Master Evelynn

Kai widened his eyes, shaking with excitement.

'Evelynn wants me to become her disciple?'

She had an entire laboratory to herself with people working for her, she had to be someone important in the spirit pagoda! Not only that, when she had fought Uncle Lance he didn't even stand a chance! Having someone strong like Eve want him as a disciple was like a dream come true.

"Not a chance" Lance responded sternly.

Kai almost fell to the ground in surprise when he heard Lance respond. He looked over at the old man, pleading with his eyes, praying he'd change his mind.

"If you're worried about him joining the Spirit Pagoda, he won't be considered an official member." Eve explained. "As my personal disciple he wouldn't work for the Pagoda. At most, when he gets older he'll just have to do some missions for the Pagoda, nothing too serious."

Lance sat silently, unimpressed by her explanation.

"If the higher ups don't like it then I'll just quit!" Kai was nodding along with Eve's explanation, constantly switching his gaze between the two. Eve stared at Lance in silence for a minute before he sighed.

"Only if he agrees."

Kai immediately turned towards Eve and began nodding his head furiously, pulling at her and lab coat as if he was worried she wouldn't notice him.

"At least someone's happy about this" Eve said, giving a sideways glance at Lance before looking back at Kai. "Do you know how to accept a master properly?"

Kai quickly let go of her hands and got down on one knee, bowing to her. After a couple seconds, he raised his head excitedly and was greeted with Eve's warm smile. She was in quite the good mood seeing her little disciple greet her like this. Nodding in satisfaction she spoke.

"Good, stand up and I'll show you around and introduce myself properly!" Evelynn then looked towards Lance. "Is your address still the same, Lance?"

Lance gave a simple nod.

"Alright then! You can take Ashe home, I'll send…"

"Kai" Alice spoke out nervously.

"I'll send Kai home personally" Evelynn finished, somewhat embarrassed that she didn't know her disciples name yet. Kai, however, was unfazed from the slip up. Still in a daze that someone wanted him as a disciple.

Lance simply rolled is eyes, starting to regret the decision he had just made. He got up and dragged his body towards Ashe, and brought her to the elevator silently. The man from the Spirit Pagoda who brought him up earlier nervously ran over but was stopped by Lance.

"Take the stairs bub" Lance said angrily while the elevator doors closed between them. The poor man began shaking before running over to a nearby stairwell, disappearing.

"Now then, I suppose introductions are in order?" Evelynn said, letting go of Kai's hand she took a couple steps forward, straightened her back before fixing up her clothes.

"My name is Evelynn Whyte. I am a member of the Spirit Pagoda's research council and the Head Scientist for Artificial Spirit Soul Development here in Heavenly Dou City. We try to find new and innovative ways to create powerful Spirit Souls. Now, for the fun stuff."

Pausing for a moment, Evelynn took another step back. An immense pressure fell onto Alice and Kai, a strong wind pushed against them, forcing Kai to stumble back a couple steps. Different colored lights surged around Evelynn. She had decided to unleash her Soul Power and Spirit Rings for him to see.

Two ghostly fox ears appeared on her head, one by one 8 fox tails appeared behind her. They were grey with white tips, shimmering and ethereal like they weren't real. A glow appeared around her as she released her spirit rings.

Kai jaw almost dropped to the floor. 3 purple rings, 4 black rings and 1 red ring! A total of 8 rings, making his new master a Soul Douluo, and making her the strongest Soul Master he had ever met!

Alice was equally stunned; last she knew her master was still a Spirit Saint. To think that she had broken through so soon! Kai may not know, but Evelynn was only 30 this year making her a genius among geniuses. Not only that, with her potential making to Titled Douluo in her lifetime was a certainty! Even becoming a Hyper Douluo was possible. And that person just took in a disciple that was just as talented!

Seeing their reactions, Evelynn smiled before continuing.

"I'm 30 years young, don't you forget it, and my Spirit Essence is the Nine Tailed Ghost Fox. I'm currently a level 82 Control System Master, with my focus being mental disruption and elemental attacks."

Evelynn retracted her Soul Power, the pressure slowly easing away. She walked forward and ruffled Kai's hair.

"From now on I am your master. I'll teach you to become a powerful Soul Master, I'll teach you about the world of Soul Masters, and if you'd like, anything else I've picked up over the years. Starting tomorrow, you'll come each day for training at 9 am. Training will go until 5 pm from Monday to Friday, while on Saturday and Sunday you'll get off at 3 pm. I've never trained anyone before, but I have high expectations."

Evelynn reached out and grabbed Kai's hand, her voice becoming friendlier.

"Now then, why don't we go get you your first Spirit Soul?"

Kai tightened his grip and stuck close to his new master, Alice following closely behind. They entered the elevator before emerging on a different floor. There were a few people in lab coats moving around, working at different computers and performing experiments. As they walked by, each of the workers made sure to greet Evelynn. They soon entered a room near the back while Alice waited outside, inside was completely empty aside from a couple cushions.

"This is my personal training room." Evelynn explained. "Now the first thing I'll teach you is the core cultivation method of the Spirit Pagoda. With it you'll be able to cultivate your Spirit Power and absorb Spirit Souls faster than with the average technique."

She sat down on one of the cushions before motioning for him to sit in front of her. Grabbing another cushion, Kai quickly faced the other way and sat down in front of her, eager to learn and absorb his first ring.

"Now just focus on the movement of the energy. Follow it as it moves, don't resist it." She placed her hand son his back. "I'll guide you through a couple rotations, and after that I'll leave it to you."

Kai closed his eyes and waited for the energy to enter his body. Soon a warm flow emerged from his Master's hands. Focusing on it, he began to memorize its movement. Where it went, how fast and how intense. After completing one rotation Kai began to feel refreshed and tried to guide it himself, edging it slowly as his Master helped guide him when he messed up.

After a couple of rotations, he was finally able to do it himself, albeit somewhat slowly. Kai was absorbed in his cultivation, the refreshing feeling what like nothing he had ever experienced before. It felt like a cool breeze on a hot summer day brushing past every cell of his body.

'This kid's good' thought Eve. 'Maybe its his above average Spiritual Power, but he picked it up even faster than I did when I started. It seems I won't have to worry when comparing him to those other disciples.'

After a while, he finally opened his eyes and saw his Master sitting on the other side of the room watching him intently.

"Seems like you picked it faster than I expected!" She smiled warmly. "I expect you to cultivate diligently every day from now on!"

Kai nodded seriously; he wouldn't forget a single thing his master said no matter how small. Evelynn stretched her stiff body and let out a cute moan, she had been watching her disciple patiently for close to an hour. Eve then pulled out a strange ball the size of a fist and placed in on the ground in front of her.

"Now I don't know how much you know about Spirit Souls" Eve began talking, her tone serious, while Kai leaned in and focused. "So, here's a little crash course."

"Artificial Spirit Souls are created from the genes of the Spirit Beasts they took the form of, essentially providing the same effect as normal Spirit Souls."

"However, such Spirit Souls are now incredibly rare due to the gradual extinction of Spirit Beasts resulting in many Spirit Masters having to use non-Spirit Beast Spirit Souls. Don't worry though, I've made sure to pick out a compatible Artificial Beast Soul for you." She fiddled slightly with the ball in front of her.

Kai nodded, happy his master had personally picked out his first Spirit Soul. So far he already knew all of this from when he was in the clan, but this was his limit. Normally, in the Clan, they would teach them more about this after they awakened. Eve continued seeing Kai nodding.

"Once you bind with the Spirit Soul, it will merge your bloodlines and allow Spirit Masters to progress faster physically. Not only that though, if your compatibility is high, the bloodlines might even evolve your Martial Soul."

Kai's eyes shined hearing this. He looked down at the strange ball near his master and thought.

'If my spirit were to evolve, would I be able to speak again like Miss Alice mentioned?'

"For Artificial Spirit Souls the more powerful the spirit is, the more intelligent it will be. Once they reach Purple Rank you'll even be able to speak to them! Because of this it's important to communicate with them while you cultivate."

"To absorb a Spirit Soul all you need to do is feel the energy of the Soul Ring and absorb it through the cultivation technique I just taught you." She picked up the strange ball and tossed it to Kai. He fumbled the ball slightly before looking back up to Eve as she continued. "Now why don't you take a look at your first Spirit Soul?"