After his martial soul awakened.
Qing Family Manor, main hall.
Qing Zhengyue sat in the seat of honor, holding a cup of clear tea. The emerald-green tea reflected in his deep eyes.
Liu Yunlan sat beside him, mending a small blue robe. It was her grandson's clothing. The old lady insisted on sewing it herself and would not let the servants touch it.
Qing Hongyuan and Shen Wanqing sat below, their gazes occasionally drifting toward the old master in the seat of honor. They seemed to want to speak, yet held back.
Finally, Qing Hongyuan could no longer endure it.
"Father." He set down his teacup and chose his words carefully. "Feng'er's soul rings... eight hundred years and sixteen hundred years. Isn't that too risky?"
Qing Zhengyue did not answer. He merely lowered his head and took a sip of tea.
Qing Hongyuan braced himself and continued, "Your son knows Feng'er was born with level twenty Innate Soul Power and possesses extraordinary talent. But common knowledge among soul masters says the limit for a first ring is only a little over four hundred years, while the second ring is only seven or eight hundred. You've doubled that all at once. What if..."
"What if what?" Qing Zhengyue raised his eyes to look at him.
Under that gaze, Qing Hongyuan swallowed the words that had reached his lips.
Shen Wanqing gently took her husband's hand and spoke for him. "Father, Hongyuan is worried that Mu Feng's body will not be able to endure it. He is still young, and his meridians may not be that resilient."
Qing Zhengyue set down his teacup and fell silent for a moment.
Then he rose and walked to the bookshelf beside the main hall. He pulled a yellowed ancient volume from the third shelf, turned to a certain page, and handed it to Qing Hongyuan.
"Read this."
Qing Hongyuan accepted the book and lowered his head to read.
It was a handwritten ancient text. Its pages had become brittle and yellowed, but the writing remained clear. It was the personal script of one of the Qing Clan's ancestors.
What it recorded was neither soul skills nor cultivation methods, but a discussion of the limits of soul ring absorption.
"The so-called maximum soul ring age the human body can withstand is merely the limit of an ordinary person's meridians. The wider and tougher one's meridians, the higher the soul ring age one can endure. If one tempers the body with medicinal baths from childhood and nourishes the meridians with Soul Power, this limit may be broken. This is not determined by talent, but by one's foundation."
After Qing Hongyuan finished reading, he looked up at his father.
Qing Zhengyue had already pulled several more books from the shelf and laid them out on the table one by one.
Qing Hongyuan glanced over their titles.
Meridian Theory Essentials of Soul Ring Absorption Records of Body Tempering...
They were all among the oldest volumes in the Qing Clan Library.
"These books have been kept by our Qing Clan for more than a hundred years."
Qing Zhengyue's voice was not loud, yet every word was clear. "You are usually busy with clan affairs and managing our businesses. But which of you has ever taken the time to read them?"
Qing Hongyuan lowered his head, and Shen Wanqing lowered her eyes as well.
"I have." Qing Zhengyue said. "During the more than ten years since I retired, I have read every book in the Qing Clan Library. Some of them more than once."
He returned to the seat of honor and picked up his teacup, but did not drink.
"The limits of the human body passed around in the soul master world are not the true limits. They are merely the limits of most people. Most families have no methods for tempering the body, no medicinal bath formulas, and even less patience to begin nourishing a child's meridians before the age of six."
He looked at his son and daughter-in-law, his tone calm but beyond question.
"From the day Mu Feng was born, your mother used medicinal baths for him. Starting at age three, I used Soul Power every day to straighten and nourish his meridians. Did you think we were merely doting on our grandson?"
Qing Hongyuan froze.
Shen Wanqing froze as well.
The two of them looked toward Liu Yunlan at the same time.
The old lady did not even raise her head. She continued sewing the little robe, though the corners of her lips curved upward slightly.
"Mu Feng's meridians are now wider and tougher than those of an ordinary soul master at the age of ten," Qing Zhengyue said. "If he cannot endure an eight-hundred-year soul ring, then my decade of nurturing will have been wasted."
Qing Hongyuan opened his mouth, then closed it again.
He recalled how, over the past years, his father had called his grandson into the study every morning and shut the door for an hour.
He had always thought it was simply a grandfather and grandson spending time together. He had never expected...
"There is one more matter." Qing Zhengyue's voice suddenly deepened.
He swept his gaze across the hall and, only after confirming that no one but family was present, spoke slowly.
"You all saw the phantom image of Mu Feng's martial soul that day."
All four nodded at once.
"Do you think it resembled an Azure Snake?"
Silence.
Qing Hongyuan recalled the phantom hovering above the altar that day.
That enormous body, those jade-like scales, those golden serpent eyes, and that pressure which had made even him, a Soul Ancestor, feel oppressed.
"No." He forced out the word with difficulty.
"Within that phantom, I saw a Dragon Aspect."
When Qing Zhengyue said this, his voice was very soft, as though he were speaking of a secret that could not be heard by others.
Qing Hongyuan suddenly looked up. "A dragon?"
"The body of a snake, the head of a dragon, golden eyes, and that pressure that did not belong to a snake." Qing Zhengyue lightly tapped the tabletop with his fingers.
"I have witnessed the awakening of our Qing Clan's Azure Snake martial soul no fewer than ten times. Never once has such an anomaly appeared."
At last, Liu Yunlan stopped sewing. She raised her head, and a sharp glint flashed through her eyes.
"Old man, are you saying... Feng'er's martial soul might be able to undergo Dragon Transformation?"
"It is not a possibility." Qing Zhengyue spoke with absolute certainty. "It is inevitable. So long as his foundation is properly built, this snake of his will become a dragon sooner or later."
Silence fell over the hall once more.
Qing Hongyuan and Shen Wanqing exchanged a glance, seeing shock in each other's eyes.
A dragon martial soul.
Throughout the history of the Douluo Continent, dragon martial souls had always stood at the very pinnacle.
The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan had become one of the upper three sects through a single dragon martial soul.
And the Qing Clan... was merely a small hidden clan.
"Therefore." Qing Zhengyue rose to his feet and clasped his hands behind his back.
"Mu Feng's first and second soul rings must be high-age, high-quality wood-element soul rings. This is not a risk. It is necessary."
"If he is to undergo Dragon Transformation, he must build a strong foundation from childhood. If his foundation is weak, Dragon Transformation will be impossible in the future, and it may even backlash against him."
He turned around and gazed toward the sky outside the hall.
"The age of a soul ring has never simply been a matter of higher being better. It must be as high as possible within the range the body can endure."
"The limit for ordinary people is four hundred years. As for Mu Feng's limit, I can tell you now."
The old master paused, then slowly spoke two words. "One thousand."
"For his first ring, he can endure one thousand years. Choosing an eight-hundred-year Vine Dragon for him already leaves room to spare."
Qing Hongyuan took a deep breath and rose. "Father, then regarding hunting the soul beast..."
"Your mother and I will personally take him in secret to the Star Dou Forest to hunt it." Qing Zhengyue waved a hand, interrupting him. "The Soul Hunting Forest is too small. It simply cannot offer soul beasts of such quality."
"You and your wife will guard the household. Instruct the servants that from this day onward, they are not to discuss even the slightest matter concerning the young master. They must not even mention his name, and may only refer to him as that one. Otherwise, deal with them directly."
"We must make them accustomed to forgetting Feng'er exists."
As he said this, a cold killing intent flashed through his eyes.
Qing Hongyuan opened his mouth, but upon meeting his father's unquestionable gaze, he could only nod in the end.
"From this day onward, only the five of us will know about Feng'er's martial soul." Qing Zhengyue's voice was as heavy as iron.
"To outsiders, say only that his martial soul is a mutated Azure Snake and that he has level five Innate Soul Power."
"Say that only if it cannot be concealed. Otherwise, do not mention it."
"Yes." Qing Hongyuan and Shen Wanqing answered in unison.
Liu Yunlan picked up her needle and thread again, lowering her head to sew the little robe as she murmured softly.
"My precious grandson, Grandma will certainly protect you. Whoever dares harm even a single hair on your head, this old woman will make their entire family die miserable deaths."
Her voice was gentle, as though she were speaking of something utterly insignificant.
Qing Zhengyue glanced at his old companion, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
The woman who had been with him for fifty years was a ruthless figure who had once poisoned a Soul Sage to death on the battlefield.
He sat back down in the seat of honor, lifted the cup of tea that had already gone cold, and drained it in one gulp.
"Mu Feng's path truly begins today."
He looked toward the secret chamber deep within the manor, his gaze distant.
"An Azure Dragon emerges from the abyss; all trees bow in submission."
"I only hope that, in my lifetime, I will see that day with my own eyes."
Before you continue