Night fell.
Yu Tianlong pushed open the wooden gate of the small courtyard. Its creak rang especially clearly in the silence.
This was the only inheritance his parents had left him: a small courtyard on the outskirts of the family estate, with white walls, blue tiles, three rooms, and a yard less than ten zhang across.
He had been three years old when his parents died in battle. The family had granted him compensation: permanent residence in this courtyard and a monthly allowance of five hundred Gold Soul Coins until he came of age.
As he entered the yard, a thought stirred in his mind.
Golden and silver light surged from his body at the same time, gathering into shape before him. One golden and one silver Luo Sanpao landed on the ground and affectionately rubbed against his trouser legs.
"Luo-luo!"
"Luo~"
Their cries were soft and sweet, carrying the dependence unique to young beasts.
Yu Tianlong crouched and carefully examined the two little fellows. There had been too many people around during the day for him to get a good look. Now, under the moonlight, their peculiarities stood out even more.
The golden Luo Sanpao was a little bigger and looked stronger.
The silver Luo Sanpao looked more exquisite, with bright, lively eyes.
"So... what exactly are you?" Yu Tianlong reached out, placing one hand on each of their furry heads and gently stroking them.
They felt warm to the touch. These were living bodies of flesh and blood, not illusory projections of a Martial Soul.
He could clearly sense that something connected him to them—something beyond a bond of Soul Power, almost like a bloodline resonance.
"Luo-luo-luo!"
"Luo! Luo!"
The two little fellows suddenly cried out at the same time, their voices plainly anxious. Little Gold nudged his hand with its head, while Little Silver clambered right up against his knee and stood on its hind legs. Its big, glassy eyes plainly said, "Hungry."
Yu Tianlong froze.
"You're hungry? Martial Souls... can get hungry?"
This completely overturned his understanding of Martial Souls. By the common understanding of the Douluo Continent, a Martial Soul was an outward manifestation of a Soul Master's power, an energy body, a projection of one's bloodline. But one that could eat and feel hunger? That was unheard of.
Yet the two little fellows' urgency seemed genuine. After a moment's hesitation, Yu Tianlong stood and headed for the kitchen.
Though his parents had passed away, the family still provided for him according to the standards for a direct-line descendant, including his food. He opened his Storage Soul Tool, a lowest-grade belt with a one-cubic-meter space, which had belonged to his parents, and took out a piece of meat wrapped in oil paper.
The meat was dark red, its grain clearly visible. A faint light shimmered across it, and it gave off a mild fishy smell along with a hint of pressure.
It was meat from a hundred-year-old Earth Armor Dragon, a powerful defensive Earth-attribute Soul Beast. The family dining hall served it in limited quantities each day, and it was quite beneficial for children's physical training.
With his current cultivation, Yu Tianlong could digest at most a palm-sized piece a day.
The moment he placed the meat on the stone table, something unexpected happened!
"Luo!"
A flash of golden light—Golden Luo San Pao shot up like an arrow. Its chubby, stubby body burst with astonishing leaping power, landing steadily on the edge of the stone table. It didn't even wait for Yu Tianlong to move. It opened its mouth and bit straight into the Earth Armor Dragon meat!
Golden Luo San Pao's piglike snout twitched as it took a big bite. The meat was so tough that even ordinary knives and swords would struggle to cut through it, yet in its mouth, it tore apart like tender tofu.
The sound of crunching filled the air as it chewed. The shredded meat, flecked with light, vanished down its throat. In just three or five bites, the palm-sized piece was gone.
"This..." Yu Tianlong gaped.
What happened next was even more astonishing. After swallowing the meat, Golden Luo San Pao burped contentedly, and a layer of earthy yellow light appeared around its body!
The light flowed across its surface, gradually solidifying into faint, sharply defined scale patterns—the distinctive defensive armor of an Earth Armor Dragon!
Though formed of nothing but light and shadow, it gave off a faint, heavy, solid aura.
Yu Tianlong reached out without thinking. The moment his fingertip touched the phantom scales, they felt as hard as clashing metal. Their defensive power was nowhere near comparable to fur!
"Devouring Soul Beast meat... lets it gain their traits?!"
But the scale-shadow lasted less than ten breaths before slowly fading away.
The golden light around Golden Luo San Pao seemed a touch brighter, and its body had grown ever so slightly. It licked its lips, still unsatisfied, and gazed eagerly at Yu Tianlong, clearly wanting more.
"Luo-luo!"
Just then, a sudden commotion on the other side drew Yu Tianlong's attention.
Silver Luo San Pao had somehow made its way to the corner of the courtyard. There stood a simple stone stove for cooking, piled with wood ash. During the day, he had tried to start a fire to roast something, and a small flame had remained alight.
Now Silver Luo San Pao was tilting its head, curiously watching the dancing orange-red flame.
Then, before Yu Tianlong could react, it did something that nearly made its master's jaw drop.
It stuck out its tender little tongue and tentatively licked the flame.
"Careful, it's hot..." Yu Tianlong cried out, but his words abruptly caught in his throat.
There was no scream or smell of burning as he had expected. The instant Little Silver's tongue touched the fire, the flame seemed to be drawn toward it, turning into a thin thread of fire that willingly slipped into its mouth!
Silver Luo San Pao swallowed with a gulp. Its glassy eyes narrowed in satisfaction as it smacked its lips, as though savoring the taste.
Immediately afterward, silver light flowed around its body, and a faint, illusory crimson flame burst into existence, wrapping around it!
The flame wasn't hot enough to set its silvery fur alight. Instead, it leaped and flowed over the little creature like a well-behaved pet.
Silver Luo San Pao cried out excitedly as it bounced around the courtyard. The air rippled faintly wherever it went.
Caught up in the fun, it suddenly stopped and opened its little mouth.
"Whoosh."
A solid crimson pillar of fire, as thick as an arm, shot out and struck the locust tree trunk three meters away!
"Boom!"
The pillar exploded, sending splinters flying. A patch of black scorch marks had appeared on the old locust tree's thick trunk, sunk a full inch deep, with embers still flickering around the edges.
Yu Tianlong sucked in a sharp breath. That kind of power was already on par with the first Soul Skill of some low-level Fire-attribute Soul Masters! And Little Silver had only swallowed a tiny flame from an ordinary fire.
"Eat fire... and control fire?" His heart raced as a bold guess took shape in his mind.
He began looking for all kinds of things to feed them and test what they could do.
An hour later, he sat on a stone stool, breathing a little hard, but with excitement blazing in his eyes.
The conclusion was gradually becoming clear.
"Golden Luo San Pao can devour Soul Beast flesh and absorb its most essential traits, temporarily gaining some of its abilities while permanently increasing its own basic strength. The stronger the Soul Beast it devours, the stronger the ability it gains and the greater the increase."
"Silver Luo San Pao can absorb, transform, and control all kinds of elemental energy. Fire, ice, soil, metal, even light and liquid... As long as something contains an elemental attribute, it seems able to absorb it and make preliminary use of it. The more it absorbs, the stronger its control becomes, and the more elemental power it can wield."
"And most importantly..." Yu Tianlong clenched his fists, feeling the Soul Power surging through his body,
"When they grow stronger, they directly feed that strength back to me! It's only a tiny amount, but during that single hour of testing, my Soul Power increased by at least as much as I'd normally gain from three days of cultivation!"
These were no longer simple Martial Souls.
They were two monster seedlings capable of growing and evolving without limit through "eating"!
Devour Soul Beasts to gain strength and traits.
Devour elements to command energy and laws.
The twin Martial Souls worked in tandem, feeding power back to their master.
"If... if I let them keep devouring,"
Yu Tianlong's voice trembled with excitement, joy, and the shiver of seeing endless possibilities,