Atop the dragon's back, the salty, damp sea breeze swept fine droplets into their faces, stirring Qian Daoliu's silver hair and easing some of the biting chill of the high altitude.
He gazed into Qian Renxue's curious eyes and slowly began to speak, his voice carrying the weight of years:
"Her martial soul is the Sea God. Like our Angel God, it is a divine martial soul!"
Those words struck like a thunderclap. Shock filled Qian Renxue's eyes, and her little hand instinctively clenched the hem of her clothes. Disbelief filled her gaze-she had never imagined that another divine martial soul existed in this world.
Qian Daoliu's gaze grew ever more distant, as though piercing the mists of time and returning to that turbulent era decades ago:
"After Spirit Hall's two thousand elite warriors met their defeat on Sea God Island, your father came to me and recounted everything that had happened there. Tang Chen and I were both among the continent's strongest at the time, so I invited him to accompany me to Sea God Island. I also wanted to meet the person who had sent Spirit Hall home with its feathers clipped."
"We had barely set foot on the island's reefs when a woman in a blue dress stopped us-she was Bo Saixi, the high priestess of Sea God Island."
He paused, a note of reminiscence entering his voice.
"Her aura merged with the sea, vast and boundless, and actually rivaled mine. She told us plainly that Sea God Island was a god's sacred domain and outsiders could not trespass. How could we agree to that? Sensing that her cultivation was on par with ours, we challenged her on the spot."
Qian Renxue barely dared to breathe as she listened, her little hand gripping Qian Daoliu's sleeve tightly.