soul Beasts! Am I understood?"
Sheng Feilong shook slightly when he heard Song Weihan's voice. Although his Master liked to joke around, he was just as serious when it involved anything that couldn't be brushed off, but he had never seen this terrifying side of Song Weihan. There was no way to refute him, no way around accepting this order; This wasn't his caring Master speaking to him – This was a top-master of humanity, the Spirit Flamingo Douluo, Song Weihan, speaking to him!
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