Immortal Grade Pills, Two Girls' Martial Soul Evolution

Two years passed in the blink of an eye.

On the main soul-fighting stage of the Soto Great Soul Arena, a black-haired youth held the Golden Cudgel and casually sent the last opponent flying out of the ring.

The entire arena erupted, the cheers deafening.

Bai Yi put away his cudgel and stood there, then walked off the soul-fighting stage expressionlessly.

Over the past two years, he, Ning Rongrong, and Ye Lingling's team had swept through every two-on-two and seven-on-seven battle at the Soul Elder and Soul Ancestor levels in the Soto Great Soul Arena.

Not a single defeat.

In Suotuo City's soul master circles, there was almost no one who had not heard of this team's reputation.

Bai Yi returned to the rest area and pushed open the door to the private room.

Ning Rongrong was sitting on a bench, swinging her legs. When she heard the door, she looked up.

She was twelve this year, and had grown quite a bit taller. Her long dark-green hair spilled over her shoulders, the ends curling slightly.

She wore a pale-yellow short dress that revealed her fair calves. Her face had lost some of its baby fat from two years ago, and her features were as delicate as a porcelain doll's.

Her bright, lively eyes shifted, landing on Bai Yi, and the corners of her mouth immediately curved up.

Ye Lingling sat beside Ning Rongrong, quietly turning through a book in her hands.

She was eighteen this year and had fully blossomed.

Her long pale-blue hair fell to her waist, her face cool and exquisitely beautiful, her skin fair and translucent. Her entire presence carried an ethereal air, as if untouched by the mortal world.

But she was still dressed all in black.

Ning Rongrong put her legs down, stood, and walked up to Bai Yi. "Hey, stinky Bai Yi, are you done fighting?"

Bai Yi put the Golden Cudgel back into his ear and said, "Done."

Ning Rongrong planted her hands on her hips, tilted her head up to look at him, and said, "Did you forget something? You clearly said two years ago that you'd give me a reward. So much time has passed, and I haven't seen so much as a hair."

Bai Yi glanced at her and said, "You remember that pretty well."

Ning Rongrong pouted and said, "Of course. This young lady has an excellent memory. I remember every debt you owe me perfectly clearly."

Ye Lingling closed her book, smiled faintly, and said, "Rongrong, in just two short years, you've already cultivated from Soul Master to Soul Elder. And by following Bai Yi through so many real battles in the soul arena, you've gained so much experience. Isn't that the greatest reward?"

Ning Rongrong wrinkled her nose and said, "Sister Lingling, why are you speaking up for him again? How does that count as a reward? Didn't I raise my cultivation through my own hard work?"

Bai Yi walked to the table, sat down, and poured himself a cup of water. "Of course there's a reward. Your performance these past two years has been passable. It's just that your Soul Power is still too low."

Ning Rongrong immediately leaned over and said, "There really is a reward? What reward?"

Bai Yi took a small jade bottle from his waist and placed it on the table, then took out another, slightly larger jade bottle and set it beside it.

Both jade bottles glowed with a warm luster, their mouths sealed with wax. A faint, clear fragrance could be smelled drifting out through the cracks.

Ning Rongrong tilted her head and looked at the two jade bottles. "Medicine again? You refined a new pill today?"

Bai Yi nodded and said, "These two pills took me quite a bit of effort. One for each of you."

Ning Rongrong curled her lip and said, "Every time you say that, the pill is definitely unbearably bitter. Remember the last one? It made my tongue numb for three whole days."

Bai Yi said, "That was because your constitution still wasn't strong enough."

Ning Rongrong choked on that and gave an unhappy humph.

Ye Lingling closed her book and walked softly to the table.

She did not ask much, only glanced at Bai Yi, picked up one of the jade bottles, and said, "Do we take them now?"

Bai Yi said, "Mm. After you take them, carefully sense the changes inside your body."

Ye Lingling nodded, pulled out the stopper, and placed the crimson pill into her mouth.

She swallowed it cleanly and decisively, without the slightest hesitation.

Bai Yi's gaze lingered on her face for an instant.

This girl, Ye Lingling, had absolute trust in him. No matter what he gave her, she never asked why, and she never doubted him.

Over the past two years, that trust had grown purer and heavier.

And Bai Yi knew very well that he needed that trust.

Seeing that Ye Lingling had already taken hers, Ning Rongrong had no choice but to reluctantly pick up the other jade bottle.

She pulled out the stopper and sniffed it, and her little face immediately scrunched up as she said, "Just smelling it tells me it's bitter. Bai Yi, you left out the sugar on purpose."

Bai Yi said, "Pills refined from immortal-grade herbs cannot be mixed with any impurities."

Ning Rongrong sighed in resignation, tilted her head back, stuffed the pill into her mouth, and chewed twice. Her whole face twisted up in agony.

After she desperately swallowed it down, she stuck out her tongue and said, "So bitter, so bitter, so bitter! Bai Yi, I hate you!"

Bai Yi ignored her complaints.

He walked between the two of them and raised both hands. A wisp of golden magic power surged from each palm, entering Ning Rongrong and Ye Lingling respectively.

Bai Yi closed his eyes and silently sensed the circulation of the two medicinal forces in his heart.

Aromatic Silk Beauty—he had long since memorized the effects of this immortal-grade herb by heart.

Its greatest effect was allowing the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda to evolve into the Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda, breaking the shackles that restricted the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda to cultivating only up to Soul Sage.

But Bai Yi's use for it went far beyond that.

For the past two years, he had been secretly adjusting the operating method of Ning Rongrong's Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda, weakening its nature as a group enhancement tool and forcibly concentrating its power into single-target enhancement.

What he needed was an enhancer who could push his own combat strength to the limit, not a support who could provide comprehensive buffs to a team.

The evolutionary power of Aromatic Silk Beauty was precisely the final step he needed to complete this modification.

Once the Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda took shape, it would completely solidify the modifications he had implanted over the past two years.

When that time came, all of Ning Rongrong's enhancement soul skills would, at the cost of strengthening their single-target effects, be concentrated entirely on one person.

And that person would only be him.

Bai Yi then turned his attention to the crimson medicinal force circulating inside Ye Lingling's body.

Lovesick Heartbreak Red was likewise an immortal-grade herb of great fortune.

Its medicinal power could bring the dead back to life and regrow flesh on white bone, but this effect had an absolutely crucial prerequisite.

The user's emotions had to be pure enough and focused enough for the medicinal power to exert its greatest effect.

Ye Lingling's feelings for him had continually settled over these past two years, becoming so pure that they contained almost no stray thoughts at all.

Back when Bai Yi chose her as the team's support, apart from valuing the healing ability of the Nine Heart Begonia, another important reason had been Ye Lingling's personality.

She was quiet, focused, and neither fought nor competed.

Once a person like that settled on a direction, she would not waver.

Using the characteristics of Lovesick Heartbreak Red, combined with the Disaster-Dispelling and Calamity-Relieving Technique from his Seventy-Two Transformations, Bai Yi had forcibly transformed Ye Lingling's Nine Heart Begonia into a healing martial soul whose core trait was "revival."

The Nine Heart Begonia had changed from healing injuries into "touching life and death."

And the purer Ye Lingling's focused feelings for him were, the more times this power of revival could be used.

With her current cultivation as a Soul King, she could bring him back from death at least five times.

Bai Yi opened his eyes and slowly withdrew both hands.

Expressionless, he looked at the two girls before him, who were enduring the impact of the medicinal forces, his heart calm as still water.

His original purpose in doing all of this had never changed.

He only needed people who could make him stronger.

Ning Rongrong's Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda could provide the strongest single-target enhancement on the entire continent.

Ye Lingling's Nine Heart Begonia could give him five extra lives.

With these two powers falling upon him, his safety margin would increase by several times over.

He gave them pills, helped them raise their cultivation, and changed the characteristics of their martial souls.

These things looked like goodwill, but in reality, every single one revolved around one core.

Making them more valuable.

Making them serve him better.

Ning Rongrong's body suddenly began trembling violently.

The Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda inside her was shattering and reforming in a frenzy, its layered body climbing upward from seven floors.

A storm seemed to have risen in her dantian. The medicinal power washed through her meridians like a tide, completely solidifying the modifications Bai Yi had gradually implanted in her.

Ning Rongrong kept her eyes tightly shut, her forehead covered in fine beads of sweat.

She did not know what was happening. She only felt an enormous force inside her breaking through some invisible shackle.

Her Soul Power realm began to surge.

Thirty-three, thirty-four... level forty.

The barrier she had thought would take at least another year to touch shattered with a crash under the push of the medicinal power.

The gates of Soul Ancestor opened to her.

At the same time, the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda in her dantian completed its final transformation.

A nine-story pagoda stood proudly, its entire body flowing with seven-colored light, so dazzling it made the eyes blur.

That pagoda was taller than before, heavier, and more substantial.

Faintly, a layer of flowing patterns appeared across the pagoda, like some ancient seal.

Ning Rongrong suddenly opened her eyes.

Seven-colored radiance was reflected in her pupils, and her hands trembled slightly.

She lowered her head to look at her palm, and the illusory image of that nine-story treasured pagoda emerged from her hand.

The pagoda's glow reflected on her face, tinting her delicate features with a hazy warmth.

Ning Rongrong parted her lips and said in a slightly hoarse voice, "My... my martial soul... has become nine stories?"

She turned back to look at Bai Yi, her eyes faintly reddening. Her lips moved, but for a long while, no words came out.

Her Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda had not only evolved, but she could also clearly feel that the power contained in each floor had changed.

It was a very strange feeling. She clearly had not obtained a new soul ring, yet she felt that all her enhancement abilities had become more condensed than before, more weighty.

Ning Rongrong suddenly opened her eyes.

Seven-colored radiance was reflected in her pupils, and her hands trembled slightly.

She lowered her head to look at her palm, and the illusory image of that nine-story treasured pagoda emerged from her hand.

The pagoda's glow reflected on her face, tinting her delicate features with a hazy warmth.

Ning Rongrong parted her lips and said in a slightly hoarse voice, "My... my martial soul... has become nine stories?"

She stared blankly at that nine-story treasured pagoda, her eyes gradually reddening.

From ancient times to the present, no one had ever been able to make the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda grow in height. This was an iron law passed down through countless generations of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, one that had never been broken.

Her grandfather could not do it. Her father could not do it either.

But she had done it.

Ning Rongrong suddenly lifted her head to look at Bai Yi, a layer of mist rising in her eyes.

That nine-story treasured pagoda gave off a warm yet brilliant light in her palm, dazzling and beautiful beyond words.

Her voice trembling, she said, "Bai Yi... what exactly did you give me to eat? How did my Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda become nine stories?"

Bai Yi said calmly, "Just a pill."

Ning Rongrong was so exasperated by his breezy attitude that she laughed. Tears slid from the corners of her eyes, yet the corners of her mouth kept lifting.

Everyone on the continent knew the flaw of their sect's martial soul.

The Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda could only be cultivated to the Soul Sage realm. Beyond that, it could not break through.

She had once asked her father if there was any way to make the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda stronger.

Her father had been silent for a long time, then said that it was the heavenly limit of the martial soul, not something human strength could break.

She had never expected that today, she would actually be able to break through the limit of her martial soul and see the path to Title Douluo.

Ning Rongrong suddenly threw herself toward Bai Yi, spreading her arms as she cried out with a sob in her voice, "Bai Yi! Let me hug you! Just once!"

Bai Yi raised one hand and lightly pressed it against her head.

Her forehead pushed against his palm, her arms waving futilely in the air as he stopped her whole body in place.

Both angry and anxious, Ning Rongrong stood on tiptoe and desperately leaned forward, saying, "Just let me hug you once! I promise I won't bite you! I'm really too happy!"

Bai Yi said expressionlessly, "I'm not interested in little girls."

Ning Rongrong's movements froze.

She puffed out her cheeks and glared at him indignantly, then turned her head to glance at Ye Lingling beside her.

Ye Lingling was quietly absorbing the medicinal power at the side. Her figure was tall and slender, her pale-blue hair spilling over her shoulders, her features delicate and cool, her whole body carrying a calm, graceful charm that only an adult woman possessed.

Ning Rongrong lowered her head to look at her own still somewhat childish contours and clearly not-tall-enough height, and an indescribable sense of frustration rose in her at once.

She gave a huff, pulled her head free from Bai Yi's palm, and said with her hands on her hips:

"If you won't hug me, then don't. This young lady doesn't care anyway."

Yet she couldn't suppress the smile on her face no matter what. The tear tracks at the corners of her eyes had not even dried, but the curve of her lips kept lifting higher and higher.

On the other side, Ye Lingling's transformation was just as astonishing.

The crimson medicinal power surged through her body, perfectly merging with the healing power of Nine Heart Begonia.

She closed her eyes, feeling as though her consciousness had been drawn by some force and sunk into an endless warm current.

Those warm currents touched every inch of the meridians in her body, planting an indescribable power deep within her martial soul.

The petals of Nine Heart Begonia bloomed in the void.

A faint blood-red halo shimmered over each petal.

Ye Lingling could feel that power telling her one thing.

Her healing power had already touched the boundary between life and death.

As long as she was willing, as long as her will was firm enough, she could pull back lives that were on the verge of fading away.

Ye Lingling slowly opened her eyes and lowered her head to look at her own hands.

Her palms glowed with a faint crimson light. That radiance was gentle and tranquil, like some ancient, sacred power awakening from slumber.

Her Soul Power realm had likewise leaped to an unprecedented height.

Rank sixty.

Soul Emperor.

In just a few short moments, she had gone from a rank-fifty Soul King to a rank-sixty Soul Emperor.

She did not know exactly what had happened to her, nor did she know what origin that crimson pill had.

But she could sense a faint connection.

Her power seemed to be turning toward Bai Yi in some way.

Like a sunflower that, from this day on, could only grow in one direction.

Ye Lingling raised her head to look at Bai Yi, her gaze soft and focused.

She did not shout and cry out like Ning Rongrong. She simply walked quietly up to Bai Yi and said in a low voice:

"Thank you."

Bai Yi took in both of their expressions, his face giving nothing away.

He turned and walked toward the door, saying:

"You've taken the pills, and your cultivation has broken through to a new level. Let's go. To the Star Dou Great Forest. We'll hunt suitable soul beasts for you."

Ye Lingling quietly followed him.

Ning Rongrong stood in place for a while, looking at Bai Yi's back, then at the dazzling Nine Treasures Glazed Pagoda in her palm.

All kinds of complicated emotions churned in her heart.

Shock, gratitude, joy, and a trace of indescribable dependence.

In the end, she still quickly chased after him and called:

"Hey, Bai Yi, slow down! Wait for me!"