Chapter 20 – Fusion
Crying really was the best way to vent one’s feelings. After wetting Na’er’s shoulder with his tears, the sound of weeping gradually stopped.
“Na’er, am I weak?” Tang Wulin asked after he raised his head and wiped away his tears.
Na’er shook her head vigorously.
Tang Wulin looked at the spirit soul in his hand. The tiny Grass Snake was moving about within the spirit soul ball in a carefree manner.
“You can go first, Na’er. I want to fuse with this spirit soul.” Tang Wulin said bitterly.
Na’er hesitated and said, “But, this one isn’t any good?”
Tang Wulin forced out a smile. “It’s already difficult for mom and dad to provide for us, so I can’t increase their burden. Dad said he would help me earn the money to buy another one just now, but our family doesn’t have much money to begin with. I can’t let mom and dad carry another burden for my sake. Even if it’s not too good, it’s still a spirit soul. It’ll still let me become an official Soul Master. Also, dad won’t have to face any more difficulties after I fuse with it.”
Na’er blankly stared at him. “Big brother…”
Tang Wulin gave her a big smile. “I’m fine. It was only a dream of mine anyways. Maybe becoming a master forger is most suitable for me after all.”
At this moment, Tang Wulin’s profound smile was engraved within her heart. It was the kind of optimistic smile of relief and helplessness which masked the depth of his sorrows.
His eyes followed Na’er as she left the room. Then he bit his lip and turned his gaze towards the Grass Snake once again. In that moment as he gazed at it, all sorts of feelings began to well up within his heart.
He knew that after fusing with this spirit soul, he would lose any chance of achieving his dream of becoming a powerful Soul Master. But what could he do?
He gently touched the spirit soul ball within his hand. A spirit soul didn’t possess much of a material existence, much less a low grade spirit soul such as this one.
His finger gently passed through the Grass Snake’s body. It seemed to have felt it, as it uncoiled itself. Even though it had an illusory form, it was still able to twist around his finger and intimately stick out its little forked tongue as if to lick him.
He brought his hand up to his face, allowing him to clearly look into the Grass Snake spirit soul’s small brown eyes. Its eyes were cloudy and unfocused, with a hint of terror to its confusion.
It was also a living being and would permanently dissipate if he didn’t fuse with it within twenty-four hours.
‘A trash martial soul and a defective spirit soul. That’s very fitting.’ Tang Wulin mocked himself as he flipped his palm, releasing soul power to summon a faint blue halo from which the Bluesilver Grass appeared from.
The Grass Snake could instinctively sense the existence of the Bluesilver Grass as it climbed up Tang Wulin’s finger, quickly reaching the Bluesilver Grass.
The soft blue light glowing from the Bluesilver Grass suddenly released a powerful radiance. When the light fell upon the Grass Snake, a faint earthen yellow ring of light emerged from its body.
This was the first time Tang Wulin fused with a spirit soul, but Lin Ximeng had taught their class about spirit souls as well as what fusion felt like long ago.
A feeble mind penetrated into Tang Wulin’s head. It felt amiable and frightened, but it was also brimming with a feeling of dependence.
Tang Wulin opened up his soul and accepted it inside. Changes immediately began to arise upon the Bluesilver Grass while its soul power surged forth.
He closed his eyes and silently entered a state of meditation as his fusion began.
The little Grass Snake twisted and turned within his palms. Apart from that first connection between the two of them, nothing else had been transmitted. This was the intelligence of spirit soul of the lowest grade. The more powerful a spirit soul was, the more intelligent it would be. A spirit soul above the purple rank was even capable of communicating with its host. Legends say that a spirit soul that surpassed that rank could even help the host in battle.
However, legends were only legends to Tang Wulin.
The little Grass Snake’s earthen yellow body gradually took on a blue tint while the blade of Bluesilver Grass rapidly grew.
The originally weak and frail grass harmoniously curled up and gradually grew until it was about as thick as a finger with an appearance similar to that of a vine’s. Upon a careful inspection, vestiges of scales could be found on the blade of grass. It now possessed a dark luster similar to the Grass Snake’s. Although it was rougher, it still seemed as frail as before.
The Grass Snake’s body had grown a bit and was now approximately eight centimeters long. A blue smear had also appeared upon its scales. The fusion smoothly finished.
The Grass Snake’s spiritual power was too weak; it was basically impossible for it to resist at all. Although the Bluesilver Grass was a trash martial soul, Tang Wulin’s spiritual power had already reached the intermediate rank of the Spirit Origin realm, thus allowing him to dominate in this fusion.
The blade of Bluesilver Grass had grown longer and had become a vine which coiled around his body.
Tang Wulin’s soul power began to violently fluctuate as it met with the bottleneck and surged through, breaking through and evolving his martial soul at the same time.
Tang Wulin’s whole body felt light as the condensed soul power within his dantian had countless threads penetrating into every single cell of his body. The cells in his body were aroused and brimming with energy. They were filled with a light-hearted and worry-free feeling which finally relieved the depression within his heart.
Right at that moment, Tang Wulin suddenly felt a wave of heat coming from his tailbone. This heat soon turned into a scorching hot sensation which traveled up his spine before continuing to spread throughout his body. The aura around his body had experienced a slight change after this.
The blade of Bluesilver Grass which had just finished evolving and the little Grass Snake suddenly stiffened and froze in place.
The faint golden veined pattern appeared once again, rapidly descending from Tang Wulin’s forehead while the golden thread from his tailbone quickly rose. The two golden lights met at the apex of his vertebra and merged into one.
This golden color was much clearer than before. It hadn’t only spread all over his body, but also onto the little Grass Snake in his palm and the Bluesilver Grass which had just finished evolving.
The originally dark and gloomy Bluesilver Grass now had a slender golden line along it, reaching all the way to its tip. Another change arose in it under the influence of the golden veined pattern.
It was as if the dull vine-like grass had suddenly gained a skeleton and its tenacity had drastically increased. Moreover, the grass’s dull surface gradually gained a glossy luster with a faintly discernable blue halo and a slender gold stripe. It appeared more striking than before.