Breaking Through Rank 30

A day in the God Realm was a year on the Douluo Continent.

The God Realm Council had convened for barely over an hour, yet more than a month had already passed on the Douluo Continent.

Over that month, Zhao Ming's spirit power rose at a terrifying pace.

On the third day after returning to the Crown Prince's Palace, his spirit power broke through Rank 29.

At the time, Snake Spear Douluo had been sparring with him in the side courtyard. In the middle of training, Zhao Ming suddenly stopped, and his aura surged explosively.

Zhao Ming immediately sat down cross-legged to cultivate. His spirit power rushed through his meridians like floodwaters from a broken dam for nine full cycles. When he opened his eyes again, the Rank 29 bottleneck had already been shattered.

Snake Spear Douluo stood to one side, his thin, elongated face filled with shock.

After carefully calculating it, he realized that only four months ago, he had taken Zhao Ming to Sunset Forest to hunt for his second spirit ring. At the time, Zhao Ming's spirit power had been at Rank 23 and a half.

Four months—from Rank 23 and a half to Rank 29. That was more than a rank per month on average. Such cultivation speed was simply unheard of.

He immediately reported it to Qian Renxue. His tone held both delight and faint concern; he feared that Zhao Ming's rapid progress would leave his foundation unstable.

After hearing Snake Spear Douluo's report, Qian Renxue merely smiled faintly. She set down her vermilion brush, lifted her teacup for a small sip, and calmly said, "Didn't Uncle Snake Spear know this long ago? This child has secrets we do not know.

Everyone has their own secrets. We need not dig to the bottom of them. Xiaoming knows how to repay kindness. As long as we treat him well, he will naturally stand with us."

Hearing this, Snake Spear Douluo fell silent for a moment before slowly nodding. The young mistress was right. Although Zhao Ming was shrouded in mysteries, Snake Spear Douluo had seen his character for himself.

Thus, Snake Spear Douluo no longer dwelled on Zhao Ming's cultivation speed and continued teaching him with all his heart.

From knowledge of martial souls to combat techniques, from soul beast encyclopedias to the layout of the continent, Snake Spear Douluo poured out the experience he had accumulated over more than eighty years, practically wishing he could cram everything he had learned in his life into Zhao Ming's head.

Zhao Ming did not disappoint him either. He learned quickly and trained even more diligently.

He rose before dawn every day to cultivate, practiced whip techniques in the mornings, and studied theory in the afternoons.

And today, Zhao Ming's spirit power had broken through to Rank 30 once more.

From Rank 29 to Rank 30, he had taken less than forty days.

Seven and a half years old, Rank 30—if word of this achievement got out, the entire Douluo Continent would be shaken.

After all, in the original story, Tang San had cultivated at Notting Academy for six years and was only Rank 29 when he graduated at twelve.

Yet Zhao Ming had cultivated for only a year and a half before breaking through to Rank 30.

This level of spirit power was already a height that a certain Grandmaster could never reach in most of his life.

Snake Spear Douluo stood at the courtyard gate, watching the spirit power fluctuations around Zhao Ming that had yet to fully settle. The corner of his mouth twitched several times before he finally muttered, "What a freak!"

Aside from his own young mistress, Qian Renxue, he truly could not think of a second soul master with such talent.

That night, Zhao Ming took the initiative to seek out Qian Renxue.

Candlelight flickered in the study as Qian Renxue bent over her desk, reviewing memorials.

She wore an elegant moon-white robe, her golden hair draped casually over her shoulders and gleaming softly in the candlelight. Hearing footsteps, she looked up. When she saw Zhao Ming, a gentle smile appeared on her face.

"Did Xiaoming come to see your sister about something?" Qian Renxue set down her vermilion brush and gestured for him to sit across from her.

Zhao Ming did not sit. He stood before the desk and took a deep breath, his expression more solemn than Qian Renxue had ever seen. He felt it was time for Qian Renxue to know certain things.

"Sister, as a descendant of the Angel God, you should believe that gods exist in this world, right?"

When Zhao Ming suddenly brought up gods, the smile on Qian Renxue's face faded slightly, and her expression turned more serious.

The Angel God's inheritance was one of Spirit Hall's highest secrets. It was also her greatest trump card and mission as a descendant of the Angel God.

She did not know why Zhao Ming had suddenly mentioned it, but she still nodded earnestly. "Of course I believe."

At her words, Zhao Ming flipped his right hand, and a copper coin with wings appeared in his palm.

The Treasure-Dropping Coin slowly spun in the candlelight, golden radiance rippling outward like waves. The Fortune-Gathering Domain unfolded with it, enveloping the entire study in an enigmatic aura.

Qian Renxue abruptly rose to her feet. Her violet eyes contracted sharply as she stared fixedly at the copper coin in Zhao Ming's palm and the azure spirit ring encircling it. Her breathing quickened, and her voice trembled with barely restrained shock. "Xiaoming, you have twin martial souls?"

Qian Renxue had not known that Zhao Ming possessed twin martial souls. Feeling the aura emitted by the coin, she was completely stunned.

The main reason was that this martial soul's aura was simply too powerful. It was far more profound and mysterious than any martial soul she had ever seen, even stronger than her Seraphim. It clearly contained some power that transcended the mundane.

Yet Zhao Ming shook his head and calmly corrected her. "Sister Xue'er, rather than a second martial soul, it should be called a divine artifact."

"What? A divine artifact!" Qian Renxue's voice suddenly rose. She rounded the desk and hurried over to Zhao Ming, gripping his shoulders with both hands. Her violet eyes were filled with excitement. "Xiaoming, has some god taken notice of you and chosen you as an inheritor?"

Zhao Ming nodded. The God of Wealth had personally bestowed power upon him, so he had certainly taken notice of him. That was not an exaggeration at all.

"Wonderful!" Genuine joy bloomed across Qian Renxue's face. It was not joy over Spirit Hall gaining another bargaining chip, but heartfelt happiness for Zhao Ming. "Xiaoming, I never expected you to have such an opportunity! Did you come to me because of your divine trial?"

Zhao Ming nodded again, took a deep breath, and began recounting the explanation he had prepared, half true and half false. "Sister Xue'er, the god who has taken notice of me is called the God of Wealth. He is a god from another world, and his inheritance is extraordinarily powerful. Once one becomes a god through it, the worst possible outcome is still the level of a God King."

At the words "God King," Qian Renxue's pupils contracted again. She did not know what rank her divine ancestor held, but the title God King alone sounded anything but ordinary. The king among gods had to be exceptionally powerful.

"The first divine trial this god gave me is to absorb a ten-thousand-year third ring."

"What? A ten-thousand-year third ring! How is that possible?" Qian Renxue cried out in shock. The delight on her face was instantly replaced by alarm and worry.

Absorbing a ten-thousand-year spirit ring as one's third spirit ring had never had any precedent in the history of the Douluo Continent.

According to Spirit Hall's records, the limit for the third spirit ring of most ordinary soul masters was around seventeen hundred years. Naturally, that majority did not include Zhao Ming. His second ring had already exceeded two thousand years, so even absorbing a five-thousand-year third ring would have been normal.

But Zhao Ming's divine trial required him to absorb a ten-thousand-year third ring.

There was an enormous gulf between thousand-year and ten-thousand-year spirit rings. The soul shock produced when a ten-thousand-year soul beast died had to be handled cautiously even by experts at the Soul King level, let alone a Rank 30 Soul Elder.

"Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible." Zhao Ming's voice remained calm as he held the Treasure-Dropping Coin in his palm before Qian Renxue. "But the God of Wealth directly bestowed the divine artifact, the Treasure-Dropping Coin, upon me.

With it, I have a high chance of succeeding. There will certainly be danger, but there is no such thing as a free lunch in this world. How could one become a god without enduring trials and tempering?"

He raised his head, his gaze firmly meeting Qian Renxue's worried violet eyes. "So, Sister Xue'er, I've decided to take the risk."