Journey to Thousand Islands Lake, Tortoise Breath Skill Mastered!

Spring gave way to autumn, and a year passed in the blink of an eye.

To the east of the southern border of the Heaven Dou Empire, roughly three days' journey from Spirit City, lay the scenic Thousand Islands Lake.

A thousand islands dotted its waters, layered in emerald hues.

It was home to Heaven Dou's largest inland lake.

Cupid Kingdom, one of the four great kingdoms within the Heaven Dou Empire, had been established upon Thousand Islands Lake.

Like Spirit City, Cupid Kingdom had a tropical climate, yet the air here was not humid. Instead, it was dry and pleasant, with abundant sunshine.

Every year, countless people came here on vacation. The people of Heaven Dou called it the finest holiday paradise. At the same time, because of its heavy traffic and beautiful scenery, many visitors encountered love here while relaxing in Cupid Kingdom.

Thus, it was also called Love Island.

Within Cupid Kingdom.

On an island called Returning Moon Island.

The Xu Bayan family was vacationing here during Xu Huxiao's three-month break.

However, Ning Fengyu had not come with them. She had returned to Seven Treasure City to visit her two-year-old niece, Ning Rongrong.

On the island, within a luxurious estate.

The morning sun was at its brightest.

Xu Huxiao wore nothing but a pair of azure swim trunks as he stood before the courtyard pool.

Already eight years old, Xu Huxiao had grown to one meter sixty. His golden hair was neat and handsome, while his body had become even sturdier. His chest and abdominal muscles were full and sharply defined.

Broad-shouldered and long-legged, he possessed the perfect golden proportions. The Dark Gold Twin Dragon Ring on his left earlobe was his only extravagant adornment.

Xu Huxiao stood motionless beneath the sunlight. Reflections from the rippling pool shimmered across his skin, light and dark, making him resemble a statue of a young god.

Huff—

As the resolute light in his eyes slowly receded into their depths, he took another deep breath and plunged headfirst into the water.

Cool. Silent.

Xu Huxiao slowly sank to the bottom of the pool, then closed his eyes and sat cross-legged. Holding his breath and focusing his mind, his chest and abdomen followed a strange rhythm, swelling faintly once every quarter-hour.

By now, his second round of Golden Sun had condensed, and his Yang Origin Soul Power had reached level twenty. He had yet to obtain his second Soul Ring.

Xu Huxiao had already decided on his second Soul Skill and even chosen the specific Soul Beast.

A Dragon Scale Turtle with Sub-Dragon Bloodline!

And the largest gathering place for such Soul Beasts was Thousand Islands Lake.

However, he was in no hurry to obtain his Soul Ring. He intended to hunt for it only after mastering this Tortoise Breath Skill.

The Tortoise Breath Skill, Bone Shrinking Skill, and Gecko Wall-Crawling were three auxiliary techniques included with the Nine Yang Divine Skill.

Three months ago, after Xu Huxiao condensed his second round of Golden Sun, he had begun cultivating these three auxiliary techniques. Originally, he had planned to cultivate all three at once.

But one day, inside the pool at the academy's Martial Soul Mimicry Training Ground, he accidentally discovered that aside from assisting the cultivation of the Nine Yang Divine Skill and regulating internal breath, the Tortoise Breath Skill—

Had two more miraculous uses.

As long as he entered the Tortoise Breath state, he could breathe underwater and conceal his cultivation!

By all reason, the Tortoise Breath Skill should not have such effects. Yet it had undergone this miraculous change. Xu Huxiao did not understand why and could only attribute it to the peculiarities of this otherworldly Douluo world.

After all, the martial arts world had no Martial Souls, nor did it have Soul Power capable of unleashing all manner of wondrous Soul Skills.

Having made this astonishing discovery, he immediately decided to focus solely on the Tortoise Breath Skill and master it as soon as possible.

The reason was simple: for Soul Masters, concealing one's cultivation effectively meant—

Changing the color of one's Soul Rings!

Or even making Soul Rings vanish!

For Xu Huxiao, who wanted to grow steadily, this was undoubtedly a perfect ability. Though he currently had only one Soul Ring and was still a rookie Soul Master, concealing his Soul Ring after Martial Soul Possession was meaningless.

Yet the ability to change a Soul Ring's color was immensely important to him because his second Soul Ring was destined not to be a normal yellow Hundred-Year Soul Ring.

According to the Eye of Omniscience, the absorption limit for his second Soul Ring had already reached six thousand seven hundred years.

And once he mastered the Tortoise Breath Skill, he would no longer need to worry about drawing attention.

Underwater, all five of Xu Huxiao's senses had been lowered to their minimum. His heartbeat had slowed more than ever before. Aside from the occasional faint movement of his chest and abdomen, he was like a stone.

One hour, two hours, three hours...

Normally, his limit for holding his breath was two hours, but today, he had reached three.

Because he was about to break through!

As an auxiliary technique of the Nine Yang Divine Skill, the Tortoise Breath Skill was not difficult to cultivate. It had only three realms in total.

Heart-Submergence, Breath-Submergence, and the perfected True Stillness Tortoise Breath.

Xu Huxiao's Eight Extraordinary Meridians were fully open, while his internal organs and meridians had been nourished from birth. Cultivating such a relatively simple technique was naturally incredibly fast for him.

When the academy's break was approaching, he had already felt that he was only one final step away from mastering the Tortoise Breath Skill.

And today was the day of his breakthrough!

At the bottom of the pool, Xu Huxiao remained seated without moving. Another quarter-hour passed, but this time, his chest and abdomen did not swell. Instead, the skin across his entire body rippled like water.

The rippling ceased, and Xu Huxiao opened his eyes, his gaze filled with intense delight.

Because at that moment, the Tortoise Breath Skill had broken through!

He had entered the True Stillness Tortoise Breath state!

Now, he could breathe freely underwater. Naturally, he was not using his nostrils or mouth, but the incomparably tiny pores all over his body to capture oxygen.

At the same time, his Twin Arms Martial Soul possessed him, and a deep yellow Soul Ring appeared.

Then Xu Huxiao looked at the deep yellow Soul Ring, and with a thought—

A miraculous scene unfolded. The deep yellow Soul Ring gradually lightened in color until it became a glowing white.

A white Soul Ring encircled his body, pulsing up and down.

The corner of Xu Huxiao's mouth lifted. Although the color change was currently slow, he felt that once he became proficient, the Soul Ring that appeared upon summoning his Martial Soul could directly be white.

Perhaps even...

Xu Huxiao focused his thoughts on his Soul Ring. A moment later, the white Soul Ring simply vanished. Though he remained in Martial Soul Possession, the fluctuations of Soul Power around him had been completely concealed.

Apart from the abnormalities in his arms, no one could tell from any other aspect that he was a Soul Master.

This was the perfected Tortoise Breath Skill!

But over the past year, that was not the only change he had undergone.

There was also his Twin Arms Martial Soul.

At that moment, his Platinum Dragon-Patterned Arms had changed appearance. They had originally possessed a platinum base covered in intricate, ferocious black dragon patterns.

Now, those had been replaced by dense black dragon scales edged in platinum, covering both arms.

Over the past year, his Martial Soul had mutated and evolved into this form. Xu Huxiao had named it the Platinum Dragon-Scaled Arms.

This mutation and evolution had not happened because of his breakthrough in the Tortoise Breath Skill, nor because he had condensed his second round of Golden Sun.

It was because of the Demon Clam's pearl.

It was the Demon Clam he had purchased at the Seven-Star Auction House, from which Yun Ji, the Hundred-Thousand-Year little mermaid, had later emerged.

But at the time, aside from Yun Ji, there had been one more item inside the Demon Clam.

A gigantic clam pearl one meter in diameter.

At first, Xu Huxiao had been so shocked by the appearance of Yun Ji, the little mermaid, that he had overlooked the giant pearl.

It was not until a year later, after the Junior Elite Challenge Tournament ended and the academy went on break, that he remembered it upon returning home.

There had been a pearl inside that Demon Clam. Since it had been stored alongside a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, it could not possibly be ordinary.

With that thought, Xu Huxiao found the pearl in his family's warehouse. After staring at it for three seconds, a stream of information entered his mind.

[Item]: Hundred-Thousand-Year Demon Clam Pearl

[Effect]: First, consuming it can evolve one's Martial Soul once and improve physical constitution; second, it can raise Soul Power Level by two levels; third, both effects are only effective for cultivation below Soul Elder; fourth, repeated consumption is ineffective.

[Value]: Immeasurable

[Description]: Have I finally been discovered? This is the greatness of fate!

Sure enough, it was not the Demon Clam that was valuable. What was valuable were the things inside it.

The pearl and the Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!

Then, when Xu Huxiao looked at the Demon Clam shell again, the information changed.

[Item]: Ordinary clam shell

[Effect]: None.

[Value]: One Copper Soul Coin

[Description]: What are you looking at? Without my pearl, I'm nothing but trash.

What a pity. He had thought the shell itself might be some kind of treasure.

Still, obtaining the Hundred-Thousand-Year Demon Clam Pearl was enough. Xu Huxiao ground the enormous pearl into powder and consumed it, but even with his Three-Life Martial Soul aptitude, he used only half of it.

Afterward, he clearly felt that the clam pearl powder no longer had any effect on him.

After some thought, he first gave it to Uncle Luo Ming, who was at level nineteen.

After Luo Ming consumed it, the Demon Clam powder spent its effect repairing his damaged meridians and raised his Soul Power by only one level.

But that one level allowed Luo Ming to finally break through to level twenty. His Martial Soul also evolved, changing from the Mountain Tortoise it had been into the Black Tortoise.

The moment he sensed his Martial Soul, tears flowed from Luo Ming's eyes, because his Martial Soul had originally been the Black Tortoise.

It was only because it had mutated into the weak Mountain Tortoise that he had been abandoned by his family.

After this, Luo Ming became even more grateful to Xu Huxiao beyond measure.

Luo Ming had consumed only one-third of the remaining clam pearl powder, leaving some behind. Xu Huxiao then thought of Yun Ji, the little mermaid who would become his future Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.

But after Yun Ji reluctantly tasted a little, she said that the pearl had no effect on her.

So, in keeping with the principle of not wasting anything, Xu Huxiao considered it and gave the remaining pearl powder to Bao Jingjing and Hu Liena.

One was the chef who cooked delicious food for him every day, while the other was his junior sister who worshipped him. Both were considered relatively close to him.

And just like that, the Demon Clam Pearl was used up.

As for his older female cousin and two older male cousins, Xu Huxiao did not even see them twice a year. They truly were not close.

Looking at his Platinum Dragon-Scaled Arms, Xu Huxiao was extremely satisfied. This mutation and evolution had caused dragon scales to grow over his arms, vastly increasing their defensive power. When his arms collided with each other, they even produced a clear metallic clang.

While in Martial Soul Possession, the strength of his arms had also increased.

Xu Huxiao had tested it. At his limit, with his first Soul Skill, Multiplication: Gluttonous Grip, stacked with the Martial Dao Essence Realm, his strength increased fourfold, reaching roughly two thousand five hundred jin.

In that state, he could easily leave fingerprints in refined iron. With the explosive force of the Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms, he could even shatter a steel plate two inches thick.

Moreover, after absorbing half the Demon Clam Pearl, combined with eating high-energy Soul Beast meat every day for the two years since entering the academy, along with all kinds of heavenly treasures—

His Martial Dao Essence Realm, which had previously progressed extremely slowly, had also improved. The first Blood-Essence Flower, located in the center of his right palm, had already condensed.

Xu Huxiao's blood essence had become even more vigorous, and his physique had greatly strengthened. This was also why the Eye of Omniscience showed that his second Soul Ring could reach six thousand seven hundred years.

However, to reach the completion of the Essence Intent Realm, he still needed to condense Blood-Essence Flowers one inch below his navel and in the center of his left palm.

And once his martial arts cultivation broke through the Essence Intent Realm, his Twin Arms Martial Soul would undergo a true evolution.

No rush. There's still time. Now, it's time to obtain my second Soul Ring.

With that thought, Xu Huxiao withdrew his Martial Soul and swam toward the surface.