Six Years

Spirit City.

Guang Ling sat at the highest point of Spirit Hall, both feet swinging aimlessly as he toyed with a golden, oval-shaped stone in his right hand.

He held it up to the sun. Depending on the angle, the stone refracted different colors of light.

He wondered whether that little one had settled in comfortably in Suotuo City.

"Guang Ling." Azure Luan walked to the balcony and sat down beside him.

"Third Brother." Guang Ling turned his head and smiled.

"Why do you seem a little unhappy since you came back?" He looked at the eighty-year-old brat beside him, whose face was still that of a child, and furrowed his sword-like brows.

"I'm not, really." Guang Ling lowered his head and swung his feet.

"Thinking about that little radish? She is pretty cute. If you like her, you could bring her back and raise her as your child." Azure Luan thought for a moment before speaking.

"That's what Big Brother thinks, too. The young master is all alone. She'd be happy to have someone her age around."

In their Elder Hall, aside from the Great Enshrined, Second Brother, and Fourth Brother, the rest were a bunch of rough, burly men.

Guang Ling was the best-looking among them, but unfortunately, he was as childish as a little boy and clueless when it came to matters of the heart.

The young master was the only child in the entire Elder Hall, so it was only natural she'd get lonely. And the children in Pope Hall weren't close to her because of Bibi Dong.

Raising another child would be nice. Two little girls would have more in common.

"A child?"

Guang Ling tilted his head, and an image involuntarily surfaced in his mind: a little girl tugging at his trouser leg and calling him "Daddy."

Then, a few years later, a graceful young woman would bring a two-meter-tall, hulking man before him.

"Daddy, this is my boyfriend."

"Father-in-law!"

"No, no, no..." Guang Ling shook his head and toppled off the balcony in fright.

What kind of devilish scene was that?

"Heh..." Azure Luan watched the little brat tumble down and couldn't help laughing aloud.

Judging by the pained look on his face, he had no idea what the boy was imagining.

A little while later, Guang Ling floated back up from below, swaying as he went.

"Third Brother, don't joke around. I could never raise a child in this lifetime."

He was still a child himself.

And Third Brother actually wanted him to raise one.

What a joke!

Azure Luan laughed beside him. "All right, no kids. Our Fifth Brother is still a child himself."

"Hmph!" Guang Ling snorted and raised his chin haughtily, then added, "But I promised the little girl that if she awakens her Martial Soul in six months, I'll go pick her up."

"Pfft..." Azure Luan couldn't help chuckling. So the Fifth Brother really was planning to raise a child!

"What's this? Gold?" Azure Luan picked up the little golden stone on the balcony and examined it.

"Oh, you mean this." Guang Ling glanced at it indifferently. "It's a gift from the Little Gold-Swallowing Beast."

"The Little Gold-Swallowing Beast?"

What kind of Soul Beast was that?

Guang Ling swung his little feet and gazed out at the sea of clouds stretching to the horizon. "Yeah, a Little Gold-Swallowing Beast that can eat a ton."

It had been several days since they parted. He wondered if she had eaten Bishop Wenge out of house and home.

"What are you talking about?" A deep voice sounded from behind them. Qian Daoliu emerged from the corridor in a golden robe.

"Big Brother!" The two jumped down from the balcony and bowed slightly in greeting.

"Mm." Qian Daoliu nodded, his gaze settling on Guang Ling. "If you like that child, you can bring her back and raise her."

Qian Daoliu had noticed that Fifth Brother had been unhappy these past few days.

Qian Daoliu's understanding was that the Fifth Brother probably wanted to be a grandfather.

Thinking of his own soft and adorable little granddaughter, who was clingy and sensible, Qian Daoliu felt quite gratified.

"Big Brother!" Guang Ling stomped his foot in anger.

Don't think he couldn't understand what Big Brother meant.

Azure Luan burst out laughing and chimed in, "Exactly. Our Spirit Hall can afford to raise her."

Guang Ling glared at him. "I'm not talking to you anymore. I'm going into seclusion!!"

Watching the furious little brat, Qian Daoliu and Azure Luan exchanged glances and smiled in unison.

Six years later.

Over the course of six years, the continent had undergone earth-shaking changes. The most striking of them was this:

Spirit Hall had introduced a special body-tempering method. The process was painful, but it could greatly improve even an ordinary person's constitution, and the price was low. Commoners needed only one Silver Soul Coin.

Sunset Forest lay in the center of the Heaven Dou Empire and was one of the empire's possessions. Most of those allowed to enter and hunt Soul Beasts there had some status.

The terrain inside the forest was complex, with ancient trees towering overhead. Most of the Soul Beasts there were under ten thousand years old, making it a relatively safe Soul Beast forest.

A black figure flew over the forest canopy and finally stopped before a mountain range.

Dense poisonous mists obscured the mountain range's true appearance, but the figure seemed not to notice. She stepped into the poisonous fog.

The woman wore a black hooded cloak, her jet-black hair simply tied behind her. A lotus adorned her forehead, and her fair face was set off by eyes like black obsidian, bright and gentle.

She looked somewhat travel-worn.

"In the blink of an eye, six years have passed." The woman reached out and caught a falling leaf, her gaze tender.

Over the past six years, she had traveled to every corner of the world. The ocean was nearly nine times larger than the land, and she had also seen some floating continents. Spiritual energy there was scarce, the people were savage, and civilization was backward; they still needed the tempering of time. Of them all, Douluo Continent remained the largest.

It was a spherical planet, just like the one in her homeland. She had flown fifty thousand miles upward but had seen no stars. That was the highest point she could reach for now.

In the end, she had returned to this land. Her cultivation had stalled at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm.

Qingxi slowly pulled up her hood, hiding her face as she walked into the cave.

The Ice and Fire Spirit Pool still looked just as it had before. The spiritual flowers and herbs around it had grown much older, and quite a few had already reached the ten-thousand-year level.

A crooked wooden sign hung on the stone wall nearby. It read: "Private property. Trespassers will be beaten to death."

Nestled amid the spiritual herbs was a one-meter-tall Red Lotus. It had reached maturity, brimming with vitality as it silently absorbed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

As soon as she approached the Strange Flower, a green blur shot out and lunged at her, baring its fangs.

Qingxi reached out and grabbed Little Green Snake by the back of its neck. A moment later, its two fangs sank into the back of her hand, injecting venom.

She couldn't help laughing. "We haven't seen each other in years. Don't you recognize me?"

The ferocious glint in Little Green Snake's eyes faded. It blinked at the furtive figure before it.

It seemed to recognize her. It drew back its fangs and ingratiatingly licked the wound on Qingxi's hand.

"Ha..." She chuckled, purged the venom with her spiritual energy, then conjured another hand to tap Little Green Snake on the head. "You little rascal. If I were an ordinary person, wouldn't you have poisoned me to death?"

Little Green Snake rubbed against her docilely. Horns had already sprouted from its forehead, and four little bulges had formed beneath its belly. It was beginning to take on the shape of a dragon.

The woman and snake sat down before the flower. She rested a hand on the sachet at her waist, took out a few spirit stones, and arranged them around the Strange Flower in a small spirit-gathering formation.

She had found the spirit stones in a mountain range south of Douluo Continent. There had been a vein of them, and she had picked up plenty to store in her Storage Bag.

In an instant, spiritual energy surged toward the Strange Flower from every direction.

Qingxi brushed the dust from her robe. Her appearance and veins were clearly visible beneath her skin; this was now a body just like a human's.

After playing with Little Green Snake for a while, she condensed a drop of essence and fed it to the snake, then set it atop the Strange Flower. "Little thing, the spirit-gathering formation will help you cultivate faster. Try to transform into a dragon as soon as possible."

She rose and walked to the Ice and Fire Spirit Pool. Just as she was about to undress and take a bath, she suddenly sensed a fluctuation of spiritual energy behind her.

Qingxi teleported out of the way. She looked up to see several wind blades miss the spot where she had been standing and slam into the opposite stone wall. Rocks came tumbling down.

The flowers and grass beneath her feet instantly grew wildly, winding around her hands and feet.

"Fourth Soul Skill—Snake Venom Pierce!"

Watching the hundreds of green poison needles shoot down from the air, Qingxi withdrew the spiritual energy in her hand and curled her lips into a smile.