Huo Yuhao clenched his fist, holding back his excitement and went deep in thought.
This was a great opportunity for him. With Jianxin using sacrifice for him, his overall combat power would improve significantly. However, he held a bit of doubt that she was compatible with him.
So, he straightforwardly asks her.
"...Miss Jianxin, I wish to ask you a question."
"Very well. I shall answer your questions as best as I can," Jianxin softly replied.
Huo Yuhao nodded and asked, "Miss Jianxin, the records I've read about your species are simply too few and incomplete. I need to understand—how compatible are you with my martial soul; my eyes, the Sharingan?"
A surprised look flashed across Jianxin's eyes. "Ah, you truly are different from others, Huo Yuhao. Most would jump at the offer of a sacrifice without thinking it through. You've got a good head on your shoulders, good boy."
'Good boy?' Huo Yuhao wryly smiled. This was first time—ah, no, wait. Ma Xiaotao did call him that before, didn't she?
After what he went through and absorbing his past lives' memories, he sometimes forgets his real age.
Jianxin hummed, she tilted head. "Hmm. I'm sure compatibility wise in attributes shouldn't be a problem. If it isn't obvious already, my attributes are Yin and Yang—the most mysterious and difficult elements in the world to comprehend. From what I understand, both Yin and Yang are universal laws — concepts similar to Destruction, Life, Space, and Time that exist across multiple planes of existence like ours."
"Yin represents stillness, cold, concealment, and femininity—often linked with the moon, water, and shadow. Yang, on the other hand, embodies heat, motion, brightness, and masculinity—linked to the sun, fire, and light."
She gently brushed a strand of hair behind her ear, continuing, "In a surface level, my soul ring and soul bone are compatible with those with the elements of water, ice, darkness, fire, and light."
"The truth is however, is that I'm extremely compatible with those with a spiritual-type body martial soul. And coincidentally, you fit the requirements—moreover, your body seems special as well. I'm... honestly speechless with how compatible my soul ring and soul bone could be with your martial soul."
Huo Yuhao, Bi Ji and Qiu'er were all surprised by her statement.
Qiu'er silently squinted her eyes, an uncomfortable feeling stirred in her heart.
"Not many know this, but the law of Yin also embodies spiritual energy while Yang is physical energy. So in essence, your martial soul—being rooted in spiritual power and part of your body—aligns perfectly with both aspects of my Yin and Yang." Jianxin said.
Huo Yuhao's eyes shone with realization. 'It's just like the Yin and Yang release in Indra's world!'
Yin Release and Yang Release are two natures that exist outside the five basic elemental natures of that world. Yin Release uses spiritual energy and Yang Release uses physical energy, which are the two components of chakra. This in turn means that all jutsu that utilise chakra are at least distantly rooted in Yin–Yang Release.
Which was the main basis he used when creating the Heavenly Tempering Soul Technique.
By that analysis, Jianxin was certainly the most compatible to him!
However....
Huo Yuhao looked up at Jianxin directly in her eyes.
Though she looked calm with a faint smile, Huo Yuhao could see something deeper.
Beneath the serene expression and gentle reflection in her cyan colored eyes, was resignation.
For thousands of years, she'd been inflicted by a severe wound that not even Bi Ji, the greatest healer possibly in the entire world, and years of recuperation could erase. The damage to her origin essence wasn't something time could fix.
Her cultivation had stagnated, her hopes of living a longer life were dashed.
Moreover, instead of dying with dignity to face her Heavenly Tribulation, she was going to sacrifice herself for a human she had just met.
Of course, she has a choice to not do it—
But she was going to do it anyway, mostly because of the debt she feels she owes towards Bi Ji for helping alleviate her injuries and to the other Great Beasts in the Star Dou Forest for keeping powerful soul masters from finding her.
Before she was injured, besides being known to bring peace and harmony to everything around her, Jianxin was also an incredible fighter. She had lived to be more than a hundred thousand years old without relying on anyone else.
At her prime, even Di Tian would have to face her seriously.
''Hmm. It just doesn't feel right. I understand clearly how life can be extremely unfair, fucking Gods, but to just give up like this...'
'I don't like it.' Huo Yuhao narrowed his eyes. But he quickly calmed himself. Never give in to your emotions, that was the tabbo of being an excellent shinobi.
Think logically first and foremost, and turn this situation.... into an opportunity!
"Miss Jianxin. If... If you had a chance to survive and live for how much you wish for, would you take it?" Huo Yuhao slowly asked.
Jianxin, Bi Ji and Qiu'er were taken aback. What is this guy planning?
Bi Ji furrowed her brows. "Huo Yuhao. What do you mean—"
"Yes, I would." Jianxin interrupted her, replying without any hesitation on her face.
"Huo Yuhao, you and any other normal humans out there might not understand it, but living for so long as us soul beasts doesn't make us unafraid of death, on the contrary, we've become terrified of it."
"Especially when you've spent hundreds of thousands of years surviving, fighting, healing.... only to feel your end creeping closer, slow and inevitable."
Her voice was calm, but each word weighed heavily in the air.
"You cherish life more when you've lived this long. The fear doesn't fade—it deepens. And when your time runs out, when even your strength, pride, and the respect you've earned can't change your fate… that's when despair seeps in. That's where I am."
She smiled, but it didn't reach her eyes.
"So yes. If you're asking me if I'd want to live, to have even a sliver of hope... of course I would."
"Even if it means losing your physical body, even temporarily?"
"Then it's fine. As long as I'm not enslaved?" Jianxin tilted her head. A certain glint flickered in her eyes.
"No, it's nothing of such sort."
Huo Yuhao shook his head, his turned expression serious.
"I have a method that would help you live longer and even make a breakthrough to your cultivation, however, this method would only work if you link your soul with mine—that means using sacrifice, but different in a way."
Bi Ji, the oldest one among them, frowned and asked. "What kind of method are you talking about?"
"It's better that I show you," Huo Yuhao's eyes changed into the Sharingan, soul rings appeared beneath his feet. The three black soul rings with red hues naturally attracted their attention for a moment before turning towards his first soul ring—a bright white soul ring with dim golden markings all over it.
A ten year old soul ring, seeing it among much more impressive colored soul rings made the girls doubt themselves for a moment of its appearance.
So far they've known of Huo Yuhao, he was a talented soul master that could make the entire elite forces of Shrek Academy stage a rescue operation for him.
Although seeing him have three black soul rings, which looked as if they were on the verge of becoming a hundred thousand years old red soul ring, while being a Soul Ancestor is very shocking—it wasn't as astonishing as seeing him have a ten year old soul ring.
'No wonder Qiu'er had a premonition of this human helping soul beasts find salvation, his talent might be unparalleled in the entire world.' Both Bi Ji and Jianxin thought.
However, what they didn't expect, was the complete change of the white soul ring to brilliant golden light in the next moment!
It pulsed—gently at first, then with a radiant authority that made the space around it tremble faintly. The golden hue deepened, intricate runes appearing and rotating slowly around the soul ring like orbiting stars.
"That is—?!" Bi Ji, Jianxin, and Qiu'er went to their feet, or paws, and were all utterly shocked.
That color, this pressure that could make even hundred-thousand year old soul beasts shudder—!
"Aunties! Is that what I think it is?!"
"A million year old soul ring..."
"My Lord! How? Is it an illusion? No, I don't sense a fluctuation of spiritual power... What is this sorcery?!"
'A million year old soul ring... How-No, the important question is which soul beast is this from? It can't be any land soul beast, they would've announced their presence to us and especially to the Lord.'
'Then is it from the Ocean? But it doesn't seem to emit any presence in the ocean. I can't think of—' Bi Ji paused.
"Huo Yuhao.... This soul ring...?"
Huo Yuhao nodded, confirming her suspicion. "This soul ring came from the first Iceworm in history to have ever broken through the mark of 1,000,000 years old."
He then used a Genjutsu right in front of their eyes to generate the memories of him meeting Skydream and becoming an intelligent soul ring. He also added in the scene of Ice Empress fusing with him to become his second martial soul.
Of course, he didn't show the interactions he had with Indra and Electrolux. Those two are his most guarded secrets, as they were remnant souls from another world that would even entice Gods to find them.
Huo Yuhao confidently said. "What I propose to Miss Jianxin here, is a method that would let her live on an existence similar to an intelligent soul ring and achieve immortality when I ascend to Godhood."
During the journey here, Huo Yuhao took a look around in his second spiritual sea, having sensed that Electrolux had left something for him. Inside were two items;
First, there was a mysterious silvery orb with a note that read: "Memory Codex, touch it".
And of course, Huo Yuhao touched it.
Immediately after that, a series of information about magic; Necromancy, Light Magic, etc. poured into Huo Yuhao's brain. It was almost all the accumulated knowledge that Electrolux had gathered over his entire lifetime as the Calamity Necromancer and even when he was the Scion of Light.
Spell structures, formation diagrams, soul theories—even fragmented memories of battles across planes flooded Yuhao's mind in an instant. And with his high spiritual power, he easily absorbed them.
And then he understood: this "Memory Codex" wasn't just knowledge—it was a legacy. A fail safe, in case Electrolux and Indra wouldn't come back.
Secondly, was a "key" or specifically several incantations that would open up the gate of the Spectral Demiplane: a spatial dimension that Electrolux opened on his own. It wasn't as stable as a main dimensional plane like the Douluo Planet.
More simply put, the spectral demiplane was like a dimensional plane that was formed using pure energy.
Within this Demiplane, there was no life. There were only undead creatures according to the memory codex. Unfortunately however, it didn't offer much more information. Since it wasn't the appropriate time to check it out, Huo Yuhao wasn't able to learn more about it.
From the memory codex, Huo Yuhao skimmed through a certain topic. The Summoner magic system, it was here where the spell, Blood Contract, that he used on Xiao Dong could be found and many more.
He briefly skimmed through it, and he found that Electrolux had placed new notes—about his findings about Skydream, Ice Empress, Snow Empress, and the "Sacrifice" ability that only soul beasts know about—he likely asked about it from those three.
From his own research and development, he created a theory. A method that soul masters like Huo Yuhao could use that would create an alliance between humanity and soul beasts.
"I can't claim this credit. My teacher made it, well, the theory of it that is. It isn't complete yet, but it's close enough that I, with the help of someone, can complete it. He called it..."
"The Spirit Soul Method."
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4/5 chapters of the week