A priest of the Church

The Spirit Pagoda stood one hundred and eight stories tall.

The Qiangu Family occupied the very top, while the Heavenly Phoenix lineage controlled the several floors immediately below.

As Leng Yaozhu's only personal disciple, Tang Qingye received the entire ninety-eighth floor as his new residence in Shrek City.

The spacious residence's vast one-way crystal windows gathered in all the sunlight from high above. Outside lay the billowing, boundless sea of clouds over Shrek City.

On one side, shelves of black wood held neatly categorized stacks of thick, ancient books on ancient Soul Beasts and soul-guidance circuit analysis.

Leng Yaozhu knew he was not as fond of playing as other children his age. She had ordered people to collect all these beforehand to keep him entertained.

"You've been through quite a lot lately. Just rest here today."

Leng Yaozhu raised a hand to smooth Tang Qingye's slightly tousled hair, her voice unusually gentle. "I have another residence on the outskirts. When I'm not back at headquarters, you'll have this place to yourself. I'll come get you tomorrow morning and take you to headquarters' Core Repository to choose your first Soul Spirit."

After giving him those instructions, Leng Yaozhu did not linger. She turned and left to handle headquarters' many tedious affairs.

The heavy metal door shut with a sound, leaving Tang Qingye alone on the entire floor.

Dusk fell, and the living room gradually darkened.

Tang Qingye sank into the sofa with an arm draped over his eyes, using the quiet to sort through the tangled skein of clues in his mind.

Everything along the way had changed too quickly, like riding a roller coaster.

He closed his eyes, tapping his fingers against his knee as he muttered inwardly.

If that faint, elusive call during the day really came from Shrek's Golden Tree, things were about to get interesting.

It meant the tree had awakened because of his arrival.

Not only was the Blue Silver Emperor living there as a parasite now, but even Tang Hao, who was about to devour the Plane Spirit, was most likely lurking in the shadows.

At that thought, Tang Qingye grew wary.

If it was resonance with the Golden Tree, had it called out because it wanted him to become the Child of Nature?

Besides Tang Hao, there was also his bargain little brother, who had just settled down over on Phoenix Street.

Tang Wulin was still innocent and carefree, following him around all day, but Tang Qingye knew that besides the Golden Dragon King Bloodline Seal, Tang San had forcibly stuffed a strand of divine consciousness called "Old Tang" into the boy's body as a ticking time bomb.

With the Seven-Colored Heaven-Slaying Gourd inside him, he was indeed confident he could deal with that foreign strand of divine consciousness-provided that bastard Tang San came inside himself.

In the end, he was still too weak. If he fully controlled the power inside him, he could simply shout, "Precious gourd, please turn around!" and smack Tang San around like a ball.

It was not that he coveted that little bit of bloodline power. It was just that, now that he was the older brother, he could not stand seeing one of his own played like a marionette by that hypocrite in the Divine Realm.

That was also where the problem lay.

If this foolish kid got brainwashed by Old Tang someday, insisted on taking a thief for his father, and turned against him instead, dealing with it would be pretty sickening, though the possibility was vanishingly small.

He would have to take things one step at a time and find a safe opportunity to tear that invisible string clean through.

Finally, there was the matter of going to the Spirit Pagoda's Core Repository tomorrow morning to choose his first Soul Spirit.

His Seven-Colored Heaven-Slaying Gourd corresponded to seven great Sacred Arts. For now, only the Taiyi Azure Wood Mark, that Life Origin, was nurturing him; the actual Sacred Art, the Grand Profound Sacred Spirit Art, had yet to activate.

His choice of first Soul Spirit would directly determine his opening move.

He currently had three options in mind.

The Emerald Swan was undoubtedly his first choice, offering the greatest compatibility with the Taiyi Azure Wood Mark.

But if the Spirit Pagoda's Core Repository did not have one, settling for a Dark Gold Terrorclaw Bear or a Thunderclap Yama Devil Vine would be no loss at all.

One corresponded to the Demon-Slaying Sword Pill Art's ultimate offensive power, pushing his damage straight to the maximum.

The other corresponded to the Thunder Prison Art's Thunder God Heavenly Punishment-straight-up possessed by the Mamba.

But whichever it was, Tang Qingye had a feeling that once his Soul Spirit was settled tomorrow, the gourd inside him would activate a completely new origin ability. What would it be? So hard to guess.

There was no use thinking any more about it. Once Leng Yaozhu took him into the Core Repository tomorrow, he just had to open the box and see what he got.

Although he had enjoyed spending half the day flying through the sky, that, combined with all this mentally draining deduction and calculation, sent exhaustion washing over him like a flood.

The boy's breathing grew steady and deep. Sunk into the soft sofa, he unknowingly fell asleep.

The room went completely dark, leaving only the distant neon lights of Shrek City outside the windows casting blurred halos through the sea of clouds.

In the silence, a faint unlocking sound came from the tightly shut metal door.

A tall, slender figure walked inside.

Leng Yaozhu had changed out of the imposing finery she had worn during the day as the Spirit Pagoda's Deputy Pagoda Master and wore only a simple, elegant long dress.

Having just finished her work, she had intended to check whether her young disciple was asleep. She had not expected to walk in and find that small figure curled up on the sofa in the empty living room.

Leng Yaozhu softened her footsteps, walked over to the sofa, and bent slightly.

By the faint light filtering through the windows, she studied Tang Qingye's delicate face, which looked especially sweet and well-behaved in sleep.

This child was ordinarily too composed, too mature for his age-so mature that sometimes even she, his teacher, forgot he was only six.

Only at times like this did he let down all his defenses and reveal the childishness befitting his age.

A flicker of tender affection passed through Leng Yaozhu's eyes.

She reached out with both hands and gently scooped him up around the waist.

The boy was very light. As he came into contact with her warm embrace, he instinctively nuzzled the crook of her neck.

Leng Yaozhu's lips curved. Slowing her steps, she carried him into the master bedroom, carefully laid him on the large, comfortable bed, and drew a light blanket from the side, pulling it neatly up to his chest and tucking it in.

Leng Yaozhu watched quietly beside the bed for a while, then gently smoothed the stray hair across his forehead before turning and leaving the room without a sound.

In Shrek City, with its treacherous shifting currents and countless schemes, the ninety-eighth floor was especially peaceful that night.

Deep within the chaos, a Clear Sky Hammer the size of a small mountain pressed hard against a steadily shrinking mass of white light.

It was the Plane Spirit, nearly drained dry.

Suddenly, a pair of eyes like mud and stone opened within the chaos, their depths filled with malice.

"Ah Yin?"

Tang Hao's rough fingers clenched tightly around the hammer's handle.

The awakening of the Golden Tree on Sea God Island naturally could not escape him, who had already refined eighty percent of the Heavenly Dao.

The first step in the grand scheme Tang San had laid out ten thousand years ago was to have Ah Yin devour the Golden Tree completely.

He had initially thought that the disturbance just now meant Ah Yin had made a major breakthrough in her fusion. Yet by the time his divine consciousness swept across all of Shrek City, that aura had vanished without a trace.

He found nothing, and the Golden Tree fell dormant again.

The entire city was as calm as a pool of stagnant water. The more it remained that way, the more suspicious Tang Hao grew.

On this continent, he could think of no one who could erase their traces so cleanly right under his nose except that Soul Beast remnant who had been lying low deep in the Star Dou Great Forest.

"You just had to come out now and tug at the Tang Family's strings. Do you really think you can still turn the tables?"

A cold sneer tugged at Tang Hao's mouth.

His true body was currently pinned at the core, unable to move, but that did not prevent him from employing a few underhanded tricks.

Since he could not determine who was reaching into the area around Shrek City, he would keep a close watch on the key piece.

Tang Hao snorted coldly and pointed a withered fingertip into the distant void.

An invisible thread disguised as the plane's fortune silently pierced through space and plunged straight into an apartment on Phoenix Street.

Tang Wulin, sleeping soundly on the bed, abruptly twitched, and a faint blue glow began to emerge inside his body.

He would wake "Old Tang" ahead of schedule and have him keep a close eye on this foolish boy.

Only after finishing all this did Tang Hao close his eyes again.

But before the Clear Sky Hammer fell once more, his fingertips casually plucked at the void a few more times.

That direction seemed to radiate nauseating resentment and the stench of blood.

If the stage wasn't built big enough, how could he lure out those remnants hiding their heads like turtles? As for ordinary people, if they died, they died.

Contributing to a plan ten thousand years in the making was an act of love for this land. If you dared object, clearly you were asking to have a label slapped on you.

The heavy Clear Sky Hammer crashed down, smashing the last scrap of the plane's origin below until it nearly fell apart.

This father of a God King was utterly confident in his calculations. He would never have imagined that his suspicious fretting, aimed at the Soul Beast remnants, had not even brushed the boy's clothes-and instead had delivered Old Tang's divine consciousness right to the mouth of the Seven-Colored Heaven-Slaying Gourd.