The Altar

Xuan Qing's vision went black, and he arrived in this strange place.

It stretched without end, empty and desolate, with nothing in sight. He wandered aimlessly for quite a while.

At last, he saw two faint figures suspended in the air. A majestic Azure Dragon coiled overhead, radiating blue light.

The other was a grayish-white Qilin, its whole body glowing with a nine-colored halo. It looked mysterious.

The two figures suddenly moved! They turned into streaks of light and shot into Xuan Qing's forehead.

A majestic voice suddenly sounded in Xuan Qing's mind.

[Azure Dragon God Trial, First Trial: Trial requirement: Soul Power must reach level ten.]

[Time limit: One year.]

[Reward: Azure Dragon bloodline refinement.]

[Failure penalty: Annihilation!]

Before Xuan Qing could react, another voice rang out.

[Qilin God Trial, First Trial: Master the basic abilities of the Chaos Qilin Martial Soul.]

[Time limit: Five years!]

[Reward: Innate Soul Power at level ten!]

[Failure penalty: Permanent loss of the Chaos Qilin Martial Soul!]

Then his consciousness returned to his body. Xuan Qing sat on the ground, completely dumbfounded.

What was going on? He'd just bought a fake trinket from a street stall. How had he ended up with a God Trial?

And what was this about a Second Martial Soul? Didn't he only have a Green Scale Python?

Xuan Qing hurriedly tried to summon it. Once, twice... by the sixth attempt, his shoulder suddenly felt heavy. He turned his head and nearly jumped.

A tiny beast, about the size of his palm, was sprawled across his shoulder, yawning.

It glanced at Xuan Qing, turned its head, and went right back to sleep. It even started snoring.

Xuan Qing was deeply shaken. An externalized Martial Soul? This was incredible.

He instinctively reached for his chest.

"Wait... something's wrong."

"This feels all kinds of off. The jade pendant is gone!"

Xuan Qing focused his mind, and suddenly vanished from where he stood. He appeared inside that mysterious space.

"So that's it. The jade pendant turned into this Portable Space. I can come and go whenever I want."

Xuan Qing took a deep breath and realized that Soul Power here was especially dense.

But he didn't rush to cultivate. It was still broad daylight. If the village chief or someone else came knocking and found him gone, things would get awkward.

He needed to carefully plan what to do next.

He absolutely couldn't go to Spirit Hall. He didn't want to be handed over to that madwoman, Bibi Dong, for Yu Xiaogang to study.

After all, his Martial Soul was just too bizarre.

And with Innate Soul Power at only level five, he'd be nobody in Spirit City. How could he possibly compare to Yu Xiaogang in her heart?

If dissecting him gave even the slightest chance of helping Luo Sanpao evolve... would Bibi Dong really show mercy?

The odds might be tiny, but he didn't want to take the risk. Keeping his head down was the way to survive.

With that, he immediately dashed out and ran toward the village chief's house, hoping the Soul Master uncle hadn't left yet.

He charged into the courtyard, panting for breath. The Soul Master was just about to leave, but Xuan Qing stopped him.

"U-Uncle, could you do me a favor? Could you keep what happened to me a secret?"

"My Innate Soul Power isn't that high, but my Martial Soul is really unusual. I don't want some mad researcher setting their sights on me."

The Soul Master smiled. "Don't worry, kid. I'll keep your business quiet. But don't go to Suotuo City. I know people there, so it'd be easy for your secret to slip out."

He thought for a moment, then said, "Go to the junior Soul Master Academy in Tianyuan City. I have a friend who teaches there. Just take your Soul Master certificate and head over. After you obtain your First Soul Ring, you can use Martial Soul Mutation as an excuse. Until then, try not to use your Martial Soul."

The village chief came out too.

"You've gone with me to sell vegetables a few times, so you know Tianyuan City. Are you going to enroll tomorrow? Want me to take you?"

Xuan Qing waved his hand.

"No, no. It's half an hour away at most. I could find it with my eyes closed. You two carry on. I'll head back and cultivate."

He ran back to his little house, shut all the doors and windows, and, with a thought, entered the space again.

The little Qilin was summoned out and sprawled on the ground, yawning.

Xuan Qing poked it.

"What can you do? Show me."

The little Qilin lazily lifted its head and spat out a ball of flame. The heat was so intense that even the space seemed to warp under it.

Then it exhaled a mouthful of icy mist. The temperature plummeted, and a layer of ice formed on the ground.

Just those two moves had drained three-tenths of the level-five Soul Power stored in Xuan Qing's body!

His face fell. "Does it really have to use that much Soul Power?"

"But!"

The power really was impressive. The word Chaos wasn't there for nothing.

As Xuan Qing understood it, Chaos was made up of Yin and Yang energy. More accurately, it contained both and was the primordial state from which all things were born.

In his understanding, the Azure Dragon was the god of the East. In folk tradition, it governed rainfall and bountiful harvests.

In ancient times, people held ceremonies to pray to the Azure Dragon for rain. It also represented spring: when spring thunder roared, all things awoke.

But as for which of the two was stronger? He really couldn't say.

The only thing he knew for sure was that both the Azure Dragon and the Qilin were called Auspicious Beasts.

Xuan Qing sat cross-legged and began cultivating. He poked the little Qilin beside his feet.

"Don't slack off. I know you can cultivate too. An externalized Martial Soul has intelligence, so don't pretend you're a toy."

The little Qilin tilted its head, then reluctantly lay down. A faint, nine-colored glow rose from its body.

The two of them cultivated like that all afternoon. In the evening, Xuan Qing ate a little, then slipped back into the space to keep cultivating.

The Soul Power in the space wasn't just dense; it was also especially gentle. He felt none of the vein-swelling strain.

Suddenly, he remembered something.

"Should I create my own meditation method? At the very least, I could improve the basic meditation method."

Xuan Qing knew just how important a good meditation method was.

Tang San could advance faster than other people largely thanks to the Mysterious Heaven Skill.

Even if he failed, it wouldn't matter. The Chaos attribute of the Chaos Qilin would be there as a fallback. In other words, he could use cultivation methods of any attribute.

Water, fire, ice, light, darkness, wind, thunder.

The only difference would be how effective they were. Of course, it wasn't that simple. Chaos was far too abstract. Who knew what would work well and what wouldn't?

What if he started from the Azure Dragon's perspective? The Azure Dragon belonged to wood and governed spring thunder, wind, and rain.

If he really stretched it, it was even connected to time and space.

The Azure Dragon represented the East, and this space had fixed coordinates. It also represented spring, and the changing of the seasons was the rotation of time.

You could say these were coordinates for space and time. On Douluo Continent, time and space were superior attributes.

They wouldn't conflict with other attributes, so he could start from that angle.

It would be best to explore those several paths too.

"Ugh! This is hard!"

Xuan Qing lay on the ground, feeling a headache coming on.

Then he suddenly thought of something and slapped himself twice.

"Damn! This space is endless. Maybe there are other treasures in here!"

"Let's go treasure hunting!"

He put the little Qilin on his shoulder, and the two of them set off.

After wandering for about an hour, they found an altar. Two stone tablets stood upon it.

Two cultivation methods were carved into them.

Chaos Yin-Yang Canon: Absorbs all elements and converts them into Chaos energy.

Azure Dragon Mysterious Heaven Art: A body-tempering method of the Dragon Clan. When cultivated to the highest level, the body can shatter stars.

Xuan Qing's eyes lit up.

They looked like exclusive cultivation methods! Unfortunately, there were no matching divine abilities, only cultivation techniques.

A long spear was embedded in the exact center of the altar. On the other side stood a large seal.

Xuan Qing tried to pull out the spear, but it didn't budge.

Then he touched the person-tall seal.

The seal suddenly shrank, becoming about the size of a brick.

Xuan Qing froze.

"A brick???"

He remembered that the Ancestral Dragon had an Ancestral Dragon Pearl, but the Azure Dragon wasn't the Ancestral Dragon, so using a spear made sense.

The Qilin was the leader of the walking beasts, and the Primordial Qilin had a Qilin Seal. Could this seal be a treasure of the Qilin Clan?

In every kind of novel, treasures associated with Qilins were seals.

He had no plans to leave. He sat cross-legged on the altar and began thinking it through carefully.

Could it be that the little fellow wasn't actually his Martial Soul yet? He hadn't thought it through earlier, but only now did he realize it.

With Twin Martial Souls, he would certainly have Innate Full Soul Power. In other words, this was currently more like a companion spirit beast.

It wasn't yet a true Martial Soul, engraved in his soul. Otherwise, he should have Innate Full Soul Power.

It seemed the little Qilin hadn't fully acknowledged him yet—or perhaps he had to evolve the Green Scale Python into an Azure Dragon before they would be worthy of each other.

That would explain why the spear didn't recognize him.

After all, his Martial Soul wasn't the Azure Dragon yet, just a giant python. The Qilin Seal didn't recognize him either.

It recognized the little Qilin, whose soul was partly connected to his. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to lift it even if he worked himself to death.

Seen that way, the reward for the Qilin God Trial was intriguing: Innate Soul Power at level ten?

Once he completed it, his Innate Soul Power would rise to level fifteen. That would be like completing his foundation. Exactly!

Having reached that conclusion, Xuan Qing walked up to the stone tablet and decided to start with the Chaos Yin-Yang Canon.

It wasn't that he didn't want to temper his body. Both mattered, but he understood that scholarly pursuits required little wealth while martial pursuits required a lot.

Without enough nutrition, body tempering could easily wreck his body. He didn't have much money right now.

Sixty Gold Soul Coins might seem like a lot, but only to ordinary people.