Can You Accept This Gift?

The yellow soul ring floated quietly before Tang San.

It gave off a gentle, mellow glow, like a piece of fine warm jade, without the slightest trace of violent energy.

Yet Tang San's body would not stop trembling.

His mind was blank, as though a hundred depth charges had been dropped into it. Everything he knew, every shred of common sense, had been blasted to pieces before this tiny soul ring.

A Custom Soul Ring.

Attribute Reversal.

Was such a thing truly within human power?

No.

This was not human.

This was divine.

He abruptly raised his head and looked at Lin Xi.

The girl's face remained cold as snow, and not a ripple stirred in her deep eyes.

It was as if everything she had just done was no more than casually plucking a wildflower by the roadside—simple and effortless.

"Th-This is impossible..."

Yu Xiaogang's throat produced a hoarse rasp, like a broken bellows.

He collapsed onto the ground, eyes wide as he stared fixedly at the soul ring. It was as if his soul had been torn from his body.

"Altering the fundamental attribute of a soul ring... Th-This violates the world's foundational laws!"

"Conservation of Energy! Attribute Counterplay! These are ironclad laws carved into the very bones of the world!"

"Teacher... what exactly... did she do...?"

His words were incoherent. The little notebook in his hand had long since slipped to the ground, but he did not notice.

His spiritual world had only just been rebuilt by Lin Xi's theories. Now, it was on the verge of collapse again under the impact of the miracle she had personally displayed.

He felt like a tiny ant that had spent its entire life crawling out of its nest, believing it had finally seen the whole world.

Only for a dragon to fly in from beyond the heavens the next second and swallow, in a single bite, the "world" he thought he knew, along with the entire land beneath it.

That crushing pressure, born from the difference in their very levels of existence, nearly suffocated him.

"Lin Xi..."

Xiao Wu was terrified too.

Her little face had gone pale as she tightly clutched Lin Xi's hem, her voice trembling with tears.

"Y-You... are you still Lin Xi?"

The Lin Xi before her had become so unfamiliar—so unfamiliar that she was afraid.

She was no longer the friend who rubbed her head and bought her Tanghulu.

She was a god... lofty above all, looking down upon every living being.

Lin Xi's body stiffened slightly.

She lowered her head and looked into Xiao Wu's eyes, filled with fear and unease.

She was silent for a moment.

Then she reached out and gently rubbed Xiao Wu's scorpion braid, just as she always had.

"I have always been."

For the first time, her voice carried a trace of softness.

Xiao Wu froze.

Feeling the warmth of Lin Xi's palm and that familiar touch, her heart, which had risen to her throat, miraculously began to settle again.

It was her.

She was still her.

"But... but..."

Xiao Wu still could not understand.

"There are no buts."

Lin Xi cut her off, her gaze returning to Tang San.

"What are you waiting for?"

"A gift placed right before you—do you not even have the courage to accept it?"

Tang San's body jolted.

He looked at Lin Xi, then at the soul ring before him.

That was right.

What was he still hesitating over?

Ever since Holy Soul Village, this girl had time and again cleaved through the mist for him and shown him the road ahead.

She had revealed the secret of the Blue Silver Emperor to him.

She had overturned every old theory he knew.

She had shielded him from every slight and every danger.

And now, she had personally "created" the most perfect beginning for him.

Almost everything he possessed had been given to him by her.

What right did he have to question her? To doubt her intentions?

Tang San drew a deep breath. The confusion and shock in his eyes faded away, replaced by an unprecedented resolve.

He bowed deeply—deeply—to Lin Xi.

This bow was heavier and more devout than any he had given before.

"Thank you."

He said no more.

Because he knew that before the kindness she had shown him, any words would seem pale and powerless.

All he could do was accept it.

Then spend the rest of his life chasing after her footsteps.

With that, he stopped hesitating and sat down cross-legged.

He extended his trembling right hand and slowly touched the yellow soul ring floating before him.

Bzzzz!!!

The instant his fingertips touched the soul ring—

A vast, boundless life energy, gentle as spring water, surged into his body like rivers and seas bursting through their banks!

Tang San's body shuddered violently!

He felt as though he had been immersed in a warm ocean of life.

The Mysterious Heaven Skill within him did not even need his conscious direction. It began circulating on its own at an unprecedented, almost frenzied speed!

When his dormant Blue Silver Grass martial soul came into contact with this pure life energy of the same origin, it let out an incomparably joyful hum!

Blades of blue grass burst wildly from his body, wrapping him entirely into a massive blue cocoon of grass.

Faint golden patterns flickered across the cocoon.

An ancient, noble pressure belonging to an emperor slowly spread outward.

"It has begun..."

Yu Xiaogang stared blankly at the scene and muttered to himself.

"Using the energy of a two-thousand-year spirit beast to assault the body of a Spirit Master... Even after Teacher transformed it with divine power, this is still a tremendous gamble..."

"Tang San, you... you have to hold on!"

His heart rose into his throat.

Lin Xi quietly watched the grass cocoon wrapped in Blue Silver Grass, her expression calm.

She knew there was no risk.

She had absolute confidence in her own power.

She merely wanted to see.

Under the catalysis of this "divine gift," just how far Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Skill and his Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline could merge.

This would determine the limit of his future potential.

And it would determine just how far he could accompany her down this road.

Time passed, second by second.

Soul Hunting Forest fell into an eerie silence.

The surrounding spirit beasts seemed to sense some terrifying heavenly might. They all kept far away, not daring to approach this area in the slightest.

The sun gradually sank westward.

The glow of dusk filtered through gaps in the trees and fell upon the enormous blue grass cocoon, coating it in a golden halo.

Then—

Crack.

A crisp cracking sound shattered the silence.

A tiny fissure opened in the grass cocoon.

Then came a second, a third...

Crack! Crack!

The cracks multiplied, growing wider and wider!

Dazzling yellow light burst from them, bathing the entire forest clearing in gold!

Boom!!!

At last, the entire grass cocoon exploded!

Countless blue motes danced through the air.

A figure slowly rose at their center.

A brand-new yellow soul ring, shining with the brilliance of a thousand years, slowly rose from beneath his feet!