Ancient Times Unfold: Holy Spirit Hall

The wind howled over the wind-carved cliffs, where the setting sun was red as blood.

A hunting party had the misfortune of being ambushed by a pack of vicious wolves.

Shielded by the sacrifices of many of their companions, they fled for their lives until the surviving humans were driven into a place with nowhere left to retreat.

The wolf pack pressed closer from the front, while a sheer cliff stood behind them.

The few remaining humans fought desperately, but their stone and wooden weapons were bitten to pieces one after another. Their bodies were torn apart, and they fell in pools of blood.

Only a thin, frail human girl remained at the edge of the cliff.

The crude stone spear in her hand had long since broken. Looking at her dead clanspeople, she trembled with fear, unable to summon even a shred of strength.

As two vicious wolves as big and sturdy as calves drew closer, despair gripped her heart. The girl closed her eyes in anguish and waited for death.

But death did not come as expected.

Blue-gold, vine-like plants burst from the earth...

They unfurled in the wind, quietly smoothing away the violent menace across the wilderness.

The girl slowly opened her eyes. Before her stood a woman with a gentle, unworldly bearing, surrounded by strange blue-gold vines spreading from the earth.

Having just brushed with death, the girl had been strained to her limit in body and mind. Darkness swam before her eyes, and she crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

An unknown amount of time passed.

The cold wilderness wind filled the girl's nostrils. Her eyelashes fluttered, and she slowly awoke.

She instinctively felt the cold, hard ground beneath her and looked down at her unscathed body. Only then did she hazily realize that she was still alive.

The gruesome scene before she had fainted surged through her mind: the vicious wolves, the deaths of her clanspeople, and the blue-gold vines...

Now, however, the wolf pack was nowhere to be seen.

The figure she had seen before losing consciousness stood quietly by the cliff.

The girl struggled to her feet and fell to her knees with a thud. Pressing her forehead to the ground, tears streaming down her face, she choked out:

"If you are a god, please save us... We're far too weak. On this land, just staying alive takes everything we have..."

Haltingly, she told her of the tribe's plight.

Across this land, ferocious birds and beasts ran rampant. Humans had neither sharp claws nor fangs, and their crude stone spears could not even pierce the hides of some abnormal beasts.

Her clanspeople lived in fear all day long, and their companions fell in pools of blood one after another.

Earlier, a horde of beasts had attacked the tribal camp, tearing her clanspeople apart. Her parents had fought desperately to hold them back, carving out a sliver of hope for her with their own flesh and blood, before finally disappearing beneath the beasts' claws and teeth.

Even so, the surviving clanspeople still had to live. They had no choice but to face dangerous, powerful beasts and venture out to hunt.

Yet they could not even tell ordinary beasts apart from abnormal beasts with special abilities-Soul Beasts. Even some seemingly inconspicuous plants could strike a fatal blow from the shadows.

On this hunt, they had been ambushed by a wolf pack. Though they fled in a panic, they were still driven into a dead end.

Faced with such a harsh environment, weak as they were, they could see no tomorrow.

"We don't have the sharp claws and fangs of beasts, or their tough hides. We have to face powerful beasts just to fill our bellies, and keep moving to survive... We can only huddle together, never knowing if we'll see the first light of tomorrow..."

The girl sobbed, her voice full of helplessness and despair.

But then she raised her tear-streaked face and looked at Ah Yin, a faint glimmer of hope kindling in her dim eyes.

The miracle she had witnessed before fainting was her only hope.

Humans had never possessed such a way to wield extraordinary power, yet those abnormal beasts were born with it.

Once, a strange beast had spat a streak of green light out of thin air, easily cutting down several of her clanspeople.

For the first time in her life, she learned that on this cruel land, they did not have to remain prey for beasts to devour forever. They, too, could command miracles like the beasts.

The person before her was the only chance of survival she could grasp.

"Please, god, have mercy. Please guide us... Even if it costs me my life..."

Listening to the girl's heartrending pleas, Ah Yin gazed at the frail figure before her, a slight ripple passing through her eyes.

Had she not once been in the same position?

Back when she was still a Soul Beast, Blue Silver Grass had been far too weak. Even though the Blue Silver Forest where she lived was home to countless Blue Silver Grass plants, what of it? They were ordinary Blue Silver Grass, after all.

Fortunately, the Blue Silver Forest where she grew was remote, and human Soul Masters from outside could not muster any interest in the weak Soul Rings of Blue Silver Grass.

That was why the Blue Silver Forest had been spared a devastating calamity.

But there had still been plenty of trouble, such as those hateful Soft Bone Rabbits. They were everywhere, and no matter how many were killed, there were always more.

Very few Blue Silver Grass plants gained intelligence after cultivating for ten thousand years. Whenever they dozed off, their subjects would be devoured in swathes.

Ah Yin thought indignantly that, in her master's words, Soul Beasts like Soft Bone Rabbits had a way of courting death.

They were omnivorous Soul Beasts that ate anything, yet they had a particular fondness for Blue Silver Grass and carrots. Sometimes they even kicked Soul Beasts to death without eating them, only to turn around and nibble on Blue Silver Grass instead. Soft Bone Rabbits were truly evil by nature.

One day, she, Ah Yin, would catch every last one of those rabbits and make them... work for her.

Ah Yin shook the thoughts from her head and spoke calmly:

"I am no god, but a Holy Spirit Envoy. The sweet rain of salvation will not fall from the heavens out of nowhere. In this world, only your own strength can be relied upon."

"Stand up and hold out your right hand."

Baffled, the girl did as she was told.

A gentle warmth flowed through her body, and her palm grew slightly warm. A tender blade of grass, deep blue throughout with slender leaves, slowly emerged, like a glimmer of light illuminating her path through the darkness.

Thus, in the ancient era, the first Martial Soul on the entire continent, Blue Silver Grass, came into being.

But the girl's Innate Soul Power was quite weak, only at rank one.

Thinking of her master's plan, Ah Yin's gaze flickered. She drew upon the Blue Silver Grass covering the surrounding hills and fields, making them all sway together.

Each inconspicuous, feeble blade of wild grass offered up a barely perceptible trace of its life force.

Countless pale-blue motes of light visible to the naked eye rose and gathered, flowing into the girl's body.

The girl's Soul Power was raised smoothly and without obstruction to rank ten.

The fullness in her body left the girl utterly astonished. Feeling the warm currents circulating through her, she looked completely bewildered.

With a solemn expression, Ah Yin told her all about Martial Souls and Soul Power, as well as a rudimentary meditation method.

Though the girl could not fully grasp the deeper meaning, she committed it firmly to memory.

After all, she was a promising prospect Gu Yue had carefully selected. Compared with other humans, though the girl was frail, her comprehension was already exceptional.

Ah Yin looked at her and said:

"Whether you teach your clanspeople how to use and cultivate Soul Power is for you to decide. But only those who believe in the Holy Spirit may receive the inheritance. Violators will surely be punished by the Holy Spirit."

Seeing that Ah Yin was about to leave, the girl hurriedly asked, "Lady Holy Spirit Envoy, how can I find you in the future?"

Ah Yin put on the air of a mystic and said calmly, "Keep faith in your heart, and we shall meet again."

With that, Ah Yin's figure faded away.

The girl looked at the grass in her palm and committed the title of Holy Spirit Envoy firmly to memory, then turned and ran toward the tribal camp.

She decided that if they were to worship the Holy Spirit, they must build an altar in the Holy Spirit's honor, and their tribe should also take the Holy Spirit's name as a sign of devotion.

After much thought, she planned to name it the Holy Spirit Cult...

Gu Yue heard the girl's choice of name through her divine sense and nearly spat out a mouthful of water. She hurriedly used a mental suggestion to make her change the name to the Holy Spirit Hall.

After the girl returned to the tribe, the elders regarded the blue-glowing grass that emerged from her palm as an evil omen.

Feared and shunned by everyone, the girl was driven to live at the edge of the camp.

But the girl did not wallow in self-pity. In her spare time, she quietly practiced the meditation method.

Several months later, on a night of torrential rain, a horde of frenzied beasts stormed the tribe, and its able-bodied adults struggled to fend them off.

At the critical moment, the girl, who had yet to obtain a Soul Ring, had no Soul Skills. But she used her rank-ten Soul Power to muster her strength and punched an oncoming beast in the face.

Even so, she only knocked the beast back a few steps.

Her strength was feeble after all, and another charging beast soon sent her flying.

Her clanspeople fell in pools of blood one after another. At that critical juncture, the girl could only pray to the Holy Spirit Envoy.

The next instant, her gaze changed. She slowly rose to her feet, and the Blue Silver Grass across the wilderness grew rapidly, repelling and strangling every beast that had charged into the camp.

After the turmoil subsided, the girl saw a white ring of light slowly rotating above the corpse of a giant snake.

Under Ah Yin's guidance, the girl drew in the white Soul Ring and absorbed it.

The surviving clanspeople around her were so shocked they dared not come any closer, and could only watch in disbelief.

As the Soul Ring merged into her body, the first One-Ring Soul Master on the entire continent was officially born.

The snake Soul Beast granted the girl her First Soul Skill, Entanglement.

She activated her First Soul Ring, and the Blue Silver Grass that spread out swiftly bound a beast's corpse tight. It then gradually constricted until it crushed the corpse.

Witnessing such a miracle, her clanspeople were shaken beyond words and fell to their knees in worship.

They revered the girl as one favored by the gods and elevated her to tribal chief.

In the years that followed, under the girl's leadership, the tribe carved great stones and built a towering stone hall, naming it the Holy Spirit Hall.

A majestic altar was raised in the center of the great hall, where they devoutly worshipped the Holy Spirit who had guided the spark of civilization, while the girl appointed herself the first high priestess.

Then, as decades slipped quietly by, the once-youthful girl was weathered by the years into a white-haired old woman nearing the end of her life...