Another Child of Light

But if the ritual really was interrupted, Haoyue would never exist in this world.

And Long Haochen might well be left without a mount companion for a long time to come. That was not something Yue Shen wanted to see.

"Then give it a try." After a long silence, the old man finally agreed to Yue Shen's plan.

Yue Shen nodded and walked over to Long Haochen.

He took a deep breath and put his sole remaining free attribute point into his innate inner spiritual power.

[Innate Inner Spiritual Power: 90 (Child of Light constitution)]

"I'm here to help you," Yue Shen explained. Then he slit his own wrist as well, feeding the blood of another Child of Light into Long Haochen's contract rune.

The purple contract rune remained bright, showing no unusual reaction.

"There's no rejection." The old man standing nearby sounded somewhat surprised. "That means the light element content in their blood is extremely close."

Seeing this, Ye Hua also stepped forward and cast Light of Healing on Long Haochen, narrowing the wound on his wrist to slow his blood loss.

"Sorry about earlier." Ye Hua looked at Yue Shen, his expression a little awkward. "Thank you on Haochen's behalf."

"No harm done," Yue Shen replied casually.

Before long, cleansed by the blood of the two Children of Light, Yue Shen and Long Haochen, Haoyue began to give off a pale golden mist of light. The dark aura within him had vanished completely.

"What a surprise."

The old man stepped forward and pointed at their wrists. Two beams of golden light fell onto their wounds, healing them instantly.

Yue Shen was fine, but Long Haochen had already lost so much blood that he would have collapsed if Ye Hua had not been supporting him.

"Nothing left for me to do now." Yue Shen smiled and stepped aside.

Just as he had expected, Haoyue evolved after absorbing the blood of two Children of Light.

The lump on his neck suddenly split open, and a brilliant golden head emerged.

Not only that, but his scrawny body began to swell, growing at a rate visible to the naked eye.

"Nicely done." Wei Ping's voice reached Yue Shen's ears.

What followed went just as Yue Shen had expected. Haoyue returned blood to Long Haochen and formed a blood pact with him.

"Brother Yue." Once Long Haochen had recovered a little, he immediately sought out Yue Shen, who was about to teleport away. "You've done me another huge favor."

Looking somewhat embarrassed, Long Haochen said, "That makes two favors I owe you now."

"As long as you're all right." Yue Shen smiled faintly. "See you at the Demon Hunt Squad Selection Tournament in six months."

"Yes." Long Haochen nodded firmly.

After watching Yue Shen teleport away ahead of him, Long Haochen bent down and stroked the heads of Haoyue, who was circling around him. "Remember this, Haoyue. Brother Yue saved your life."

Haoyue now had two heads, one red and one gold.

Upon hearing Long Haochen's words, he turned to look at where Yue Shen had been standing and nodded both heads together.

"Haochen, do you know something?" Ye Hua said gravely from beside him. "This Yue Shen will be your greatest opponent in the upcoming Demon Hunt Squad Selection Tournament."

"I know." Long Haochen nodded slightly. "We've never fought, but I'm sure Brother Yue is far from weak."

Ye Hua glanced back toward the old man and lowered his voice. "He is the Knight Temple's other Child of Light."

After three days on the road, Yue Shen returned to the Holy City.

Once again wearing his black cloak, he followed Wei Ping through the checkpoint at the Holy City's gate.

As for Sol,

He had already regained consciousness during the journey. However, he could no longer return to his original plane, so he could only stay by Yue Shen's side.

Since they had an Equal Contract, Yue Shen left Sol hidden outside the city gate before passing through the checkpoint.

Only after returning to the quiet chamber where he had trained before did Yue Shen use the Equal Contract's summoning spell to bring him into the Holy City.

"This aura..." Holy Knight Commander Han Qian, who had been waiting there for some time, immediately widened his eyes. "There's no mistaking it. This is the aura of a Starry Sky Divine Beast."

"Holy Knight Commander, could you tell me exactly what sort of magical beast a Starry Sky Divine Beast is?" Wei Ping asked, unsure whether to laugh or cry. "I've heard that term so many times, but I still have no idea what kind of creature it actually is."

Han Qian nodded slightly, then motioned for Wei Ping to come outside with him to talk.

Yue Shen remained in the quiet chamber, the human and dragon staring at each other.

After spending the past two days together, Yue Shen had discovered that although his mount companion was an avatar of Aurelion Sol, Sol himself was completely unaware of it.

Even setting aside his lack of Aurelion Sol's immense divine power, he struck Yue Shen as an entirely ordinary magical beast.

He possessed neither the supposed omniscience and omnipotence nor Aurelion Sol's pride.

Of course, Yue Shen could not rule out the possibility that he had lost all his memories while crossing over.

His strength, however, was quite in line with Yue Shen's expectations. Wei Ping had tested him too, and an ordinary fifth-tier magical beast would be no match for him.

With only six months left before the Demon Hunt Squad Selection Tournament began, Yue Shen's priority was to improve his coordination with Sol and develop as many ways of fighting together as possible.

As for cultivating his internal spiritual power, he could put that on hold for a while.

After all, he had already broken through to the fifth tier, so his internal spiritual power would naturally grow much more slowly than before.

At the very least, breaking through to the sixth tier within those six months was unlikely.

Before long, Han Qian and Wei Ping returned to the quiet chamber.

"Well done." Han Qian's face was full of smiles. "I can't even imagine the looks on the other temples' faces when they see you at the Demon Hunt Squad Selection Tournament."

Wei Ping smiled as well, stepping forward to pat Yue Shen on the shoulder. "Keep training hard. Though I think you'll do just fine even without me telling you."

"Huh?" Yue Shen asked in confusion. "Uncle Wei, are you leaving?"

"Yes." Wei Ping smiled. "I'm an active member of a Demon Hunt Squad, after all. I can't stay here for too long.

"Besides, we've already rested for quite a while. If we don't start taking missions again, we'll get rusty from lying around."

"I see..." Yue Shen smiled back. "Then goodbye, Uncle Wei."

In the days that followed, Yue Shen spent a considerable amount of time almost every day building his coordination with Sol and developing combination moves.

During that time, however, Yue Shen also discovered a problem with Sol.

He could not cultivate!

Because of his unusual attributes, the Holy Demon Continent had no elements he could absorb for cultivation.

Still, Yue Shen was not particularly worried about this problem.

After all, there was another Starry Sky Divine Beast in the Knight Temple right now, so he was in no hurry to solve the problem immediately.

Another day of training came to an end.

Yue Shen was just about to return to his dormitory for a hot bath when Han Qian came looking for him.

"Grandpa Han." Yue Shen put his equipment into his Storage Ring. "Is there something you need me to do?"