In the study of a detached villa, a quiet girl was engrossed in a book. There were so many books here that she had not finished them all even after several years.
This little world was also where Lu Ling had first learned about the world. Now, however, its regular visitor was this girl with limited mobility.
Click.
"Brother, you're back!"
Hearing the sound at the door, Ye Xin Xia rose from her wheelchair in delighted surprise, only to sink back into it moments later because of that inexplicable weakness.
"Have you been good at home today?" Seeing the girl so lively, Lu Ling smiled, walked behind her, and gently massaged her shoulders.
"Where else could I be? You didn't take me out with you." Ye Xin Xia pinched the hand resting on her delicate shoulder and pouted in complaint.
"Next time. I'll take you out next time."
"Then it's a promise." A promise with very little credibility was enough to make Ye Xin Xia smile again. She had always been so easy to please.
Lu Ling had picked Ye Xin Xia up on his very first trip outside all those years ago.
Xin Xia had been abandoned along the route he had to take home. The person behind it all was none other than the woman he had asked for directions back then, Ye Chang!
Only after finding Ye Xin Xia's name on her clothes had Lu Ling discovered the terrifying identity hidden beneath that woman's kindly exterior. It had left him trembling with fear for several days.
"All right."
While responding to Ye Xin Xia, he also diverted some of his attention to resisting the extreme cold brought on by the Ice Crystal Bow.
Lu Ling would never do something strange without a reason. His earlier contact with Mu Ningxue had been to gain control over the Ice Crystal Bow inside her.
Now, like Mu Ningxue, he had the right to use the Ice Crystal Bow. The Ice Bow remained within Mu Ningxue, but Lu Ling bore all its side effects.
As he touched Ye Xin Xia now, Lu Ling could also clearly sense the pinnacle of White Magic hidden within her body.
The Parthenon Divine Soul.
Just as with the Ice Crystal Bow, he had previously been attempting to gain control of the Divine Soul. He was simply too weak at present, and the results were negligible, but there was still hope.
Lu Ling had secretly kept this up for eight years.
He believed that on the day he fully controlled the Parthenon Divine Soul, Xin Xia would stand again.
The reason Lu Ling could employ such bizarre methods was entirely thanks to his peculiar constitution.
A Magic Awakening once a year, absorbing and controlling divine objects like the Parthenon Divine Soul and the Ice Crystal Bow...
Lu Ling could only call it freaking awesome!
Unfortunately, an invisible shackle seemed to hang over each of his Stardusts, making his cultivation extremely slow. Even his first awakened element, the Light Element, had only barely reached Basic Level three after eight years of cultivation. As for the others, there was little to say. Being able to cast magic at all was already good enough...
A sudden change erupted!
An intense light suddenly burst from Ye Xin Xia, illuminating the entire study.
A familiar sensation surfaced in Lu Ling's mental world. In an instant, he understood everything, but he did not notice the abnormality in Ye Xin Xia.
"Another awakening?"
His annual awakening did not happen at a precise time, but on average, its frequency could almost be considered once a year. And this year's was today. Lu Ling's consciousness roamed his mental world, following its guidance, until an emerald-green star slowly floated before him.
"The Plant Element? It doesn't seem to be..."
Xie Shifei caught the star in his palm. Then, in the blink of an eye, his consciousness returned to the very center of his mental cosmos, where his various magical Stardusts lay.
The emerald-green star he had caught in his palm broke free, flew to an empty area, and gave rise to six more stars, forming a brand-new magical Stardust.
Now, within Lu Ling's mental world, nine Stardusts each occupied their own region.
Light, shadow, summoning, space, chaos, ice, fire, and psychic.
And this newly born Stardust...
Just what was it?
"The Blessing Element?"
An ethereal voice pulled Lu Ling straight out of his mental world.
"You can even awaken the Blessing Element?" The blonde girl sounded slightly surprised.
"Master." Lu Ling opened his eyes to find a girl in a nightdress, her long golden hair trailing to the floor, pointing a slender, pale finger at the spot between his brows. Her dark-red eyes regarded him without sorrow or joy.
"Sorry for troubling you again."
"There weren't any major abnormalities this time. It was no trouble." The girl nodded, then glanced at Ye Xin Xia beside him.
"My lady..." No matter how many times it happened, Ye Xin Xia always grew nervous under the blonde girl's gaze, instinctively sensing a trace of threat.
"Master, Xin Xia might be a little nervous. After all, you only show yourself a few times a year..." Lu Ling said.
"No matter. Ling'er, come with me."
"Yes."
Lu Ling obediently followed his master into a place he had not set foot in for a long time... his master's bedroom.
His master's room held a faint, fresh, pleasant fragrance. She was a girl, after all. However powerful she might be, she probably still had some things in common with ordinary girls.
"Did you really pick that one up?" Sitting on the bed, his master spoke indifferently.
"Yes, right outside our front door," Lu Ling answered truthfully.
"Do you know what magic element you just awakened?" his master asked in return. "The Blessing Element. The Blessing Element exclusive to the Parthenon Temple. As far as I know, no one outside the Parthenon has ever been able to awaken it."
"In other words, that one's ties to the Parthenon run deep, not shallow. Her body contains a power capable of guiding a Blessing Element awakening."
That should only be a superficial trace of the Divine Soul's power, shouldn't it? Lu Ling had never expected his awakening this time to be guided by the Divine Soul.
"...I'll take good care of her." Lu Ling nodded with only a partial understanding, unsure what to say.
"When you use magic from now on, please avoid using the Blessing Element as much as possible, lest the Parthenon Temple investigate. You must not expose it before you have sufficient strength," his master said.
"I understand."
"You may leave."
"..."
"Not leaving?"
"Master, aren't you curious why I awaken magic so frequently? You've never asked me in all these ten years," Lu Ling asked.
"If I asked, would you tell me?" A rare change came over the blonde girl's expression. She raised an eyebrow, looking as though she might smile.
"No... because I don't know either." Lu Ling shook his head.
"Master, do I have parents? Or rather, do you think I'm human?"
"No."
"That decisive?!" Lu Ling exclaimed.
"As you are now, apart from the strange things involving your magic, you truly are no different from a human in any other way. But... I picked you up in the Alps back then. You were lying on an ice lotus dais, like a holy spirit born of heaven and earth." His master closed her eyes in thought and slowly recounted what she had encountered back then.
"At first, I thought you were an Ice Element holy spirit, so I brought you back. Yet now you're completely human."
Hearing this, Lu Ling was deeply shocked. He had never imagined his origins would be so mysterious, or that even his master knew nothing of his birth.
"So this is... where I came from, Master?"
"Yes." His master's expression remained unchanged.