Soul Emperor Awakening

"Alright." Lin Xuan didn’t give it much thought and agreed to become an Honorary Guest. It made no difference to him either way.

"Then that’s settled. The path of a Pattern Master’s Cultivation is arduous, but with your talent, I’m sure you’ll be able to advance by leaps and bounds." Liu Qing’s words were mere flattery; who could know if Lin Xuan would actually be able to learn it? In the end, it all came down to the individual.

After exchanging a few more words, Liu Qing went to attend to his own affairs. As the Clan Leader, especially with so much going on recently, he was extremely busy.

Liu Menghua would be the one to instruct him. With her level of skill, she was more than qualified for the task.

Under Liu Menghua’s guidance, they didn’t go to any Library Pavilion, but to an ordinary Cultivation Chamber filled with materials for inscribing patterns.

"This is a Cultivation Chamber. You can practice inscribing patterns here." Liu Menghua retrieved a book from her Storage Ring. It had no title, only a plain, dark cover. "This is the first volume," she explained. "It’s not that we don’t trust you, Young Master Lin, but it’s best to take things slow, progressing step-by-step from the fundamentals. It’s a much better approach... Young Master Lin?"

She noticed Lin Xuan staring blankly at the book, as if his mind had drifted elsewhere.

In reality, from Lin Xuan’s perspective, a completely different scene was unfolding: a tiny wisp of a soul floated above the book. It was so faint it looked as though it might dissipate at any moment.

’Absorb!’

Snapping back to his senses, Lin Xuan quickly drew the wisp of soul into his Soul Pearl. He then allowed the soul to perform a Soul Possession on his body. The moment it did, a flood of memories rushed into his mind.

In that instant, Lin Xuan’s aura shifted subtly. Liu Menghua froze, feeling as though he had become a different person, though she couldn’t say exactly how.

A moment later, Lin Xuan heaved a deep sigh. When he opened his eyes, his piercing gaze was so startling that Liu Menghua instinctively took a step back, nearly dropping the book she was holding.

’This soul... it’s truly the life’s work left behind by a predecessor...’ Lin Xuan was inwardly stunned. Upon absorbing it, he immediately realized the soul fragment belonged to a Liu Family ancestor. It contained innumerable memories, including the entire contents of this first volume, though the memories themselves weren’t perfectly complete.

’The other soul fragments must be in the other books. Come to think of it, all the souls I’ve absorbed were attached to the things their owners poured their hearts into. They invested so much of their life’s blood that even after their consciousness faded, a part of their soul, their very essence, remained!’

Perhaps due to the passage of time, the soul’s consciousness had long since faded, leaving only memories behind. And memories were precisely what Lin Xuan was after!

"Y-Young Master Lin?" Liu Menghua asked cautiously, noticing his strange behavior.

"Miss Liu, could you bring out the other books? I’d just like to glance through them to get a sense of the overall content. Would that be allowed?" Lin Xuan’s eyes shone with excitement. Though it was only a small piece of the whole, he had already grasped the entire contents of this volume; he hardly needed to practice at all.

"That’s not a problem, but I only have the first three volumes with me. The other two are with my father..." As she spoke, Liu Menghua took two more volumes from her Storage Ring. And just as he’d expected, each had a small wisp of a soul floating above it.

Lin Xuan wasted no time absorbing them into his Soul Pearl. ’They can’t see them anyway; I’m the only one who can.’ Now, the contents of the first three volumes were completely etched into his mind. With these memories, his progress as a Pattern Master would be incredibly fast!

’This is the soul of a Sixth Grade Pattern Master!’ he thought. ’There might be some patterns I can’t inscribe myself, but with Soul Possession, nothing at or below the Sixth Grade will be impossible!’ Of course, that was an exaggeration. Without immense Spiritual Power to back it up, he couldn’t possibly inscribe High Level Patterns.

The higher the level of the pattern, the greater the demand on one’s Spiritual Power. The true strength of a Sixth Grade Pattern Master was their immense Spiritual Power. Without sufficient Spiritual Power, even they couldn’t inscribe a Sixth Grade pattern.

After making a show of flipping through a few pages, he handed the three books back to Liu Menghua and smiled. "Thank you for your trust, Miss Liu. But I’d like to see the other two volumes now. Would it be possible to ask Clan Leader Liu to let me take a look?"

"That shouldn’t be a problem, but what’s the point?" Liu Menghua frowned. In her opinion, just mastering these first three volumes was enough to guarantee reaching the level of a Third Grade Pattern Master.

Since Lin Xuan hadn’t even begun his studies, there was no point in looking at the final two volumes.

"Please, just indulge my whim! I have a habit of reviewing everything in its entirety before I begin my Cultivation. I did the same thing when I was learning Celestial Level Martial Arts—I examined the whole system first, and only then did I begin to practice." Lin Xuan offered a profound-sounding excuse that, while seemingly reasonable, was complete nonsense.

"Well... I hope Father hasn’t gone out." Liu Menghua didn’t suspect a thing. Everyone had their own methods for Cultivation, and what Lin Xuan said wasn’t completely unreasonable.

Especially considering Lin Xuan’s accomplishments, it was natural to assume he had his own unique methods.

Liu Menghua promptly led Lin Xuan to find Liu Qing. Fortunately, Liu Qing was still in his office handling matters and hadn’t gone out. Seeing them enter, he asked, puzzled, "What’s wrong?"

He had only just left with Liu Menghua for his training, and now they were back in the blink of an eye. It was rather confusing.

"Young Master Lin says he wants to look through all the volumes before he begins practicing..." Liu Menghua explained Lin Xuan’s idea.

"Is that so..." Liu Qing stared at Lin Xuan for a moment, trying to discern his true intentions.

"I only want to skim them, not study them in detail. If it’s an inconvenience, Clan Leader Liu, please don’t feel obligated to show them to me." The fact that the two of them kept the books separately was a clear sign that the final two volumes were the most precious. The insights contained in the later stages were always the most valuable.

To be blunt, while Third Grade Pattern Masters weren’t common enough to be found on every street corner, they couldn’t be called rare. One could reach that level even without these specific insights. The later stages, however, were a different matter entirely. Having the insights of a High Level Pattern Master made the path of Cultivation much smoother.

"It’s no trouble, just a rather peculiar request." Liu Qing took the final two volumes from his Storage Ring, placing them casually on the table. He laughed and said, "Go ahead, take a look. Honestly, it probably won’t do you much good. The content is extremely profound; even I don’t fully understand it all..."

Lin Xuan’s eyes lit up. Just as he’d thought, there were two more wisps of soul on the books. He feigned picking them up and absorbed both wisps into his body. When all five soul wisps came together, they finally merged into a single, complete soul!

Only now could he feel the soul’s completeness. The memories were whole, allowing its true power to be fully realized!

He then placed the two books back on the table and, with a faint smile, said, "Actually, I have another request, one I think Clan Leader Liu will agree to."

"What request?" Liu Qing frowned, wondering what Lin Xuan could possibly want now. ’He certainly makes a lot of requests,’ he thought. ’Too many demands could easily cause resentment, especially since he hasn’t contributed anything yet.’

"I want to participate in the Pattern Master competition!" Lin Xuan declared resolutely.

The moment the words left his mouth, both Liu Qing and his daughter were dumbfounded. He had just admitted he wasn’t a Pattern Master, and now, after merely glancing at these manuals, he wanted to enter the Pattern Master competition? Surely, he had to be joking.

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