Evolved Starry Sky

The moment they bowed in worship, the chapel's quiet chamber transformed into a vast, azure sky. The group stood above the clouds, heaven overhead and clouds beneath their feet, as though they had ascended from the mortal world into paradise.

Time passed in an instant. The sky shifted from day to night, and countless stars glittered across the heavens like a gauzy veil draped over the night by the goddess of darkness.

A streak of light flew from Meng Xinghe's body and took shape beneath the stars. Twelve palaces formed from the Star Signs combined together, creating a rotating starmap formation.

As Xu Xiaoyan worshipped, she seemed to sense some kind of summons. Flecks of starlight emerged from her body, and a Starwheel manifested into a dazzling starlight scepter. A yellow Century Soul Ring circled around it, faintly shimmering, while another starry sky appeared behind her, echoing the one above.

"What a fine Star Staff Martial Soul. Your Star Sign origin is even purer and more majestic than that of your family's ancestor." Meng Xinghe gently raised a hand, and an invisible force helped the Xu father and daughter to their feet.

"I don't deserve such praise." Being complimented by the Heavenly God she believed in made Xu Xiaoyan secretly delighted, but she still answered modestly.

Her father had said that before one's faith, one had to mind one's image.

"You need not be so restrained before me. Rebirth should look like rebirth. Before I reached the summit in this life, I was merely an ordinary person. Now, I'm only a tiny One-Ring Soul Master."

Meng Xinghe's tone was remarkably calm, and his aura changed with it. At that moment, he looked like nothing more than a slightly precocious little boy.

He walked over to Xu Xiaoyan, pointed at the miniature starry sky, and asked:

"Your Soul Skill is quite good. If I'm not mistaken, it came from the Soul Ring granted by Starwheel, one of the three Legacy Soul Spirits."

"Mhm." Xu Xiaoyan nodded. Having been praised by her faith once again, the modesty on her face cracked, revealing a hint of pride.

"Your Highness has keen eyes. Of the three Legacy Soul Spirits, the first one I contracted was Starwheel. Its Soul Skill is called Stars Fill the Sky. It can evolve a brilliant starry sky, and the number of stars equals the combined age of all my Soul Rings."

"The Evolved Starry Sky is very miraculous. It can resonate with the true starry sky and possesses all sorts of wondrous effects. For example, at night, it can absorb the power of the stars and gradually improve my physical constitution, Soul Power, and spiritual power."

A thousand years ago, the Xu Family had produced an ancestor who awakened a mutated Martial Soul: the Ice Starwheel Staff.

One day, that ancestor's Martial Soul evolved from the Ice Starwheel Staff into the Star Staff. He eventually cultivated into a powerful Titled Douluo and was hailed as the "number one control-type Soul Master in the world" of that era.

After the ancestor died, he left behind three Legacy Soul Spirits: Starwheel, Star Palace, and Star Signs. (Artificial Soul Spirits)

Among them, Starwheel and Star Palace were Soul Spirits more than fifty thousand years old, while Star Signs was a hundred-thousand-year Soul Spirit.

Before Xu Xiaoyan, the Xu Family had never produced a second Soul Master who awakened the Star Staff Martial Soul. The three Legacy Soul Spirits could only remain in the Xu Family, cultivating alone.

Without a Soul Master to nurture them in return, the cultivation of the three Legacy Soul Spirits had not improved much over the past thousand years.

After Xu Xiaoyan awakened the Star Staff Martial Soul on the night of her sixth birthday, she chose Starwheel from among the three Legacy Soul Spirits and formed a contract with it.

In this era, it was no longer unusual for powerful Soul Spirits to seal their own cultivation so that weaker Soul Masters could contract them.

Among Soul Master families possessing Legacy Soul Spirits, such cases were even more common.

For Xu Xiaoyan, even if the hundred-thousand-year Star Signs Soul Spirit sealed its cultivation, she still lacked the physical constitution and spiritual power to contract it successfully. She could only choose between the Starwheel Soul Spirit and the Star Palace Soul Spirit.

To be safe, Xu Xiaoyan chose to contract the Starwheel Soul Spirit, which had the lowest cultivation.

"The Evolved Starry Sky is a perfect combination of the Star Staff Martial Soul and the Starwheel Soul Spirit. It has room to grow."

Meng Xinghe smiled gently and extended his right hand. The twelve Star Signs circling beneath the stars shrank proportionally and appeared above his palm.

"The Star Signs attribute has an effect that is absolute once established. You may be able to choose your future Soul Skills based on it."

"These are the Twelve Zodiac Houses, one of my six Soul Spirits. Every house is a constellation in the starry sky."

"In the starry sky evolved by your First Soul Skill, those twinkling stars can form the constellations of the Twelve Zodiac Houses. They will bring surprises to your future Soul Skills."

As his words fell, the Twelve Zodiac Houses Soul Spirit condensed twelve phantom constellations, which transformed into streams of starlight and merged into the starry sky behind Xu Xiaoyan.

"Th-thank you, Your Highness." Xu Xiaoyan was visibly thrilled, and the modest expression on her face could no longer be maintained.

"You need to change how you address me. You can't call me that when outsiders are around," Meng Xinghe pointed out, emphasizing the matter.

"Okay." Xu Xiaoyan obediently asked:

"Then how should I address you?"

Meng Xinghe thought for a moment.

Xu Xiaoyan was only six years old. No matter how talented she was at acting, she was still just a little girl.

Her admiration for him would be difficult to hide. Rather than conceal it, she might as well display it openly and honestly. All she needed to do was change how she addressed him.

So he said, "You can call me your idol."

At that, Xu Xiaoyan's eyes sparkled with tiny stars. "Okay, Idol."

"Idol, can I add your Douluo Number?"

As she spoke, she took out her phone, opened the Douluo Social App, and displayed her personal QR code in the center of the screen.

Because of Meng Xinghe's intervention, the Douluo Federation's technological standards were far more advanced and diverse than in the original story.

He had guided the mining and purification of rare-earth minerals, allowing the most vital component of mobile phones—the chip—to come into existence.

The emergence of photolithography machines freed chips from reliance on the handcrafting of high-level mecha manufacturers and enabled mass production. Phones, which depended heavily on chips, could thus also be mass-produced. Commercial competition among major brands further drove down phone prices, truly putting a phone into the hands of every Federation citizen.

In addition, rare earths were widely used in Soul Guidance Technology, transforming from the "industrial vitamins" of his previous life into Douluo's "Soul Guidance vitamins."

"Sure." Meng Xinghe agreed without hesitation. He took a phone from his pocket, and the light weight in his palm gave him the grounded feeling of having returned home.

He had two phones.

One was a custom-made model he had used before taking human form. The other was the newest model Dong Qianqiu had given him as his teacher after he took human form, and its brand had also been founded by the Spirit Pagoda itself.

The phone Meng Xinghe took out was the Spirit Pagoda's newest model. It suited his identity, after all.

At present, the social app on that phone had only two friends: Dong Qianqiu, his nominal temporary teacher, and Gu Yuena, who had become Leng Yaozhu's disciple at Spirit Pagoda headquarters.

On the message screen, the playful little emoji Gu Yuena had sent earlier was still there.

That playful emoji did not suit Gu Yuena's personality.

But Meng Xinghe knew that Gu Yuena understood none of these things. She had sent such a playful emoji entirely because she had been influenced by that girl Qiu'er.

Once Gu Yuena came to deeply understand the human world, looking back at those emojis she had once sent would make her face turn red as a ripe apple. She would be so embarrassed and furious that she would nearly grind her back teeth to pieces.