"Yes, Uncle. I was lucky enough to break through a few days ago."
Standing right in front of the black stone monument, Xiao Ting raised his fist and struck it, guiding his Battle Qi precisely with his soul power.
[Dou Practitioner: One Star]
Once again, the towering black monument flared with brilliant light, and golden characters appeared.
"Good. Good!" Xiao Zhan's heart surged with wild joy.
One was a not-yet-fifteen-year-old One-Star Dou Practitioner.
The other had become a Dou Practitioner at eleven, wasted three years, then regained his talent stronger than before, jumping five full stages of Battle Qi in a year.
With Xiao Ting and Xiao Yan, how could the Xiao Clan not rise again!?
"—Hiss!"
What Xiao Zhan could think of, the high-level representatives from the other forces in Wu Tan City could naturally think of as well.
So long as even one of the two—Xiao Ting or Xiao Yan—truly rose, the Xiao Clan could not only regain its former standing from ten years ago, but might grow even stronger.
"Looks like we'll need to find more chances to get close to the Xiao Clan." They all thought silently.
Giving help in times of need was always better than adding flowers to a brocade. If they worked hard to befriend the Xiao Clan now, when the clan rose again, they could bask in the reflected glory.
As for the bit of face Xiao Yu had cost the Xiao Clan—after Xiao Ting displayed his cultivation talent, that was no longer worth mentioning.
"Yu'er, step down." The Second Elder spoke sharply, barely suppressing his displeasure.
Xiao Yu clenched her fists tightly, her face full of unwillingness.
But recalling Xiao Ting's words, she realized she was not just shaming the clan, but also Jia Nan Academy. She forced herself to back down.
"Xiao Yan, just you wait." Leaving that one line, Xiao Yu went to support her brother Xiao Ning and departed with him.
"Tch, so unreasonable," Xiao Yan muttered under his breath.
Xiao Ting turned his head to look at him, a trace of amusement in his eyes.
He said nothing, yet it was more eloquent than a thousand words.
Xiao Yan rubbed his nose on reflex. "That crazy woman is always nit-picking. How come she never nit-picks you?"
The corner of Xiao Ting's mouth twitched. "Cousin, I promised Xun'er I'd cook ten dishes for her. I'll head off first."
"Ten dishes?" Xiao Yan's eyes lit up, and he grinned. "You breaking through to Dou Practitioner, and me reaching eighth-stage Battle Qi—we should celebrate. I'll pay; you just add a few more dishes."
Hearing this, Xiao Ting gave him a strange look. "Cousin, you still haven't paid back the money you borrowed from me."
"Don't bring that up; it's meaningless." Xiao Yan laughed loudly to cover his embarrassment.
"And the light bulb you mentioned last time—was that meaningful?" Xiao Ting asked with a straight face.
"…Forget it. Forget it. You two enjoy your little world together; I'll celebrate with your uncle instead." Xiao Yan waved him off with exaggerated disgust.
This brat and Xun'er were like a match made in heaven. Sometimes a few casual words from them were enough to infuriate him.
"I'm off then." With a casual flourish, Xiao Ting turned and left, not forgetting to make a little hand gesture toward Xun'er.
The hearts of the surrounding boys and girls all shattered on the spot.
"Brother Xiao Ting seems… a little different." Xun'er smiled, but confusion flickered in her gaze.
Ever since Xiao Yan became a waste, Xiao Ting, like Xiao Zhan, Xiao Ding, and Xiao Li, had been worried about his cousin's future. His smile had grown rarer, as if he were carrying heavy burdens.
But now, Xiao Ting gave her the feeling that he'd shed his shackles and relaxed.
"In the end, that's a good thing." Xun'er didn't dwell on it. She turned with a smile and left the square.
She needed to prepare a congratulatory gift for Xiao Ting's breakthrough to Dou Practitioner.
Her Brother Xiao Ting was a dual-fire-and-lightning attribute cultivator. Should she give him a low-tier Earth-level cultivation method, or a high-tier Earth-level one?
A Heaven-tier method would be unsuitable; he wouldn't dare use it, and it would scare him.
…
Meanwhile, Xiao Ting returned straight to his own small, separate courtyard and entered his cultivation chamber.
After closing the heavy stone door, he sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion and sank his consciousness into his mind, focusing on the Great Dao Journal.
In an instant, he felt himself arrive in that strange world again, where an endless sea of cloud-like mist stretched beyond sight.
"This is… Origin Qi!?" Xiao Ting's heart pounded wildly.
The Dou Qi Continent had already entered a late-era, declining age. It was an old, worn continent.
Thousands of years ago, at its peak, numerous Dou Gods had emerged, each leaving behind their clans.
Even as late as a thousand years ago, eight great Ancient Clans still existed. Now, the standouts, the Gu Clan and the Hun Clan, were considered minor Ancient Clans in the eyes of the Ancient Dragon Emperor Zhu Kun—a testament to how far they'd fallen.
The core reason for the Dou Qi Continent's decline lay in the exhaustion of Origin Qi.
The energy of heaven and earth had thinned and lost its purity. Even the occasional peerless talent who reached peak Nine-Star Dou Saint could no longer break through.
Now, he, Xiao Ting, already held the key to becoming a Dou God—he only had to reach peak Dou Saint.
"I need to think of a way to get my hands on the Tou She Ancient God's Jade." Xiao Ting's thoughts whirled.
It was common knowledge that the Hun Clan had spent over a thousand years plotting to seize the Emperor Grade Embryonic Pill in Tou She Ancient God Mansion.
To open that mansion, all eight pieces of the Tou She Ancient God's Jade had to be gathered and recombined into a key.
Which meant that as long as a single piece of the Tou She Ancient God's Jade was missing, the Hun Clan would be unable to open the mansion.
When that time came, he, Xiao Ting, would be the only one on this continent able to step into the realm of Dou God.
Suppressing that line of thought for now, Xiao Ting turned his attention to studying the Great Dao Journal.
After carefully reading the instructions, his expression turned a bit odd. "So this is basically asking me to keep a diary?"
But the more he thought about it, the less that seemed accurate. Diaries mostly recorded one's own experiences and feelings.
This Great Dao Journal seemed to emphasize recording the things he observed.
It wasn't a diary—it was a field log for an observer.
"So long as it's factual, I can treat it like a diary and record my own experiences, or I can play historian and only record major events around me."
"I probably transmigrated because of this thing."
"'World Observer,' huh? Interesting."
As his cultivation realm rose, the world visible to his eyes would broaden, and what he recorded would become more and more extraordinary.
"Still, I can't just write anything."
"It has to be closely tied to this plane."
"Otherwise, why would the plane or the Great Thousand World grant me blessings?"
With that thought, Xiao Ting knew exactly what he should write.
Barring any surprises, his cousin Xiao Yan was the Child of Fate of this plane—perhaps even of the entire Great Thousand World.
Centering his records around the Child of Fate and observing the world from that vantage point would surely be correct.
"Then I'll start from today."
Closing his eyes, Xiao Ting meditated, shaping his soul power into a brush and beginning to write in the Great Dao Journal.
…
At the same time, within the Tager Desert in the eastern province of the Jia Ma Empire—
Far beneath the sands east of Stone Desert City, several thousand meters down in a world of molten lava—
A veiled figure was descending ever deeper, until she stepped into a zone suffused with blue-green light.
In that boundless molten world, a lotus of cyan flame grew upon the molten lake. It had eight petals, each as perfect and translucent as carved jade, dazzling beyond belief.
"Green Lotus Core Flame. This queen's senses were indeed correct."
Beneath her veil, the woman's exquisite face blossomed into a bright smile.
Just as she was about to step closer and admire it, her pupils suddenly constricted.
In front of the core flame, ripples spread through the air. An ancient-aura book appeared out of nowhere, as if projected from the beginning of time itself.
Several large characters were written across its cover:
[Great Dao Journal of Xiao Ting (Queen Medusa's Observer Copy)]
…