The morning sunlight washed across the damp clover clearing, warm and clear in the wake of the sky dewfall.
Lin Xiao sat upon the turf, his round azure body wobbling softly as he processed the Dao Spirit’s pop-up alert. For three seasons, he had navigated this world as a ball-shaped blue drop of water—bouncing along riverbanks, rolling down wooden water chutes, and sipping tea with fluid pseudopods. While being a slime was undeniably comfortable, there were undeniable limitations. Holding delicate fine china cups without spilling, flipping hot scallion pancakes with bamboo chopsticks, and conducting formal trade diplomacy with mortal merchants were all mildly complicated when you lacked fingers.
“Explain the settings,” Lin Xiao requested, focusing his awareness into the newly formed nine-colored pearl in his dantian.
“The Primordial Chaos Golden Core possesses the macro-atom-deep blueprint of all sentient physical forms,” the Dao Spirit explained, her voice ringing with crystal-clear care. “Because your transmigrated soul matrix originates from human biology, your cellular holding power can now project a stable, high-fidelity human vessel. This isn’t an illusion or a glamour. It’s a genuine, breathing living body built from tightly packed ancient water essence and jade-marrow bone.”
“And if I get tired of walking on two legs?” Lin Xiao asked, raising a practical concern.
“Reversion to your native slime form needs zero point zero two seconds and zero spiritual waste,” the Dao Spirit confirmed. “You may alternate between vessels at will, depending on whether you need manual dexterity or optimal napping smooth speed.”
“Well then,” Lin Xiao chuckled. “Let’s give two legs a test drive.”
Lin Xiao closed his mental eyes. He channeled a thread of warm, golden-azure essence from his Golden Core into his outer membrane.
The transformation began not with a violent crack of bone, but with the graceful, fluid unfurling of an azure lotus.
Lin Xiao’s two-foot ball-shaped body began to swirl. The semi-clear sapphire jelly elongated upward, dissolving into a dense column of pale blue mist that smelled faintly of mountain springwater and blooming peach blossoms. Within the column of mist, delicate lattices of golden-white light formed the skeletal structure. It wrapped around a spine forged from pure ancient star-bronze essence.
Muscle, tendons, and warm, living flesh coalesced with seamless grace. Droplets of water condensed into fair, smooth skin. Strands of shadow and sky ink wove themselves into long, silky raven-black hair with subtle azure highlights. And at the crown of the vessel, two glowing sapphire-blue eyes blinked open beneath clean, gentle brows.
Around his newly formed shoulders, the leftover spiritual mist crystal-hardened into soft, flowing clothes. A set of simple, cloud-gray scholar robes woven from refined mountain spirit-silk, cinched at the waist with an azure sash and finished with clean, dark-soled cloth traveling boots.
The mist scattered on the breeze.
Standing in the center of the sunlit clearing was an eighteen-year-old youth of breathtaking, calm composure.
He stood five feet nine inches tall, possessed of a slender, graceful build that carried zero trace of martial arrogance. His features were warm, welcoming, and relaxed, with a faint, amused smile naturally resting upon his lips. His spiritual training was entirely hidden within his dantian. Even so, an aura of transcendent, ancient peace stayed about him like morning dew upon fresh bamboo.
Lin Xiao drew his first breath through mortal lungs.
Inhale.
The scent of damp loam, crushed clover, sweet lotus rain, and distant woodsmoke flooded his senses with startling clarity. His past-life memories flashed through his mind—the bustling streets, the aroma of corner noodle carts, the crisp autumn air of city parks. Having genuine lungs, a beating heart, and ten functional toes again was an astonishingly nostalgic sensation.
Lin Xiao raised both hands before his face, turning them over in the golden light.
He pressed two fingers against his left wrist, feeling the steady, rhythmic pulse of life. Primordial Chaos qi flowed through his newly formed spirit veins not with the violent friction common to mortal fighters, but with the smooth, warming breath flow of hot tea on a winter evening.
He wiggled all ten slender fingers, curling them into fists, then extending them one by one.
“One, two, three, four, five...” Lin Xiao murmured, listening to his own voice.
It was no longer a purely telepathic echo resonating inside someone else’s skull. It was a physical sound, a clear, warm, slightly deep that carried a pleasant, steady beat.
“Throat cords are fully functional,” Lin Xiao said, grinning as he tapped his own chin with an index finger. “And fingers! Real, solid fingers. At last, I can pick up a pair of bamboo chopsticks without worrying about pinching too hard and snapping them in half. I can roll dumpling wrappers! I can knead dough! I can flip pancakes!”
Up on the castle walls, the defenders watched the emergence of the young scholar with wide, disbelieving eyes.
Su Ling’er stood frozen by the low roof wall, her slender hands pressed firmly against her glowing cheeks. Her five snowy fox tails puffed out into giant, shivering plumes of white fur. Their ruby tips shook with uncontrollable agitation.
“Master...” Su Ling’er whispered, her voice barely heard even to Tie Shan beside her. “Master... Is a human youth?”
Her amber eyes took in the smooth, noble contours of Lin Xiao’s face. The silky raven hair was resting against his shoulders, and the easy, gentle grace of his stance. In the training world, powerful beast sovereigns who attained human form often appeared as terrifying, muscular warlords with horns, or gnarled demonic elders draped in pelts.
Lin Xiao, however, looked like an exceptionally handsome, soft-spoken scholar who had stepped out of an immortal academy to recite poetry beneath the weeping willows. A deep, burning flush climbed from Su Ling’er’s neck all the way to the tips of her furry fox ears. She hurriedly hid her face behind her long silk sleeve, peeking sneakily through the sheer fabric.
Beside her, Tie Shan threw his head back and let out a loud belly-laugh that shook the stone dust from the castle walls.
“Well, blow me down with a bellows!” Tie Shan roared, slapping his massive knee with his gold-plated right hand. “Look at our blue boss! Underneath all that squishy jelly, the boy looks like a royal first-rank scholar! You could drop him into the capital’s grand library and nobody would ever guess he just swallowed an eight-hundred-ton demon pot for breakfast!”
Four miles to the south, at the trade depot, Patriarch Lu Feng lowered his spyglass, blinking through tears of shock.
“A scholar...” Lu Feng whispered to his trembling clerks. “The great Sovereign of the Forest doesn’t walk as a starving fiend. He walks as a gentle scholar of peace. Write this down in the guild chronicles! The Azure Sovereign is an enlightened sage who values harmony over conquest!”
Down in the clearing, Xiao Hei didn’t wait on the walls.
With a silent, easy leap, the twelve-foot sky moon-wolf cleared the thirty-foot stone castle walls, landing with a soft thud on the turf. The great black beast padded forward, his ruby eyes glowing with intense scrutiny as he approached the young scholar.
Xiao Hei lowered his massive, horned head, sniffling cautiously at Lin Xiao’s boots. He inhaled the familiar scent of cool river water, sweet peach-dew wine, and ancient chaos essence.
Recognizing his creator, Xiao Hei let out a high-pitched, joyous whine that sounded fully absurd coming from a two-ton apex hunting beast. The wolf king aggressively wagged his silver-tipped tail, flattening his ears against his skull and forcefully shoving his massive black snout directly into Lin Xiao’s chest.
“Woah, easy boy!” Lin Xiao laughed, steadying himself on two unfamiliar feet.
Reaching out with real, warm human hands, Lin Xiao buried his fingers into the thick, silky fur behind Xiao Hei’s ears. He scratched the wolf with firm, experienced pressure, finding that exact sweet spot at the base of the skull.
Xiao Hei’s hind leg right away began to thump the ground in pure canine ecstasy. The terrifying vanguard commander of the Myriad Spirit Safe hall closed his eyes, leaning his entire massive weight against Lin Xiao’s knees, panting with shameless bliss.
“See?” Lin Xiao chuckled, looking down at his smiling wolf. “Hands really are useful. You can’t give a proper ear-scratch with a slime arm. It just leaves moisture on the fur. This is much better.”
Elder Lu Da and five otter elders scrambled up the river embankment, their whiskers twitching as they bowed low before the young scholar, offering fresh river flowers with webbed paws. Lin Xiao crouched down, accepting the flowers with a respectful nod and patting each otter on the head with warm fingers.
Lin Xiao stood back up, taking a tentative step forward to walk toward the main gates.
His left foot caught on a thick patch of wild clover.
His balance point, which had been comfortably resting three inches above the dirt for the past nine months, suddenly tilted dangerously forward.
Lin Xiao flailed his arms in an undignified windmill, wobbled wildly on his heels. Then he barely caught himself by grabbing onto Xiao Hei’s broad black back.
Lin Xiao looked down at his cloth boots, letting out a soft, bemused chuckle.
“Well,” Lin Xiao muttered, adjusting his scholar sash. “The hands are great. But this walking business... Walking is going to take some getting used to.”