Chapter 273: The Second Soul Core – Snow Empress's Shock
"This…"
The Ice Empress hesitated, worry flickering across her face.
She knew Ye Chen's confidence well—his teleportation could save him from most disasters. But condensing a soul core always ended with fusion—and that was where the real danger lay.
"Ye Chen, you have no idea how hard forming a second soul core is!"
The Snow Empress frowned deeply. "There are countless Title Douluo among humans, yet how many have reached the realm of Limit Douluo?"
"Condensing a second core is precisely that path—from Super Douluo to Limit Douluo. Its difficulty exceeds anything your current strength can handle!"
She spoke from experience. She herself had attempted to forge a second core once—and failed.
Even with her power and talent, she had fallen short. How could a mere Soul Sage succeed where she had not?
"Snow Empress, that's because your spiritual power wasn't enough. My mental strength has already reached the peak of the Domain Realm. My control over energy surpasses even your prime. We're simply not the same."
Ye Chen smiled faintly.
It wasn't arrogance—just fact.
After all, he was cheating. The strength of the Ice Dragon King and Fire Dragon King's soul essence, combined with his system's attribute boosts, had pushed his mental power to perfection.
Whether in comprehension, aptitude, or luck, Ye Chen stood at the apex of the entire world.
He knew the risks of condensing a second core—but his confidence matched his power.
"The Domain Realm… peak?"
The Snow Empress blinked. The term meant little to her. Spiritual power levels weren't formally defined in this era; even she barely understood the distinctions.
Before she could ask again, Ye Chen acted.
Boom—
He released his spiritual power without restraint.
A crushing wave spread through the cave, shaking the air itself. Yet not a trace escaped its boundary—it was contained perfectly under his control.
"Impossible!!!"
The Snow Empress's pupils contracted sharply.
The sheer magnitude of his spiritual pressure dwarfed even her own at her full prime.
No soul beast or human she had ever met possessed such domination.
For ordinary beings, spiritual growth came only through time. The longer one lived, the stronger their mind became. Her hundreds of thousands of years of life had gifted her unmatched mental might—yet it still could not compare to this.
Unless a Spirit-type Limit Douluo existed—which had never once occurred in human history—it shouldn't have been possible.
Ye Chen wasn't even a Spirit-type cultivator.
He was only a Soul Sage. So how…?
"Ye Chen, you're not even a spirit-type soul master, how can your mind be so…"
The Ice Empress was equally stunned.
They had lived inside his sea of consciousness for weeks, always sensing its vastness… but they had never imagined it hid such terrifying depth.
Clearly, Ye Chen had deliberately concealed it from them all along.
How much else was he hiding?
"Alright. Now do you believe me?"
Ye Chen gave them a reassuring glance before closing his eyes once more, tuning out their disbelief.
Time to begin.
According to the theory of this era, there were two paths to forming a second core.
The first was the Resonant Core—aligning the second core's frequency with the first so that both synchronized and rotated together as one. This was the safer, easier route used by powerhouses like Xuan Zi, Mu En, Dragon Douluo Long Xiaoyao, and Ye Xishui.
The second was the Yin-Yang Complementary Core—creating opposition, forcing the two to rotate in opposite directions. It was exponentially harder, but if successful, the resulting power was immeasurable.
Ditian himself had chosen this second method.
He even went further—creating a third, the Space Core, anchoring his endless array of miniature "black-hole sub-cores."
That was the true secret of Ditian's might.
Ye Chen lacked Ditian's understanding of space, so he would stop at two. But a mental core—that, he had absolute confidence in.
After all, his first had formed so effortlessly that the process was practically instinctive. One more, even at double the difficulty, shouldn't trouble him much.
Decision made, Ye Chen steadied his breathing and closed his eyes once again.
This time, the energy gathering around him was not frost—it was luminous, infinite mental force.
His spiritual power at the late Domain Realm blanketed the entire cave, forming a stable psychic field that severed all interference.
Within that stillness, he summoned his remaining soul power outward.
He had used only forty percent during the first condensation; plenty remained.
Liquid soul power pooled before him, suspended in the air.
Then it began—the compression.
His spiritual power pressed down like a titan's hand, bending the air itself, warping light around the forming core.
The vortex whirled faster, shrinking steadily under the titanic pressure.
With every increment of compression, Ye Chen felt the resistance multiply severalfold—a sharp internal tension straining both body and mind.
This pressure was far stronger than what he'd faced with the ice core.
But his expression stayed calm. He had anticipated this much.
If anything, most of the challenge came from the gravitational pull of the first core—its interference radiating throughout his body.
That was the true difficulty of a Yin-Yang Complementary configuration: controlling two opposite forces while suppressing their collision.
But Ye Chen's mind was strong enough to dominate both.
Only when his mental power strained slightly—like lifting ten times his normal weight—did he begin to feel anything at all.
Manageable. Still under absolute control.
Hum—
A low vibration echoed in his mind as the spinning vortex reached a new threshold.
Its shape compressed sharply into the size of a grown man's fist.
The color changed—from translucent ice-blue to liquid silver-gray, gleaming like living mercury, every inch of it dense beyond measure.
At that instant, Ye Chen sensed the critical point.
He poured out his remaining soul power—eighty percent of his total energy fueling the final breakthrough.
Boom!
Something inside shattered.
A veil had been pierced; the nature of the core shifted entirely. Its latent potential awakened, transforming from neutral power to spiritual essence.
Waves of pure perception erupted outward, sweeping through the chamber like invisible fire.
The silver sphere darkened, its liquid sheen deepening into a muted shadow that devoured nearby light.
Crack!
Fine black fissures snapped across the air, forming and fading like spider webs before vanishing once more.
The second core had taken form—a perfect black-hole of condensed soul power fused with absolute mental essence.
"Condense!"
Ye Chen seized the final moment, weaving every thread of his mind into the swirling sphere.
"Absorb!"
With a sharp command, more soul power surged forth, drawn into the newborn core.
The more it devoured, the smaller it grew—stabilizing, compacting, solidifying its power.
Another thunderous boom shook the air as the vortex imploded, collapsing into a small, flawless orb.
Then—silence.
Floating just before Ye Chen's forehead, the jet-black sphere throbbed once, then went still.
The Spiritual Soul Core had formed.
(END CHAPTER)
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