I Really Want to Grow Up Soon!

In the blink of an eye, three months hurried by.

During that time, Zhou Qing and Tang San continued with their lives.

They studied together.

They visited the Spirit Rhyme Turtle together.

They bathed together.

They exercised together.

Tang San's modifications to his Hidden Weapons also made tremendous progress.

After three months of sorting through and organizing the Soul Guiding Inscriptions on the Soul Tool Fan, then testing them one by one with his own Internal Energy, he finally added them to a brand-new type of dart.

This dart no longer resembled a bamboo leaf. Instead, it looked like a fan blade, with each dart blade curved in a twisted arc.

When infused with Internal Energy and thrown, it flew in an arcing trajectory—it could turn—and it was nearly silent as it sliced through the air.

Tang San named this type of dart the Wind Leaf Dart.

"Just as I thought! Adding Soul Guiding Inscriptions to Hidden Weapons can make them stronger!" Tang San exclaimed as he used Controlling Crane Capturing Dragon to retrieve the still-flying Wind Leaf Dart. "And with the enhancement of Soul Guiding Inscriptions, Hidden Weapons are easier to control with Internal Energy... Just how powerful are the offensive Soul Tools used by the experts of this world?"

After calming down, Tang San put away the Wind Leaf Dart and prepared to find Zhou Qing so they could visit the Spirit Rhyme Turtle together.

However, Tang San had no intention of telling Zhou Qing about Internal Energy. He planned to tell him after awakening his martial soul in the future—if soul power was Internal Energy, then even if his future martial soul was poor, he would definitely possess Innate Soul Power, because he could cultivate it himself!

All that remained was to awaken his martial soul.

When he arrived at Zhou Qing's house and called out twice without receiving a response, Tang San knew Zhou Qing had gone to see the Spirit Rhyme Turtle.

Over the past three months, whenever Zhou Qing and Tang San treated the Spirit Rhyme Turtle's shell, they also brought along a blank booklet to record its daily changes.

After three consecutive months of treatment, the Spirit Rhyme Turtle had become aware of Zhou Qing and Tang San's presence. Sometimes, even when awake, it did not choose to attack them. Instead, it quietly lay by the shore and allowed Zhou Qing and Tang San to clear the silt, aquatic grass, pond snails, and insects from its shell before sprinkling it with Yellow Potato Powder.

For a time, Tang San believed that this two-hundred-year-old turtle had gained human-like intelligence and understood that they were helping it, which was why it did not attack them.

But Zhou Qing had a different idea.

As a Transmigrator from the modern world, Zhou Qing understood the concept of "symbiosis," such as rhinos and oxpeckers, clownfish and sea anemones, or toothpick birds and crocodiles.

The Spirit Rhyme Turtle and the plant on its back also shared a symbiotic relationship, except they had become fused together, forming an even closer connection. They had even become a single entity formed from two species.

However.

Zhou Qing knew that only after reaching the ten-thousand-year level could a Spirit Rhyme Turtle completely merge with the plant on its shell.

And such symbiotic relationships were surely not uncommon in the world of soul beasts.

Perhaps this Spirit Rhyme Turtle had sensed the scent left behind whenever he and Tang San changed its medicine. Every time it came ashore, passed out, and woke again, it could feel that its body had improved somewhat. It had probably instinctively regarded him and Tang San as creatures that ate carrion.

Of course, Zhou Qing knew his guess was not entirely accurate. Before reaching a thousand years, Spirit Rhyme Turtles accumulated Spiritual Power. Although this one was only two hundred years old, its Spiritual Power should have been far stronger than that of soul beasts of the same age. In theory, its intelligence should have been comparable to that of an ordinary child, and it should have been able to recognize that he and Tang San were humans.

Yet it had not attacked them...

Zhou Qing did not believe it possessed the intelligence to distinguish human Good and Evil. For now, the most likely reason he could think of was that this Spirit Rhyme Turtle lived in a human environment.

There was a rule in the original work that did not seem like much of a rule: if Shapeshifted Soul Beasts wanted to cultivate faster, they needed to enter human society.

Once they became human, they naturally had to interact and communicate with humans.

Humans were, by nature, a collective. The various relationships between people were, at their root, also a form of symbiosis.

And soul beasts that took human form might obtain some abstract, intangible information through their symbiotic relationships with humans, helping them cultivate.

Although this Spirit Rhyme Turtle had not directly interacted with humans, there were quite a few villages around the stream where it lived. It was inevitable that it would pick up some "human presence."

Perhaps that was also why it was not so wary of Zhou Qing and Tang San. Perhaps when it had gone to the village near Holy Soul Village back then, it had merely been overly curious about humans.

Only soul beasts like Spirit Rhyme Turtles, which were relatively gentle, would be like this.

Zhou Qing silently added another condition to his theory.

After sensing that Zhou Qing had finished spreading the Yellow Potato Powder over it, the Spirit Rhyme Turtle moved its limbs and swayed a few times.

Zhou Qing and Tang San immediately jumped off its back and jogged into the nearby bushes. The Spirit Rhyme Turtle did not return to the water. Instead, it slowly crawled onto a large rock nearby and basked in the sun.

Over the past three months, this Spirit Rhyme Turtle had instinctively realized that after Zhou Qing and Tang San applied its medicine, it could not immediately enter the water. Only after basking in the sun for a while would its body feel more comfortable than before.

Under the sunlight, the strange plant on the Spirit Rhyme Turtle's shell looked even more lush and vibrant. It had grown a little taller and sprouted a third leaf.

"Brother Qing, have you found out what kind of plant that is?" Tang San asked as he looked at it.

"No."

Zhou Qing shook his head. "Half a month ago, the uncle at the village entrance went to Nuoding City to sell vegetables. I asked him to buy books related to medicine and plants for me, but none of the books he brought back described this plant."

"This plant is probably something only truly powerful soul masters can come into contact with. Nuoding City may have a Soul Master Academy, but I heard that its dean is only a two-ring Soul Grandmaster. The Hall Master of the local Spirit Hall is also a Soul Grandmaster, so they probably have no access to such things."

"Besides, it is said that Douluo Continent has yet to be fully explored by humans. Spirit Hall even discovers new soul beasts every two or three years..."

Like a sponge, Tang San absorbed everything Zhou Qing said, and his interest in Douluo Continent grew ever stronger.

The cultivation of martial souls!

The strange wonders of soul beasts!

There were simply too many unknowns in this world. He truly wanted to explore them as soon as possible.

How were the medicinal properties of plants in this world different from those in his previous life? Could they be used to create even more powerful medicines or poisons?

What kinds of metal deposits did this world possess? If used to create Hidden Weapons, could they make them even stronger?

How many types of Soul Guiding Inscriptions existed in Soul Tools?

And the cultivation of martial souls!

Everything was so captivating!

"I really want to grow up soon!"

Tang San let out a heartfelt sigh.

"Yeah!"

Zhou Qing nodded as well. "I really want to reach six years old soon, so I can awaken my martial soul."

Martial souls!

Awakening Innate Soul Power!

That was the foundation that would allow him to pursue his dreams himself!

If he failed to awaken Innate Soul Power then, at least his guidance of Tang San over the past few years would keep him from being led astray by that Yu Xiaogang fellow...

Ma Xiunuo really was a Soul Grandmaster. He had not crossed the threshold of Level 30.