---
The sun had only just begun to rise over the mist-veiled trees when Bai Tian Long sat cross-legged in the middle of his courtyard. A light wind rustled his robe, but his focus didn't waver. His mind was elsewhere — in two places at once, in fact.
One, in the real world — feeling the strain and subtle strength rising in his body.
And two, deep within the consciousness of White Fang, his Split Soul Avatar, currently coiled in a forest glade, watching birds overhead with predatory intent.
"So this is the feedback of a soul-bound avatar..."
He exhaled slowly, eyes opening to a sharp glint.
---
It had been three days since Bai Tian Long began focusing on controlling and guiding White Fang directly in hunts, while also letting Little Yan, his beast companion cub, assist and protect the avatar when needed.
At first, White Fang had been clumsy, slow. But the moment the snake began accumulating evolution points, its progress exploded. Each successful hunt — a rabbit, a wild squirrel, or a lizard — fed its talent: F-rank Devouring Evolution.
While a rabbit gave 2 points, a larger hare gave 3, and a wild boar piglet once provided 5 points. Every kill, every swallowed carcass, pushed White Fang forward — inch by inch, coil by coil.
Now, at 50 evolution points, White Fang's body had visibly transformed.
What had once been a fragile 20-centimeter white boa had now become a 2-meter-long sleek serpent. Its skin shimmered like moonlight, muscle coiled beneath its scales, and its movement through the underbrush had grown eerily smooth.
"It's nearing the peak of the mortal beast grade…"
"Just a little more," Bai Tian Long murmured to himself, "and then it will evolve into a Demon Servant."
---
Beside White Fang, Little Yan had grown, too. Though he remained a cub, the Rosegold Flame Lion was no ordinary creature.
His fangs were sharper now, claws retractable and gleaming. He had taken down a horned fox on his own and two wild dogs — his hunting instincts slowly sharpening under the guidance of Bai Tian Long and his inherited bloodline memory.
Though he didn't gain evolution points like White Fang, the beast contract feedback had begun circulating through Bai Tian Long's meridians — subtle, but present.
Still, even with that, Bai Tian Long could feel the difference.
"The feedback from White Fang is almost double what I got from Little Yan…"
It made sense. Unlike a beast companion, a Split Soul Avatar was part of his own being — a second consciousness, a twin extension of his soul. The feedback it gave wasn't just energy; it was instinct, perception, and spiritual refinement.
----
With this increase in vitality, Bai Tian Long turned his gaze inward — to his own body, once weak, now slowly responding to martial intent.
He stepped forward.
His stance dropped. Muscles clenched. He began the first movement of the Dragon Tiger Body Refinement Technique.
— First move: Rising Tiger Push!
— Second move: Coiling Dragon Guard!
With gritted teeth and searing breath, he completed both.
"Five breaths…"
He collapsed into a crouch, gasping — yet smiling.
That was progress.
Three days ago, he couldn't complete even the second movement. Now, he had not only learned it, but also refined the transitions between the two. Though it still took five breaths, it was a leap forward.
Altogether, it took him forty-five breaths to perform the entire set of eighteen movements — far from the single-breath mastery required to become an Initiate, but a start nonetheless.
He now understood why martial arts was considered a nearly impossible path to awaken a spiritual root.
"It's no wonder they say martial awakening is a hell reserved for stubborn madmen..."
But he was no ordinary child.
He had no spiritual root.
No physique of renown.
Only a system, a will, and now… an avatar.
And so, the fire kept burning.
----
After completing the final movement of the Dragon Tiger technique, he didn't return to rest. Instead, he closed his eyes again — his senses diving into the Split Soul Avatar once more.
From White Fang's eyes, he saw the sun-dappled forest.
From Little Yan's growl, he heard the stirring of prey.
And he whispered, with a soft grin:
"Eat well today, White Fang. Soon, you'll ascend. And when you do... this whole world will open to us."
A faint breeze swept across the courtyard.
In the wild, White Fang slithered toward a rustling bush. Behind him, Little Yan crouched low, muscles tensed.
The hunt continued.
The evolution surged.
And in the middle of it all, Bai Tian Long prepared…
For the day his name would echo across the heavens.
---
Far away from Bai Tian Long's quiet courtyard and forest hunts, deep beneath the Bai Family's ancestral grounds, another storm was quietly brewing.
Bai Zhenyu stood alone in a space bathed in the pale, ethereal glow of ancestral power.
He had done it.
Under crushing spiritual pressure, having battled through the first trial of the family inheritance site — a trial of endurance, might, and bloodline will — he had stepped where few of his generation could.
Boom...
With a soft internal roar, his meridians surged with power. The 10th layer of Qi Condensation, once called forbidden, shattered like thin glass before him. Every cell in his body felt reborn, reinforced under the ancient test's pressure.
His eyes opened, dark and steady.
His breath, calm as steel drawn through silk.
"The forbidden 10th layer... I finally returned to this level , I really did it."
At this moment, his physical body, tempered and refined, carried the might of a newly advanced Foundation Establishment cultivator. Though his cultivation realm had yet to truly step into Foundation Establishment, his foundation itself was firmer than most.
And now, standing at the center of the trial's glowing altar, three radiant lights flickered before him — slowly condensing into virtual images, each brimming with promise.
A pill. A herb. An egg.
His eyes scanned each.
The pill — golden, warm, and radiating condensed mana — was none other than a Foundation Establishment Pill, the dream of all Qi Condensation cultivators. Just a whiff was enough to cause ripples in his spiritual sea.
Yet he only paused for a heartbeat before moving on.
The herb — a coiling green stalk with jade-veined leaves and a glowing blue core — pulsed with nurturing vitality. Even without touching it, Bai Zhenyu could feel the tug at his spiritual wounds.
"This… If I consume it, my spiritual sea will stabilize, and my divine sense can recover. I may even directly break through to the 11th layer of Qi Condensation."
Still, even that didn't capture his full attention.
His eyes, unblinking, locked onto the third treasure — the egg.
A radiant, coiled shell covered in faint traces of blue lightning patterns.
His breath caught.
"A Thunder Serpent Egg...!"
The shell was still and silent, but the presence it exuded... majestic, ancient, feral. This wasn't just any snake. It carried the shadow of a bloodline long since vanished from the lower realms — the blood of dragon serpents. In the right hands, with the right food, it might even evolve into a Flood Dragon or beyond.
It was perfect.
"For my Iron-Spine Serpent… this is heaven's gift."
His hands trembled slightly — not out of greed, but a cold fury.
"This kind of thing… Why was it left in the first trial layer?!"
He couldn't help but inwardly curse the recklessness of his ancestors. A thunder serpent egg with dragon potential — any sect would guard it as a legacy treasure for a prodigious heir. And yet, here it lay, at the lowest level of their inheritance path, ready to be claimed by the first who passed a single trial.
"This should've been sealed away until the true awakening of our line… What were the elders thinking?"
But even as he cursed them, his heart was aflame. For all his doubts and buried bitterness about his bloodline, right now, he felt it — the stirring of fate.
He stepped forward, hand reaching toward the thunder egg with reverence.
"Don't worry, I'll hatch you. I'll raise you."
"Together, we'll shake the heavens."
"Just, It will only be your body and bloodline that will follow me"
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