Azure Dragon Claw Probe!

The deep yellow spirit ring slowly submerged into Qing Mufeng's body.

Qing Zhengyue's grip on his blade tightened slightly, his gaze locked firmly onto his grandson's face.

An eight-hundred-year spirit ring.

He had read in ancient texts that some were capable of absorbing a spirit ring of this age as their first.

But those were merely written records; he had never seen it with his own eyes.

Today, he had.

Liu Yunlan knelt beside her grandson, one hand resting on Qing Mufeng's pulse. The old woman's fingers trembled slightly, but her expression remained composed.

"The pulse is steady," she whispered. "Spirit power is rising stably, with no signs of turbulence."

Qing Zhengyue nodded, yet he did not lower his guard.

Spirit ring absorption was not an overnight success.

The ring entering the body was only the first step; the true test was the fusion between the spirit ring and the martial spirit.

During this process, the slightest carelessness could lead to rampaging spirit power, ruptured meridians, or a martial spirit backlash—any one of these situations could be fatal.

Time ticked away, second by second.

The forest was silent, save for the rustling of wind through the canopy.

Qing Zhengyue and Liu Yunlan stood guard on either side of their grandson like two statues.

After about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Qing Mufeng's body gave a slight jolt.

He opened his eyes.

Those pupils, originally pitch-black, were now shimmering with a faint golden light.

The glow lasted only for an instant before dissipating, but Qing Zhengyue had seen it clearly.

"How do you feel?" the old man asked in a deep voice.

Qing Mufeng looked down at his hands and clenched his fists.

"Very good," he said, his voice a few shades steadier than usual. "My spirit power has stabilized, and my martial spirit... seems to have changed a little."

With a thought, the phantom of his Azure Snake martial spirit manifested behind him.

The snake was a size larger than when it had first awakened, its scales denser, and faint markings were vaguely visible upon them.

They were not snake scale patterns, but something more complex, resembling the cloud motifs found on ancient artifacts.

Qing Zhengyue stared at those markings, his pupils constricting.

Those were not patterns a snake should have.

"The evolution of a martial spirit takes time," the old man said, suppressing the waves in his heart. "The first ring is only the beginning. What is your current spirit power level?"

Qing Mufeng closed his eyes, looking inward for a moment.

"Level twenty," he said. "The same as before the absorption."

Qing Zhengyue was not surprised.

Innate level twenty meant that Mufeng's body already held a reserve of twenty levels of spirit power.

The first spirit ring had merely opened the first valve; it had not increased the capacity of the bottle.

Only after the second spirit ring was absorbed, with both valves open, would his spirit power truly begin to grow.

"Try your first spirit skill," Qing Zhengyue said. "Let's see what an eight-hundred-year spirit ring has given you."

Qing Mufeng nodded and stood up.

He took a deep breath, and the spirit power within him began to circulate.

First spirit ring.

The deep yellow ring lit up, and a strange power surged from it, pouring into his right arm.

Qing Mufeng extended his right hand.

In an instant, his entire arm underwent a transformation.

Azure scales emerged on the surface of his skin, his fingers lengthened and thickened, his nails turned into sharp talons, and his arm grew a size larger, its muscles clearly defined and brimming with explosive power.

That was no human arm.

It was the prototype of a dragon claw.

Qing Zhengyue's pupils shrank to pinpricks.

Liu Yunlan covered her mouth.

"This..." the old woman's voice trembled. "This is not a snake-transformed arm..."

Qing Mufeng flexed his dragon-transformed right claw, feeling the power surging from the depths of his bone marrow.

He raised his hand, aimed at a small tree the thickness of a bowl three zhang away, and swiped fiercely.

Five azure claw-lights flew from his fingertips, tearing through the air and striking the trunk with a sharp, piercing whistle.

CRACK!!!

The small tree snapped in response, the cross-section as clean as if sliced by a sharp blade.

At the break, azure light seeped into the wood, and the bark withered rapidly, as if being eroded by some kind of force.

Qing Zhengyue strode to the broken tree and crouched down to examine the cross-section carefully.

The azure light was still spreading, penetrating deeper along the grain of the wood.

He used the tip of his blade to pry back the bark, discovering that the wood inside had become soft, as if it had been corroded for years.

"Wood-attribute erosion," the old man muttered, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes. "It's not a simple physical attack; the soul skill carries the erosive power of the wood attribute. Anyone struck by it will have their wounds continuously eroded by this wood-attribute energy, making them difficult to heal."

He stood up and looked at his grandson, his gaze filled with a hint of shock.

"What is this soul skill called?"

Qing Mufeng looked down at his right arm, which was slowly returning to normal, as the information from his inherited memories surfaced in his mind.

"Azure Dragon Claw Probe," he said.

Qing Zhengyue and Liu Yunlan were both stunned.

"What did you say?" Qing Zhengyue's voice tightened slightly.

"Azure Dragon Claw Probe," Qing Mufeng repeated, his tone calm. "That is the name of the soul skill."

Not Azure Snake Claw Probe.

It was Azure Dragon Claw Probe.

Qing Zhengyue and Liu Yunlan exchanged a glance, both seeing the same emotion in the other's eyes.

This child knew.

He knew he was not an Azure Snake.

Qing Zhengyue took a deep breath, suppressing the raging waves in his heart, and was about to speak when he suddenly sensed a strange fluctuation of soul power radiating from his grandson.

Qing Mufeng's eyes had changed.

The golden light within them had emerged once more, even more intense than before.

His pupils had become vertical slits.

They were not the vertical pupils of a snake, but the eyes of some higher-level existence.

Qing Zhengyue instinctively took half a step back.

It was not out of fear.

It was because a pressure surging from the depths of his bloodline had forced his body to react instinctively.

A level 66 Soul Emperor had been forced back half a step by the martial soul pressure of a six-year-old child.

If he told anyone, no one would believe it.

Qing Mufeng did not notice his grandfather's reaction.

His attention was entirely focused within his body.

In the instant his first soul ring fused with his martial soul, another power had awakened deep within the martial soul, beyond just the soul skill.

That power surged from the deepest part of the Azure Dragon bloodline, like a door sealed for billions of years being pushed open a crack.

A sliver of light shone through the gap.

A faint glow began to emerge on the surface of Qing Mufeng's body.

The light condensed at a speed visible to the naked eye, forming a suit of armor upon his skin.

The armor was primarily azure, displaying a wood-like texture, with its surface covered in fine, dense scale patterns.

In the center of the breastplate was the design of a coiled Azure Snake.

But looking closely, the head of that snake already faintly resembled a dragon.

The shoulder guards were shaped like snake heads, the armor on his arms and legs was covered in snake scales, and the joints were connected by flexible wood fibers.

The helmet was semi-covered, protecting his forehead and cheeks, with two small horn-like protrusions on top.

They looked like snake horns, yet also like the embryonic form of dragon horns.

The entire suit of armor clung tightly to his body without a single gap, as if it had grown directly out of his skin.