Chapter 219: Chapter 182: Ancient Xia Country’s Contemplation Technique

At this moment, Han Ning felt like he did during a physical fitness test in his past life: he’d sprinted a thousand meters at full tilt, and then, without even a moment to catch his breath, had to do something equally draining ten times in a row. A profound sense of weakness radiated from every part of his body.

But he also discovered that his body was constantly absorbing the free-floating, Four Type Particles from his surroundings.

The majority of these particles flowed automatically into his Soul Beast Space. A small portion, however, was absorbed through his skin and entered his system, where it began to slowly restore his Physical Strength and remodel his Body.

"The Soul Technique you just borrowed... was it from the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm?" Teacher Fang subconsciously reached up to adjust the glasses on his nose, only to find nothing there.

Most of the teachers at the academy knew what kind of Soul Beast Han Ning had contracted.

"Yes. It’s called Demonization, a Dark Attribute Soul Technique," Han Ning replied, taking a deep breath.

"When you used Demonization just now, your expression became so... unfamiliar. If you use this Soul Technique too often, could it subtly change your personality?" Teacher Zheng recalled Han Ning’s strange expression from a moment ago, a trace of worry on their face.

Han Ning shook his head.

"Dark Energy stirs up the deep-seated negative emotions within a living being. I was slightly affected just now, but with my Spiritual Power as an anchor to maintain my rationality, there shouldn’t be any accidents. Besides, Demonization places extremely high demands on one’s physical condition, so it can’t be used for long periods. I won’t be using it often."

Hearing Han Ning’s explanation, Teacher Zheng relaxed a little.

Teacher Fang, who was standing to the side, thought for a moment and said, "If you can borrow Soul Techniques, can you borrow Talents as well?"

"Talents..."

Han Ning focused, trying to use the same method he used to "borrow" Soul Techniques to borrow Egg Pancake’s Super Gravity Talent and manipulate the gravity of a few sheets of white paper on the nearby table.

But... it failed.

"It didn’t work. I don’t know if my Spiritual Power isn’t strong enough or if Talents simply can’t be borrowed. In any case... I got no feedback from my Spiritual Power."

Han Ning looked down at his palms, which were glowing with a faint yellow light. Indistinct Earth Element particles flowed through unseen meridians.

If he could borrow Talents, the ones from the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm would still be the most useful to him.

Talents like freely manipulating gravity or strengthening elements weren’t very useful for him personally, as there was no need for a Beast Master like him to cast them directly.

But the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm’s three Talents—Activated Parasitism, Basic Mimicry, and Dark Seal—would all be extremely useful, no matter which one he borrowed.

’Beyond that, the most useful Talents for a Beast Master would probably be those related to Spiritual Power, which would perfectly complement a Beast Master’s own formidable Spiritual Power...’

’Next would be physical enhancement-type Talents.’

Just thinking about it casually, Han Ning came up with many possible applications.

Teacher Fang nodded in understanding and continued, "Besides borrowing Soul Techniques, are there any other changes now that your Spiritual Power has reached Tier Two?"

"Well... my Spiritual Power Talent has gotten stronger. Although I haven’t tried amplifying Egg Pancake yet, my intuition tells me that if I use my Spiritual Surge Talent at full Power, its strength should be able to reach the absolute limit of the Extraordinary Level. If I add the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm’s support abilities on top of that, with both buffs, Egg Pancake might even have the Power to fight a War General Level opponent."

As his Spiritual Power broke through to Tier Two, Han Ning could feel more and more keenly how powerful it was and how much of an amplification it would bring to his Contracted Soul Beasts.

Setting aside the amplifying effect of Spiritual Surge, just using the Spirit Fusion Technique daily to absorb external Spiritual Energy and nourish his Soul Beasts was at least three times more effective than when he was at Tier One.

"Also... according to the records of the Yinsaike Race, a Tier Two Beastmaster can increase their number of Contracted Soul Beasts to six. It’s just that..."

Han Ning recalled the legacy of the Yinsaike Insect Master Family, his brow furrowing slightly as he trailed off.

"Just what?" Teacher Zheng asked, confused.

But Teacher Fang seemed to have seen through Han Ning’s hesitation and said, somewhat uncertainly,

"After Tier Two... the method for advancing one’s Spiritual Power is missing. In other words, to get from Tier Two to Tier Three, you need something called a ’Meditation Technique.’ A Beast Master must learn its special meditation skills to deeply compress the quality of their Spiritual Power in order to break through. Without one, the probability of advancement is practically zero."

The legacy knowledge of the Yinsaike Race had already been shared among the academy’s "management." Since Teacher Fang’s Spiritual Power had already reached Tier One, he must have read the relevant records as well.

This so-called management was actually an elite group selected based on each person’s contributions to the academy since they’d crossed over.

It included teachers and students; it wasn’t a position limited to just teachers.

Becoming part of the management was simple: you just had to make a certain level of contribution to the academy’s development.

"That’s right. Even the Yinsaike Family doesn’t have a so-called Meditation Technique. It seems that kind of thing only exists within the Five Ancestor Families," Han Ning sighed.

You don’t necessarily need a contract to command a Soul Beast in battle, but if the Beast Master’s own abilities can’t keep up with the Soul Beast’s strength, commanding them becomes extremely difficult.

Beast Masters and their Contracted Soul Beasts communicate using Spiritual Power, which transmits with zero lag. In the time it takes an ordinary person to blink, a Beast Master might have already issued dozens or even hundreds of commands.

As Soul Beasts grow stronger, their movement speed can even exceed the speed of sound, which an ordinary person’s eyes couldn’t possibly track. But Beast Masters, with their Extraordinary Spiritual Power, can activate a high-speed perception, allowing them to clearly grasp even a supersonic battle as if they were reading the lines on their own palm.

Moreover, a Soul Beast Contract creates an inexplicable sense of closeness between the Beast Master and the Soul Beast.

Han Ning agreed,

"Right. It’s said that the upper limit for a Soul Beast that can be commanded by Tier Two Spiritual Power is the Lord Level. The jump from War General Level to Lord Level is a qualitative leap, which means that even for a Tier Two, commanding a Lord Level Soul Beast in battle is very strenuous."

The Taman Insect Master’s notes didn’t specify what level his Spiritual Power had reached through cultivation.

Han Ning estimated that the Taman Insect Master’s Spiritual Power was around Tier Two Peak. That Jade Flood Dragon was a Lord Level Soul Beast, a bit weaker than the Burning Fire Race’s Golden Flame Rock Dragon.

But regardless of which one, he had a deep appreciation for the destructive power they could cause—a power capable of leveling mountains.

"This ’Meditation Technique’ business sounds familiar. I wonder if the Contemplation Techniques from the Buddhist-Daoist Schools in Ancient Xia Country’s texts, or maybe the Yoga Masters from Peacock Country, could help us with meditation."

Teacher Fang casually picked up a small notebook tucked into a folder on the desk, opened it, and flipped through the pages as he spoke,

"Some of this hocus-pocus from the insect-man world seems mysterious to us, but once you actually engage with it, you realize it’s quite primitive. Take potion-concocting, for example. It’s nothing more than using primitive methods to balance the properties of different herbs."

Han Ning glanced over and saw that the notebook contained summaries about insect-man potions.

"I suspect this so-called Spiritual Meditation Technique might just be a crude Spiritual Power skill too. It’s just that we have nothing to reference or learn from, and creating it from scratch will take a lot of time."

"Unfortunately... among all the people who crossed over, there isn’t a single one who’s an expert in this sort of thing."

Han Ning smiled. "Well... people who are experts in meditation or contemplation were rare in our world too, right? They were mostly ascetic monks or religious figures..."

Leaning against the table with their arms crossed, Teacher Zheng suddenly said something that surprised even Han Ning:

"There was always this theory online that the world we came from was in a Dharma-Ending Age. Have you guys ever considered what would happen if we tried to practice the Daoist Contemplation Techniques from our Ancient Xia Country here? Would they work?"

The reason Han Ning was surprised was that Teacher Zheng usually spoke in a very stern and formal manner. For them to suddenly come out with such a fantasy-tinged speculation was truly unexpected.

’It’s a bit like discovering that the stone-faced teacher who’s always deadly serious during lectures is secretly a fantasy author or a hardcore web novel addict.’