Douluo: Brains Over Bloodline

Xu Yuan spent a full seven days battling within the Intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform.

After exiting the platform, he immediately contacted Xu Shengqun via soul-guided communication.

"Hello?"

"Uncle, quickly replenish the soul beasts in the Spirit Ascension Platform."

"Huh?"

Xu Shengqun's voice on the other end of the line was filled with confusion.

"Because of some... minor reasons, the total number of soul beasts in the Intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform has noticeably decreased. I think you should find a way to replenish their numbers. Otherwise, it wouldn't be fair to other soul masters entering the platform, right?"

Although Xu Shengqun didn't fully understand the details, he still reluctantly went ahead to contact the person in charge of the Spirit Ascension Platform.

After resolving the matter, he arrived at the room where Xu Yuan was staying.

At this moment, Xu Yuan was resting with his eyes closed, recovering his energy.

Spending seven days in the Spirit Ascension Platform shouldn't have had much of an impact, even though his spirit and body had been separated for that time. The Spirit Pagoda had tested and determined this duration as safe—it wouldn't cause discomfort to either the body or the soul.

However, due to repeatedly using his essence, energy, and spirit to merge with the platform's space, Xu Yuan had been heavily assimilated by it, causing a slight disconnect between his willpower and his physical body.

Fortunately, this minor issue wasn't significant. After circulating his cultivation technique for a few cycles, Xu Yuan resolved it.

"What exactly did you do, kid?"

Upon seeing Xu Yuan, Xu Shengqun first closed the door and blocked all surveillance before starting his inquiry.

Xu Yuan didn't hide anything and explained how he had enhanced his soul rings within the Spirit Ascension Platform.

"..."

Xu Shengqun fell silent.

"You're really just like your father."

So, you've managed to uncover the bug in the Spirit Ascension Platform and even found a way to improve the quality of spiritual energy?

It wasn't necessarily that Xu Zhi lacked the ability to achieve these things back then—it was more likely that the conditions weren't right. After all, Xu Zhi was just an ordinary person.

"I thought you already had all ten-thousand-year soul rings. What use would spending two months in the Intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform serve? Now I see I overthought it."

Xu Shengqun had originally planned to apply for access to the Advanced Spirit Ascension Platform for Xu Yuan.

Gaining access to the Advanced Spirit Ascension Platform was extremely difficult—almost impossible at this point. Even if they applied now, it would take at least two to three years to get in line.

He wasn't planning to use it for Xu Yuan immediately but intended to secure it for him in two or three years.

But now, it seemed Xu Yuan no longer needed it.

"It's just that I happened to be skilled in this area."

Xu Yuan credited his experience with the 'Seal' character rune and the Five Elements runes for his deeper understanding of willpower.

"By the way, Uncle, do you know where the Spirit Pagoda gets its spiritual energy?" He hadn't forgotten to ask about the source of the spiritual energy.

Xu Shengqun shared what he knew.

"I do know a bit about it. The spiritual energy comes from a small fragmentary space, similar to the mini-world you visited in Dragon Valley. It's another small world attached to Douluo Star, but it's likely a fragment of a larger space. Even as a fragment, this small space is incredibly strong. Though it can't independently form a self-sustaining cycle, it's quite stable. After attaching itself to Douluo Star, it formed a relatively stable cycle under the influence of Douluo Star's natural laws. With the help of the Spirit Pagoda's personnel, the production of spiritual energy became sustainable—but the output efficiency is strictly limited."

Xu Shengqun knew quite a bit, though he didn't touch on the core details.

"The more specific details, I'm not aware of. That's probably a secret only known to those who have been in charge of this project for generations and the Tower Master."

Xu Yuan nodded slowly.

This information was enough.

"So, the spiritual energy comes from a fragmentary world."

A fragment? A fragment of what?

Xu Yuan already had an answer in mind.

It was likely a fragment of the divine realm.

After all, Xu Yuan was well aware that the divine realm had been swept away by a temporal turbulence. Perhaps there were fragments broken off during the chaos.

Moreover, before the turbulence, there had been a great battle. Maybe parts of the divine realm were shattered during the conflict.

In any case, the likelihood that this fragmentary space originated from the divine realm was very high.

Xu Yuan believed that the higher-ups of the Spirit Pagoda also had sufficient suspicions about the origin of this fragmentary space.

They couldn't have failed to investigate its origins or neglected attempts to master artificial methods of replicating spiritual energy.

For now, it seemed the Spirit Pagoda still lacked the ability to artificially replicate spiritual energy and could only rely on the output from this fragmentary space.

---

Two months later.

Xu Yuan's routine was consistent: seven days in the Spirit Ascension Platform, followed by three days of rest.

Repeating this cycle six times, he not only achieved his goals but surpassed expectations.

Since he could absorb all the spiritual energy and perfectly convert it into soul ring durations, Xu Yuan's efficiency was remarkably high. Each seven-day session in the platform yielded approximately one hundred thousand years of spiritual energy.

This meant he had to hunt soul beasts with a combined total of fifteen thousand years of cultivation every day. In the Intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform, this equated to hunting around three five-thousand-year soul beasts or two eight-thousand-year soul beasts.

The Spirit Ascension Platform simulated the layered ecosystem of the Great Star Dou Forest—it wasn't a challenge space like the Soul Spirit Tower. Each soul beast required significant time to locate.

Xu Yuan's hunting and searching efficiency was exceptionally impressive.

Considering he hunted continuously for seven days straight, the total number of soul beasts with cultivation exceeding five thousand years was limited. Xu Yuan essentially scoured the entire Intermediate Spirit Ascension Platform every seven days. The three days of rest weren't just for him—they were also for the platform to recover.

After six cycles, the accumulated six hundred thousand years of spiritual energy were distributed across Xu Yuan's sixteen soul rings. Each soul ring gained nearly forty thousand years of additional duration.

Unfortunately, despite such a massive increase, none of Xu Yuan's soul spirits broke through to the ten-thousand-year mark.

Not only that, but they were still quite far from reaching ten thousand years. The highest among them was Phantom Star (Huan Xing), which, after adding the forty thousand years gained this time, only reached seventy thousand years.

Even so, Xu Yuan's soul spirits had experienced a multi-fold enhancement.

And not just double.

Yao Yao, Jue, and the Paper Spirit Shan He had tripled or even quadrupled their growth.

The advancement of his soul spirits naturally boosted Xu Yuan's spiritual power as well.

Two months ago, when his pent-up emotions were finally released, Xu Yuan's spiritual power had already loosened. After the first session in the Spirit Ascension Platform, he broke through to the advanced stage of the Spirit Abyss Realm.

During the subsequent five sessions, each time felt like a complete rebirth.

Now, after two full months, Xu Yuan's spiritual power had increased by a full two thousand points!

At this rate, he might reach the peak of the Spirit Abyss Realm within half a year, ready to make a push for the Spirit Domain Realm at any moment.

Of course, reality wasn't so straightforward. Rapid growth brought with it a sense of unfamiliarity with newfound strength.

More importantly, Xu Yuan had already consumed an enormous amount of spiritual energy over the past two months.

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