"Well, in my current state, there's no way I can do it," Yin said, scratching his head somewhat awkwardly.
"Tch! Keep bragging, go ahead and keep bragging. It's not like I can verify any of it," Xue Kai said with a face full of disbelief.
If Yin claimed to be a True Spirit Realm expert, Xue Kai might believe it with 70% or 80% of certainty. But if he said he could casually crush a True Spirit expert beneath his feet, Xue Kai wouldn't believe it even if he were beaten to death.
"It's normal that you don't believe me. After that great battle, it seems the spiritual energy in this world has thinned out quite a bit," Yin casually waved his hand through the air.
"Great battle? Which one?" Xue Kai asked curiously.
It's known that this continent has never been peaceful, with wars breaking out every day. But what kind of battle could thin the very spiritual energy of the world? That seemed almost terrifying to contemplate.
Yin shrugged, looking helpless, and said, "Hell if I know. I just said it instinctively. Perhaps when I find the rest of my soul fragments, I'll remember more."
As he spoke, Yin's originally semi-transparent spiritual body started to gradually become even more ethereal.
"Hurry up, inject a bit more inner strength. Don't be so stingy."
"I won't. Unless..."
"You want something in return? No problem. You're my junior, and your enemy is my enemy!" Yin swore, sounding as if, at that moment, he was no longer a soul fragment on the verge of disappearing, but a human being with flesh and blood.
"I'll believe you for now." Xue Kai contemplated for.a second before injecting more energy into the pendant. As long as it meant avenging his hatred, he would even be willing to make a deal with the devil himself.
As the saying goes, 'Anger is a wildfire, devouring everything in its path, leaving reason and morality as ashes in its wake."
As Yin slowly returned to his usual semi-transparent spiritual form, Xue Kai sneered. "You still claim you can crush True Spirit Realm experts underfoot? Now you can only even borrow inner energy from me, someone at the Fourth Level of Elementary Spirit Realm—oh, right! Why did I drop from the Ninth Level of Elementary Spirit Realm directly to the Fourth?! You better explain that to me clearly!"
Xue Kai realizing that the true culprit behind the severe loss of his strength after being injured was standing right in front of him, not giving Yin a chance to answer him as his body bent like a bow, and he lunged forward—but he passed straight through Yin's body.
A spiritual entity—how could a mortal body possibly come into contact with it?
"Haven't I already told you? I've only absorbed a part of the energy that flowed out of your body. Right now, you're in the Dormant Dragon Stage. The Dragon Soul lineage goes through this phase when it breaks and then reforms at the brink of life and death. It seems like you're at a disadvantage now, but the future benefits will drive the entire world crazy." Yin explained with a smirk.
"Dormant Dragon Phase?" Xue Kai asked, his mind racing.
"Exactly, it's pretty much what you're thinking," Yin nodded in agreement.
"What exactly does that mean, breaking down and reforming?" Xue Kai growled. If he could touch Yin right now, he would've given him a beating.
"The Dormant Dragon Phase, specifically, is due to the overwhelming unknown nature of the Dragon Soul lineage's primal power. Especially in critical moments between life and death, a temporary breakthrough has a certain probability of occurring, which can cause an upgrade in power. It's a method of self-preservation per se.
The primal power of the Dragon Soul lineage is too powerful, and awakening under such circumstances could lead to self-destruction. So, the only way to deal with it is to store this 'destructive force' and wait for the right moment to unleash it. That's why the secret technique sealed it inside your body. Once you're strong enough to control it completely, it will explode in full force," Yin explained.
'Control it? So, I need to re-cultivate to reach the True Spirit Realm?' Xue Kai thought to himself, that's no small feat.
But to his surprise, Yin shook his head repeatedly as if understanding Xue Kai's thought process, "You're seriously underestimating the potential of the Dormant Dragon Phase. You'll need to re-cultivate at least to the Third Level of True Spirit Realm before you can start properly controlling it. It might even be higher than that."
"Are you fucking with me?" Xue Kai swore angrily.
"Fucking with you? Thanks to the Dormant Dragon Phase, your speed of absorbing spiritual energy from the world can be increased by nearly fifty percent compared to ordinary people. Plus, because of the changes inside you, the maximum amount of true energy you can store in your body has doubled. This benefit will continue until you fully control the sealed power. And by the time that happens, your meridians will have adapted to this new flow.
Although you won't experience the same magnitude of enhancement as before, you'll still see a thirty percent increase from the original baseline. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—you think you're being screwed over? People would screw you over to obtain what you have!" Yin practically roared by the end of his explanation.
"Sounds pretty good, actually," Xue Kai muttered to himself as he processed the information, his mind swirling, 'This is... terrifyingly powerful.'
"Not just 'pretty good'—it's amazing! Back then, in order to ensure that more people from the Dragon Soul lineage could enter the Dormant Dragon Phase, we even... we even..." Yin suddenly clutched his head and crouched down, as if he had recalled something painful.
"Alright, enough about that," Xue Kai said, trying to comfort Yin.
He could vaguely sense that this memory was particularly painful for him.
Yin stood up, shook his head, and forced a smile, "Some jumbled fragments of memories are shifting in my mind, though I don't know exactly what they are. But they must be something from back in the day that I didn't want to face."
"Everyone has memories they'd rather not look back on," Xue Kai replied.
At that point, Xue Kai's thoughts shifted back to his own experiences.
"By the way, you said before that you'd cover for me if something happened, but right now, in your state, you're even weaker than I am. How does that work?" Xue Kai suddenly realized that, aside from learning about the Dormant Dragon Phase, he hadn't really gained any other advantages. And even without knowing the specifics, he could already vaguely sense improvements in his cultivation.
Hearing him, Yin gave him an incredulous look and raised his middle finger. "Right now, you don't even understand the Dragon Soul lineage, so how could you possibly fully utilize this power, the kind of power that once made the world tremble? Whatever you practiced before—forget it. As for me... I..."
"What do you have? Some ultimate martial arts?" Xue Kai's eyes lit up with excitement, ignoring Yin's gesture.
Yin scratched his head awkwardly and chuckled, "It seems like most of what I have is incomplete. The remaining complete manuals are all low-level techniques. But if you want to see them, I'll give them to you. However, my memory of the Dragon Soul's primal power cultivation is more complete, so you can rest easy about that."
With that, Yin's finger tapped Xue Kai's forehead, and a flash of silver light entered his mind.
Suddenly, Xue Kai found three martial techniques appearing in his consciousness.
"Let me give you these for now. They're just basic ones." Yin clearly wasn't ready to give him too much at once.
After a moment of silence, Xue Kai took a sharp breath and said, "You said these are low-level, entry-level techniques?"
"Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Yin replied casually.
"Are you kidding me? That Radiant Dragon Palm was the strongest technique of my clan, and the clan leader warned me not to attempt the fifth level unless I reached True Spirit Realm.
The highest our clan's techniques go is the sixth level. But here, you have an eighth-level technique! And the Azure Dragon's Sky-Cracking Claw and Dark Thunder Palm look even stronger than the Radiant Dragon Palm!" Xue Kai was so excited he almost started dancing around.
Martial arts in this world are ranked from First level to Ninth level, and above that, there are 'Sacred' and 'Heaven-defying techniques.'
In large sects, owning an Eight level martial technique could be considered the sect's ultimate treasure. As for Nine level techniques, they are said to be only accessible to individuals who have reached the Seventh Level of True Spirit Realm or above.
Sacred level techniques were extremely rare, only rumored to be in possession of those elusive True Spirit Realm experts.
As for Heaven-defying level martial arts, they are only ever mentioned in legends...
The Radiant Dragon Palm is only a Fourth level martial technique, yet in the Gasha Empire, it is still considered a top-tier technique.
'It seems that many things have been lost to time in this world,' Yin thought to himself.
His fragmented memories clearly recorded that the Radiant Dragon Palm was once the foundational skill of the Dragon Soul lineage, something that anyone below True Spirit Realm could train up to the Sixth Layer.
Of course, he wouldn't mention this to Xue Kai—right now, Xue Kai would likely not be able to handle such a shock.
"Alright, you can start practicing it now. You've inherited the Dragon Soul bloodline and entered the Dormant Dragon Phase. As long as you can, feel free to practice the Radiant Dragon Palm," Yin said, spreading his hands.
The rest would be up to Xue Kai's future growth; he could figure it out on his own. In a world where overall strength has declined so much, it's still better to keep a few things in reserve.
"Someone's coming," Yin suddenly said, turning around. It seemed like he could see the outside world through the tent.
"Who's coming?" Xue Kai was still trying to process the shock from their previous conversation.
Yin suddenly grinned mischievously. "Of course, it's the little beauty you've been meeting with. Kid, you're quite lucky. Looks like she's taken a liking to you. If you play your cards right, in a month, you should be able to have her, with just a little push from you."
"Ah?" Xue Kai was clearly stunned. He had never expected Yin to bring this up out of nowhere.
"I'll go in first. If you need something, just hold the jade pendant, channel some inner strength, and call out to me,"Yin said as he turned into a streak of white light and vanished into the jade pendant.
Meanwhile, the footsteps outside grew clearer.
Without greeting him, Luu Xiaoxuan walked straight into the tent.
Seeing Xue Kai sitting on the bed, she gave a slight smile and said, "Let's go. If we wait too long, we'll miss the start."
"Ah? But I haven't had dinner yet," Xue Kai said, feeling the gnawing hunger in his stomach. Earlier, to maintain his agility for the duel, he had skipped dinner.
After waking up, he'd spent all his time talking to Yin, missing even the opportunity to tidy up his room before it got too late.
Luu Xiaoxuan grabbed Xue Kai's arm and pulled him out of the tent, "There will be plenty of snacks at the Lantern Festival. I didn't have dinner either, so I'll treat you when we get there."
Inside the jade pendant, Yin, lying in the cramped space, chuckled, "You fool, when you've got such a stunning beauty like that, who needs dinner? Back in my day, I had thirty wives, and I'd switch between them every day—now that was enjoyable!"