One Year! Graduated!

The waters of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well still gurgled on, the auras of extreme cold and extreme heat intertwining above the basin in an eternal, unchanging balance.

Time flowed especially slowly here, yet a year had slipped by before anyone noticed.

Huang Yun sat on the bluestone by the spring, the same rock he had sat upon countless times, his eyes closed in meditation.

His breathing was steady and deep. The lightning surrounding him had changed from its original blue-white to a deeper golden-purple. Arcs of electricity danced soundlessly across his skin, and every breath guided his Soul Power through a complete circuit.

Level sixty-eight Soul Emperor.

In one year, he had risen from level sixty-three to level sixty-eight, increasing by a full five levels.

Such speed would have been utterly shocking in the outside world, but within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well basin, where spiritual energy was ten times denser, an increase of five levels, while exaggerated, was not entirely unreasonable.

After all, the total Soul Power required for every level in the Soul Emperor realm was astonishingly vast. Outside, gaining even one level in a year would have made someone a genius among geniuses.

He slowly opened his eyes, a streak of golden-purple light flashing through their depths.

On the far side of the spring, a slender figure was seated cross-legged in cultivation.

Dugu Yan sat with her back to him, her dark green hair tied into a neat ponytail behind her head. Her back was straight, and a faint layer of dark green Soul Power wound around her body.

In the span of a year, she had changed just as greatly.

The girl who had once been pale-faced and dark-eyed from the torment of Backlash Poison had become rosy-cheeked and full of