Steamed lamb, steamed bear paws, steamed deer tails...
The lamb of a thousand-year ewe, the paws of a hundred-year Terrorclaw Bear...
All of them were powerfully nourishing foods.
Even though Xu Qingjia had eaten whale rubber until he felt like throwing up since childhood, trained with unwavering discipline come rain or shine, and soaked in medicinal baths made from all sorts of precious spiritual treasures to build a physique far beyond his peers, this meal still left his stomach painfully full and the blood and vital energy in his body unusually active.
A single meal had cost as much as several hundred-year spiritual treasures.
He began meditating.
Ink-black soul power flowed through his thick, resilient meridians like the waters of the River Styx.
After two complete circulation cycles, Xu Qingjia opened his eyes.
Shen Xi took a futuristic silver helmet out of her Storage Soul Tool. "Little Qingjia, let's test your spiritual power."
"Okay."
He put it on.
Xu Qingjia keenly sensed a strange fluctuation sweep through his brain.
Then he saw delighted surprise appear on his parents' faces.
Xu Qingjia took off the helmet and looked at the still-glowing text on it.
"251."
One point away from being a complete idiot.
"Not bad."
Xu Qingjia's eyes remained calm.
Now that soul spirits had completely replaced traditional soul rings, spiritual power was every bit as important as innate soul power. Without strong spiritual power, one simply could not absorb more powerful soul spirits and obtain soul rings. There were the Spirit Origin Realm, Spirit Connection Realm, Spirit Sea Realm, Spirit Abyss Realm, Spirit Domain Realm, and Divine Origin Realm.
1-100 was the Spirit Origin Realm: the first unity arose, and all things were renewed. It allowed one to withstand a single ten-year or hundred-year soul spirit.
101-500 was the Spirit Connection Realm: the mind opened its channels, and thought followed intention. It allowed one to withstand two hundred-year soul spirits or one thousand-year soul spirit.
With his spiritual power, the maximum age of a soul spirit he could accommodate should have been somewhere between four thousand and five thousand years.
"Aren't you surprised, little Qingjia?" Shen Xi blinked at her sweet son, who had been precocious since childhood.
"Why should I be surprised?" Xu Qingjia, whose features bore some resemblance to Shen Xi's, looked puzzled.
Compared to the Book of Life and Death, King Yama, and everything else, a spiritual power score of 251 was rather unremarkable.
Shen Xi beamed and gently kneaded Xu Qingjia's cheeks with both hands, doing something that would have made Ye Xinglan green with envy. "Because my genius son just broke the Federation's record for six-year-olds since the concept of spiritual power became widespread, of course!"
"You know, even quite a few of the top spiritual-type soul masters in Federation history only scored around a hundred at your age."
"Children should smile more."
Only after Xu Qingjia struggled with muffled protests did Shen Xi release his cheeks.
Xu Ye and Shen Xi were the very picture of doting parents. Both belonged to Yun Ming's generation and were already a little over a hundred years old. Physically, they were still in their prime, but they could also be said to have had a child late in life, so naturally they lavished affection on their only son.
"Qingjia." Xu Ye took an ornate gift box made of mithril and a smaller white jade box out of his Storage Soul Tool.
Even through the special materials encasing them, Xu Qingjia could vaguely sense the extraordinary spiritual fluctuations within.
Xu Ye pushed a smaller white jade bottle toward him. "This is an awakening gift from your mother and me."
A gift?
Xu Qingjia opened the box.
Inside was a necklace giving off extraordinary spiritual fluctuations, with a silver diamond-shaped crystal hanging from it. The crystal was as transparent as clear river water, and within it lay five gemstones resembling golden droplets.
Xu Qingjia searched his memories and thought of a very famous treasure. "Mermaid's Tears?"
"That's right." Xu Ye smiled and nodded gently. "And these are the Sea Princess's Mermaid's Tears."
Mermaid's Tears were the most precious gemstones in the world. They were exceedingly rare, top-tier spiritual treasures that would never circulate on the open market. They were tears shed by members of the Mermaid Clan only in moments of profound sorrow, as well as the spiritual origin of mermaids, top-tier soul beasts of a purely spiritual nature. They contained none of the "medicinal toxins" that spiritual treasures under a hundred thousand years old might carry, and they were so gentle that even ordinary people could absorb them.
Xu Qingjia blinked, unable to hide the joy in his dark eyes.
The Mermaid Clan was also known as the sea princesses.
Since his father had specifically called these the Sea Princess's Mermaid's Tears, they could only have come from the leader of the sea princesses, whose cultivation exceeded six hundred thousand years.
After the Evil-Eyed Tyrant Ruler's death, she should have been the greatest spiritual-type soul beast alive, apart from the Silver Dragon King.
Xu Qingjia could not help marveling. "These must have cost the Sea Princess nearly ten thousand years of cultivation."
"About that." Xu Ye nodded slightly.
"It was roughly ten years ago." Xu Ye began explaining the treasure's origins. "Back then, the Federation came into conflict with the sea princesses while developing the seas. There were even some casualties."
"In the end, under the mediation of Elder Chen, the Vast Sea Douluo, the sea princesses made amends to the Federation. The Sea Princess spent tens of thousands of years of cultivation to condense over forty Mermaid's Tears. Our Xu Family traded resources with other factions back then, and together with our original allocation, we secured six. We gave one to the Leng Family as a favor. The rest are all here with you."
Xu Ye found the incident rather amusing.
After capsizing one of their Federation's warships and capturing a Federation major general, that Sea Princess had actually demanded an apology from the Federation in the Sea God's name.
When had the Sun Moon Federation, which held sway across the Douluo Plane, ever swallowed such an insult? It immediately dispatched two Limit Douluos wearing Four-Word Battle Armor. If the Vast Sea Douluo, Chen Xinjie, had not arrived so quickly, they would have slaughtered that Sea Princess outright.
"Mom, Dad, you-"
"We have no use for them." Xu Ye shook his head gently.
That was a lie.
A treasure like this could provide considerable help even to someone whose spiritual power had reached the Spirit Domain Realm.
Having read all manner of texts, Xu Qingjia naturally knew that as well.
His fingers gently stroked the diamond-shaped crystal, and warmth washed through his heart.
"The necklace is a specially made Soul Tool," Shen Xi said. "A little soul power will keep it running for a long time, and it can conceal the distinctive spiritual fluctuations given off by the Mermaid's Tears."
"Mermaid's Tears can be preserved for a very long time. Wearing them regularly will nourish your soul. For soul masters, the Spirit Domain Realm is a major hurdle. When you're ready to break through to it, little Qingjia, these will lend you a helping hand."
"Mm." Xu Qingjia nodded firmly.
Although he did not think the Spirit Domain Realm would present any obstacle to him, having these would still make his cultivation flow more
smoothly.
"As for this one, it's a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone." Xu Ye pointed at the other, larger gift box. "Your grandfather is away, but when he heard you'd awakened a powerful body martial soul similar to Gui Mei's, he specifically sent someone to fetch this from the Shen Family."
Uh...
A flicker of embarrassment crossed Xu Qingjia's eyes. "Dad, the martial soul I awakened, Yama, is actually quite different from Gui Mei."
"I know." Xu Ye nodded gently.
"But no matter what martial soul you awakened, this treasure would suit you perfectly."
"I never expected the old man to be generous enough to bring this out."
A little displeased, Shen Xi pinched her husband's thigh. "My father isn't nearly as stingy as you make him sound."
"Hmph." Xu Ye softened somewhat, though a trace of discontent remained in his voice. "Not stingy? Back when we were in love, your father put me through one trial after another. He only agreed in the end because your mother kept persuading him."
"That was ages ago."
The relationship between a father-in-law and a son-in-law truly was a problem for the ages.
Xu Qingjia had no place in this matter between his elders. He silently opened the gift, already harboring a few guesses.
A soul bone that would suit me no matter what martial soul I awakened?
Then it could only be an external soul bone, a spiritual-type Head Soul Bone, or a soul bone with a powerful, universally useful soul bone skill, such as spatial teleportation.
The result was somewhat unexpected.
It was a crystalline leg soul bone, azure as the ocean and exquisite as a work of art. Fine golden threads clung to its surface, lending it an air of nobility.
"This soul bone came from a mermaid with over a hundred thousand years of cultivation," Shen Xi's voice sounded beside Xu Qingjia's ear.
"The reason we said this soul bone would suit you no matter what martial soul you awakened, little Qingjia, is that a Titled Douluo with a special martial soul tested it and found that one of its soul skills was already fixed. It's called Mermaid Control."
"It can release a mermaid spirit that helps you cast your soul skills whenever you need it, with half the spiritual power consumption, allowing you to double-cast in battle."
Oh? The same treatment Huo Gua got.