He swept his awareness through his sea of consciousness,
and saw Qian Renxue crouched in the corner, pouting as she absentmindedly traced circles with her finger.
"I'm not looking! I'm not looking, I'm not looking!"
"Not interested!"
"What? Are you angry with your master?"
"Yes, that's right! I'm angry! Give me back my body!"
Qian Renxue sprang to her feet and, for once, answered him with some backbone.
"Hey, don't make a fuss. Your master still has something important to do—"
"What could you possibly have to do? I don't care!"
"Give it back!"
"Give it back!"
The more Qian Renxue spoke, the angrier she became.
"You're a grown man, occupying a girl's body. Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
"And you broke your promise, too... I don't want to talk to you anymore!"
"Hey, hey, hey, don't—don't do that. I'll give it back, okay?"
Ling Xiao was left utterly unable to fend off her rapid-fire barrage.
Besides, he'd already had his fill just now.
He didn't want to really piss off his one and only precious disciple.
"Honestly, using it a little won't break it. So stingy."
The next second,
Qian Renxue felt her head swim, and the scene before her eyes abruptly changed.
She found herself standing in a strange space, its walls glowing with interwoven red and blue light.
Before her stood two enormous skeletons, each dozens of meters tall.
The pressure they gave off was immense!
She had no idea where she was, but she couldn't spare a thought for that.
All she knew was that she'd finally gotten her body back!
The feeling of her feet planted firmly on the ground made Qian Renxue let out a long sigh of relief. She felt comfortable from head to toe.
Then she began checking her body.
And her clothes.
"Thank goodness, nothing's missing..."
Except—
"What happened here? Did my clothes slip out of place and I didn't even notice?"
"Ahhh—the back's exposed, too!"
Qian Renxue's face went red as a boiled shrimp as she hurriedly straightened her clothes.
She was both furious and embarrassed,
and wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into!
But suddenly,
a wave of weakness struck her belatedly, making her feel as if her entire body had been drained.
Her legs went weak, and she nearly collapsed to the ground.
"W-what's going on? Teacher! Teacher!"
She panted softly, a hint of panic creeping into her voice.
This feeling...
Why did it feel just like the legendary kidney deficiency?
But she was a girl.
How could that be?!
Ling Xiao must have ruined her body!
Hearing Qian Renxue's furious cries, Ling Xiao felt a little guilty.
This was clearly a side effect of him extracting the Soul Bone essence.
His spiritual strength was formidable enough to suppress that sort of depletion, but Qian Renxue couldn't manage it.
With the Soul Bones emptied,
their instincts had tried to draw power from her body to replenish themselves.
But could he tell her that?
Those six Soul Bones were treasured heirlooms of the Qian Family. If she found out he'd secretly used them,
who knew how much she'd scold him?
So he promptly shifted the blame.
"Hmph, what did I tell you before?"
"I told you to put some effort into improving your physical fitness, but you wouldn't listen and even sulked at me."
"See? Your master only did a little legwork, and you're already this weak."
"Is that really what happened?"
Qian Renxue couldn't help feeling that something wasn't quite right.
This didn't seem like the result of simply running out of stamina...
But Ling Xiao didn't give her a chance to question him further.
"Ah, well, what can I do? You're my disciple."
"Just wait, just wait. Your master will find you something to restore your strength. Eat it, and I guarantee you'll be full of energy again!"
As his voice fell, Ling Xiao's soul drifted leisurely out.
He stood in midair with his hands behind his back,
his gaze sweeping over the two dragon skeletons that had lain silent for ten thousand years. Suddenly, he gave a quiet shout:
"What? You two little lizards still planning to hide?"
A wisp of aura belonging to a Dou Sheng burst forth.
The two enormous skeletons before him immediately shuddered,
then two nearly transparent phantoms floated out, trembling with fear as they stared at Ling Xiao.
"Who are you?"
"How dare you intrude upon our resting place!"
the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings asked in trembling voices.
"Who am I? You don't need to know."
Ling Xiao replied calmly,
"You only need to know this—"
"The dragon race has perished, and your Dragon God has fallen as well!"
The two phantoms jolted.
Even their transparent outlines rippled with the intensity of their emotions.
Ling Xiao gave them no time to process this. He continued unhurriedly:
"I'll give you a chance!"
"Offer up your essence, and I can let you preserve a sliver of your spiritual imprints—and give you a chance for revenge."
He paused.
"Of course, you don't have another choice."
The Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' remnant souls trembled violently in midair as they looked at each other,
their hearts churning with a storm of emotions.
The incomparably powerful dragon race... the incomparably powerful Dragon God... had actually fallen?
If anyone else had stood before them and said such things,
they would have scoffed,
even pounced on the speaker and reduced them to ashes.
Anyone who dared insult the glorious dragon race
deserved to die.
But the person before them was different.
The aura that had briefly escaped him was far beyond even the Dragon God at his full strength.
Would an existence like this go out of his way just to lie to them?
The Ice and Fire Dragon Kings remained silent for a long while,
before finally calming their shock and fear.
But they weren't even souls anymore. They were no more than fragments of will...
What could they still do?
"We... are willing to offer up our essence!"
"We beg you, sir... help our dragon race."
The Ice and Fire Dragon Kings bowed to Ling Xiao, then transformed into one red and one blue ball of light.
The two skeletons behind them likewise turned into countless streams of light, which poured into the glowing spheres.
Ling Xiao nodded to show he accepted their offer,
then rubbed two fingers together.
A snow-white flame appeared at his fingertips.
He flicked his finger.
The flame instantly enveloped the two spheres.
Under the tempering of the Heavenly Flames,
the two spheres fused, leaving only one most-pure golden bead,
along with two objects, one red and one blue, that radiated peculiar fluctuations.
"Here, swallow this. I guarantee you'll be back to normal in an instant, full of energy again!"
Ling Xiao held the purified essence of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings out to Qian Renxue.
Qian Renxue hesitated, then swallowed it as instructed.
The next second,
she felt a gentle spring rain wash over her. Her earlier weakness vanished instantly, replaced by a surge of strength unlike anything she'd ever felt.
She clenched her fist, clearly sensing that her physical strength had improved.
What delighted her even more was that her Soul Power had recovered to around level thirty.
It was still nowhere near its peak,
but compared to the bottom she'd hit at level three, she'd climbed out of hell and back into the world of the living!
A smile finally appeared on Qian Renxue's face.
But she still felt that something was off.
Those skeletons, those two souls—
The instant they'd released that hint of pressure, her instincts had told her she was facing an irresistible force.
It had been a suppression from the depths of her soul.
They definitely weren't ordinary Soul Beasts.
But all that had happened... was they'd restored her stamina and some of her Soul Power?
That was it?
Of course not!
Only one ten-thousandth of their essence had been used to restore her body.
The remaining ninety-nine percent
had been quietly stored by Ling Xiao inside the Angel God Suit.
That way, the next time he used Qian Renxue's body, he wouldn't have to worry about running out of "battery"!
Naturally,
Ling Xiao wasn't going to tell Qian Renxue about that.
Before you continue