As her words fell, a deep-yellow Soul Power vortex ten meters in diameter suddenly unfurled beneath Tang Shan's feet.
"This is my first Soul Skill, Gravity Dragon Might!" Tang Shan playfully winked, then continued, "Within my Soul Skill's domain, all enemies will be subjected to three times their own gravity."
"What an excellent control-type Soul Skill!" Ah Yin stepped forward and affectionately ruffled Tang Shan's hair, her voice full of praise.
Lan Yu raised an eyebrow from the side, his tone carrying a hint of amusement. "Xiao Shan, is that all it does?"
"Just as I thought, nothing gets past Big Brother!" Tang Shan stuck out her tongue and leaped over to Lan Yu.
She tilted up her little face and continued, "Within my Gravity Domain, enemies' movement and attack speeds are also reduced by thirty percent. If their mental strength is weaker than mine, they'll even be paralyzed for one or two seconds!"
"Also, Soul Masters whose bloodlines are weaker than mine will instinctively feel inferior to me mentally. Though I prefer to call it submission!" Tang Shan leaned close to Lan Yu's ear, her voice carrying a hint of bewitchment.
Before her words had even faded, Tang Shan raised her fair hand and lifted Lan Yu's chin. "Big Brother~ Look into my eyes. Don't resist."
From Tang Shan's perspective, Lan Yu's gaze gradually grew unfocused and hazy, as if he were being hypnotized. The corners of her lips curled up in triumph. "Good boy, Big Brother. Hurry up and call me Big Sister!"
"Had your fun?"
A cool, indifferent male voice suddenly rang out deep in Tang Shan's mind.
The next instant, Tang Shan's pupils contracted.
In her eyes, Lan Yu's figure suddenly towered over her, his full aura unleashed. His normally black pupils turned into golden vertical slits, and he looked down at her from on high.
"Who exactly should be submitting to whom?"
Lan Yu's indifferent voice made Tang Shan's breathing quicken and her heart race. It was as if an instinct buried deep in her bloodline made her legs go weak and tremble. Her gaze grew completely hazy, and her body moved toward Lan Yu against her will.
Tang Shan, no! You'll embarrass yourself!
She gritted her teeth, clinging to her awareness and struggling not to sink into it.
"I... should submit to... Lan..."
Oh? The little girl was rebelling—she dared to call her big brother by his name.
Lan Yu looked at Tang Shan helplessly and chuckled. "What should you call me?"
Tang Shan's cherry lips parted. Her consciousness was about to slip into a haze. "Mas..."
Before Lan Yu could make out what she had said, Tang Shan's Soul Power and mental strength, overdrawn beyond their limits, left her vision black. She fainted on the spot.
"Xiao Shan?!"
Ah Yin cried out and hurried over to check on Tang Shan.
From her perspective, Tang Shan had simply used her Soul Skill on Lan Yu, staring into his eyes—and then fainted.
After examining her for a moment, Ah Yin breathed a sigh of relief. She looked up at Lan Yu, whose face was etched with worry, and reassured him, "She's fine. Her Soul Power and mental strength are just depleted."
At that, Lan Yu carefully picked Tang Shan up.
Before long, the girl in his arms let out a soft, tender whimper and slowly opened her eyes.
"Mm... Big Brother?" Tang Shan opened her eyes and stared straight at Lan Yu.
"Xiao Shan? How are you feeling?" Ah Yin asked gently.
"A little dizzy. I want to lie down a bit longer." Tang Shan raised a hand to her forehead, then turned to Lan Yu and asked sweetly, "Is that all right, Big Brother~?"
Lan Yu smiled helplessly, shifted Tang Shan into a more comfortable position, then looked up and nodded to Ah Yin.
Ah Yin shook her head. She assumed her younger sister was simply too dependent on her big brother. With a soft sigh, she went to stand guard beside Xiao Wu, who was still condensing her Soul Ring.
"Big Brother, I..." Tang Shan blushed and stammered.
"So you know how to call me Big Brother. Why was it so hard just now when I asked you to call me that?"
Lan Yu frowned slightly, his face full of confusion.
As far as he was concerned, Tang Shan had only just obtained her first Soul Skill and, excited, had been unable to resist testing it on him. Everything that had just happened was simply a prank on a whim.
"Huh? Call you Big Brother? I thought you were asking me to..."
Tang Shan, who had been too embarrassed to say it before, couldn't help letting out a long sigh of relief.
"Mm? What did you think I meant?"
"Nothing."
"What do you mean, nothing?"
"Stop asking! Big Brother, don't you know you can't ask a girl too many questions about her personal business?"
Tang Shan, who had been using dizziness as an excuse, no longer felt dizzy. She blushed, wriggled free from Lan Yu's arms, and ran off in embarrassment.
She glanced back at the utterly bewildered Lan Yu and silently warned herself: Tang Shan, you're being way too impatient! Wait until your Soul Power and mental strength have thoroughly surpassed Big Brother's, then... Hehehe!
But at the thought of herself bowing her head and submitting to Lan Yu, her heartbeat nearly went out of control. An odd, tingling heat spread through her body, leaving her weak and flushed.
As her thoughts churned, Xiao Wu successfully finished condensing her Soul Ring on the other side.
"How many years?" Lan Yu hurried over and asked curiously.
"Seven hundred years!" Xiao Wu exclaimed, more excited than she had ever been.
As expected, it was another Soul Ring beyond the usual limit. Even Soul Rings formed through condensation were affected by physical constitution.
"Lan Yu, what... what are you doing?" Seeing Lan Yu staring intently at her, Xiao Wu blushed and crossed her arms over her chest, chiding him coquettishly.
"What are you thinking, Er Baiwu?" Lan Yu said, exasperated.
"I'm asking you, can you skip condensing a Soul Ring and directly absorb the Soul Ring of another Soul Beast?"
"I can, but it won't suit me nearly as well as one that matches me," Xiao Wu answered honestly.
At that, Lan Yu fell into thought.
"Lan Yu, is something wrong?" Xiao Wu asked curiously.
"Nothing's wrong. I was thinking that if things keep developing as they are, Soul Beasts will eventually go extinct, and Soul Masters will have no Soul Rings left to absorb."
"What will become of Douluo Continent then?"
At that, Xiao Wu's eyes dimmed, and Tang Shan and Ah Yin fell silent as well.
"Perhaps the solution lies with you." Lan Yu rubbed his temples, stepped forward, and looked at Xiao Wu with a complicated expression.
"Me?"
Xiao Wu wasn't the only one who looked puzzled. Ah Yin and Tang Shan also turned to Lan Yu in confusion.
"That's right. You!"
"Or rather, it's not you specifically. More accurately, it's shapeshifting Soul Beasts like you!"
"Both Soul Beasts and Soul Masters absorb Soul Power to increase their cultivation."
"Soul Beasts are classified by their age, while Soul Masters are classified by their rank."
"But there's a difference: when Soul Beasts die, the energy within them turns into Soul Rings. Soul Masters don't."
"Then could I say that Soul Beasts possess a special gene that stores Soul Power and condenses it into a Soul Ring when they die—but it has one flaw: their cultivation speed is too slow!"
"Soul Masters, on the other hand, are the opposite. In just a few decades, they can catch up to a Soul Beast that has cultivated for ten thousand years. That's the fundamental reason Soul Beasts will eventually go extinct!"
"Th-then what should we do?" Xiao Wu stepped forward, grasped Lan Yu's hand, and asked anxiously.
"What if we transplanted the Soul Beasts' ability to store Soul Power and condense it into Soul Rings into Soul Masters, who cultivate at lightning speed?" Lan Yu smiled faintly and tapped Xiao Wu on the forehead.
"I call them New Humans!" Lan Yu clasped his hands behind his back and gazed up at the sky. His voice was quiet, yet carried unquestionable authority.
This was the inspiration Lan Yu had drawn from the Dragon Duke's Everyone is a Dragon Gu-Refining Method in Insect Records.
Since Dragonmen could combine the wisdom of humans with the physical advantages of dragons,
then there was no reason his New Humans couldn't combine the cultivation speed of Soul Masters with the Soul Ring-condensing ability of Soul Beasts!
"Big Brother/Lan Yu, you're amazing!" Tang Shan and Xiao Wu gazed at Lan Yu with wide, admiring eyes.
"I didn't disgrace the sect! My son is a genius who can change the world!" Ah Yin said with a smile, wiping away the tears at the corners of her eyes in relief.