Doehring Cowart

It was an ordinary-looking morning.

Everyone in Wushan Town had just finished their morning exercises and was getting ready to head home. In the courtyard of Baruch Manor, Hillman was putting the children through their regular Qi Cultivation Style training. The autumn sun was warm but not scorching, and a breeze blew in from the direction of Fenlai City, carrying the scent of ripe wheat from the fields.

But disaster came without warning.

"What's that?!"

Tom was the first to notice something amiss. He pointed toward the eastern sky, his voice full of fear.

Everyone looked up—

Two or three hundred meters above the ground, not far to the east, a black dragon a hundred meters long coiled through the sky. Its eyes were like enormous wheels, gleaming with a chilling light. The black scales covering its massive body reflected a cold, heart-stopping sheen. Its enormous wings, which spanned a hundred meters when spread, beat gently but powerfully, each flap stirring up a gale.

A magical beast—a Black Dragon!

"What's going on?" Linley asked, eyes wide, his voice trembling slightly.

Lin Yun also looked up, his pupils contracting sharply.

Standing proudly atop the Black Dragon's head was a Grey-robed Man. The wind howled around them, his robe snapping in the gale, yet he stood as straight as a spear, unshaken as a rock. His gaze was fixed on a Green-robed Middle-aged Man standing in midair ahead of him. The green-robed man carried a longsword on his back, his clothes fluttering in the wind, his aura no weaker than the Grey-robed Man's.

Standing atop a Black Dragon, suspended in midair!

"Saint Realm experts!" Hillman's face turned deathly pale, and his voice rose in pitch. "Everyone, get inside right now! Hurry!"

The children hadn't even had time to react before Hillman scooped up the two youngest, one under each arm, and raced toward the main house like an eagle snatching up chicks. Only then did the other children snap out of it. They screamed and scattered in every direction.

Lin Yun didn't run.

He stood where he was, gazing up at the battle in the sky, his heart churning with emotions too complicated to put into words.

He knew what was happening.

In the original Coiling Dragon story, two Saint Realm experts fought above Wushan Town, causing a disaster that shook the earth and brought down the mountains. That disaster was what led Linley to obtain the Coiling Dragon Ring—he was struck by falling rubble, and his blood seeped into the ring, awakening the slumbering Doehring Cowart.

But Wharton—Linley and Lin Yun's three-year-old younger brother—was still beside the ancestral home!

"Big brother!" Lin Yun suddenly turned around. "Wharton!"

Linley's expression changed, too. Almost instinctively, he sprinted toward the ancestral home, with Lin Yun right behind him.

The battle between the two Saint Realm experts was already reaching its peak. An earthen-yellow glow blazed around the Grey-robed Man as boulders appeared out of thin air one after another. The Green-robed Man was surrounded by swirling green wind, moving so fast he was almost impossible to follow with the naked eye.

"Boom—boom—boom—"

Countless boulders seemed to appear from nowhere, each as large as a house. With devastating force, they crashed down in every direction. The earth trembled, hillsides collapsed, and all of Wushan Town shook beneath the clash of the Saint Realm experts.

One boulder as large as a carriage hurtled toward Baruch Manor.

"Wharton!" Linley rushed into the ancestral home like a madman, only to see Wharton standing in the doorway, staring blankly at the terrifying scene in the sky, completely unaware that danger was upon him.

The boulder was about to fall!

Lin Yun saw it clearly from behind, his heart nearly leaping into his throat.

The instant the boulder was about to hit Wharton, Linley dove forward with all his strength, knocking Wharton to the ground. Instinctively, he shielded his little brother beneath him, turning his own back toward the boulder.

Fragments of stone rained down.

A fist-sized rock struck Linley on the back of the head, and blood gushed out at once. Then several more pieces slammed into his back and shoulders, making him groan in pain. But he held Wharton tightly beneath him and didn't move.

The largest boulder skimmed past the manor's wall and crashed into the open ground beside it with a deafening boom. The earth shuddered violently, and the dust it kicked up blotted out the sky.

Lin Yun rushed over and dragged Linley and Wharton out from the rubble. Wharton was so frightened he wailed, but he wasn't hurt. Linley, however, had a deep gash in the back of his head. Blood ran down his neck and into the black ring he wore against his chest.

Blood seeped into the ring.

The black ring began to glow faintly.

Three days later, Linley's injuries had almost healed.

Lin Yun watched Linley, who had suddenly become a little eccentric over the past three days. Sometimes he muttered to himself, sometimes he sat alone in a daze, and sometimes he wore an expression of sudden understanding. Lin Yun already knew what had happened.

Doehring Cowart had awakened.

Still, Lin Yun wasn't in a hurry to ask about it. He trusted Linley. Given the bond between the brothers, Linley would tell him about it.

Over the past three days, Doehring Cowart had told Linley a great many things in fits and starts—about his own origins, about magic, and about secrets of the world unknown to most people.

Doehring had been a Saint-level Magus of the Pu'ang Empire. For some reason, he had become trapped inside the Coiling Dragon Ring and had been asleep for thousands of years. He was skilled in Earth Element magic and had been one of the most powerful mages in the history of the Pu'ang Empire. Now, he was willing to teach Linley magic.

And at Linley's request, he was also willing to teach Lin Yun. In fact, he would have done so even if Linley hadn't asked. With his Saint Realm peak soul, Doehring had seen at a glance that Lin Yun possessed incredibly powerful Spiritual Energy. He simply didn't yet know what Lin Yun's Elemental Affinity was like.

Sure enough, one afternoon, Linley called Lin Yun into his room in a mysterious fashion.

"Lin Yun, do you want to learn magic?"

"Of course I do," Lin Yun replied, though his heart stirred. "But isn't the magic test still six months away?"

"Lin Yun, I need to tell you a secret." Linley looked at him solemnly and lowered his voice. "You can't tell anyone—not even Father or the others."

"Okay. I promise I won't tell anyone." Seeing how serious Linley was, Lin Yun could already guess what was coming. He was filled with anticipation.

Linley then told him everything that had happened—the Saint Realm soul inside the Coiling Dragon Ring, Doehring Cowart's identity, and his promise to teach them magic.

Doehring Cowart was currently in a soul state and couldn't communicate directly with Lin Yun, so Linley, as the owner of the Coiling Dragon Ring, had to relay his words.

"Lin Yun, sit cross-legged first. I'll teach you how to enter a meditative state." After speaking, Linley repeated everything Doehring Cowart had taught him over the past two days, without missing a step.

What left Linley feeling deeply discouraged was that it had taken him more than half an hour to enter a meditative state for the first time, even with Doehring Cowart's guidance. But looking at Lin Yun now...

Why did something feel wrong?

After Lin Yun closed his eyes, it took only a few minutes for his breathing to grow steady and deep. He sank into a profound stillness. His state was even calmer and more natural than Linley's had been.

Doehring Cowart, watching from the side, was also delighted. It had taken the child only a few minutes to enter a meditative state—his talent was even more astonishing than he had imagined.

Doehring didn't deliberately guide the concentration of the elements around him. He wanted to see what Lin Yun's Elemental Affinity was really like.

Lin Yun had completely entered a meditative state.

Then he "saw" them.

Countless specks of light hovered in the space around him, densely packed by the thousands—yellow, red, blue, green, purple, and even black and white. They drifted like fireflies. Some were still, some spun slowly, and others flitted around like mischievous children.

Were these the elements of the world?

But why were there so many colors? Could he, like Linley, cultivate multiple elemental laws?

"Lin Yun, how is it? Can you sense them?" Linley asked anxiously when Lin Yun remained silent.

"Big brother, I can feel them." Lin Yun opened his eyes, excitement shining in them. "There are so many specks of light in all kinds of colors, packed together by the thousands. Yellow, red, blue, green, purple, and even black and white. There are so many—they're everywhere!"

"There are that many colors?" Linley asked, puzzled. "Why can I only see yellow?"

He didn't know that when he had been tested, Doehring Cowart had guided a large number of Earth Element particles around him. As a result, he hadn't sensed the elemental particles of the other elements at all.

But Doehring Cowart, standing beside them, was frozen in shock.

To sense elemental particles of seven different colors in a meditative state—what did that mean?

Earth, fire, water, wind, lightning, light, and darkness. Affinity with all seven elements!

"Have I run into some kind of freak?" Doehring Cowart murmured to himself. "He can sense all seven elemental types... Could I actually have a chance to nurture a Seven-Element Mage?"

He had lived for thousands of years and seen countless geniuses, but a mage who cultivated all seven elements? He had never seen one—not even heard of one!

"Big brother, what does Grandfather Doehring say? How talented am I?" Though Lin Yun suspected his talent was exceptional, he still wanted Doehring Cowart's confirmation.

"Linley, tell your little brother," Doehring Cowart said, having recovered. His voice sounded in Linley's mind. "His Elemental Affinity is excellent. He has good affinity for every one of the seven elements. As for his Spiritual Energy, there's no need to test it—he's a freak. In more than five thousand years, I've never seen anyone with such powerful Spiritual Energy before they'd even started cultivating."

Linley took a deep breath and relayed Doehring's words exactly. "Lin Yun, Grandfather Doehring says your Elemental Affinity is excellent. You're compatible with all seven elements—earth, fire, water, wind, lightning, light, and darkness. Your affinity for every one of them is good."

He paused, eyes filled with astonishment. "Most importantly, your Spiritual Energy is incredibly powerful. Grandfather Doehring says your current Spiritual Energy is already about as strong as that of a Level 4 Mage!"

Even Linley found the conclusion hard to believe.

He didn't know much about magic, but after several days of Doehring Cowart's instruction, he was no longer the clueless novice he'd been. He knew that geniuses capable of cultivating two elements were already exceedingly rare; only a handful of people in the history of the Yulan Continent had cultivated three.

And Lin Yun could cultivate all seven.

On top of that, he hadn't even begun formal training, yet his Spiritual Energy was already at the level of a Level 4 Mage. That meant Lin Yun's starting point on the path of magic was already the destination that countless people could never reach in their lifetimes.

"Th-this can't be possible," Linley murmured. He was happy for his little brother, but couldn't help feeling a little envious, too.

Doehring's voice sounded in his mind, equally bewildered. "I don't know, either. By rights, a human soul shouldn't be able to bear affinity with so many elements. But your little brother's soul... is very special."

He paused as if searching for the right words. "His soul is far too powerful for an eight-year-old. Even for an adult. This strength didn't come from cultivation. It's... innate. It's as if his soul has undergone some kind of tempering, making it ten times, even a hundred times tougher than an ordinary person's."

Lin Yun felt relieved when he heard the result.

He had known his Spiritual Energy would be strong. He had lived three lives. In his first life, he'd been a top student on Earth, and twenty-five years of study and thought had honed his mind. In his second life, he'd been Lin Yun of the Swallowed Star World, and six years of surviving through the apocalypse had made his will even more resilient. In his third life, he was the second son of the Baruch Clan in the Coiling Dragon World, and eight years of growth had given him yet more experience. The memories and experiences of three lives, the accumulation of three souls, and the Small Cauldron's tempering had made his Spiritual Energy far stronger than that of ordinary people.

But in the Coiling Dragon World, Spiritual Energy alone wasn't enough—you also needed strong Elemental Affinity. Otherwise, if you couldn't sense the elements, how could you refine magical power?

Now, he had affinity with all seven elements, along with Spiritual Energy far beyond that of ordinary people... Lin Yun could imagine that the path of magic ahead of him would lead straight to the heavens!

"Linley, Lin Yun."

Doehring's voice came from the ring. Although Lin Yun couldn't hear him, Linley immediately relayed his words.

"Grandfather Doehring says he'll begin teaching us magic systematically today." Linley's eyes lit up. "Meditation is the foundation of magical cultivation, and the most important part. Only when your Spiritual Energy is strong enough can you sense and refine more magical elements."

"Then what should we do?" Lin Yun asked.

Linley listened for a moment, then said, "Grandfather Doehring says you did very well meditating today. From now on, meditate once each morning and evening, for at least half an hour each time. The longer you meditate, the faster your Spiritual Energy will grow."

"As for me..." Linley gave a wry smile. "Grandfather Doehring says I still need to learn how to enter a meditative state consistently before I can begin formal training."

Doehring spoke again, and Linley continued to relay his words. "He also says magic can't be mastered overnight. You have to be patient and persevere. Even the best talent is useless without hard work."

Lin Yun nodded seriously.

He understood that better than anyone. Talent determined your ceiling; hard work determined your floor. That was true in every world.

"Also," Linley said, his expression turning serious, "Grandfather Doehring says we absolutely can't tell anyone about his existence or the fact that we're learning magic. Not even Father."

"I understand," Lin Yun said.

A Saint Realm soul was a tremendous temptation to powerful practitioners of Necromancy. If news of Doehring got out, he would be in danger, and the entire Baruch Clan might face annihilation.

"Then when do we start our formal magic lessons?" Lin Yun asked.

Linley listened for a moment, then smiled. "Tomorrow."

Night fell.

Lin Yun lay in bed with his eyes closed, but he didn't fall asleep.

His consciousness swayed gently between two worlds. His body in the Swallowed Star World was sleeping soundly in their cheap apartment in Yangzhou City. He had to go to school tomorrow. He thought it was a waste of time, but he would still go so he wouldn't disappoint his grandfather.

In the Coiling Dragon World, Doehring's arrival meant that his path of magic had officially begun.

Seven-element magical talent, personal instruction from a Saint-level Magus, and the advantage of cultivating in two worlds—his starting point was higher than anyone else's.

But a high starting point didn't mean he would reach a high destination.

He knew that in the future of the Coiling Dragon World, countless powerful enemies awaited him. The Radiant Church, which had killed his mother, would be the first. And in the future of the Swallowed Star World, there would be even more powerful cosmic civilizations, the Golden Horned Beast, and even Universe Masters capable of destroying entire star systems with a wave of their hands.

He had to become stronger.

Stronger than anyone.

Lin Yun opened his eyes and looked at the moonlight outside the window, unable to suppress his anticipation.

Eight years old, living in two worlds, and his path of magic had begun.