The third Soul Skill: Bamboo Sea Emergence

Early the next morning, the sky had yet to brighten fully. The mist in the valley was lifting, revealing the strange flowers and exotic plants washed by dew, every leaf gleaming faintly in the morning light.

Lin Qing was still sitting on the rock. After a night of tempering, his body had adapted to the alternating impacts of ice and fire, and his Soul Power had reached level 29.

The breaths of the cold spring and the hot spring circulated through his body along fixed routes, one cold and one hot, one yin and one yang, like two rivers flowing side by side through his meridians without encroaching on each other.

His breathing was steady and long, and every breath brought with it a faint wisp of bluish-green mist.

The Bloodline Soul Ring appeared behind him once more, its bluish-green light a little brighter than yesterday and its rotation a little faster.

The threads of light extending from his sea of consciousness trembled slightly, as if they had sensed something, and began reaching deeper.

Then he felt the rock beneath him tremble.

It was not an earthquake, but a low-frequency tremor rising from deep underground, like a giant beast turning over.

An icy-blue light welled up from the eye of the cold spring and spread toward him across the water;

A crimson-gold light welled up from the eye of the hot spring and approached him along the ground.

The two lights met at the rock beneath him, then surged into his body at the same time.

Lin Qing's pupils abruptly contracted. This time, it was no longer the sensation of countless tiny needles pricking him, but as if someone had stuffed an entire iceberg and an entire volcano into his body at once.

Extreme cold and extreme heat rampaged through his meridians, and every barrier they forced their way through brought a tearing pain to that spot. A trace of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, but Bamboo Breath soon healed him.

"Hold on." Lone Bamboo's voice was steady as bedrock. "Don't let yourself be distracted. Focus your consciousness on those Immortal Herbs. Let them help you bear the burden."

Lin Qing extended his consciousness outward and touched the pulses of life within the Immortal Herbs.

Aromatic Silk Beauty, Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass, Infernal Delicate Apricot, Ink Jade Divine Bamboo... every Immortal Herb gave off a faint breath, like silent encouragement.

Those breaths flowed along the threads of light into his body, like tiny tributaries helping him cushion the impact of the power of ice and fire.

He gritted his teeth and tamed that raging power of ice and fire bit by bit, guiding it into Bamboo Breath's circulation route.

One circuit, two circuits, three circuits... with each additional circuit, the pain eased a little.

Beneath his skin, the bluish lines pulsed fiercely, as if growing rapidly.

From his back to his chest, from his shoulders to his fingertips, the lines grew denser and brighter, as though a living map of meridians were being traced across his body stroke by stroke.

His Soul Power was climbing. Level 28, level 29, halfway to level 30-the bottleneck began to loosen, as if something were being pried open a crack.

"Don't rush." A trace of tension entered Lone Bamboo's voice. "Steady your breathing."

Lin Qing's forehead was covered in sweat, and his body trembled slightly.

He could feel the bottleneck breaking apart, like the first crack appearing across a sheet of ice.

Crack.

He heard no sound, but his body felt it-like a long-taut string finally snapping, or a crack suddenly splitting the frozen surface of a river on a warm winter afternoon.

A new power surged from within him, like the first spring water from melting snow, rushing down through his meridians.

Level 30.

At that very instant, the illusory bamboo forest appeared around him of its own accord. The bamboo shadows were clearer than before, the outline of each stalk seemingly traced with an ink brush.

Bamboo leaves drifted soundlessly through the air. The moment they touched the ground, they turned into tiny specks of light and merged into the soil.

He felt his Soul Power converging in a particular direction, forming a vortex in the center of his left palm.

Inside the vortex, something was condensing and taking shape, like a seed breaking through the soil.

"This is..." He opened his eyes and looked down at his left palm.

"The third Soul Skill, Bamboo Sea Emergence." A hint of satisfaction colored Lone Bamboo's voice. "Condense a bamboo seed in your palm with Soul Power, and it will grow as soon as it touches the ground, forming a hundred-meter bamboo sea centered on you."

"Third Soul Skill: Bamboo Gives Rise to a Sea." A translucent bamboo shoot glowing pale green grew from his left hand.

It stopped growing when it reached a foot tall in his palm. Faint patterns flowed over its stalk, as if life were slowly coursing through its interior.

Lin Qing walked to the center of the valley and crouched down, holding the bamboo shoot in his left hand as he pressed it toward the ground. The moment his palm touched the soil, the Lone Bamboo Martial Soul appeared on the back of his hand, and bluish-green light flowed down his arm and deep into the earth.

Soul Power surged forth. Centered on his palm, a pale green wave of light spread outward beneath the soil. Wherever it passed, the earth trembled slightly and blades of grass swayed gently.

The soil around him split open. Countless green bamboo stalks shot up from the ground, and the land within a hundred zhang was covered by a lush bamboo forest.

Lin Qing stood up and looked around.

He stood at the center of the bamboo forest, the palm print he had made with his own hand beneath his feet.

The roots of those bamboo stalks were all connected to the same source, like countless tributaries flowing into a great river, and the source of that river lay in his palm.

He tried taking a step. The instant his body tilted to the left, he appeared beside a bamboo stalk five zhang away.

He moved again, this time landing behind him to the right, without a sound, like wind passing through bamboo leaves.

Bamboo Heart activated. Bamboo leaves that he had previously been able to generate only in his hand appeared above the bamboo forest in an instant. With a casual point of his finger, hundreds upon thousands of bamboo leaves shone gold and shot in the direction he indicated.

A shadow with every step, he moved through the bamboo forest seven or eight times, landing precisely where he wanted each time.

Within this Chaos bamboo forest, he seemed to be its master.

At last, he stopped and looked down at his left hand. A patch of warmth still lingered in his palm, resonating in time with the heartbeat of the entire bamboo forest.

He could feel the entire bamboo forest breathing. Within a hundred zhang, there was nowhere to hide; all of it was his home ground.

Lin Qing loosened his muscles and joints. He truly did feel much lighter.

He hopped twice, wind stirring beneath his feet as bamboo leaves spun behind him.

"As expected of Chaos Lone Bamboo. The third Soul Skill can actually grant me such a powerful domain-type skill."

"With my current cultivation, I can generate a bamboo forest a hundred meters across."

"Presumably, as my cultivation improves, the bamboo sea will grow larger too, though its consumption of Soul Power is indeed considerable."

"Although I have Bamboo Breath to continuously absorb energy, I can still feel my Soul Power dropping rapidly.

"It seems I still need to steadily improve my cultivation."

"However, the awakening of the third bloodline... still needs a little more time."

As if seeing through his thoughts, Lone Bamboo said in a steady tone, "The bamboo soul's ability is no small matter. It requires more accumulation and consolidation."

"With your current strength, you can try entering the waters of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well to carry out the final bloodline awakening."

[End of chapter twelve]