Jade Douluo Su Wu

The spirit herb was a wild rice plant. Jiang Baiyu had seen this world's rice varieties in his village as a child. Their grains were rather shriveled and their yields low, yet rice was still one of this world's staple foods. After he had gained insight into his own Shennong Dao, the example of a modern-day Shennong from his previous life—one who "loved to dream"—had inspired him to cultivate a new rice variety and advance his Dao. But he was no agricultural expert; he knew less than even the old farmers here. All he could do was rely on the Shennong Book, feeling his way forward as he explored the Shennong Dao.

Earlier, when every spirit herb in the valley had offered up its essence, Jiang Baiyu had sensed the essence of the Five-Colored Spirit Rice. The Shennong Cauldron itself had released waves of essence as well, as though rejoicing at finding a kindred spirit whose path aligned with its own.

Looking at the extraordinary rice plant, Jiang Baiyu grew a little nervous. As a natural favorite of the agricultural path, would the Five-Colored Spirit Rice be willing to sacrifice itself for him?

After sensing the essence of Jiang Baiyu's Shennong Cauldron, the Five-Colored Spirit Rice fell still. Within its newly awakened mind, it wavered between cultivating on its own and sacrificing itself to Jiang Baiyu to become part of the Shennong Cauldron.

Jiang Baiyu looked at the Five-Colored Spirit Rice, his eyes full of sincere invitation.

Its stalk was not the uniform greenish yellow of ordinary rice. Color shifted along it in layers, five hues interwoven.

The stalk nearest its roots was a dark blue-green, with the tough, rough texture of ancient wild rice. Its stem was hard, and lustrous white, pale green, and faint gold patterns wound around its joints—the traces of Yin-Yang Energy merging over many years. The tip was tinged red and dotted with flecks of iridescence, its five colors flowing together naturally. Its leaves were longer and more outspread than those of ordinary rice, their veins sharply defined. They had both the rugged vitality of wild rice and the delicate sheen of a mutated spirit plant.

Its panicles were full and dense, with numerous offshoots and the vigorous growth unique to hybrid rice. Every grain was round and plump, its husk one of five colors: green, yellow, white, red, or pale blue. No two grains looked quite alike, yet the colors blended perfectly. The awns varied in length, carrying the untamed quality of natural crossbreeding beneath a faint halo of spiritual light. When the wind blew, the leaves swayed gently and five-colored light rippled across them—quiet, unshowy, warm, and substantial.

At last, the Five-Colored Spirit Rice extended a thread of spiritual awareness and slowly connected with Jiang Baiyu.

"You mean... you want to leave your original seed in the world inside my cauldron, then sacrifice yourself to me so we can follow the Shennong Dao together?" After speaking with it, Jiang Baiyu received this exhilarating answer.

The tip of the Five-Colored Spirit Rice's panicle dipped lightly, confirming his words.

"Really? Can we do it now?" Jiang Baiyu did not want to wait another moment. The Soul Power that the Yin-Yang Creation Origin-Returning Pill and the sacrifice of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' essence had pushed to the peak of level thirty-nine now broke through. In an instant, he became a level-forty Soul Ancestor.

Seeing Jiang Baiyu break through as easily as eating or drinking, Dugu Bo did not even know where to begin complaining.

Sensing Jiang Baiyu's surging aura, the Five-Colored Spirit Rice hesitated no longer. The entire plant trembled softly as the five-colored light around it drew inward. Almost all the essence it had accumulated over countless ages slowly condensed into a single seed. Lustrous and translucent, with five colors flowing within it, the seed was the culmination of the spirit rice's lifetime of growth.

The wondrous seed, bearing all the Five-Colored Spirit Rice's Dao resonance, turned into a streak of five-colored light and fell into the newborn fertile soil of the Shennong Cauldron. The moment it landed, it vanished, taking root in the world within.

Hum—

The instant the seed entered the cauldron, every divine pattern on Jiang Baiyu's Shennong Cauldron martial soul blazed. The Ancient Tree, Spirit Deer, and divine-beast designs all cast forth projections. Then came a golden vision: countless people knelt, not before heaven, but before the rice held in the cauldron! Humanity could triumph over heaven through tireless effort. The cauldron, a sacred vessel of humanity that had connected people with Ghosts and Gods since ancient times, now displayed the oldest people-centered belief of Yanhuang's descendants!

The Ice and Fire Spirit Spring had tempered the embryonic world born within the Shennong Cauldron, and the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings' sacrifice had made it complete. Yet when this seed entered, the cauldron seemed to gain something it had still been missing. Only now, filled with the essence of the agricultural path, was it truly the Shennong Cauldron!

With its seed inside the cauldron, the Five-Colored Spirit Rice hesitated no longer. The five-colored radiance of its body gradually dimmed, and the entire plant faded into the wind and disappeared. At last, a soft, sacred white light shot skyward. A ten-year Soul Ring, white with a faint five-colored glow, rose slowly into the air. Carrying the purest vitality of the agricultural path, it drifted toward Jiang Baiyu.

"Just as I thought!" At the sight of the white ten-year Soul Ring, Dugu Bo could not help feeling disappointed. Jiang Baiyu had been right: the immortal herbs awakened by his Spirit Awakening were merely Soul Beasts that had gained intelligence early. Dugu Bo had seen the vision produced by Jiang Baiyu's martial soul, too. But this was still a ten-year Soul Ring. For Jiang Baiyu, whose third ring was already a ten-thousand-year ring, its effect on his future would surely be enormous.

Yet the instant the Soul Ring approached Jiang Baiyu, two streaks of light flew from his soul bones. One carried the fire dragon's heaven-scorching essence; the other, the ice dragon's cold that could freeze the ages. They coiled around the pure white ring, enveloping it. Imbued with the Dragon Kings' supreme ancient power, accumulated over untold ages, the two streams of light washed over, tempered, and nourished the plant-based Soul Ring of their own accord.

The once-plain white Soul Ring burst with brilliant red and blue light. It expanded rapidly, growing denser and more substantial as its color deepened. Its age soared, layer upon layer of power building within it. Under the infusion of the two Dragon Kings' essence, that unremarkable white ring was transformed.

At last, fine, interlacing red and blue dragon patterns appeared on the ring. Yin-Yang dragon resonance entwined with the vitality of the agricultural path, lending its gentle warmth an unmistakable draconic majesty. No one who saw it would ever imagine it had been born from the sacrifice of a ten-year Soul Ring.

And indeed, it no longer resembled one. The Ice and Fire Dragon Kings had accumulated far more than a few thousand or even ten thousand years of power. Theirs was the power of ancient gods. An ordinary Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could be transformed by a single trace of divinity during its tribulation. How far, then, would this Soul Ring rise after being tempered by supreme divinity accumulated over untold years? The transformed ring now held three profound powers: Shennong's Life Dao, the agricultural path of the five grains, and the dragon Dao of ice and fire. Its grade soared. At the same time, touched by that aura, Jiang Baiyu's other Soul Rings took on red and blue hues as well.

Jiang Baiyu turned back. Under the immense essence of the Ice and Fire Dragon Kings, even his once-gentle black eyes had become the eyes of the Dragon Kings, one red and one blue, radiating draconic might. "Well? What do you think, Senior Dugu?" A brilliant smile spread across his face, ruining the imposing effect.

Suppressing the trembling of his martial soul, Dugu Bo looked at the young man. "Baiyu, tell me—do you think you can become a god?" If even Jiang Baiyu could not, Dugu Bo could not imagine what kind of monster could. The pride he had felt at being the first to condense a Soul Core vanished without a trace.

"Well, about that..." Seeing Dugu Bo's uncertainty, Jiang Baiyu did not keep him guessing. "Of course! And once I become a god, I'm confident I could win even if every god in the Divine Realm came at me together!" He was full of confidence. As the master of the Shennong Cauldron and the inheritor of Shennong's legacy, failing to do that would disgrace his ancestor, the Flame Emperor.

He was about to say more when a hearty laugh rang out:

"My family's Medicine Dao won renown, yet killing intent entered my body and ravaged my meridians.

With ruined channels and lingering illness, an old man with broken bones let his spirit fade.

By fortune I found Shennong and a chance at life; the Spirit Spring washed away half a lifetime of suffering.

Jade bamboo rose skyward and gathered emerald waves; I raise my green staff to the world—a Douluo today!"

"Hahaha! Today, I, Su Wu, take the title Jade!"