The Frost Siblings
As Gu Yue's form dissolved into silver motes of light, returning to the real world to complete her spirit's ascension, the clearing felt momentarily emptier. Two minutes later, Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, and Wang Jinxi concluded their own meditation, their eyes opening with renewed vigor.
"Brother Xuan, thank you!"
"Boss, we owe you one."
"Captain, your generosity won't be forgotten."
Their gratitude was sincere, their respect deepened by his selfless leadership.
"As your captain, it's my duty," Yao Xuan replied with a modest wave. "How much progress?"
"About a century of cultivation each," Tang Wulin reported, a grin spreading across his face. The boost was substantial.
"Good. Then let's continue. While you can still absorb more, I'll focus on securing kills. Once your spirits near saturation, you'll withdraw. Understood?"
The plan was met with eager agreement. Re-tethered by Tang Wulin's Blue Silver Grass, the four of them ventured deeper into the riotous woods.
Over the next half-hour, under Yao Xuan's commanding presence, they hunted three more millennium-level soul beasts—a Thornback Boar, a Whispervine Panther, and a Gale-Winged Owl. Each fell to the overwhelming combination of Yao Xuan's millennium soul skills and the team's coordinated support. Yao Xuan claimed a total of nearly thirty Gold Evolution Points from these encounters.
True to his word, he directed the resulting spiritual energy to his teammates. For their century-level spirits, each beast's essence provided a massive infusion, pushing their cultivation toward the five-hundred-year mark. Yao Xuan's own Ancestral Dragon Spirit, requiring far denser nourishment, gained only a few years from each share, but he felt no regret. Strengthening his team was an investment in their collective future.
Eventually, Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, and Wang Jinxi signaled that their spirits were reaching capacity. With final thanks and promises to train hard during the break, they activated their beacons and vanished, leaving Yao Xuan alone in the simulated wilderness.
He didn't linger. His goal was clear: accumulate enough Gold Evolution Points for his bloodline breakthrough and maximize his spirit's growth. He moved with predator's grace, his senses extended.
Soon, he came upon a wounded beast—a Millennium Six-Armed Fire Serpent. Its six limbs flailed weakly, splattering gouts of dimming flame, its scaled body marred by deep, frost-rimmed gashes. It had clearly just survived—or fled—another brutal fight.
'Perfect. A weakened prize.'
He didn't hesitate. Channeling his blood energy, he activated the Ancestral Dragon Shattering Void Step, appearing at the serpent's flank in a blur. Soul power ignited his first purple ring.
"Sky-Rending Claw!"
His dragon-claw, sheathed in concentrated nine-colored light, descended like a falling star. It struck the junction of the serpent's skull and spine with pinpoint, annihilating force.
CRUNCH-THUD.
The creature's head practically imploded. Its body spasmed once before collapsing, the fight utterly gone from it.
A stream of pale purple spiritual energy began to rise from the corpse. Yao Xuan summoned his Ancestral Dragon Spirit, which eagerly began to ingest and refine the potent energy.
"Damn thief! How dare you steal my kill!"
The voice was sharp, laced with frost and fury. From the opposite tree line, a figure emerged.
He was a youth of seventeen or eighteen, tall and handsome in a severe way, clad in a white combat suit. In his hand, he held a staff of pale wood, crowned with an ice-blue crystal that pulsed with cold so intense it frosted the ground for meters around. Behind him floated three soul rings—two yellow, one purple. A Soul Elder, and not a weak one. His face was contorted in anger.
Behind him hovered a girl who appeared much younger, perhaps Yao Xuan's age. She had twin azure pigtails that gleamed like silk, and she clutched a staff similar to the youth's, though smaller. Her face was a delicate oval, with sparkling sapphire eyes and a hesitant, almost fearful expression that contrasted sharply with her companion's rage. A single yellow soul ring drifted behind her—a Spirit Master.
Yao Xuan recognized them instantly from the memories of the original timeline: Xu Xiaoyu, the arrogant ice-element control-type Soul Elder, and his younger sister, Xu Xiaoyan, whose mutated Starwheel Ice Staff martial soul held exceptional, yet still nascent, power. Future members of the fabled Shrek Seven Monsters.
In this moment, however, they were rivals in a deadly game.
"So, humanoid soul beasts have learned to speak now? Your evolution is impressive," Yao Xuan retorted, his voice cool and laced with deliberate mockery. He didn't move from his spot, continuing to absorb the serpent's energy. The insult was a calculated provocation, testing the young man's temper.
"You—! You will regret that!" Xu Xiaoyu's eyes flashed with icy wrath. Pride, family honor, and the sting of a stolen prize ignited his fury. "Die! Ten Thousand Blades of the Ice Wheel!"
His third, purple soul ring blazed. The crystal atop his staff erupted with light. The air screamed as dozens of vicious, serrated rings of ice—each spinning with enough force to shear through stone—materialized and shot toward Yao Xuan in a widening, deadly arc.
The attack was swift and brutal, the signature move of a proud and powerful Soul Elder. It left little room for dodging, designed to punish and dismember. Beside him, Xu Xiaoyan gasped, her knuckles white around her own staff, her eyes wide with conflict.
Yao Xuan's gaze remained steely. His absorption of the spiritual energy was nearly complete. He assessed the incoming blizzard of blades, his mind calculating trajectories, his blood humming not with fear, but with the calm, dominant energy of the Ancestral Dragon. This was no longer just a hunt for points. It was a challenge to his authority, an attack on what he had rightfully claimed.
And Yao Xuan never backed down from a challenge.