Quynh Nhu watched in horror as Lin Ming was swatted away like a fly.
He lay in a crumpled heap, unmoving. For a heart-stopping moment, she thought he was dead. The Golden Tiger, now free from the agonizing poison, shook its massive head as if clearing away a long, terrible fog.
The angry red in its eyes faded, replaced by a deep, ancient intelligence. It looked at the devastation it had caused, then at the unconscious boy who had saved it. A low, mournful rumble echoed from its deep chest—a sound not of aggression, but of profound regret.
It took a hesitant step towards Lin Ming, but Quynh Nhu, her fear momentarily overshadowed by a fierce protectiveness, aimed her rifle squarely between its eyes.
"Don't you touch him!" she yelled, her voice cracking.
The Guardian Tiger stopped. It looked at her, then back at Lin Ming, and then seemed to nod. It turned and with a single, powerful leap, vanished back into the deep forest, leaving an echoing silence in its wake.
Quynh Nhu immediately slung her rifle and rushed to Lin Ming's side. His chest was a mess, his breathing shallow and ragged.
His [Tenacious Physique] and High-Stage Qi Refining body had saved him from being turned into paste, but he was critically injured.
"Lin Ming! Stay with me, you idiot!" she cried, fumbling with the military-grade medkit on her belt. "Don't you dare die! I haven't finished making fun of you yet!"
But Lin Ming couldn't hear her. His physical body was shutting down, but his consciousness was not fading into darkness. Instead, it was being pulled somewhere else.
He felt as though he was floating in a warm, misty void. His pain was gone. The world around him was a swirl of ethereal colors, like a dawn sky.
Soft, melodic chimes echoed in the distance. In front of him, a figure began to coalesce from the mist.
It was a woman of impossible beauty and grace. She wore simple, elegant robes of pure white silk, and her long, dark hair flowed as if stirred by a gentle breeze.
Her presence radiated a warmth that felt like a mother's embrace and the majesty of a mountain peak. Though she appeared young, her eyes held the wisdom of millennia. Lin Ming instinctively knew who she was.
Au Co. The Great Mother of the Mountains. The Fairy Ancestor.
"You have been reckless, little one," she said, her voice like wind chimes and rustling leaves. Her form was ethereal, a spiritual projection, not a physical body.
This was not a physical place, but a realm of ancestral consciousness, a place he could only reach on the verge of death while in contact with a guardian spirit.
"But you have been brave," she continued, a gentle smile gracing her lips. She reached out a translucent hand and touched his forehead. "You carry the blood of the Dragon and the spirit of the Fairy. It has slept for generations, but the cries of the world have begun to wake it. Your path, however, has been built on a foreign foundation."
She was referring to his System—the "Accumulative Battle Will" was a concept of combat, of external struggle. It was not the way of her people.
"The power of the Fairy is not found in battle, but in nurturing. It is the life that springs from the soil, the energy that flows through the trees, the harmony of the spirit with the world. You have focused only on fighting your enemies. You have not cultivated yourself."
A sphere of pure, pearlescent white light formed in her palm. It pulsed with a gentle, life-affirming energy that made every cell in Lin Ming's spiritual body sing. "Your Qi is strong, but it is unrefined, chaotic. I shall cleanse it. I will awaken the true Qi of the Fairy within you. Let this be the true foundation for your cultivation."
She gently pushed the sphere of light into his chest. It didn't feel like an impact; it felt like a homecoming. An incredible warmth spread through him, washing away the aggressive, battle-hardened nature of his Qi and replacing it with something... purer. It was many times more potent, more refined, and filled with an overwhelming vitality.
[Ancestral Blessing Received: Fairy Qi Awakening!]
[The Host's cultivation foundation is being overwritten!]
[Chaotic Battle Qi is being refined into Pure Vitality Qi!]
[All attributes increased! Qi density and recovery rate increased by 500%!]
[System is struggling to categorize this energy source... Category: WTF-Grade.]
As the process completed, the misty realm began to shift. The warm, dawn-colored light was replaced by a deep, powerful cerulean blue, like the heart of the ocean. The air crackled with a raw, primal power. Another figure emerged, this one towering and majestic.
He was a man with the bearing of a king and the untamable aura of the sea. Scales of iridescent gold and crimson adorned his forearms, and his eyes glowed with the intensity of a storm. He wielded no weapon, yet his very presence was a weapon in itself.
Lac Long Quan. The Dragon Lord. The Great Father.
"Hmph. The Mountain Fairy is always so gentle," the Dragon Lord grunted, his voice like the crashing of waves against a cliff. "Nurturing is fine, but you cannot nurture your way out of an invasion. You need fangs. You need claws. You need armor."
He looked Lin Ming up and down. "You have my blood, but it is thin. Asleep. You fight with a sharp stick and your bare hands. This will not do."
He slammed his fist against his own chest. The scales on his body glowed fiercely, and a single, teardrop-shaped scale of brilliant, molten-red detached and floated towards Lin Ming. It pulsed with unimaginable heat and power.
"I grant you the Dragon's Seed," the Dragon Lord declared. "Forge it with your spirit. Nurture it with your cultivation. When you are strong enough, it will grant you the Huyết Rồng Giáp—the Dragon's Blood Armor. It will be your shield, growing as you grow, an armor of absolute defense."
[Ancestral Blessing Received: Dragon's Blood Awakening!]
[New Item acquired: Dragon's Seed (Soul-Bound).]
[Description: A seed of primordial dragon power. Fuse with it to unlock the potential to manifest Dragon's Blood Armor. Armor strength is directly proportional to the Host's cultivation level.]
The two ancestors now stood before him. Au Co smiled gently. "The power of the Fairy is your spirit. The power of the Dragon is your body."
Lac Long Quan crossed his arms. "The Fairy gives you the breath to live. The Dragon gives you the strength to fight. They must exist in balance."
As they spoke, the pure white Fairy Qi and the crimson red Dragon's Seed within Lin Ming began to resonate with each other. They swirled, intertwining, creating a vortex of crimson and gold energy in his spiritual core.
[Synergy Detected between Fairy Qi and Dragon's Blood!]
[New Innate Skill being forged!]
[WARNING: Unstable energy fusion! Requires a stable Foundation Establishment Realm to control!]
"This is our gift to you, Son of our Children," Au Co said, her form beginning to fade. "Build your foundation well. A new era has begun."
"Do not fail this land," Lac Long Quan added, his own form dissolving back into the ocean mist. "And do not shame our blood."
The world of crimson and gold spun faster and faster, forming a perfect sphere of rotating energy in front of Lin Ming. It was beautiful and terrifyingly powerful, a miniature sun of pure destruction and life. He instinctively reached out to it.
The moment he touched it, he jolted back to reality with a massive gasp.
His eyes snapped open. He was lying on the forest floor, Quynh Nhu's pale, worried face staring down at him. The first thing he noticed was that his pain was gone. He looked down at his chest. Not only were his ribs healed, but his entire body felt... brand new. The Fairy Qi, pulsing with life, had already repaired him.
The second thing he noticed was the crimson and gold sphere, no bigger than a baseball, spinning quietly in his palm. The energy within it was so dense it warped the air around it. It felt volatile, like a chained beast.
A word popped into his head. The name of a technique from a different, forgotten world.
"Rasengan...?" he whispered, his voice hoarse. But he knew it wasn't. The Rasengan was about controlled rotation and abrasion. This... this was about fusion and explosive release. It was something entirely new. It was his.
Quynh Nhu stared at the glowing ball in his hand, then at his completely healed body, then back at the ball. All the color drained from her face.
"Lin Ming..." she stammered, pointing a trembling finger. "What... what in the world... is that?"