Current summary:
Xiao Yan's strength: peak of level twenty-five.
Soul Ring configuration: the Soul Ring of the Ice Dragon King, a First-Level God, infinitely greater than a million years.
Martial Soul: Ultimate Fire.
First Soul Skill: Ice and Fire from the Same Source.
Additional: one-third of the Bone Command Cold Flame, the Fire Dragon King's infant Heavenly Flame.
The current Xiao Yan could be said to have reached the peak among fire-attribute Soul Masters of the same rank.
Xiao Yan asked casually, "Old Yu, how old is your granddaughter?"
"Over sixteen."
Yu Tianming's eyes widened.
He stared at Xiao Yan again and again, finding that he didn't seem as weak as he had imagined. Instead, he seemed a little...
Exceptionally powerful!?
"What exactly is going on with that Soul Ring of yours!?"
"Why do I feel like it's not a Ten-Year Soul Ring? And..."
Yu Tianming's mouth fell open, and he shouted, "How the hell has your Soul Power increased so much?"
With just a cursory inspection, he could tell that Xiao Yan was ready to obtain his second Soul Ring.
And that wasn't even his peak!
Before this,
This guy had been a little brat who didn't even have his first Soul Ring!?
A little brat!?
"How the hell did you grow so much!"
Yu Tianming sprang to his feet and roared.
No wonder he had kept feeling something was off. The guy before him hadn't simply gained a Soul Ring and a few levels.
He was plainly a different person!
Xiao Yan chuckled and stood up.
He was 1.8 meters tall and well-built, with prominent eight-pack abs and a body full of lean muscle.
And what stood out most was his bearing.
He was like a little sun.
Yu Tianming pinched Xiao Yan's cheek. "You haven't been possessed, have you!!?"
"The real deal, guaranteed!" Xiao Yan said with a smile.
Yu Tianming narrowed his eyes. "The heavenly king covers the earthly tiger!?"
"The pagoda suppresses the river demon!"
"Makka Pakka!?"
"Upsy Daisy!"
"Imperial jade nectar wine!"
"One hundred and eighty a cup!"
"Brother Yan!"
"Brother Yu!"
Xiao Yan had once taught Yu Tianming many secret codes.
Now, they were being put to perfect use.
"Hard to believe. Did you eat a lot of immortal herbs, and that's why you changed so much!?"
His body had grown.
His Soul Power had risen.
Only the immortal herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Spring could explain it.
Xiao Yan nodded.
This wasn't easy to explain.
"Back to business, Old Yu. I'm planning to hunt for my Second Soul Ring." Xiao Yan narrowed his eyes as he looked toward the forest.
"Have anything in mind!?"
"Yes!"
"A king among fire-type Soul Beasts, more than twenty-three hundred years old."
"Qiongqi!"
"How have you even settled on its age?" Yu Tianming muttered.
"Because that fellow... has already delivered itself to our doorstep," Xiao Yan said softly.
The next moment, he became an afterimage and left the spot.
The place where he had been standing exploded instantly.
In the smoke, a Ferocious Beast with the body of a tiger, the appearance of an ox, and a pair of wings roared, shaking heaven and earth.
Roar!
Qiongqi roared, its dangerous, hedgehog-like fur blazing with a heart-stopping firelight.
The Soul Beast suddenly burst forward, seeking to devour Xiao Yan.
There was something about him that held a nearly maddening attraction for fire-type Soul Beasts.
Yu Tianming's face darkened.
When Qiongqi saw Xiao Yan dodge, it attacked Yu Tianming instead.
"Any random cat or dog dares come at me now? I don't believe you've got Titled Douluo-level poison too!"
Yu Tianming didn't even release his Martial Soul.
A dragon's roar erupted!
Qiongqi froze on the spot.
Faced with a Soul Saint-level Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon, even Qiongqi became a little kitten.
Dragon scales covered Yu Tianming's right hand, and his dragon might was terrifying.
He grabbed Qiongqi by the neck.
His hand closed easily around it.
Lightning flashed, and Qiongqi was shocked straight into a concussion, spitting blood and foam and hovering between life and death.
Xiao Yan, perched in a tree, gave him a thumbs-up. "Impressive, impressive!"
A long while later,
Xiao Yan successfully obtained his Second Soul Ring.
This Qiongqi was naturally violent and hot-tempered, and its fire-control ability made it a king among Ferocious Beasts.
Xiao Yan was now bursting with firepower!
"Qiongqi's fire control is a huge help to me." Xiao Yan was brimming with confidence.
Yu Tianming frowned. "You've advanced too quickly. Everything's gone so smoothly that it hardly seems real."
Yao Lao also warned him, "A cultivation realm raised this way will have no foundation and will be very unstable."
Xiao Yan felt helpless and spoke to Yao Lao in his thoughts. Who could have expected the dignified Ice Dragon King to sacrifice himself for me!?
"Why do I get the feeling you're showing off!?" Xiao Huo saw right through Xiao Yan.
"The most important thing now is to improve your actual combat ability. That's the best way to consolidate your cultivation."
The moon hung high, and the Sunset Forest was even quieter at night.
In the distance, two powerful presences descended.
They seemed to be looking for something.
"They haven't come with good intentions. They might be after us." Xiao Yan set off with Yu Tianming.
Suddenly,
A mental force swept toward the two of them.
"Titled Douluo!" Yu Tianming exclaimed.
Xiao Yan instantly activated his Martial Soul.
"Ultimate Fire! Fire Barrier!"
Flames burned fiercely around the two of them, blocking the divine sense.
"You can actually block a Titled Douluo's divine sense!?"
Yu Tianming found Xiao Yan increasingly hard to read.
Xiao Yan chuckled. "They're Heavenly Flames. There's bound to be something unusual about them."
The two were extremely cautious and quickly withdrew from the Sunset Forest.
"What exactly did you do?? Why do I feel like that Titled Douluo was after you?"
Along the way, the divine senses of two Titled Douluo crisscrossed, making it look very much as though they were searching for someone.
The look Yu Tianming gave Xiao Yan grew increasingly strange. He even began to suspect...
"Kid, don't tell me you're... a reincarnated Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast!?" Yu Tianming asked pensively.
"In your dreams. Have you forgotten what state I was in back then!?" Xiao Yan rolled his eyes.
When they first met, Xiao Yan had still been suffering from a deadly poison.
He had nearly died full of regret.
"What kind of Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast nearly gets poisoned to death by a little brat like Tang San!"
Yu Tianming nodded.
Wait, no!
Why couldn't it be possible?
"What if Tang San is a Hundred-Thousand-Year Poison Miasma Flower!?"
Yu Tianming turned into a regular little skeptic.
"Shocking!"
"Several Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts reincarnated as humans, all for the sake of an old man abandoned by his clan, with his cultivation damaged!"
Yu Tianming rambled on all the way.
The two first fled the Sunset Forest.
After they waited briefly on the outskirts, the Meteor Swift Fire Steed burst out of a dense patch of woods.
The creature looked as though it had lost its soul.
The intense fluctuations of divine power from the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Spring earlier had thrown nearly all the Soul Beasts in the forest into an uproar.
The two boarded the carriage and left that very night.
"Let's get away from this trouble spot first."
"Let's go to the Heaven Dou Empire's imperial city. There's a high-level Soul Master arena there where you can consolidate your cultivation, and I can also visit my granddaughter."
By the time they approached the imperial city, day had already broken.
The two stepped out of the carriage outside the imperial city's walls.
Xiao Yan's eyes flickered as he stared at the city gate.
Yu Tianming grew interested and asked, "Are you looking forward to fighting? To the powerful young people in the Heaven Dou Empire!?"
Xiao Yan shook his head.
He said with a perfectly serious expression, "I'm looking forward to that pretty granddaughter you once said you'd betroth to me..."
(Happy New Year's Eve, everyone, and happy New Year in advance.)
(With the New Year here, I'm sure everyone's been busy lately, and the author is no exception, so please understand that the update was late.)
(In any case, happy New Year, friends!)
(End of chapter)