Xiao Yi collected the wrapped Whale Rubber and gold card from the front desk, then headed toward the hotel room he had booked earlier, barely able to contain his excitement.
With a swaggering stride, he burst into the room and shut the door. Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Xiao Yi took a deep breath and summoned Cang Ling and Zhao Lan.
Zhao Lan was the name Xiao Yi had given the Radiant Flood Dragon. It had pure light affinity. Zhao meant sunlight, while Lan evoked a flood dragon surging through the waves.
He patted their heads, took out the Whale Rubber, and raised his right hand. A deep-purple flame sprang up, sending the room's temperature soaring. Xiao Yi tossed the Whale Rubber into it and began refining away the impurities. For someone like him, who possessed Heavenly Flames, this was practically instinctive.
Before long, the Whale Rubber had melted into a pool of golden, viscous liquid. Ordinarily, that would have been enough, but Xiao Yi kept the flames burning. His Soul Tool flickered, and Soul Power steadily guided several herbs into the fire. They soon melted into a pure medicinal liquid that blended with the Whale Rubber.
These were herbs Xiao Yi had gathered in the Star Dou Great Forest. Their medicinal properties were mild, and they could strengthen the body. One of them, a Dragon Blood Flower, was especially beneficial to dragon-type Soul Masters.
"All right, let's begin." Xiao Yi took a deep breath, excitement stirring within him. His hands formed a series of seals as his mental power guided the medicinal liquid together. Before long, it had solidified into a pill-like lump. It wasn't really a pill like the ones he remembered. It looked round, but was simply a layer of film wrapped around the medicinal liquid.
With a casual flick of his hand, he sent the lump into his mouth. A warm current began flowing through his limbs, strengthening his body. At the same time, four deep-purple Soul Rings rose around him, circling as their color gradually shifted from purple to black.
The two Soul Beasts, Cang Ling and Zhao Lan, began to transform along with the Soul Rings.
Cang Ling's blue scales began to grow and fall away. The new scales had the crystalline sheen of ice, their edges traced with silvery-white frost patterns. A chill seemed to seep from the spaces between them.
A row of ice-spike-like protrusions ran down its spine, from its neck to the tip of its tail. They were as sharp as if carved from ten-thousand-year-old black ice. Its broad tail fin was wreathed in a biting mist.
The two horns atop its head branched into a pair of icy jade dragon horns. They were translucent white, with pale-blue light flowing within them, and ice crystals of everlasting coldness gleamed at their tips.
Its limbs were long and powerful, its five claws sharp as ice, their tips glinting with a frigid light.
Zhao Lan underwent an equally astonishing transformation. Fine dragon scales, lustrous and white as jade, began covering its body. Sacred golden light flowed along their edges, reflecting dazzling golden radiance in the sunlight. Not a trace of impurity remained.
Golden, flame-shaped spines grew along its back, stretching from the sides of its neck to the end of its tail. Its tail fin unfurled like a pair of wings made of light, haloed by a shimmering glow.
The horns on its head branched into a pair of dragon horns patterned with gold. They were as translucent as colored glass, and sacred light burst from their tips.
Its limbs were thick and powerful, its five claws sharp and gilded.
By now, Cang Ling and Zhao Lan were no longer the Gloomy Cold Ice Flood Dragon and the Radiant Flood Dragon. They had completely taken on dragon forms and could now be called the Frost Sacred Dragon and the Bright Sacred Dragon.
They had also grown so enormous that the room could no longer contain them. Fortunately, Xiao Yi had been keeping a close eye on their transformations, and the space within his Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils had remained open. The two dragons slipped inside, sparing the room from destruction.
Xiao Yi opened his eyes. Beneath him, four black Soul Rings pulsed with powerful Soul Power as they revolved slowly. His guess had been right: the Whale Rubber had strengthened his body, allowing him to withstand older Soul Rings, which in turn had driven the Soul Beasts' evolution.
Rather than the Soul Beasts evolving on their own, the two of them had already been close to becoming dragons. They had used the evolutionary power of the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils and the boost from the Soul Rings to cross that final threshold. Otherwise, the process would have been much slower. Take Xiao Yi's Red Fire Python, for example. It had only just become a flood dragon, despite already being a one-ring Soul Beast.
Cang Ling brought its dragon head close. Curious, Xiao Yi reached out and touched it. Cang Ling gave two low murmurs, rubbed against his palm, then vanished into the space within the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils.
"Zhao Lan, try possessing me." Xiao Yi beckoned to Zhao Lan, who had transformed into a Bright Sacred Dragon. Zhao Lan obediently nodded, then turned into a streak of white light and darted into his body.
Fine golden dragon scales appeared across Xiao Yi's skin. His arm transformed into a dragon claw that gleamed gold, and dragon horns sprouted from his head. His neat, short black hair turned into long golden locks that streamed behind him like ribbons of light.
The Evil-Suppressing Domain? It seemed that becoming a dragon brought a Domain skill with it. Through his contract with Cang Ling and the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, Xiao Yi could sense that it had gained a Domain skill as well.
The thought of all his Soul Beasts releasing their Domains together one day was almost too dazzling to imagine.
After that, Xiao Yi took out the External Soul Bone he had obtained earlier, pressed it against the back of his hand, and began absorbing it.
The next day, at noon.
The melodious bell signaling the end of class rang out. Tang Ya stretched her stiff body, then flopped onto her desk and poked at Jiang Nannan, who sat in front of her.
"Hey, Nannan, how come Xiao Yi still hasn't come back?" Tang Ya asked listlessly, prodding Jiang Nannan with her little hand. Ever since she and Xiao Yi had confirmed their relationship that day, she had been feeling a little unsettled. Their relationship was admittedly a bit strange.
But ever since Xiao Yi left, her thoughts had often wandered. She couldn't settle down to think about anything else, and his face kept appearing in her mind.
"Xiao Ya, that's the third time you've asked." Jiang Nannan helplessly swatted away Tang Ya's teasing hand. Ever since she learned that her mother could be saved, she had relaxed considerably. Color had returned to her cheeks, the sorrow between her brows had faded, and hope for the future had taken its place.
"But..." Before Tang Ya could keep pestering her, a commotion rose from the doorway. The two girls looked over and saw a tall, straight-backed figure standing there.
It was Xiao Yi, of course. Now that he had returned to the academy, the first thing he naturally wanted to do was find his girl.
Tang Ya was exactly Xiao Yi's type. The two might not have been mutually in love, but they had still found an unusual kind of harmony: Tang Ya wanted Xiao Yi himself, while Xiao Yi wanted Tang Ya's body.
Standing at the classroom entrance, Xiao Yi waved to the two girls inside.
Tang Ya rubbed her eyes first, then her face bloomed into a radiant smile. It was as if the world around them had lost its color, leaving only her smile to fill Xiao Yi's vision.
Tang Ya hurried toward him, her high ponytail swinging from side to side with every step.
"Xiao Yi~ I missed you so much." Her soft body fell into his arms, accompanied by the girl's heartfelt words. A ripple stirred in Xiao Yi's heart. He hadn't expected Tang Ya to react this way. The feeling of being sincerely missed by a girl gently touched the softest place in his heart.
Holding the girl's soft body in his arms and breathing in her familiar scent, Xiao Yi felt a peace unlike anything he had ever known.
"I missed you too," Xiao Yi said softly.
"Did you get taller?" came the girl's muffled voice from his arms.
Xiao Yi released Tang Ya from his embrace and gently smoothed the bangs from her forehead.
"Yeah, I gained quite a bit this time." He pinched the girl's nose as he spoke.
Jiang Nannan watched the two of them with a little envy, though she also felt a pang of embarrassment. He had already seen her completely naked last time, so how could he act as if nothing had happened? Biting her lower lip, she stood off to the side, awkwardly out of place.
Seeing her close friend like that, Tang Ya's eyes darted about. She knew Jiang Nannan's situation inside and out. Besides, if Xiao Yi won Jiang Nannan over too, the Tang Sect would gain another genius. She really was a clever little thing.
As for whether she minded Xiao Yi finding herself a few more sisters, she didn't care at all. It was perfectly common for the strong on Douluo Continent to have several confidantes.
Leaning close to Xiao Yi's ear, she whispered a couple of words. Xiao Yi gave Tang Ya a strange look. Good grief, so this was the kind of sisterhood that lasted a lifetime.
Before you continue