Red Edge Spear, Immortal Shield, Slay the Immortal Kings and Lay Waste to the Nine Heavens!

An Lan reached up and touched the spot where he'd been kissed. Coughing like a little grown-up, he decided that business came first, then turned to Leng Qingning and said with a perfectly serious expression, "Master, you can make up for that kiss tonight."

That's right. He, An Lan, was six years old, the personal disciple of Leng Qingning, Tower Master of the Spirit Pagoda's Shangling City branch, and a top-tier second-generation scion of the Douluo Continent. He didn't have a room of his own at home.

Leng Qingning had been deliberating over whether to prepare a separate room for An Lan. Now she decided she'd arrange one for him in a couple of years.

Leng Qingning smiled to herself. Her precious disciple had awakened his Martial Soul, but he was still a long way from growing up. No need to rush.

"I have a second Martial Soul, too."

With a thought, An Lan stirred his Soul Power. A shield, dark red all over and covered in ancient patterns, floated before him.

A faint, icy light gleamed across its face, complementing the Red Edge Spear's baleful aura. It was none other than the Immortal Shield!

Since he'd awakened the Red Edge Spear, it was only natural that he'd have the Immortal Shield as well.

At the summit of the Immortal Dao, I stand proud between heaven and earth. With me, An Lan, the heavens themselves are here!

Red Edge Spear, Immortal Shield—slay the Immortal Kings and lay waste to the Nine Heavens!

An Lan felt his blood seethe within him, an imposing, overbearing majesty rising from the depths of his very lineage and surging straight into the heavens.

"Twin Martial Souls!"

A brilliant glint flashed in Leng Qingning's eyes as she stared at the small shield before An Lan.

Without a doubt, this was a top-tier Martial Soul, in no way inferior to the Red Edge Spear.

Her gaze shifted between the Red Edge Spear and the Immortal Shield. The two Martial Souls shared the same origin and aura. They were clearly not a mismatched combination like Blue Silver Grass and the Clear Sky Hammer.

One for offense, one for defense—unmatched beneath the heavens!

"This shield is called the Immortal Shield!"

Before Leng Qingning could ask, An Lan proudly announced the name of his Martial Soul.

"Red Edge Spear, Immortal Shield..." Le Lingzhao murmured, her face full of suspicion.

The Red Edge Spear could just barely be linked to the Evil-Breaking Spear, but the Immortal Shield definitely couldn't be explained as a Martial Soul Mutation.

Had the Evil-Breaking Spear cheated, or had the Photon Sprite been unfaithful?

Of course, that was just a joke in her mind.

Le Lingzhao had watched An Lan being born and raised him on spirit materials and medicinal baths. She was absolutely certain that An Lan was the biological child of her friends An Ze and Shi Lan.

After turning it over in her mind, setting aside the secrets surrounding An Lan, the only reasonable explanation was that either An Ze or Shi Lan had an ancestor whose bloodline carried a shield-type Martial Soul, which had then evolved and mutated.

This sort of thing had happened before. According to research by scholars of a later age, Mu En, the Sea God Pavilion Master of Shrek Academy from ten thousand years ago, had been just such a case.

His Martial Soul, the Bright Sacred Dragon, had originated from Yu Xiaogang's Martial Soul, Luo Sanpao.

Luo Sanpao was an incomplete form of the Bright Sacred Dragon to begin with. Since "Grandmaster" was too useless to fully manifest it, and later carelessly added random Soul Rings, Luo Sanpao had remained in its initial stage and never successfully evolved into the Bright Sacred Dragon.

As for Yu Xiaogang, he'd also managed to break through to age fifty while still at level 29, becoming a legend of his time.

"Good disciple, don't just stand there celebrating. Let's test your Innate Soul Power and mental strength, too."

Le Lingzhao turned and walked over to a Soul Guidance testing device nearby, beckoning An Lan to follow.

Even without the test, she was certain An Lan had Innate Full Soul Power. What she was truly curious about was the strength of his innate mental power.

Following the instructions, An Lan put on the helmet used to test mental strength and gently pressed his small hand against a blue crystal ball.

"Release your Soul Power." Le Lingzhao activated the device, her eyes full of anticipation.

An Lan did as he was told and urged his Soul Power onward. The instant it left his body, the blue crystal ball began greedily sucking it in, while a red light that matched his attributes flickered inside. At the same time, the helmet above his head let out a soft rumble, and its indicator lights came on one after another.

All three turned their eyes to the Soul Guidance screen.

[Innate Soul Power: 10]

[Mental Strength: 250.5]

"Just as expected—Innate Full Soul Power."

"He's already at the innate Spirit Connection Realm."

Leng Qingning and Le Lingzhao spoke at the same time. Surprise flickered across their faces, then quickly gave way to acceptance.

Little An Lan had the bearing of a future god. Innate Full Soul Power and mental strength at the middle stage of the Spirit Connection Realm were hardly worth making a fuss over.

Nowadays, aside from the few Ferocious Beasts in the Star Dou Small Forest, Soul Beasts had all but vanished from the Douluo Continent.

In the past, Soul Masters only needed to meet the physical requirements to fuse with a high-year Soul Ring.

Now, to obtain a Soul Ring, Soul Masters had to communicate with a Soul Spirit and form a contract, adding a mental-strength threshold.

Soul Masters on the continent had six realms of mental strength: the Spirit Origin Realm, the Spirit Connection Realm, the Spirit Sea Realm, the Spirit Abyss Realm, the Spirit Domain Realm, and the legendary domain of the gods—the Divine Origin Realm.

The Spirit Origin Realm covered 1 to 100 points of mental strength. It was the most basic level and allowed one to form a contract with a hundred-year Soul Spirit.

The Spirit Connection Realm covered 100 to 500 points of mental strength and allowed one to form a contract with a thousand-year Soul Spirit.

This meant that with his innate mental strength at the Spirit Connection Realm, An Lan could form a contract with a thousand-year Soul Spirit for his very first one, leaving other geniuses far behind.

And it was worth noting that his mental strength of 250.5 sat at just the right point, exactly halfway through the Spirit Connection Realm. He could be called half a step into its late stage.

An Lan stared at the glaring 250.5 on the Soul Guidance screen and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, thank goodness. I almost ended up at 250.

"You truly are my good disciple." Le Lingzhao took off his helmet and patted his head. "When I first awakened my Martial Soul, my mental strength was only 50 points—not even a fraction of yours."

Leng Qingning's red lips parted as she slowly said, "Even Yun Ming, the Sky-Prop Douluo and the strongest person on the continent today, had an initial mental strength of only eighty points. He never reached the Spirit Connection Realm."

Yun Ming, the Sea God Pavilion Master of Shrek Academy, had become a Titled Douluo at twenty-three and a Limit Douluo at thirty-one. His cultivation speed was unmatched across the Douluo Continent. One like him might not appear in ten thousand years, and he was enough to stand alongside Tang San and Huo Yuhao.

Even a dazzling genius like Yun Ming can't match a third of my disciple, she thought, an inexplicable rush of satisfaction rising within her.

Her satisfaction had nothing to do with the tangled history between her aunt Leng Yaozhu and Yun Ming and Ya Li. It came from making up for the regrets of her youth.

Tang San and Huo Yuhao were legends, too, but they lived far too long ago and had already become gods. There was no comparing them.

Yun Ming, however, was the "other people's child" in the mouths of every parent on the continent.

Every genius had pride in their bones.

When Leng Qingning had been young, any time she showed the slightest hint of arrogance, her elders would bring up Yun Ming to knock her down a peg.

She and Yun Ming weren't from the same generation, but she had truly grown up in the shadow of his brilliance.

It might have been a little unkind to say, but back then, the moments she felt most at ease were when her aunt Leng Yaozhu was home.

Her aunt had once admired Yun Ming and had been Ya Li's romantic rival—and the one who lost in that relationship. No one in the family dared mention either of their names in front of her.