With a soft sound—
Ye Lingling's soul vein was successfully forged.
In Lin Feng's gaze, Ye Lingling's first soul vein appeared like a crystal-clear emerald green.
Her entire temperament changed—less cold, more gentle.
Though still a bit aloof, she now seemed serene.
No longer was she expressionless as before.
Her brows relaxed, and a smile appeared on her lips.
This brought a quiet joy to Ye Lingling's mother.
A year of forbidding her from cultivating seemed to have also softened her personality.
Seeing such a change—no matter how small—was still a good thing.
Ye Lingling, sensing the changes within her body, stared dazedly at the Sacred Heart Begonia whose soul ring had disappeared.
Her large eyes blinked, bright and lively.
"So this is how Brother Xiaofeng's cultivation method truly works. No wonder I always felt like something was missing from the usual path."
Her long lashes fluttered, and as her thoughts moved, her first soul skill activated.
Just like the Nine-Heart Begonia, her first soul skill was a large-scale healing technique.
"So… Mom had already formed this thing called a soul vein too, huh~"
The ability to release soul skills without summoning a martial soul was novel and fascinating to Ye Lingling.
Lin Feng, storing away the Innate Pearl, was slightly surprised by what he sensed inside Ye Lingling.
The Innate Pearl's natural ability was to nourish meridians and guide soul power, making it incredibly sensitive to such energies.
To Lin Feng's perception, the part of Ye Lingling's soul power that exceeded the level 10 innate full soul power seemed to have appeared out of thin air.
Before a soul master formally begins cultivating, soul power is usually dispersed throughout the body—
Like leaves on a tree, latecomers can never truly be like the first batch.
There are always slight differences, and even if these later powers assimilate well, Lin Feng—with the Innate Pearl—could still sense them.
His eyes flickered as he looked toward the sky.
(Seems like a god has taken an interest in Ye Lingling. Is it the Goddess of Nature? Or the Goddess of Life…?)
While still deep in thought, Lin Feng was interrupted by Ye Lingling.
She walked lightly to his side and said:
"Brother Xiaofeng, I want to go to school. It's boring staying here every day."
"School?" Lin Feng was stunned and looked at her mother. "Hasn't Lingling enrolled in the junior soul master academy yet?"
Ye Mother nodded, smiling awkwardly:
"That's right. I was thinking of letting Lingling wait another year or two. After all, with such high soul power, it's easy to attract attention."
Lin Feng nodded in understanding. Dugu Bo didn't fear others coveting Dugu Yan because their whole family lived in Spirit Hall City.
He himself held an important position in the Spirit Hall and had powerful backers. That's why he gave the immortal herb to Dugu Yan freely.
An 8-year-old soul master over level 20, with a thousand-year second ring—no other force would dare target her.
But Ye Lingling was different. Her Nine-Heart Begonia clan was based in Heaven Dou and hadn't yet publicly aligned with the Spirit Hall.
Sending her directly to the Spirit Hall Junior Academy would be rash.
There are no secrets under heaven. If a clan heir with the strongest healing martial soul enrolled in the Spirit Hall school, wouldn't that suggest the family had already pledged loyalty?
Wouldn't that break the balance and imply that the Spirit Hall was preparing to act?
Until everything was ready, Lin Feng didn't want that.
"Now that Lingling has formed her soul vein, she probably can't attend other soul master academies."
Qian Renxue furrowed her brow and voiced her concern. Ye Mother also suddenly realized:
"That's right. Xiaofeng has only announced the cultivation path, not the concept of soul veins yet."
"Hmm..."Lin Feng pondered for a moment and then said:
"There's no need for Lingling to attend a junior soul master academy for now. I'm sorry, Lingling, but you'll have to stay home a bit longer."
He shook his head apologetically.
Ye Lingling pouted:
"Alright—"
Her expression of quiet resignation was exactly what she looked like now—even at only seven years old.
Her personality was already starting to solidify.
Qian Renxue felt a twinge of guilt watching this. She lightly knocked Lin Feng on the head and whispered in his ear:
"Be honest. You forgot about this, didn't you?"
Lin Feng nodded:
"I did. But you all forgot to remind me too. Can we share the blame?"
Qian Renxue glared at him. Lin Feng immediately nodded:
"My fault, I'll take care of it."
He cleared his throat and turned to Ye Lingling with a warm smile:
"Lingling, even though you can't go to a soul master academy right now, I can teach you many other things.
Whatever you want to learn, I'll do my best to teach you.
This book is my compilation of soul theory. With it, there's no need to go to a beginner academy."
Ye Lingling looked a little less disappointed and blinked her large eyes.
Taking the book from Lin Feng, she noticed something strange about the title.
After a moment of thought, she asked:
"Why does this book also have Sister Xiaoxue's name on it? Did she write it too?"
Qian Renxue stuck out her tongue, embarrassed. Ever since Lin Feng gave her the original soul vein notebook, she had engraved the character "Xue" (snow) on it.
So now, all of Lin Feng's books carried her mark.
Qian Renxue shook her head:
"I didn't write it—but," her eyes sparkled, "I gave your Brother Xiaofeng a lot of inspiration!"
"Ohhh—"
While Ye Lingling flipped through the book, Lin Feng quietly said to her mother:
"We won't be staying long this time. We need to head south.
I'll forge the rest of your soul veins first. As for Lingling—
Well, we'll have to deal with that when I return.
Or, you could request an audience with the Pope and ask to go to Spirit Hall early. When it comes to gauging the world's reactions, she's better than I am.
Lingling won't need to stay home for too long.
Soon, the soul vein concept will spread across the Douluo Continent.
For the first round, I plan to choose people from different factions as part of the outreach."
Ye Mother's eyes lit up:
"So this is a diversion tactic—this way, others won't suspect our family of aligning with the Spirit Hall.
Also…"
She looked Lin Feng over, then sighed lightly:
"Xiaofeng… I feel like you have some other purpose in doing this. Care to tell me?"
Lin Feng smiled faintly:
"You'll understand when things unfold. Some things only become clear once they happen."
"You're speaking in riddles again!"
Ye Mother rolled her eyes at Lin Feng, then looked at Ye Lingling—engrossed in her book—and the two girls beside her: the ever-patient Ling Yuan and Qian Renxue.
Noticing the smile on Lin Feng's lips out of the corner of her eye, her gaze shifted subtly.
As a mother, and the bearer of the Nine-Heart Begonia, she was sensitive to others' physical states.
She had noticed right away the subtle air of mature femininity around Qian Renxue and Ling Yuan.
Rubbing her chin, she smiled slyly and sent Lin Feng a voice transmission:
"Xiaofeng, your main wife doesn't seem to mind you having another close female companion, huh?"
T/N: For up to 30 chapters ahead on most of my translations, become a p@tron at p@treon.com/LordHipposApostle