"Roar——"
Within the sea of spirit, the phantom of a white tiger let out a sky-shaking roar, exuding a faint killing intent. The kingly aura it radiated ruffled the surface of the spirit sea, sending ripples across it.
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm looked at the tiny tiger cub, barely ten centimeters tall, wanting to speak but hesitating, hesitating but wanting to speak. After organizing his words, he finally said, "That's it?"
As if provoked by Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's ridicule, the little tiger cub turned and bit toward him.
With a "chomp," it latched onto one of Tianmeng's little jiojios (feet).
Surprisingly, it didn't hurt—it actually tickled a bit.
Tianmeng tried shaking it off, but the cub clung stubbornly to his foot.
"Hao-ge, your little tiger's a bit too weak, isn't it?"
"Well, I just managed to conjure it. Tianmeng-ge, go easy on it. It took me a lot of effort to visualize this white tiger. Don't break it."
Huo Yuhao's spiritual form appeared beside them, carefully taking the tiger cub into his arms.
Or rather, the white tiger cub.
It was just a bit small—clearly still in its infancy.
In Huo Yuhao's embrace, the white tiger cub calmed down, acting more like a cat, licking his fingers.
Yes, the target Huo Yuhao had visualized was the white tiger!
The so-called visualization technique involved conjuring a projection within the mind—this projection could be a creature or a landscape. The more familiar and detailed the target of visualization, the more effective the results.
Visualization was often used as an auxiliary method in various cultivation systems, especially those involving spirit or soul cultivation.
This was also true in the Demonic-Buddhist Path.
In theory, there were no limits to what one could visualize.
If you dared, you could visualize the sun, or even gods and Buddhas!
But that was theory. If you visualized something beyond your control, the best-case scenario was stagnation; more likely, you'd suffer a mental breakdown, fall into madness, or even die on the spot.
Even Universal Salvation, a master of the Demonic-Buddhist Path, didn't start out visualizing a heavenly dragon—he started by visualizing himself.
To merge with the Demonic-Buddhist Path, Huo Yuhao's choice of visualization needed to meet two hard conditions:
He had to be deeply familiar with the target, to enter the path at all. The Demonic-Buddhist method was evolutionary—the only way to begin was to fully visualize the target, which would then evolve.
The target had to have a tangible connection to Huo Yuhao. Without this connection, the feedback mechanism wouldn't function, and evolution would be meaningless.
So what was Huo Yuhao familiar with and connected to?
One answer was: his martial soul.
But he chose to go deeper—he chose to visualize the bloodline source of his martial soul.
In the Demonic-Buddhist Path, you fed back the power of visualization to evolve your own bloodline.
And in the world of Douluo Dalu, martial souls were, in essence, manifestations of bloodline.
Even though the Spirit Eye martial soul had potential beyond that of the White Tiger martial soul—and was a rare body-type soul—its root still lay in the White Tiger.
Spirit Eye was a variation; the White Tiger was the bloodline source.
Why did the White Tiger martial soul mutate into the Spirit Eye?
Because the Dai family bloodline carried a unique eye trait.
Born with dual pupils was a hallmark of the Dai clan. The more talented the individual, the more likely they were to exhibit this trait.
Ten thousand years ago, Dai Mubai had them. Ten thousand years later, Dai Hao and Dai Huabin had them too. By contrast, the less talented Dai Yueheng lacked this feature.
Dai Hao and Dai Huabin weren't direct descendants of Dai Mubai—just from the same clan—yet still had the dual-pupil trait.
This confirmed that the Dai family bloodline did indeed carry a special ocular gene—one that only awakened when talent reached a certain threshold.
If this were another xianxia world, such a trait would be a rare gift—at worst a sign of a tyrant's fate, and at best the mark of a Heaven's Eye wielder.
But in Douluo Dalu, the Dai clan never really explored or developed this special gene. Instead, they just treated it as a family characteristic.
Wild white tigers never had dual pupils—yet Dai family members with White Tiger martial souls did. Wasn't this a clear sign of something extraordinary?
Given the possibility that future generations couldn't withstand the power of the original martial soul, leading to its regression…
One might boldly guess that the original martial soul of the Dai ancestors wasn't merely a white tiger.
Huo Yuhao chose the white tiger for visualization because of his deep familiarity with it—specifically, with the Dai family's white tiger martial soul.
Anyone who had lived in the Duke's Mansion of the White Tiger would recognize it.
Especially someone like Huo Yuhao, whose hatred for the Duke's Mansion ran bone-deep.
The original body had long etched the image of the white tiger martial soul into memory.
Relying on these memories, Huo Yuhao spent half a month finally conjuring a complete white tiger in his spirit sea.
Even if it was just a cub.
Thanks to Tianmeng Ice Silkworm's self-sacrifice, which expanded Yuhao's spirit sea and enhanced his spiritual power, he found the visualization process much easier.
He succeeded in just half a month—and the white tiger cub he visualized was exceptionally lifelike and animated.
This might have also been due to the special qualities of his spiritual sea. In the Universal Salvation's case, even when visualizing himself, such vivid manifestations didn't occur.
Once the white tiger cub had been successfully visualized, Huo Yuhao officially stepped into the Demonic-Buddhist Path.
He played with the cub for a while, then began channeling his destiny energy into it to nourish it.
Wrapped in destiny, the white tiger cub curled up into a ball, purring softly as it fell asleep.
While it slept, the cub began to slowly grow.
"Yuhao, your destiny energy is still too weak. At this rate, the cub's growth is even slower than that of an ordinary soul beast," Tianmeng said nearby.
Yuhao nodded. "True. To speed up the cub's evolution, I either need more destiny—or I need to feed it white tiger bloodline."
As Yuhao's physical body consumed more white tiger bloodline, it would directly accelerate the evolution of the visualized white tiger.
Moreover, his situation differed from Universal Salvation's.
Universal Salvation spent a lifetime in his world and never encountered a single dragon, not even a flood dragon.
But in Douluo Dalu, wild white tiger soul beasts existed—and there were plenty of lower-level tiger-type soul beasts too.
Not to mention… beyond the forest, there was an entire Duke's Mansion of the White Tiger, full of "kind-hearted donors" with the exact same bloodline as Yuhao's—er, I mean, blood sources.
Huo Yuhao corrected the direction his thoughts were starting to veer in.
"But it really makes you curious. When Universal Salvation chose to evolve, his path differed depending on whether he used dragon species or imperial dragon qi. In Douluo Dalu, would my evolution change depending on whether I use wild white tiger soul beasts or Dai clan bloodline?"
"If I used wild soul beasts, maybe I'd cap out at the ten-thousand-year white tiger level."
"But if I use Dai clan bloodline, the results could be very different…"
Of course, this was all speculation. What mattered now was cultivation.
After all, there was a great opportunity awaiting him in the Extreme North.
Meanwhile, after preparing everything he needed, Bei Bei returned to the hotel and went to his room to rest.
Xuan Zi, after gorging himself on food and drink, also staggered into the same hotel.
Even though he hadn't shown himself to Bei Bei, Bei Bei still reserved a room next to his and Yuhao's for him.
"As expected of Elder Mu's great-grandson—such a considerate kid."
Once in his room, Xuan Zi spread out his spiritual sense to check on Bei Bei and Yuhao.
Bei Bei was resting.
Huo Yuhao was cultivating—his expression calm, bathed in golden light, giving off a faint chill.
Xuan Zi studied Yuhao a moment longer, then nodded in satisfaction.
He hadn't sensed any problem with Yuhao's cultivation. After all, soul masters of the Ultimate Ice attribute emitted cold naturally while cultivating.
"Though his martial soul has issues, he still cultivates diligently. A hardworking child. Not bad, not bad. If he can solve the problem with his martial soul, he'll definitely be a pillar of Shrek's future."
That's what the Ultimate Ice attribute gets you.
Had Yuhao not had this rare attribute, and was about to turn twelve while still only level fifteen?
Xuan Zi wouldn't have spared him a second glance—he'd have just written him off as a waste of time.
(Author's Note):
Looking at the original work, both Dai Hao and Dai Huabin clearly had the dual pupils trait. Dai Yueheng never mentioned anything about his eyes. Plus, the fact that Huo Yuhao didn't recognize him at first suggests he lacked the distinctive features seen in the other two.
This book will mainly follow the novel's setting. Elements from the manga and anime might be included depending on how well they patch up plot holes in the original.
Lastly, please vote for me and add this to your collection. Chu~♡