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nTranslator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

nSoul skill.

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nWhen a soul pet reaches a certain cultivation level, it gains understanding of specific techniques.

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nUnlike now, soul beasts of the ancient era weren’t able to develop intelligence for long periods of time.

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nAs such, to comprehend a soul skill, they had to wait for their cultivation level to rise, and for their intelligence to develop.

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nHowever, in the present day, the cultivation age requirement for the learning of soul skills has been greatly reduced, thanks to the soul pets’ incubation phases, which granted them intelligence.

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nWang Che looked at the green caterpillar and thought to himself.

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nA soul pet’s soul skill wasn’t a simple matter.

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nEven for third years, there was only limited knowledge taught on the subject in school.

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nFrom what he knew, these techniques were usually passed down via the soul pet’s genes and as such were innate, or in other words, unchangeable.

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n‘All green caterpillars have a species potential of below a hundred because they can’t inherit any soul skills from genes…’

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nWang Che realized.

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nTo put it bluntly, the first green caterpillar to have emerged in this world was inexplicably useless.

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nSince it hadn’t learned any soul power techniques when it was alive, it’s descendants naturally did not have any kind of soul skill to speak of.

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nIn fact, the only reason the species had managed to survive for thousands of years is only because of its potency in reproduction, and lackluster conditions needed for survival.

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nThey were unlike other soul pets who, upon reaching a certain age, could use inherited abilities to learn a specific soul skill.

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nNevertheless, the soul pets of today could still learn other soul skills through special training.

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nThough the training was often extremely difficult…

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nLooking at the number on the machine, Wang Che thought to himself, “To be able to unleash several times its initial power… this must be a soul skill. Could it be that the cultivation of the Beast Origin Skill enabled this little guy to learn a soul skill?”

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nThis was not something that he had expected.

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nTo Wang Che, soul skills were no different from the cultivation world’s Dao techniques, martial techniques, demonic techniques, and so on.

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nThe powers may vary, but at their cores, the basic conditions for learning were pretty much the same.

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nIn order to learn a soul skill, the first step was to gain soul power.

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nAfter all, soul power allowed soul pets to erupt with incredible strength.

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nTake the green caterpillar, which had only managed to exert 180 kilograms of strength with its tail on its first try, for instance.

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nAfter using its soul power to swing its tail in a different manner, it was able to unleash more than twice its initial power.

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nOn top of that…

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nWang Che walked up to the target and touched the area the green caterpillar had struck with its tail.

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n“There’s a deep depression, and it’s surroundings have sunk inwards. The force from the attack was incredibly strong!”

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nWang Che ran his fingers across the target again.

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nHowever, just as he was touching it, the target’s surface was suddenly restored to its original state.

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n“With the soul power enhancement, that tail has become truly extraordinary.”

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nAfter pondering for a moment, he said to the green caterpillar, “Try again.”

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nMeanwhile, the green caterpillar looked at Wang Che in confusion, as if it did not understand his words.

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nIt struck the target again.

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nHowever, it’s attack didn’t seem to carry the same force this time.

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nThe caterpillar’s tail had flared up slightly, but the light vanished quickly as it was jumping.

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nLike on the first attempt, it hit the target with a thud.

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n“It seems that this little one hasn’t managed to completely master the soul skill yet. The confused expression on its face… I reckon there must have been some element of luck when it performed the attack earlier. It should have been the first time that it has ever used its soul power.”

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nWang Che shook his head.

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nIt was no easy feat to master a soul pet’s soul skill.

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nEspecially since this soul skill was external to the green caterpillar.

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n“It should be the effect of Beast Origin Skill.”

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nHe had taught this green caterpillar this particular skill. After modifying it to fit his soul pet’s attributes, he had ended up with four moves for insects.

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nOne of them was rather special. It was called ‘Looking Back at the Full Moon’. This move involved a special stance where the caterpillar would twist its tail, bend its body, and stretch its head.

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nBy combining all four of them, Wang Che had realized that he could strengthen the green caterpillar’s entire body.

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n“The little one may have learned such a soul skill because of this, but it has yet to completely master it. Nevertheless, seeing that it has already used it once, the caterpillar will probably be able to master this soul skill very soon, as long as it continues to cultivate the Beast Origin Skill.”

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nWang Che finally understood what was happening.

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n“Let’s test the next one.”

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nHe said, bringing the green caterpillar to a special track.

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nThe track was only a hundred meters in length, but could change its structure according to the type of soul pet that was using it.

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nIn addition, there were various obstacles that could test a soul pet’s reaction speed.

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nNevertheless, Wang Che was only planning to test the green caterpillar’s speed, and so opted to use a regular track.

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nAfter walking up to the test area, he pressed a button and started the timer.

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nSeeing this, the green caterpillar immediately charged forward.

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nHowever, a hundred metres seemed too great a distance for it to cover.

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nIt was only twenty centimetres long, after all.

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nAs such, it twisted its tail and ran for about thirteen seconds before finally reaching the finish line.

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nAll things considered, Wang Che still thought that its speed was quite average.

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nIn fact, the little one’s speed was even slower than that of ordinary humans, who took about twelve seconds to complete a hundred meter run.

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nEven when compared to the slow rock monster outside, the caterpillar didn’t fare much better.

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n“Try to circulate your soul power throughout your body.”

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nWang Che advised the green caterpillar who looked lost in thought.

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nAfter a while, following his orders, the caterpillar tried many different poses, as if trying to find the best way to distribute its soul power to its body parts.

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nHowever, this wasn’t easy either.

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nIn the end, the little one found a way to do it.

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nWith some faint light being emitted from its body once again, the caterpillar rushed out once more.

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nThis time, there was no special force created, like when it had been testing its strength earlier.

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nThe only effect seemed to be that it was now slightly faster than before.

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nIt seemed that there wasn’t any use of soul power this time.

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n“The soul power cultivation level is too low. It probably used up too much of it just now.”

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nWang Che shook his head.

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nIt was not that easy to learn a soul skill.

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nAfter all, they required powerful soul power as fuel.

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nAt the same time, the user also needed to have a certain amount of physical strength. Even if one reached a certain cultivation age, there was still the possibility of failing to perform their soul skill.

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nIn addition, this green caterpillar had yet to reach a suitable cultivation age, and did not possess a soul skill inherent to its species.

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nIn other words, performing a soul skill was out of the question at the moment.

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nMoving on from his disappointment, Wang Che decided to test the physique of the green caterpillar next.

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nThe physical test available at the center was specifically used to test how long a soul pet’s body could last while doing high-intensity exercises.

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nAfter all, a soul pet battle involved a high level of effort and stamina

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nThe testing method itself was not complicated.

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nThe soul pet which was being tested only had to hold on while being subjected to gravity that was twice its own weight.

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nThe longer it could persist, the stronger its physique was.

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nIf anything, this was definitely the green caterpillar’s weakness.

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nWith its ordinary physique, it could only last for less than three minutes.

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nEven when using its soul power, the green caterpillar only managed to add two minutes to its time.

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nThis meant that under normal circumstances, if it were to fight a soul pet with the same soul power cultivation, the little one would not last long.

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n“Three minutes, little one. You can’t last long enough.”

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nWang Che rubbed the green caterpillar’s head as he muttered, “A three-minute caterpillar…”

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n“Ssss!”

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nThe green caterpillar did not understand his words, but responded anyway.

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nThe final test was defense.

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nThis was just a matter of whether the soul pet was durable enough to resist incoming attacks.

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nThe testing method for this was also quite simple. Under the regular settings, the soul pet only had to withstand attacks of the same caliber as its cultivation level.

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nTo do this, a 369 Steel soul pet would appear in the testing room.

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nThis was a soul pet of the new generation that had existed for nearly a hundred years.

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nSteel type soul pet.

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nIn particular, the 369 Steel was a soul beast with a body made of special steel, known as cloud steel.

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nLike its name suggested, it had the ability to transform and become as pliant as clouds.

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nIn its first form, this soul pet took the shape of three pieces of cloud steel rods, which came together to form a two-dimensional triangular plane.

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nWhen it evolved to its six rod form, a pyramidal 3D shape would be created instead.

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nWith nine rods, three more inner triangular shapes would be formed within its original foundation.

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nThe 369 Steel was extraordinary to say the least.

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nOn top of that, its most prominent skill was that it could transform into various other soul pets.

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nIt wasn’t just their appearance that it could imitate, but also the soul pet’s soul power cultivation as well.

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nThis was the power of the first man-made soul pet in this world’s history, which could be used for many life and scientific studies.

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nWhen the triangular 369 Steel in the testing room saw the green caterpillar, it immediately mirrored its form, and turned into a similar looking caterpillar that was twenty centimetres in length

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nHowever, because of its cloud steel body, the 369 Steel took on a white coloured appearance instead.

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nA green caterpillar that was white in colour.

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nNot waiting for its opponent, the green caterpillar leapt into the air.

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nHowever, the 369 Steel did not lag behind at all. Instead, it jumped straight towards Wang Che’s caterpillar.

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nThey charged at each other aggressively.

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nYet.

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nWhen it collided with the green caterpillar, the white caterpillar was immediately sent flying back.

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