[Year Eighteen, age thirty-seven.]

[Extracting trait...]

[Extraction successful!]

["Green Giant" (Purple Epic): When you are angry, you can sacrifice part of your sanity to gain greater strength and size. Sanity can be reduced down to 20%, and strength/size can increase up to 100%.]

[Would you like to adjust the trait?]

[Yes/No]

"Huh? Anger? Grow bigger?"

Chen Yi realized he could become larger.

And that previous trait he drew, "Irritable Constitution," suddenly found a use.

Right now "Heartsteel" lets him reach a body size of over twenty meters, and with Green Giant stacked, he could break through forty meters!

"Forty meters? That would be... Yurutuman!"

This year's trait choices did need adjustment, but "Green Giant" would have to wait in line for now.

[You replaced "Asian Evil Art" with "Chinese-Style Succubus".]

[You didn't explain much to Li Lingyue, you simply told her to come with you to the Southern Borderlands, that you could help put her on the martial path.]

[That one sentence was enough.]

[Even though you had only just met her, Li Lingyue would stake her life on that promise.]

[She was desperate for power.]

["I don't want the people near me to keep dying because I'm weak! I want those who control my life to pay for their arrogance!"]

Hatred is a painful thing.

You didn't want Li Lingyue to carry hatred forever, but such an experience would undoubtedly help her growth.

You and Li Lingyue came to the Southern Borderlands to look for Hua Wuyan.

On the journey you didn't fly, you rode a horse, so you could spend more time with Li Lingyue.

And you only rode one horse — of course that horse was Black Wind.

The two of you sat on the same horse every day, so being in such close quarters for so long, the consequences were obvious.

Before falling in love with you, Li Lingyue had been won over by your personality.

After falling in love, she was completely conquered by you.

"Chen Lang, is the master who can lead me onto the martial path really here?"

Southern Borderlands, Phoenix Mountain, Soul-Severing Cliff, the place where the Stainless Flower of the Five Regions blooms.

You and Li Lingyue came here again.

"Yes, there's a very important heavenly material here, she must appear here, but..."

But when you calculated the timing, you realized you were two years late.

Fortunately, as soon as you got close, you smelled the familiar aroma of a supreme treasure.

Although your divine sense swept the area and found no one else, you knew Hua Wuyan was here.

She was a human Guardian, a Martial God powerhouse, and she could easily block divine sense detection.

You carried Li Lingyue and jumped from the cliff into the familiar cave.

Inside, you saw Hua Wuyan holding an ordinary-looking stick, stirring some kind of medicinal brew in a filthy big cauldron.

There was firewood burning under the cauldron.

The potion bubbled and hissed.

The wooden stick stirred, giving off a pungent smell.

"Junior disciple Chen Yi pays respect, Senior Hua!"

Hua Wuyan glanced at you and continued boiling medicine.

"You know me?"

"Back when near the Hundred Death Mountains in the Great Wastes Forbidden Land, I witnessed you quelling a riot."

"Oh... I remember, the kid playing with the Ten Thousand Souls Banner nearby was you."

Your brow twitched.

The Ten Thousand Souls Banner was a taboo term, a notoriously evil artifact that everyone sought to destroy.

Hua Wuyan saying it so casually clearly showed she didn't care whether the Ten Thousand Souls Banner was in your hands.

You introduced Li Lingyue to Hua Wuyan.

You explained that Li Lingyue had a Sealed Saint Body, and only needed a single Stainless Flower to awaken her sacred physique, and you hoped Hua Wuyan would take her as a disciple.

Hua Wuyan couldn't help but laugh.

"Little one, you appear out of nowhere, bring a mysteriously strange girl, and then out of nowhere ask me to take her as a disciple? Why should I?"

"If disaster comes to the human world, and if Li Lingyue can grow up and unite the Southern Borderlands' forces, she will be of great help against enemies!"

"You're only a Martial King, how can you declare the human world will face calamity?"

Without a word, you produced the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and released Hu Chacha.

"Eh..."

Hua Wuyan sensed something new in the cave.

She dipped her right hand into the cauldron's potion, then rubbed it on her eyes. Immediately both her eyes spat forth green light.

Under that green light, the soul-form Hu Chacha manifested!

Even the purely mortal Li Lingyue saw it.

Li Lingyue hid behind you and peeked out with half a head to look at Hu Chacha.

"What kind of monster is that..."

Hu Chacha tried to conceal his breath, then attempted to flee while you and Hua Wuyan were off guard.

Hua Wuyan thrust out a palm and several talisman seals flew from her palm, sealing Hu Chacha in place.

"Old witch! Let me go! Hear me!"

Hua Wuyan sighed.

"The Dragon-Man tribe, they've come."

"It seems you expected this, Senior."

"Now among the strong races of the Void Realm, everyone is starting a world war, and the Dragon-Man tribe is among the foremost.

Even if the Dragon-Man tribe did not come, others with ambition would arrive.

All the Void Realm will face catastrophe.

It will be a matter of who can laugh last."

You felt ironically that the battle royale was everywhere.

"Senior, there's no need to worry. As long as you find seven Martial Gods and enact the Seven Luminaries Immortal Array, the human world can survive this catastrophe."

"Seven Luminaries Immortal Array? What is that?"

"Senior, don't joke. Didn't you create that array yourself?"

"Never heard of it."

You froze.

Could it be that the Seven Luminaries Immortal Array was something Hua Wuyan obtained later?

At this point in time, she still hadn't seen this array?

You picked up a stick and roughly sketched the array's shape.

"You haven't seen this array?"

"Indeed, I have not."

For something this important, Hua Wuyan had no reason to lie to you.

"Even if it exists, you won't be able to gather seven Martial Gods in today's human world."

"So I hope, Senior, that you will accept Li Lingyue as a disciple. Perhaps she can break through to Martial God before the enemies arrive!"

Hua Wuyan laughed.

"I once divined that a person who could inherit my legacy would appear here, so I have been refining pills and passing the time, waiting for her.

But training a Martial God is so difficult that even I cannot promise this girl will definitely reach Martial God in the future."

Refining pills?

You looked at that bubbling brew.

This was some primitive alchemy.

It seemed that meeting Hua Wuyan in this cave today was not luck, but because she had long been waiting here.

"Senior, could you, since I brought the disciple to you, grant me a small favor?"

"I know what you mean. If what you say about the array is true, what harm would one more battle for the human world do? This is my duty after all."

You guessed the effect of "Chinese-Style Succubus" had already done its work. Before you even finished inviting, Hua Wuyan agreed to be one of the Seven Luminaries.

"Junior actually only wants a Stainless Flower, dried is fine."