Master! Mistress!

Ye Xishui and Xu Chengjing walked toward Xu Tianchen and Long Xiaoyao. Seeing this, the two of them rose to their feet as well.

"Xishui, have you finished talking?" Long Xiaoyao walked over to Ye Xishui's side.

Xu Chengjing also stepped in front of Xu Tianchen and asked, "How did you end up with him?"

Xu Tianchen explained the whole chain of events to Xu Chengjing. To his surprise, Xu Chengjing looked embarrassed after hearing it, then abruptly slapped Xu Tianchen on the shoulder, making him stagger from the unexpected blow.

"My apologies, Your Majesty Dragon Emperor. The kid's a little thoughtless."

"It's fine. I rather like the boy's personality."

Standing beside Ye Xishui, Long Xiaoyao waved his hand as he spoke.

"So you're not from Senior Ye's family after all. You're the Dragon Emperor Douluo, Long Xiaoyao!" Only then did Xu Tianchen realize that the handsome old man he had been grilling skewers and chatting with was Long Xiaoyao.

"Heh heh, I never deceived you. In a sense, I can be considered part of the Ye Clan too. And judging by your reaction, you've heard my story?"

After saying that, Long Xiaoyao glanced at Ye Xishui beside him. Naturally, Ye Xishui noticed his little thoughts, so she took the initiative to hook her arm through his. At once, Long Xiaoyao could no longer suppress the upward curl of his lips.

Xu Tianchen looked at Long Xiaoyao, then at Ye Xishui clinging to his arm, and sighed inwardly. As expected of the ultimate Dragon-Binding Cord that nearly tied down the Twin Holy Dragons. If Mu En's Shrek Loyalty Gu hadn't defeated the Love Gu, she would have directly captured both Holy Dragons.

Just a simple arm-hooking gesture had Long Xiaoyao grinning like an idiot.

"Of course I've heard of you—the Dark Holy Dragon, the Dragon Emperor Douluo, Long Xiaoyao."

"Hahaha! I can see that your talent is extraordinary, and your personality suits mine as well. Furthermore, your Purple Radiance Annihilating Heaven Dragon martial soul shares certain similarities with my Dark Holy Dragon. Would you be willing to take me as your master?"

Long Xiaoyao smiled as he spoke to Xu Tianchen.

Long Xiaoyao's offer to take him as a disciple stunned everyone present. Xu Chengjing had originally planned to seek out Long Xiaoyao privately and ask him to accept Xu Tianchen as his disciple. But Long Xiaoyao bringing it up himself was even better.

"What are you standing around for? Hurry up and pay respects to your master!"

Xu Chengjing turned to look at Xu Tianchen, who was still spacing out, and smacked him on the head. Then he spoke to him in a tone even more anxious than Xu Tianchen's, as though he were the one becoming a disciple.

"Greetings, Master."

Xu Tianchen immediately performed the traditional ceremony of becoming a disciple.

To be honest, Xu Tianchen had no resistance whatsoever to becoming Long Xiaoyao's disciple. After all, at present, Du Bushi had yet to break through to Ultimate Douluo, and Kong Deming had yet to reach Rank 95 and become a Rank-10 Soul Engineer. Among humanity, there were only three ultimate-level powerhouses: Mu En, Long Xiaoyao, and Ye Xishui.

Now, Mu En's spine was broken, leaving him unable to display his complete ultimate-level strength. Without the God of Death Tower, Ye Xishui and Long Xiaoyao should have been evenly matched.

Moreover, Xu Tianchen knew that Mu En had broken through to the ultimate level through the Dragon Core, while Ye Xishui had broken through by absorbing all of Zhongli Laogui's soul power. Only Long Xiaoyao seemed to have achieved his breakthrough through his own strength.

And Xu Tianchen knew that Ye Xishui actually liked Long Xiaoyao too. In that case, becoming Long Xiaoyao's disciple came with enormous benefits.

Long Xiaoyao watched Xu Tianchen complete the ceremony with a smile, then stepped forward and helped him up.

Over the years on the Douluo Continent, thanks to the versions passed down by Tang Buddha and Yu "Master," powerhouses nowadays more or less cared about etiquette. Foremost among these was the disciple-taking ceremony.

If you didn't even perform the most basic bow to me, how was I supposed to know whether you were sincere? How could I rest assured enough to pass on all my abilities to you?

After rising, Xu Tianchen looked at Ye Xishui, who was still holding Long Xiaoyao's arm. He hesitated for a moment before calling out.

"Mistress."

Upon hearing that form of address, Ye Xishui immediately covered her mouth and laughed.

"Hey, hey..." Long Xiaoyao had just opened his mouth to explain when Ye Xishui interrupted him.

"This little fellow not only has a sweet mouth, but also sharp eyes. Here, take this as your mistress's gift upon our first meeting."

As she spoke, a flash of white light appeared. Ye Xishui took out a Soul Bone from her storage ring and waved her delicate hand. A nearly complete Soul Bone, seemingly carved from crystal and without the slightest flaw, floated before Xu Tianchen.

"This is a destruction-element right arm bone of at least one hundred thousand years that Xiaoyao and I obtained from an Ancient Secret Realm. I can't determine which soul beast produced this right arm bone, but I can be certain that it was dropped by a dragon-type soul beast."

Ye Xishui pointed to the Soul Bone floating before Xu Tianchen. Her tone was somewhat casual, as though she were not giving away a priceless treasure like a hundred-thousand-year Soul Bone, but merely an ordinary item.

"Thank you, Mistress. Thank you, Master."

Xu Tianchen accepted the Soul Bone and examined it in his hands. Sure enough, Ye Xishui was a tsundere too. He had never expected one word—mistress—to earn him a Soul Bone that was at least one hundred thousand years old.

"Since Xishui has given you that Soul Bone, take this as well. We obtained it together back then."

After saying that, Long Xiaoyao also took out a dragon egg from his storage ring and handed it over.

Xu Tianchen looked at the dragon egg in his hands, then at Long Xiaoyao, blinking several times.

"This is a dragon egg?"

"Yes, but I don't know whether it can still hatch successfully. I've tried many methods, but none worked. I even had someone inject life energy into it, but that still didn't help. I hope you'll have the fortune to hatch it." Long Xiaoyao replied.

"All right, I'll give it a try," Xu Tianchen replied.

"Find a time to absorb that Soul Bone. Although no one else has ever absorbed it, we don't know how long that secret realm has existed, nor how long that giant dragon has been dead. Over time, the Soul Bone has still lost some of its energy. An ordinary person definitely wouldn't be able to absorb it, but your attributes match this Soul Bone's, so it shouldn't be much of a problem for you."

Ye Xishui spoke from the side to Xu Tianchen, who kept looking back and forth between the Soul Bone and the dragon egg.

"Okay, I understand, Mistress. I'll absorb it tonight." Xu Tianchen nodded to Ye Xishui.

"What a good boy." Ye Xishui reached out and patted Xu Tianchen on the shoulder, then said to Xu Chengjing, who stood nearby, "I'm happy today, so let's do as you suggested before."

"Fine," Xu Chengjing said.

Ye Xishui nodded, then looked at Xu Tianchen. "That's enough for today. Your master and I will leave first. Tomorrow, I'll have your master come properly instruct you. Don't absorb the Soul Bone tonight either. Wait until your master comes tomorrow to stand guard for you before absorbing it. If anything happens, he can save you in time."

"I understand. Then Mistress and Master, take care," Xu Tianchen said with a nod.

Xu Chengjing also said, "Your Majesty God of Death, Your Majesty Dragon Emperor, take care."

Ye Xishui gazed affectionately at Long Xiaoyao, then linked arms with him and headed out of the prince's residence.

Father and son stood where they were, watching Ye Xishui and Long Xiaoyao gradually disappear until neither could be seen any longer.

"Today went well. I never expected Long Xiaoyao to propose taking you as his disciple himself. This way, the bond between master and disciple will contain less self-interest than the method I originally intended."

Xu Chengjing spoke to Xu Tianchen with some emotion, then patted him on the head.

"Come with me."

Xu Chengjing led Xu Tianchen into a secret chamber within his study. He then walked to one end of the chamber and pried up a brick.

He took out a soul tool combination lockbox from inside. After another series of complicated unlocking procedures, the true contents of the box were revealed.

It was another Soul Bone!

An External Soul Bone!