Douluo: The True Eye

Chapter 30: Soul Skill Modification - Mental Devouring

After absorbing the second soul ring, Huo Yuhao led the Soul Hunting Team back to Shrek Academy, and there were no new accidents on the way back to the city.

The trip took a total of fourteen days, leaving sixteen days before the end of the holiday.

Huo Yuhao didn't plan to go out during this time. After all, he had prepared almost everything he needed, and there was nothing else to do.

He was now basically holed up in his dormitory, only occasionally going out for a meal or a walk. Most of the time in the dormitory, Huo Yuhao was in his spiritual sea, testing and trying to modify his newly acquired second soul skill: Mental Suggestion.

"After testing, it's similar to what I expected when I first obtained this soul skill. It can bypass soul power defense and mental perception through specific mental frequency to affect others, but it should be due to the age of the soul ring that the effect is too weak."

"The mutated Three-Eyed Demon Ape before should have used this Mental Suggestion in combination with another strong control-type mental soul skill to influence the others, but its mental power and level are still too low compared to Teacher Yi and Brother Tianmeng in my spiritual sea."

"So it doesn't have any obvious effect on me. Compared to simply using Mental Suggestion, it's better to combine it with other mental attribute attacks or mental attribute influence soul skills in actual combat."

Subsequently, in Huo Yuhao's hand, accompanied by the gathering and outlining of mental power, an enlarged soul ring directly emerged in front of Huo Yuhao. Its color and image were exactly Huo Yuhao's second soul ring.

Immediately afterwards, Huo Yuhao began to modify it on its original basis, retaining the martial soul's influence on the main body of the soul ring unchanged, and began to superimpose, cover, and stack new structures and patterns on this soul ring.

Finally, in Huo Yuhao's conception, a pure black soul ring took shape in the spiritual sea.

"Mental Suggestion, mental strong control, plus mental interference, that should be about it. Maximize the advantages of Mental Suggestion to destroy and evade the opponent's defense composed of soul power and mental power, and it's difficult to detect, which can pave the way for other mental attribute methods."

"Let's call this soul skill Mental Collapse after it's actually completed." Huo Yuhao frowned and looked at a corner of the spiritual sea, the gray ball floating up and circling around Huo Yuhao, observing: "Teacher Yi, what do you think?"

The old voice responded: "Your soul power circuit created based on the so-called soul skills and soul rings is quite interesting."

"There are many similarities between some of the magic arrays and mental power-guided magic structures used in my previous world."

"It's just that the foundation is not very similar, but it can be seen that your eyes are very simple, little guy. Even if I want to completely see through the operating logic of a soul skill or magic, I need to put in a little effort."

"For you now, it's just a matter of looking at it a few more times, but all roads lead to Rome. I've been in your spiritual sea for so long, and I've figured out some of the tricks."

"Whether it's the soul skills or the soul power circuits you've constructed, they are all based on the original ability structure of this world, imitating the existing abilities with so-called soul power. Then look at the two magics I've constructed, how about it?"

Along with an extremely faint gray airflow floating out of the gray ball, it directly entangled the mental power simulated soul ring structure previously constructed by Huo Yuhao.

I saw that with the entry of this gray airflow, the originally constructed mental power simulated soul ring structure instantly collapsed, and the part of the mental power symbolizing soul power was restored to mental power.

Immediately afterwards, under the drive of the gray airflow, these mental powers turned into lines, and then formed surfaces from lines, quickly piecing together two simple structures.

"Little guy, can you see what these two structures are?"

After Huo Yuhao opened his Eye of Truth, he carefully observed the two figures in front of him while constantly searching for the knowledge stored in his spiritual sea.

He frowned and asked, "Could it be Thunder Dragon Claw? No, there seems to be a wind blade structure in this structure, and the other one is just now Mental Collapse?"

"No, why is there other runes attached to the periphery of this Mental Collapse, this is absorbing runes, and some other runes?"

That's right, after repeated comparisons, Huo Yuhao found that these two simple structures with only skeletons had a large number of components similar to the several soul skill types he had recorded, but the details were not exactly the same.

But it was difficult to determine, because the structure of these figures was too simple. Even with Huo Yuhao's own mental power, I am afraid that one of them could be easily completed within three breaths, as long as he practiced it more, it would definitely not be difficult to complete it instantly in battle.

"Not bad, this is Thunder Dragon Claw, but to be precise, it should be Swift Wind Dragon Claw, because it is composed of wind elements, and the other one is the Mental Collapse you just created, but on the original basis, I have additionally added a structure for you to absorb."

"This first magic array structure is not easy to try in this spiritual sea, little guy, you should go outside to try it, and I will take care of covering up the breath fluctuations." It sounded like Illex was in a good mood.

As Huo Yuhao's consciousness left the spiritual sea and regained control of his body, Huo Yuhao imitated the mental power structure previously displayed by Illex and outlined it in the air in front of him.

I saw that along these mental power structures as a skeleton, a mini version of the Dragon Claw composed of closely arranged wind attribute elements appeared in the air. As Huo Yuhao withdrew his mental power, this Swift Wind Dragon Claw suddenly dissipated.

Huo Yuhao blinked and asked Illex in his heart: 'This is... the elemental molecules in the air spontaneously filling the remaining part of this soul skill?'

Illex's old voice responded: 'That's right, that's exactly it. The soul power circuits and soul skills you previously constructed were all to stabilize the structure of their existence, so a large number of redundant parts were added to the grassroots level.'

'Doing it this way naturally has its advantages, that is, through the construction and stabilization attached by soul power, these soul skills and soul power circuits can exist for a long time while reducing the output of mental power.'

'But as a mental attribute soul master, compared to other soul masters, your greatest strength is your mental power, not soul power.'

'At the same time, the biggest drawback of doing this is that the construction speed is slow, and the mobilization and operation of soul power and mental power are quite complicated.'

‘This also led to you having almost no time to slowly construct during battle, so after borrowing the magic concept from my world, I helped you slightly modify some parts.’

‘It eliminates the pattern of combining mental power and soul power to ultimately form a complex structure. Instead, it uses pure mental power to draw external elemental forces to complete the soul skill's structure. However, its power depends on the amount of mental power you invest and the concentration of external elemental forces.’

‘The final power of the soul skill is directly proportional to these two factors. Of course, the most important thing is mental power, which determines the upper limit of its power, while the concentration of elemental forces determines its lower limit.’

‘This is why your mental power's attraction to various elements is not strong enough, making it difficult to attract more elements in an environment with average elemental concentration and exert a stronger effect.’

Huo Yuhao nodded thoughtfully: ‘I understand your meaning, Elder Yi.’

‘I actually have some ideas about elemental affinity. I know a place with many rare herbs that can greatly improve aptitude and affinity for various attributes.’

‘Then what is the meaning of the second graphical structure you showed, Elder Yi?’ Huo Yuhao asked, puzzled again.

‘Mental power cannot arise from nothing. In fact, mental power is directly linked to the strength of the soul, and the strength of the soul needs the physical body as a carrier for existence.’

‘Otherwise, no matter how powerful the divine sense or soul is, it will ultimately be just rootless duckweed.’

‘If it weren't for your Sea of Consciousness as a carrier, my divine sense would also dissipate.’

‘Your previous idea was good. By combining specific mental frequencies of mental suggestion with mental strong control and mental interference, you can tear open an imperceptible crack in the mental sea of others.’

‘However, once you encounter beings with a higher level of mental power than you, the sheer quantity of their mental power will make it difficult for you to succeed.’

‘The effect of this absorption structure is to convert the other party's mental power into a supply for your mental disintegration soul skill.’

‘Using the other party's mental power to power mental disintegration, in this way, when encountering those with a higher level of mental power than you, as long as the other party's mental power cultivation does not exceed your mental power cultivation realm.’

‘Although the speed will be slower, it is still faster than pure mental suggestion, capable of wearing away at their mental defenses drop by drop. I call this mental cannibalization.’

Tianmeng Iceworm, who was sleeping peacefully in the Sea of Consciousness, suddenly felt as if he had been looked down upon again from somewhere, but he didn't care and turned over to continue sleeping.

Hearing this, Huo Yuhao's eyes lit up. This was indeed something he hadn't thought of. The idea of using the opponent's strength against them was simply brilliant.

‘I understand, Elder Yi. I plan to continue researching the soul power circuit and mental spellcasting, developing both simultaneously to maintain sufficient comprehensiveness without any weaknesses.’

‘However, Elder Yi, the spell samples you provided are still a bit few. How about…’

‘Alright, little fellow, don't bite off more than you can chew. You should digest it properly first. I'm going to repair my divine sense.’

Feeling the mental sharing being cut off by Iilex, Huo Yuhao shook his head helplessly: ‘Don't bite off more than you can chew? But I always feel like what I have now is not enough.’

Watching the mental power constantly changing and flipping in his hands, Huo Yuhao only felt a sharp sword named Tang San hanging high above his head.

After all, the main storyline will be happening soon, and he still has to take this opportunity to contact the Body Sect, because he still doesn't have much of a clue about the transformation of his martial soul.

Before the main storyline, there's also the old bastard Xuanzi who will carry out the glorious feat of sending off the main force of Shrek Academy. Although Huo Yuhao is confident in protecting himself, the deterrent power of Xuanzi, the Second-Fifth Douluo, is still too great, so he has to be prepared for the sake of safety.

Sitting cross-legged, summoning his martial soul, Huo Yuhao awakened Tianmeng Iceworm, who was still dreaming, through mental sharing: ‘Brother Tianmeng, get up and work. Keep an eye on things for me.’

‘Ah? Oh, oh, I understand!’

Accompanied by the slow injection of Tianmeng Iceworm's mental power origin, Huo Yuhao's second soul ring began to change, its color constantly deepening.

And the soul ring patterns, which should have naturally grown and enhanced the original soul skills based on the original soul skill of the soul ring, changed under Huo Yuhao's control.

It began to evolve towards the soul skill Huo Yuhao needed, one thousand years, two thousand years, three thousand years.

Tianmeng Iceworm's mental power origin, in addition to nourishing this soul ring, was also stabilizing and guarding Huo Yuhao's body, while isolating the associated aura from the outside world to prevent anyone from discovering it.

As the soul ring's age gradually grew, until the soul ring's age reached ten thousand years, Huo Yuhao finally completed a series of guidances.

‘Fifteen thousand years? Mental cannibalization is complete, but what comes next is the most important. Brother Tianmeng, I'll leave it to you.’

Huo Yuhao's mental power withdrew from the Sea of Consciousness, no longer resisting or guiding, and Tianmeng Iceworm's mental power also took over this soul ring.

Immediately afterwards, Tianmeng Iceworm began to skillfully seal the age of this soul ring for Huo Yuhao.

Fourteen thousand years.

Thirteen thousand years.

Twelve thousand years.

The age of the soul ring continued to decrease, eventually returning to one thousand five hundred years.

‘Yuhao, no, I can't suppress it anymore. I feel that if I suppress it any further, the soul ring structure you set up earlier can't be maintained anymore.’ Tianmeng Iceworm said somewhat embarrassedly.

‘Then let's leave it at that. It's almost enough to compress it to this extent.’ Huo Yuhao nodded and opened his eyes.

After all, this was the effect he needed. Looking at the purple soul ring under his feet, and the patterns within it that were much more gorgeous and complex than at the beginning, Huo Yuhao was very satisfied.

Although it had been compressed, the overall structure of the soul ring remained intact. It only required more soul power and mental power to consume than the initial mental suggestion, but Huo Yuhao wouldn't be short of that little soul power and mental power when he really needed to use it.