Breaking Through to Level Twenty at Seven

Xu Tianxiang suddenly clapped his hands and laughed. The Purple Imperial Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon embroidery on his dragon robe seemed to come alive in the candlelight, while the rubies set in its dragon eyes glimmered faintly.

"Right, there's something else important."

Xu Tianxiang walked behind the bookshelf and pressed a carved blue brick. The wall rumbled open, revealing a golden jade slip floating within a hidden compartment.

"Our imperial family's inherited Martial Soul, the Purple Imperial Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon, has a special Inheritance Land."

The jade slip felt slightly warm in Shen Lian's hand, and he could sense an ancient dragon's might flowing within it.

Xu Tianxiang pointed at the coiling dragon patterns on the jade slip, his tone solemn.

"Every member of the royal family who awakens the Purple Imperial Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon must go to the Inheritance Land after reaching level thirty, to see whether they have the fortune to receive its inheritance."

His fingertip brushed across Shen Lian's brow, where the faint pattern of his Martial Soul mark appeared. Then he said to Shen Lian,

"You have also awakened the Purple Imperial Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon Martial Soul. When the time comes, come find me in the palace. Grandfather will take you there himself."

Shen Lian then left with Shen Long.

By the time they left the Imperial Study, dusk had already spread across the palace walls.

As Shen Lian followed Shen Long out of the palace gates, the wind sweeping through the halls stirred the bronze bells beneath the eaves, producing a clear, melodious chime.

The carriage rolled over frozen flagstones. The palace lanterns drifting past outside the window had yet to go out, and their crimson halos shone through the gauze curtains, casting wavering light across Shen Lian's knees.

Shen Lian instinctively touched the Storage Ring at his waist. The thirty-thousand-year soul bone lay dormant inside, occasionally giving off a faint sound like howling wind.

Over the following year after returning home, Shen Lian's blade aura carved countless fine marks into the blue stone tiles of the Martial Arts Arena.

Every day at dawn, when the first ray of morning light swept across the glazed tiles of the Duke of the State Mansion, Shen Lian was already standing on the training ground with a Black Iron Blade in hand. His blade movements matched his breathing as he mastered the Shen family's Dragon-Slaying Blade Technique.

The afternoon sparring sessions were the most dangerous. Shen Long had specially selected three Soul Grandmasters from the guard camp and had them take turns sparring with Shen Lian using Martial Souls of different attributes. On one occasion, a earth-attribute Soul Master's gravity domain even cracked the floor of the Martial Arts Arena.

Late at night, Shen Lian's chambers would always glow with a soft light of Soul Power.

Shen Lian sat cross-legged on a cloud-patterned cushion, letting the warm current formed from Whale Rubber seep into his limbs and bones. The faint crackling sounds of his growing bones were especially clear in the silence.

The Martial Soul texts piled upon his desk had long since become dog-eared from repeated reading. In Ancient Soul Beast Bloodline Studies, he had drawn three emphatic lines beneath the words "Vermilion Bird Remnant Soul" in the chapter on the Crimson Flame Sparrow Spirit.

On his seventh birthday, before the morning mist had dispersed, Shen Lian's Soul Power suddenly broke through its bottleneck.

When Shen Lian opened his eyes, the winter plum blossoms outside were fluttering down in clusters.

The moment he pushed open the door, he saw Xu Ningxin standing beneath the corridor with a jade box in her hands. Inside was a birthday cake steamed from hundred-year spiritual rice, topped with nine bright red goji berries. She had personally made it for Shen Lian while keeping watch beside the pill furnace all night.

"Son, did you break through to level twenty?"

Xu Ningxin's voice carried barely concealed excitement, and the pearl hairpin at her temple swayed softly with her movements.

Shen Lian noticed the shadows beneath his mother's eyes. She must have stayed awake the entire night because of his breakthrough.

He had barely nodded when Shen Meng came through the moon gate carrying a gilded saber over his shoulder. The taotie pattern on its scabbard gleamed coldly in the morning light.

"Brat, once you absorb that Spirit Ring, you'll be the youngest Soul Grandmaster in the Sun-Moon Empire."

Shen Long emerged from behind the screen wall, leaning on a dragon-headed cane. The Heaven-Swallowing Python pattern on his brocade robe had been dampened by the morning dew, revealing dark markings of varying shades.

"Tomorrow, we'll go to the palace and absorb that Crimson Flame Sparrow Spirit's Spirit Ring."

The old man's tone allowed no argument. His cane struck heavily against the blue stone slabs, startling the gray pigeons roosting beneath the corridor.

Xu Ningxin hurried forward and linked her arm with Shen Lian's. Her fingertips brushed the short blade hidden in his sleeve.

It was the birthday gift she had given him last year. The scabbard bore the Martial Soul marks of mother and son.

The next morning, two carved carriages stood before the gates of the Duke of the State Mansion.

When Shen Lian boarded the carriage, he found that a bronze incense burner had been added inside. It burned calming incense capable of soothing the violent nature of Soul Beasts.

Xu Ningxin was stuffing healing pills into his Storage Ring. Each time she placed a bottle inside, she carefully explained how to use it. Only when Shen Long lightly knocked on the carriage door outside did she reluctantly set down the jade bottle, though her fingertips accidentally brushed the cinnabar spell pattern on its surface.

As the carriage entered the palace city, the bronze studs on the Vermilion Bird Gate glinted red beneath the sun.

Shen Lian lifted the carriage curtain and looked out. He saw the plum trees in the Imperial Garden covered with crows, a dense black mass like ink spilled across snowy white paper.

The sounds of clashing weapons came from the distant Martial Arts Arena. He knew that his cousin was leading the guards in training.

As the gilded beast-head door knocker rang clearly beneath Xu Ningxin's palm, the bronze crane incense burner in the Imperial Study released its final wisp of ambergris.

Shen Lian lowered his gaze to the jade-green armor worn by his mother. Xu Ningxin had told him it was armor crafted from Phoenix Feather Jade bestowed upon her by Xu Tianxiang himself.

The Storage Bracelet on Xu Ningxin's wrist swayed gently as she knocked, making the cloud-and-dragon relief on the door flicker between light and shadow.

"Ning Xin, what brings you and Xiao Lian to see Father today?"

The instant Xu Tianxiang set down his vermilion brush, the sleeve of his dragon robe swept over the military reports piled on the desk. The wax seal on the urgent report from Evil Demon Forest at the top had not yet dried.

Shen Lian noticed that his imperial grandfather now wore a black jade ring on the ring finger of his left hand. Within the Purple Imperial Heaven-Extinguishing Dragon pattern carved upon its face seemed to linger a faint trace of blood-red color.

"Father, we came because Xiao Lian broke through to level twenty in Soul Power yesterday. He has come to absorb the Crimson Flame Sparrow Spirit's Spirit Ring."

Before Xu Ningxin had finished speaking, Shen Lian felt the air in the Imperial Study suddenly turn still.

The gilded chiming clock on the desk happened to strike the third quarter of the Hour of the Dragon. Each chime seemed to slam into his Soul Core, making his Martial Soul mark grow faintly hot.

"A seven-year-old Soul Grandmaster?"

Xu Tianxiang shot to his feet, his dragon boots creaking against the golden brick floor.

As he hurried around the desk toward Shen Lian, the jade belt hook decorated with the Twelve Symbols at his waist caught a scroll on the table's corner. The Sun Moon Mountain and River Map unfurled with a rustle, revealing the outline of Evil Demon Forest inlaid with pearls.

"You've truly done me proud!"

The emperor's laughter made the glazed lanterns hanging from the rafters sway gently, their shadows flickering across Shen Lian's face.

Xu Tianxiang then ordered someone to bring the Crimson Flame Sparrow Spirit to the Martial Arts Arena. As soon as his words fell, Shen Lian heard the sound of garments cutting through the air from the shadows.

Three shadow guards dressed in black dropped from the beams, and not even the dust on the floor tiles stirred when they landed.

Shen Lian and Xu Ningxin then followed Xu Tianxiang toward the Martial Arts Arena.

Along the covered corridor leading to the Martial Arts Arena, Xu Tianxiang suddenly stopped.

Pointing to the wintersweet blooming outside the corridor, he smiled at Shen Lian.

"When your mother was little, she loved using plum petals to make soul-conducting agents."

As he spoke, he plucked a branch and handed it to Xu Ningxin, who was following behind them.

When Shen Lian saw his mother accept the flowering branch, a smile appeared on her face as well.