In the woods behind the academy, Li Moxun sat calmly atop a tall pine tree.
His gaze rested on the distant horizon.
Erii was still sitting on his head.
She watched the birds flying past and the occasional small animal appearing below with curious eyes.
As she looked at these little creatures, Erii's eyes seemed filled with curiosity.
Li Moxun did not stop her.
Just as Li Moxun sat quietly and looked into the distance, a spatial rift appeared beside him, and Gu Yue stepped out of it.
Gu Yue looked at Li Moxun. She had just been about to smile at him when she noticed the little one on his head.
Her gaze locked onto Erii, her eyes filled with puzzlement and curiosity.
After all, some powerful Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts could assume human forms after becoming soul spirits, but they generally retained certain distinctive traits.
Yet a little one like this, dressed entirely in red and lacking any distinguishing features whatsoever, was exceptionally rare and strange.
This added a trace of curiosity to Gu Yue's eyes.
However, seeing that the youth sitting there had no intention of speaking to her, she fell silent.
Gu Yue leaped down and plopped onto the branch as well, looking into the distance.
Li Moxun's expression remained calm as he sensed Gu Yue's arrival.
He turned to glance at Gu Yue, his voice devoid of emotion. "No one comes without a reason. What is it?"
Li Moxun's voice was very calm.
Hearing him, Gu Yue was not upset. Instead, she smiled at him before saying, "My purpose in coming to see you this time is simple. First, I may need another Calm Heart Pill."
"I can feel that I'm still being affected by certain bloodlines."
Gu Yue paused for a second.
She looked at Li Moxun, and a trace of complexity flashed through her expression.
Li Moxun was stunned as he listened to Gu Yue.
He could tell that Gu Yue and Tang Wulin had maintained an extremely polite distance from each other. There had been no inappropriate behavior.
Moreover, when Gu Yue looked at Tang Wulin, there was none of that previous connection brought about through their bloodlines. Her gaze was instead very calm.
He did not quite understand why Gu Yue still needed this kind of pill.
But since she had asked, he did not care.
After all, one pill could earn him quite a bit of money, and he still had some on hand.
"Fine. I want one Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Herb and three Thousand-Year Spirit Herbs. Do you have any other requests?"
As Li Moxun spoke, he glanced at Gu Yue and prepared to stand and leave.
Since they had just traded for cultivation pills some time ago, he believed Gu Yue should not have used them all up yet.
However, before he could stand, Gu Yue seemed to sigh. Looking at him, she spoke with a hint of helplessness in her voice. "I don't have any requests for pills."
"But do you have a way to let someone awaken a second martial soul? Or perhaps find a way to undergo a second martial soul awakening?"
Gu Yue's voice was soft. As she spoke, she watched Li Moxun.
Hearing Gu Yue's words, the youth turned his calm eyes toward her and gazed at her quietly.
"You care quite a lot about Tang Wulin, going so far as to want to awaken a second martial soul for him."
As Li Moxun spoke, he no longer hurried to rise and instead began pondering the matter as well.
In truth, what was called martial soul awakening here was nothing more than the result of dominant and recessive genes in living beings.
Under normal circumstances, the Clear Sky Sect had been able to pass itself down mainly because of the father's dominant genes.
That was why the Clear Sky Hammer martial soul could be inherited through most generations.
This was also why, in the era twenty thousand years ago, sect masters had always been male cultivators.
However, where there were strong dominant genes, there were naturally relatively strong recessive genes.
The most representative example was Blue Silver Grass. Whether it was Tang San, Tang Wulin, or the Little Dragon God of a later era,
the three of them had been able to retain the Blue Silver Grass martial soul even amidst the mixture of the Dragon God Bloodline, Soul Beast bloodlines, and countless other bloodlines.
A major reason was that Blue Silver Grass had replaced the Clear Sky Hammer and become the dominant gene.
Thus, of the Clear Sky Hammer passed down to the present, only Tang Wutong possessed it. Neither Tang Wulin nor the Little Dragon God had this martial soul.
As for awakening Twin Martial Souls, it was actually a peculiar genetic mutation.
It turned the originally recessive gene into a dominant gene as well, ensuring that both martial souls would appear.
Such a thing might be difficult for others, especially for people of this world.
Even a Dragon God avatar like Gu Yue, with a history of existence spanning tens of thousands of years, could never possibly understand the method behind martial soul awakening.
But for Li Moxun, or rather, for someone who had studied biology, understanding Twin Martial Souls and martial soul mutations was not difficult.
Watching Li Moxun sink into thought, Gu Yue spoke calmly. "The Golden Dragon King Bloodline in Tang Wulin's body has done me a favor."
"If Tang Wulin had not appeared, I might never have obtained the Golden Dragon King Bloodline in this lifetime."
"Since I received such enormous benefits, if possible, I hope to help Tang Wulin."
Gu Yue glanced at Li Moxun as she spoke, her words utterly sincere.
Yet Li Moxun did not care about Gu Yue's words at all. After all, she wanted to kill him one moment and not kill him the next; who knew what she was truly thinking?
He merely nodded calmly, and the contemplation in his eyes gradually faded.
While he could not create a Clear Sky Hammer martial soul, turning recessive genes into dominant genes was not particularly difficult.
He could even do it himself, using the spiritual power of the White King Martial Soul to forcibly alter the genetic proportions within Tang Wulin's bloodline.
This would ordinarily have been extremely difficult.
But after the Golden Dragon King had been completely stripped away, forcibly activating another powerful genetic chain was not difficult for Li Moxun.
"Fine. I can fulfill this request. I want three Ten-Thousand-Year Spirit Herbs and five Thousand-Year Spirit Herbs."
"After you strip away Tang Wulin's Golden Dragon King Bloodline, I can help him awaken the Clear Sky Hammer martial soul."
Li Moxun glanced at Gu Yue as he spoke.
Then he pushed off from the ground and leaped down. In an instant, he vanished into the back mountain, leaving Gu Yue sitting there alone.
She watched Li Moxun's retreating figure, an indescribable complexity flashing through her expression.
Yet after remaining silent for a long while, she ultimately said nothing and merely gazed calmly into the distance.
Two days passed in the blink of an eye.
For everyone else, nothing was different from an ordinary school day.
They still attended classes diligently and repeated the things they needed to do.
But at the academy gates, a group of five had already assembled.
All five carried small bags, and Wu Zhangkong stood at the front.
With his hands in his pockets, he looked calmly at the Soul Engineer bus beside them.
Long Hengxu, meanwhile, looked utterly haggard.
Although the dean had supported allowing first-year students to represent Eastsea Academy in a large-scale Soul Engineer competition like the Tianhai Alliance Grand Competition, it had still taken considerable effort in the end.
Long Hengxu had even written several reports before obtaining the approval of all the academy's higher-ups.
This made Long Hengxu appear particularly exhausted.
However, when his gaze swept over the five spirited youths standing there, the fatigue in his eyes was replaced by a trace of emotion.
Looking at these five youths before him, although he had no proof, he always felt that they would make a stunning debut in the upcoming competition and achieve indescribable accomplishments.
The achievements they attained might even become Eastsea Academy's pride for a lifetime.
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