Making Friends?

Zhou You had not merely mentioned going Soul Hunting with them on a whim. Before long, he told Liu Suxin what he had in mind.

She did not object. Instead, she tested Zhou You's current Soul Power Level on the spot.

"Level thirteen?" She was a little surprised. "You've been here less than a month, haven't you?"

"Counting from the day I entered the academy, this should be the twenty-seventh day." Zhou You remembered it quite clearly.

"If I remember right, you'd only just become a Soul Master when you enrolled, and your Soul Power was at level eleven... You went from level eleven to level thirteen in twenty-seven days?" Liu Suxin was somewhat taken aback. "Isn't that a little too fast?"

"Fast?" Zhou You did not really know how things stood with other people. Since he had grasped how to convert Soul Power and Qi into each other, the speed at which he refined Qi had increased considerably compared to before he awakened his Martial Soul.

Moreover, having absorbed the knowledge in the Library, he had mastered the most correct Meditation Method, and was also highly efficient at retaining Heaven and Earth Vital Energy.

But he thought his Soul Power cultivation speed should only be a tiny bit faster than that of genius Soul Masters like the Golden Generation.

To be honest, if it weren't for the time it took to convert Soul Power into Qi, and he followed only the Soul Master path, he could accumulate Soul Power even faster.

"How is that not fast?" Liu Suxin shook her head. She felt that Zhou You had no idea how fast ordinary Soul Masters cultivated.

"For an ordinary Soul Master, gaining one level in that time would already count as having good talent. In our class, aside from Xie Yue, Hu Liena and Yan, the other children would be considered outstanding if they gained one level in a quarter, and good if they gained half a level."

"Someone like you..." Liu Suxin did not even know how to describe him.

Genius Soul Masters did cultivate faster than ordinary ones, but not this fast. Didn't it take time to understand a Meditation Method? Didn't the body need time to adapt while accumulating Soul Power?

In any case, in her decades of teaching, she had never seen anyone's Soul Power rise so quickly. At this rate, wouldn't this child already be level twenty by the next Quarterly Assessment...?

At the thought of that possibility, Liu Suxin could not help sucking in a sharp breath.

And that was with Zhou You devoting part of his attention to miscellaneous books. If he threw himself entirely into cultivation, Liu Suxin did not dare think any further.

The usually composed Liu Suxin could not help looking at Zhou You with a touch of fervor in her eyes.

Her gaze made Zhou You a little uncomfortable, so he could only speak up again. "Teacher Liu, what about my request...?"

Liu Suxin came back to her senses. After thinking carefully for a moment, she slowly nodded. "I can agree, but let me make this clear first: once you get there, you must obey the Soul Master leading the group at all times. You mustn't act on your own."

"I understand." A faint joy welled up in Zhou You's heart.

Liu Suxin's decision was no surprise to him. After all, they were not going somewhere dangerous like the Star Dou Great Forest. Most of the Soul Beasts at the captive breeding base were between ten and a hundred years old; even thousand-year Soul Beasts were extremely rare.

Given Yan's importance, the Soul Master leading the group this time would probably be a Soul Saint at the very least. A Soul Master of that level could basically slaughter their way through the captive Soul Beast base. Whether herding one sheep or two, the work was much the same; adding Zhou You would make no difference.

Though the academy was an ivory tower, Soul Master education encouraged students to face challenges as long as their safety was assured.

Considering Zhou You's cultivation speed, Liu Suxin figured it would not be long before he had to prepare to hunt for his second Soul Ring. It would do him good to broaden his horizons beforehand.

His strength was greater than Xie Yue's and Yan's, so Liu Suxin would not treat him like an ordinary child.

Having received her promise, Zhou You walked out of the Teaching Building in high spirits. Just as he came out, he ran into a few people.

There were four of them, three boys and one girl, all a little older than Zhou You, around ten years old. They seemed to have been waiting there specifically for him.

Zhou You quietly sized up the four of them and searched his memory for their identities. They were a few students from his class.

"Need something?" Zhou You really could not remember their names. Not bothering to think any further, he asked them directly.

The group exchanged glances, and the tallest boy, who also looked the oldest, stepped forward.

"Hello, my name is Sun Chuantao. I, we..." He seemed to have something to say, but as though he found it hard to get the words out, he stopped halfway and pressed his lips tightly together. He fidgeted for a long time without saying the rest.

The only girl behind him seemed to be deliberately avoiding his gaze, quietly saying something to the companion beside her instead.

Zhou You's five senses were keen, and he faintly caught her voice.

"Maybe we should just forget it..."

That piqued Zhou You's interest a little.

In the end, another boy could not stand watching any longer and stepped forward of his own accord.

"Sun Chuantao, is it really that big a deal? You've been holding it in forever and still can't get it out? Have you gone mute?"

Those words seemed to open a floodgate. Sun Chuantao snapped, "If you're so capable, you do it!"

"Fine, I will!" The boy walked up to Zhou You, his expression solemn and his gaze earnest, even somewhat stern.

Zhou You instinctively assumed they had come to challenge him and prepared himself to accept.

But what came out of the boy's mouth was, "Boss, we want to follow you!"

Sun Chuantao slapped a hand over his face, wearing an expression that said, I fucking should've known.

The girl behind him stood with her mouth slightly open, looking a little adorably dumbfounded.

Another boy, who looked a little thin and weak, twitched the corner of his mouth and looked away, as though he could hardly bear to watch.

Zhou You froze for a moment before looking at him with a strange expression.

"Is that your opinion, or do all four of you think so?"

"Of course it's what we all think," the boy said matter-of-factly, seemingly not finding anything embarrassing about it at all.

By now, Sun Chuantao wanted to find a hole to crawl into. For such a big boy, he looked surprisingly ill at ease.

Before Zhou You could ask anything else, the boy went on, acting as though they were already old friends. "We all heard you took Yan as your underling. Since he can do it, taking a few more shouldn't be a problem either."

He said proudly, "Don't be fooled by how smug that kid Yan is. Us guys aren't bad either. Even Xu Yu, the weakest of us, is level nineteen. But he's Support System, so combat was never his strong suit."

"You know about Support System, right? Have you heard of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda? They call it the number one support Martial Soul under heaven. I'm telling you, that's because they haven't met Xu Yu. If they'd met him earlier, this kid's Martial Soul could've competed for that so-called number one spot too..."

Xu Yu could not listen any longer. He hurriedly lunged at him and clamped a hand firmly over that boastful mouth.

"Li Kai, you bastard, keep spouting nonsense and I'll beat you up. You believe me or not?"

Faced with the threat, however, Li Kai merely rolled his eyes, his mouth still covered, and paid it no mind at all.

Standing at the back, Zhang Ping looked at her unreliable teammates. Xu Yu and Li Kai were struggling with each other, while Sun Chuantao had withdrawn into himself. With no other choice, she stepped forward herself.

"Hello, I'm Zhang Ping. Please ignore what Li Kai said. We... just want to be friends with you."