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Seeing his uncle's actions, Xu Yuan recalled an idea he had once casually mentioned to him.
Since his martial soul was the Tianyuan Brush, when it eventually became purely a brush in form, perhaps it should be paired with a sheet of paper—a piece of paper on which it could freely write and paint.
"Uncle, you actually tried making a paper spirit soul?" Xu Yuan couldn't believe it.
It had only been a thought experiment at the time, and Xu Yuan himself knew that the chances of success were practically zero.
After all, unlike metal spirit souls, paper didn't have much potential for post-creation enhancement.
On the current continent, forging techniques had reached extraordinary heights. Metals could be crafted into spirit souls, even without the bloodline inheritance of spirit beasts. Through advanced forging techniques, the inherent potential of these spirit souls could be pushed to their limits, theoretically surpassing most spirit beasts.
But how could paper be enhanced after its creation?
That's why, after Xu Yuan initially proposed the idea, he hadn't even asked his uncle to pursue it further.
He hadn't expected that, even without his prompting, Xu Shengqun had independently approached researchers from the Spirit Pagoda's Spirit Soul Development Department, mobilizing a team to conduct research in Tianhai City.
The research had begun shortly after Xu Yuan completed his bloodline contract two and a half years ago.
Now, after this time, they had achieved results!
"The researchers from the Spirit Soul Development Department concluded that as long as the quality of the paper is high enough, they can artificially induce it into a living entity and transform it into a spirit soul. The challenge lies in not being able to determine what soul skills the spirit soul might provide or how it will improve over time—there's no prior experience."
These last two points weren't major issues.
After all, there had been no successful precedents for spear-type spirit souls either.
Moreover, if the material of the paper was of sufficiently high quality, the upper limit of the paper spirit soul wouldn't be low—it was just that its soul skills would remain uncertain.
"Has artificial spirit soul technology really become this advanced?" Xu Yuan was astonished. He hadn't realized that the Spirit Pagoda's artificial spirit soul technology had reached such heights.
As long as the material was good enough, even paper could be induced into becoming a spirit soul.
"It's not about having advanced technology—it's about being willing to invest heavily," Xu Shengqun corrected him. "Reducing the cost of artificial spirit souls still has a long way to go. But for individual cases, as long as the investment is large enough, almost anything is possible."
Inducing paper into a living entity?
Simple. Use plant-based spirit beast materials rich in vitality—materials derived from spirit beasts that are also considered rare heavenly treasures—and craft them into a sheet of paper.
Such paper would inherently possess faint traces of life force.
By inducing it with massive amounts of spiritual energy, maintaining its vitality, condensing a trace of essence, stabilizing its life characteristics, and transforming it into a spirit soul, everything would theoretically succeed.
A pay-to-win approach?
Xu Yuan was shocked. He stared at his uncle in disbelief.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
It was just a casual idea we tossed around—we hadn't even discussed it properly yet. Spending so much effort to create a paper spirit soul might not achieve the desired results.
The soul skills were already uncertain. Without thorough theoretical planning beforehand, the deviation from the expected outcome would likely be enormous.
"Am I the kind of person who acts impulsively?"
"But Uncle, you said there was a surprise, and it was related to a spirit soul." Xu Yuan sighed.
What a waste of emotional buildup.
Turns out the spirit soul isn't even ready yet.
Xu Shengqun smacked Xu Yuan on the head, exasperated. "Can you let me explain properly?"
Xu Yuan internally fumed.
If I don't react like this, you'd keep teasing me.
But if I do react like this, you get to smack my head.
Fine, fine. I'll remember this. Starting now, Operation Pressure Marriage and Childbearing begins.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—I'll return this favor a hundredfold. Future unborn cousin, don't blame me.
"I've actually spent the past two-plus years researching paper-making techniques."
Xu Yuan could only think, "Wow."
A Spirit Envoy, studying paper-making techniques.
"I was thinking, could I carve out a fragment of space for you and shape it into the form of a sheet of paper?" Xu Shengqun's bold statement startled Xu Yuan.
"Uncle, please don't mess around with this."
In this low-tier martial world of Douluo Continent, breaking space was one thing—but manipulating space like a lump of iron?
"Unfortunately, it seems no one on the continent can achieve that," Xu Shengqun sighed. "So I came up with this alternative: using spatial energy to condense paper, or mixing pure energy with spatial power to create paper, then turning it into a spirit soul. Later, when you evolve the spirit soul, you can open up a small pocket dimension within the paper spirit soul yourself."
Xu Yuan listened quietly as his uncle explained his wild idea.
The concept was ambitious, but could Douluo Continent's current technology make it a reality?
Even liquefying pure ambient energy was difficult, let alone solidifying energy into a tangible form.
While powerful soul masters could materialize their spiritual energy, that materialization referred to something tangible yet non-solid—it remained gaseous, capable of directly interfering with physical matter but not fixed in form.
"The Heaven Dou Continent has a Title Douluo known as the Paper Saint. Her martial soul is a sheet of paper that mutated to possess spatial attributes."
Huh!
Xu Yuan's attitude did a complete 180-degree turn.
There's potential here!
With just one sentence from Xu Shengqun, Xu Yuan realized that this wild idea might actually be achievable.
What was the most magical aspect of Douluo Continent?
Without a doubt, it was martial souls!
Even with all their power, soul masters couldn't truly condense their soul power or spiritual energy into a solid, physical form—it could become tangible, but not physically solid.
But martial souls could.
Martial souls weren't actual matter.
Yet, soul masters could manifest them as physical entities.
If a Title Douluo with a paper martial soul and spatial attributes were to assist…
"I've already had in-depth discussions with her. Theoretically, it's possible to temporarily condense energy into a physical sheet of paper. However, the duration would be unstable. It's unclear whether converting it into a spirit soul would stabilize its state, but this is undoubtedly good news," Xu Shengqun said.
"Indeed, this is great news," Xu Yuan's eyes lit up.
If he could really contract a paper spirit soul, the soul skills didn't matter—he only needed it to possess recording capabilities.
This would also help refine his development direction of inscribing runes with the Tianyuan Brush.
Though it offered no immediate practical benefits, Xu Yuan's mood was undoubtedly uplifted.
He and his uncle discussed spear techniques for a while.
"Good boy, you've already mastered the first three techniques of the Seven Forbidden Techniques so skillfully!" Xu Shengqun was amazed as he watched Xu Yuan demonstrate the first three moves of the *Seven Forbidden Techniques*.
The Seven Forbidden Techniques were self-created ultimate techniques by Yun Ming.
Receiving the inheritance of these techniques made Xu Yuan essentially a half-disciple of Yun Ming. This was part of the reward he received for achieving a perfect score in his first assessment.
Of course, it was only the first three techniques.
And even those took Xu Yuan over a year to barely grasp the basics. Now, after two and a half years, he had finally reached a modest level of proficiency.
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