Light and Darkness Clash

The steam in the bathroom had yet to disperse. Qian Renxue changed into a clean pale-gold dress and hurried toward Qian Daoliu's quiet chamber, the tips of her hair still dripping with water.

"Grandfather!"

She pushed open the door, her voice clear after the Body Tempering yet tinged with urgency. Her eyes shone like stars as she hurriedly said, "The Whale Rubber... it's real! I've never felt my Soul Power flow so smoothly. My bones are tougher, and my blood and vitality surge like rivers and seas! Lu Jing didn't lie to us!"

Qian Daoliu stood by the window with his hands behind his back, the lingering sunset casting a layer of dark gold over his hair.

He slowly turned around. His golden pupils reflected his granddaughter's flushed cheeks, reddened by excitement, as he calmly nodded. "I saw it. The life essence circulating around you cannot escape my eyes."

After a pause, his calm voice carried a penetrating insight that seemed to see through all things. "Though this boy's origins remain a mystery, he did not speak falsely this time. Since he has given you such an opportunity, you should repay his goodwill and treat him well."

Qian Renxue nodded, but then her grandfather abruptly changed the subject, his tone taking on an unprecedented gravity. "Xue'er, there is one more matter. If my eyes do not deceive me..."

His gaze seemed to pass through the walls and fall in Lu Jing's direction as he said softly, "The status of the World-Annihilating Black Lotus he possesses may be above that of our clan's Six-Winged Angel."

"What?!"

Qian Renxue's exquisite face instantly filled with incredulous shock. Her voice rose sharply as she cried out, "How is that possible?! The Six-Winged Angel is formed from the Angel God's bloodline, sacred and supreme! He is merely a mortal—how could his martial soul possibly..."

"That is precisely what is difficult to comprehend."

Qian Daoliu furrowed his brow slightly, recalling the profound darkness of Lu Jing's martial soul, which seemed capable of ending all things. "That darkness is incomparably refined and pure. It carries the primal source of chaotic destruction, as though heaven and earth had just begun. Not to mention the Angel God's light—even if I unleashed my full strength, I fear I still could not completely disperse the origin power within that lotus phantom."

Qian Renxue pressed her red lips together. Shock and doubt intertwined in her beautiful eyes, while the pride in her bones instinctively rejected this judgment that overturned everything she knew. "I don't believe it! How could a divine inheritance be weaker than some nameless lotus?"

Seeing her stubborn expression, Qian Daoliu shook his head helplessly. "Words are pale. Facts will serve as proof."

A sharp glint flashed through his eyes as he made his decision. "Before you depart to infiltrate the Heaven Dou Empire, I will arrange a martial soul spar between you and Lu Jing. Stop at the proper point. Do you dare experience it for yourself?"

The unyielding light in Qian Renxue's eyes flared brightly as she immediately answered, "Why wouldn't I dare?! I want to see how his Black Lotus can possibly overpower the Angel God's radiance!"

At the same time, inside Lu Jing's room.

"Whew..." Lu Jing had just finished speaking with Wang Dong'er and shut his door. Before his exhaustion had faded, a familiar, frantic voice exploded in his mind.

"Damn it! Little Jing! Little Jing, are you okay? I finally recovered! What backwater corner have we been exiled to? This creepy palace complex... something's off about the taste of this Soul Power field!"

The enormous spiritual projection of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm churned within his sea of consciousness. Its ice-blue compound eyes spun wildly, carrying the confusion and agitation of someone who had just awakened from the Whale Rubber's impact.

"This is Spirit Hall."

Hearing the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's question, Lu Jing did not hide it and answered plainly.

"Spirit Hall? Why does that name sound so familiar? It feels like I've heard it somewhere before."

The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm frowned slightly. After thinking for a moment, it seemed to realize something and cried out, "Wait... Spirit Hall? Little Jing, this is fucking wrong! Didn't Tang San wipe Spirit Hall out with the Two Great Empires ten thousand years ago? Even its ashes should've gone cold by now! How is there still one here, alive and kicking?!"

Lu Jing rubbed his brow, the corners of his lips lifting into a curve that showed he had expected this reaction. He replied through his thoughts, "Exactly what it sounds like. We passed through a spatial-temporal rift and fell into the Douluo Continent of ten thousand years ago. Right now, we're in Spirit Hall's Worship Hall."

"...???"

The clamor in his sea of consciousness abruptly fell silent. A moment later, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's voice shot up, shrill as a cat whose tail had been stepped on. "What the hell?! Traveling—through—time—and—space?! Ten thousand years ago?! Little Jing, are you sure the Whale Rubber didn't fry your brain?! How is this fucking possible?! No matter how absurd a spatial rift is, it can't be absurd enough to tear the timeline in half too, can it?! I've lived for a million years, and I've never seen anything like this!"

Its ice-blue spiritual body trembled wildly, clearly left logically bewildered by this utterly outrageous revelation.

Lu Jing could not be bothered to explain further. He merely said, "That's the reality. Stop howling and save your strength. Since we're here, we might as well make the best of it. Recovering comes first."

Ignoring the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's endless muttering in his sea of consciousness and its relentless attempts to "prove the time paradox," he went straight to the bed and lay down.

The weariness in his body mingled with the settled sensation left by the Whale Rubber's Body Tempering, and he soon fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The next morning.

Knock, knock, knock.

The rhythmic knocking woke Lu Jing.

He opened the door to find Qian Renxue standing in the morning sunlight, dressed in a golden gown. Her bright smile held a trace of eager sharpness.

"Awake?"

Without waiting for an answer, she reached out and grabbed Lu Jing's wrist, her strength leaving no room for refusal. "Come with me. There's something I need your cooperation with."

Her tone was casual and relaxed, but it could not conceal the restrained desire to challenge him deep in her eyes.

Lu Jing let her pull him along and asked, "What is it, Sister Xue'er?"

"Just a small matter."

Qian Renxue walked briskly, her golden hair fluttering lightly in the breeze. Without looking back, she said, "Grandfather arranged it. It won't take long. We just want to figure something out."

She did not elaborate, instead pulling Lu Jing swiftly toward an open training ground behind the Worship Hall.

The grounds were spacious, their floor paved with hard obsidian. Qian Daoliu, dressed in gray robes, stood quietly at the edge of the field, his robes utterly still in the morning breeze.

Seeing the two arrive, he gave a slight nod.

"Grandfather." Qian Renxue released Lu Jing's hand and came to a stop.

"Great Enshrined Elder." Lu Jing bowed.

Qian Daoliu calmly swept his gaze over them both, his voice low and steady. "There is no need to be nervous. This is merely a friendly spar to let Xue'er verify a conjecture—a contest of pure martial soul origin power. Stop at the proper point. With this old man here, neither of you will be hurt." His final words were both a guarantee and the rules he had set.

Lu Jing turned his gaze toward Qian Renxue. Her beautiful purple eyes were fixed on him, burning with intense competitiveness and an almost obsessive desire to prove the truth.

He understood her pride, and he understood even more clearly that under these circumstances, only letting her experience it firsthand could erase her deep doubts.

He nodded, direct and decisive. "Alright."

The instant the words fell, Lu Jing's gaze abruptly stilled! The air above his head silently distorted, and the phantom of a pitch-black lotus, as though carved from black jade, instantly appeared—the World-Annihilating Black Lotus descended!

Its lotus pedestal was as deep as a dark abyss, while its petals flowed with the will to destroy all things. A profound purple soul ring slowly pulsed beneath his feet.

"A thousand-year soul ring? How is that possible?!"

Qian Renxue's pupils contracted slightly. Stirred by that pure aura of darkness and destruction, her pride was completely ignited!

With a clear cry, blazing golden Holy Radiance surged into the sky!

Three pairs of enormous pure-white wings burst open behind her, every feather flowing with sacred brilliance like liquid sunlight!

Scorching, radiant energy swept through the entire field, seeking to dispel the darkness. Two yellow and one purple soul rings rose beneath her feet, fully revealing the might of a Soul Elder.

The collision of light and darkness was soundless, yet utterly breathtaking!