Encounter Again

Early the next morning, when the sky was just beginning to brighten, the deep blue gradually faded as the first light of dawn appeared. Sunlight streamed through the glass onto Ji Lin's face as he sat cross-legged. He opened his eyes, breathed in the crisp morning air, stretched, and sat up from the bed.

Clearly, he had cultivated all night. What had happened the previous night had kept him awake, leaving him no choice but to get up and cultivate through the night, using the spiritual attainments of the Void Sword Qi's Dustless Realm to calm his surging emotions.

When he opened the door, he happened to see Xu Jiujiu approaching with a maid pushing a dining cart.

Apparently, Princess Jiujiu wanted to have breakfast with her fiancé, though they had often eaten breakfast together before.

Ji Lin called over Chi Yuan from next door. The three of them sat together and silently ate breakfast without saying a word. The atmosphere was awkward. Xu Jiujiu was still embarrassed over what had happened last night. Girls were thin-skinned; that was perfectly normal. Ji Lin, on the other hand, was thick-skinned, but with Chi Yuan present, it was inconvenient for him to tease Xu Jiujiu.

Chi Yuan, meanwhile, felt like a light bulb—a ten-thousand-watt one. After quietly finishing breakfast, she quickly left.

Watching Chi Yuan's departing figure, Ji Lin grinned wickedly and teased Xu Jiujiu.

"Sister Jiujiu, how about we continue tonight?"

Xu Jiujiu shuddered all over, so startled that her chopsticks fell to the floor.

"C-continue what?! What are you talking about? I don't understand."

"Of course, what Sister Jiujiu did to me last night." Ji Lin's attack power was maxed out today.

"W-what did I do to you?! What nonsense are you talking about? How old are you? What kind of messy things are going through that head of yours?"

With her face completely red, Xu Jiujiu reached out and grabbed Ji Lin by the ear as she questioned him. Clearly, Princess Jiujiu had cracked.

"Ah, it hurts, it hurts! Sister Jiujiu, my ear is about to come off." Ji Lin's inner actor emerged. He did not feel Xu Jiujiu using any force at all.

"What hurts? I didn't use any force at all. You little rascal, you're even putting on an act." It seemed Princess Jiujiu was not some naive little girl either. This trick was useless against Her Highness the Princess.

What an opportunity! A sharp glint flashed through Ji Lin's eyes. Taking advantage of Xu Jiujiu's distraction, he leaned forward and planted a kiss on her red lips. Most outrageous of all, he shamelessly stuck out his tongue and gave them a lick.

After taking advantage of Her Highness the Princess, Ji Lin turned and ran, leaving only his back to the stunned Princess Jiujiu.

Watching Ji Lin's retreating figure, Xu Jiujiu blankly touched her lips.

"Pfft."

Xu Jiujiu suddenly laughed, her smile carrying a sense of ease and relief.

"He really is still a child. Big Sister looks forward to the day you grow up."

Ji Lin, who had been treated like a child, was completely unaware of it. Otherwise, he would definitely have returned in angry embarrassment and shown Xu Jiujiu whether he was truly a child or not.

After teasing Xu Jiujiu, the delighted Ji Lin ran into Chi Yuan, who had left ahead of him.

With her arms crossed and her back against the wall, Chi Yuan looked at the grinning Ji Lin and sighed.

"It's time to obtain your third Soul Ring. You broke through Rank 30 several days ago, didn't you?"

"Yeah. The engagement has kept me busy these past few days, so I've already delayed it for a while."

Although he could still cultivate and increase his Soul Power without obtaining a Soul Ring, could the cultivation speed of a two-ringed Soul Grandmaster compare with that of a three-ringed Soul Elder?

"Then let's go now. The sooner we leave, the sooner we return, and the sooner you can come back to play with Sister Jiujiu. Sister Jiujiu is way too fun right now."

Watching a certain Ji become so obsessed with Princess Jiujiu that he could not pull himself free, Chi Yuan slapped her forehead and inwardly lamented.

"Give me back my calm, disciplined, cultivation-loving good disciple! Is this husky really my disciple? He hasn't been possessed, has he?"

Unknowingly branded with the label of husky, Ji Lin could think only of Princess Jiujiu's soft, sweet lips and the elasticity of her thighs, which he could feel even through her black stockings when his head rested on her lap.

Gradually, a certain someone began drooling pathetically.

With a face full of disgust, Chi Yuan shifted the hand holding Ji Lin farther away from herself.

"ε=(ο｀*))) Sigh, he's beyond saving."

Feeling that she had raised her disciple into a lost cause, Chi Yuan looked speechlessly at the sky.

This time, Ji Lin's target was a fire-attributed Soul Beast around eight thousand years old, so Chi Yuan did as she had the previous two times and took Ji Lin straight toward the Mixed Area.

Star Dou Great Forest, Mixed Area.

Within a forest, a Hundred-Thousand-Year Silver Moon Flood Dragon Emperor spewed a beam of silvery-white moonlight from its mouth, blasting it straight toward a woman in white ahead. Wherever the moonlight passed, trees and boulders were assimilated by it, turning into white light and dissipating.

"Senior Sister, be careful!"

"Senior Sister, dodge!"

"Senior Sister!"

The two men and one woman not far from the woman in white cried out in alarm.

Aside from those two men and one woman, the devastated scene was littered not only with fallen trees and cratered ground, but also with several human and Soul Beast corpses.

From the black Soul Rings on the Soul Beast corpses, as well as the human corpses that had either been severed at the waist or torn apart, the situation was clear at a glance.

This was a tragedy. A group of humans had encountered an attack from the Hundred-Thousand-Year Silver Moon Flood Dragon Emperor while hunting a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast.

Caught off guard and facing such a vast disparity in strength, they had suffered devastating casualties.

This group was none other than disciples of Shrek Academy's Inner Court.

A group of twelve, led by Zhang Lexuan, had come to the Mixed Area of the Star Dou Great Forest to obtain Soul Rings.

Several days earlier, Zhang Lexuan had reached Rank 80. A Soul Douluo at only twenty-one years old, she had shocked all of Sea God's Pavilion and become Shrek Academy's greatest Inner Court genius in three thousand years.

Delighted, Shrek Academy immediately dispatched Xuan Zi, a Rank 98 Super Douluo, to protect this group of twelve, including Zhang Lexuan, as they came to the Mixed Area of the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt Soul Rings.

Because the eighth Soul Ring Zhang Lexuan needed came from a Soul Beast around eighty thousand years old, after the other Inner Court disciples had obtained their Soul Rings, Zhang Lexuan led the other students deeper in the direction of the Core Area.

There should not have been a problem with that. With a Rank 98 Super Douluo protecting them, they would not have been in danger even if they encountered a hundred-thousand-year Soul Beast.

However, due to a flaw in his Martial Soul, Xuan Zi had absurdly become separated from Zhang Lexuan and the others.

Zhang Lexuan and the others were also terribly unlucky to encounter the Hundred-Thousand-Year Silver Moon Flood Dragon Emperor in the Mixed Area. In a single exchange, several Inner Court disciples died beneath its claws.

Suddenly attacked and watching their fellow students, with whom they had spent every day, die on the spot, the enraged and grief-stricken Zhang Lexuan and the others began a desperate battle against the Silver Moon Flood Dragon Emperor.

Driven by the deaths of their companions, Zhang Lexuan and the others managed to wound the Silver Moon Flood Dragon Emperor while fighting with their lives on the line, but they had paid a grievous price. Of the original twelve, only four remained, and every one of them was injured. Before dying, some students had even called Elder Xuan's name, hoping he would appear and save them. Sadly, Elder Xuan never appeared. What came for them instead was despair.

Facing the incoming silvery-white moonlight, Zhang Lexuan's expression became dazed. She thought of the junior brothers and sisters who had died before her, and of Bei Bei far away at Shrek Academy. A sorrowful smile appeared on her face.

The three severely injured Inner Court disciples in the distance watched this scene in despair.

Just then, a flash of red light streaked through the sky, and a crimson figure descended from above, blocking Zhang Lexuan.

Chi Yuan activated Martial Soul Possession. Nine Soul Rings—yellow, purple, purple, black, black, black, red, red, red—rose and fell around her as she caught the Silver Moon Flood Dragon Emperor's full-force strike with one hand.

Boom!

The shockwave created by the collision between the moonlight and the Soul Power barrier spread outward, clearing away the trees and rubble within dozens of meters.

Fortunately, the heavily injured Inner Court disciples were still some distance away. Otherwise, it would have been far too ridiculous for Shrek Academy's dignified Inner Court disciples to die from the shockwave.

At that moment, Ji Lin also flapped his Fire Dragon Wings and landed beside Zhang Lexuan.

"Big Sister Lexuan, are you all right?"