Huo Yuhao started reciting the incantations for the equal contract. The magical circle beneath him glows a mystical golden light.
Jianxin lowered her head, Yin-Yang symbol on her head pressed against Huo Yuhao's forehead. A gentle and kind black and white light rippled from her body, laying bare her origin essence for Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao sensed Jianxin's intent, and slowly released his spiritual power, connecting their consciousness.
A dim golden glow emitted from Huo Yuhao's body.
"—Not as master. Not as servant."
"As equals, we share fate."
"Let the pact be sealed!"
The gentle black-white glow released from Jianxin's body turned into rings that engulfed Huo Yuhao. Jianxin's origin essence was completely compatible with his. There wasn't any rejection during the fusion process at all.
To Huo Yuhao's surprise, he didn't feel bloated because of Jianxin's origin essence. After he fused Jianxin's strength into his body, it quickly fused with his soul power.
Huo Yuhao closed his eyes, feeling the new surge of strength and energy flowing throughout his body.
He finally became a true Soul King, but with a more than a hundred thousand year old as his fifty soul ring! He began estimating his soul power rank.
Jianxin's physical body slowly collapsed, and her life aura slowly disappeared.
A brand-new red soul ring with three mysterious black-white patterns slowly rose from Huo Yuhao's feet, becoming a part of his Sharingan.
300,000 year old soul ring! Using a bit of one of the sealed origin essence of Skydream, Huo Yuhao helped advance Jianxin's cultivation at the last moment just like with Ice Empress.
Gold, Black, Black, Black, Red! Five unique and astonishing set of soul rings shone brightly.
Since Huo Yuhao told Bi Ji, Jianxin, and Qiu'er, especially since he needed Di Tian's help in perfecting the Spirit Soul Method, the rest of the Great Beasts now also know about the existence of Skydream and the others.
Huo Yuhao wasn't concerned about Di Tian and the others having strange thoughts about him. Qiu'er's premonition of him helping them on a path of Divinity and paradise for soul beasts was more than enough to deter them.
Although, he had a feeling that there was more to it than that. Especially when they would mutter about some "Lord". Was it the true ruler of the forest? An existence even above Di Tian?
Huo Yuhao decided to not think about it further.
"A million year old soul ring..."
Although they've already seen it before, seeing that golden soul ring again made Di Tian and the others feel all sorts of emotions.
Huo Yuhao let out a sharp breath and opened his eyes, changing into the Mangekyou Sharingan, and shockingly, a pair of crane wings pure white on one side, and pitch black on the other—unfolded from his back.
Ethereal and majestic, they shimmered faintly with light and shadow, strange and powerful undulations of soul power and Yin-Yang Qi exuded from his body.
A 300,000 year old External Soul Bone!
Soul bones are the new materialization of the soul beast's soul core given a new purpose. After death, they transform into the most distinctive parts of their former selves.
For example, for spiritual-type soul beasts, it is mostly the head; for strength-type, it is mostly the arms; for speed-type, it is mostly the legs, and for those with overall powerful abilities, it is the torso bone.
When a spirit beast of 100,000 years or more is hunted and killed, it will definitely drop a 100,000 year soul bone, and the dropped soul bone will always be a part that the killer does not possess unless the killer already has all six pieces of soul bones or unless this type of spirit beast can only produce soul bones from a fixed part.
In the case of Jianxin, she was classified as both spiritual-type and speed-type. However, she doesn't entirely lean towards being a spiritual-type so she couldn't produce a skull-bone.
So with all her will, she decided on gifting Huo Yuhao her wings.
If there was anything she loved, it was her wings that gave her the power of flight—to soar the skies freely.
Unfortunately however, after being severely injured by the Dark Devilgod Tiger, she couldn't fly for too long before her body gave out. Her damaged origin essence made sustained flight painful, and over the last few millennia, she had been grounded more often than not.
To gift her wings was to gift the symbol of her freedom.
As the black and white wings pulsed with spiritual resonance with his Sharingan, causing three magatamas to appear in each wing. On the white wing, three black magatamas slowly spun near the edge of the feathers, while on the black wing, three glowing white magatamas mirrored them in perfect symmetry.
And appearing behind Huo Yuhao in his spiritual avatar was Jianxin, not in his soul beast form, but in her human form.
Although she only exists as a soul, a Spirit Soul, she looked better and more vibrant than she ever had in life. Her black and white hair shimmered with ethereal light, and her cyan eyes held no trace of the resignation she once carried.
Now, she looked happy and joyful, unburdened by the dreadful, dark pain constantly gnawing within her.
With a gentle smile, she wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered:
"Thank you, Yuhao.... You gave me another chance in life. And in accordance with our contract, I will fight with you."
"Soar with me... As we battle through the heavens!"
Huo Yuhao stood silently for a moment, his gaze distant. Then he nodded solemnly.
"We will...." Huo Yuhao muttered, smirking.
From this moment on, Huo Yuhao had truly become a Soul King! Specifically a rank 57 Soul King, a result of an amount of soul power accumulating within him for a while and Jianxin's own soul power as well.
Truth to be told, Huo Yuhao never really cared about any sort of soul skills he'd get for his Sharingan.
Since he unlocked his Mangekyou Sharingan, his combat skills are top notch to the point he could battle against people much stronger than by more than two large realms in cultivation.
As long it was compatible and was a bit useful, like enhancing his spiritual soul skills—that was good enough.
"Well, it looks like the ritual was successful," Di Tian commented as he analyzed both Huo Yuhao and Jianxin closely.
"Jianxin, are you feeling well? Any feeling of discomfort?" Bi Ji worriedly asked as she, the other Great Beasts, and Qiu'er stepped forward to observe the situation closer.
Jianxin shook her head. "No. In fact, I feel better than I have in thousands of years."
She raised her hand, flexing her fingers as faint black and white light shimmered across her skin. "My consciousness is clear, Aunt Bi Ji. My origin essence is stable. There's no pain—no decay. I feel whole again!"
Qiu'er stared at her, with her three eyes glowing.
"....Aunt Jianxin's right. Her condition is stabilized and I don't see any sort of corruption in her spirit."
Bi Ji exhaled in relief, her stern expression softening. "Good. That's very good..."
"Oh! Oh! What are the soul skills you got from Aunt Jianxin?" Qiu'er curiously asked, sitting beside Huo Yuhao.
Huo Yuhao smiled, stroking her head. "I have four soul skills in total; two from her soul ring and two from her soul bone."
"Oh, he has two more soul skills available when he breaks through to rank 60. Unfortunately however, if I had practiced more techniques, I could've granted you three soul rings." Jianxin added, sighing deeply.
"Well? What are they? I haven't seen Aunt Jianxin spar with anyone before so I don't know what kind of abilities she has!" Qiu'er pleaded.
Huo Yuhao nodded and told her the soul skills he got.
From Jianxin's soul ring, the soul skills were:
[1st: Absolute Yin - Silent Bloom: A delayed-cast ability that plants a spiritual "seed" in the enemy. After a few moments, it explodes into binding chains of cold light that slows down their perception to a snail's pace and inevitably causes the target's brain to shut off. It was like a mental poison, that if not treated immediately, it would cause irreversible damage.]
[2nd: Absolute Yang - Solar Bloom: Temporarily boosts user's strength, speed, and soul power output by 200%. Their aura becomes radiant, burning foes on contact. Moreover, whenever they use close quarter combat, waves of burning kinetic force are released with each blow. The faster the motion, the more explosive the result—to the point the explosive power could even blast a huge mountain in a single blow.]
From her External Soul Bone, they were:
[1st: Five Elements - Yin-Yang Convergence: Absorbing heaven and earth energy, the five elements(fire, water, earth, wind, lightning) and Yin-Yang Qi from the atmosphere, the user enters a transcendent state. In this state, the user can freely manipulate the five elements in perfect balance, amplified and harmonized through the duality of Yin and Yang. This fusion not only enhances the destructive power of elemental attacks, to the point of elevating them to Pseudo-Ultimate, but also enables paradoxical control—like freezing fire, igniting water, or grounding lightning through wind—becoming an avatar of the five elements and two.]
[2nd: Saint Crane Domain: A domain that was created when the Yin-Yang Saint Crane, Jianxin, was in despair from not being able to fly freely. Upon activation, the world is transformed into an endless sky at twilight—one half bathed in pale Yin moonlight, the other scorched by golden Yang sunlight. Within this domain, gravity is nullified for the user and allies, while enemies are forcefully grounded by invisible spiritual weight, their souls unable to rise.
Feathers of Yin slow time and blur perception. Feathers of Yang pierce defenses and burn with radiant purity. Huo Yuhao becomes a divine reaper of the sky, soaring freely while all others are chained below—mirroring Jianxin's sorrowful ascension.]
Thinking about it for a moment, Huo Yuhao decided to call the external soul bone as—"Sorrow and Salvation of Heavenbound Wings" — in tribute to Jianxin.
Qiu'er's eyes sparkled. "So cool!"
"It's been a while since I faced Jianxin's abilities, let's see if you can use them well." Zi Ji muttered, a complicated look in her eyes.
Scarlet King crossed his arms, studying Jianxin with narrowed eyes. "I'll admit, I had my doubts... but she doesn't look like an enslaved soul bound to a human, nor a vengeful spirit like the ones I've seen from those Evil Soul Masters. She looks like herself."
"She is herself," Huo Yuhao replied, voice calm but firm. Not wanting to create any sort of misunderstanding from the soul beasts. "That's the point of the Spirit Soul Method. Not control. Not dominion. Just...an equal contract between two partners."
"A spirit soul provides soul skills and if they're powerful enough, they could provide another soul ring or two for the soul master so they don't need to hunt another soul beast for a while or never, depending on the soul master's cultivation.
Moreover, the spirit soul could even resurrect if they have the right compatible body or even be transferred to another human if they want to. The soul beasts on the verge of death would greatly benefit from this."
"And if we perfect the method further, the spirit soul could even continue to cultivate without the risk of Heavenly Tribulation. A method where everyone wins."
Di Tian gave him a long look, "...Is this part of the plan? The plan to help soul beasts? This method would—"
"—It would only work in a short period, well, in terms of soul beast lifetime that is." Huo Yuhao interrupted, his face in a serious expression. "Don't underestimate human greed. People would want power for many things, and most of the time it's mainly to show off."
"Tell me, how many hundred thousand year soul beasts are there? And how many would willingly accept a human? One day, there would be some extremely genius soul masters out and they wouldn't be kind. By that time, technology would likely even advance to the point it could kill Titled Douluos with ease."
"Moreover, you understand clearly that humans would outnumber soul beasts one day."
"...."
Huo Yuhao's expression softened. He stroked Qiu'er's fur with a gentle smile. "However, don't worry. When my plan begins, the whole world will change."
"For all humans and soul beasts, there will be peace."