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--- Chapter 244 ---
"T-This is..."
Yafei stared blankly at the silver coin in her palm, feeling confused by the martial soul she awakened. After seeing how impressive the Frost Dragon Halberd that her grand uncle awakened was, she thought she'd awaken some powerful martial soul, but no.
A silver coin, a coin made of pure silver with unique reliefs on each side, one is a beautiful lotus, and the other is an unknown beast with its maw open.
"Um, don't be discouraged, Yafei. Remember, Han Yuan said that even a low-level martial soul can grow stronger." Hai Bodong wanted to comfort his grand niece. "Or maybe, your coin spirit is special."
Queen Medusa frowned at the silver coin. While the Frost Dragon Halberd is impressive, the powers she inherited from her ancestors sensed there was something unique about Yafei's martial soul.
"It's not an ordinary coin for sure..." said the queen of snake-people.
"The space is warping around the coin." Han Yuan commented all of a sudden. "Yafei, your coin has its own gravitational pull."
Yafei blinked her eyes as she played with the silver coin, "But I don't feel anything."
"Throw that coin to Senior Hai." Han Yuan smiled faintly.
"Come on, let me see how heavy this silver coin is!" Hai Bodong patted his chest excitedly.
"Okay." Yafei rubbed the silver coin with a not-so-excited expression and then tossed it with her thumb toward Hai Bodong.
Ting!
The silver coin spun rapidly as it flew toward Hai Bodong.
Hai Bodong looked down at the silver coin and pretentiously raised his left palm to catch it. However, soon, he came to regret this decision because a tremendous force of momentum not only broke his arm but also sent him flying several meters away.
BAM!
"Wha-! ARRRGH!"
Hai Bodong's cries echoed in the desert.
The silver coin deflected and landed not far away, making a massive dent in the frozen-sealed desert. A small pillar of dust rose immediately.
Crack! BOOOOOOM!!
"..." Han Yuan.
"..." Queen Medusa.
"..." Yafei.
Yafei looked at her hand and then at the cracked hole, "I-I did that?"
...
[Name: Silver Crest Coin]
[Type/Grade: Tool/Top-tier]
[Innate Ability: Gravity Manipulation]
[Description: The Silver Crest Coin represents the condensation of 1000 peaks and mountains condensed into a single small object—a silver coin, which is typically an everyday item. However, don't be mistaken; the base weight of this coin is a whopping 1,000 kilograms, or one ton. This weight can become heavier through cultivation and gravity manipulation.]
[Note: When touched without its wielder's approval, the Silver Crest Coin will increase its own weight up to ten times based on the target's power level.]
...
[Gravity Manipulation]
[Consume one's mental and innate energy to manipulate the surrounding gravity, whether it was to increase gravity, decrease gravity, or attract-repel objects]
...
"Gravity, that's an absurd ability." Queen Medusa grasped the essence of Yafei's martial soul. Although Dou Ancestor can bend space to a certain extent, affecting gravity is another level of mastery.
Yet, Yafei, who wasn't even the Dou King, could wield such power.
Now, Queen Medusa finally saw the true merit of spirit master cultivation because this new path not only allows people to wield 'weird' power to a conceptual level, but also enhances their Dou Qi path even further.
"Someone, help! My arm, my arm is broken!" Hai Bodong wailed, causing Han Yuan and others to stop pondering about Yafei's martial soul.
Han Yuan sighed and walked to Hai Bodong's side, healing him with his Dou Qi before dragging him back to their spot.
"Uugh." Hai Bodong looks miserable. His left sleeve got torn, and he was smudged with dirt all over.
"Do you need my help to clean up?" asked Han Yuan with a funny smile.
"Um, yes, please..." Hai Bodong answered timidly.
Han Yuan observed the sad, homeless-looking elder and, with a display of remarkable control over Dou Qi, first drowned him in water Dou Qi. Then, using fire Dou Qi, he dried him out like a piece of salted fish.
The entire process took only a few seconds due to Han Yuan's immense mastery of Dou Qi.
"Thanks." Hai Bodong replied with a cough, hiding his embarrassment.
"You're welcome, I guess." Han Yuan shrugged.
Yafei approached Hai Bodong, "I am sorry, grand uncle. I should have been more cautious."
"Heh, look what happened when you're all smug and confident." Queen Medusa laughed at this pathetic sight. "You look like a dried worm right now, puny ice emperor."
"..." Hai Bodong's body twitched. He wanted to be angry, but he couldn't, as it was his fault for underestimating Yafei's martial soul.
"I am fine, Yafei." He said with a forced smile.
"Han Lad, continue the ceremony."
"I wanted to see what kind of martial soul her MAJESTY Queen Medusa awakened."
'I hope you awaken a worm martial soul, bitch!'
Hai Bodong cursed while hiding his expression by looking down. He felt like crying.
"Hmph, watch me then." Queen Medusa walked to Han Yuan, waiting for him to conjure another awakening circle.
Han Yuan glanced at Hai Bodong and then at Queen Medusa. The conflict between these two is difficult to tackle. However, he hoped this wouldn't strain their working relationship as elders in Martial Union.
"Place your hand on the awakening circle," said Han Yuan after making a new one before Queen Medusa.
Queen Medusa placed her hand on the awakening circle with confidence as the familiar golden light cocoon appeared and wrapped around her curvy body.
She closed her eyes, feeling a tug in her well-being.
Was it her soul?
Then, something primal was being awakened from the depths of her very bloodline!
The sky suddenly roared as black thunderclouds gathered above Queen Medusa.
"Han Yuan, this is not normal, right?" Hai Bodong stood up in panic.
Han Yuan stared at the thunderclouds, "Yes. A normal spirit awakening ceremony wouldn't cause such a phenomenon."
"The only exception is..."
"God-level martial soul." Yafei finished his words. "You explained this earlier."
Han Yuan nodded, "Mm, Medusa's martial soul should be a god-level martial soul."
"N-No way!" Hai Bodong was dumbfounded.
How unfair!
Why did this arrogant snake woman awaken a god-level martial soul while I got a stick with a pointy end?
If the world knew what Hai Bodong was thinking, lightning would strike him for being ungrateful.
Han Yuan frowned and then decided to use the new ability he got, which was the barrier-making talent and inheritance. He made a simple spatial barrier using the natural wormholes in this world, hiding this part of the desert from the outside world.
After all, Han Yuan didn't want a random fossil-aged expert to barge into their spirit awakening ceremony.
Queen Medusa floated off the ground as a gigantic vision of a serpent, or more precisely, a python, manifested in the sky.
At first, Han Yuan assumed this serpent was the Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python, but it turned out that the snake in the vision didn't have seven-colored scales.
In fact, the python's scale is pure white.
SSSSSHHHHHHH!
The gigantic white python let out an excited roar to the sky as lightning struck it down in response.
Han Yuan swung his Storm's Belt, protecting the python from heaven's wrath, to which the image responded with a grateful nod.
'It has its own will?' Han Yuan thought.
He felt like he was underestimating this world's level of weirdness. Even without Dragon God and Divine Realm interfering with the laws, he often forgets that there are similar existences to them here.
The sky sent several lightning strikes, and Han Yuan absorbed them all with his Storm's belt.
Thirty minutes later, Queen Medusa finally awakened her martial soul.
As expected, it is not the Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python, the Ancestor of All Snakes.
It is actually a much inferior version of it, the Heaven Swallowing Python, the first child of the first Nine-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python, which can grow and evolve into one with enough accumulation.
"This is my martial soul?" Queen Medusa looked back at the shadow of a 10-meter-long white python. "Heaven Swallowing Snake, a much better snake than I am right now..."
"In terms of bloodline, it is one whole realm higher than mine."
"And it can evolve into Nine-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python."
"The wish of my ancestors is going to be fulfilled soon." She couldn't help but clench her hand in excitement.
"Well, why don't you try your martial soul first, Medusa?" said Han Yuan while walking to the floating Queen Medusa.
"Ah, yes." Queen Medusa nodded and let the Heaven Swallowing Python martial soul possess her, causing her black hair to turn red and her skin to become even fairer. Her clothes transformed into an ethereal white dress, which seemed made of white scales.
Weirdly enough, the only 'beastly' feature Queen Medusa obtained after possession is her snake-like eyes, which had turned golden with black slits.
Queen Medusa clenched her hands a few times before throwing a simple fist and blowing the desert apart.
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!
"Huh, interesting..." Queen Medusa felt that her body had undergone a qualitative boost. While her cultivation stayed at the peak Dou Emperor Realm, her physical prowess had surpassed most Dou Ancestors.
She stretched her hand and mumbled, "Devour!"
Swoosh!
All of a sudden, every Dou Qi within a mile radius was sucked by Queen Medusa's palm, becoming nutrients for her cultivation.
'What the fuck, this is so unfair!' Hai Bodong somewhat guessed what the ability of Queen Medusa's martial soul was, but even then, he was stunned.
After all, Hai Bodong felt his Frost Dragon's Breath meant nothing if this arrogant snake woman could devour it away. It is like throwing a snowball into a bottomless pit.
"So strong!" Yafei covered her mouth.
Meanwhile, Han Yuan had already used his Eyes of Truth.
...
[Name: Heaven Swallowing Python]
[Type/Grade: Beast/Quasi Divine-tier]
[Innate Ability: Swallowing Heaven and Earth]
[Description: The Heaven Swallowing Python is the first descendant of the legendary Nine-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python, which not only possesses the bloodline of its predecessor, talent to swallow heaven and earth or anything on its path, but also tyrannical physical prowess that rivals true dragons and beauty that tops pure-blooded phoenixes.]
[Note: While the Heaven Swallowing Python hasn't reached the level of its predecessor, with enough accumulation, it could grow into a new Nine-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python.]
...
[Swallowing Heaven and Earth]
[An innate ability of the Heaven Swallowing Python, which can devour all things and refine them into pure nutrients for its growth. Even the most toxic poison and corrupted energy can be swallowed by this beast, though it needs time to digest in its 'special' stomach.]
...
Han Yuan read the introduction and couldn't help but compare the innate talent of the Heaven Swallowing Python with the Dark Blue Silver Emperor's Devouring ability.
While Ah Yin devours 'everything' to transform it into pure life energy, the Heaven Swallowing Python, on the other hand, stores what it consumes in its stomach and digests it slowly over time.
One is constant, and the other is gradual, but in a much larger quantity.
Even then, Han Yuan had to say that Queen Medusa's martial soul is one of the best beast-type spirits he had ever awakened.
It doesn't have ultimate attributes, but the sheer 'cheat' of devouring anything on its path is so straightforward.
Unfortunately, it didn't start as Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python like the original story did, as Queen Medusa hadn't undergone bloodline evolution by using Heavenly Flame yet.
But now, Han Yuan wondered what kind of martial soul he'd awaken in this world.