Douluo Dalu: 1st Cycle: Dancing Panda

"Before fusing with the Spirit Soul you should learn to meditate correctly. Only after you are able to control your Soul Power to a decent degree can you begin the fusion process with the Spirit Soul." Yi Lan turned on his 'teacher mode' as he sat Karni down for a one on one conversation. Not that they had anything else but a one on one recently.

"You've only just awakened yesterday, so it's normal for you to not even be able to release soul power. Go on, try to reach for it and release it through your palm." Yi Lan did a small demonstration for him, and Karni could feel the energy flowing on Yi Lan's hand. Just seeing it was already magical to Karni right now.

He closed his eyes and tried to focus on his body. He felt a bit foolish about it, like he was a kid playing pretend. At least it was true that he was a child right now.

He soon noticed that unlike when he played pretend as a kid trying to have super powers, he did actually feel some strange energy flowing through him. It felt a bit overwhelming. He tried to reach for it, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't touch it. At that point a small laughter escaped from the teacher in front.

"Don't worry. To sense, but not be able to control soul power: if you don't know how to cultivate, it's completely normal. Come here and turn your back to me. Let me guide you through a simple cultivation method first."

Karni did as the teacher said. He felt two palms press against his back, and foreign energy entered his body.

"Don't fight it, follow my guidance."

Yi Lan made the energy flow from Karni's back, to his head, arms, legs, chest before returning to his back. It was a complete loop, though quite a simple one. As another loop was made, Karni started to get a sense of the pathways to follow. On the third loop he was already actively participating.

Soon Karni was cultivating alone while Yi Lan checked if he did everything correctly. 

Eventually Karni was left alone, the kid had a great focus. He has been cultivating now for a solid 3 hours by himself. While not a lot for a Soul Master, it was a lot for a kid his age.

Evening. Karni has been cultivating for a whole day. This was quite abnormal for a child and Yi Lan decided to wake him out of it.

"You haven't eaten for the whole day, Karni." said Yi Lan.

Karni stared blankly, then scratched his head. Time passed as if he was playing video games, it was both relaxing and refreshing at the same time, like being in a jacuzzi. He knew that a lot of time had passed, but it still felt a bit too fast.

During breakfast, Yi Lan started teaching again. "I suggest you get familiar with the meditation for at least a week before attempting fusion. If you feel your control isn't good enough yet, you should postpone it a bit." 

"Most kids would cultivate for at least two years at a minimum before getting to rank 10, so they would be ready for fusion immediately."

At this point Karni interrupted. "Don't I only have 24 hours until the Spirit Soul dies?"

Yi Lan was a bit surprised, and then explained. "Yes, however only after you open the Ball with the Spirit Soul inside… Which is why I'm telling you to take it slow. If you would've chosen a different Spirit Soul, you would've probably had to wait for us to find it as well."

"All-Seeing Rattlesnake is quite common, however not a lot of people fuse with it, so a mid sized city would usually have at least one in storage, you're simply lucky enough to have a Martial Soul compatible with it."

"And since you already have a Spirit Soul, I'm telling you to be patient and not hurry with the fusion. Be sure to first have a decent understanding of cultivation."

After finishing dinner, Yi Lan continued with teaching. "When cultivating, your mind rests. It can be a substitute for sleeping, just don't overdo it. Best way to replenish your mental energy is still through sleep."

With encouragement, Karni decided to go and meditate on the bed.

The more Karni cultivated, the more relaxed he felt. In only feeling his pathways however, it seemed like something else was there as well.

Small golden dots littered Karni's senses. There were a lot of them and Karni subconsciously focused on them. The small golden dots seemed to align themselves like a small stream. Or maybe it would be more accurate to say it looked like a string of golden dots.

It felt like these golden dots connected with Karni's pathways. He didn't know where these golden spots came from, but he could feel that they did nothing bad to him.

Just like that he continued to cultivate for another few hours.

When he woke up it was already morning. *I guess time really does fly fast while cultivating.*

He stepped outside and the first thing that greeted him was a surprised look by teacher Yi Lan. "You're up early." he said with a cheeky smile.

Karni simply returned a confused look.

"You've been cultivating for three days straight!" Yi Lan released a small chuckle.

Karni was shocked again. *For three days??*

"Looks like you have quite the talent for cultivating, Karni. Tell me your experiences so far."

Karni retold how he felt the golden specks and Yi Lan was shocked. Did Karni really grasp cultivation that fast? Or was it somehow connected to his martial soul. Either way, this was a good thing for Karni. He encouraged him to embrace these golden dots, he was sure they would positively influence Karni's meditation.

"For now continue cultivating for another few days, then fuse with your Spirit Soul. Afterwards, if you're willing, we should make plans to go to Star Luo City as the new year will be starting soon."

There was no need to doubt that Karni could control the soul power by now. Even now, he could already control Soul Power to go to his palm without a struggle.

In just that fashion, Karni cultivated for the next few days and ate at the appropriate times. He was feeling hungry after cultivating for three days after all, he didn't want a repeat of that.

When he finished, Yi Lan and Karni went through the process of fusing with a Spirit Soul once more. When both were sure Karni knew about the process perfectly, Karni took a deep breath and went into his room.

He picked up the Ball in which his little spirit snake resided. After another deep breath he clicked on the big button at the top of the Ball and the Ball split apart,

What greeted Karni's sight was a small snake, it was about two fingers thick and very long. The snake was twisted in a spiral so that it fit inside the ball.

It too soon noticed Karni with its bright yellow eyes. They were surprisingly small, yet incredibly clear. There was caution in those tiny eyes.

It stretched itself out of the ball curiously. Karni could now see that this snake wasn't small at all. It was at least a metre long and had pitch black scales with occasional yellow stripes.

When Karni thought of the fact that the snake was actually a hundred year old snake, he realised that perhaps, this was actually considered small indeed. He gave the snake a small smile and let it explore the space a bit. He had 24 hours before he had to fuse with the snake after all.

He used this time to steady his mind one last time and then he approached the thin snake slowly.

He called out his Staff of Predictions. Softly, he poured soul power out of his Staff towards the snake. He made contact with the snake and felt the connection with the snake rising.

So far, the Bo Staff and the Snake seemed to be friendly with one another. Karni remembered his next step. He focused his mind and let himself open up to the snake.

To fuse with a Spirit Soul one had to accept it completely, accept it with their soul, and Karni was doing this right now. However this wouldn't mean that the Spirit Soul would agree.

Spirit Souls had their own Spiritual Power, this was why it was important to test Karni's own at the Spirit Pagoda. He had to have sufficient Spiritual Power to fuse with a Spirit Soul.

A clash of Spiritual Power appeared and this made Karni quite uncomfortable. However it wasn't painful. The snake was fighting back a little. Karni had to somehow convince it to continue.

What does it mean to truly open oneself up to a Spirit Soul? Karni wasn't quite sure. The only thing he did was to try and genuinely make himself seem harmless, welcoming. Was that the problem, was he, somewhere, deep down, still not accepting of it?

If he couldn't do this, there would be no hope for him to continue in the future. This was his very first step to returning back home.

*Please.* Karni thought. *I won't be able to do this without you. I chose you, please, choose me as well, look into my mind.*

Right! He had to open himself up completely. His thoughts, feelings and mind included. The two's spiritual powers were interacting, fusing, talking to each other in some sense.

*Let me show you everything.* Karni opened up his thoughts. Attempted to show them to the little snake. His world, his family, his friends, his mother. The emotions he felt towards them, what he wanted to gain back.

The thin, long snake seemed to pause in its struggles. It was looking through Karni's feelings. It couldn't see everything, but the emotions that Karni had towards his home, those it could feel.

The snake, with its limited intelligence of an Artificial Spirit Soul, couldn't help but accept Karni back. It could feel that Karni meant no harm to its being. It could feel his will to establish a friendly connection, his vulnerabilities, his strengths.

Slowly but surely, the snake now started to truly fuse with the Bo Staff martial soul. A ring began forming on the Martial Soul. The ring's colour was a bright yellow. This signified the ring's age, which was in the hundreds. If he were not so lucky with his twin martial souls, he might have had to buy a Spirit Soul himself, he had no clue how he'd even begin to go about it.

The protagonist of Soul Land 3 was poor, and didn't have twin souls, therefore he had to pay an astronomical price of 30.000 federation coins, and that was for a random spirit. What he got was a 10 year old one, which gave him a white spirit ring.

Meanwhile Karni was lucky enough to get a suitable Spirit Soul for his martial soul from the start. This caused the process of fusion with the Bo Staff Martial Soul to go quite smoothly. As the process was finishing, he could feel the qualitative changes to his Staff of Predictions. The spirit soul was suitable for the Bo, it meant that the staff itself would also get boosted in its basic form.

There also seemed to be an ability forming up in Karni's mind slowly, though to really find out its effect, he would have to try it out. This was an ability that was given by the first soul ring. The new ability would form based on what kind of soul beast gave it and what kind of martial soul one had. In this case he could feel that this ability gave him a sort of overall amplification. Exactly what he wanted.

He didn't know yet, but one's will to wish for a certain ability, always played a part in how the soul ring would form.

It couldn't be too strong of an ability yet, as it was still only a yellow ring's ability; but as he continued on, he would get stronger powers. 

Both the Spirit Soul and the Bo Staff seemed to have been undergoing some changes as well. The snake grew larger by at least 10 cm. Its eyes and the stripes changed from yellow to yellow-gold.

Meanwhile the intricate design that decorated the Bo Staff seemed to have changed, every now and then a black symbol in the shape of a snake seemed to have connected the flowing design. Eventually Karni opened his eyes.

He saw his little snake and he felt immense familiarity coming from it. Compared to before, the eyes of the snake felt warm. "Oh? You're a girl aren't you?" He said with a small smile. The process was successful. 

While the Artificial Spirit Souls did not have any intelligence, it still had basic emotions and instincts. Karni could understand what the snake was feeling. Of course, as the Spirit Soul will age, she will also develop more intelligence.

Since he was transported into the time of the Legend of the Dragon King, he will also get the chance to upgrade the age of his soul rings. This will consequently strengthen the abilities that he received now. After all, you don't directly increase the age of the soul rings, but the Spirit Soul that gave you those soul rings. 

In his case, his hundred year old All-Seeing Rattlesnake will eventually evolve into a thousand year one and produce purple soul rings. And later on it could grow even further.

"Well I should give you a name now shouldn't I? Hmmm, how about Hope?" It was cheesy, however he was giving his hope into the little spirit, hope, that it will help him find his way home. It could be said that he finally took the first step to becoming a Soul Master, a first step to finding his way home.

When the snake heard the name that her new master had given her, she nodded happily. She could feel on a basic level that her owner had a lot of hope for her. Hope slowly entangled the Bo Staff, and with but a thought from Karni, disappeared into the martial soul. The Spirit Soul resided in his soul, his mind, and there was a clear connection to the Staff Martial Soul. The feeling was both odd and magical. He could also tell that his soul power rank was now 11.

With that finished, he looked at his Staff of Predictions and noticed something that he hadn't before. Since he came to this world not too long ago, he hadn't yet had the chance to observe his martial souls. There were intricate symbols on the bo staff, and as he looked closer, there were four bigger symbols going along the middle of the staff.

The first symbol was made of two dragons. They seemed to be looking at each other, maybe as lovers or maybe as enemies. The symbol was not detailed enough for one to be sure. The first dragon was golden and its tiny eyes seemed to be red at one time, blue at another. Meanwhile the second dragon was silver, with their eyes being the colour of purple. Karni had a sudden realisation. "Tang Wulin and Gu Yuena?"