The million soul threads in Xu Qing's sea of consciousness erupted, spreading through his mind and gushing into his soul. After that, they spread throughout his body and finally formed a vortex in his sea of consciousness.
They spun violently.
At the same time, lightning flashed in the sky of the Imperial City, tearing through the sky as if heralding the birth of something that shouldn't exist in the world, thus attracting the attention of the Heavenly Dao.
However, soon after, this sense of attention inexplicably vanished, as if whatever was about to appear here had been ignored by the Heavenly Dao for some unknown reason.
In fact, it even helped in concealing it by changing the heavenly lightning into ordinary lightning.
However, the light from the lightning still illuminated everything under the night sky in a flash.
In the darkness of the night, someone woke up abruptly during meditation in a secret chamber, someone paused in their swift run on the streets, someone fell silent during discussions in the Imperial Academy, someone focused intently within a tall building, and someone raised their head in the palace.
In the end, under the cover of the Heavenly Dao, they gained nothing.
Hence, other than a few people who continued to pay attention, most of the other cultivators in the Imperial City retracted their thoughts. They went on with whatever they were doing.
It was the same for the person who was in the midst of a discussion in the Imperial Academy. He retracted his perception and looked at the 39 students sitting around him.
"School head, what happened?"
Among the students, someone asked.
"It's just a passing whim, carry on without me." Withdrawing his perception, a figure clad in coarse linen robes and wearing a mask signaled to the students. From his attire, it was evident that he was the school head.
And the white tower they were in was none other than the building of the Divine Fusion School.
The students below nodded when they heard this. They continued the previous topic and discussed the Variant Immortal School.
If it was any other school, with the current status of the Divine Fusion School, they wouldn't care. However, the Variant Immortal School was different. At the root… the essence of the Variant Immortal School and the Divine Fusion School were like fire and water.
One was weaving a divine image in one's mind, paying attention to the completeness of the person.
The other was to replace the body and ultimately throw away all traces of the person, leaving only the mind.
One's target was to become a Variant Immortal, while the other's goal was to become a divine being.
These two completely contradictory concepts determined that only one of these two paths could thrive.
This was also one of the reasons why the Variant Immortal School had declined to the extreme previously. Other than its own factors, the rise of the Divine Fusion School sped up this process.
Hence, when the mysterious master with hundreds of thousands of soul threads appeared, it attracted the attention of the Divine Fusion School.
Even though half a month had passed and the popularity of the Variant Immortal School had decreased because that mysterious person hadn't appeared again, one could imagine that if the other party appeared again, the attention on the Variant Immortal School would definitely continue to rise.
When that time came, it would present an opportunity for the Variant Immortal School to rise once more.
This was also the main subject of this internal meeting of the Divine Fusion Style.
Regarding this matter, among the upper echelons of the Divine Fusion School present, some were wary, while others suspected that the rumors were baseless. Everyone had different opinions.
Finally, the head of the Divine Fusion School raised his hand and the white tower instantly fell silent. All the high-level students looked at their school head in unison.
Their eyes were filled with respect.
"There's no need to care about the matter of the Variant Immortal School. Soon… a person of a distinguished status will publicly join my Divine Fusion School. His participation will add icing on the cake for my Divine Fusion School."
"You guys go and prepare. This person will come in three days."
As the school head's voice rang out, his calm tone caused these high-level students to calm down and nod their heads.
The meeting ended here.
At the same time, the lightning outside dissipated, leaving only the sound echoing. In Ning Yan's residence, in the secret chamber, Xu Qing slowly opened his eyes.
His eyes revealed an intense light and his expression was filled with surprise. There was even a hint of confusion as he frowned.
"What is this…"
Xu Qing mumbled. When he lifted his hand, a purple snowflake penetrated his flesh and floated in front of him.
In his sea of consciousness, the vortex formed by a million soul threads was still spinning, as though it had no beginning or end.
As it rotated, a chill appeared inside. Gradually, purple snowflakes rose from the vortex.
There weren't many snowflakes, only 100.
After sensing his sea of consciousness, Xu Qing retracted his divine sense and stared at the snowflake floating in his palm.
After pondering for a moment, he took out the voice transmission jade slip and sent a message to the Sword Holders. Not long later, a malevolent ferocious beast used for experiments was sent over.
Looking at the wolf-like ferocious beast in front of him, Xu Qing didn't hesitate. He lifted his right hand and waved it. Immediately, the snowflake headed straight for the beast's forehead. The instant it touched it, the beast's entire body trembled and it let out a mournful cry.
At the next moment, the snowflake seemed to have a life of its own and corroded the space between the beast's brows, directly penetrating its flesh and disappearing.
The strange thing was that the wound on its forehead rapidly healed and the traces disappeared.
As for this wolf beast, it gradually stopped moving and closed its eyes, looking like it was dead.
However, its aura was still there. A while later, it suddenly opened its eyes. The instant it looked at Xu Qing, Xu Qing's heart stirred.
He had a feeling that everything about the beast seemed to have a mysterious connection with him, and the core of this connection was the purple snowflake.
It didn't disappear but existed in the wolf beast's body.
It fused with its flesh and blood and became one with it.
A dark glint appeared in Xu Qing's eyes. He lifted his hand and grabbed the beast from afar. His divine consciousness fused into it. After taking a closer look, his expression changed slightly. He could sense that soul threads were forming in the beast's body…
"Interesting."
Xu Qing mumbled. After that, he lifted his hand and cut open the wolf beast's body. He checked its flesh and confirmed again.
Very soon, the wolf beast was decomposed. The purple snowflake flew out and floated in front of Xu Qing.
Xu Qing thought about it and got someone to send over ten beasts. He tested the snowflakes on them. Just like that, the night passed. After many experiments, the moment morning arrived, Xu Qing, who walked out of the secret chamber, had a better understanding of the hundred snowflakes formed by his million soul threads.
However, the price of this understanding was the strong smell of blood in the secret chamber and the butchered wolf corpses on the ground…
Xu Qing didn't care about these. A look of comprehension appeared in his eyes.
"These 100 snowflakes are seeds!"
"When the wolf beasts fused with the snowflakes, their bodies didn't have any abnormality. Everything is normal. There's no discomfort at all and their vitality isn't affected. Only their bodies will produce soul threads on their own."
"These soul threads are formed from their souls, so the drawback is that if they don't have enough soul power, they might wither and die."
"This snowflake… looks gentle but it's actually domineering. After spreading out, if it is used as a weapon, it can devour the enemy's soul… and transform it into my soul threads."
"At the same time, it can also parasitize. If a person who cultivates a Variant Immortal School art fuses with this seed, in theory, their cultivation speed will reach an astonishing level as long as they have enough soul power."
"However, they will still be restricted by me. As long as I will it, I can take out the seed. Although it won't affect the other party's life, all the soul threads gathered during this period will be lost."
On the way to Imperial Academy, Xu Qing sensed the 100 purple snowflakes in his body and analyzed.
"My understanding of these snowflakes isn't enough. I need to do more experiments to understand them more comprehensively."
Before he completely understood it, Xu Qing didn't plan to use it rashly. Hence, after entering the Imperial Academy, he retracted his thoughts and stepped into the Variant Immortal School.
Now that there were nine more disciples in the Variant Immortal School, it was much livelier than before. The school head no longer needed to do the work himself as there were naturally disciples who would do them for him.
As for Xu Qing and his three senior brothers, due to their qualifications and the fact that fewer people came to the Variant Immortal School every day, they were very free. Hence, the newsletters of the Variant Immortal School also reopened.
Just like that, three days passed. Every night, when Xu Qing returned to the residence, he would study the snowflakes. On the fourth day, a piece of news spread in Imperial Academy.
The Seventh Prince announced that he was going to join the Divine Fusion School and was scheduled to officially head to the white tower of the Divine Fusion School to meet the school head at noon today.
In the Imperial Academy, it was forbidden to reveal one's identity. However, if one publicized it outside, it wouldn't be within the rules.
This was especially so after the Human Emperor's 12 incense sticks stood behind the rainbow bridge. This was the first time there was any news about a prince's movements, so it attracted attention in the Imperial City.
This news also caused a heated discussion in the Imperial Academy. This was especially so for the students of the Divine Fusion School. After all, this was the first time such a thing had happened to the Imperial Academy.
In the past, even if there were such cases, they wouldn't reveal their identities like this. Hence, no one in the outside world would know about the schools the princes had joined.
However, the meaning of the Seventh Prince's high-profile announcement was clearly different. This was equivalent to tying himself completely to the Divine Fusion School.
He indeed stepped into Imperial Academy at noon on this day. Under the escort of some students from the Divine Fusion School, a group of people bustled about as they walked toward the white tower of the Divine Fusion School.
On the way, they passed by the Variant Immortal School.
Xu Qing looked at the Seventh Prince who was surrounded by the crowd. Although the other party was wearing the clothes of a student, this scene reminded him of the time when the other party entered Fenghai County as a savior.
At that time, Xu Qing was additionally watching from afar.
The scene was exactly the same.
Xu Qing's gaze was as usual but his heart was cold.
As for the core disciples who joined later, they also saw the commotion outside and had their own thoughts.
However, the three core students before Xu Qing joined didn't think too much about it. Their focus was still on the newsletters. Hence, they pulled Xu Qing along and participated in the recording of the newsletters.
Seeing this, the school head of the Variant Immortal School, who was sitting there, perceived a little anxious. He felt that the opportunity for the Variant Immortal School to rise had arrived, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't completely grasp it.
In fact, during this period of time, he had also been searching for that senior who had reached the mastery stage but to no avail.
'This won't do. I'm already taking the blame for that senior. Logically speaking, he should give me a chance to meet him…'
The academy head of the Variant Immortal School was anxious. As the school head, through the clues earlier, he had already made a judgment in his mind. He felt that that enigmatic master must have grasped some methods that others didn't know about.
Otherwise, in theory, it was impossible for hundreds of thousands of soul threads to appear with the Variant Immortal School art.
'I don't ask for anything else. As long as he can give me some pointers on the method to cultivate hundreds of thousands of soul threads, the Variant Immortal School will definitely rise!'
'If there are just ten or so masters with hundreds of thousands of soul threads… Even if there are solely a few of them, they will be able to push the Variant Immortal School to the peak. This means that this path is correct!'
While the academy head was sighing with emotion, the enigmatic master he had been longing for was imprinting the newsletter with the three disciples in the corner on his right.
"Shocking Secret. So the Seventh Prince Actually Joined the Divine Fusion School for Her!"
"Unspeakable Relationship Between the Chief Disciple of the Verdant Path School and Its School Head Revealed!"
"Crisis of the Divine Fusion School's Chief Disciple Position: Is It the Distortion of Humanity or the Loss of Morality? Read in This Late-Night Premium Paper: Where Did My Treasure Go?"
