Star Dou Great Forest stretched endlessly, its ancient trees towering into the sky, their branches wrapped in vines.
Lin Ciyan followed his grandfather, Lin Qingmo, and had been searching for two whole days.
According to the records and their past experience, Golden Hawksbill Turtles should be active near certain bodies of water along the edge of the forest's Core Circle.
But they had scoured nearly every likely spot and hadn't seen even the faintest trace of a golden shell.
"This is strange. Did all the old turtles go on a group outing or something?" Lin Ciyan grumbled inwardly, while outwardly maintaining his usual easygoing air of Relaxation Domain.
He wasn't impatient. After all, finding a top-tier Soul Beast with a high cultivation level depended on luck.
Just as they passed through a low valley shrouded in a thin miasma, Lin Ciyan's Martial Soul—the Holy Radiance Qilin—suddenly gave an almost imperceptible shiver inside him.
It was an instinctive attraction, as if something in the distance were calling to him.
"Grandpa, wait." Lin Ciyan stopped and closed his eyes, carefully sensing the surroundings. "Over there... something seems different."
Hearing this, Lin Qingmo focused his senses too. Then his brows rose. "Hm? The light-element particles over there are unusually active and dense. Come on, let's take a look!"
The two of them changed direction and headed toward the place they had sensed.
The closer they got, the more the surrounding vegetation began to change.
Ordinary broadleaf trees gradually gave way to low shrubs and small grasses that shimmered with a glazed glow.
A warmth filled the air, and even the breeze carried the aura of pure energy.
They pushed aside the last clump of dense, halo-veined vines, and the sight before them moved even the well-traveled Lin Qingmo—not to mention Lin Ciyan.
It was like a fairyland forgotten beyond the edge of the world.
A modest-sized valley stretched out before them.
At its center lay a lake as smooth as a mirror.
The water wasn't transparent. Instead, it glowed with a warm, flowing, milky-white light.
Countless crystal-like trees grew along the shore, their trunks translucent and their leaves seemingly formed from the purest light.
The leaves swayed gently in the breeze, scattering specks of radiance.
Even the gravel on the ground glittered like polished gemstones of light.
The entire valley basked in a soft, sacred radiance. The concentration of light elements in the air was astonishing; with every breath, he could feel his Soul Power stirring faintly.
"Th-this is the 'Glazed Light Realm'?" Lin Qingmo asked, his voice full of shocked uncertainty.
"I've only read similar descriptions in ancient travelogues. I thought it was a legend. I never imagined such a treasure land was hidden deep within Star Dou Great Forest!"
"The scenery is maxed out, and the budget's going up in flames!" Lin Ciyan marveled inwardly, but outwardly put on a thoughtful air.
"Grandpa, with such an environment of extreme light elements, it must have given rise to an extraordinarily unusual Soul Beast. Golden Hawksbill Turtles are valuable, but they probably don't live in a place like this."
He looked around, his thoughts racing.
Combining it with the various settings he had encountered in his previous life, a daring conjecture surfaced. "The light elements are so concentrated, they even seem to be taking on physical form..."
"Could something like the Snow Empress have been born here—a spirit of nature nurtured by extreme light elements, a 'Light Maiden'?"
He thought of the Snow Empress from the original story: a Heavenly Snow Woman with a cultivation of seven hundred thousand years, formed from the purest ice elements in the Core Circle of the Far North.
Light and ice were both elements at their extremes. If there could be a Snow Woman, why not a Light Maiden?
"She wasn't in the original story. Maybe this kind of spirit is too rare and its habitat too well hidden, or maybe... it vanished into the river of history long ago," Lin Ciyan guessed.
"If one really exists, her quality would far surpass that of a Golden Hawksbill Turtle. As my Second Soul Ring, her potential would be limitless!"
The thought made his heart beat a little faster.
He wasn't Huo Yuhao, with a Sky Dream Ice Silkworm delivered right to his door. But wasn't this Glazed Light Realm he had stumbled upon a chance meant for him?
"Stay calm and think big." He silently reminded himself, suppressing his excitement and keeping up his usual "relaxed" demeanor. "If I find her, lucky me. If not... I'll just keep looking for the old turtles."
Having made up their minds, the two began searching the valley carefully. Though it wasn't large, its terrain was complex.
Branches crisscrossed the light-element valley, with Light and Shadow Intertwining making it easy to lose one's bearings.
Powerful energy fluctuations around the lake interfered with their senses.
They had no choice but to slow down and investigate inch by inch.
Time passed, from high noon to sunset, yet the valley remained as bright as day. Its light came from the dense light elements permeating the place.
Just as Lin Ciyan began to wonder if his guess had been wrong, they reached a "stone forest" deep within the crystal woods, formed by clusters of enormous light crystals.
Here, the concentration of light elements reached its peak.
And it was then that they saw—
She hovered silently a foot above the ground, her back to them.
The first thing to catch the eye was her long silver hair, flowing down to her waist. Her strands seemed woven from moonlight and starlight, a waterfall of light that moved without wind, shimmering with soft, dreamlike specks.
Her figure was slender and graceful, wrapped in a long dress that seemed outlined in light, its flowing lines accentuating her narrow waist and elegant curves.
The dress reached the ground, its hem melting into light and blending with the surrounding glow.
She seemed to have heard them. Slowly, she turned around.
Hers was a clear, lovely face that words could not precisely describe.
Her skin seemed carved from the finest mutton-fat jade steeped in moonlight, translucent and warm, with a faint glow shining from within.
Her features were so exquisite they seemed beyond the work of mortal hands, her brows like distant green mountains.
Her eyes were the purest gold, like two tiny suns, yet not the least bit blinding.
They held only boundless warmth, curiosity, and an age-old serenity.
Her nose was delicate and straight, her lips a pale cherry pink, their corners naturally curved in a faint, peaceful smile.
Unlike ordinary Soul Beasts confronted by humans, she showed neither wariness nor hostility. Instead, she radiated an ancient, pure, curious spiritual fluctuation.
This was the Light Maiden! The child of the purest light element in all the world!
What surprised Lin Ciyan even more was that after she "saw" him, the Light Maiden didn't leave or attack.
Instead, she took the initiative and drifted lightly toward them.
Her wings of light trailed a brilliant tail of radiance behind her, like a fairy of light descending into the mortal world.
She stopped not far in front of Lin Ciyan and tilted her head, "gazing" at him—especially at the Holy Radiance Qilin Martial Soul within him, which glowed faintly in response to their resonance.
A friendly, inquisitive spiritual fluctuation slowly spread like a warm tide.
Lin Ciyan and his grandfather exchanged glances. Both could see the astonishment and wariness in the other's eyes.
This situation didn't seem much like the Soul Hunting they had expected.