Ten-Winged Angel Martial Soul

Meanwhile, deep within the imperial palace.

"You may all leave."

"Yes, Your Highness."

In the resplendent bedchamber, the young man in ornate gold-and-white robes dismissed the palace maids. The door was gently shut behind them.

The gauzy curtains fluttered in the breeze, and the crystal lamps cast the young man's upright silhouette on the wall. After a while, he put down his book, extinguished the lights, removed his outer robe, and climbed into bed.

Hearing the even breathing from inside, the people keeping watch outside slowly withdrew.

In the darkness, the young man opened his eyes. A flash of coldness passed through his golden gaze.

"Ha..." He chuckled softly, rose from the bed, and opened the secret chamber in the wall.

He descended the dark staircase. At the very bottom was a small secret chamber.

Seeing him, Chrysanthemum Douluo immediately dropped to one knee. "Young Lord! I've brought the item."

Chrysanthemum Douluo rose and stepped aside, revealing a small medicine bottle on the tea table.

"Uncle Ju, sorry for the trouble. Please keep watch outside for me. If anyone comes, notify me at once." The young man's voice was gentle and courteous.

"Rest assured, Young Lord." Chrysanthemum Douluo nodded and left the chamber.

The golden-haired, golden-eyed youth slowly sat down. Wearing white gloves adorned with gold thread, he picked up the bottle from the table. A trace of chill glimmered in his eyes. "Break through the limits of a Martial Soul? I hope so."

He pried open the stopper with his thumb and swallowed the pill without hesitation. The green pill slid down his throat, leaving a faint sweetness behind.

The young man looked himself over, but nothing had changed. His sword-like brows furrowed slightly.

"What's going on?" The next moment, his vision spun and doubled. Caught off guard, he fell straight to the floor as a mysterious force spread from his abdomen throughout his body.

A sound of pleasure escaped him. The immense power tore away his disguise, revealing a young woman's skin, pure as snow. Her golden hair spilled across the floor. Irritated, she bit her lower lip, sat cross-legged, and absorbed the pill's effects.

The Six-Winged Angel Martial Soul appeared behind her of its own accord, golden light illuminating the pitch-black underground. Flowers and plants sprouted from the soil, and in an instant, the underground chamber became a world of greenery.

At the ends of her wings, a pair of snow-white wings broke free of the restraints of her bloodline and slowly unfurled. Then another pair of tiny wings emerged.

After a long while, Qian Renxue slowly opened her eyes. She stood and looked at the Ten-Winged Angel wings behind her, her lovely brows drawing together slightly.

"The pill wasn't potent enough!!" Qian Renxue held back the urge to swear.

Her Martial Soul had become a Ten-Winged Angel, but the tenth wing hadn't fully unfurled. It had only just grown out.

And then... damn it, the pill's effects had run out.

"Young Lord..." Chrysanthemum Douluo hurried in. Seeing the flowers and plants covering the chamber and his unmasked Young Lord with a dark expression, he felt his heart lurch. What had happened?

"The Young Lord's Martial Soul?" Chrysanthemum Douluo stared in disbelief at the Eight-Winged Angel Martial Soul.

The tenth wing was simply too small. Hidden beneath the other eight, it was impossible to see.

"What is it?" Qian Renxue put away her wings and used her Soul Bone disguise skill to turn back into Xue Qinghe.

His Majesty Xue Ye is on his way here.

"I know." Qian Renxue started up the stairs. Halfway up, she stopped and glanced back. "Find out who sold that Evolution Pill."

Chrysanthemum Douluo was puzzled, but still answered, "Yes, Young Lord."

The morning sunlight streamed through the window. Roses beneath the sill bloomed brilliantly, and a magpie flew into the room to peck at the pastries on the table.

Qingxi pressed a hand to her throbbing forehead and slowly opened her eyes. Sunlight fell across her face, her dark lashes casting a shadow, and her black eyes were clouded and unreadable.

"So it was the Heavenly Dao..." She remembered that her Nascent Soul tribulation had indeed been unusually fierce. If that unlucky Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast hadn't taken part of the tribulation for her, she might truly have failed to survive it.

She hadn't triggered a tribulation when she'd built her foundation or formed her core. Not until the Nascent Soul stage...

Little Yan'er hadn't faced a tribulation when she built her foundation, either. Qingxi had thought that cultivators in this world simply didn't undergo tribulations.

Or perhaps the Heavenly Dao hadn't noticed cultivators below the Nascent Soul stage.

All she had to do now was break through her bottleneck and face the tribulation for the Deity Transformation stage. Then she would know whether that person had been telling the truth.

Qingxi sat up in bed and once more immersed herself in cultivation.

The pale-red Strange Flower True Spirit flickered in and out within her sea of consciousness, as though foreshadowing something.

At the same time, a silver-haired youth appeared inside a Spirit Hall Branch. He wore a white robe and looked about sixteen or seventeen. An ice-arrow emblem adorned his clothes; his brows were silver as snow, his eyes like a river of stars, and frost covered the left side of his face.

"Did this little thing come here a few days ago? She has a lotus-shaped birthmark on her forehead." Guang Ling held out a portrait to the old man guarding the entrance. It showed a little girl of five or six, with black hair and eyes and a vermilion mark between her brows.

"This is..." The old man adjusted his glasses and leaned in to examine it. "That does look like her. Black hair and eyes—yes, that's her. A very cute little girl. I think she was a Soul Grandmaster."

"Of course she's cute. You didn't need to tell me that." Guang Ling proudly raised his chin, then folded up the portrait. "Did she say where she was going?"

Six years. The little carrot had been missing for six whole years.

They'd agreed that he would come get her half a year later, but when he went, she was already gone.

If she hadn't registered as a Soul Master at Spirit Hall six years ago, with Innate Full Soul Power of level twenty and an unknown Martial Soul, Guang Ling wouldn't have had even the slightest lead. Her talent had even alarmed Spirit Hall's main branch.

And so six years had passed. Despite talent so astonishing it rivaled the Young Lord's, she had never appeared anywhere on the continent again.

Guang Ling had spent six years looking for her. A few days ago, he'd discovered that someone had claimed the child's allowance, so he'd rushed over without stopping—but he'd still missed her.

"She didn't say, but she had someone notify us that she'd collected all six years of her allowance," the old man replied.

"Thank you." Guang Ling frowned slightly and offered his thanks. Frost Ice Wings spread behind him, and he flew into the sky above Suotuo City.

He looked down at the bustling streets, frost gathering in his eyes. His thin lips were pressed tight, and a chill radiated from him.

"Where could she have gone?" The youth lowered his head in thought. As if recalling something, he slowly closed his eyes and let his Soul Power spread in every direction, seemingly sensing for something.

After a long while, Guang Ling opened his eyes in disappointment. She was no longer here.

He turned and flew in another direction.

Two months later.

A powerful aura of life spread through the courtyard, jolting Qingxi awake. Seeing trees and plants growing wildly inside the house, she realized someone was breaking through and immediately set up a barrier around the entire courtyard.

She got up and left the house, then flew into the air. Flowers and plants in the courtyard were growing wildly, green vines twisted around one another, and towering ancient trees rose from the earth. The side room where she had been staying collapsed with a crash the next second. Not a single spot in the courtyard escaped unscathed.

Qingxi understood. It was the Green Wood Heart Art.

Just then, a green streak of light cut across the sky. Dugu Bo, clad in green-and-gold armor, landed on the roof. Seeing the ruins beneath his feet, he frowned. "What happened?"

Fortunately, Sunset Forest was quite far from Heaven Dou City. The moment he sensed this strange energy, he had hurried back.

"It should be Yan'er breaking through." Qingxi looked toward the northwest corner, where a mass of green vines had wound around something. The plants were growing ever more luxuriantly, and the immense aura of life was making them run rampant. If she hadn't isolated the place with a barrier ahead of time, the entire street would have been caught up in it.

"To reach the third layer of the Azure Wood Heart Method in six years is impressive. Still, Yan'er needs to temper her temperament."

"She's breaking through? Then Yan'er is about to form her core?" Dugu Bo asked in surprise.

"Mm." Qingxi nodded. "When someone cultivates the Green Wood Heart Art, a tremendous amount of life energy is generated during a breakthrough. It's extremely beneficial to cultivating the Green Wood Heart Art. You might as well sit down and absorb some of it, too."

"Won't it affect Yan'er?"

"No. Rather than letting the plants absorb it, you might as well. Once Yan'er breaks through, this energy will dissipate."

Dugu Bo nodded, returned to the ground, and sat cross-legged to absorb the surrounding energy.

Suddenly, it was as if Qingxi sensed something.

She furrowed her brows and looked up at the cloudless sky stretching for thousands of miles, but there was nothing in sight.

At the same time, in the God Realm Committee.

"What pure life energy..."

A pale-green figure appeared before the Star Disk and quietly gazed at a certain place in the lower realm.