Bi Ji felt her heart skip a beat.
This feeling...
Was completely different from the awe she felt in the presence of Beast God Di Tian.
Di Tian was domineering and stern.
But Venti...
He was free.
Like the wind that was everywhere.
Powerful, yet never oppressive.
Gentle, yet unfathomably deep.
Bi Ji held the Vision in her hand, feeling the wind elements around her dancing with joy.
Her gaze gradually grew a little hazy.
Perhaps this was...
The charm of the wind?
"Um..."
Blushing, Bi Ji asked softly:
"Your Holiness, is this apple... really that delicious?"
Venti turned his head. Seeing Bi Ji's slightly dazed expression, he grinned and casually picked up the last apple from the fruit platter, tossing it to her.
"Want to try?"
"I don't have any Mondstadt specialties, so make do with this."
Bi Ji fumbled to catch the apple.
She cradled it in her hands.
As if she were holding some priceless treasure.
She didn't eat it.
She just looked at Venti's smile and nodded foolishly.
"Mm."
Godwind City, back garden.
The scent of apples still lingered in the wind.
Venti casually tossed the core of the apple he had finished into the air.
A streak of green light flashed.
The core vanished.
Bi Ji was still immersed in the lingering shock of Tang Hao's earth-shattering hammer blow. The Vision in her hands made her palms feel hot.
She looked at Venti.
This deity seemed completely unconcerned by Tang Hao's declaration of war.
He even had time to comment on how sweet the apples were.
Just how much confidence did he have?
Just then.
The scene on the Sky Curtain changed.
Tang Hao's arrogant figure, the hammer still slung over his shoulder, slowly faded away.
The sky, stained red by that terrifying killing intent, returned to its clear, golden hue.
The Golden Ranking scroll began to move again.
New words appeared.
[Rank 14]
This time.
There were no oppressive dark clouds like when Tang Hao had appeared, nor any violent scenes of mountains shattering.
The image was light and graceful.
Like a swift darting through the clouds.
The figure was exceedingly slender and incredibly fast.
It moved so quickly that the image itself blurred, leaving a faint afterimage.
In Godwind City.
Bi Ji blinked in surprise.
She was an Emerald Swan who had lived for hundreds of thousands of years. Her eyesight was naturally keen.
Although the figure was moving quickly, she still caught its aura.
It wasn't especially powerful.
At least, compared with Tang Hao, who had smashed a mountain with one blow, this aura seemed somewhat... immature?
"Your Holiness."
Bi Ji couldn't help asking:
"This... seems to be a junior?"
Venti leaned back on the stone bench, resting his hands behind his head as he lounged with one leg crossed over the other.
"Mmhmm."
"She's a little girl who runs pretty fast."
Venti narrowed his eyes at the afterimage on the Sky Curtain, a smile tugging at his lips.
"I saw her trying to catch up with her companions, running so hard she was about to wear out her shoes, so I gave her a hand."
Bi Ji's heart lurched.
He gave her a hand?
She lowered her head and glanced at the Vision in her hands.
Just now, the Wind God had also said he'd "given her a hand" by offering her an opportunity.
Could it be...
At that moment.
The image on the Sky Curtain finally came into focus.
It was a young woman.
She was tall and graceful, with delicate features and a pair of purple wings on her back.
Though she stood still, a restless current of air swirled around her at all times.
It wasn't violent.
But it was razor-sharp.
Like a blade of wind ready to leap from its sheath at any moment.
Then.
The unfamiliar name that left the entire continent mystified appeared on the ranking.
[Bai Chenxiang]
[Affiliation: Speed Clan]
[Identity: Granddaughter of Bai He, current clan leader of the Speed Clan; Hall Master of the Tang Sect's Speed Hall]
[Martial Soul: Sharp-Tailed Swift (evolving)]
The spectators across the continent erupted.
Especially the Soul Masters whose spirits had been fired up by Tang Hao.
They all felt as if a basin of cold water had been poured over them.
"Bai Chenxiang?"
"Never heard of her!"
"I know the Speed Clan. Aren't they an affiliated clan of the Clear Sky Sect? I heard all they can do is run. They have no offensive power at all."
"She's got a useless Martial Soul, purely for scouting."
"Why?"
"Why is she ranked fourteenth? She even outranked Clear Sky Douluo?"
Doubtful voices rose one after another.
Who was Tang Hao?
He was a renowned Titled Douluo, a fierce fighter who could injure the Pope with a single hammer blow.
This Bai Chenxiang looked no older than twenty.
Even if she'd started cultivating in her mother's womb, there was no way she could be stronger than Tang Hao, was there?
However.
The Sky Curtain paid no heed to their doubts.
The next line appeared.
It was also the line that silenced every doubting voice in an instant.
[Special Status: Twin Martial Souls (awakened after birth)]
[Second Martial Soul: Anemo Vision]
[Source: Bestowed by Wind God Barbatos. A perfect affinity with wind elements; able to command the fierce winds of heaven and earth, making up for the offensive weakness that comes with reaching the ultimate in speed.]
Boom!
Those few lines caused an even greater uproar than Tang Hao smashing the mountain.
Twin Martial Souls!
In the history of the Douluo Continent, they were rarer than phoenix feathers and qilin horns.
As long as they survived to adulthood, every possessor of Twin Martial Souls would become a peerless powerhouse who shook the ages.
The current Pope, Bibi Dong, was one.
That Tang San was another.
But that wasn't what shocked everyone most.
The note that followed was what made their scalps crawl.
[Bestowed by Wind God Barbatos]!
It was him again!
This Wind God again!
And the Twin Martial Souls had been "awakened after birth"!
What did that mean?
It meant that this Wind God had the power to create Twin Martial Soul powerhouses at will!
Spirit Hall, Pope Palace.
Bibi Dong's pale violet eyes were fixed on the small words on the Sky Curtain.
[Second Martial Soul: Anemo Vision (awakened after birth)]
[Bestowed by Wind God Barbatos]
"Impossible..."
Bibi Dong's red lips parted, her voice hoarse.
As a possessor of Twin Martial Souls herself, she understood better than anyone what this meant.
Twin Martial Souls were Heaven's gift, a miracle seen once in ten thousand.
But now.
The Sky Curtain was telling her that the Wind God—the one who was always grinning and even had time to comment on how sweet an apple was in the midst of two armies—could produce such miracles at will?
If this was what they called a "divine miracle,"
then what was the point of ordinary people like them exhausting themselves to cultivate?
"Your Holiness."
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan stood at the foot of the steps, his throat bobbing.
His usually flamboyant face was now filled with terror.
"She's just a Sharp-Tailed Swift."
"The granddaughter of that old White Bird from the Speed Clan."
"I saw her during the Soul Master Tournament. Aside from being a little fast, she posed no threat at all."
"But now..."
Yue Guan paused, not daring to continue.
Now, with a second Martial Soul bestowed by the Wind God, her offensive weakness had been made up for.
She was no longer a swallow that could only flee.
She was a scythe of death, ready to reap lives.
If the Wind God wished,
could he turn every enemy of Spirit Hall into a possessor of Twin Martial Souls?
Once the thought arose, it grew in Yue Guan's heart like wild grass.
It wasn't just him.
Even Ghost Douluo, who was usually silent, trembled slightly beneath his black robes.