An Unexpected Encounter

Xiao Wu's eyes went blank, her entire view of the world shattered.

He was even more of an evil soul beast than the evil soul beasts she remembered.

And Tang San, as the son of someone worse than an evil soul beast, wouldn't he be just like Tang Hao?

Tang Hao had deceived her Auntie Blue Silver, and Tang San had deceived her kind, innocent Sister Xiao Wu.

Those evil Tangs!

Xiao Wu clung tightly to one corner of Gu Ping'an's clothes.

Now she felt fortunate that Gu Ping'an had captured her. Even having her ring and bone taken was better than being deceived by Tang San and following the Blue Silver Emperor's tragic path.

"Alas! People's hearts aren't what they used to be!" Dugu Bo walked away with a sigh written across his face.

Today had certainly opened his eyes.

With the story finished, Gu Ping'an glanced twice at Xiao Wu, whose face still bore the fear of what might have happened.

She shouldn't be thinking about Tang San anymore, right?

If this still doesn't work, I can only take her soul bone.

As for her soul ring, unless she sacrificed herself, he couldn't absorb it at all right now.

Besides, he had spatial abilities, so he didn't particularly need Xiao Wu's soul bone.

In the end, its greatest use might be to increase his soul power.

Soul power?

At the thought of soul power, Gu Ping'an turned to Xiao Wu.

"Get up. I have a task for you: fill the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well with blue silver grass."

The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well already possessed vast amounts of primordial energy from heaven and earth. With a blue silver grass Mimicry Training Ground added to it, his cultivation speed could double.

The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well could accelerate plant growth, too, so the two would complement each other.

"Plant blue silver grass?" Xiao Wu looked slightly bewildered, unsure why Gu Ping'an wanted to grow blue silver grass.

But she didn't resist. After gathering herself a little, she rose to begin planting it.

As a soul beast who had taken human form, she knew that back when she was still a rabbit, blue silver grass had been one of the foods eaten by their Soft Bone Rabbit clan.

With Xiao Wu planting blue silver grass, Gu Ping'an settled his mind and immersed himself in cultivation.

A year passed in the blink of an eye.

Why does it always feel a hair's breadth short?

Gu Ping'an stared at his blue silver grass, predominantly silvery white with fine gold threads, and bearing the five colors of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. Doubt and confusion filled his eyes.

A year of cultivation had passed, aided by resources from the Ye Family of the Nine Heart Begonia.

Now his blue silver grass possessed all five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—and was several times stronger than when it had first awakened into a Blue Silver Emperor.

That proved his approach was correct.

Yet its earth and wood attributes remained a hair's breadth away from becoming ultimate attributes.

That tiny gap was like an impassable chasm.

Could it be because I don't have an ultimate attribute to serve as a catalyst?

He turned his head, his gaze falling on the red pool at the center of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

The energy within that red pool undoubtedly qualified as ultimate fire-attribute energy.

Over the past year, he had used its nearly inexhaustible fire-attribute energy to attain ultimate fire without any difficulty.

So I still need to find the other four ultimate attributes to serve as catalysts?

Looking again at the five-colored patterns of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth on his blue silver grass, Gu Ping'an felt he had found the reason its earth and wood attributes couldn't reach the ultimate level.

"Worth a try!"

Gu Ping'an rose and walked outside.

"Xiao Wu, are they both away?"

He meant Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan.

Without sufficient strength, spending too long near the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well would allow its ice and fire energies to gradually erode a soul master's body.

Thus, Dugu Yan generally stayed on the outskirts of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, and Dugu Bo naturally stayed there to keep her company.

Having undergone tempering through ice and fire, he was unaffected by the energy within the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, so he spent more of his time cultivating beside its pools.

"Grandpa Dugu went back to Heaven Dou City, and Sister Yanyan went to school at the Heaven Dou Royal Academy."

Over the past year, Xiao Wu and Dugu Yan had become close as sisters. Dugu Bo's affection for his granddaughter extended to her friend, and he had let Xiao Wu call him Grandpa as well.

"I'm going out for a while. Stay here and cultivate properly." Gu Ping'an laid a hand on Xiao Wu's shoulder.

"Mm-hmm!" Xiao Wu nodded obediently.

Aside from being a little boring, life at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well was good. Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan brought a batch of daily necessities every so often.

Whenever she needed anything, she could tell Dugu Yan.

With the cultivation method Gu Ping'an had developed, her progress was shooting ahead. She was only two levels away from level twenty.

After giving Xiao Wu his instructions, Gu Ping'an took a single step and instantly appeared beyond the poison miasma surrounding the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.

"Huh! What's this?"

After Gu Ping'an left, Xiao Wu discovered a silvery-white, eye-shaped rune imprinted on her fair, tender shoulder.

Half a day later, Gu Ping'an walked slowly through the Star Dou Great Forest.

Suddenly, Gu Ping'an stopped and looked toward an area closer to the center of the Star Dou Great Forest.

In the images transmitted by the blue silver grass,

a blonde girl and two old men with powerful auras were hunting soul beasts there.

"Qian Renxue!"

Gu Ping'an murmured to himself.

A blonde girl accompanied by two powerful experts.

That was practically Qian Renxue's signature lineup.

I could meet her and see whether she's really as foolish as she was in the original story.

In the original story, Qian Renxue had held a pair of jokers, only to play them into a losing hand.

She was definitely one of the main reasons Spirit Hall had lost.

First, though, he still had to verify whether ultimate attributes could serve as catalysts for his blue silver grass's evolution.

"Azure Sky Wood, seventy thousand years. Can't fight that!"

"Myriad Spirit Wood, fifty thousand years. Can't fight that!"

"Primordial Rock Dragon, sixty thousand years. Can't fight that!"

Through the blue silver grass, Gu Ping'an screened one soul beast with an ultimate attribute after another, but not a single one was easy prey.

"Wait!"

"That's..."

Beside a huge rock, blue silver grass covered the ground.

Something resembling a creature's tail protruded from beneath the earth.

An Earth Dragon was a creature that looked much like an earthworm, but was countless times larger. A five-thousand-year-old Earth Dragon was as thick as an adult man's thigh.

They usually lurked underground, only emerging during heavy rain, flooding, or when the soil grew too wet.

They weren't very strong, but possessed ultimate earth power.

"Five thousand years. Worth a try!"

With that thought, Gu Ping'an instantly vanished from the spot.

"It really is an Earth Dragon!"

Teleporting above the rock, Gu Ping'an spotted the granular, pellet-like soil beside a muddy hole near it, immediately confirming his guess.

"Watch my Blue Silver Entanglement!"

Gu Ping'an raised his hand, and several blue silver vines burrowed into the Earth Dragon's hole.

"Get out..."

Sensing that the blue silver grass had entangled the Earth Dragon, Gu Ping'an pulled upward with all his strength...

It didn't budge!

He couldn't pull it out at all.

Gu Ping'an's gaze sharpened.

"Blue Silver Devour!"

Since he couldn't pull it out, he might as well devour it directly.

The ground suddenly began to shake.

As its life essence and soul power drained away, the Earth Dragon struggled ceaselessly underground.

"It's working!"

As the Earth Dragon's life essence flowed into his body, Gu Ping'an trembled slightly.

The barrier within him between the earth attribute and ultimate earth was gradually blurring and disappearing.

At once, Gu Ping'an unleashed his devouring power at full strength.

"That feels good!"

Gu Ping'an let out a soft murmur.

A surge of pleasure welled up in his heart.

It felt like an evolution, like something missing was being made whole. His body grew weightless, his mind hazy with bliss, as though he were about to leave the mortal world and ascend to immortality.

"Sure enough, I need ultimate attributes as catalysts."

Having completely absorbed and refined the Earth Dragon's life essence, Gu Ping'an gently clenched his hand, sensing the state of his body.

Fire and earth were complete.

For his wood-attribute energy, he still needed a soul beast possessing ultimate wood.

His water-attribute energy had yet to reach its limit.

His metal-attribute energy was the scarcest.

"Since you're here, come out!"

After checking his condition, Gu Ping'an turned toward a dense patch of forest.

Clap!

Clap!

Clap!

The crisp sound of applause came from behind a towering tree.

"The genius wanted by the Breaking Clan a year ago. I never expected you to be merely a blue silver grass soul master."