C1425 Secretly Bestow
Above the sea at the bottom of Wintermaw.
Su Yan's Lunar Spirit drifted through an area thick with shadow energy.
Nearby, female cultivators from Winter's Bite and the Cloudwater Sect also roamed with their Lunar Spirits.
Not far from their spirited forms, an ice-cold magic boat floated. Their real bodies, encased in egg-shaped barriers of spiritual energy, sat in silence aboard the vessel.
Though a Lunar Spirit can briefly separate from the body, it must not stray too far.
Moreover, once separated, the Lunar Spirit soon grows weary and increasingly ethereal, requiring timely return to the body for rejuvenation.
The group maintained a thirty-mile distance between their Lunar Spirits and the frigid magic boat, careful not to separate too much from their physical forms to prevent any mishaps.
As Su Yan's wraith-like form hovered in the deep sea, she suddenly heard a voice beckoning her to explore...
The voice resonated deep within her Lunar Spirit, stirring a sense of familiarity, yet when she tried to pinpoint it, the memory eluded her.
"Li Ying, did you hear anything?"
She projected a remnant soul to a fellow female cultivator from the Cloudwater Sect nearby.
"No."
Li Ying, her soul's form slightly plump, shook her head and cast a reproachful glance, "Don't get distracted by fantasies and miss out on condensing the Yin Qi during this precious opportunity."
Su Yan chose to remain silent.
Together with her companions, her Lunar Spirit continued to absorb minuscule particles of shadow energy, integrating them into the depths of her soul to refine her spirit.
But the call came again, growing more familiar by the moment.
After a brief hesitation, Su Yan, seeing the others engrossed in their cultivation, stealthily moved toward the source of the voice without a word.
Moments later.
A surge of exceptionally pure shadow energy burst forth from the deep sea below her soul's form.
Whoosh!
The Yin Qi was incredibly dense, infused with the power of the Root of the Lunar Meridian, and it flooded into her spirited body's Lunar Spirit!
Su Yan's physical form shuddered on the ice-cold magic boat as her eyes snapped open, brimming with wild joy.
She vividly sensed the robust shadow energy that had erupted, coursing through every meridian of her Lunar Spirit in an instant, purifying her soul!
Many of the Abyssal Dawn's intricate Spirit Magic seemed to be awakened, illuminating Su Yan's Mindscape with a sudden brilliance. Both her Lunar Spirit and her real body were filled with excitement. She believed that her journey to the Frozen Hellscape had been a wise decision. She felt as though she had received a blessing and stumbled upon a great opportunity.
"Su Yan, where have you been? Why is your Lunar Spirit shining?" Li Ying from the Cloudwater Sect exclaimed upon witnessing Su Yan's Lunar Spirit suddenly appear, radiating a faint green glow.
The onlookers from Winter's Bite and Cloudwater Sect also noticed the marvels surrounding her and marveled at the sight.
"It seems I've encountered my own fortune," Su Yan said with a smile.
...
On the other side of the abyss, the distinctive Loong Tianxiao retracted his unique draconic form, assuming the appearance of a rugged, human-like man. Dragon horns adorned his forehead, identical in hue to those of Loong Jie.
Having devoured a low-level frost wyrm, he had parted ways with the rest of the Sword Sect. Now, he roamed alone, curious to see if other ice-attuned Fellbeasts lurked nearby.
He was acutely aware that Kong Banbi's slightly favorable treatment was only because of his association with Chen Qingyan. The Sword Sect's younger members who accompanied him clearly looked down on him. Although he possessed Naga blood, he wasn't a pure dragon; he was a hybrid.
In the Everlands, the dragon bloodline was not something to be proud of. Sects like the Sword Sect, considered upper echelons of power, felt an innate superiority over the dragons of Dragon Lake, let alone a hybrid like him.
Loong Tianxiao sighed inwardly, increasingly convinced that his decision to follow Qingyan and join the Sword Sect had been a mistake. Back in Gloomhollow of the Serpent Spine Mountains, he had been desperate and, with Yu Yuan's introduction, had been reluctantly accepted by Qingyan into the Sword Sect.
Within the sect, even the swordsmen of the Stardust Blade lineage treated him with indifference, not to mention those from other factions. Since joining the Sword Sect, he had never been summoned by Ji Ningshuang. The leader of this lineage clearly did not regard him, an outsider, as worthy of attention.
It wasn't until the news that Yu Yuan was the God of Medicine, Hong Qi, spread throughout the Everlands that Ji Ningshuang had the chance to meet him once. At that moment, Loong Tianxiao came to the realization that the leader of their faction was finally acknowledging him due to his connection with Yu Yuan.
"If I had known this would happen, I would have stayed in the Moonfall Sanctuary. Maybe then I could have joined the ranks of Boulderdawn," he mused to himself.
Suddenly, a colossal force, a blend of ice energy and shadow energy, roared in from the distance like a frost wyrm, barreling straight towards him.
Whoosh!
The immense power surged into his chest and burst forth like a downpour, scattering droplets of pure energy. Among them shimmered golden specks, carrying the dragon's breath of a golden dragon!
Loong Tianxiao's body trembled violently, and he was taken aback. This beneficial force for his flesh and soul had arrived so unexpectedly and extraordinarily.
He had no idea what had transpired. It was as though he had been graced by divine favor, as if some deity had taken notice of him.
...
Qin Yun's Solar Spirit resembled red granite, with natural flame patterns slowly emerging across its surface. Each pattern represented a flame arcane that Qin Yun had mastered, which he imprinted onto the Solar Spirit Body, embedding them into his flesh to enhance the potency of his flame techniques in the future.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
His Solar Spirit swung its arms, the movements stiff as it acclimated to its new form. The waters of the Frozen Hellscape were intermittently allowed through the light curtain, dousing the Solar Spirit and hissing as they quenched the excessive flames.
Whenever the inner fire of the Solar Spirit reached a peak, the seawater was there to soothe it.
"It's progressing smoothly," observed Taruer, idly sitting to the side. She watched Qin Yun's Solar Spirit take shape and saw the new body being tempered by the seawater again and again.
Having accompanied Qin Yun through repeated soul purifications in the Land of Terror, she was confident there would be no issues with his breakthrough. Everything was unfolding just as she had envisioned.
"Eh!"
She abruptly rose to her feet, her gaze cautiously sweeping over the sea behind her as she sensed an odd psionic power emerge without warning.
Deep within this bizarre energy lay a potent ice energy, and also... the refined shadow energy she knew so well!
Within the shadow energy, there seemed to be traces of the Root of the Solar Meridian!
Before Taruer could react or prepare a defense, the strange psionic power surged through the light array and reached Qin Yun.
Qin Yun's real body and Solar Spirit quivered slightly, then turned to Taruer, Tong Laoqian, and Tan Yuan with astonishment.
"Who else is secretly watching over me, aside from you all?" he inquired with curiosity.
Tong Laoqian, Tan Yuan, and Taruer exchanged bewildered glances.
"You don't know?"
"We have no idea!"
...
"He's as loyal and righteous as ever; I certainly wasn't wrong about him."
A figure in a white robe approached, a Lunar Spirit capable of withstanding the peculiar chill of the abyss, unscathed by the seven pits.
This was Zhou Cangmin, the current Hellbreed of the Ruby Hand.
Informed by Hou Tianzhao's message, he knew Yu Yuan would surely come here and had even sought permission from his Sect Master...
Only after receiving approval did he come here, his Lunar Spirit gliding in stealthily.
He observed Yu Yuan skillfully extracting strands of the cold psionic power, deftly controlling them with his soul, and integrating them into his own strength before bestowing them upon Su Yan, Loong Tianxiao, and Qin Yun.
Qin Yun was understandable, but Su Yan and Loong Tianxiao had no deep ties with Yu Yuan.
That Yu Yuan would remember old friendships even for these two left Zhou Cangmin quite astonished.
Nevertheless, Yu Yuan's actions brought him comfort; he knew that Yu Yuan remained unchanged.
