In the Star Luo Empire, at the Zhu Family Mansion, within Zhu Zhuqing's room, she lay there with her eyes open, seemingly staring into nothingness for an extended period, traces of tears still evident on her cheeks.
After some time, as if awakening from a deep slumber, her expression remained somewhat blank.
Feeling the coolness on her face, she touched it gently, sensing the dampness on her fingertips, surprised by her own tears.
She couldn't remember the last time she cried. It seemed like she hadn't shed a tear since childhood.
She endured the bloody traditions of her family's alliance with the royal family, the revelation of being chosen as another heir with a bleak future, and even the departure of Dai Mubai from the capital without shedding a tear...
Even when her beloved older sister, who had been affectionate to her, turned cold and indifferent overnight after she awakened her martial soul at the age of six, she didn't show any weakness.
However, the dream she just had felt too real.
So real that she couldn't distinguish between what was dream and what was reality.
Those experiences, those memories, had already ingrained themselves deeply in her mind.
Zhu Zhuqing's expression grew solemn.
For a moment, she bore a striking resemblance to the Zhu Zhuqing who had reached the peak of the Douluo realm, possessed the Martial Soul of the Hell White Tiger, wielded great power, and was about to ascend to the throne of the Emperor of the Star Luo Empire.
"This dream..."
Her eyes narrowed, realizing there was a simple way to determine whether it was just an ordinary dream or not.
Martial Arts!
In the dream, disguised as her father Su Cheng, he taught her a miraculous martial art!
Zhu Zhuqing focused her mind, silently guiding the flow of soul power within her meridians.
This action was actually extremely dangerous for her at this moment.
She indeed remembered the method of operating the Nirvana Scripture, but she was not the Zhu Zhuqing of the past, who had reached the peak of the Douluo realm.
Although the insights were still there, most of the corresponding techniques required her to reach a matching realm before she could use them.
In other words, those insights could help Zhu Zhuqing adapt to her internal power quickly and unleash strength far beyond that of an ordinary person, even without encountering any bottlenecks during breakthroughs.
But it wouldn't instantly elevate her to the level of a peak Douluo, possessing their vision and abilities.
Without strength, talk of insights was just empty words.
Given her current state, she was obviously unable to perceive whether there were any flaws in this martial art.
After all, she was not like Su Cheng, who had a solid theoretical foundation.
However, Zhu Zhuqing completely ignored the risks at this moment.
As soul power circulated within her body, condensing and flowing through her meridians, gradually strengthening, her blood vessels underwent subtle changes and sublimation.
After completing one cycle of cultivation, Zhu Zhuqing's aura calmed down.
She opened her eyes, got out of bed silently, and went to the main hall.
Taking pen and paper, she began writing.
Before long, an entire page was filled with words.
Recorded on it were the methods of blood extraction and chronic potion brewing that Su Cheng had taught her earlier.
She wouldn't dare to produce the one-time blood potion.
Dai Mubai was, after all, the legitimate heir of the Dai family. If she blatantly took his blood, the consequences would be unpredictable.
But this chronic potion, which was recorded alongside the blood extraction method, had never crossed her mind to use on Su Cheng before.
Yes, in just that short moment, Zhu Zhuqing had made a decision.
She looked towards the direction of the Tian Dou Empire, her gaze calm without a hint of ripple.
"Since you dare not face the future, let me face it for you. As for the White Tiger Martial Soul of the Dai family, it's a waste on you. This is a fair trade. With your cultivation potential, you can at least exchange it for a way to survive, right?"
Zhu Zhuqing withdrew her gaze and carefully kept the manuscript close to her.
She recorded it just to prevent forgetting.
When she went to find Dai Mubai after making the potion, she would naturally destroy it.
"Next, let's go and talk to my older sister."
Zhu Zhuqing sighed inwardly.
Everything in the dream was no different from reality, except for one thing.
And that difference was the fundamental reason for all the changes.
Su Cheng.
In her original memory, there was no classmate named Su Cheng, nor did the Su family even exist.
But she subconsciously believed that this person must exist somewhere in this world.
And then there was Qian Renxue...
At the thought of this, her eyes flickered, her expression darkening slightly.
"Spirit Hall..."
The dream that lasted for more than twenty years had a tremendous impact on Zhu Zhuqing.
Although it didn't completely change her like Qian Renxue, who had developed a second personality.
But the subtle influence was enormous.
Moreover, as time passed, the effects derived from years of memories would continue to deepen.
...
In the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, in Su Cheng's room.
As Su Cheng slowly opened his eyes, the simulated memories of the world quickly merged into his mind.
Unlike the previous time, because this time was in free exploration mode, the acquired memories were even richer and fuller.
But for him, there wasn't much extra feeling, actually.
His true intentions remained unchanged, coupled with the self-preservation mechanism of the human brain, except for those deeply ingrained memories, a large amount of irrelevant information settled in the depths of his mind, having little effect on him.
[Mainline task reward settlement (settlement bonus: 87%; additional 25% floating in free exploration mode): External Soul Bone (True Vision Eye), additionally gaining the power of the source.]
Accompanied by a prompt, a distorted dark golden vertical line appeared out of thin air on Su Cheng's forehead.
At the same time, he felt his spiritual power rapidly draining at a terrifying speed.
More accurately, it was instantly drawn into the external soul bone on his forehead.
If someone were to look from the side at this moment, they would clearly see a faint golden light enveloping Su Cheng's head, with threads of golden light continuously converging towards the vertical line on his forehead and his eyes.
However, in just a few breaths, his spiritual power was depleted.
A severe headache and a sense of emptiness spread throughout his body, and even his vision darkened.
But then, waves of warmth flowed out from the external soul bone on his forehead, re-entering his sea of consciousness.
The spiritual power that returned became extremely concentrated and resilient.
The entire process went smoothly, without causing any discomfort to him.
At the same time, leveraging the insight of Sword Intent, it seemed that there was a light spot hovering above his sea of consciousness, but he couldn't touch it, only observe it from afar.
Su Cheng slowly opened his eyes, a bright white light flashing through them.
At that moment, the entire room seemed to flash brightly.
In his perception, it felt like there was an extra organ on his forehead, making him slightly uncomfortable, but he believed he would get used to it with time.
However, the appearance of this external soul bone only served as a side effect to help him further condense and enhance his spiritual power.
Su Cheng could clearly feel that his intuition in mid to short-range combat had been enhanced to an incredible extent.
He looked around, silently pondering.
"It should be the effect of 'True Vision.' The specific intensity will have to be gradually explored in future battles. Apart from that..."
The Eternal Sword appeared in his hand.
Su Cheng activated the True Vision Eye.
As he continuously poured his spiritual power in, a faint glow emanated from the vertical line on his forehead.
Su Cheng shifted his gaze to the Eternal Sword in his hand.
But what he saw was not the martial soul of the sword, but the three soul rings attached to it.
His perspective had completely changed.
The scenes presented in his eyes were no longer concrete objects, but strands of different energy and information fluctuations, emitting colorful lights and an indescribable pattern.
His first soul ring was obtained from a nine-hundred-year-old Earth Dragon, a soul beast with the ultimate earth attribute.
As his gaze further focused, the colorful world in his eyes suddenly turned black and white.
Only the first soul ring, which he was focusing on, shone with an earthy yellow light.
It was not the color of a hundred-year soul ring, but the light of the ultimate earth attribute.
Wrapped in the yellow light was a slender but indistinguishable figure.
As he continued to infuse spiritual power, the figure gradually changed and twisted, beginning to transform into another form.
At this moment, Su Cheng suddenly felt dizzy in his mind.
The faint golden vertical line on his forehead, which had been slightly open, suddenly closed, then became dim and dull.
It was only now that he realized in astonishment that in just that short moment, his spiritual power had been completely depleted!
It's worth noting that although Su Cheng's combat power far exceeded that of an ordinary Soul Emperor, this was by no means his strongest point.
With the nourishment of medicine and the tempering of Sword Intent, his spiritual power was still higher than his actual cultivation level by a large margin, not much weaker than that of a Soul King.
However, even so, it was still far from enough to support the consumption of True Vision Eye.
Not only that.
As he further sensed his own condition, he suddenly discovered that the simulator, which had been completely intact after the last simulation, was almost completely silent at this moment, leaving only a trace of extremely weak response.
Although Su Cheng was somewhat surprised, he was not panicked, pondering with furrowed brows.
"What does 'the power of the source' mean?"
The rewards for completing this task seem to far exceed his expectations.
This is not just based on his judgment, but also the current situation of the simulator, which indicates that this "True Vision Eye" is some kind of existence beyond normal standards.
However, with his current level, it is still difficult to fully explore its power.
As for the silence of the simulator, it is not a big problem.
He now needs to spend energy to digest and assimilate the gains from this simulation.
Whether it is the research on martial souls or the improvement of the Nirvana Scripture cultivation, it will take a lot of time.
Especially since he will need to use the Nirvana Scripture to achieve the fusion of his two martial souls in the future, he does not plan to start a new round of simulation in the short term.
However, after obtaining this True Vision Eye, he has some new ideas.
Although this thing consumes a lot when used, the special vision it provides is very helpful to him, and he can even use it to study the essence of soul rings.
In this way, his originally planned follow-up plans will also need some corresponding adjustments.
. . .
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