202 Spirit Soul Assimilation

"Become my... Spirit Soul?" Sheng Feilong stammered while staring at the calm king of lions. Huang Jialong and Yuanen Yehui stared at the lion king as well; Their eyes wide open, with sluggish expressions on their faces.

A few moments passed in silence, with the lion king only looking at Sheng Feilong, waiting for an answer. The latter finally snapped out of his daze, hurriedly trying to find the right words to say. "Senior, I... Is that really possible...? What about your pride.."

"There is no need for you to worry about that. As I'd said, this is the promise I made to my dear brother." The lion king was still completely calm, glancing at the crimson-maned lion by Sheng Feilong's side. "There is no shortage of capable leaders among my brethren."

The crimson-maned lion slowly lowered its head; It already knew about the promise between its king and its brother, as well as the story of what really happened after Sheng Wuyong returned to the pride. It had followed the lion king for nearly a 100.000 years and, although pained by the thought of the lion king leaving the pride, it would to its utmost best to lead their pride afterwards.

Sheng Feilong looked at the crimson-maned lion for a long time, unable to make a definite decision. The lion noticed his gaze and turned its head to face Sheng Feilong. "Descendant of Sheng Wuyong, why do you hesitate? Do you intend to stop my king from fulfilling the last promise it made to your Ancestor?"

Its voice still sounded as rough as when Sheng Feilong first met it; The imposing manner truly ingrained into its very bones, but Sheng Feilong was able to hear the hidden sadness within its words. He slowly turned back to the lion king and took a deep breath, before bowing deeply. "Senior, it would be my honour to accept you as my Spirit Soul. Please, help me to fully awaken my bloodline."

Without any apparent reaction, the lion king turned towards the crimson-maned lion. "From today forth, you shall lead our pride as its king." Both of them slowly stood up and made their way towards the cavern's exit. "Sheng Feilong, human guests; Remain here for the time being."

Sheng Feilong and the others were about to follow the two of them out, but stopped as their heard the lion kings voice. The three of them sat back down, looking at the two giant lions leave with complicated expressions. A few moments later, two loud roars could be heard from outside the cave, after which nearly a hundred, similar, but much quieter roars followed.

The whole thing continued for a long while, with the two loud roars – originating from the lion king and crimson-maned lion – echoing out again and again. About half an hour later, the lion king returned to the cave, alone. "All of you, remain in this cave. Sheng Feilong, from what I understand of human cultivation, your goal now is to reach rank 70. After that, I will become your Spirit Soul."

"Yes, Senior..." Sheng Feilong replied with a stoic expression. By now, Huang Jialong and Yuanen Yehui were only quietly sitting by his side. The former looked at Yuanen Yehui and gestured at the ring on his own finger, to which Yuanen Yehui nodded. "Feilong, here."

Huang Jialong took the ring of his finger, handing it to Sheng Feilong. "It's the ring with the Crystal Spirit Bee's honey. We didn't take any yet; You use it." Sheng Feilong looked at him with a piercing gaze, to which Yuanen Yehui and Huang Jialong only smiled. "It's most important for you to reach rank 70 now. Don't sweat it."

Afterwards, under the supervision of the lion king, Sheng Feilong once again made his way into the second cavern where the pool of Sheng Wuyong's blood was. He wanted to fully absorb the energy in the blood for now and use it to enhance his cultivation base before he used any of the honey, thus he took off his clothes again, laying his own, as well as Huang Jialong's Spacial Ring on the stone pedestal and once again jumped into the pool of blood.

Day by day passed quietly for him inside the pool; He directed as much of the energy as he could towards his meridians, actively pushing for his cultivation base to make another breakthrough despite the pain he was feeling from the foreign energy invading into his body.

After about a week, he reached rank 69, yet there was still a lot of energy remaining. Another one and a half weeks later, he reached rank 70; The threshold he wanted to achieve. However, he didn't stop there.

Upon reaching rank 70, there was something else he had to do; Once this level was reached, to truly become a Soul Saint, a Soul Master had to create their own Soul Core inside their Dantian. This Soul Core was a manifestation of their own Spirit Essence and was needed to truly step into the next realm.

Sheng Feilong jumped out of the pool of blood, grabbing Huang Jialong's Spacial Ring from the pedestal, put it on his finger and submerged in the pool of blood again; There wasn't too much energy remaining and Sheng Feilong didn't know if it was enough to form his own Soul Core. He planned to use the honey as a backup if the energy in Sheng Wuyong's blood was truly not enough.

He started to gather his own Soul Power and the energy from Sheng Wuyong's blood inside his Dantian, circling them around themselves, slowly fusing and condensing them more and more. Within half a day's time, the energy in the pool of blood was completely used up; As expected, Sheng Feilong had to rely on the Crystal Spirit Bee's honey.

He emerged from the pool of blood, making sure to spurn the energy in his Dantian to keep together, further condensing it the whole time, while operating the Spacial Ring and letting the honey flow into his mouth. The incredibly rousing, sweet aroma wafted through the cave, being stopped by the dome of light while Sheng Feilong slowly swallows the honey.

The honey was incredibly tasty, but Sheng Feilong didn't have the leisure to indulge in its taste; An enormous amount of energy flowed in his body. Luckily this energy was extremely tame, letting itself be pushed towards Sheng Feilong's Dantian without any complications.

By now, three kinds of energy mixed together within Sheng Feilong's Dantian, slowly forming a solid core that was growing bigger with each passing moment. After a full day of trying to form the core, it was already the size of an adult man's fist, yet Sheng Feilong didn't stop; He instinctively knew that he could push his own core further.

Another few hours later, the core had nearly doubled in size; Its transparent colour having faded away and being replaced by a splendid golden colour. Sheng Feilong continued to nurture the core, until finally, the Radiant Emperor's Phantasmagoric Eyes Spirit Essence moved on its own; A miniature manifestation of it slowly taking form inside the Soul Core, shrouded by a warm, nearly holy and incredibly pure golden light.

Strange, red markings began appearing on the surface of the Soul Core, forming a few archaic runesthat pulsated with enormous power. All these runes seemed to form a kind of diagram; The very core of that diagram being the same symbol that always appeared on Sheng Feilong's forehead whenever he used his Spirit Essence.

"It's complete..." Sheng Feilong slowly opened his eyes, breathing out a large mouthful of foul air. The Soul Core had completely formed, with the Radiant Emperor's Phantasmagoric Eyes Spirit Essence taking its place within and the archaic runes sealing it up, completing the formation. "My strength has.. increased considerably one more... This power is incredible; No wonder everyone differentiated Soul Masters so drastically by whether they were above or below rank 70..."

While Sheng Feilong still mused about his newfound strength, a powerful voice echoed out from besides him. "Congratulations, Sheng Feilong." Startled, Sheng Feilong's head whipped around towards the source of the voice; The old lion king. It was sitting by the side of the pool of blood; The dome of light gone without a trace.

"Your current state of mind and strength are perfect." The lion king looked him up and down, its incredible Spirit Power wafting over Sheng Feilong once again. "Now, shall we begin? Will you take me as your Spirit Soul?"

Sheng Feilong was stunned for a moment by its sudden appearance, but soon calmed down and readjusted his state of mind, still sitting inside the now energy-less pool of blood. A few minutes later, he opened his eyes again, looking at the lion king in complete calmness. "Senior, I'm ready."

The lion king simply nodded its head, its energy circulating through its body, quickly rising higher and higher until it reached a point where the whole cavern started to quake under its might. The rest of its golden fur slowly started to wither away, its already haggard body being drained of all strength, yet the glow in its eyes intensified more and more, slowly, its body sunk down to a laying position, unable to support its own weight any longer.

It started to exude a dim, deep red light, similar to that of a Soul Ring. The light become more brilliant, but was soon snuffed out, replaced by an even more resplendent golden light as the translucent form of a mighty Three-Eyed Golden Lion emerged from the now dead physical body of the lion king.

The translucent golden lion slowly walked towards Sheng Feilong, growing increasingly smaller and smaller until it was barely a few centimetres tall. Sheng Feilong closed his eyes once more and opened up his spiritual consciousness, which the lion king calmly entered.

Everything returned to silence once more. Sheng Feilong sat within the pool of blood, the dead body of the titanic lion king laying at the side. With the dome of light gone, everything turned dark in the chamber while Sheng Feilong and the lion king assimilated with each other.