Douluo: Brains Over Bloodline

The academy's foundation?

Seeing Xu Yuan's puzzled expression, Lan Muzi quickly offered a brief explanation.

"Although it's generally assumed that the Spirit Pagoda is responsible for the development and research of soul spirit technology across the continent, in reality, all major factions have dabbled in soul spirits. After all, soul spirits are closely tied to soul masters themselves, and truly powerful soul masters must also possess an understanding of soul spirits."

There was no fault in what Lan Muzi said, and Xu Yuan nodded in agreement.

Something as vital as this—the lifeblood of soul masters—couldn't possibly be monopolized by the Spirit Pagoda.

At most, the Spirit Pagoda's monopoly extended to the market for ordinary soul masters, such as the allocation of ten-year, hundred-year, and even thousand-year soul spirits.

When it came to ten-thousand-year and hundred-thousand-year soul spirits, it was no longer something the Spirit Pagoda could fully control.

Of course, the most convenient and direct way to obtain ten-thousand-year and hundred-thousand-year soul spirits was still through the Spirit Pagoda. As long as one was under thirty years old, they could attempt the Soul Spirit Tower, climbing to the floors where ten-thousand-year or hundred-thousand-year soul spirits resided and fusing with them.

However, there was no doubt that something as crucial to top-tier soul masters as ten-thousand-year and hundred-thousand-year soul spirits couldn't remain solely in the hands of the Spirit Pagoda forever.

The development of soul spirit recovery technology was precisely for this reason.

Hundred-thousand-year soul spirits possessed extremely stable spiritual essences. With the aid of certain technologies, it was possible to preserve and recover the soul spirits of deceased soul masters.

Initially, even if a hundred-thousand-year soul spirit was preserved, it would suffer significant depletion of vitality. However, over time, it could recover.

Later, as this technology matured, it became possible to preserve soul spirits without any damage.

Of course, this still wasn't true maturity.

True maturity of this technology would only be achieved when all soul spirits could be recovered at low cost—a task that belonged to the Spirit Pagoda.

Even though artificial soul spirit technology had already matured, the competition for soul spirits remained fierce. Recovering existing soul spirits was undoubtedly easier than creating new ones.

Xu Yuan knew that in the original work, the Spirit Pagoda had released this technology.

At that time, it was part of Qiangu Dongfeng's efforts to divert public attention, suggesting that the Spirit Pagoda might have developed this perfected technology long ago.

As for why it hadn't been released earlier?

It couldn't be released.

If Shrek Academy and the Tang Sect hadn't been reduced to mere shells, and if the Spirit Pagoda hadn't reached its peak temporarily, Qiangu Dongfeng wouldn't have dared to release such technology.

Forcefully requiring all recovered soul spirits to be handed over to the Spirit Pagoda?

What about the secrets those soul spirits held during their fusion period?

Which faction would allow such a thing to happen?

And if they didn't enforce mandatory recovery?

Rare and powerful soul spirits were things no faction would allow to leave their control. They would simply ask the Spirit Pagoda to assist in recovery and then keep the soul spirits for themselves.

In this scenario, the Spirit Pagoda would either offend the vast majority of factions or engage in pure charity.

For the Spirit Pagoda, the former was unacceptable.

The latter might have some use, but only under special circumstances.

Aside from the Spirit Pagoda, other factions merely dabbled in soul spirit research, not delving deeply. Having non-damaging recovery technology was sufficient. As for the costs involved, as long as the value of the soul spirit itself was high enough, it didn't matter.

Shrek Academy had been passed down for ten thousand years. If it had consistently recovered the soul spirits of fallen powerhouses, the number of accumulated soul spirits…

Xu Yuan took a deep breath.

At the same time, he also understood the origin of the Spirit Pagoda's many hundred-thousand-year soul spirits.

They were undoubtedly the hundred-thousand-year soul spirits once fused by successive generations of Spirit Pagoda powerhouses.

If even dozens of unfused hundred-thousand-year soul spirits existed, how many hundred-thousand-year soul beasts must there be on the entire continent?

---

"Does our academy have hundred-thousand-year soul spirits?" Xu Yuan focused on this point.

Lan Muzi smiled. "Of course. The soul spirits of all past Pavilion Masters and Elders of our academy have been recovered. However, among them, the only soul spirit suitable for me was the one I've just fused. Before obtaining the Dark Yang Stone, I was far from reaching the ultimate yang attribute, so I couldn't fuse with this soul spirit. Fortunately, after obtaining the Dark Yang Stone, my martial soul evolved, my attributes transformed, and I gained the qualifications to fuse with it."

As he spoke, a fiery red spirit appeared beside him.

This spirit was composed entirely of pure fire elemental energy, without a trace of impurity.

Xu Yuan was astonished as he looked at it.

"This is a Fire Elemental Spirit, an artificially created soul spirit. Initially, it was considered a defective product by the Spirit Pagoda. However, after being obtained by one of our past Pavilion Masters, it continuously advanced, accumulating opportunities along the way. It absorbed large amounts of solar essence and was nurtured by the heavenly-forged sun-iron essence within that Pavilion Master's four-word battle armor, eventually evolving to the hundred-thousand-year level and gaining both the ultimate fire and ultimate yang attributes."

Xu Yuan gazed at this Fire Elemental Spirit with great interest.

It was a template for defying fate.

It was somewhat similar to Tang Wulin's Golden Light.

Though the upper limit of the Golden Light seemed higher.

Of course, the future of this Fire Elemental Spirit was still uncertain. Now that it had Lan Muzi as its new host, its potential might still increase further.

"This Fire Elemental Spirit has been recuperating deep within the Sea God Pavilion for over a thousand years. Although its cultivation hasn't increased, it has accumulated a vast amount of pure soul power, which allowed me to directly reach Level 93."

As Lan Muzi spoke, his face was filled with uncontrollable joy.

Anyone who gained two levels of soul power out of nowhere would be thrilled.

And this wasn't a forced or premature advancement.

The existence of a soul spirit was a form of pure fusion with a soul master. Its entire being could integrate into the soul master's body, and the soul power it carried naturally merged as well.

Of course, ordinary soul spirits typically didn't carry accumulated soul power upon contracting. Only soul spirits of ten-thousand years or more, having adapted to their state and stabilized their essence under special conditions, could achieve this.

Xu Yuan first congratulated Lan Muzi, then asked the question he was most concerned about.

"Big Brother, what hundred-thousand-year soul spirits does the academy have?"

"You're wondering if there's a suitable hundred-thousand-year soul spirit for you, right?" Lan Muzi easily saw through Xu Yuan's thoughts.

Any soul master, in this moment, would undoubtedly hope that the academy had a hundred-thousand-year soul spirit that matched them.

"Indeed, whether it's your spiritual power or physical condition, it seems you've already reached the level required to fuse with a hundred-thousand-year soul spirit."

Generally speaking, information about the academy's soul spirit inheritance was only disclosed to inner court students after they qualified to fuse with a hundred-thousand-year soul spirit. Then came the contributions and exchanges.

Recently, the academy had been busy with affairs, and Xu Yuan hadn't shown a strong need for this yet, so the academy hadn't paid attention to this aspect.

However, given Xu Yuan's status and contributions to the academy, if there were suitable soul spirits, he would absolutely be able to fuse with at least two of them freely.

Lan Muzi analyzed Xu Yuan's martial soul, about to name a couple of soul spirits that might suit him, but his expression turned conflicted.

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