"Relax your mind, close your eyes, and focus on visualizing your martial soul..."
In his thatched hut, Gu Ziyi sat cross-legged on a mat, trying to meditate and practice cultivation.
This meditation technique was taught to him by the village chief after returning.
This method was quite simple and didn't require memorizing meridian points or anything complicated, so Gu Ziyi quickly understood it.
It was also the most widely practiced meditation technique in the Douluo Continent, with a very high adoption rate.
However, to cultivate successfully, one still needed soul power.
Otherwise, even with meditation, there would be no effect!
Gu Ziyi had to wait three more months before he could attend the junior soul master academy, so the village chief didn't want him to waste this time. Therefore, he immediately passed on this meditation technique to Gu Ziyi.
Buzz—
Soon, Gu Ziyi once again experienced the scene of awakening his martial soul, and in his consciousness, he saw his martial soul.
However, unlike the symbols and various phenomena that occurred during his martial soul awakening, his martial soul now appeared as just an ordinary symbol in his mind.
"What is going on here?"
"Is it possible that my martial soul hasn't truly awakened yet and needs a second awakening?"
Gu Ziyi vaguely suspected that his martial soul should not be so ordinary.
However, he quickly calmed himself and decided to focus on practicing.
He focused on his martial soul, then placed all his attention on it, striving to achieve unity of body and soul, and finally used his martial soul to sense the outside world.
Perhaps because of his strong soul, Gu Ziyi soon achieved unity of body and soul and began to sense the external world through his martial soul.
A mysterious, magical sense of perception immediately opened up. Through his martial soul, Gu Ziyi could clearly sense the energy surrounding his body.
This was the first sign that Gu Ziyi was able to cultivate.
"Let's begin, absorb this energy!"
Gu Ziyi thought to himself, then imagined his martial soul breathing. The energy surrounding his body began to slowly be absorbed into him.
This was the most common and simplest meditation technique for cultivating soul power.
By absorbing external energy, Gu Ziyi could clearly feel his soul power increasing little by little.
The feeling of his soul power increasing was quite addictive.
Gu Ziyi lost track of time while meditating.
Eventually, when he felt an inexplicable saturation, he realized that his cultivation for today had reached its limit.
However, Gu Ziyi didn't stop and tried to continue.
But only a few minutes later, Gu Ziyi began to experience the exact opposite feeling from before.
Earlier, if the cultivation could be compared to eating, each bite would satisfy him, and he would feel happy and full.
But now, it was like continuing to eat after already being full. The happiness was gone, replaced by a feeling of discomfort. The more he continued, the worse it became.
"Enduring hardship leads to greatness."
Gu Ziyi quietly encouraged himself and continued for about another half hour.
"Ah..."
"I can't do it anymore..."
Gu Ziyi laid down on the mat and gave up on continuing his cultivation.
This saturated cultivation was too difficult and unproductive. It was not only painful, but also less effective, with the absorption rate decreasing more and more.
"It doesn't seem like I've cultivated for long... Maybe it's because my martial soul's quality is too low!"
Looking at the sky outside, Gu Ziyi sighed quietly.
Buzz—
But when Gu Ziyi summoned his martial soul and looked at the symbol floating in his palm, he was filled with excitement again.
No matter his innate talent, he had definitely gained extraordinary power.
"Starting tomorrow, I need to focus on physical cultivation as well!"
"Improving my physique will also speed up my soul power cultivation!"
While admiring his martial soul, Gu Ziyi began to devise a training plan for himself.
Thus, over the next three months, Gu Ziyi spent his time training.
He knew that his talent was poor, so he could only rely on his own efforts to cultivate. He practiced the meditation technique every day with saturated effort.
He would persist for as long as he could!
Physical training was also added to his daily routine.
At first, there was no obvious effect, but as Gu Ziyi's physique gradually improved through exercise, his cultivation results started to show.
The speed of his cultivation did increase a bit.
However, after three months, when Gu Ziyi reported to the junior soul master academy in the town, his soul power level was still only Level 1.
It was quite frustrating.
Gu Ziyi doubted that even if he studied at the academy for six years, he might not even reach Level 10.
No wonder in the original story, Tang San and Xiao Wu, upon entering Notting Academy, could become soul masters after absorbing a soul ring and easily defeat all the students, even those in the sixth year.
In the small town's junior soul master academy, few sixth-year students had even broken through to Level 10.
Gu Ziyi's town was called Liusha Town, and the academy he attended was called Liusha Junior Soul Master Academy, or simply Liusha Academy.
Gu Ziyi entered as a working-study student, needing to both study and work to earn money.
Upon arriving at Liusha Academy, he began learning and cultivating while also trying to understand the current world of soul masters.
He wanted to figure out where they were in the timeline of the original story.
"The current Pope of the Spirit Hall is Qian Xunji. Looks like it's still early in the timeline. Not even Tang San is here yet, and the Blue Silver Emperor probably hasn't even taken human form!"
Based on the information he gathered, Gu Ziyi quickly figured out the approximate time period.
He wasn't completely sure, as Liusha Town wasn't a major city, but he knew that at this point, Tang San definitely hadn't arrived yet.
This was good news for Gu Ziyi.
This meant he could seize some of Tang San's opportunities.
Especially the Heavenly Herbs, one of the greatest cheats of Douluo Continent.
They were exactly what Gu Ziyi needed, as they could help evolve his martial soul and improve its quality.
But for now, Gu Ziyi could only dream about them. With his current strength, he couldn't even get close to the Heavenly Herbs.
Until he reached a certain level of strength, he couldn't reveal the existence of the Heavenly Herbs. Even if he sought others' help, he needed to have sufficient power himself.
Otherwise, it would be like courting death!
Five years later.
In the small forest behind Liusha Academy:
"Whoo—"
"Finally, I've broken through to Level 10!"
After five years at Liusha Academy, Gu Ziyi had finally reached Level 10.
Considering his initial soul power level of 1, this was an incredible achievement.
Currently, only two sixth-year students at Liusha Academy had reached Level 10.
And those two students had a starting soul power level of 3, which was much higher than Gu Ziyi's.
Gu Ziyi's breakthrough was all thanks to his own hard work, maintaining his daily saturated meditation practice and physical training.
Of course, he didn't neglect the martial soul knowledge taught at the academy.
As a modern person, Gu Ziyi understood the importance of knowledge.
Though he considered himself to have better insight than people from Douluo Continent, he still needed to understand the details about martial souls.
He couldn't rely solely on the knowledge gained from the original work and anime, thinking that was enough.
But since Liusha Academy was only a junior academy, the knowledge they taught was limited.
However, as a mature transmigrator, Gu Ziyi would ask the teachers about anything unclear.
If the teachers didn't know, then he was stuck.
His boldness earned him the nickname "Gu Bold" among his classmates.
But Gu Ziyi didn't care and continued to do his own thing.
Thus, to the teachers and students at Liusha Academy, Gu Ziyi was unique—hardworking, eager to learn, and a model student.
He was the definition of the "perfect student"—a child everyone admired.
And with his good looks and unique charisma, Gu Ziyi started receiving love letters from girls from the third year onwards.
It seemed like children in Douluo Continent matured quickly.
Hmm... Gu Ziyi remembered that in his previous life, he also wrote his first love letter in third grade, asking his older sister to deliver it to the girl.
Well, it was the same, really!
But that was all in his past life. In this life, Gu Ziyi had no intention of starting a relationship early.
Girls would only slow down his cultivation.
"Now that I'm at Level 10, I can try out my idea!"
Gu Ziyi's eyes sparkled with a mysterious light.
After years of cultivation, Gu Ziyi was well aware of his cultivation talent. If he continued following the normal path, his progress would be very limited.
With his current strength, the Heavenly Herbs were out of reach.
So, Gu Ziyi planned to take a different approach.
Since he started cultivating soul power, Gu Ziyi had had a bold idea.
That was to create his own soul ring!