Spirit Pagoda

Ya Li came home after an hour and a half and directly went to start making dinner. Yun Ming came home earlier than he usually would at around 5:30. As soon as he arrived home he rushed up to Alex and twirled him around singing "You are my hero, you are my boy" with a massive smile on his face. The whole family shared a happy dinner together making light jokes about the spirit awakening that occurred this morning and the potential their son had. Once they finished up with dinner they moved to the couch for a chat.

"So, Alex since you are at a spirit rank of 10, we can get you a spirit ring tomorrow. I have already told the staff at Shrek that I won't be available tomorrow, so we have the whole day to ourselves." Yun Ming said starting off the conversation.

"That's great Dad I can't wait to see the beast I get!" Alex replied while thinking, 'I will have to try and exchange the beast I get from the Spirit Pagoda for one in my system if it isn't up to my standard. I don't think it will be possible to get one of the mythical rank ones for my first ring however, as there is no way they will let me take over five million without any questions.'

"Your spirit eyes is a mental attributed body spirit however I am not entirely sure on your three eyed golden lion variant. My guess is that it is a mental attributed beast soul however I can't be certain. Do you understand the difference between the types of spirit essences someone can awaken?" Yun Ming asked.

"Yes Dad, there are three types of spirits. The more common tool and beast spirits and then the rarer body spirits. Tool and Beast spirits are usually passed down through the bloodline to future generations however the majority of body spirits are the cause of mutations occurring within the spirit. These mutations can happen with normal tool and beast spirits as well with both positive and negative side effects." Alex replied confidently.

"Very good boy, very good." Ming answered.

Alex continued, "Regarding my second spirit essence I believe my mutation should have a positive effect on it however I think I should focus on my spirit eyes for now and not put any spirit rings into my second spirit. I read in a book that Tang San had two spirit essences and he only put spirits into his Blue Silver Grass so once he placed spirit rings in his Clear Sky Hammer, he could have those rings be a lot stronger. Even though I don't want to wait until my spirit eyes are at a Douluo level I still think it is better to wait a little bit for an added advantage over others."

"I think that is fine honey. Even though our son is only 6 I can't help but acknowledge his train of thought in this situation." Ya Li cut in nodding her head as she talked.

"Ok we will do as you say. I also agree that it could help you become stronger in the future. Just let us know when you want to start working on your second spirit. I will help you whenever you need. It is a father's duty of course." Yun Ming replied while pointing his thumb at his chest stoically.

Ya Li seeing this can't help but slap his shoulder playfully giving off a chuckle.

As the sun fell down on the horizon and the full moon shone bright on Shrek City you could see a light in a house burning bright and an occasional chuckle between a family.

///////////

The next day a family of three including Alex, Ya Li and Yun Ming were walking down the main road towards the Spirit Pagoda. The Spirit Pagoda in Shrek city was their main branch, housing the largest collection of spirit soul's continent wide. While the Spirit Pagoda's in small cities like Tang Wulin's Glorybound City has only three layers of the Spirit Pagoda, Alex's Spirit Pagoda in his city had eighty layers. Alex even with his knowledge of the Douluo Dalu novels couldn't even fathom what would be researched in or how the majority of these layers would be used.

His own special spirit pagoda within him that he asked for as a wish only had five layers and that still would last him for several decades. However, do not think that Shrek's spirit pagoda was only for spirit rings and cultivation areas. Who knows maybe there is a Spirit Elder somewhere in there with a bright pink Mohawk working on artificial spirit bones...?

When they arrived the doors of the building were already wide open allowing soul masters easy access to inside. As Shrek City is a bustling city being the centre of all soul master actions and events including the illustrious Shrek Academy at any time during the day there are people exiting and leaving the building. As they walk inside the doors, Ya Li grabs onto Alex's hand to ensure they don't get separated from one another in the pockets of people.

As Yun Ming guided the family over to a counter in the centre of the hall, a man with a pristine white robe walked over to them in greeting.

"Good morning esteemed Atlas Douluo, how can the Spirit Pagoda be of assistance to you?" the man said.

"Aah Elder Shin thanks for meeting us. I hope you family is doing well. I am here on family matters. See my boy is at rank 10 and needs his first spirit ring to break though." Yun Ming said with a smile of being a proud father.

"Oh, you son is a talented young boy then?" Elder Shin replied turning his gaze from Yun Ming to the boy holding his mother's hand. "Hello young man, are you excited?"

'What, does he think I'm a three year old?' Thought Alex.

"Yes Mr. Elder I am very excited for my first spirit ring" he replied. His mum noticed that his hand squeezed slightly tighter during the conversation.

"Well no time like the present. Let's go. I will personally help you through the process, but I am sure that your father and mother alike both are experts in the coming proceedings." Elder Shin said shifting his gaze from Alex to Ya Li, then to Yun Ming and onward to where he needs to go.

"As you should know for a first spirit ring the maximum age is 423 years, so we only offer white spirit souls and yellow spirit souls to beginners. They are seventy thousand coins and one million coins respectively. I'm guessing that you are going to avoid looking at our white spirit soul selections?" Inquired Elder Shin.

Yun Ming hearing this acknowledged this statement with a nod and replied, "Yes we would only like t—"

"Wait father. Could we still look at the white spirit souls? As you told me last night through the spirit pagoda, we can increase the age of our spirits so if we find an even stronger spirit with more potential in the white soul ring section wouldn't that be better?" Stated Alex.

All three adults perked up their eyebrows on hearing this smart statement and couldn't help but acknowledge its possibility.

Elder Shin turned his gaze towards Yun Ming in question and received a nod in response to follow his son's suggestions.

"Very well, we will take you through our whole white and yellow soul ring selection." Elder Shin responded.

Upon hearing this Alex smiled brightly earning similar loving smiles from Ya Lin and Yun Ming in return.

As they entered through a locked set of doors after following Elder Shin through the elevator and several passage-ways they were confronted with a massive room full of small round capsule like balls. On the left side of the room were balls all with small white stickers taking up rows and rows reaching almost to the ceiling. Similarly, on the right side there were rows of balls with yellow stickers taking up almost as much space as their white counterparts.

"Wow there are a lot more than I expected" Alex gasped after witnessing this sight for the first time. 'In the novel, Tang Wulin never mentioned coming here so this must be exclusive access due to my parent's strength and fame.'

"Go have a look around. Just know that if you open the capsule then you will have to buy it. Within the white capsule sections there are some that are defective or products that did not turn out well with negative mutations. They are labelled with a bold F next to the name of the beast and its bloodline so be wary of selecting those as they are our cheapest and worst bunch." Elder Shin said after some time, allowing Alex to overcome his shock.

"Ok good to know, thank you. Alex you can go search separately if you want, just make sure you don't touch anything. We will split up to try and find you the best spirit ring." Ya Li replied giving Alex a reassuring hand squeeze.

"Oh, Elder Shin are there any mental attributed beasts that you recommend?" Yun Ming questioned as Alex ran off.

"Yes, a rare spirit I must say. Right this way" Alex heard as he wandered off into the large room. 'I don't know how this is a room though as it is the size of most warehouses back on Earth. Maybe they use space technology to enlarge the areas as otherwise I have no idea how this all fits inside the pagoda.'

As Alex walked around, he couldn't help but acknowledge the sheer number of capsules they had. They ranged from all types of beasts with some even having mixed bloodlines such as horned lizards, mosaic butterflies, red sparrow birds, sand crabs and even a successful combination of a Devil Shark and a rose flower. How that occurred successfully over other combinations beats him. However, he noticed that those with mixed bloodlines had a more common occurrence of being labelled as a failure.

As Alex continued walking around, he had come to notice that he felt varying levels of connection with different capsules. As he looked into the cause of this, he found that those with mental attributed spirit beasts he was able to sense in some form. 'Well this is super handy as I don't have to try and find those mental attributed beasts." As he was caught in his own mind sensing the mental attributed beasts in the capsules he ended up at the back of the warehouse where the older capsules were placed.

'There is a lot more mental attributed beasts here than other sections. Strange.'

His curiosity was peaked so he checked the date of manufacture for these capsules and found that this last row was produced over 9900 years ago! 'Holy crap how are these so old and still functioning? Why would they even keep these as they are mostly only 10 years old. Oh wait, wasn't Yuhao from 10,000 years ago? Maybe these were made for him or were his last creations before he ascended to the God Realm?' Thought Alex.

As he looked through this row, he stopped at one. He didn't know why he stopped at his one as it was a failure white soul ring. 'Surely this isn't like those times when protagonists feel a sense of connection or fate with something' Alex couldn't help but think as he was drawn to this capsule. He noticed however that even though this capsule was labelled a failure it gave off a higher mental attribute wave than others.

As he picked up the capsule some dust was brushed away revealing the capsules problem and its bloodline. 'So, it is a mixed bloodline between two birds. Why am I drawn to it though?'

As he was thinking he noticed a note left to the side of the case. It said, 'This was made for my TW as her 8th Spirit ring however it failed due to a mutation, so she took another instead - HY.'

As Alex read this his jaw dropped down and left his mouth agape. 'If my thinking is correct here which could be complete speculation, then TW should stand for Tang Wutong and HY standing for Huo Yuhao. If it is 9900 years ago it could possibly be right if they just dated it slightly wrong. But what were the bloodlines for it to have mutated away from his desired goal?'

As Alex read the slip stating the bloodlines it listed two bloodlines however one had a name and the other only a description. One of them was a Mystic Vision Owl and the other being an unnamed eagle who sat upon the tallest trees in the Sunshine Forest looking over the land observing and gathering information. It says that there was a hawk which would sit on its head and then fly off continuously for days and only to return and chirp in the eagle's ear as if passing on information. It took this HY person possibly being Huo Yuhao, over 4 months before he was able to meet this eagle, converse with it and take a little of its blood. However, he had to in return, offer up equally valuable information as trade.

'If my hypothesis is right about these two people, why would Yuhao make these bloodlines into a combined ring for Tang Wutong. Maybe he just wanted two high class bloodlines to make a strong vision and speed boosted spirit ring? I don't think we will ever know. Well I should take this one to my parents.' Thought Alex as he slipped the paper with HY's comment in his pocket to avoid them hiking up the price if they think the same thoughts as he does.

He held the capsule tightly in his hand as he walked back down to the entrance of the warehouse in search of his parents.