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After Yun Ming took him as a disciple, Xu Yuan followed his instructions and went to Sea God Island every day to practice the last three forbidden techniques under his guidance.
"The first three techniques—after Teacher Mu Ye unintentionally pointed out the role of willpower in the three forces, I quickly found the trick and mastered them."
Within the dream realm, Xu Yuan sat cross-legged.
This was almost unheard of before.
Whenever he entered this space, Xu Yuan would typically focus on theoretical deductions or completing learning tasks. Rarely did he sit cross-legged and meditate with his eyes closed.
Meditation within the dream realm offered no accelerated effects. Once he entered the meditative state and connected with his martial soul, using it as a bridge, all time flow reverted to the dimension of his physical body.
But now, Xu Yuan closed his eyes—not to meditate, but to train.
The last three forbidden techniques.
Integrating essence, energy, and spirit into heaven and earth.
Unable to integrate with the external world, Xu Yuan chose to experiment within the dream realm.
This dream realm was neither fully real nor entirely illusory. Though created from imagination and lacking physical form—not even qualifying as a small space—it wasn't completely fake either. Xu Yuan had indeed stored vast amounts of real-world energy, transformed from solid to virtual, within this realm.
In this dream space, Xu Yuan couldn't claim omnipotence, but he could easily control the energy within it.
"Rather than calling it control, it's more like manipulation."
Xu Yuan experienced numerous insights.
In the past, he was the sole lifeform, the sole master, and the creator and ruler of this space. He could freely manipulate everything within it without any restrictions, which was indistinguishable from control.
However, now that he was attempting to infuse his spiritual power into this space, his perception immediately changed.
This—this was true control!
The space is in my hands!
At this moment, I am the master of this space!
After infusing his spiritual power, Xu Yuan began to gain preliminary control over the space.
Next, he infused his soul power, attempting to merge it with the dream realm.
Then came his blood and qi.
The dream realm was created by Xu Yuan's soul skill, so his willpower naturally allowed him to utilize spiritual power and soul power within it. However, controlling blood and qi had always been impossible.
In the past, even when he transformed his blood energy into a virtual form and stored it in this space, it behaved similarly to other energies being virtualized.
But now, during his experiments, Xu Yuan noticed a change.
His blood and qi was permeating into this space.
Blood and qi—infused!
With essence, energy, and spirit fully integrated into the dream realm, Xu Yuan felt his consciousness expand infinitely, and his senses underwent a profound transformation.
At this moment, he was no longer human.
"It's as if I've become the master of this space, and this space has become a part of me."
Immersed in this strange yet novel sensation, Xu Yuan gradually became entranced.
Coming back to his senses from the feeling of control, Xu Yuan assessed the changes within himself.
"My soul power has broken through."
Over the past year, Xu Yuan's soul power had risen from Level 32 to Level 36 and was on the verge of breaking through to Level 37.
Just now, while integrating essence, energy, and spirit into the dream realm and becoming absorbed in it, his soul power unconsciously broke through, reaching Level 37!
"My spiritual power..."
He hadn't tested it yet, but Xu Yuan could feel that his spiritual power must have grown significantly.
Even though prolonged immersion in the dream realm had drained his spiritual power, he instinctively knew that his spiritual power had increased substantially.
After meditating to recover, he conducted a test.
'4005'!
Seeing the number on the spiritual power tester, Xu Yuan smiled.
At the same time, he let out a sigh of relief.
If his soul power broke through to Level 40, and he didn't want to be held back, he would need to immediately fuse a new soul spirit. A thousand-year soul spirit was acceptable, but he hoped to directly fuse a ten-thousand-year one.
However, to fuse a ten-thousand-year soul spirit on top of his two existing purple thousand-year soul spirits, his spiritual power needed to reach 5,000 points—the Lingyuan Realm!
The Lingyuan Realm was like an abyss or prison, encompassing both heaven and hell. With intention, all things returned to the heart. It represented the pinnacle of normal human potential and formed the foundation for becoming a powerful individual. At this level, spiritual power could support an orange or red soul spirit!
If he fused an orange or red soul spirit, the remaining soul spirit fusions would equate to the Linghai Realm. If he didn't fuse an orange or red soul spirit, he could absorb up to five black or lower-tier soul spirits—even five black soul spirits wouldn't exceed his capacity.
Before this training session, Xu Yuan's spiritual power was only at 3,500 points—a mere 1,000-point increase from a year ago. His soul power was still about a year away from breaking through to Level 40.
If he increased by another 1,000 points, he'd still be 500 points short.
Should he wait six months for his spiritual power to break through?
Keep in mind, there was a bottleneck before reaching 5,000 points. Based on his previous rate of growth, Xu Yuan estimated he'd need at least a year.
Wait a whole year just for a black soul ring in the fourth ring?
Was it worth it?
Clearly not.
This was one of Xu Yuan's concerns.
Now, however, he breathed a sigh of relief.
This experience of mastering the dream realm was akin to a sudden enlightenment, boosting his spiritual power by 500 points. Even calculating conservatively based on his previous yearly growth rate, he'd be close to the 5,000-point bottleneck within a year.
"This is the most conservative estimate. Now that I've integrated essence, energy, and spirit into the dream realm, my spiritual power will grow even faster. Within a year, I'll not only reach the limit but also have ample time to break through this bottleneck and truly reach the Lingyuan Realm!"
Xu Yuan now felt confident.
With the help of the dream realm, his mastery of the last three forbidden techniques progressed rapidly.
In the process, his own willpower was tempered as he continually gained control over the space.
His research on blood energy and his studies within the dream realm also became more efficient.
Most importantly—
By integrating essence, energy, and spirit into the dream realm, Xu Yuan further developed it, achieving an even more astonishing time-flow ratio. What was once three hours in the real world equating to one day in the dream realm now became two hours in the real world for five days inside!
The reason the external time shrank to two hours was due to the faster consumption rate in reality, but overall, the equivalent time within the dream realm increased by two days!
This had a profound impact on Xu Yuan's cultivation.
Three sessions of dream realm training per day could save him three hours in reality.
This was just enough time for Xu Yuan to travel to Sea God Island to receive Yun Ming's guidance.
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Time passed.
Another year went by.
Xu Yuan turned twelve.
"Junior Sister, you've finally broken through. If I didn't need your help, I definitely wouldn't have waited for you and wasted this month."
Xu Yuan teased Na'er, who had just reported her good news to Yun Ming.
"Ahhh, you rotten Junior Brother! Who asked you to lack confidence and not charge straight to the eighteenth floor of the Spirit Pagoda? I didn't beg you to wait!" Na'er raged, flailing her arms and legs wildly.
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