First Encounter with an Angel

Not long after Xiao Wu left, Qin Muchu finally recovered to his peak condition through meditation. Without getting up, he said, "Brother Sky Dream, let's do it here. I'll help you reach a million years first." He exchanged for a Beast Essence Pill in the System Shop and was about to call Sky Dream Ice Silkworm out to take it when his voice came first. "Wait. Another group of powerful people is coming."

Qin Muchu was startled. "If even you call them powerful, Brother Sky Dream, are they Soul Beasts over a hundred thousand years old again?"

"No. This time they're humans. Two Titled Douluo and a level-sixty Quasi-Soul Emperor. Looks like they're here to hunt a Sixth Soul Ring for the Quasi-Soul Emperor."

Two Titled Douluo protecting someone hunting a Sixth Soul Ring? Who could it be? Qin Muchu was astonished. There weren't many Titled Douluo on the entire continent. Even counting those in hiding and the ones on Sea God Island, there were probably only around twenty. Someone who could bring two of them along to hunt a Soul Ring had to have a frightening background.

Qin Muchu set aside his plan to raise Tian Meng's cultivation and looked curiously in the direction he had indicated.

Before long, three figures appeared in the distance, all flying through the sky. The two on either side were men in their fifties. They stayed aloft without any visible aid, so they were probably the two Titled Douluo Tian Meng had mentioned.

Between them was a veiled woman whose face he couldn't make out. Behind her spread two striking pairs of golden wings.

The moment Qin Muchu saw those wings, he knew who she was: Qian Renxue, daughter of the current pope, Bibi Dong, and the former pope, Qian Xunji. She would also become the first person on the continent to ascend to godhood. By his reckoning, she was only about nineteen, yet she had already passed level sixty. If she was Qian Renxue, the other two weren't hard to identify: Porcupinefish Douluo and Snake Lance Douluo, She Long—the one whose fifth Soul Ring was still purple and who had been beaten back by Yang Wudi.

Qian Renxue and her companions saw Qin Muchu too, but they couldn't be bothered to pay attention to a child. Without slowing, they flew deeper into the Star Dou Great Forest.

Once Qin Muchu judged that the three had gone far enough, he let Sky Dream Ice Silkworm out of the Soul Tool and fed him the Beast Essence Pill. In an instant, his body, darkened by corrosion, turned snow-white again. His aura rose by leaps and bounds, and he soon crossed the million-year threshold, becoming the first million-year Soul Beast in history.

"Just as I thought." Qin Muchu glanced at the silent sky and curled his lip. "Those bastards in the Divine Realm are probably waiting for you to become a god so they can drain your source power."

"Those bastards," Sky Dream Ice Silkworm cursed. "Little Chu, are you ready? I'm starting."

"Come on, Brother Sky Dream." Qin Muchu summoned his Martial Soul and opened his Sea of Consciousness.

"Here I come, then. A million years of Soul Power won't be easy to bear. I'll place seals in your Sea of Consciousness, and you can release them bit by bit once you're strong enough. I don't have a Soul Bone to give you, though. Oh, and when you get the chance, remember to take me to see Bingbing." With that, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm burrowed toward Qin Muchu's Sea of Consciousness.

Qin Muchu hurriedly circulated his cultivation method to guide the surging Soul Power inside him. But because Sky Dream Ice Silkworm had sealed away most of his source power, the influx was much weaker than when Qin Muchu had absorbed his First Soul Ring. Once he was sure nothing was wrong, he directed his consciousness into the Sea of Consciousness. There, four shimmering seals stood at the cardinal points, while Sky Dream Ice Silkworm stood dazed at the center.

"Brother Sky Dream, what's wrong?" Qin Muchu asked.

"Little Chu, I never expected your Sea of Consciousness to be this vast." Coming back to himself, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm sighed in admiration. "Your physique is far beyond that of Soul Masters at your level, too. The Soul Ring I've formed is equivalent to one about twenty-five hundred years old. I've never been more confident that you'll become a god someday."

Qin Muchu chuckled. That was the advantage of having a cheat. Douluo Continent's current cultivation system was far too backward: people relied entirely on the Basic Meditation Method and absorbing Soul Rings, and fights were basically exchanges of Soul Skills.

"Your luck really is something. I originally thought my sacrifice would give you four Soul Skills, but you've only got two. Still, those two are clearly much better than the four would have been."

Qin Muchu examined his Soul Skills and immediately broke into a grin. "Haha, quality matters more than quantity. As long as they're useful, that's enough. Brother Sky Dream, thank you."

He had gained two Soul Skills this time as well. The first was Simulation, much like Huo Yuhao's ability in the original story. But when Qin Muchu tried it, he found that he couldn't change his Million-Year Soul Ring to another color. He could, however, create the appearance of Soul Rings that didn't exist and conjure large-scale illusions.

The second Soul Skill was Spiritual Storm. It combined spiritual power with Sword Qi to form a circular area with a ten-meter radius. Within it, he could track an enemy's every movement and control the Sword Qi to form powerful crescent-shaped Sword Aura. The Sword Aura carried a spiritual attack as well.

Qin Muchu had reached level twenty-three, so Ten Thousand Transformations, One Edge could now carry two effects. Spiritual Storm already came with a spiritual attack, making that effect largely redundant. But adding Simulation was another matter entirely. Every slash of Sword Qi would plunge an opponent into an illusion for an instant when they tried to block it. Any Soul Master without strong spiritual power who couldn't break free quickly would be little more than a sitting duck.

Other great masters have a world in a flower and a bodhi tree in a leaf. Then I'll have a whirling world in every sword strike, and with one thought, life will bloom or wither, Qin Muchu thought.

"Oh, right, Brother Sky Dream. Why is the Soul Ring you gave me still white? Shouldn't it be gold? Even if it isn't gold, a ring over two thousand years old should be purple." Qin Muchu was puzzled. The continent hadn't yet seen so many fancy Soul Ring colors. Everyone knew ten-year rings were white, hundred-year rings yellow, thousand-year rings purple, ten-thousand-year rings black, and hundred-thousand-year rings red. He could already imagine an opponent's expression when he summoned his Martial Soul in battle and revealed two white Soul Rings.

"That's because my source power is sealed. The Soul Ring itself is only thousand-year quality. Your First Soul Ring is too powerful, and it has no attribute, so naturally it affected your Second Soul Ring. All right, I've used up a lot of energy this time. I need to sleep for a while. Don't disturb me unless you have to." After explaining, Sky Dream Ice Silkworm fell asleep in Qin Muchu's Sea of Consciousness.

Now that he understood, Qin Muchu stopped dwelling on it and opened the System Shop. He checked his balance first: seventeen million remained, while the rate of increase had changed to five gold per second.

"Tsk, tsk. Looks like I'm getting closer and closer to becoming a god," Qin Muchu thought happily.