At this moment, Yae Miko had returned to her human form.

Her dreamy pink hair draped smoothly over her shoulders, the ends tied with a vibrant red ribbon, making her look both simple and refined—her every gesture exuded elegance.

She wore a traditional red and white shrine maiden outfit, which accentuated her graceful figure.

Upon appearing, Yae Miko fixed her deep purple gaze on Lu Jingming, her lips curling into a smile that was not quite a smile as she said, "Little one, don't you think you owe me an explanation?"

Her voice was soft and melodious, yet tinged with a hint of bashful anger—clearly, she hadn't forgotten her embarrassing experiences as a little fox.

Recalling her antics in that form, Yae Miko just wanted to summon a thunderbolt to knock everyone unconscious and erase their memories, burying her dark history forever.

"Ahem, Yae Miko, you know it was all due to uncontrollable circumstances!" Lu Jingming, uneasy under her gaze, spoke with a few traces of awkwardness.

Thinking back, he had indeed done a few rather inappropriate things while she was a fox—like checking her gender, which, in hindsight, was quite improper.

"Heh, do you think I'd believe that nonsense?" Yae Miko's smile didn't reach her eyes, a dangerous glint flashing in them—like a fox eyeing its prey, cold and intimidating.

In her view, she was always the one to tease others, never the other way around. When had she ever become someone else's source of amusement? This made her very displeased.

Sensing the danger radiating from Yae Miko, Lu Jingming felt a chill run down his spine and secretly despaired.

He knew all too well how devious she could be; this sly fox was clearly planning to settle the score.

If she really set her sights on him, life would be tough from now on, and Lu Jingming was already getting a headache.

To make it up to Yae Miko, Lu Jingming directly raised her strength to level 94.

He stopped at this level because breaking through to level 95 would mean entering another realm, which would consume exponentially more power of reality.

But even at level 94, Yae Miko was more than strong enough to handle Lu Jingming now—absolutely no pressure.

Left with no choice, Lu Jingming cast a pleading look at Ganyu, Keqing, and Ningguang, hoping they'd help him out.

But, unfortunately, the three of them all chose to ignore his silent plea.

Especially Keqing, whose eyes were openly filled with schadenfreude.

"Fine, for her sake, I'll let the previous matters go."

Just as Lu Jingming was about to flee, Yae Miko's expression suddenly softened.

She tilted her head slightly and looked at the blood-red Stigma on the back of his hand, her eyes showing a complex mix of joy and nostalgia.

Lu Jingming instinctively looked at the Stigma in his hand, then glanced at the figure sleeping quietly in the space within, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Luckily, his precautions had worked.

He was never one to act without preparation.

Long before restoring Yae Miko's intelligence, he had anticipated that she would want payback once she was back to normal.

But he dared to do it because he had already prepared a trump card.

Now, that trump card had worked—Yae Miko, because of "her" presence, chose to let him off for now.

"But, while you're spared the death penalty, you can't escape punishment, little one. Just you wait!" Yae Miko's teasing voice sounded in his ear just as he was relaxing.

Lu Jingming's mouth twitched—he couldn't escape her revenge after all! Hopefully, given her current mood, she wouldn't go too far…

…

The All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Academy Soul Battle Tournament, held in Haiyuan City, created a sensation far beyond anyone's expectations.

The main focus was not St. Freya Academy winning the championship again, but the emergence of Stigmata.

This new thing caused a huge storm throughout the soul master world.

For most soul masters, the birth of Stigmata was tremendous news.

In the past, soul masters who wanted soul rings had to venture deep into dangerous soul beast forests.

In those perilous forests, a single misstep could mean death, their bodies left for the beasts.

But now, things had changed. Soul masters just needed to work and save up enough money. They no longer had to risk their lives hunting soul beasts.

All they had to do was visit the Jade Chamber and buy a Stigma to obtain a soul ring easily.

Even more remarkable, high-quality Stigmata could provide multiple soul rings, and even had the potential for inheritance—to be passed on to descendants.

Furthermore, soul masters now had great freedom in choosing Stigmata, able to pick the ones best suited to their own martial souls and development path, rather than relying on luck in the forest. This was a huge improvement, thousands of times better than before.

However, with such massive benefits on offer, it was clear that Haiyuan City could not monopolize the profits from Stigmata alone—difficulties and severe tests were inevitable.

After all, the changes brought by Stigmata affected the interests of many forces.

But Lu Jingming's goal was not just the material benefits from selling Stigmata.

For him, obtaining large amounts of power of reality was the true objective.

So, as soon as the tournament ended, he immediately began cooperating with the Common Alliance.

Of course, the production method for Stigmata was a tightly held secret, but profits from sales could be reasonably shared with other powers.

Regarding the Stigmata project, Lu Jingming publicly announced that other great powers were welcome to invest and share in the profits.

However, the core technology must remain firmly in the hands of Haiyuan City—this was his unshakable bottom line.

Once the news spread, all the powers scrambled to get involved. The Star Luo Empire was the first to seek cooperation and buy into the Stigmata project.

Next, Princess Weina of Heavenly Soul Empire couldn't hold back either—she contacted Xu Jiujiu to help connect with Lu Jingming, expressing her desire to share in the profits.

Dou Ling Empire quickly followed, sending envoys to negotiate with Haiyuan City in hopes of gaining a share.

Even Shrek Academy in far-off Shrek City noticed the huge business opportunity behind Stigmata.

They also approached Ningguang, expressing their desire to invest in the project.

Lu Jingming accepted all comers with pleasure.

He understood that monopolizing the profits in the soul master world was unwise—it would only make him a target.

Instead, by giving up some profits and cooperating with the major powers, he could avoid many unnecessary disputes and gain a relatively stable development environment.

As long as the core technology remained in his hands, no matter how the profits were divided, Haiyuan City would always be in control and remain the biggest beneficiary.

…

Sun Moon Empire, Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy, Mingde Hall

Jing Hongchen tightly held two blood-red crystals, his expression focused and grave.

Within one crystal was a small Mountain Moving Ape, surrounded by a striking blood-red soul ring—clearly, an extremely precious hundred-thousand-year Stigma.

Inside the other, a snow-white toad with flame-red eyes floated, surrounded by a deep black soul ring—a ten-thousand-year Scarlet Eyed Ice Toad Stigma.

This ten-thousand-year Stigma was a special reward Lu Jingming chose for Meng Hongchen after Sun Moon Academy's third-place finish in the tournament.

The goodwill behind this gift was obvious.

Scarlet-eyed Eyed Ice Toads usually lived in the outer areas of the extreme north and were very rare.

However, Snow Empress, the ruler of the extreme north, was now one of Lu Jingming's people, so finding a ten-thousand-year Scarlet Eyed Ice Toad and extracting its genetic soul information was not difficult for him.

When Meng Hongchen first saw the Stigma, she was so excited that her face turned red, her eyes sparkling with joy. If not for the occasion, she might have jumped on Lu Jingming and kissed him.

"So this is a Stigma? It's hard to imagine what kind of genius could master such incredible technology."

Jing Hongchen gazed at the Stigma in awe.

Even though the Sun Moon Empire led in soul engineering technology, and had advanced genetic tech like extracting male seeds and implanting them in females, allowing female pregnancy, the miraculous Stigma technology—which let soul masters easily obtain soul rings—was still a total mystery.

It felt like facing a simulated universe—the Stigma technology was far beyond their current knowledge and understanding.

Others might suspect the Stigmata were the work of Lady Herta.

But Jing Hongchen disagreed; he had long observed Lady Herta's every move. Though he'd never met her, he'd learned she was extremely proud and narcissistic.

If she had invented Stigmata, she'd never keep it a secret.

So Jing Hongchen concluded the developer was someone else, and that person must be from Haiyuan City.

Thinking of this, he marveled at how Haiyuan City was truly full of hidden talents.

Jing Hongchen's expression grew more solemn. Haiyuan City's rise had already broken the Sun Moon Empire's long dominance in soul engineering, something the Sun Moon high command had noted.

The tournament especially had shown many advanced technologies from Haiyuan City, which amazed him.

The sensational Stigmata technology was even more influential—enough to change the soul master world entirely.

All these changes showed that the Douluo Continent was about to undergo unprecedented transformation—a stormy age was coming.

Although the Sun Moon Empire viewed Haiyuan City as a potential rival, Jing Hongchen knew that if they could win Haiyuan City over, making it part of their camp, that would be ideal.

He then looked at his beloved granddaughter Meng Hongchen.

He knew her character well—she was a fangirl who couldn't resist handsome guys, but usually only admired them from afar.

But her near-obsession with Lu Jingming showed she had fallen hard.

Jing Hongchen didn't want to pull her out; instead, he planned to help push things along.

"Meng, Xiao, would you two like to study at St. Freya Academy for a few years?"

Jing Hongchen narrowed his eyes, glancing between Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen as he asked.