Ouyang Zixin

At dawn the next morning, a thin veil of mist still shrouded Eastsea Academy's athletic field.

Tang Wulin had already run twenty laps. Sweat soaked the hair over his forehead, but an unusual sparkle shone in his clear eyes. Yesterday's test had shown him that, although he was strong, his control over his body was still far from adequate. To avoid hurting his classmates during future training, he had decided to get up early for extra practice and hone his fine control over his strength.

He adjusted his breathing and slowed his steps, preparing to finish with a steady, gentle jog.

Just then, a slender figure appeared at the entrance to the field.

She was an upper-year student, dressed in a well-tailored purple tracksuit that outlined her graceful, youthful figure. Long purple hair cascaded like a waterfall, falling loosely over her shoulders and fluttering gently in the morning breeze. Her skin was fairer than snow, her features as lovely as a painting. Most striking were her purple eyes, touched with languor and mischief, as though they held stars within them. One glance made it hard to look away.

Ouyang Zixin was a prominent second-year student at Eastsea Academy and one of its widely renowned campus beauties.

Having just finished her morning workout, she was wiping the fine beads of sweat from her neck with a towel, humming a tune in a cheerful mood.

With his head lowered, Tang Wulin focused entirely on the exertion of his leg muscles, calculating where each step would land. His vision was a little blurred after his intense sprinting, and with the morning mist obscuring his view, he failed to notice someone ahead.

Thud!

A muffled impact rang out.

Tang Wulin felt as though he had run into a soft cloud carrying a faint, delicate fragrance. His momentum was too great to stop, and he plunged straight into that "cloud's" embrace.

"Ow!"

A startled feminine cry rang out.

Tang Wulin felt the tip of his nose strike something warm and soft, and that pleasant fragrance instantly filled his nostrils. He hurriedly stepped back and looked closely, nearly frightened out of his wits.

"S-sorry! Senior! I... I didn't see you..." His face flushed crimson as he bowed repeatedly, at a loss for what to do. Although he had held back his strength, the collision had still been substantial. He had no idea whether he had hurt her.

Ouyang Zixin staggered back several steps before finally regaining her balance. Holding her chest, she gave the reckless younger student a somewhat reproachful glare.

"Hey, little guy."

Ouyang Zixin's voice was clear and pleasant, with a teasing edge. "Just how old are you, hmm?"

She circled Tang Wulin, looking him up and down and studying his face, which still held a childlike innocence beneath its resolve. A playful smile curved her lips.

"You haven't even finished growing, but you've got plenty of nerve." Folding her arms across her chest, Ouyang Zixin deliberately leaned closer. Her purple eyes fixed directly on Tang Wulin as she said with a smile, "Running straight into a girl's arms first thing in the morning? Did you do that on purpose?"

Tang Wulin blushed all the way to his ears and stammered, "N-no! Senior! I was practicing my strength control, and I really didn't see anyone! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!"

Seeing the younger student flustered like a frightened fawn, Ouyang Zixin couldn't help bursting into laughter. She wasn't truly angry; instead, she found his guileless manner rather amusing.

"All right, all right. Look how scared you are. I'm a magnanimous young lady, so I won't hold it against you."

Ouyang Zixin waved a hand and was about to leave, but suddenly stopped and glanced back at Tang Wulin, a trace of mischief flashing in her eyes.

"Still, since you've already bumped into me..." she said with a beaming smile, "why not leave your name? If my chest starts hurting later, I'll know who to settle the score with."

Tang Wulin froze for a moment, then declared loudly, "My name is Tang Wulin! I'm in first-year Class Zero! If you don't feel well, senior, you can come find me anytime!"

"Class Zero?" Ouyang Zixin raised her eyebrows, surprise flickering in her eyes. "So you're from that newly formed monster class."

She gave Tang Wulin a long look and waved the towel in her hand. "All right, Tang Wulin. I'll remember you. Watch where you're going next time. Don't go knocking another senior girl out of commission—you won't be able to afford the compensation."

With that, she turned and left. Her long purple hair swept through a graceful arc in the morning breeze, leaving a waft of fragrance behind.

Tang Wulin stood where he was and rubbed his nose. The sensation of warm, fragrant softness and that faint scent seemed to linger there. Shaking his head with a wry laugh, he started running again.

This time, however, his steps seemed a little lighter than before.

The morning mist gradually dispersed, leaving only a handful of people on the field.

Tang Wulin was about to begin another round of jogging when light footsteps suddenly sounded behind him. Looking back, he saw that Ouyang Zixin had returned. Her purple eyes sparkled in the morning sun, holding a hint of mischievous amusement.

"Hey, little junior." She stopped before him with her hands on her hips, her breath carrying a faint fragrance. "It seems a bit of a shame to just let you go. How about playing a game with your senior?"

Tang Wulin stopped, looking puzzled. "What game?"

"Simple." Ouyang Zixin pointed at the track. "We race, just one lap. If you beat me, I'll tell you my name. What do you say?"

Tang Wulin hesitated. "But..."

"But what?" Ouyang Zixin interrupted, deliberately provoking him. "Does a Class Zero student not even have that much courage? Or are you afraid of losing to a girl?"

"Fine, let's race!" Tang Wulin's fighting spirit flared, but he still added earnestly, "I won't use all my strength, though. I'll go easy on you."

"Pfft." His utterly serious expression made Ouyang Zixin laugh. "All right, then your senior won't hold back."

The two stood at the starting line.

"Ready—go!"

At the signal, they both shot forward.

Tang Wulin deliberately controlled his speed, keeping pace with Ouyang Zixin. To his surprise, although this senior looked delicate and dainty, her steps were light and her breathing long and steady. She was clearly an accomplished runner.

The lap was four hundred meters, and in the blink of an eye, they had covered more than half of it.

As they reached the final hundred-meter sprint, Tang Wulin noticed that his senior seemed to be running out of stamina, her breathing growing slightly hurried, so he decided to stop holding back. Drawing a light breath, he shot forward like an arrow, instantly accelerating and opening up a half-body lead.

The finish line lay just ahead!

Delighted, Tang Wulin thought victory was in his grasp. He instinctively glanced back at Ouyang Zixin to see whether she needed help.

In that single second of hesitation, everything changed.

A cunning gleam suddenly flashed in the eyes of Ouyang Zixin, who had looked so tired a moment earlier. Rather than slowing as Tang Wulin had expected, she abruptly quickened her steps. Like a nimble purple swallow, she seized the opening as he glanced back and surged past him on the outside!

With a swish, she swept past the still-dazed Tang Wulin and crossed the finish line a step ahead of him.

"Huff... huff..."

Ouyang Zixin stopped at the finish line and bent over, bracing her hands on her knees as she panted hard. A triumphant quiver ran through her voice. "Ha... ha... that was close. I nearly lost. Little junior, what were you looking back at? Were you checking whether your senior had fallen over?"

Standing behind her, Tang Wulin looked at the figure who had beaten him by a single step and understood at once—he had been tricked.

He looked at his senior, unsure whether to laugh or cry. She had been running so easily, yet she had pretended to be on the verge of exhaustion and used his sympathy to set a trap.

"Senior, you..." Tang Wulin scratched his head helplessly. "You cheated."

"How did I cheat?" Ouyang Zixin straightened and patted her chest, laughing until she shook like flowering branches in the breeze. "All's fair in war! Besides, a race is decided by the result. Who told you to be so softhearted and turn around to check on me?"

Seeing Tang Wulin's flushed, helpless face, Ouyang Zixin felt as sweet inside as though she had eaten honey. Not only was this younger student good-looking, but his personality was so adorably straightforward. The more she looked at him, the more she liked him.

"All right, I'll stop teasing you."

Ouyang Zixin set aside her playful expression and walked up to Tang Wulin, extending her fair hand. Her smile was as radiant as the rising sun. "Let me introduce myself. I'm Ouyang Zixin, from the second-year Mecha Design Class. Consider our earlier score settled."

Looking at her outstretched hand, Tang Wulin reached out and gave it a gentle shake, feeling its soft warmth against his palm.

"My name is Tang Wulin," he said earnestly.

"I know, Tang Wulin." Ouyang Zixin released his hand, stepped back, and waved her towel. "Go on and train, little junior. If you keep coming to run in the mornings, you might run into your senior again."

With that, she turned and left, her purple ponytail bouncing cheerfully in the morning light. Tang Wulin remained alone, watching her retreating figure as a smile unconsciously curved his lips.

Passing through Eastsea Academy's bustling streets, Wu Changkong led the five students to the towering, magnificent Spirit Pagoda. The pristine white tower pierced the clouds, radiating a sacred, solemn air that stood in stark contrast to the academy's simplicity.

As they entered the Spirit Pagoda's spacious hall, its luxurious decorations drew involuntary exclamations of wonder from Zhang Yangzi and Xie Xie. Tang Wulin's gaze, however, was firmly captured by the enormous mural on the dome at the very center of the hall.

It was a sweeping depiction of a miraculous battle.

At the center of the painting, a man in an ice-blue robe hovered in midair, his Six Light-Shadow Clones surrounding him from behind, as though he commanded the ultimate ice between heaven and earth. He was leading an army of human soul masters and soul spirits against an enormous dragon that blotted out the sky and sun, radiating terrifying draconic might—none other than Beast God Di Tian.

Beside that ice-blue figure stood a woman of peerless grace. She held a majestic Golden Dragon Spear, her bearing straight and proud as a pine, its tip aimed at the heavens as though proclaiming her indomitable will to fight. Although the mural's somewhat rough lines, intended to capture grandeur, distorted her matchless beauty and even made her look a little "ugly" to Tang Wulin, he recognized her at a glance.

It was Tang Wutong.

She was the big sister who had changed his diapers and fed him when he was little, who had always called him "Little Wulin" so gently. Yet in the painting, she held the Golden Dragon Spear and displayed a heroic, spirited bearing Tang Wulin had never seen before.

"That is the first master of the Spirit Pagoda, Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao." Wu Changkong stood before the mural, his voice low and solemn. "And the woman beside him is Dragon Butterfly Douluo, Tang Wutong. This mural records the historic turning point in the coexistence of humans and soul beasts ten thousand years ago."

Tang Wulin gazed up at the mural, a hundred emotions mingling in his heart. His sister looked so imposing in the painting, and the spear in her hand looked truly weighty.

As he stood lost in thought, his mind suddenly returned to the present. He remembered the special soul spirit inside him—a strange being formed by the fusion of the defective ten-year Blue Silver Grass his teacher had given him and a Nine Heart Begonia with a hundred thousand years of cultivation.

Since a defective specimen could merge with a hundred-thousand-year soul beast, and two completely different powers could coexist within him, what about the future?

A resolute light flashed in Tang Wulin's eyes. If he was lucky, might this soul spirit, fused with a hundred-thousand-year bloodline, have a chance to evolve into something stronger? Could it break free of the shackles of its age limit, or even surpass an ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul spirit?

Looking at his sister in the mural, high-spirited and holding the Golden Dragon Spear, Tang Wulin silently vowed, Sister, just you wait! I won't only find a way to make my soul spirit stronger. I'll become even stronger than you look in this mural!

"Let's go."

Wu Changkong withdrew his gaze and turned toward the elevator, his cold voice breaking everyone out of their reveries. "The Spirit Ascension Platform is on the top floor."