When the Wind Rises, I Will Ride the Waves and Sail Across the Vast Sea!

However, Lin Xia and Larvitar's efficient yet barbaric "training plus dining" routine quickly brought trouble.

The stretch of open road they had chosen was not completely deserted.

During one training session, Larvitar had just blasted apart a small mound with Primal Power. Before the dust had even settled, Lin Xia and the Little Guy were sitting in the newly dug pit, greedily devouring the fresh dark soil rich in Soul Power, when a terrified scream shattered the silence.

"Mother of heaven! A ghost! There's a ghost eating dirt!"

Lin Xia jerked his head up, his mouth still stuffed with a large mouthful of soil.

A Woman carrying a farm tool stood by the roadside, her face white as paper. She did not even notice the hoe in her hand clatter to the ground. With trembling fingers, she pointed at the person and beast in the pit, her eyes filled with pure, indescribable terror.

Seeing the shattered mineral ore scattered around the pit and the two figures with mouths full of mud, she looked as though she had witnessed monsters devouring the earth and defiling all common sense.

The Woman turned and ran, stumbling and crawling away, her voice choked with sobs.

"Eating dirt... eating rocks... digging huge pits... monsters! They're monsters!"

And that was only the beginning.

In the following days, whenever they "created" another fresh pit and buried their heads to "eat," they would draw strange looks from passersby.

Most people would see the ground, as though it had been ravaged by a Giant Beast, along with Lin Xia and the bizarre-looking Soul Beast sitting in the middle of the pit, covered in dust with mud at the corners of their mouths. They instinctively chose to take a detour, their eyes filled with suspicion, disgust, and deep fear.

"Whose crazy child is that? Or some evil Soul Master's experiment?"

"Th-that's a Soul Beast? Why does it look so ferocious? It... it's eating dirt?!"

"That huge pit... did they chew it out themselves?!"

"Report this to Spirit Hall!"

There were also some soft-hearted people who only saw that Lin Xia was still young, yet looked utterly bedraggled as he "gnawed on dirt" alone in the wilderness.

An old man leaning on a cane approached shakily, his voice full of pity.

"Child... you must be starving, right? Don't eat dirt. Grandpa has a flatbread here... come home with me, and I'll get you something warm..."

However, when his gaze passed over Lin Xia and landed on Larvitar on the other side of the pit, holding a large chunk of rock and crunching it with loud Gā Bēng sounds, the old man saw him raise his dark red eyes.

The kindness on the old man's face instantly froze, turning into utter terror.

That gaze, full of primal strength and savagery, was definitely not that of some gentle, domesticated beast!

"M-monster!"

His cane slipped from his grasp. He did not even dare pick it up, staggering backward before scrambling away as fast as he could.

Watching another kind-hearted person get scared away, along with the crowd in the distance pointing and whispering, the string in Lin Xia's heart suddenly tightened.

Lin Xia slowly swallowed the dirt in his mouth. The small thrill brought by his increased strength vanished without a trace, leaving behind only cold vigilance.

"This is bad!"

Lin Xia wiped the mud from the corners of his mouth and led Larvitar, who was still tilting his head as he watched the fleeing passerby.

"Larvitar, we've become monsters in other people's eyes... and these traces are way too obvious!"

He looked at the fresh pit beneath his feet, still giving off faint dust, then at the road stretching ahead.

This was practically the perfect trail for anyone with ill intentions to follow!

Thinking of how Yu Xiaogang had hounded him for more than ten days, determined to take him as a disciple, Lin Xia immediately realized that, in the eyes of certain people, he was probably a highly sought-after prize!

Combined with Larvitar's potential and uniqueness, what would happen if his strange ability to eat dirt and mineral ore fell into their hands?

Would they slice him up for research?

"No! We absolutely can't keep taking the main road!"

Lin Xia made his decision in an instant, his Sharp Gaze sweeping over the rolling, densely vegetated mountains on both sides of the road.

"We're going into the mountains! Larvitar, from now on, whenever we're hungry, we'll find food in the mountains! We'll eat our fill before coming back out to travel!"

After saying that, Lin Xia led Larvitar headlong into the vast mountain forest.

Half a Month later, Lin Xia ended a night of crude meditation beneath a sheltered cliff outside Gengjin City.

Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the trees and fell across him.

Out of habit, Lin Xia calmed his mind and sensed the circulation of Soul Power within his body.

Buzz—

An unprecedentedly solid and abundant Soul Power Fluctuation instantly flooded Lin Xia's senses!

Within his Dantian Sea of Qi, the Soul Power that had once been like thin mist, requiring bit-by-bit accumulation, now surged like a stream filled to the brim!

That power was no longer ethereal. It was heavy, condensed, and carried the steady force of rock!

It was as if a once-shallow puddle had become a small pond brimming to the edge, ready to burst forth at any moment!

Only the thinnest line remained before that crucial boundary, yet both the "quality" and "quantity" of his Soul Power had reached a critical point!

Level Ten Soul Power!

Without any systematic meditation guidance, he had relied solely on the frenzied feedback from Larvitar's Martial Soul traits, along with devouring the Primal Power contained within earth, mineral ore, and soil as ravenously as Larvitar himself!

In the dozen or so days after awakening his Innate Soul Power, Lin Xia had not even cultivated because he had been taking care of Larvitar during his infancy!

His actual cultivation time had been only Half a Month, yet he had crossed the threshold of level nine and directly reached the first true milestone of Soul Master cultivation—Level Ten Soul Power!

If word of such progress spread, it would make the jaws of all those peers who followed the usual meditation routine drop. It was simply an inconceivable miracle!

"Level ten... I broke through!"

Lin Xia suddenly opened his eyes. Even the dust on his face could not conceal the wild joy shining from them!

Excited, Lin Xia wanted to pick up Larvitar, who was still yawning beside him, but he could not lift him!

Lin Xia did not care in the slightest. Instead, his voice trembled with excitement.

"Larvitar! Did you feel that? Level ten! We reached level ten! Hahahaha!"

Larvitar was startled by Lin Xia's sudden movement, but he quickly sensed the explosive joy deep within Lin Xia's Inner Heart, as well as the surging Soul Power Fluctuation, like a newly rising tide.

That instantly excited him as well. He waved his little stubby arms and let out cheerful, meaningless cries.

"Yoji! Yoji!"

After letting go of Larvitar, Lin Xia stood up as well. His Sharp Gaze pierced through the layers of forest and fell upon the fabled Metal Capital.

And level ten meant that he could finally absorb the all-important first Soul Ring!

As for Larvitar—the future Sandstorm Monarch—what place could be more suitable as the starting point for his meteoric rise than a magnificent city that gathered the Essence of Earth and Metal, with metal Ore Veins flowing beneath it?

But before that, Lin Xia still had to enter the city, join a faction, and learn about Soul Beast Soul Rings suitable for Larvitar to absorb!

After all, this concerned his future path. Lin Xia did not dare be careless!

As that thought crossed his mind, a surge of heroic spirit rose within Lin Xia's Inner Heart!

"One day, I will ride the winds and break through the waves, hoisting my sail high to cross the vast sea!"

"Larvitar, Gengjin City is right ahead. Let's go!"

.