Dugu Yan

"Oh? Can you call me that now?" Seven black Soul Rings laced with purple patterns rose from beneath Li Chen's feet. After their transformation by wither power, Soul Ring ages truly meant nothing to him anymore.

That was because all his Soul Rings now shared the same age: the sum of all his rings' ages. For example, if the combined age of his seven Soul Rings was a hundred thousand years, then each one was equivalent to a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring.

"You're actually a Soul Saint!" Dugu Yan's eyes widened in disbelief. Once the shock passed, her pride would not let her go back on her word, and she quietly called him "Big Brother."

"I couldn't hear you. Say it again." Li Chen wore a wicked grin.

"Big Brother." Dugu Yan said it quietly again, her voice as faint as a mosquito's hum, the last syllable trembling with embarrassment.

She turned her head away, her ears so red they looked ready to drip blood, and inwardly ground her teeth in fury. That bastard was definitely doing this on purpose! Definitely!

Just as she bit her lip and plotted how to turn the tables, an extremely faint snort came from close behind her, as though someone had failed to hold in a laugh.

Dugu Yan whipped her head around.

Her grandfather, Poison Douluo Dugu Bo, stood three paces behind her with his hands clasped behind his back. His old face was perfectly solemn, but the corners of his mouth kept curling upward against his will, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes had bunched up like chrysanthemums.

Seeing his granddaughter turn around, Dugu Bo immediately cleared his throat and struggled to suppress his amusement. He raised a hand to stroke his little goatee, letting his gaze drift toward the two distinctly colored pools of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well as he posed like a lofty master admiring the scenery.

But how could this attempt to cover his tracks escape Dugu Yan's eyes?

"Grandpa!" Dugu Yan stamped her foot, no longer caring that Li Chen was still standing opposite her. Her entire face burned bright red. "Wh-what are you laughing at?"

Dugu Bo sucked in a breath, pinching his beard as his eyes wandered. "Laughing? When did I laugh? It must be the heat rising around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. Your eyes played tricks on you."

"I saw you!" Dugu Yan was so embarrassed and flustered that her voice rose.

Dugu Bo finally lost his composure. His shoulders shook twice, and he gave a dry cough, lowering his voice without quite hiding his smug delight. "Yanyan, I wasn't laughing at you. I was pleased. You've been stubborn since you were little. It's rare to see you... so sweet and obedient."

"Grandpa! You must have known all along!" Dugu Yan stamped her foot and pointed accusingly at Dugu Bo. "You must have known this bastard was a Soul Saint! You deliberately didn't tell me because you wanted to watch me make a fool of myself, didn't you?!"

"Ah, you were calling me Big Brother just a moment ago. How did I suddenly become a bastard?" Standing opposite her, Li Chen clutched his chest with a look of utter anguish, as though he had suffered some terrible injustice. "You turn on people faster than flipping the pages of a book. Your big brother's heart really hurts."

With her back to him, Dugu Yan stiffened at his words. The tips of her ears visibly reddened another shade, and her clenched fists trembled slightly. She was clearly fighting with all her might against the urge to turn around and curse him out.

Seeing that his granddaughter was truly about to bristle, Dugu Bo finally dropped his spectator's expression and coughed lightly. "I didn't expect you to become a Soul Saint after just one trip away. Give it another two years, and you'll probably be a Titled Douluo."

"It won't take that long. I'm already level eighty," Li Chen said casually. What seemed utterly ordinary to him sounded like a blatant humblebrag to everyone else.

Dugu Bo's beard-stroking hand abruptly stopped. The relaxed expression on his old face froze in an instant, and his eyes went round. "H-how high?"

"Level eighty," Li Chen replied evenly. "I told you before that I was stuck at level sixty-nine because of a problem. Once that was resolved, my level naturally rose to where it should have been."

Dugu Bo: "..."

He fell silent for a long while, then slowly turned to look at his granddaughter before turning back to Li Chen. His lips moved, and only after a long struggle did he squeeze out, "You brat... were you a monster in your past life?"

Dugu Yan was even more thoroughly stunned. She stood rooted to the spot with her mouth open, completely forgetting the embarrassment and irritation of being teased.

A Soul Saint around twenty years old was already absurd enough, but he was not merely a Soul Saint-he was actually a Quasi-Soul Douluo?

After all her painstaking cultivation, she had only just passed level thirty, while this fellow opposite her was already level eighty? How was anyone else supposed to live with that?

If she learned Li Chen's real age, she would probably wonder whether she was dreaming.

While she was still dazed, three gleaming golden fruits suddenly floated before her eyes and hovered steadily in midair. A faint violet sheen shrouded the apples' surfaces, gold and purple reflecting off each other.

"These are called Enchanted Golden Apples." Li Chen's voice came from opposite her, his casual tone carrying a touch of seriousness. "For a while after you eat one, it greatly boosts your defense and recovery speed, and makes you immune to fire damage. More importantly..." He paused. "It permanently increases your innate soul power by one level."

Permanently increase innate soul power.

Those words exploded in Dugu Yan's mind like eight bolts of thunder. She abruptly looked up at Li Chen, her beautiful eyes wider than brass bells, her lips trembling. "Wh-what did you say? Permanently increase... innate soul power?"

Innate soul power was something determined at birth. That was an ironclad law recognized throughout the soul master world.

After birth, people could only improve their cultivation speed through more advanced meditation methods and better simulated mimicry environments.

Now someone was telling her that eating a golden apple could change it. Did that not mean even ordinary people without innate soul power could become Soul Masters?

"Don't believe me?" Li Chen folded his arms and raised an eyebrow, that punch-worthy grin surfacing again. "Ask your grandfather if you don't. Look, his eyes are practically falling out."

Dugu Yan instinctively turned her head.

Sure enough, Dugu Bo was staring fixedly at the three Enchanted Golden Apples, his goatee twitching. His old face plainly said, I've lived more than half my life, and this is the first time I've seen a treasure like this. Even his hand had reached out unconsciously, as though he wanted to touch them but felt too embarrassed.

"Grandpa..." Dugu Yan's voice sounded faint and unsteady. "Is this really true?"

Dugu Bo swallowed with difficulty, stubbornly trying to maintain the bearing of a lofty master, and gave a dry cough. "Ahem... something this Little Monster gives you should... hardly be fake."

Dugu Yan lowered her head to look at the three Golden Apples floating before her. Their golden light shone on her face, making her beautiful eyes sparkle.

After hesitating for a long while, she finally looked up at Li Chen, a trace of awkwardness in her voice. "Something this precious... you're just giving it to me?"

Precious? Li Chen already counted these things by the box. They even ate them like ordinary fruit.

"Take them. If you transfer to your big brother's academy, little Yanzi, there'll be plenty more Enchanted Golden Apples." Li Chen tossed out the offer with a cheerful smile.

"L-little Yanzi?!" Dugu Yan's eyes went round. The nickname left a breath caught in her chest. "Who... who said you could call me that?!"