Several days later.
The vacation officially came to an end.
At the Soul Guidance Train station.
Leng Yaozhu stood outside the station, looking at the four youngsters lined up before her as she rubbed her temples.
Lu Guan, Na'er, Gu Yue.
Those three were already enough of a handful.
Now there was one more.
Blue-haired and wide-eyed, with a pink backpack almost bigger than she was, the girl hid behind Lu Guan, trembling.
It was Xu Xiaoyan.
Leng Yaozhu glanced at Lu Guan.
This brat went off on vacation and brought back yet another little girl.
Two days earlier.
Xu Xiaoyan casually mentioned Lu Guan's invitation to her family.
Xu Xiaoyu had been drinking water at the time and spat it right back out. "Go! You've got to go!"
He knew that Lu Guan had close ties to Leng Yaozhu, the Spirit Pagoda's Deputy Pagoda Master.
Xu Xiaoyu immediately became her advocate and won both their parents over.
And so, her own brother all but forcibly packed Xu Xiaoyan off and sent her over.
Back in the present.
The carriage was spacious, its leather seats soft and comfortable.
Leng Yaozhu sat in a private section at the front, resting with her eyes closed.
Even with her aura restrained, the imposing pressure that came naturally to a Limit Douluo still made the air toward the back feel somewhat stifling.
Xu Xiaoyan was a child through and through. The strongest Soul Master she had ever met growing up was her own father.
Now, confined in the same enclosed space as a legendary figure, she was too frightened even to breathe deeply.
The little girl quietly shifted in her seat, inching closer to Lu Guan.
Eventually, she simply grabbed the hem of his clothes and tucked half her body into his shadow.
"Lu Guan..." Xu Xiaoyan's voice trembled. She was on the verge of tears.
Lu Guan flipped through the magazine in his hands and reassured her offhandedly, "It's fine. Pagoda Master Leng doesn't eat people."
Na'er, sitting across the aisle, was not pleased.
She stared at Xu Xiaoyan's hand clutching Lu Guan's clothes, grinding her back teeth-
What's this supposed to be?
Na'er was just about to flare up when she turned and saw Xu Xiaoyan's deathly pale face and the tears swirling in her eyes.
She was genuinely frightened, not putting on an act.
Na'er had a bellyful of fire with nowhere to vent it, and holding it in was unbearable.
She couldn't even sit still, wriggling around in her seat like a worm.
It earned her a swat from Lu Guan.
In the row behind them, Gu Yue propped up her chin and took it all in.
She chuckled and leaned halfway out of her seat.
"If you're feeling cramped, senior sister, you can come sit with me. Your junior sister has plenty of room here. I'd never let you suffer~"
Every hair on Na'er's body stood on end.
"Get lost! Who wants to sit with you!"
Several hours later.
They arrived in Heaven Dou City.
Streams of people flowed through the station exit.
Leng Yaozhu stopped and looked at Xu Xiaoyan. "Do you need my help with her situation?"
Lu Guan stepped forward and put a hand on Leng Yaozhu's wrist.
"Aunt Leng, there's no need to trouble the Pagoda."
Leng Yaozhu paused and turned to look at him.
Lu Guan released her wrist and pointed toward a nearby street. "My master can handle it."
Leng Yaozhu followed the direction of his finger.
Across the street stood a tall, thin man.
Mu Ye.
Leng Yaozhu narrowed her eyes, then looked back at Lu Guan. "All right."
Lu Guan wasn't about to ask the Spirit Pagoda for help again. His ties to Xu Xiaoyan weren't particularly deep; she might well end up joining the Spirit Pagoda.
Someone with such rule-bending abilities should work for me instead.
Heavenly Starry Sky Soul Master Academy was built on a tall mountain on the city's outskirts.
The altitude was extremely high and the air thin, but it was an ideal place for stargazing.
As soon as the group got off the train, a convoy of cars was already waiting.
At its head stood a middle-aged man in a crisp academy uniform, with a dean of students badge pinned to his chest.
Li Zhilong.
He hurried forward and bowed to Mu Ye.
"Sect Master Mu, you've arrived."
Mu Ye nodded slightly. "Yes. I've heard your academy's observatory is unrivaled on the continent. I have a child here whose Martial Soul is connected to star power. Would we be able to take a look?"
Li Zhilong nodded repeatedly. Mu Ye had already made arrangements through Zhen Hua.
That alone showed how far the Body Sect had truly fallen: it even had to rely on Zhen Hua's standing.
"Of course! Please follow me."
The convoy drove up the winding mountain road, all the way to the summit.
An enormous hemispherical building stood at the highest point.
Its outer walls were made entirely of some unknown transparent material. Sunlight struck them and refracted into brilliant halos.
"This is the Dome Star Observatory."
Li Zhilong led the way and pushed open the heavy metal doors.
The instant the doors opened, the surrounding light abruptly dimmed.
Outside, it was a bright, sunny day, yet the observatory's interior was steeped in profound night.
Countless stars twinkled overhead, as though the entire universe had been brought inside the building.
"It's so beautiful..." Xu Xiaoyan tilted her head back, awestruck by the sight.
Lu Guan surveyed his surroundings with his hands in his pockets.
An immense Soul Guidance Array had been laid out here, specifically to draw down the power of the stars from the heavens above.
Mu Ye walked at the front, while Li Zhilong attentively explained how the array worked beside him.
Just then, Xu Xiaoyan, who was walking at the rear, suddenly stopped.
"Ngh..."
A muffled groan of pain escaped the little girl.
Lu Guan immediately turned around.
Xu Xiaoyan clutched her chest with both hands. Her face was flushed, and fine beads of sweat seeped from her forehead.
The Soul Power inside her was surging completely out of control.
"What's wrong?" Lu Guan gripped her shoulders.
Xu Xiaoyan gasped for breath, unable even to speak.
A blinding burst of ice-blue light erupted from her palm.
Her Martial Soul summoned itself!
A crystal-clear Ice Staff appeared in her hand.
Under normal circumstances, Xu Xiaoyan's Martial Soul was merely an ordinary Ice Staff during the day, without any special attributes.
Only at night would it become the Star Wheel Ice Staff, possessing the attribute of the starry sky.
But now!
Under the stimulation of the observatory's immense stellar power, rings of golden star wheels actually surfaced along the ordinary Ice Staff!
Buzzz-
The entire dome of the observatory shuddered in response.
The previously scattered starlight answered some powerful summons, rushing madly toward Xu Xiaoyan.
Motes of starlight turned into golden mist so dense it seemed tangible, enveloping her entire body.
Startled by the commotion, Mu Ye and Li Zhilong turned around.
When Li Zhilong saw the Star Wheel Ice Staff within the golden mist, he sucked in a breath.
"This is... resonance from a Martial Soul with a starry sky attribute?!"
He hurried closer and examined Xu Xiaoyan's condition carefully, his hands trembling with excitement.
"No! It's more than resonance!"
Li Zhilong turned toward Mu Ye and exclaimed, "Sect Master Mu, who is this little girl? Her Martial Soul is mutating! And it's an exceptionally rare beneficial mutation!"
Mu Ye raised an eyebrow.
He had heard of the Star Wheel Ice Staff Martial Soul.
It was the Xu family's hereditary control-type Martial Soul, with the fatal flaw of a stark divide between its daytime and nighttime forms.
He hadn't expected the observatory here to be capable of triggering a mutation.
Mu Ye looked at Lu Guan. It was Lu Guan who had asked him to bring Xu Xiaoyan here.
This brat...
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