Yinglong

Time passed in the blink of an eye.

Mu Qian slowly opened his eyes, his consciousness returning to clarity after an unknown amount of time.

The body that had swelled under the infusion of massive energy had long since returned to its normal state.

The corridor he once walked was gone; Mu Qian found himself standing on the open ground at the entrance of the Divine Temple, right in front of the cyan-gold crystal he had seen at the very beginning.

Not far away, the gates of the Divine Temple were already shut tight, leaving him to wonder if he had truly walked through a passage inside the temple or if he had never left this spot to begin with.

A faint, ethereal fragrance permeated the air, and as he looked at the familiar clearing, Mu Qian began to recall the events that had transpired.

If his guess was correct, he had triggered the inheritance of an unknown ancient deity.

Ancestor God...

In his hazy state, Mu Qian had only caught the words "Ancestor God."

He vaguely remembered the voice in his mind, and it seemed there had been a prefix before the words "Ancestor God," but given the circumstances at the time, he hadn't heard it clearly.

He also had a faint impression of what followed; through blurred vision, he seemed to have seen a delicate, graceful figure.

The sensation of coolness mixed with softness in his arms was still clear in his memory even now.

He could be certain that it was definitely not an illusion.

"Was it the Snow Maiden? Why would she do such a thing..."

Mu Qian sighed softly, for he had not forgotten anything that happened before.

At this moment, he truly did not know how to face the Snow Maiden...

Perhaps because his Martial Soul had not yet awakened, this first trial was relatively simple, but even so, he had only received a score of seventy, which was somewhat underwhelming.

The mysterious sensation within his body told him that his Martial Souls had awakened.

Twin Martial Souls, the reward for passing the first trial.

The origin of the Martial Souls within him seemed to be telling him the history of his two powers.

First Martial Soul: Yinglong.

In this world, no one understood the meaning behind these two characters better than Mu Qian, who had transmigrated here.

In myths and legends, Yinglong was the beginning of all things, the god of creation and the god of makers, as well as the True Dragon and the Dragon Ancestor.

Yinglong possessed wings on her back, and her body was vast and slender, like the most perfect creation in the world; if there truly was a creator, it might well be her.

Yinglong carved out the earth, gave birth to the divine beasts Phoenix and Qilin, hunted the Kui Ox, and fought the tiger, leopard, bear, and brown bear alone... She was the ancient giant god who drew rivers with her dragon tail, divided yin and yang within Chaos, and incubated the great creator god Pangu.

Her tears formed the Yellow Springs of the underworld, and her body transformed into the stars of the heavens.

Even though his Martial Soul had just awakened and its origin was still weak, Mu Qian could still perceive that pressure and momentum, as if it stood above all else.

Mu Qian had once complained that as a transmigrator, he didn't have any sort of golden finger.

Looking at it now, even without a second Martial Soul, the name "Yinglong" alone was enough to allow him to stand at the pinnacle of the continent and the God Realm in the future, perhaps even surpassing the limits of this world.

As for the second Martial Soul, Mu Qian did not know much.

He only knew that his second Martial Soul was called "Nine Nether."

Looking at it now, it didn't seem particularly special; when summoned, it was nothing more than a mass of black-purple energy.

Yet for some reason, Mu Qian always felt that this energy contained indescribable negative emotions.

Hatred, anger, sarcasm, mockery...

It was like a geometric figure of evil thoughts, gathering all the negative emotions in the world.

"Such intense negative emotions; could it be related to that corridor filled with various emotions?"

Mu Qian muttered to himself, his heart clouded with intense doubt, though unfortunately, there was no one to provide an answer.

This Martial Soul was full of too many unknowns and uncertainties, but one thing Mu Qian was certain of: it would never harm him and would only become his aid.

Since it was a reward issued by the deity inheritance trial, there was no reason for it to be negative.

It was just that the specific uses of this Martial Soul would have to be discovered by him in the future.

As for the other reward, the terrifying Innate Soul Power of level twenty, it did not surprise Mu Qian too much.

After all, if a god-level Martial Soul like the Angel Martial Soul could achieve this, there was no reason his two Martial Souls should be inferior.

Mu Qian even felt it was a bit underwhelming; he had to admit, he was becoming a bit greedy.

While he was lost in thought, the Snow Maiden appeared in Mu Qian's line of sight, followed by a massive ice-blue Spirit Beast.

The Spirit Beast looked somewhat like an Ice Dragon, but it was clearly not a pure-blooded dragon; it likely only possessed a certain amount of bloodline.

Beyond that, the most striking thing was its front claw, which had begun to fester; it didn't look like an injury from a fight, but rather like frostbite.

Its listless and dull gaze seemed to confirm this.

As it aged, without the strength to push toward higher levels, it could not withstand the passage of life.

In fact, being an ice-attribute creature, it could no longer resist the ravages of the extreme cold of the Extreme North Core on its body.

Mu Qian sighed softly, his eyes devoid of any pity.

This is the law of the world; if he himself could not break through his limits in the future, he would surely meet the same end.

"My master, this is a 30,000-year-level Green-Scaled Ice-Armored Dragon that has reached the limit of its lifespan. If a few more days were to pass, it would likely perish naturally. I asked it, and it has agreed to sacrifice itself to you to become your first Spirit Ring."

Snow Maiden said indifferently, as if she were speaking of the most ordinary matter.

Though she claimed to have asked it, given her status and strength in the Far North, it was unlikely any Spirit Beast would dare to defy her will.

Although her voice remained cold, Mu Qian actually saw deep tenderness in her eyes as she looked at him.

He couldn't help but rub his eyes, almost doubting if he had seen wrong.

But it was clearly not a mistake; this situation not only failed to disappear but seemed to have become the norm for Snow Maiden.

He even caught a hint of shyness...

It was hardly surprising.

Mu Qian sighed to himself, never having expected that the purity he had preserved for two lifetimes would end up like this...

"Alright, thank you, Sister Xue'er."

Now was clearly not the time to ask why; it would be better to wait until they were alone.

Having his first Spirit Ring be at the ten-thousand-year level still left Mu Qian feeling quite excited.

Having read the original work and watched the animation, he knew that when a Spirit Beast self-sacrifices, there is no age limit for absorbing the Spirit Ring.

If possible, even a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could theoretically be fused.

Mu Qian did not doubt that Snow Maiden could find a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast for him, but such things were not easily come by.

Even without an age limit, the immense energy involved was not something an ordinary person could easily withstand.

For Mu Qian, being able to absorb this 30,000-year Green-Scaled Ice-Armored Dragon as his first Spirit Ring was already quite good, and that was only because the creature was in such an extremely weakened state.

The energy alone would take a very long time to digest...