Cultivation/Soul Aspects

'*Soul Aspects' is an article that gives detail on the most mysterious way of cultivation throughout the novel, the soul!*

## Introduction

A soul, relative to the human body, was one of the most fundamental parts of a human’s life.

The mortal body was formed by yin and yang energies; it was a material existence composed of the tiniest yin and yang particles. But, the soul was a type of energy. It was a field of energy similar to a force field. When this force field was concentrated within a single area, that formed the soul.

The soul was a particle but also a wave. As for what the origin of a soul was, it was hard to say. The aspects of the soul was shrouded in layers of mystery, it also held the secrets to life itself!

All things had a spirit. In the legends, all of this world’s plants, creatures, even stones, once having experienced countless years and unimaginable coincidences, could gain wisdom and turn into a monster. The soul had the most basic form - Soul Form. All beings at a certain cultivation has the ability to discard their mortal body and assume their soul form. This was the case with Demonshine and Mo Eversnow.

The soul in itself was an entrance to a vast and mystic world of martial arts. Martial artists use the soul in all sorts of mystics ways, with the similar effect of utilizing true essence. The most fundamental part of the soul was its **soul force**, it was the very basis of soul-type martial skills and abilities.

When one’s soul was powerful, there were all sorts of benefits. For instance, one’s divine sense, alchemical ability, refining ability – all of this was related to one’s soul. In the future, a martial artist also wouldn’t encounter a bottleneck in their cultivation due to the insufficient strength of the soul.

## **Soul Aspects**

Normally speaking, a martial artist’s martial talent, perception, martial intents, soul force, willpower, and destiny were all considered a comprehensive manifestation of their talent. Within these categories, martial talent was in truth the least important. If one’s martial talent was lacking, it could be made up for! There were all sorts of precious spirit pills and God Beast bloodlines that could make up for a deficiency in martial talent.

However, in the lower realms, these sorts of pills were extremely scarce and God Beast bloodlines had nearly vanished. In addition, when a martial artist first started cultivating, their martial talent would be the most obvious. This was why they placed such excessive emphasis on it.

But for the other aspects, especially elusive aspects of the soul, each was incomparably difficult and they were extremely difficult to increase!

If one wanted to truly increase perception, only the Eight Inner Hidden Gates’ Gate of Opening had such an effect. As for heavenly materials that increased perception, they were simply treasures from legends and at the rank of True Divinity atleast.

If one wanted to increase willpower, they would have to use treasures like the Twinlife Thunder Crystal that had almost vanished from existence.

As for destiny, even a Holy Lord, World King, or those extreme supreme elders weren’t able to clearly understand what it was. As for enhancing their destiny, that was simply a joke. In a sense, destiny was the key aspect of a martial artist’s talent. Even a martial artist’s origins could be considered a kind of destiny!

One could see how difficult it was to train the soul, it was practically the symbol of one's life and existence!

## Soul Forging System

Not much is known about the Soul Forging System but they are highly-likely to also follow a similar path with the Nine Divine Shifts of humanity; Soul Sea, Soul Transformation and Soul Lord.

By forging the soul, one could feel as if their own soul was being pulled upwards by some invisible power. This sort of feeling was like a mortal climbing up a tower, a level at a time, never dropping until they finally reached the top. At the summit, that feeling of wonder and victory would spread through the body as though they became immortal.

This light and floating feeling made one feel as if they dominated the world and looked over all with the eyes of a divine god. Such a feeling even seemed as if it purified the soul. Of course, this was the pleasant and subtle effects of practicing the soul. Normally, tempering the spirit of a being needed to experience grueling suffering and tribulations too harsh to bear. This was the way of martial arts...

* Also called **soul tempering system** and **soul training system**.

## Classifications

Humans certainly had a soul. But, after humans died, it was still a riddle whether or not they would be reincarnated. When a martial artist died their soul returned to the boundless universe. They always held a hope that they would reincarnate in a new life, but if their soul was destroyed after their death then that was truly the most miserable way to die.

But the truth is that the martial artist’s soul and body are one and the same. Once one’s life is over, their soul will disappear, vanishing forever. Thus, the soul cannot be used for samsara. But, to place the old soul into a newborn body is only seizing that body – it is not true samsara. After one’s soul perishes, they are doomed to die.

A soul was composed of memories and a spirit mark; both were inseparable from each other. A martial artist's soul, however, had more than just the memories and spirit mark, they also have a spiritual sea and a potent soul force.

In its basic form, the soul takes on a yin-based soul form. This is why some ghosts would choose weaker bodies with a heavy yin energy to possess. As for those full of life and surging blood strength, ghosts avoided these people as much as they could.

### **Spiritual Sea**

The spiritual sea was the space that held a martial artist's spirit essence and soul. It was the very core of one's being, without it a person would be no different than a vegetable.

In truth, this 'sea' was more like a miniature dimension. As one goes further down the martial road, their spiritual sea would become something akin to a tiny universe, thus it was the sea of thought that became a wide world.

It was found on the brain, where the soul resides. The spiritual sea depended on the brain to exist.

### **Spirit Mark**

A spirit mark was a characteristic of the source of life. If one absorbed the spirit mark of others, their personality would become muddled, possibly splitting apart. Finally, they would fall into depravity and become a zombie.

But erasing the spirit mark was impossible. This was because a spirit mark was thoroughly threaded into every part of a soul, where it completely merged with the soul. If one used force to destroy it, then that would destroy the soul fragment itself.

But the Magic Cube had some mysterious and inerrable charm; any soul that was sucked into the Magic Cube would have its spirit mark immediately wiped out, becoming pure memories that could be directly absorbed by Lin Ming.

### **Spirit Sense**

Spiritual Sense (灵识 língshí) – also known as Divine Sense (神识 shénshí). An ability possessed by cultivators to scan their surroundings (far beyond the limits of their ordinary 5 senses) with their spirit. The distance/total area they can scan corresponds to the strength of their spirit. Also used in some novels to remotely control magical items such as Flying Swords.

### **Soul Force**

Soul force – it withstood all Laws and was also the basis of martial intents. It was the foundation for the control of true essence. If one’s soul wasn’t strong enough, then a martial artist’s potential would die out. Of course, what this means is that one's soul intensity and fires of life were vigorous, not the cultivation alone to say the least.

Although soul force couldn’t be said to directly correlate with strength, it definitely marked the limit of a martial artist’s cultivation. If one couldn’t enhance their soul then their cultivation would forever stagnate.

A martial artist's soul force was directly related to their ***divine sense***, an omnipotent ability to probe the surrounding with one's very senses alone, and even without the use of the eyes. The divine sense could be used to probe a distance of a few meters, a dozen meters until one could probe the entirety of a city. At higher levels of cultivation, one's divine sense could be used to overlook an entire continent, a great world, a stars and the vast space. At the illusory peak of martial arts, one's senses could cover a universe as vast as the 33 Heavens.

Additionally, spirit force is related with a person's memory capacity and comprehension. A person’s capacity for retaining knowledge in their spiritual sea was limited. The stronger their soul force was, the greater their capacity would be. It had to be known that a martial artist with a Xiantian cultivation would have photographic memory. As for martial artists with a Divine Sea cultivation or above, they could quickly scan through a jade slip and memorize the contents within. What took them one or two days to memorize would be enough for a mortal to remember for an entire life.

The higher one’s cultivation, the more talented one was, the more precious their source soul force and blood essence were.

## Techniques

### **Soul Searching Technique**

The soul searching technique was originally an extremely dark and malicious demonic art. After searching someone’s soul, the subject would normally turn into an idiot. Although the soul searching technique was a cruel and sinister move, it was actually very easy to use. It was impossible to search out incomparably complex things like alchemy techniques, array formation techniques, or cultivation methods using this technique, but searching for just simple information was actually straightforward. Thus, even if one was an Elder of the righteous path, this was still doable.

But compared to the Magic Cube, the soul searching technique is worlds away from comparing. Since the only information a person gets after searching the soul was only the most basic memories, information about that persons daily life and events that occurred in their life. Using the soul searching technique to obtain the cultivation method and different mystical skill of the victim was impossible.

The steps in doing a soul searching technique was only pouring one's soul force in the body of the victim and then revolving a secret technique, afterwards one can view the memories of the person being searched.

A martial artist can use the soul searching technique when the opposite party drained a lot energy, on the verge of death, or even after physical death. When a martial artist had just died, their spiritual sea wouldn’t have dispersed yet. This brief period of time was more than enough to use a soul searching technique.

A martial artist had two kinds of death. There was the death of solely the human body, where the soul was still able to be preserved. If one suffered some sort of tremendous attack, it was likely they would die along with their soul. If that happened, their memories would also fade away and it would be impossible to use the soul searching technique.

### **Illusion Techniques**

An illusion attack was also a kind of soul attack; it could invisibly kill someone.

An Illusionist could create his own separate dreamland. In this dreamland, the Illusionist was a god-like existence. In this dreamland, he could create anything, find out anything, and kill off anyone he wished with just a thought.

While trapped within a dreamland, if a martial artist believed he was dead, then he would really die in reality. An illusion was truly capable of killing a person. Ordinary abilities killed a person by destroying their body, but an illusion attack was able to destroy the human soul.

At the height of this technique, one would surpass illusion and turn imaginary into reality.

# **Concept of Martial Arts**

Battle spirits and martial intents were both called two facets of a martial artist’s Concept of Martial Arts.

However, martial intents were usually supportive skills, there were very few of them that could actually be transformed into something with actual striking power. But, a battle spirit was just the opposite. Most of time they were directly used to increase one’s attack power. They could be attached to anything, and could enhance a martial artist’s attack to the limit.

## Battle Spirit

When the strength of one’s will reached a certain extent, it could turn into a genuine physical attack.

This was the formation of a battle spirit.

Battle spirits and martial intents, both of these were the two great auxiliary Concepts of martial artists. It was just that a battle spirit had much higher requirements that a martial intent.

One would need to expend a lot of effort and have great destiny in order to attain a battle spirit. But the main factor was that will and determination alone could give one great attainments in the aspect of 'wills'.

### **Aspect of the Will**

Battle Spirits are referred to 'wills'. They are the manifestation of a person's will, capable of enhancing all aspects of combat strength, perseverance and also the offensive and defensive capabilities of one's soul.

Will was an energy wave emitted from the brain; it was a type of energy similar to a force field. There were even some mortals with a particularly powerful will that could move objects in space. These types of people were referred to as telekinetics.

Cultivation had an effect on willpower. The deep one’s will was, the easier it was to form a battle spirit. If these people had extraordinary martial arts talent, it would be very easy for them to form a battle spirit before they reached the Divine Sea.

A battle spirit couldn’t directly be used to attack material objects, but it could be attached to anything to strengthen its power. This applied to true essence, force fields, soul, and many other things.

Battle Spirits can be attached to inanimate objects and move it to one's liking. Sometimes, battle spirits are used as tracking marks and is also capable of controlling a corpse. Battle Spirits can last for millions of years without the need of the caster supplementing it and even if the caster died, they can still maintain their memories corresponding to the time when they were placed.

### **Shape**

Every battle spirit has a different shape. Some people have battle spirits that are shaped like weapons they often use, for instance, spears, sabers, and swords.

There are also some people who have battle spirits that are like the elements they specialize in, such as flames, ice crystals, thunder bolts, and others.

There are even some specialized battle spirits, ones that look like beasts, plants, furnaces, and so on.

### **Potential**

The potential of a battle spirit was 80-90% inherent to a martial artist. Of course, there were a minor number of heavenly materials that were able to directly enhance a battle spirit’s potential, such as the Twinlife Thunder Crystal. However, this sort of heavenly material could only be found through a stroke of divine luck. They were simply invaluable treasures that couldn’t be purchased.

Although a martial artist’s battle spirit was set, that didn’t mean they could unleash all of this potential. In order to enhance a battle spirit one needed to constantly gain experience and temper their will.

The higher level a battle spirit was, the more difficult it would be for it to grow. If one’s experience was insufficient then a martial artist might not be able to release their full potential even after tens of thousands of years.

### **Eternal**

The battle spirit had a special characteristic of being everlasting and endlessly enduring. After a Supreme Elder died in the Eternal Demon Abyss, and with the passing of tens or hundreds of thousands of years, their bodies would have long rotted away, the energy within them condensing into Demon God Bones. But their battle spirit still wasn’t destroyed. Rather, it was able to preserve itself, and sometimes even turn into a very elementary consciousness.

When a martial artist reached old age, their strength, body, blood vitality, and fires of life would all start weakening – only their battle spirit would not decline. For instance, someone like Situ Bonan was already on the verge of death, but his achievements in the aspect of battle spirits actually surpassed many other talents.

## Realms

 3
 4

Each realm is divided in 4 stages. They are: **Elementary**, **Small Success**, **Large Success** and **Perfect.**

## Ruling Spirit Art

It was a type of martial skill that was trained with a battle spirit.

Battle spirits also had corresponding martial skills. The world of the Sky Spill Continent had its legacies and inheritances cut off 100,000 years ago. Because of that, there was an extremely small number of people that possessed a battle spirit. Thus, most people of the Sky Spill Continent only used their battle spirit as an auxiliary attack. This was because they didn’t know of any special martial skills that corresponded to them.

But in the Divine Realm, there were inheritances that had been passed down for hundreds of millions or even billions of years. In terms of battle spirits, they also had developed martial skills that utilized them. The ruling spirit art was one of the broadest and most important types.

The so-called ruling spirit art was a technique that used a battle spirit to rule a weapon, controlling it and sending it to kill others. There were also different ranks and grades within the ruling spirit art. If one could cultivate it to small success, then they could use a mere thought to kill someone over a thousand miles away. If one cultivated this ability to the limit, they could even use a weapon to pierce through a planet and kill someone on the other side.

### **Battle Spirit Abilities**

* Tracing someone who hasn't a battle spirit or are too low in level
* Soul attack
* Soul defend
* After Reaching Gold realm: The bearer can cast their will into the world and change the laws within their influence range

#### **Golden Battle Spirit**

* Only a gold battle spirit could form a will projection and manifest into a will sword, will shield, will spear, and other such shapes to be used to attack and defend. They could even be formed into will tentacles, will nets, will threads, and other such shapes to affect the movement of an opponent, causing them to slip up in their attacks.
* This was something that a bronze or silver battle spirit could not achieve. A bronze or silver battle spirit could only be poured into weapons, arrows, leaves, rocks or air, causing them to be filled with lethal killing power.

### **Info - Battle Spirits**

* After reaching the gold battle spirit boundary, a martial artist could use the battle spirit to directly kill others; one wouldn’t even need to attach it to anything. There were even those that could project the battle spirit world into the real world, causing a martial artist to be lost within it.
* For instance, the air and heaven and earth origin energy within the world of will projection. If he fused his will with the air, he could make the air as hard as divine steel, crushing to death all enemies that stepped into his world of will. If he poured his will into the heaven and earth origin energy, he could cause it to become as wild and fiery as a volcano, making it so that enemies couldn’t use it. This was the greatest aspect of a gold battle spirit.

### **Synopsis**

There was a phrase in the Realm of the Gods’ martial arts world – ‘The mortal body is easy to train, but the battle spirit is difficult to complete.’

Although there were very few body transformation martial artist in the Realm of the Gods, the pure total number of martial artists in the Realm of the Gods was simply too terrifying – it could only be tallied in trillions. For a body transformation martial artist, the resources they had to consume were at least a hundred times that of an essence gathering system martial artist. Still, it was always a good idea to temper the mortal body.

As long as one was willing to sacrifice an unbelievable amount of resources, they could always open the Eight Inner Gates. But… a battle spirit was different.

It was far harder to cultivate than the mortal body!

Before a battle spirit was officially formed, it could only be tempered with the leftover will of other powerhouses. For instance, the Blood Demon Bone that Lin Ming had found before was this sort of treasure.

But after forming a battle spirit, especially after reaching bronze small success or bronze large success, there were far, far too few heavenly materials that could temper a battle spirit. This was because a battle spirit was formed from a martial artist’s will.  A martial artist’s will depended on their heart and conscience; it had minimal influence from outside forces.

Thus, this was why it was said that the mortal body was easy to train, but a battle spirit was difficult to complete!

After a martial artist’s battle spirit was formed, it could nearly only rely on itself to grow. Thus, the earlier one comprehended their own battle spirit, the more space there would be for growth. To a martial artist, whether or not they comprehended a battle spirit early or late in their cultivation would become greatly significant to their strength.

### **Battle Spirit Potential**

For those that cultivated martial arts, the potential of a battle spirit was determined by a variety of factors. Once it was formed, it would be difficult to increase it. There were very few heavenly materials that existed with the ability to enhance a battle spirit, and they could only be found through a stroke of destiny. For instance, the Twinlife Thunder Crystal.

The Twinlife Thunder Crystal was a divine stone that was bred along with a Thunder Source. However, a Thunder Source required hundreds of millions, sometimes even billions of years to be born. This made a Twinlife Thunder Crystal rare to the point that it was maddening. Only a great Holy Land of the Divine Realms would be able to obtain something so precious.

It was extremely difficult to enhance a battle spirit’s potential. When a battle spirit’s potential was already set, wanting to dig out every last bit of its potential wasn’t easy either. But using the will pressure of a top martial artist’s will was an outstanding method to temper and explore the potential of a battle spirit.

## Martial Intents

A martial intent was illusive and impossible to clarify. Martial intent itself was an evasive state, it had nothing to do with one’s own intelligence or qualifications, it was only about one’s own conscious will.

If a martial intent had to be explained, it was a Concept of martial arts that came from the martial artist themselves. What it corresponded to were the Laws. Laws originated from the universe and were a martial artist’s understanding of the universe’s rules.

Every person that comprehended one did so differently, and whether or not they managed to comprehend one, this wasn’t too related to their comprehension of Laws or their talent. There were some extreme geniuses that would never be able to comprehend their own martial intent.

It could even be said that martial intents were a kind of manifestation of a martial artist’s destiny.

### **Heart of Martial Arts**

The kind of person that could have a martial intent usually had a heart of martial arts that vastly outstripped that of a normal man's. But to truly comprehend and acquire it all depends on chance and opportunity

It had to be known that those who had comprehended a martial intent generally had a supreme heart of martial arts, but it wasn’t guaranteed that someone with a supreme heart of martial arts could comprehend a martial intent.

Rather, if the heart of a martial artist was clear enough, they could comprehend a way and reach enlightenment, furthering their will and attain a state called martial intent. This means that those who have walked on the path of depravity have even less of a chance at comprehending their own martial intent than those who walk the martial road wholeheartedly.

### **Fusing Martial Intents**

During Lin Ming's time at Mount Potala, Lin Ming had stepped into the Irreproachable Stupa and entered the extreme pure lands of bliss there. Underneath the shade of a Bodhi tree, he had imitated what the human Empyrean Emperor Shakya had done and meditated for 33 days. In this time, he completely focused the ethereal martial intent, Samsara martial intent, and Primordius martial intent together, mixing them into a singular unified martial intent.

## Trivia

* A soul wound was no trifling matter. Even a small amount of soul damage would take a long period of time to mend, and one had to be very careful. Once the soul left the protection of the spiritual sea, it was as vulnerable as a little baby in a snowstorm.
* Soul combustion was a technique unique to soul attack martial artists, and its cost was much greater than the combustion of blood essence. When one burned blood essence, they could pay a great price to restore it with various methods. But, if one burnt their soul, it was far more difficult to recover from; it would create a permanent loss in their soul force. The only way to recover from this was if one had top soul regenerating medicines. But, these precious medicines were not any less rare than something like the Nirvana Dragon Root.
* Soul Tears - Eyes could cry. This could be sadness, but it could also be a lie, deceit, an act…But if a soul form were to cry, that would only be because they were sad to the extreme, grieving to the extreme, or perhaps… their heart was touched.

## References

1. ↑ Glossary of Terms in Wuxia, Xianxia & Xuanhuan Novels