Swallowing Gold and Breaking Through on the Spot? Qian Daoliu Cries Out at an Ancient God

At the very instant Keqing gave him her wholehearted allegiance and her Vision completed its final transformation, it happened.

The two Martial Souls lying dormant within Chu Yuan suddenly trembled in unison in his spiritual sea!

A wave of profoundly mysterious laws of creation burst outward in all directions, with Chu Yuan at its center.

The unclaimed yellow and purple Soul Rings left behind by the dozen-odd hundred-year and thousand-year Soul Beasts hovered around the rocky hill. At that moment, as though summoned by a supreme sovereign, they all twisted violently before turning into dozens of strands of the purest life essence and law fragments, which flew of their own accord toward the [Crown of Heavenly Principles] above Chu Yuan's right palm!

That was not all. As Keqing's [Electro Vision] was reforged and anchored, a strand of supreme authority from the source of Teyvat's Electro followed the course of the laws where the two worlds merged. It descended from the rift in the heavenly abyss high above the nine heavens and crashed into the [Crown of Heavenly Principles]!

Understanding dawned on Chu Yuan in an instant.

He was no ordinary inhabitant of the Douluo Continent, but the "new Heavenly Principles" and "world anchor" who had fused with Phanes's essence of creation.

Under the native rules of Douluo Star, a Soul Master had to hunt a Soul Beast and absorb a Soul Ring every ten levels to break through the bottleneck and gain a Soul Skill.

But Chu Yuan wielded the [Crown of Heavenly Principles] and [Irminsul]. He had no need to follow those crude, primitive rules of hunting!

Whenever he saved a girl from Teyvat, reforged her Vision and formed a deep bond with her, or anchored and fused with the Ley Line of a fallen fragment of Teyvat, his Martial Soul would automatically draw upon the primal laws at the meeting point of the two worlds and directly condense a "Divine Authority Soul Ring" that surpassed the Douluo Continent's conventional age limit!

Under Keqing's astonished gaze, Chu Yuan did not even sit cross-legged to meditate. He simply rose slowly to his feet with the beauty in his arms.

A ring of light flowing with dense purple lightning and noble pale-gold divine markings appeared out of thin air beneath Chu Yuan's feet. It slowly rose and pulsed along his tall, slender frame!

Purple! And not just purple—it was a special Thousand-Year Soul Ring with gold shining through the purple, radiating majestic heavenly might!

The ironclad laws of the Douluo Continent held that a Soul Master's First Soul Ring could be no more than a hundred-year yellow Soul Ring of around four hundred and twenty-three years. Even the most dazzling genius with Innate Full Soul Power would meet only one end if they dared absorb a thousand-year ring as their First Soul Ring: their body would burst, killing them.

Yet Chu Yuan's First Soul Ring, self-condensed through the resonance of the Heavenly Principles' divine authority and the Electro Vision, contained primal power with an age that had astonishingly reached three thousand years!

What was more, because it had condensed automatically from his own divine authority of creation and the laws of the two worlds, the three-thousand-year purple-gold Soul Ring caused Chu Yuan not the slightest Soul Shock or strain on his meridians. Instead, it was like an extension of his essence perfectly suited to his body. The instant it took shape, his physical strength and spiritual power surged once more!

At the same time, information about the two Soul Skills granted by his First Soul Ring appeared clearly in Chu Yuan's mind-

[Crown of Heavenly Principles · First Soul Ring (self-condensed divine authority · three thousand years)]:

First, passive authority [Violet Firmament Divine Oracle]: grants immunity to all conventional lightning-attribute damage and paralysis effects. All lightning-attribute attacks by the user and his followers carry the "Heavenly Principles Judgment" effect, allowing them to ignore thirty percent of an enemy's Soul Power defenses and protective Qi.

Second, active Soul Skill [Heavenly Punishment Thunderbolt]: invokes the Heavenly Principles' authority over lightning. It can become a purple-gold lightning flash that travels a hundred meters in an instant and ignores spatial barriers, allowing for extreme movement and slashing attacks. It can also bring down a violent storm of heavenly punishment lightning over a fifty-meter radius, bombarding enemies within range with a devastating combination of Electro and divine power!

"So this is a Soul Ring self-condensed from divine authority... The first ring is already at the three-thousand-year level, and it comes with two divine authority skills, one passive and one active."

Sensing the divine power surging through him, more refined and vigorous than before, Chu Yuan's eyes flashed with satisfaction.

He was already at level thirty, a prospective Soul Elder. Now that his First Divine Authority Soul Ring had automatically finished condensing, he could anchor Ley Lines or continue rescuing girls from Teyvat to condense his second and third Soul Rings in seamless succession, advancing directly to become a true Soul Elder or even reach a higher realm!

"Chu Yuan, that purple-gold ring beneath your feet... Could it be part of this world's special power system?"

Keqing, cradled in Chu Yuan's arms, had also noticed the pulsing purple-gold Soul Ring.

To her surprise, when the ring appeared, the Vision at her waist gave a delighted little hum. It was as though the violet firmament lightning within her and the ring beneath Chu Yuan's feet were parts of a whole that shared the same origin. As long as she stayed by his side, her Electro power and recovery speed could rise by more than thirty percent out of nowhere!

"That's right. On the Douluo Continent, cultivators are called Soul Masters, and they need to add a Soul Ring every ten levels."

Chu Yuan withdrew the radiance of the Soul Ring around him and glanced down at the girl in his arms. Her purple-black ceremonial dress was badly torn, leaving her body exposed, and her beautiful black-stockinged legs had been slashed in several places, revealing large stretches of soft pink skin.

A cool night breeze swept past. Keqing seemed to realize the awkward state of her disheveled clothing, and her pretty face, whose blush had only just begun to fade, grew burning hot again.

With one hand, she hurriedly held up the slipping front of her dress, covering the full, snowy whiteness that threatened to spill out. With the other, she tugged awkwardly at the torn edge of the stocking on her thigh and said in a shy whisper:

"Um... My injuries have healed. Could you... put me down first?"

"I could put you down, but does Lady Yuheng intend to stand in the cold wind with me in the Star Dou Great Forest dressed like that?"

With the hint of a smile, Chu Yuan glanced at the delicate hand covering her chest, though plenty of smooth, alluring skin still showed between her fingers.

Keqing followed his gaze and looked down. Instantly, she was so mortified she wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

The dress was the formal attire she wore to handle official business in Liyue Harbor. After being torn by her passage between worlds and the elemental rampage just now, it was more revealing and provocative than her underclothes.

Chu Yuan stopped teasing her and gently set her down on a flat, clean bluestone. He then took off his outer robe, white with gold patterns, and draped it over Keqing's cool, smooth, fragrant shoulders, wrapping it securely around the exposed skin at her chest and waist.

The young man's lingering warmth and clean, pleasant scent enveloped Keqing at once.

Keqing paused, then instinctively pulled the roomy gold-patterned robe tighter around herself. Looking at Chu Yuan, who now wore only a plain white inner garment that made his figure appear all the taller and more slender, she felt the tenderness in her violet eyes deepen.

"Put your sword away."

Chu Yuan raised a hand and drew the [Lion's Roar] from the scorched earth three paces away into his grasp. He handed it back to Keqing, then looked at the dozen or so fragments of Liyue's white marble railings and bluestone bricks scattered around the rocky hill, and at the deep gorge eight hundred meters to the southwest where he had awakened.

In his left palm, his Second Martial Soul, [Irminsul], was giving off a soft, translucent green light.

"These fragments of Liyue's buildings that fell with you still carry a faint trace of Teyvat's Geo Ley Line. Come with me back to the secluded valley to the southwest. I need to fully anchor this trace of the Ley Line to a fragment of floating stone there, and while I'm at it, make you a grotto dwelling where you can settle down and bathe in peace."