My Arts Evolve When Perfected

'Perhaps this is what makes Snow so special.'

SWOOSH—

As the thought flashed through his mind, the two vanished on the spot, entering the Secret Realm directly. High above the vastness of time and space, the will of the Dusk Holy Ruins, which surveyed all living beings from on high, trembled slightly. "The Dragon Emperor's will... a complete inheritance... This should be enough to account for things..."

....

When Jiang Qiu opened his eyes again, he was met with a blast of cold wind. He glanced around, but there was nothing. Even Snow was gone. He was completely alone!

"What's going on? Snow, where are you?!"

He shouted out, his voice spreading into the mist but failing to travel far. After taking a few steps, he found he was still surrounded by it.

Now, he couldn't sense a thing. The mist seemed to have stripped him down to a mere mortal, returning him to how he was on Blue Star before he ever began practicing Martial Arts.

Yes, here in the mist, Jiang Qiu's connection to the Dao and all his Spirit Charm were completely blocked. He no longer possessed the power to traverse space and time in the blink of an eye, nor could he command his Spirit Charm. He couldn't even sense his immediate surroundings.

All that was left was his Dragon Body!

A strange sensation washed over him, and Jiang Qiu's heart trembled. He spun around, but there was only white mist in every direction. He felt like an old, caged beast, utterly helpless.

'How is this Secret Realm so bizarre?!'

HISS—

A piercing pain shot through him. Jiang Qiu suddenly felt an immense pressure bearing down from all sides as his body was continuously refined, and refined, and refined again!

Yes, this constant refinement was like a youth being hammered down into an infant. His sinews, bones, and bloodline were all transforming under the tempering. His bones, already so tough that it was hard to imagine any tougher in the entire Primordial world cluster, were now being refined even further. His supreme Dragon Race bloodline, too, was undergoing yet another refinement!

'What kind of transformation could possibly occur from further refining an already pure Dragon Race bloodline?'

Jiang Qiu didn't know; he actually knew very little of the Dragon Race's heritage. Snow might have known more than him, but she was gone now. Along with her, the connection he felt to her deep within his soul had also been severed.

An inexplicable loneliness washed over Jiang Qiu. His complex consciousness was being compressed under the grinding force of a Dao Law. It seemed the white mist was collapsing, his physical body was collapsing, and his very soul was collapsing.

The scene before his eyes grew blurry. The white mist turned red—a crimson hue like the far shore of the river of the dead. Then, it turned as black as ink, and a thick, viscous sensation enveloped him.

Everything felt wet. Yes, very wet. It was the last sensation Jiang Qiu had left. His sight was regressing, and he seemed to see golden light bursting forth from within a black liquid. A ceaseless stream of a special Spirit Charm poured in from all directions, flooding into his now immeasurably tiny body.

This Spirit Charm was unlike any he had ever encountered. It was unfamiliar yet utterly pure, like the first drop of morning dew after a thick fog lifts and chaos is broken. It held no impurities; it was absolutely pristine.

Any living creature could absorb it, using it to forge an extraordinary body. Indeed, this Spirit Charm was too pure—so pure it made Jiang Qiu slightly uncomfortable. He had a feeling that if beings like Venerable Zuo Xuan or the Giant God King were to encounter such pristine Spirit Charm, they would crave it desperately!

Even someone like Zuo Xuan, who had already reached the peak of his Realm and had no path left but Transcendence, would surely benefit from this pure Spirit Charm.

'It's as if all the Spirit Charm absorbed in the outside world is diluted and full of impure Spirit Attributes. Only the Spirit Charm here is the real deal!'

Jiang Qiu no longer knew how to describe the feeling. He just felt as though he had returned to the very beginning of all things, an infant born of heaven and earth.

Amidst a flash of countless memories, like a revolving lantern, he saw an illusory figure flipping through the annals of time. The figure paid him no mind, yet every page within that history felt both familiar and strange.

It was like a being that spanned all of eternity was looking down upon the ages. Jiang Qiu watched from the side, unable to see its true face. It was so immense, reminding him of when he received the Cyan Simurgh Palace's inheritance in the Northern Boundary; there was always a towering, boundless figure whispering in his ear.

Of course, this figure was countless times more formidable than those masters. He could only imagine what would happen if it were to so much as glance at his soul...

*Click.* Suddenly, he felt his soul being watched. Jiang Qiu's eyes widened in horror, feeling as if they might tear apart at the seams. It felt like a giant hand had seized his heart, which now hammered against his ribs. BANG, BANG, BANG.

Countless eons of history pulled away from him. Even that memory sealed in the deepest part of his soul was stripped out, transcending both soul and body to be recorded in the annals of time.

In a fleeting glimpse, Jiang Qiu saw many memories he had never personally experienced, all of which were snatched away by the mysterious, towering being.

"Your Eminence, go back. Your path is not yet finished."

He didn't know who was whispering in his ear as his consciousness faded to silence once more. In his vision, the figure that stood above all living things, flipping through the annals of time, grew blurry until Jiang Qiu could no longer tell if it was male or female.

'Or was it even a living being at all? What was it?'

Uncertain...

The final word held down the last wisp of Jiang Qiu's consciousness. Instantly, his soul was dragged downward, falling from the endless heavens, plummeting through the clouds, through the sky, through the morning mist, and descending upon the mountains and great marshes below.

CRACK—

A sound like splitting bamboo, sharp as a thunderclap, rang out. Cracks spiderwebbed across a giant Dragon Egg, and the golden light that erupted from within seemed to herald the birth of the world's noblest bloodline.

In the blink of an eye, dark clouds gathered overhead. A torrential downpour began, washing over the entire forest again and again. Among the trees, squirrels scurried for cover, gophers poked their heads out of their burrows, wolves cowered in their dens, and great tiger beasts prostrated themselves on the ground.

An invisible pressure permeated the air.

A heavenly omen appeared. Thunder flashed, and amidst the daze, a world-shaking Dragon's Roar echoed. The torrential rain seemed to scour the world of all its filth. Then, with another *click*, a small claw pierced the Dragon Egg and poked out. A bear hiding nearby trembled in fright. He hadn't meant to be here; he'd simply discovered the egg earlier, thought it peculiar, and wanted to see what it was. He had no idea what was inside, but it had suddenly started cracking, and now a claw was actually sticking out!

The Bear Demon's spirit quaked. He desperately wanted to flee, but the sudden flashes of lightning and roars of thunder had scared him witless. The downpour had drenched him to the bone, and his entire body trembled. He crouched stealthily behind a large tree, cautiously observing the Dragon Egg.

He didn't know how long the egg had been here or who had laid it, but the pressure it contained was terrifying. One might not encounter such fearsome pressure even in the Second Celestial Realm!

Such a celestial phenomenon might occur in the First Celestial Realm, but for it to be caused merely by a creature hatching from an egg... that was just unbelievable!

The Bear Demon was still lost in thought and suspicion when another *click* reached his ears. A second claw broke through the Dragon Egg. Working together, the two claws pried open the top half of the shell. At last, the powerful being nurtured within was born: a small beast, about four feet tall!

The beast had an innate, humanoid form, the bearing of the most intelligent of all creation. There were small bumps on its head, like nascent horns. Though it was just a hatchling, its teeth were already sharp. A golden light swirled in its large eyes, which held a pressure far beyond that of a newborn.

He had a pair of claws for hands and a pair of clawed feet. A flick of his small tail was enough to stir a breeze.

The heavy rain parted around him; not a single drop landed on his body to wet his skin. When his feet touched the mud, they remained unstained by the grime of this world.

'What... on earth is this creature?'

The Bear Demon's spirit trembled. He searched his inherited memories, tracing his bloodline back through the ages. Even in the Supreme Celestial Realm where the Demon Gods dwelled, he could find no record of such a creature.

'From which Celestial Realm did this egg fall?'

'Who sent it down?'

'And why was it sent down?'

The Bear Demon had no answers to these questions. And Jiang Qiu, having just opened his eyes, stared right at him, a look of confusion brewing in their depths.