Yin and Yang Begin to Merge

By the time Long Tian reached the giant python, his legs had gone a little weak.

The enormous serpent lay sprawled across the ravaged clearing, its black-and-white ringed scales giving off a dim, eerie sheen in the dusk. Both heads rested on the ground. The dark gold slit pupils in the white head were shut for good, while the black head's single, jet-black eye remained slightly open, holding only the last glimmer of a light on the verge of going out. Blood still seeped from the sword wound at the vital point behind its heads, soaking the earth beneath it dark red and filling the air with a powerful stench.

Mr. Wang stood a few paces away, leaning on his shortsword and breathing heavily. His face was a little pale. He had put all his strength into that earlier strike, spending a great deal of Soul Power. But he did not hurry Long Tian. He simply watched in silence, waiting for him to take that step himself.

Long Tian crouched and placed his hand on the snake's head. It was cold to the touch, its scales as hard as iron and rough beneath his palm. He closed his eyes and sent his Soul Power probing into its body. Soon, he touched the last wisp of its life force, on the verge of fading, and the nascent Soul Ring attached to it.

At that instant, the two vortices in his dantian went berserk at once!

Like beasts that had gone hungry for ages catching the scent of fresh meat, the golden and black vortices spun and swelled wildly, pulling Long Tian's meridians outward. A tearing agony spread from his abdomen through his limbs and bones. Long Tian grunted, nearly snatching his hand off the snake's head, but he gritted his teeth and held on. A low snarl rumbled from his throat as he forcibly pressed the two rampaging forces down.

"Hold steady!" Mr. Wang's voice came from behind him, stern and urgent. "The Soul Ring hasn't emerged yet. If you let go now, all your efforts will come to nothing!"

Large beads of sweat rolled down Long Tian's forehead, soaking his collar. His teeth chattered as he clenched them, both hands pressed hard against the snake's head, his knuckles white. He could feel the last trace of life force inside the python slowly gathering, drawn by his Soul Power, and forming a swirling mass of black-and-white light that rose from its head.

The light rose about a foot, then unfurled and expanded in midair, forming a complete Soul Ring. Its colors were unlike any seen before-half brilliant gold, half ink-black, with black and white blending at their boundary and a chaotic gray halo flowing over them. It hovered above Long Tian's head, slowly turning with a low hum, as though it were alive.

"Absorb it!" Mr. Wang's voice was urgent. "Use your meditation method to draw it into your body! Remember, accept both attributes at once. Don't resist either one!"

Long Tian drew a deep breath, focused all his thoughts on his dantian, and summoned the light and darkness vortices at the same time. Golden and black rays rose from his dantian, climbed through his meridians to the top of his head, and connected with the black-and-white Soul Ring hovering there.

Boom!

The instant the two forces touched, a blaze of white light and a black tide seemed to explode in Long Tian's mind. His body felt as though it had been split in two-the right half burned as if he were in a furnace, while the left was as cold as if he had plunged into an abyss. The two extremes assailed his nerves at once. The pain made his vision go dark, and he nearly passed out.

But he did not. Instead, in the deepest throes of agony, he suddenly caught a trace of a strange balance.

The golden vortex was drawn by the Soul Ring's blazing white power of light, and the light attribute on the left half gradually grew solid. The black vortex, meanwhile, was nourished by the ring's dark purple power of darkness, and the right half grew ever deeper. Each force took what it needed, both attaching themselves to the same Soul Ring and growing in their own directions. Instead of clashing as Long Tian had expected, they were like two rivers that had once flowed separately but had finally found their way to the sea, joining the same vast ocean.

It still hurt. But his meridians did not collapse. Instead, they grew somewhat tougher as the intermingled black-and-white Soul Power washed through them. Inch by inch, the Soul Ring sank into the crown of his head, and with every fraction it descended, Long Tian felt his understanding of the two forces deepen.

The Radiant Sacred Dragon: its power lay in yang, supremely firm and fierce, shattering all illusion.

The Shadow Sacred Dragon: its power lay in yin, supremely yielding and cold, devouring all fleeting splendor.

One yin, one yang; light and darkness shared the same source. All things bore yin and embraced yang, blending their Qi to achieve harmony.

He did not know how much time had passed-perhaps half an hour, perhaps longer-before the last wisp of black-and-white light above his head finally sank completely into Long Tian's body. A brand-new Soul Ring rose from beneath his feet and slowly circled him, half gold and half black, radiating a lustrous glow in the dusk. It was far more solid than an ordinary Hundred-Year Soul Ring, with a faint, chaotic presence around its edge, as though it had surpassed the level of an ordinary Soul Ring.

Long Tian let out a long breath, his hands slipping from the snake's head as he fell backward onto the ground. He lay with his limbs spread, gasping for air. His clothes were soaked through with sweat and felt chilly against his skin. Yet the corners of his mouth curled up, and he could not stop smiling.

I did it.

Mr. Wang hurried over and crouched beside him. He checked his pulse and examined his pupils, only relaxing once he had confirmed that nothing was seriously wrong. He looked at the black-and-white Soul Ring by Long Tian's feet, an immensely complicated expression in his eyes. After a long silence, he said quietly, "A Mixed-Color Soul Ring... I've read accounts of them, but this is my first time seeing one with my own eyes. How do you feel?"

Long Tian lay looking up at the canopy. The sky had turned completely dark, and sparse starlight filtered through gaps in the leaves. His voice was a little hoarse, but he could not hide his excitement. "I feel... really good. They're not fighting anymore. Sir, they're not fighting anymore."

"What?"

"Light and darkness." Long Tian raised his right hand, and golden scales emerged. At the same time, dark scales quietly spread over his left hand. He held both arms out level and released both forces at once. Golden light and black mist unfurled separately before him, about a foot apart, neither encroaching on the other. And this time, the barely perceptible repulsion between them had clearly weakened considerably.

Mr. Wang watched the gold and black gleaming together on his hands, a trace of genuine relief flashing in his eyes behind his lenses. He patted Long Tian on the shoulder. "All right, stop showing off and put them away. It's dark, and the mountains aren't safe. We need to get back to Soul Hunting Town."

Long Tian rolled over and climbed to his feet, brushing dirt and fallen leaves off himself. He took one last look at the giant python's corpse. Its body had already begun to stiffen, and its black-and-white rings looked silent and solemn beneath the starlight. He bowed to the snake and said softly, "Thank you."

Mr. Wang did not hurry him, waiting until he had finished before turning to lead the way. The two walked one behind the other, following the marks they had made on their way in. After more than half an hour of feeling their way through the dark, they finally saw the lights of Soul Hunting Town in the distance.

When they returned to the inn, the landlady was dozing behind the counter. Seeing the two come back covered in dirt, she yawned, muttered a few words, and warmed two bowls of noodle soup for them. Long Tian was famished. He hugged his bowl and slurped it down to the last drop, finishing every bit of soup and noodles. After eating, he fell straight into bed and slept until the sun was high in the sky.

The next afternoon, the two rode their gray donkey back to Bluestone Town. The old locust tree at the town entrance had shed all its leaves, its bare branches reaching toward the azure sky. From a distance, they saw Zhao Xiaopang waiting and watching at the academy gate. When he spotted Long Tian on the donkey's back, his chubby face lit up, and he took off running toward them.

"Long Tian! You're back! Did you get your Soul Ring?" He circled the donkey twice, then suddenly his eyes widened. "Holy... holy shit! Why does your Soul Ring have two colors?"

Long Tian jumped off the donkey and grinned without saying a word. With a thought, he raised the black-and-white Soul Ring from beneath his feet. Half gold and half black, it shimmered with shifting colors in the autumn sunlight. Zhao Xiaopang's mouth fell open in an oval, and several students passing nearby stopped and stared in astonishment.

At a window on the second floor of the teaching hall, Mr. Wang stood watching the scene with a smile on his face. He looked down, picked up the booklet on his desk, and turned to Long Tian's page. Taking up his brush, he wrote a line in the "Soul Ring" column:

"First Soul Ring: Yin-Yang Twin-Pupil Python, approximately seven hundred years of cultivation, Mixed-Color Soul Ring. Attached simultaneously to the Radiant Sacred Dragon and Shadow Sacred Dragon Twin Martial Souls. Soul Skill yet to be determined."

He put down his brush and looked out at the little figure surrounded by a crowd of children asking questions. His smile gradually faded, and a trace of gravity appeared between his brows.

A six-year-old child had safely absorbed a seven-hundred-year Soul Ring. That alone was a miracle. And no one knew what kind of Soul Skill would emerge after a Mixed-Color Soul Ring was attached to Twin Martial Souls. He had searched through his entire collection of books and found no second case like it.

Long Tian was walking a path on which no one had left footprints before.

Outside the window, Zhao Xiaopang was dragging Long Tian toward the dining hall. As he ran, Long Tian looked back and called to the classmates gathered around him, "I don't know how to use the Soul Skill yet! Once I learn, you'll be the first to know!" Laughter and footsteps rang out across the courtyard, startling several sparrows from the eaves.

Meanwhile, on the main road, a gray horse bearing a rider was making its unhurried way toward Bluestone Town. The rider wore a blue-green robe and had a youthful face, looking to be in his early twenties, with a lazy smile at the corner of his mouth. He wore no jade pendant at his waist, nor was he dressed in a Spirit Hall uniform, but a rolled-up parchment map hung beside his saddle. The terrain lines marking mountains and rivers could faintly be seen on it.

He reined in his horse at the entrance to town and looked toward the courtyard gate bearing the plaque "Bluestone Town Junior Soul Master Academy." Narrowing his eyes, he smiled and murmured to himself, "Mr. Wang has taken on quite a remarkable little disciple. A Mixed-Color Soul Ring... tsk, tsk, this trip wasn't wasted."

He urged his horse into town, its hooves tapping leisurely over the bluestone road as he made his slow way toward the academy.