7 The First Soul Ring

As they left the Spirit Pagoda, they decided to grab lunch before they return home. As they were sitting in the restaurant his family was once again able to witness his enormous eating ability. They both gave each other a look simultaneously and proceeded to laugh in enjoyment as Alex swept everything from their table and likewise the restaurant once they finished ordering. Once their meal was finished everyone else was able to realise just how much food was eaten when the restaurant manager had to close down the shop for the day due to insufficient inventory.

"Have a good meal son?" Yun Ming asked chuckling while he walked holding hands with his wife.

"Yes father. I am super stuffed! I can't eat anymore as I will need to save room for a big dinner, right mum?" Alex replied patting his belly in contentment.

Hearing this Ya Li realised she would be cooking so much food so she sneakily replied, "W-We might go out for dinner tonight. If you need to eat the same amount, then we don't have enough pantry space for food storage."

"Woo-hoo restaurant food!" Alex screamed in happiness as he has more variety of choices then.

"Ok settle down little man. Let's hurry home and try out one of these spirits eh?" Yun Ming said bringing a more focused attitude to the situation.

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As they arrived home the whole family moved into Alex's bedroom to observe his cultivation and subsequent breakthrough using the spirit soul.

Curious on her son's opinion, Ya Li questioned Alex, "What spirit soul are you going to absorb first and in what spirit essence? I know we talked about this before and said we should wait on your second spirit essence, but I personally think that due to the fact that we got two high class spirits we should straight up absorb both, one in each spirit essence. It would significantly boost your abilities and cultivation speed and you can always hold off on getting your second spirit ring for your essence to strengthen yourself first."

Hearing this Alex got to thinking. 'If I wait, I could potentially receive a certain mythical spirit ring. I know the three-eyed golden lion is a mythical class beast, however, the eagle/owl combination is not a certain mythical beast as it doesn't appear in my shop. The Mystic Vision Owl is a rare beast in the shop, and I am guessing that the eagle for the combined outcome to be nearly as strong as the three-eyed golden lion is either a rare or mythical beast itself. So, I will not be losing much if I integrate both of them and since it will boost my cultivation speed then no harm in using both of them.'

"I will integrate both of them one in each spirit. What I didn't tell you guys at the Spirit Pagoda is that when I was observing these beasts within the capsules, they were able to sense me as well. So, they must be really strong to do that. What I will do is I will open up the capsules and let the beasts themselves choose which spirit essence they like the best." Said Alex.

"That is a smart choice Alex. Since both of the beasts are mental attributed, they will be significantly smarter for their ages so even though one is a 24 year old and the other 400 years old they should be able to understand your intent." His father replied, giving him an affirmative nod to his conclusion. "Ok, since we have decided, calm yourself before you open the capsules. Then release your spirit eyes, followed by your Three-Eyed Golden Lion variant and express your intent through your mental attribute to them."

Alex crossed his legs and entered a meditative position. 'Oh damn, I haven't used my cultivation technique yet. I didn't use it last night as I fell asleep after we had a fun family evening. I will have to use it tonight. What am I doing... Ahh… Need to concentrate!'

Alex closed his eyes and calmed his breath. He brought his emotions under control before he opened his eyes once again. He simultaneously opened both spirit capsules allowing everyone to see the appearance of his soon to be spirit rings. On his left hand was the Three-Eyed Golden Lion at only 8 cm long. Its pelt shined a pale gold and its slit on its forehead which represented its third eye was a ruby red. It gave out a low roar as it looked up at his parents in curiosity. As soon as it did it was clearly startled from their power. Feeling threatened and a little scared it took a half a step back, almost falling off of his hand in the process, before Alex curled his hand to provide a safer space for the lion. In doing so he cut off the sight from his parents which gave the little lion a friendly feeling towards him. Meanwhile on Alex's right hand standing on two legs reaching 12 cm in height and 3 cm in width was the eagle/owl combination. It had black and brown mismatched feathers, a pure white head with a small black hawk symbol on its forehead and its most notable feature were its massive yellow eyes with a dark blue ring around the pupils. It gave off an archaic vibe and as Alex looked into its eyes it looked back at him. During this moment he felt like he could see everything but nothing at the same time. It was a very strange and unusual phenomenon. It broke off their stare to look around the room raising its head held high as it looked upon his parents fearless, unlike the lion who backed off a tad.

"Could you maybe try and lower your aura? I think the integration would go better then." Alex asked.

Both his parents immediately reduced their aura's to levels where they were impossible to notice and kept within their bodies. Once the two beasts within his hands settled down, he tried to convey his intent to them. The Three-Eyed Golden Lion understood right away and gave a low growl in acceptance. The eagle followed after several minutes giving a low chirp in understanding.

Alex slowly released his spirit eyes essence. This was the first time he has released his essence since his awakening and therefore was the first time his parents were able to see the changes the essence has on his body during use. As the spirit eyes came to full effect, Alex's eyes, starting from his golden circle around his pupils, spread throughout the whole iris giving him shining golden eyes. His parents when they looked into his eyes felt a soft push on their mental barriers even before he had started cultivation. This was incredible! Alex turned his gaze from his parents to each of potential beasts for a reaction. His three-eyed golden lion transmitted an enjoyed feeling while the eagle seemed really comfortable and interested.

As he ascertained their connection and emotion to his first spirit essence, he slowly changed to his Three-Eyed Nemean Lion essence. As his spirit essence came to full release, the silhouette of a massive Three Eyed Golden Lion with a huge bushy mane appeared behind Alex, before shrinking down and entering his body. As it did, Alex's hair turned from silver to shining gold similar to when he activated his spirit eyes essence. Following this transformation his canine's grew slight sharper, however, not enough to be noticed without Alex having an open mouth and an illusionary blood red crystal eye appeared on his head that blended into his forehead with a mystic haze. While this essence was similarly a mental attributed essence it was a more beastly and aggressive essence being mutated from the Nemean Lion an apex predator. Due to this difference the beast's reactions varied significantly. The eagle was a little intimidated to this spirit essence while the Three-Eyed Golden lion bowed slightly controlling its emotions more than Alex thought possible as he couldn't sense its feelings apart from reverence. However, as soon as he expressed an at ease and relaxing intent, it suddenly showed extreme excitement and happiness bouncing in circles on his hand. Everyone in the room couldn't help but chuckle at this sight as it looked like an excited dog playing with its owner after a long day away from each other.

"I guess we know where you both want to go then" Alex whispered, just loud enough for his parents to hear without breaking his focus and calm. His parents gave him an agreeable nod as they could also see the compatibility each respective beast had for his essences.

Alex released a little strand of soul power towards the Three-Eyed Golden Lion. Like a vine it wrapped around the body of the lion before pulling it in. The lion understanding what was happening gave an excited yelp before it touched Alex's skin. As soon as it did this his Three-Eyed Nemean Lion spirit released a powerful radiance bathing the room in a golden glow before a timid mind found its way into Alex's head. It was excited, happy, curious and a whole bunch of positive emotions at once. Alex opened up his soul just enough for the little lion to make its way inside. As this happened changes began occurring with his essence, forming a soul image of a Three-Eyed Nemean Lion in front of him and pushing the little lion back out as the spirit soul started undergoing an evolution due to his essence's superior form. The little three-eyed golden lion's golden body gradually grew larger from being 8 cm long to 30 cm. Its golden fur grew tougher and sleeker, more closely resembling a female Nemean Lion. As this transformation completed, Alex's soul power began to violently fluctuate as it broke past its bottleneck and surged through. He felt as if his body was as light as a feather as the more closely condensed soul power spread throughout his body.

Right at that moment, Alex felt a divine wave of heat and power originating from his spiritual sea spread throughout his body flowing through his blood and along his bones. It rushed towards the newly evolved little lion and his Nemean Lion spirit essence entrapping them in a bubble of divine power. This divine power left behind a faint, jagged pattern which glowed gold and creamy white simultaneously. It kept spreading over his arms onto the little lion and simultaneously onto his Nemean Lion essence while mysteriously avoiding the eagle spirit. It caused another evolution of both his essence and lion spirit causing their previous pure gold fur to resemble extremely fine light gold coloured dragon scales. Below the transformed fur was a strong, pure, golden glow which shined through the fur and hid the transformation from the eyes. The new fur on the little lion became far more resilient than before and all of its parameters were enhanced considerably. The little lion seeing as its changes were finished, disappeared within his spiritual sea.

All of these changes occurring to Alex and his lion spirit were seen by both Ya Li and Yun Ming. They were completely shocked and shared a glance that seemingly held a conversation without words as they didn't want to disturb their son's cultivation and evolution. They weren't entirely sure what was happening however, through their experience gained during their lifetimes they were able to assemble small pieces of the puzzle and were patiently waiting for Alex to possibly give them some information, if any. They only wanted the best for their son so any unknown element in their son which could potentially be something dangerous worried them considerably.

Alex following the transformation of his Three-Eyed Nemean Lion essence and his Three-Eyed Golden Lion spirit soul continued on to his eagle spirit, unaware or not planning on filling in his parents on what happened. As Alex changed to his spirit eyes essence, he once again released a small vine of soul power to wrap around the curious eagle that had observed its partners evolution. It chirped a little before fluttering its and diving into his soul. It stumbled a little on his soul barrier before he opened up a small hole for it to enter. Similar to the little lion, once it entered it was pushed back out along with a soul image of his spirit eyes. The eagle began its evolution with its feathers taking on the form of dark gold scales, its beak changing to pure gold, its eye's radiating an intense mental effect and finally its size growing from only 3 cm wide and 12 cm high to being 40 cm high and 15 cm wide. It squawked again, however this time much louder in excitement for its changes and the next evolution to come as it moved its eyes to focus on the centre of his chest where his spiritual sea resides.

As if on cue, the faint, jagged creamy and gold pattern appeared once again, spreading throughout his body and onto both his spirit eyes essence and eagle spirit. Following this repeat event, Alex's spirit eyes transformed from their pure golden glow to a creamy gold glow radiating an even more intense pressure. The eagle similarly changed as its eyes also took on a creamy gold glow with a light blue ring instead of their pure gold glow with a dark blue ring. Its skin radiated a faint golden power causing its scaled feathers to illuminate as well as its claws growing sharper and faintly glowing white at the tips. As the changes finalised the golden glow in the room died down until the only glow was from Alex's eyes and spirit. After this happened, Alex told the eagle to enter his spiritual sea as he unreleased his spirit eyes. He took a minute to regain himself before he opened his eyes and looked up at his parents.