Xu Qianqian Breaks Through

Time passed.

The aura of soul power drifting around Xu Qianqian grew increasingly intense.

From the inside out, the entire space filled with an orange-yellow mist.

Crack!

The Stone Amber beneath her palm trembled slightly, letting out the sound of fracturing.

Cracks emerged across the Stone Amber's surface, starting from where her palm touched it. In the blink of an eye, dense fractures covered it completely.

A continuous sizzling sound came from within the Stone Amber.

Boom!

With a sound like a collapsing rock wall, the basketball-sized Stone Amber shattered into countless small pieces that scattered across the floor.

The shattered Stone Amber was continuously drained of energy. In just half a minute, the small pile of rubble turned into fine powder.

Xu Qianqian withdrew the hand she had pressed against the Stone Amber and rested it on her knees.

Her entire body entered deep meditation.

Before Xu Qianqian, the slowly turning pages of the Chronicle of Time became covered in an earthy yellow glow.

The aura it emitted synchronized perfectly with the soul power Xu Qianqian released.

No one knew how much time passed.

The stagnant bottleneck in her soul power burst open like a breached dam, surging upward.

Level 20, 21, 22... It did not stop until level 23.

At the same time, the Chronicle of Time changed as well.

The yellowed pages only showed a subtle shift in their luster, but the book itself had changed covers.

The new cover bore an engraved character for "Rock."

The primordial energy of heaven and earth circulated, flowing from the Chronicle of Time and into Xu Qianqian's body.

A moment later, a pale yellow soul ring rose from beneath Xu Qianqian's feet.

Within the yellow soul ring was a faint purple halo.

"A soul ring of around 950 years?"

Xu Qianqian opened her eyes and looked at the black and yellow soul rings around her martial soul. Even inside the room, they were quite eye-catching.

Xu Qianqian raised her hand. As though receiving an order, her martial soul descended into her palm.

"Sure enough, my martial soul has changed again."

Xu Qianqian stroked the Chronicle of Time engraved with the character for "Rock"—or rather, it should now be called the Book of Rock.

With a thought, she turned its pages. They were no longer completely blank.

Instead, there were a handful of rock-element soul beasts marked as "Recorded."

Most of these soul beasts had been killed by Xu Qianqian. Only one had been deliberately left barely alive by Xu Qianqian for Xiao Chenyu to kill.

This finally confirmed one thing: soul beasts appraised or killed by an Eye of God holder would also count toward Xu Qianqian's share.

Of course, the soul beasts marked "Recorded" had to be at least a thousand years old. Hundred-year soul beasts did not count.

"So that's it. There are too few recorded rock-element soul beasts, which is why the converted soul ring age is still under a thousand years?"

Xu Qianqian looked thoughtfully at her second soul ring.

"The age of my soul rings..." Xu Qianqian pinched her chin as she toyed with the Book of Rock in her hand. "The cultivation age of slain thousand-year soul beasts gets converted into the age of my soul rings, though the conversion rate is still uncertain."

Xu Qianqian had long had this theory. She had made similar judgments many times back when she had the Book of Wind.

And when she had guided Xiao Chenyu's cultivation some time ago, she had deliberately targeted thousand-year wind-element soul beasts.

But the Gale Wolf King recorded in the Book of Wind had not been killed by her father. It had merely fled after being severely injured, yet it had still been classified as a kill. That was rather strange.

Still, if not for that, her first soul ring could not have been a black ten-thousand-year soul ring.

"Haa..." Xu Qianqian pushed aside her thoughts and took a deep breath. "Why do I look more and more like one of those demonic cultivators from fantasy novels?"

Second Soul Skill: Bedrock

Simply put, it granted her the ability to control rock elements.

But it was truly weak, nowhere near comparable to her first soul skill.

Whether that was due to the soul ring's age limit or the enhancement her first soul skill received from the Thousand Winds, Myriad Clouds domain was still unclear.

However, one thing was certain: the more thousand-year-and-above rock-element soul beasts she killed, the more her soul ring's age would increase.

Once it reached a thousand-year or ten-thousand-year soul ring, it should become much stronger.

Domain: Thousand Winds, Myriad Clouds

Whether it was the Book of Wind or the Book of Rock, both were forms of the Chronicle of Time.

After transforming, they were simply more suited to summoning soul beasts that had already been recorded.

But regardless of the form, Thousand Winds, Myriad Clouds Domain had to shape the summon during its creation—it was essentially a way of stabilizing its structure.

There were two forms: direct summoning and card creation. Direct summons could only operate within the domain.

Card summons, however, could not only leave the domain, but also resembled soul beasts more closely and could even be sold off.

However, they were limited in both quantity and duration. For example, only three cards like the Gale Wolf King she had previously sold to Ning Fengzhi could currently exist.

Their duration also seemed to be tied to Xu Qianqian's soul power level. Of course, she had not tested how much longer they could last after her breakthrough.

Moreover, whether a soul beast was killed or seen by an Eye of God holder, or seen or killed by one of her own summons, it all counted toward Xu Qianqian.

"It does seem quite convenient..." Xu Qianqian sighed. "But the summons truly meant for combat are probably the domain-type ones."

In other words, if her domain were overridden or broken, her combat strength would drop by at least half.

As Thousand Winds, Myriad Clouds Domain shaped it and rock elemental power was infused into it, a successfully shaped rock elemental creature appeared. Yet after condensing for a moment, its body cracked apart and turned into a small pile of dirt.

"Is it because my soul ring's age isn't high enough?" Xu Qianqian wiped the sweat from her forehead.

Creating a five-hundred-year rock elemental soul beast had failed, and it had consumed half her soul power.

She was now completely certain that, unlike the Book of Wind, she could not currently use the Book of Rock as a summoning book.

The soul power consumed when summoning soul beasts was probably inversely proportional to the age of her soul rings.

The higher the age of her soul rings, the less soul power it took to create soul beasts, and the easier they were to summon.

Of course, there was another possibility.

Perhaps she was more compatible with the Book of Wind. Whether it was her physique, soul power, or innate domain, all of it allowed her to summon multiple thousand-year soul beasts without much effort.

"It seems the Book of Rock can't be used properly for the time being." Xu Qianqian frowned in thought.

There was still a month before her meeting with Ning Fengzhi. Thinking about her second soul skill, Xu Qianqian murmured, "I need to turn it into a thousand-year soul ring. If it's only a hundred-year one, it may not fool a Titled Douluo when I use it."

Sunset Forest was only a hundred li from Heaven Dou City. Thousand-year and ten-thousand-year soul beasts were not uncommon there, and it was close enough for her to stay there for a while.

At her flying speed, she could cross the city from Heaven Dou Imperial Capital to Sunset Forest in no more than a morning or an afternoon.

Xu Qianqian planned to use this month to raise the age of her soul rings, killing and appraising as many soul beasts in Sunset Forest as possible to make up for the Chronicle of Time's deficiencies. In turn, she would receive feedback and increase her own strength.

The value of "Recorded" was still increasing.

Even if killing a thousand-year soul beast did not grant her a soul ring of the corresponding elemental attribute, it would still be recorded under "Recorded" in the Chronicle of Time.

Perhaps it might prove useful someday.