Watching the figure vanish at the far end of the corridor.
Qian Renxue gripped the Heavenly Light Grass in her hand, its sacred aura radiating from it, and stood there in a daze for a long while.
Then she raised her free hand and gently touched the cheek he had just kissed.
The warmth of his touch still seemed to linger there.
A complicated, tender light flickered through her golden eyes.
"This child..."
Qian Renxue murmured softly, the corners of her lips lifting of their own accord into a breathtaking smile.
Deep inside Spirit Hall, in Bibi Dong's private bedchamber.
The heavy doors were flung open from outside.
Bibi Dong, who had been reviewing documents, looked up. A wave of delight immediately appeared on her dignified, peerlessly beautiful face.
Before she could say a word,
Lin Yuan had already hurried over and flung himself naturally into her arms, rubbing against her like a kitten.
"Aunt Dong, I'm back!"
Bibi Dong drew him into her embrace, and the worry that had weighed on her for days finally eased.
"Good, you're back. You weren't hurt, were you?"
She looked him over, her voice brimming with unconcealed concern.
That day, Bibi Dong wore a somewhat casual purple dress. Without the majesty of the Pope, she seemed all the more mature and alluring.
The fabric clung to her stunning curves, and her full bosom pressed Lin Yuan's face snugly against it.
Especially her long, shapely legs, crossed over each other, held an irresistible allure that could drive any man wild.
Time had left no trace on her. Instead, it had only deepened her lethal charm.
"I'm perfectly fine."
Lin Yuan lifted his head from that soft embrace and grinned at Bibi Dong.
Then, with a turn of his wrist, a remarkably strange plant appeared in his palm.
The Immortal Herb was a deep, dusky purple all over. Nine petals, as if carved from dark ice, slowly unfurled, releasing a pure, intensely yin and frigid aura.
As soon as it appeared, the temperature throughout the bedchamber dropped several degrees.
"Aunt Dong, this is for you."
Lin Yuan held the plant out to Bibi Dong.
"It's called the Nine-Turn Profound Yin Flower."
"I found this top-grade Immortal Herb by chance in a treasure trove."
"Its medicinal power can greatly increase your Soul Power cultivation. More importantly, it can completely neutralize the insidious backlash your Death Spider Emperor Martial Soul inflicts on your body."
At Lin Yuan's words, Bibi Dong's beautiful eyes flew wide, and she lost her composure.
The backlash from her Twin Martial Souls and the insidious poison of the Death Spider Emperor had long been the greatest afflictions tormenting her.
And as her cultivation grew, the pain only worsened.
She had searched through every ancient text in Spirit Hall, yet found no way to cure it.
And now, this deadlock that had plagued her for years had been undone by a six-year-old boy standing right before her?
Bibi Dong was both astonished and overjoyed. Her hands even trembled a little as she accepted the Nine-Turn Profound Yin Flower.
She could clearly feel that after taking just one breath of its fragrance, the insidious poison that had congested her body for years had begun to loosen.
This was an absolutely priceless treasure!
Bibi Dong lowered her head and looked at Lin Yuan's smiling face in her arms. An unprecedented warmth filled her heart.
She abruptly bent down and planted a firm kiss on Lin Yuan's forehead.
"Yuan'er, you really are Aunt Dong's lucky star, sent by fate!"
Bibi Dong held him tight, her voice trembling with overwhelming joy.
After handing out the Immortal Herbs,
Lin Yuan returned to his own quarters.
He sat cross-legged on the bed and stirred his thoughts. Several Immortal Herbs, each radiating a terrifying energy, appeared before him out of thin air.
The Snow Dragon Bodhi, white as snow, with a giant dragon seeming to lie coiled within it.
The Nine-Nether Underworld Grass, black as ink and wreathed in deathly aura.
And the Yin-Yang Twin Fruit, one black and one white, its energy ceaselessly flowing.
These were the treasures he had deliberately kept for himself from deep within the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well.
Any one of them would be enough to make Titled Douluo slaughter each other until rivers ran red.
Without the slightest hesitation,
Lin Yuan opened his mouth and swallowed the top-grade Immortal Herbs and fruits whole.
In an instant, the Nine Nether Beast's unmatched bloodline power erupted within him. Like a bottomless black hole, it forcibly suppressed and absorbed all the wild medicinal energy.
From that day onward,
Lin Yuan shut himself away and entered a long, tedious period of devoted cultivation.
Spring gave way to autumn; winter came and summer passed.
As Soul Power coursed through him day after day, time raced by.
Year nine.
At the private Martial Arts Arena behind Spirit Hall,
violent currents tore across the broad grounds, making the surrounding protective barriers shudder and hum.
"Boom!"
A thunderous crash rang out, and three figures flew backward through the clouds of dust like kites with their strings cut.
They slammed into the ground in the distance.
The dust slowly settled.
A black-clad youth stood in the center of the arena with his hands behind his back.
He was tall and straight, his features as sharply carved as a blade. His deep black eyes held a calm indifference to all things.
Before anyone knew it, Lin Yuan had grown to fifteen.
And the Soul Power radiating from him had already reached level sixty-nine!
He was just one step away from becoming a Soul Saint.
"Come on, then."
Lin Yuan looked at the three people lying on the ground, his tone as casual as if nothing had happened.
In that last fight,
Xie Yue, Hu Liena, and Yan, the three peerless geniuses hailed as Spirit Hall's Golden Generation, had given it everything.
From their strongest individual Soul Skills to their fearsome Martial Soul Fusion Skill,
they had unleashed every last trump card all at once.
Yet
Lin Yuan hadn't even released his Martial Soul from start to finish.
He had merely stood where he was and raised one hand. With nothing but his astonishingly powerful Soul Power protecting him, he had nullified all three of their attacks.
The sheer crushing force of it, felt down to the bone, was enough to make anyone despair.
"No more! I'm done!"
Yan sprawled on the ground, panting heavily. He no longer had the strength to move even a finger.
The Flame Lord apparition behind him had long since been shattered.
Bracing himself against the ground with his dual blades, Xie Yue managed to prop up his upper body and smiled bitterly as he waved his hands again and again.
"Boss, you're just too strong!"
"The three of us teamed up and couldn't even make you take a single step."
"At this rate, give it a few more years and you'll be able to take on Spirit Hall's senior elders!"
They had long since stopped calling Lin Yuan by his name and started calling him Boss.
Their eyes held nothing but awe and frenzied admiration for him.
Lin Yuan nodded calmly and said nothing more.
His gaze shifted to Hu Liena, who was on the other side, trying to steady her breathing.
Several years had passed, and Hu Liena had blossomed into a graceful young woman.
Her foxlike face had grown even more bewitching, and her figure was exquisitely curvaceous, full in all the right places.
Exhausted, she was kneeling on the ground and breathing softly. The hint of fair skin at her chest rose and fell with each breath.
Combined with the beguiling charm inherent to her Heavenly Fox Martial Soul, she was utterly captivating.
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