The next morning.
Luo Yang woke early and changed into the light-colored casual clothes Leng Yaozhu had prepared for him. He looked fresh and full of energy.
Then he pushed open his bedroom door.
He froze.
Outside stood two "iron towers."
Two burly men, each over two meters tall and heavily muscled, stood like guardian statues, one on each side, blocking the doorway completely.
What was going on? Had Aunt Leng arranged for bodyguards?
Luo Yang instinctively took half a step back.
As he stood there, baffled, the two "iron towers" exchanged a glance.
Then.
"Pfft! Pfft!"
After two soft sounds like air escaping from balloons, the suffocatingly massive figures rapidly shrank and changed, like phantoms.
In the space of a breath or two, the two burly men vanished, replaced by two slender, stunning young women with almost identical features.
They wore white dresses. One had eyes as blue as the clear sky, the other as green as the forest. They were none other than the twin sisters Bai Haoze and Bai Zhicen.
"Good morning, little Luo Yang~"
Bai Zhicen spoke first, her voice clear and bright, a mischievous smile in her tone. "Surprised? Didn't see that coming?"
Bai Haoze gave her younger sister a helpless look, then offered Luo Yang a gentle, apologetic smile. "Sorry, did we scare you? It's all Zhicen's fault. She insisted on giving you a 'special morning greeting,' so we used a little Martial Soul trick."
Their Martial Soul Fusion Skill, "Instant Light," combined spatial and light-and-shadow changes. This simple transformation was just a small trick.
Luo Yang: "..."
Seriously, if you two were in Chengdu, you'd definitely top the must-eat list!
Still, their prank suddenly reminded him of how the original story had described the sisters.
The elder sister, Bai Haoze, had the Light Unicorn Martial Soul; the younger, Bai Zhicen, had the Space Unicorn Martial Soul.
Not only were they both quite powerful, they also possessed the formidable Martial Soul Fusion Skill "Instant Light," which combined offense and defense.
In the original story, even Qiangu Dongfeng, who had reached the demigod level, couldn't break through their fusion skill head-on in a short time. He could only wear them down in a battle of attrition.
"Good morning, you two," Luo Yang said politely, quickly composing himself.
"Glad you're not mad~" Bai Zhicen said with a grin, moving a little closer. "Her Excellency the Heavenly Phoenix instructed us to take you to the High-Level Spirit Ascension Platform Access Area on the forty-fifth floor after breakfast. She's waiting for you there. The dining hall has prepared a meal for you, with ingredients containing gentle Soul Power. They're good for cultivation."
"Thank you." Luo Yang nodded and followed the sisters to the dining hall.
As they watched Luo Yang walk away, the sisters exchanged a glance.
Bai Zhicen nudged her elder sister with an elbow and lowered her voice. "Sis, look at the little guy. He's so handsome, and his talent is downright terrifying... Her Excellency the Heavenly Phoenix is really taking an unusual interest in him. Don't you think we should 'invest' early?"
Bai Haoze's fair cheeks reddened slightly. She shot her younger sister an admonishing look. "What nonsense are you talking about? He's only six! He's still a child! What kind of ridiculous things are you thinking about all day?"
"So what if he's six? He won't be six forever!" Bai Zhicen said, as if it were obvious. "It's called 'raising your own,' get it? Once he grows up, who knows how many girls will be chasing after him! It'll be too late to make a move then! We'd be... taking advantage of being right next door!"
"You're getting more and more ridiculous!" Bai Haoze's face grew even redder. She reached over to pinch her sister's arm. "I think you've cultivated yourself stupid! If you keep talking nonsense, I'll tell Her Excellency the Heavenly Phoenix and have you clean the Soul Beast pens for a month!"
"Ow! Sis, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I was only joking!" Bai Zhicen hurriedly begged for mercy, grinning as she dodged. "I was just messing around, and you took it seriously... But honestly, with him around, I feel like things are going to be a lot of fun from now on."
Bai Haoze didn't argue further. Her gaze drifted for a moment toward the direction Luo Yang had disappeared.
After breakfast, Luo Yang went alone to the forty-fifth floor of the Spirit Pagoda.
The style of this floor was completely different from the residential floors above; it was full of futuristic technology.
Leng Yaozhu was already waiting outside a chamber labeled "A-01."
Today, she wore a sharp, close-fitting silver-white robe, her long hair simply tied back. She seemed less radiant than yesterday, and more like a cool, focused researcher.
"You're here."
When she saw Luo Yang, her beautiful, aloof face immediately lit up with a smile.
"How did you sleep last night? I was afraid you wouldn't sleep well. I almost snuck in in the middle of the night to hold you while you slept."
Aunt Leng, I'm still a new account. Don't make things this intense!
Luo Yang: "..."
"All right, I'll stop teasing you."
Seeing Luo Yang's embarrassed expression seemed to put Leng Yaozhu in an even better mood.
"I called you here so you could experience one of the Spirit Pagoda's core technologies for yourself: the Spirit Ascension Platform, a sacred cultivation ground every Soul Master dreams of visiting."
She gestured toward the silver-white soul-guidance pod behind her. Its complex design made it look like a crystal coffin.
"The Spirit Ascension Platform is essentially a highly realistic virtual space for combat and cultivation," Leng Yaozhu began explaining in detail. "Through massive soul-guidance arrays and technology that links with your spiritual power, it projects a Soul Master's consciousness into a 'world' made entirely of pure energy.
"This world recreates the environment of ancient Soul Beast forests as closely as possible. Within it are 'virtual Soul Beasts' made of energy, each with its own characteristics."
"On the Spirit Ascension Platform, you can hone your combat skills without worrying about the risk of real death."
She paused. "Its most crucial function, however, is increasing the age of your Soul Spirit. When you kill virtual Soul Beasts on the Spirit Ascension Platform, their energy will feed back into your Soul Spirit, directly increasing its cultivation age!"
"How much it can increase depends on how much of this pure 'advancement energy' your body and mind can withstand."
Luo Yang nodded slightly.
After all, ten-thousand-year Soul Rings had been the stuff of legend ten thousand years ago, but now they were no longer out of reach.
He remembered that Qiangu Dieting seemed to have nothing but Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings.
"How about it? Want to give it a try?"
Leng Yaozhu stepped aside, indicating the open access pod. "With your physique and spiritual power, you should gain quite a bit from your first time in."
"Sure." Luo Yang didn't hesitate at all.
He wanted to see for himself what the Spirit Ascension Platform was like.
And so.
Following Leng Yaozhu's instructions, Luo Yang lay down inside.
Soon, as the hatch slowly closed, an irresistible drowsiness washed over him like a rising tide.
The next moment, Luo Yang's consciousness sank into darkness.
When Luo Yang opened his eyes again, he found himself standing in a primeval, dense forest.
Ancient trees thick enough for several people to wrap their arms around towered all around him. Vines coiled around them like giant pythons, while the distant chirping of birds and the rustle of unfamiliar insects drifted through the air.
It looked like they'd modeled this on Star Dou Forest...
Luo Yang looked around.
He had to admit, it was incredibly realistic.
"I'll head farther in and get a feel for the place first."
Luo Yang steadied himself, chose a direction, and advanced deeper into the forest, staying alert.
He hadn't gone far—only a few hundred meters in.
"ROAR!!!"
A terrifying roar, filled with rage, madness, and bloodlust, suddenly erupted like a thunderclap!
Right after it—
"Crack! Crash!"
The sounds of trees snapping and crashing to the ground rang out in quick succession.
A massive black shape, like an out-of-control battering ram, smashed through several trees before crashing down into the clearing in front of Luo Yang!
The ground shuddered violently!
As the dust began to settle, the shape came into view.
It was a giant ape-like Soul Beast that walked upright.
More than three meters tall, its body was covered in hard, gray-black fur like stone, and its muscles bulged in thick knots.
Most striking were its extra-long arms, which reached past its knees and were thicker than its thighs. Claws half a foot long gleamed at their tips like metal.
Now, its blood-red eyes stared fixedly at Luo Yang.
A thousand-year Iron-Armed Ape!
Its cultivation was at least two thousand and one hundred years!