By the time Zi JI's ocean-going ship reached the port city of Xinluli on Star Luo Continent, the voyage had lasted a full four months. The city was in the midst of its liveliest time of year: Martial Soul Awakening Day.
On this day, nearly every household's six-year-old children had to go to a location designated by the city government and awaken their Martial Souls through a ceremony.
Parents all hoped their children would possess Innate Soul Power during the ceremony. Soul Power was a kind of ability that nurtured and enhanced a Martial Soul. Even among a thousand people, there might not be a single one whose Martial Soul awakened alongside Soul Power.
For an ordinary citizen of the Star Luo Empire, Soul Power meant the possibility of rising above their station in life. When a Martial Soul awakened alongside Soul Power, its owner could cultivate that Soul Power to strengthen their Martial Soul and become a Soul Master, the noblest profession among humanity for thousands of years.
So even the most ordinary families hoped that, on their children's sixth birthday, their Martial Souls would awaken alongside Soul Power. It could change a child's life and even benefit the whole family.
But while families with six-year-old children across the city busied themselves with the ceremony, bringing the whole city to life, Zi JI had no interest in enjoying the festivities. She had just disembarked after four months of being tossed around at sea.
After stepping off the ship at Xinluli's docks, Zi JI's legs involuntarily bent into an X. One hand went to her knees as they knocked together, while the other clutched the railing to keep her from falling. After four months at sea, she felt as if her feet no longer belonged to her. Even after setting foot on land again, she was a little dazed.
"Those ships really aren't meant for dragons. I don't know how humans put up with them."
Zi JI glanced around the spiral staircase. Once she was sure no one was nearby, she cursed under her breath.
"At least I had a second-class, premium ticket and a single cabin with its own bathroom. How did those ordinary people who bought third-class tickets survive four months in a cabin with thirty-two people?"
Even though large Soul Tools for storage had become standard on cruise ships, a voyage of four whole months still meant the crew had to ration supplies. Even Zi JI, who had the best kind of second-class ticket, was restricted at mealtimes. At most, she could order one extra dish. (First-class tickets were reserved for Star Luo Empire officials.)
"Never mind. The hardest part is over. Now I can properly explore the lands beyond Douluo Continent."
Once Zi JI's legs had adjusted to being on land, she looked toward the city beyond the dockside wall. It seemed to be celebrating Martial Soul Awakening Day. She sensed a trace of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon's aura in the city. It was probably the Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon of this continent. Perhaps she could try making contact with it first.
Meanwhile, a street in Xinluli's academic district was already packed early that morning, with parents bringing their children to take part in the awakening. This gave the Elves—who could use runes developed by Barus to conceal their long ears and make them look like the round ears of humans—the perfect opportunity to observe a cross-section of human society.
They took seats at an outdoor table outside a café on the academic street, bought a few cups of coffee and some desserts with silver coins, and observed this extraordinary spectacle, one that the Elves never experienced back home. (Paper currency only became widespread around the time of Douluo 3. Huo Yuhao had ascended to godhood only three hundred and fifty years ago, so people still traded with gold, silver, and copper coins.)
"This ceremony is fascinating no matter how you look at it. Especially the fact that only one in several hundred people has Innate Soul Power. It's practically like watching Heaven hand someone a living."
"Human society's most seemingly fair ceremony is also its most unfair."
For Elion and the others, the idea that Martial Souls awakened in the body at age six was strange enough. The chance of possessing Innate Soul Power seemed even more bizarre, like winning the lottery.
And the summaries in human Soul Master books claimed that the higher the quality of a Martial Soul, the more likely it was to awaken alongside Innate Soul Power. That made the Elves, who had no Martial Souls but all possessed Soul Power by the age of twelve, suspect there was some kind of conspiracy.
As they watched, parents and children kept emerging from the academy. The vast majority looked dejected or sighed in disappointment. Every now and then, someone came out jumping for joy. There was no need to ask: their Martial Soul had awakened alongside Soul Power. They immediately drew every eye around them, full of envy and jealousy.
"There's nothing else to see. Most of these children have zero Soul Power, and a few have Soul Power levels between one and six. Elion, let's go."
After several hours of observation, Marius, whose notebook was still nearly empty, patted Elion on the shoulder.
"Mm."
The two Elves picked up their backpacks from the outdoor chairs and left.
"What do you feel like eating tonight?"
"How about sashimi?"
Since Rus Wang had sent them to Dragon Valley Continent to learn more about humanity, their military naturally provided the funds for operations such as infiltrating human society. There was no reason for Elion and Marius not to take advantage of the opportunity to spend freely.
The two Elves walked along the busiest street in Xinluli's city center, passing Zi JI as she searched for the aura of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon.
Suddenly, an invisible force bound the two Elves, leaving them frozen in place. The feeling was all too familiar: the unique pressure of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast.
"From now on, you do as I say."
Zi JI's voice reached their ears from behind.
In a suite at a four-star hotel in Xinluli, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Riven had no idea trouble was on its way. She was playing UNO with several Elves who had returned to the group.
Knock, knock. A rhythmic tapping suddenly came from the suite's door. The Elf closest to it started to get up and let Elion and Marius in.
But Riven sprang to her feet and pushed the Elf back into the seat.
"An unfamiliar True Dragon aura, a Hundred-Thousand-Year one. It doesn't belong to any of us."
At her words, the Elves, who had still been holding their UNO cards, immediately shifted into a state of combat readiness. They activated the level-nine Soul Guidance Shields at their waists. The Elf nearest the suitcase was already prepared to activate the rune-engraved stone slab inside if the other party forced their way in, teleporting everyone in the room outside the city. (Barus had developed it from the Light Dragon King's Spatial Teleportation Rune Array.)
Once Riven was sure the Elves were ready, she went to look through the peephole.
In the hotel corridor, a blonde woman she had never seen before was leaning against the wall. Elion and Marius stood tensely at the door.
The woman clearly understood that this was human territory. A fight between two Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beasts would cause a lot of trouble.
After a moment's thought, Riven gestured to the Elves that she was going to open the door. They should prepare to welcome their unexpected guest.
When Elion and Marius saw the door open and Riven avoid immediately clashing with the Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beast behind them, they breathed a sigh of relief.
They'd had terrible luck. They had only wanted to observe humans and then go enjoy a good meal. Who could have guessed that they'd run into a strange Hundred-Thousand-Year Transformed Soul Beast who forced them to take her to their superior, Riven?
Seeing Riven open the door, and the unfamiliar woman behind them remain silent after asking only to be shown the way, the two Elves breathed another sigh of relief. At least no fight had broken out.
"I thought these two were unusual enough. I didn't realize you had several more here. Who might you be?"
Zi JI was certain her nose and senses weren't mistaken. Every human man in the suite was at the level of a Soul Ancestor or Soul King, yet none of them had taken a single Soul Beast's life, just like the two she had forced to bring her here.
"The corridor isn't a suitable place to talk, madam. Why don't you come in?"
Riven spoke coolly. She understood that her two subordinates had clearly been taken hostage by the unfamiliar Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast before her, who had made them bring her to Riven.
"Gladly."
The suite door closed. The Elves cleared away the card table, leaving only a table with a ceremonial cloth for Riven and Zi JI to talk across. They all stood behind Riven.
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Riven, a transformed Hundred-Thousand-Year Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. My fellow True Dragon, why did you force my subordinates to bring you to me? Did you simply want to meet me?"
Riven sat in an armchair and lit one end of a cigar made from tobacco grown on Zheer Continent. After taking a lighter from one of the Elves and drawing a deep puff, she looked at Zi JI.
"If I'd crossed the sea for four whole months just to come from Douluo Continent and meet you, I might as well not have come at all."
The blonde hair Zi JI used as a disguise faded away, and her long black-and-purple hair reappeared. Under Riven's appraising gaze, she said:
"Riven, let me introduce myself properly. I'm Zi JI, the Hell Demon Dragon King from Douluo Continent across the sea. I've come as an envoy of the Soul Beasts of Star Dou Forest to make contact with the True Dragon clansfolk of this continent, who have lived for six hundred thousand years."
Riven was so caught off guard by the sheer amount of information in Zi JI's words that she choked on the smoke she was exhaling. She slapped the barely smoked cigar into the ashtray.
"Cough, cough... Quite an impressive title, but a rather haphazard way to make contact. Is this how Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts usually do things?"
"Not exactly. I don't know this place or its people, and it's my first time visiting this continent. Besides, your aura was the closest, so I went with the nearest option. If I hadn't happened to detect the aura carried by humans nineteen years ago and told the other Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts, we might still believe that there were no living Dragon Race clansfolk anywhere beyond Douluo Continent. And I wouldn't be here now as an envoy."
Riven collected herself and looked at Zi JI with a complicated expression.
"So, for all these tens of thousands of years, you've been holed up on Douluo Continent without coming out to look around?"
"We had someone we needed to protect. We couldn't just leave our post."
Zi JI shook her head, but Riven only sneered and cut straight to the point.
"There are no humans here, Zi JI. You might as well just say it: the Silver Dragon King."
Zi JI silently glanced at the Elves standing behind Riven.
"No humans? What do you mean? Don't try to fool me, Riven. These people behind you—"
At Riven's snap of her fingers, the Elves rubbed the runes hidden beneath their clothes away. Their long ears, which had been concealed, immediately showed.
Elves of Zheer Continent
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