Early in the morning,
Xiao Yan sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, his hands forming a strange seal before his chest. His chest rose and fell slightly as his breathing formed a perfect cycle. Amidst this circulating breath, a faint stream of white air drifted through his nose and mouth into his body, nourishing his bones and flesh.
Slowly exhaling a breath of stale air, the youth blinked with vibrant energy and suddenly sprang to his feet.
"Sister! I did it again!"
Xiao Yan said with a hint of ecstasy.
In the past, the Dou Qi he cultivated would always vanish into thin air, but this time he had truly refined it.
"Mm..."
In the distance,
Xiao Yue nodded perfunctorily, looking completely indifferent. At that moment, she was holding an antiquated black ring, examining it thoughtfully.
Last night,
she had specifically asked her mother about the origin of this ring. Mother Xiao had picked it up by the river when she was a little girl, and it was nothing special. It was just that out of childhood curiosity, she had worn it on her body ever since—wearing it for decades. Then, last year, coinciding with Xiao Yan breaking through to a Dou Zhe, she had given the item to him.
"This thing seems to be able to absorb Dou Qi..."
Xiao Yue touched her chin.
Mother Xiao possessed a constitution incapable of cultivating Dou Qi, which was why wearing it for decades had caused no abnormalities. But when the host became Xiao Yan, who could cultivate, this thing had come out to make trouble.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly,
Xiao Yue's crimson eyes narrowed slightly.
Just moments ago,
she had sensed a gaze spying on her—very close, close enough to be right beside her!
As the saying goes: the cicada senses the autumn wind before it even stirs.
Over the years, relying on her astonishing sixth sense, Xiao Yue could keep her surroundings completely under control even with her eyes closed. Not even the powerful expert secretly protecting Xuner had ever escaped her perception.
"Looks like we have some filth here..."
Xiao Yue chuckled softly.
The next moment,
her blood-colored eyes suddenly turned murderous, and a sharp, fierce aura surged throughout her entire body.
"Roar!"
Simultaneously,
a robust fierce tiger pounced out from behind Xiao Yue without warning. Accompanied by a deafening tiger roar, its snowy white fur seemed to stream with fire, and its silver stripes stretched out aggressively, brimming with endless deterrence.
Observe the painting, comprehend the divine, condense the martial soul!
The White Tiger visualization scroll she had meditated on day and night for years came in useful at this moment.
As Xiao Yue's martial soul manifested, the powerful soul pressure caused Xiao Yan's face in the distance to turn pale abruptly, and his chest grew somewhat stifled.
"A phantom spirit?"
Xiao Yue's delicate brows furrowed slightly.
At this moment, not far in front of her, an antiquated pitch-black ring was floating in the air. What surprised her the most was that right above the ring, a transparent, aged human figure was drifting.
"What the hell, a ghost!"
Xiao Yan in the distance looked bewildered and shouted involuntarily. Having lived two lives, this was the first time in his life he had ever seen a ghost—seeing a ghost in broad daylight!
Furthermore,
thinking that this ghost had unknowingly sucked away his "yang energy" for an entire year right beside him, Xiao Yan felt a sudden chill in his heart.
The old man floating in mid-air rolled his eyes upon hearing Xiao Yan's loud shouting, looking at the wind-tossed and bewildered Xiao Yan with a hint of disgust. He thought to himself: Why was his new host such a piece of work? He was far worse than the little girl who had picked him up by the river previously!
"Old man, what do you have to say for yourself?"
Xiao Yue asked with keen interest.
Although this was also her first time seeing a ghost, instead of panicking, she felt a trace of curiosity.
As the saying goes:
The White Tiger is the god-dispatched and ghost-commanding fierce deity of the year! It clears the world clean and dominates the eight wastes! It is precisely the nemesis of evil spirits; what is a mere phantom before her eyes?
"Ahem, little girl, do you... want to become stronger? Do you want to be respected by others?" The old man stroked a strand of his transparent beard and said in a mysterious, enticing tone.
"Old man, are you afraid of death? If you're afraid of death, why put on such an act in front of me?"
Xiao Yue narrowed her eyes into a smile and spoke bluntly. The gaze of the fierce tiger martial soul phantom behind her also gradually turned dangerous.
Hearing this,
the old man was silent for a moment before slowly speaking: "Little girl, let's make a deal. Can you withdraw that primordial fierce tiger phantom behind you..."
It might be a bit shameful to say it,
but as the dignified Medicine Venerable, he actually wanted to put on the air of a mysterious expert to show off. Yet, looking at his own frail soul body and then at the fierce tiger phantom glaring covetously at him from behind her, his intuition told him that he really couldn't keep acting cool right now, otherwise the consequences would be hard to predict.
His once-prideful soul talent was being completely restrained by the other party at this moment.
Therefore,
just like Xiao Yan earlier, between being stubborn and yielding, he wisely chose to submit to his heart.
...
The old man was called Yao Chen.
He claimed to be the continent's number one Alchemist—well, this remained to be verified, as she had never heard of it.
His appearance was quite decent: dressed in white robes with billowing sleeves, he looked aged yet exceptionally benevolent. His deep eyes exuded a wisdom that even the aura of age could not conceal, as if he had experienced all the vicissitudes of life.
Under Xiao Yue's oppressive coercion, the other party spilled everything he knew.
However,
this old man seemed somewhat unreliable, boasting to the heavens.
Things like:
This seat practiced Dou Zhi Qi at age five, became a Dou Zhe at ten—none could match him in that era; a Dou Shi at thirteen, a Grand Dou Shi at fifteen, a Dou Ling at seventeen, a Dou Wang at twenty, a Dou Huang at thirty, a Dou Zong powerhouse by forty, and at sixty a Peak Dou Zun touching the barrier of Dou Sheng, becoming the continent's number one Alchemist, and never yielding to anyone in his life, among other accolades.
Xiao Yue and Xiao Yan expressed doubt.
After all, the "XX Autobiography" books they read in the Library Pavilion were all written pretty much the same way.
They were all copied from the same mold—you couldn't say they were identical, but they were at least ten, if not nine, parts similar.
...
"Old man, you made up a good story, but there's nothing original! Also, at the end, a Dou Zun powerhouse getting backstabbed by his disciple? That's too lame! It doesn't fit the standard tropes of a wish-fulfillment autobiography at all!" Xiao Yan sat on the grass, cracking melon seeds while offering this critique.
"Mm, indeed very stupid..."
Xiao Yue sat on a chair with her legs crossed, flipping through a book in her hands, and nodded calmly.
Yao Chen: "......"
Looking at the brother and sister's indifferent attitudes, damn it, at least give some reaction!
To be honest,
Yao Chen's heart was deeply wounded right now. Having lived so long, he had never been so speechless.
Nowadays, nobody even believed the truth...
"Anyway, old man sees that both of you siblings are uniquely gifted, and I wish to take you both as disciples. What do you think?" Yao Lao said.
"Having a Dou Zun as a master is indeed pretty nice. Unfortunately, I cannot cultivate Dou Qi, so taking a master is useless..." Xiao Yue continued flipping through her book and said calmly.