"Aaagh!"
The heavenly thunder poured into his body in a great blaze of silver light. Luo Fanchen grunted in pain, lightning crawling over every inch of him.
"Why can't I take it in his place?!"
Su Jiu'er bit down on lips drained of all color, channeling pure soul power into Luo Fanchen.
She could sense the thunder coursing through his meridians, saturated with the breath of annihilation, and her expression changed utterly. This heavenly punishment left no way out — it meant to kill.
After that single bolt fell, the punishment seemed to have spent all its strength — or perhaps Heaven, or whatever unknown being it was, judged that one stroke was enough to cripple Luo Fanchen for good. The dark clouds dispersed as if nothing had ever happened.
But the villagers and Long Tao stayed prostrate on the ground, their light-seared eyes slow to recover.
At that same moment, all across the Soul Martial Continent — in the instant Luo Fanchen's true dragon martial soul took form and the golden light broke the nine-zhang-nine limit to reach ten zhang — ordinary soul masters noticed nothing. But certain mysterious, unknown beings stirred from their slumber.
The Eastern Oasis Forest, the largest gathering place of soul beasts on the Soul Martial Continent.
In that moment, every soul beast in the forest that carried a dragon vein seemed to sense something in the unseen. Whether their cultivation spanned a hundred years, a thousand, or ten thousand, every last one dropped flat to the ground, bowing in worship toward the same direction.
That alone alarmed the seven great Soul Beast Emperors of the forest's core. There had once been eight — but the three-headed demon dragon had been missing without a trace for sixteen years.
"Big brother! What is happening?"
"What's gotten into all the dragon-line soul beasts?"
"ROOOAR!"
Suddenly the earth shuddered beneath the forbidden heart of the forest. A terrifying aura was waking — one that set even the seven Soul Beast Emperors, beings that rivaled humanity's peak powerhouses, trembling.
"It is the Master..."
"Even the Master has been roused?"
A woman's voice rang out, cold and desolate and hollow as the void, carrying a strange emotion.
"Impossible."
"How could this continent produce a dragon-race aura purer than the Dragon God's own?!"
"Whatever the cost, find the source of that aura."
"By your command!" The seven Soul Beast Emperors knelt in terror, hearts quaking as they received the order.
The Azure Dragon Empire — whose imperial clan possessed the highest beast martial soul on the whole continent: the Primordial Azure Dragon.
Court was in session at that very hour. The Primordial Azure Dragon martial souls of every direct-line royal surfaced of their own accord — and rather than bow to the Azure Dragon Emperor enthroned above them, every one of them trembled and knelt toward the same direction beyond the hall.
The assembled ministers were scared out of their wits.
The Azure Dragon Emperor felt it too — the frenzy in his bloodline, his own martial soul straining to tear free of his body.
"INSOLENCE!"
At his single roar, nine mighty rings of light surfaced at his back, pulsing up and down. The dragon throne detonated to splinters beneath him — and only then did the court hall grow still.
"Calm your wrath, Great Emperor!" The ministers dropped in fright.
The Azure Dragon Emperor crossed the hall in a single stride, stood beyond the doors gazing into the distance, and murmured:
"Strange. What in the world was that? Why did that aura vanish the instant it appeared?"
His eyes narrowed. "Attend me."
The ministers scrambled after him and knelt. "Your servants are here!"
"Send down the decree: a supreme dragon-kind treasure has emerged within our borders. Whoever finds it and presents it to the throne — this Emperor will bend the strength of the entire nation to grant him three wishes."
On a certain bustling street, every passerby covered their nose and detoured around the old beggar at the corner of a wall.
The old beggar was missing his hands and feet. He lay sprawled on the ground with his eyes shut as if dead, a broken bowl set out before his head.
Suddenly, his eyes cracked open, and he gazed into the distance.
"Clink-clang!"
Three copper coins landed in the grime-caked bowl, dragging the old beggar's gaze back. He raised his head in gratitude. "Thank you, good sir — may you be blessed with fine sons."
The coin-giver clearly wanted nothing to do with him; if anything, afraid of being latched onto, he walked faster at the sound of that voice and hurried away.
The old beggar stared at the coins in his bowl, eyes gone dull, mumbling to himself: "I am a beggar. Only a beggar. Only a beggar is all I can ever be."
With countless unknown beings roused, the Female Pontiff — leading her Holy Maiden on the soul-ring hunt a hundred li from Cloud Village — had naturally sensed that singular aura as well.
"Twice in two days, from the same direction, and each time the aura gone in a flash. How very interesting."
The Pontiff's cold lips curved as she glanced at the fresh-faced girl seated before the carcass of a Moonshadow Sky Wolf, absorbing its soul ring.
"Once Yingyue finishes absorbing that ring, it will be time to go have a look."
***
Cloud Village. Su Jiu'er's head was bowed, teeth clamped on her bloodless lip. She had done everything that could be done — she did not know whether Luo Fanchen would pull through.
"Auntie Su. I'm all right now."
A large, warm hand closed around her fair wrist. Her body trembled — she looked up into that sunlit, devastating face of an exiled immortal.
"You... you're all right?" Su Jiu'er could hardly believe it. She had never imagined Luo Fanchen could actually survive a heavenly punishment that terrible, that anomalous.
"Good thing you're all right too, Auntie Su — and so are my clothes. Otherwise I'd be standing here bare-assed in front of the whole village." Luo Fanchen flashed an easy grin.
"THAT'S what you're worried about?" Su Jiu'er laughed through her tears — then immediately stuffed the laugh back down and reassembled her cool composure. "Honestly, you're too reckless. Nine zhang nine of golden light was already magnificent. Don't be greedy."
"Yes, yes. Whatever Auntie Su says is right."
Luo Fanchen dared not talk back right now. This woman had spanked his little backside plenty of times when he was small — he remembered every single one, and sooner or later he'd pay it all back, take a little leather whip to that pert bottom of hers.
Still, after what he'd just been through, it would be a lie to say he wasn't shaken. Then again — if top-grade fortune plus the Immaculate Immortal Physique could be casually struck dead by one heavenly punishment, the System might as well recall itself to the factory as counterfeit goods.
What Luo Fanchen didn't know was that the punishment had, in a twist, scoured away the dragon aura of his martial soul awakening — otherwise, countless ancient monsters would already be swarming toward him along its scent.
As the aura of the heavenly punishment faded, the villagers found their feet and their eyesight one after another.
When Long Tao saw Luo Fanchen still standing there whole — clothes not so much as scorched — his eyes bulged like he'd seen a ghost in broad daylight.
"You..."
"You're not dead?"
"Should I be?" Luo Fanchen asked back.
"No!"
Long Tao suddenly kicked off the ground and came charging in ferociously. Su Jiu'er sidestepped, ready to shield Luo Fanchen.
Then Long Tao did the last thing anyone expected.
He leapt high under the blazing sun, dropped into a crisp, practiced knee-slide, and skidded across the dirt to a stop directly in front of Luo Fanchen.
One seamless motion.
His forehead hit the ground with an audible crack.
"Temple Deacon Long Tao was blind as a bat! For the filth I spouted earlier — I beg your forgiveness. I truly deserve death!"
The display broke Su Jiu'er's brain entirely.
I hadn't even moved yet, and you've already knelt?
The villagers' jaws hung open, faces comical. Holy hell! This — this was the swaggering, insufferable Lord Long Tao from an hour ago?
Even Luo Fanchen was speechless. The man was simply shameless beyond reason.
Kneel fast enough, and no one can knock you down before you're already on the ground?
Now every eye turned to see how Luo Fanchen would deal with him.
Luo Fanchen spoke:
"Get up. Small men have a small man's way of surviving. Anyone with a mouth full of virtue and righteousness wouldn't last three days in a world where the strong eat the weak."
"But man or dog, one thing you don't do is forget your roots. Remember where you came from."
"What! You mean to let me off this easily?"
Long Tao's whole body jolted. His eyes went wide even as something thoughtful moved behind them, as if to say: you can offend a great personage in this world and still walk away with THIS kind of outcome?
Then, with a thud, he cracked his forehead open on the ground and blurted:
"Perhaps you should take one of my hands after all — if you let me off just like this, I won't walk away easy in my heart!"
"Is there something seriously wrong with your head?" The curse was barely out of Luo Fanchen's mouth when it hit him — this wasn't Earth anymore. The man wasn't sick; this was simply how the world looked through his eyes. The strong devouring the weak was everywhere. Power was everything.
The villagers watching from the side had gone numb — and beneath the numbness, something bitter and aching.
It was exactly as Long Tao had said. The Temple deacon who strutted and roared over people like them turned, before the strong and the talented, into a groveling lapdog. Reality, dripping red.
In that moment, Luo Fanchen's resolve set hard: become strong. Only the strong had dignity in this world. And if it ever lay within his power — he wanted to try changing the diseased thinking these people lived under, even a little.
Since Heaven had handed him talent like this — yes, meals must be eaten and beauties must be charmed, but a man ought to do SOMETHING with it, or what was the point of crossing worlds at all?
Long Tao finally rose, eyes brimming with reverence, heart pounding with excitement.
Ten zhang of golden light!
And the martial soul — a TRUE DRAGON!!
He had discovered a peerless prodigy. His own rise was riding on this now.
"My lord, I have already sent word out through a special channel. Someone senior from the Divine Temple will come to receive you very soon."
Long Tao rubbed his hands together in excitement and swept an arm in invitation. "Shall we test your martial soul's precise rank now? The golden light alone may not be exact."
"Fine."
Luo Fanchen walked to the bronze pillar and poured in the soul power newly born from his awakening.
"SWISH!"
The bronze pillar shuddered and blazed with brilliant light.
One color. Three colors.
Five colors.
Seven colors!
Radiance bloomed layer upon layer — in moments the bronze pillar shone with nine bands of light.
"A nine-colored martial soul — born Rank Nine, a supreme martial soul!" Long Tao stared without blinking, fists clenched, half-dead with envy.
The crowd was stunned — and yet everyone found themselves waiting for something more.
Sure enough: from the heart of those nine colors rose a band of mysterious, regal black-gold. The bronze pillar erupted with TEN colors of light, blazing out in all directions.
"Legend says Rank Nine is the limit. Rank Ten..." Long Tao's voice died in his throat. He didn't dare imagine what kind of monstrous martial soul this was.
Even beaten to death, Su Jiu'er would never have guessed it either — that the little husband who fell out of the sky would carry talent this terrifying.
She had gone from keeping a kept man... to, apparently, being the kept woman herself.
Not long after, space itself cracked open above the Cloud Village square, a doorway tearing into being — and two figures stepped out of it...