The sun was up, but I wasn't. Did that annoy you, little sister?
When Tang Qingye opened his eyes, it was already noon.
The thin blanket covering him had been tucked up to his chest. It felt soft beneath his hand and still held a lingering trace of body fragrance.
He pulled off the blanket and sat up. He had clearly fallen asleep on the living room sofa last night; he had no idea when he had been carried into the bedroom.
Still, it had been a long time since he had slept so comfortably.
After all, he used to sleep with Xiao Wu Lin, and the ticking bomb inside that boy never let him rest easy.
The bedroom door was pushed open ever so gently.
A flash of crimson skirt entered his view.
Leng Yaozhu's signature long, fiery-red hair fell loose behind her head, making her exquisite face look all the more stunning.
Tang Qingye stared, a little spellbound.
Seeing him sitting in bed, freshly awake, she curved her lips slightly.
"You certainly slept soundly, you little sleepyhead."
Leng Yaozhu walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, pushing the clothes she had prepared into his arms. "Get changed and freshen up. I'm taking you to the Core Repository."
"What are you staring for? Afraid I'll look? Hehe, little fellow."
Fifteen minutes later.
The first basement level of Spirit Pagoda Headquarters.
An enormous, intricate testing instrument hummed softly as rings of deep-blue light unfolded one after another along the paths of the soul guidance array.
"Put your hand on it."
Leng Yaozhu said.
Tang Qingye stepped onto the metal platform. The moment his palm touched the screen, he felt a gentle force drawing on the soul power inside him.
At the same time, the numbers on the main control screen began climbing at tremendous speed.
Beep-two notification tones echoed through the hall, and the data froze.
Innate soul power: rank 10 Spiritual power: 230 points (middle stage of the Spirit Connection Realm) Physical strength: rank 29
Looking at the dark-green numbers on the screen, Leng Yaozhu's pale-pink eyes briefly lost focus.
Awakening at six, his spiritual power had reached the middle stage of the Spirit Connection Realm outright, while his physical strength approached that of a three-ring Soul Elder.
"Your foundation is even better than I imagined."
Leng Yaozhu came back to herself and suppressed the shock in her eyes. Taking Tang Qingye's hand, she led him into the dark-red passage at the deepest part of the hall as the Spirit Pagoda staff bowed them off.
The elevator descended all the way down, finally stopping in a circular chamber built entirely of white metal.
The enormous soul guidance screens mounted on its walls were simulating the habitat of the Ancient Star Dou Great Forest.
"This is the virtual space where the Spirit Pagoda stores soul spirits. It simulates the habitat of the Ancient Star Dou Great Forest."
So this is the soul spirit world the Spirit Pagoda poured its heart and soul into creating. It really is like a real world.
Tang Qingye marveled inwardly. In the field of soul spirits, the Spirit Pagoda truly was unrivaled under heaven; not a single competitor could put up a fight. Just then, his gaze suddenly shifted slightly.
"Based on your martial soul, I prepared these soul spirits for you. See whether they suit your fancy."
Leng Yaozhu tapped the console several times with practiced ease. Three inheritance soul spirits with hundred-year cultivation bases were plucked out like chicks in an eagle's claws.
They looked utterly bewildered. What's going on? I was busy with something important!
"Teacher, we really are of one mind," Tang Qingye said with feeling as he looked at the three soul beasts.
Its fur was gilded all over, like cast steel, and granite-like muscles bulged along its limbs. Its dark-gold claws gleamed with bone-chilling light. Apart from bewilderment, it showed not the slightest fear.
A six-hundred-year dark gold terrorclaw bear!
The same kind as Xiong Jun, number twelve on the must-visit soul spirit list for transmigrators.
A top-tier soul beast in the land-based strength lineage, a power attack system beast with balanced offense and defense and no weaknesses!
Tang Qingye turned his gaze to the next soul beast.
Its feathers were translucent, as though carved from a single piece of imperial jade. When it spread its wings, a hazy green glow brimming with life spilled out. Its slender, graceful form came with its own holy soft-light buff.
An emerald swan!
The same kind as Bi Ji, one of Star Dou's ten great ferocious beasts-a pure life-healing soul beast at the continent's very ceiling, the ultimate teamfight healer!
Tang Qingye's thoughts involuntarily drifted to Bi Ji's perfect figure. She, too, was on a transmigrator's must-visit list. Di Tian and the like could step aside.
That was getting a little off track. Back to the matter at hand.
Leng Yaozhu watched quietly from the side without speaking. Seeing her disciple deep in thought, her gaze grew gentler still.
Its crimson mane carried scorching sparks of lava. Three heads growled in unison, and lava-filled fissures split the ground beneath its feet.
A seven-hundred-year blazing flame demon mastiff!
The same kind as Scarlet King, one of the ten great ferocious beasts-fire and earth attributes with maxed-out AOE, a machine for clearing mobs!
Although its performance in Douluo II had been poor, it still counted as a high-grade sprite.
But what's with you drooling at me? You'd better train yourself properly!
After looking over the soul beasts, Tang Qingye sighed inwardly. Had the Spirit Pagoda packed up the entire Star Dou Great Forest and taken it away?
Leng Yaozhu was meticulous; she had even accounted for the fire attribute Tang Qingye had yet to use.
"Well? Which one caught your eye?"
Leng Yaozhu stroked Tang Qingye's boyish face, then took the opportunity to glare at the little hussy making eyes at him. The blazing flame demon mastiff let out a whimper and immediately wilted.
Guys, who understands? I tried pursuing love across species, only to get set up by capital.
He withdrew his gaze and looked at Leng Yaozhu. "Teacher, are there any better soul spirits?"
"You little fellow. Not a single one caught your eye? I spent ages choosing these for you."
Leng Yaozhu could not help laughing. She raised a hand and gave his shoulder a pat, neither light nor hard, her eyes full of undisguised affection.
"The emerald swan and dark gold terrorclaw bear are both good, but their bloodlines aren't quite high enough."
With the Seven-Colored Heaven-Slaying Gourd and sacred arts supporting him, Tang Qingye feared no bloodline suppression. The dragon king bloodline wanted to suppress him? What a load of crap.
"All right. As you wish."
Leng Yaozhu took a pitch-black token representing the Deputy Pagoda Master's highest authorization from her slender waist and inserted it into a concealed slot at the very bottom of the main console.
The floor at the center of the hall slowly split open.
"What you want-the deepest reaches of the Spirit Pagoda's ten thousand years of accumulated holdings really do imprison those dead remnants of their obsessions."
Leng Yaozhu turned to him, her voice growing solemn. "But those are unyielding soul spirits, proud to their very bones, unwilling to compromise with humans. Dare to try?"
The Core Area of the Star Dou Great Forest.
Towering trees blotted out the sky and sun. Deep in the dense woodland, only an impenetrable gloom remained.
A small lake lay in the forest's deepest reaches, its clear, pristine waters like a blue crystal.
But the waterline had receded far from the shore, and the lingering aura of life rippled across its surface, pale and weak.
It seemed it might dry up at any moment.
A middle-aged man in long black robes stood by the lake, a lock of golden hair hanging beside his cheek, his eyes carrying a dull dejection.
Behind him stood several scattered figures of varying heights, every face looking dim in the gloom.
Ten thousand years.
A full ten thousand years had passed since Huo Yuhao founded the Spirit Pagoda, and humanity's soul guidance technology had eaten away at the entire great forest.
This was their final pure land, and also the precipice from which they would soon fall into extinction.
Yet the Golden Tree's awakening, Godfather Dog Three's intervention, and the supreme aura of the seven-colored flowing light had collided unseen.
The once-balanced heavenly dao qi quietly tore open a breach deep within this deathly forest.
Humm...
Without warning, the ground beside the lake trembled faintly.
The blue-crystal lake, whose stagnant waters had barely rippled, suddenly boiled, dense clusters of white bubbles gurgling to its surface.
The bubbles rose rapidly. Then, in an instant, the earth's tremors grew violent.
Cracks spread wildly through the soil, and the towering trees throughout the forest rustled in the fierce wind.
"We'll fight them to the death!"
A powerfully built man roared. With a shake of his body, he transformed amid dazzling light into a giant bear over thirty meters tall.
A thick, dark-golden luster covered his entire body, every savage hair standing on end.
"Xiong Jun, calm down. It isn't humans."
The black-clad man known as the Beast God abruptly raised his head. An indescribable, wild joy appeared on his gloomy face.
Two beams of blazing sunlight burst from his eyes as though solid, and even his breathing grew searing hot.
A deep voice reverberated through the forest without warning.
It seemed to come from every direction. So deep that its speaker's gender could not even be discerned, it nevertheless carried profound sorrow.
Boom!
The earth split apart completely.
The entire great forest shook violently.
What little water remained in the lake was sucked down through the cracks in the earth in an instant, exposing its dry, fractured bed.
Then a mass of dazzling silver light suddenly surged out of the underground chasm, slamming heavily onto the rubble beside the shore.
Bang!
An enormous claw.
It was brilliant silver all over, its surface densely covered in orderly hexagonal silver scales.
Every scale refracted a strange, icy radiance.
As it landed, the heavy impact carried an unparalleled sense of tangible weight.
Before the gigantic dark gold terrorclaw bear could even steady himself, the mountain-toppling, sea-overturning blast of air hurled his immense body backward, smashing through several ancient trees in succession.
Not a single ferocious beast could remain standing before that gigantic claw.
Instincts buried deep in their bloodlines made their knees buckle.
Di Tian's eyes reddened. Without the slightest hesitation, he dropped to one knee with a thud, facing the dried-up lakebed respectfully. "Welcome back, My Lord."
A mighty wind rose, sending dust flying.
An enormous silver figure over three hundred meters long abruptly burst free like a butterfly from its cocoon amid the fractured earth and dazzling silver radiance, landing heavily on the ground.
Hundred-year-old trees were uprooted by the air currents. Every human figure nearby fell back, transforming into primordial giant beasts prostrate on the ground.
They could only press their heads humbly into the dry soil, trembling violently in wild joy.
"Are those despicable human deities about to wipe us out?"
The deep voice roared like the gates of heaven, echoing above the canopies of the entire forest. "Now that I have awakened, the day of their destruction is coming too."
Her enormous, brilliant-silver scaled claws began to move, carrying her slowly toward the edge of the forest.
Beneath the cover of the towering trees, the dim light stretched her shadow long.
As she advanced, her immense body slowly shrank and condensed.
By the time she vanished completely into the distance, she had taken the form of a young girl, silver hair and purple eyes complementing her beautiful bone structure, silently blending into the fringes of the human world.
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