Chapter 32 - Research Results, An Intimate Moment

Over the next few days, Mo Xie studied the inner structure of various spirit rings.

Under the guise of stabilizing his strength, Mo Xie battled several senior students and analyzed their spirit rings during the fight.

There were several new array types that Mo Xie discovered during the process. There were transformation arrays and some bloodline related arrays for those with beast-type martial souls as well as potency arrays that were commonly found in almost all martial souls, raising stats, attack potency, elemental control, etc.

Mo Xie even asked to train with Bei Bei and Xu Sanshi and analyzed their spirit rings. Because of this, Mo Xie discovered a few more secrets. A person's martial soul can also alter the original arrays of a spirit beast spirit ring.

According to his hypothesis, the superior lineage of a martial soul has abilities of its own that need a medium to manifest. So when a spirit ring is absorbed, the martial soul uses the ring arrays as a base and alters the internal structure to suit the bloodline ability.

Mo Xie found some similar cases during his research, and after asking the origin of the spirit ring he was almost able to confirm his idea.

After sharing his ideas with Xu Ling, he got a little more information, as Xu Ling had studied some of the laws of this world.

From what Xu Ling said, the laws of this world are ordered in such a way that several arrays are interconnected, creating an extremely complex gigantic array that connects the spirit beasts rings and the humans' martial souls. There should be thousands if not millions of arrays covering this entire plane.

He had only understood a little bit and used that understanding to become Mo Xie's spirit ring. But he confirmed that his idea of ​​creating a unique spirit ring was possible, but it needed some adjustments.

The first adjustment was in the condensation of the metaphysical core into the spirit ring. It should be made so that all attributes could be absorbed and the second was to increase the relative space inside the ring. In this way, Mo Xie could add a large number of different skill types for itself, even if the power was a little lower as the core would be shared by multiple arrays.

However, Mo Xie found it possible to create more than one core within the ring. However, the ring would need to have a large amount of energy or could grow on its own. He then recalled the humans and spirit beasts Soul Core condensing methods.

There were two possible methods: Resonance and Yin-Yang Complement. The ring's core was very similar to the resonance method, with the exception that it could not grow unless there was a catalyst, as the entire essence of the spirit beast's soul condensed into it. However, if the yin-yang complement method is used, it will be possible for the ring to grow along with it, constantly absorbing the spiritual power of heaven and earth.

If he were able to create at least two cores with this method during the creation of the spirit ring and connect to the storage array, the relative space within the ring could continue to grow indefinitely and store more and more abilities.

This was an idea that even Xu Ling found insane, but it was completely possible in theory. If Mo Xie could really implement this idea, he could alter the arrays of his current spirit rings, modifying their cores so that they too could grow with him.

Mo Xie compiled all of his ideas and process on paper and stored them in his storage ring. He would study them for a while longer before starting his fusion with his Life Gold Knife.

Mo Xie was now training with Ma Xiaotao.

He brandished his sword, slashing at various angles and releasing several blades of sword intent. Ma Xiaotao dodged his attacks and her phoenix wings were already exposed on her back. She used several fire attacks on Mo Xie and her fourth ring glowed.

A pillar of fire rose where Mo Xie stood. However, he used his control over Ultimate Fire and threw it at Ma Xiaotao. She was almost dodging when Mo Xie used his mental shock and left her trapped in place holding her head in pain.

The pillar of fire hit her and Mo Xie used this opportunity to get close to her and use his sword skills.

Ma Xiaotao recovered a little and when she noticed Mo Xie approaching, her fifth ring glowed and a red golden phoenix with a meter in wingspan appeared and ran towards Mo Xie.

Mo Xie felt the power of the attack and knew he couldn't redirect that attack. He lowered his center of gravity and used his strongest sword skill currently.

A blue flame that alternated between hot and cold temperatures appeared along with a powerful sword intent and spiritual coercion. This was his 'Sword of Destruction'.

Both attacks collided and exploded at the same time. The remnants of Ma Xiaotao's attack hit him and sent him back several meters and he coughed up some blood. Ma Xiaotao on the other hand, felt her mind go blank and couldn't gather her thoughts when the rest of Mo Xie's attack hit her. Her flames disappeared and she fell to the ground before waking up.

Both of them breathed heavily, feeling their spiritual power drained. The fight ended in a draw.

Mo Xie knew that both he and Ma Xiaotao still didn't do their best, as this was just training and not a fight to the death. If they fought it all out, the outcome would still be unknown, but Mo Xie thought they would both end up suffering a loss if that happened, with him suffering more.

Even with a spiritual power much purer than his peers and his body and mental power reaching the standard of a Soul Sage, it was still difficult for him to jump over two great realms and fight other geniuses like Ma Xiaotao.

Ma Xiaotao was one step away from Rank 70 and she was able to fight spiritual masters above her level. Her spirit abilities were also very powerful and her martial soul was of a superior lineage. If it weren't for her being easy on him, Mo Xie didn't think it would be possible to fight her until the wear and tear like now.

If she gave it her all from the start, Mo Xie would certainly suffer and his chances of losing would be over 60% even if he used all his abilities, as he would tire faster even with a higher recovery factor due to the metamorphosis of his body.

"Huff... Huff... I... still... can't... beat you..." Mo Xie said, panting heavily. He fell to the ground exhausted and struggled to regain his energy.

Ma Xiaotao was a little better and after taking a few deep breaths, she adjusted her posture and approached Mo Xie.

"You still need a few years to defeat this big sister!" Ma Xiaotao said teasingly and continued looking at him: "But I must say that your height has increased a lot since the last time we met." She was still a little taller than Mo Xie, but in a few years, he would be much bigger than her. People could confuse him with a 16-17 year old adolescent.

[Author's Note: If anyone knows Ma Xiaotao's exact height, please put it in the comments. I tried searching the canon but couldn't find it. I may have gone through the information, so I'm not sure it was said explicitly. I will change this later if Ma Xiaotao's height is less than 1,70m.]

Mo Xie noticed that Ma Xiaotao's sweat on her body made her clothes tighten even more on her voluptuous body, outlining her slender figure. He was a little stunned at the sight and Ma Xiaotao noticed his expression.

"How was it? Is my figure good?" Ma Xiaotao asked teasingly. She ended up getting into the habit of teasing Mo Xie after spending nearly a year training with him.

*Cough Cough* Mo Xie coughed realizing his mistake and looked away, making Ma Xiaotao laugh at his action.

She used her spiritual power and wiped the sweat from her body and clothes before turning her attention to Mo Xie.

[Authors Note: put some sad music from here!]

"Hey, can I ask you a personal question?" Ma Xiaotao asked with a hint of curiosity.

Mo Xie, having already regained some of his energy, said calmly: "What is it?"

"I've wanted to ask you this for a long time, but why do you try so hard to distance yourself from people?" She looked directly into his eyes as she spoke. Mo Xie couldn't maintain contact and looked away from her.

He was silent for a long time, before Ma Xiaotao's voice came out again.

"Do you know? When I first met you there seemed to be a barrier around you that kept people away even when they tried to befriend you. Even after spending so much time training with me, and even after teasing each other from time to time, I still feel this barrier around you." She spoke and reached out to touch Mo Xie's face, making him dodge reflexively.

"See? Aside from the contact when you suppress my martial soul or when we fight, you never let me touch you. The only time was when you kept your guard down when I hugged you before your freshmen assessment." She spoke with a hint of sadness, as if accusing him of being too cold.

Mo Xie bit his lip hard and didn't dare look her in the eye. After spending so much time with Ma Xiaotao he developed a good impression of her. Even though his current age was that of a 12-year-old, his mind was still that of a young adult, so it was impossible not to have other thoughts.

However, he couldn't tell her he was scared.

He didn't want to create feelings that would come to disappoint him again in the future.

He was afraid of being betrayed again.

He didn't want to feel the loss of someone close to him again.

So he kept his distance from everyone around him.

He did everything possible so that his relationship with people would not go beyond the limit of distant friends.

Facing Ma Xiaotao's questioning, all he could do was remain silent.

He stood up and turned his back to Ma Xiaotao as he left the training room and Ma Xiaotao followed him with her eyes noticing the depressive aura around him.

It was already night and the moon and the stars could not be found in the sky. Only a black sky could be seen in his vision. If it hadn't been for a few lamps illuminating the courtyard, darkness would have taken over the entire academy.

When he was stunned looking at the completely black sky remembering all the pain from his past life, he felt Ma Xiaotao's gentle embrace from behind. It was an affectionate hug that made him extremely comfortable, but he tried his best to suppress those emotions in his heart.

"It doesn't need to be right now." Her soft voice sounded gently in his ear. "When you're ready, I'll be here to listen to you…" She lightly tightened her grip on her arms around him as if comforting him and telling him not to worry.

Mo Xie felt his body relax little by little as his suppressed emotions came out and enjoyed the warm sensation that flooded his heart.

They stayed like that for a while with the cool night breeze coming in, swaying the nearby trees and making their leaves flutter in the wind.