Zhao Wuji had been standing quietly to one side, watching. From the moment Xiao Qing had directed the two Soul Beasts to defeat the Wolf King with crisp efficiency, to Xiao Feng's conversation with the Wolf King, his gaze had shifted from scrutiny to undisguised shock.
He had never seen such a peculiar Martial Soul. It could command two Soul Beasts with different attributes and entirely different fighting styles, and coordinate them with such exquisite precision and understanding. They were practically a miniature Soul Master team whose members shared one mind.
Xiao Qing alone possessed a range of abilities, including reconnaissance, offense, and defense. His potential was simply immeasurable.
Now, hearing Xiao Qing's request, Zhao Wuji came back to his senses, and a glimmer of understanding passed through his eyes.
No wonder Xiao Qing had sought out a wolf pack with a Wolf King. He hadn't just wanted practical combat experience; he'd also had an exchange in mind. For a Soul Saint like him, dealing with a two-thousand-eight-hundred-year-old Earth Armor Dragon Lizard was no difficult task.
"An Earth Armor Dragon Lizard? Thick-skinned and tough, good at burrowing underground to ambush its prey. A bit of a nuisance, but nothing I can't handle." Zhao Wuji rolled his wrists, making them crack. "Did you find out where it is?"
Xiao Qing looked at Xiao Feng. Xiao Feng exchanged a few more words with the Wolf King, then gave a low whine and raised a paw to point west.
"Good. Wait here."
Zhao Wuji said no more. Two yellow, two purple, and three black Soul Rings suddenly lit up around him. His overwhelming pressure made the surrounding wolves immediately flatten themselves against the ground, trembling.
He drove off the ground with both feet, and his body shot away like a cannonball, speeding toward the direction the Wolf King had indicated. After a few leaps, he disappeared into the depths of the forest.
About an hour later, amid a dull impact and a tremor that shook the earth, Zhao Wuji reappeared in front of Xiao Qing.
He casually threw the enormous creature he had carried over his shoulder onto the ground in front of the Wolf King. It landed with a thunderous crash.
It was a Soul Beast more than eight meters long, shaped like a giant lizard but covered in a thick, rock-like shell. This was the Earth Armor Dragon Lizard the Wolf King had mentioned.
It had no life left in it. Its huge head was twisted at an unnatural angle, its neck clearly snapped by brute force. Several cracks also marred its heavy back armor.
The Wolf King struggled to its feet and walked over to the Earth Armor Dragon Lizard's corpse. It sniffed it carefully, then pawed at it, confirming that the powerful foe that had tormented them for months and forced them to abandon their home really was dead.
It raised its head and looked first at Zhao Wuji, then at Xiao Qing. The last traces of wariness and hostility vanished from its eyes, replaced by a complex emotion—gratitude mingled with awe.
Without hesitation, it lowered its head and coughed. A drop of scarlet blood, haloed by a faint blue-gold glow, slowly floated from its mouth and hovered before Xiao Qing.
The essence blood of a thousand-year-old Gale Wolf King!
Xiao Qing took out the jade bottle he had prepared earlier and carefully guided the drop of essence blood inside. He sealed the bottle and put it away with care.
All the materials were gathered.
Xiao Qing wasted no time. He needed to complete Xiao Feng's bloodline evolution as soon as possible. He found a relatively level patch of ground and motioned for Xiao Feng to come over and stand in place.
Oscar, who had been brought along by Zhao Wuji, had no idea what was happening. He stood dumbfounded beside Zhao Wuji, staring at Xiao Qing.
Xiao Qing took the Wind-Thunder Falcon Egg from the Cloth Bag, followed by the three Storm Irises he had carefully stored in a wooden box.
First, he carefully ground the Storm Irises into a fine powder using Soul Power. The powder was a curious pale green.
Next, he used a dagger to carefully pry open a small hole in the top of the Wind-Thunder Falcon Egg, just wide enough for the powder to pass through.
Then he poured the ground Storm Iris powder, along with the essence blood he had just obtained from the Gale Wolf King, into the egg.
The three materials made no sound when they came into contact inside the egg. Yet Xiao Qing could clearly feel a peculiar energy fluctuation suddenly stir within the egg, which had been lifeless until then.
Three different kinds of wind-attribute energy began to rotate and mingle of their own accord, forming a strange liquid that radiated a heart-stirring energy fluctuation.
The final step.
Xiao Qing casually picked up a dry twig from the ground and dipped it into the mixture inside the egg.
He closed his eyes and sank his consciousness into his sea of awareness. The Prism Ball rotated slightly, projecting a complex, profound diagram of energy pathways.
This was the evolution array provided by the Prism Ball. Xiao Feng's evolution depended on this formation.
He opened his eyes, his gaze focused and calm. Using the twig as a brush, he dipped it into the liquid mixture and began to trace the lines stroke by stroke on the ground beneath Xiao Feng's paws.
His movements were unhurried, but his hand was exceptionally steady. Each stroke seemed to draw the surrounding energy toward it.
Zhao Wuji held his breath, watching without blinking. In all his years, he had hunted countless Soul Beasts and witnessed all kinds of peculiar Soul Skills and Martial Souls, but never a ritual this strange.
He couldn't understand a single line in the array, yet instinctively sensed that it contained some ancient and mysterious power.
When he completed the final stroke, a circular array about two meters in diameter, its intricate lines shimmering faintly, appeared beneath Xiao Feng.
The instant the array closed, an astonishing change took place.
There was no earth-shaking spectacle, but Zhao Wuji and Oscar both clearly felt the energy of the world around them—especially wind-attribute energy—surge wildly toward the center of the array.
The light on the array suddenly blazed, enveloping Xiao Feng completely.
Then, an incredibly dense surge of blood-red energy rose from the array. Like a mass of serpents, it wrapped itself around Xiao Feng and burrowed into his body without hesitation.
"Awwooo—"
Xiao Feng threw back his head and let out a long wolf howl, filled with both pain and power. His body began to tremble violently. His bones cracked and popped, while his muscles swelled and bulged at a visible rate.
The blue-gray fur covering Xiao Feng's body fell away strand by strand. Bathed in the blood-red energy, it quickly grew back thicker, a deep blue-green that shimmered with a metallic sheen.
Fine wisps of pale green wind-attribute energy spontaneously curled and flowed around the tips of his new fur.
His body grew larger. His shoulder height, length, and the thickness of his limbs all increased significantly.
His claws grew longer and sharper, and the Soul Power fluctuations radiating from him surged at an astonishing rate, climbing from the hundred-year level toward the thousand-year level.
The entire process lasted about half an hour.
As the light on the array gradually dimmed and faded, and the last trace of blood-red energy merged into Xiao Feng's body, the violent energy fluctuations slowly subsided.
Xiao Feng stood quietly where he was, but he was already completely different from before. This wasn't just because he had advanced from a Hundred-Year Soul Beast to a thousand-year Soul Beast. His bloodline had also undergone a profound transformation.
The transformation was comparable to a Soul Beast with dragon blood evolving into a pseudo-dragon. Every one of its attributes would undergo a drastic change.
Before, Xiao Feng's shoulders came up to about Xiao Qing's waist, and his body was sleek and agile.
Now, standing there, he was taller at the shoulder than Zhao Wuji beside him! His enormous frame brimmed with strength, and his deep blue-green fur shimmered in the sunlight.
Most striking of all, even when he stood motionless, a layer of pale green wind-attribute energy naturally swirled around his body, forcing the dust on the ground away with an invisible force.
His eyes were sharper and deeper. Even just standing there, he radiated a heart-stirring pressure, far surpassing the Gale Wolf King from before.
His bloodline evolution was complete.
Xiao Qing was certain that Xiao Feng could now easily defeat the thousand-year-old Gale Wolf King from earlier all by himself.
Of course, what mattered more was what kind of innate ability Xiao Feng would awaken after completing his bloodline evolution.
Before you continue