Inside Lu Jingming's body, the soul power aura began to spin madly, faster and faster, as if forming a huge vortex of soul power.
Finally, at the center of this vortex, a crystal-clear, gleaming nucleus slowly took shape.
The nucleus emitted a radiant glow, like a rare and precious treasure.
Looking closely, within the nucleus, a miniature black Abyss Spear could be vaguely seen.
That was his martial soul projection. When this spear grew to its peak, it would become his life-bound weapon.
Once he ascended to godhood, this spear would become his divine artifact.
This kind of artifact was completely different from those forged later—it possessed immense potential for growth, evolving endlessly as Lu Jingming grew, with almost no limits.
In other words, the Black Abyss White Flower that grew alongside him could well surpass the original, becoming an even more powerful weapon.
Moreover, since it was a life-bound weapon, it was perfectly compatible with Lu Jingming, like an extension of his own body, allowing him to bring out its full power.
Lu Jingming sat silently in meditation, focusing on the wonderful changes happening within his body and martial soul.
He knew well that condensing a soul core meant he was no longer an ordinary human. Both his life form and lifespan had become vastly different from ordinary people.
However, Lu Jingming didn't really care much about the extra century of lifespan. What mattered more to him was the evolution of his martial soul and the transformation of his physical body.
Now that he had broken through to Soul Sage and successfully condensed his first soul core, Lu Jingming's combat strength had undergone another qualitative leap.
At this point, even a Title Douluo could no longer pose a real threat to him, and even Super Douluo would have a hard time troubling him.
Those who could threaten him were probably only Ultimate Douluo.
But even then, it would be just a threat, nothing more.
In this era, his strength was far beyond the norm. Compared to Huo Yuhao from the original story, who also condensed his first soul core as a Soul Sage, Lu Jingming was much stronger.
"Speaking of which, now that I've broken through to Soul Sage, there are still two years until the next Sun Moon Empire Soul Master Tournament. With my current cultivation speed, I may not reach Soul Douluo, but I'll be close. Is there even a point in participating? Wouldn't that be bullying?" Lu Jingming thought with a wry smile.
After condensing the soul core, it would automatically operate, constantly enhancing his cultivation.
Combined with the abundant cultivation resources in Haiyuan City, by the time the next tournament came, he really might break through to Soul Douluo.
Moreover, with his help, Jinhsi, Castorice, and others would definitely also condense their first soul cores and become Soul Sages.
With Saint Freya Academy's current lineup and strength, participating in the Mingdu Soul Master Tournament would be overkill.
Other contestants would probably want to cry when they saw their roster.
"Well, with the Holy Grail War now, who knows if the Sun Moon Empire will even hold the tournament? Worst case, I'll just let Wang Qiu'er lead the team." Lu Jingming shook his head, no longer troubled by the issue.
He really didn't have much interest in such bullying competitions anymore.
Besides, Haiyuan City had long since changed and no longer needed the tournament champion title for influence.
Having the title was nice, but not having it didn't matter to Haiyuan City at all.
Unknowingly, both he and Haiyuan City had grown into giants, exerting a terrifying influence across the whole Douluo Continent.
If his parents, who died so early in this world, could see this, they would surely be gratified.
Although he couldn't fulfill his filial piety to his parents in this world, he could pass on the Lu family bloodline and make it flourish.
Just as Lu Jingming broke through to Soul Sage and condensed his first soul core, he keenly sensed something unusual.
Instinctively raising his hand, his gaze fell on the Stigmata Mark, where a vivid red mark had suddenly appeared, flashing with a mysterious red glow.
"Wow, am I the second one?"
The moment he saw the red mark, Lu Jingming, as the initiator of the Holy Grail War, immediately recognized the Command Seal he had designed.
At first, he felt a bit puzzled, but quickly understood.
After all, he had been helping Douluo Planet grow stronger all along; in a sense, he had basically replaced Huo Yuhao as the Child of Destiny in this world.
Therefore, it made sense that he would possess this destiny and be selected as a Master.
However, Lu Jingming also understood that the amount of destiny didn't necessarily determine the selection order.
Otherwise, there's no way the first Master would be Bai Xiuxiu, the fourth-generation female protagonist.
"Perfect, time to draw a card and test my luck!"
Lu Jingming's interest was instantly piqued.
Back in his previous life, his favorite part of gacha games was drawing cards—the anticipation and excitement for the unknown was flooding him again.
Although he had no intention of truly participating in the Holy Grail War (even the Grail itself was built by Herta under his instructions), that didn't stop him from joining the fun.
Summoning a Servant didn't mean he had to join the war—simply experiencing the summoning was enjoyable enough.
He was curious who he might draw from that vast memory bank.
According to his preferences, he would love to summon characters like Kiana, Archeron, Furina, Kamisato Ayaka, Lisa, the Shorekeeper, Hu Tao, Citlali, Skadi, etc.
However, the rules only allowed one choice, so it was all up to luck.
No matter who he drew, he had already decided that after the Holy Grail War ended, he would materialize them.
Furthermore, for the victor of the Holy Grail War, he would also help them become real.
"Let's go, one shot!" Lu Jingming agreed to the Grail's invitation without hesitation.
In an instant, the Holy Grail system activated, and a blood-red summoning array slowly unfolded in Herta's laboratory.
The array emitted a mysterious glow, linking with the planet's ley lines.
As the array connected with the ley lines, the planet's negative energy was drawn out, slowly condensing into a memory body in a strange, indescribable way.
"Whoa, golden legend!" Lu Jingming cheered as he glimpsed a golden light flickering in the array.
For added fun, he had Herta program the Grail with several seemingly unnecessary but actually fun features, including summoning effects.
Based on his knowledge of character rarity, he divided the summoned memory bodies into gold, purple, and blue ranks.
Although this division didn't precisely reflect the strength differences—some blue-ranked characters, such as certain heroic spirits from the Type-Moon world or operators from Arknights, were still quite formidable—it was just his personal, subjective classification for fun.
At this moment, seeing the golden light, Lu Jingming was instantly overjoyed.
There were so many gold characters that he'd be happy with any of them.
Of course, if he drew his waifu, that would be perfect.
Soon, as the light faded, a figure slowly appeared before Lu Jingming.
A waterfall of purple hair, a katana at her waist, and a face somewhat reminiscent of Raiden Shogun—these familiar features immediately caught Lu Jingming's eye.
"Yes! It's Archeron!" At first, seeing this familiar appearance, Lu Jingming was so excited his heart almost leaped out of his chest. Did he just draw the version's top-tier DPS in one shot?
But a closer look revealed something off.
Why was Archeron's outfit different from what he remembered?
The woman before him wore silver-white armor with black accents and black semi-transparent stockings—completely different from any of the Archeron, Raiden Shogun, or Raiden Mei outfits he remembered.
She had the gentle rice-cooker wife face, long straight purple hair, and a beautiful katana at her waist, but the outfit was all wrong!
Was it Mei? But that didn't seem right either!
Lu Jingming was dumbfounded, his mind a complete mess.
"You don't seem very happy to see me?" Just then, a mature yet gentle voice drifted over, like a spring breeze with a hint of chill, snapping Lu Jingming out of his daze.
"You are… Aunt Mei!" At the sound of that mature, gentle voice, a flash of inspiration struck Lu Jingming. Of course—there was another version of Mei who dressed like this: Mature Raiden Mei from post-Honkai Odyssey.
"Shing!"
Almost instantly, the katana was drawn, the tip crackling with electricity, stopping just a centimeter from Lu Jingming's nose.
Raiden Mei looked calm, but there was a trace of anger in her gaze as she stared at Lu Jingming, her tone clearly questioning: "What did you just call me?"
"Mei! Isn't that right?" Cold sweat broke out on Lu Jingming's forehead as he tried to play it cool.
"Forget it, given your age, I suppose that's fine!" Raiden Mei sheathed her blade, sounding a little melancholy.
She was a bit annoyed—why was she summoned in this mature form? She would have been stronger if summoned eight years earlier, before losing most of her power!