Inner Space (Newbie Begging for Votes TvT)

Inner Space (Newbie Begging for Votes!!! TvT)

Dragging the Shadow Leopard's corpse to a lush, secluded corner of the outer region, Ye Wen sprinkled odor-removing powder around it, then sat cross-legged on the ground and began drawing in the Soul Ring to absorb it.

The familiar pulling sensation came from within his body once more, but this time, Ye Wen did not feel much pain. He absorbed the Soul Ring in almost no time at all.

Perhaps it was because his physical constitution far exceeded the pressure of the Soul Ring itself, much like the siphon effect in science.

With Ye Wen's current physical condition, he could have absorbed a Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Ring.

He could have achieved the terrifying Soul Ring configuration of one yellow, two purple, and one black, but matters concerning the soul still made Ye Wen somewhat wary.

Although he had been strengthened by the Plane Consciousness, taking risks with the most fundamental part of a person—the soul—was too dangerous. It would be bad if he turned himself into an idiot. After all, as far as Ye Wen remembered, the Snow Empress was not by his side, nor was there any senior to guide his Spiritual Power cultivation. If he could play it safe, he would play it safe.

Tang San had blindly and confidently absorbed his Ten-Thousand-Year Fourth Soul Ring, only to need the assistance of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well in the end. Meanwhile, Ye Wen had nothing at all. Caution was never wrong. There were countless paths of cultivation, but life came first. If he could not even keep his life, what was the use of having a high cultivation level?

Feeling the doubled strength within his body, Ye Wen had the strange illusion that he hated the heavens for having nothing to grip and the earth for having no rings to lift.

"Thanks to the Soul Ring's enhancement, my strength has now reached roughly 21,000 jin."

Ye Wen closed his eyes and slowly assessed his current physical condition and strength before summoning his Martial Soul.

Yellow—Purple—Purple—Purple.

Four shimmering Soul Rings circled Ye Wen's body. The Nab Cloth Martial Soul still appeared to be an ordinary one-meter square cloth, but the space within it had greatly expanded to fifty cubic meters.

After examining his Martial Soul, Ye Wen opened his eyes and discovered in astonishment that an extra cloak had appeared on his body. It was embroidered with mysterious silver patterns and completely covered the right half of his body and his back.

"Is this True Body Armor?" Ye Wen asked in surprise.

Since True Body Armor had not appeared after he attached his first three Soul Rings, Ye Wen had subconsciously assumed that, like support Soul Masters such as Ning Rongrong and Oscar, he did not have any obvious True Body Armor.

But now, it seemed that his Martial Soul was special, which was why this True Body Armor had not manifested during the early stages.

Back when he had seen Ah Yin's dazzling blue-gold arm guard, Ye Wen had been envious for quite some time.

Slowly dismissing the True Body Armor with a thought, Ye Wen clearly felt that the consumption of his Martial Soul had decreased, but his sense of control over it had weakened as well.

Only then did Ye Wen recall that, aside from increasing a Soul Master's combat strength, True Body Armor also increased consumption.

It was essentially a buff that consumed Soul Power in exchange for enhanced strength.

Once the novelty wore off, Ye Wen began checking exactly what kind of Soul Skill his Fourth Soul Ring contained.

"Fourth Soul Skill: Inner Space. It allows my body to enter a shadow state for three seconds, with one additional second for every ten levels I gain. Each use consumes roughly one-tenth of my Soul Power. This ability can also be used on companions by wrapping them in sub-cloths."

Ye Wen was overjoyed. Wasn't this basically like Xiao Wu's coveted Invincible Golden Body? One directly withstood enemy attacks, while the other allowed him to enter a semi-intangible state. And this ability could even be shared with companions. Awesome!

Next, Ye Wen stored the Shadow Leopard's corpse in the Nab Cloth's space. Soul Beast corpses were valuable things. Their fur, flesh, blood, and bones could all be used to make rather useful byproducts.

Unfortunately, Storage Soul Tools were rare items. Thus, after hunting Soul Rings, ordinary Soul Masters would at most take the most valuable parts from a Soul Beast's corpse, leaving the rest behind in the Great Star Dou Forest. It was truly wasteful.

The intact Shadow Leopard in Ye Wen's hands was nearly ten thousand years old. If sold, it would fetch no less than 1,000 Gold Soul Coins in total.

Which raised the question of why Shrek Academy had been so poor in the original story. With two Soul Saints, as long as they did not enter the Mixed Zone, they should have been able to hunt quite a few Soul Beasts like this with just a little effort.

Yet they had holed up in such a remote village and still cheated a group of commoner Soul Masters out of ten Gold Soul Coins each. It was an utterly baffling move. Did Flender simply enjoy deceiving people, or did he have no brains?

As for saying that the two of them were compassionate and wanted to leave a path for future Soul Masters—what a joke. Immovable King Zhao Wuji was a formidable man who had fought his way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. As for Flender, the original story only described him as greedy and stingy, but he was still the Flying Corner of the Golden Iron Triangle, one of those who had roamed the continent. Especially since he had cultivated to the Soul Saint realm, the blood on his hands might not have matched Zhao Wuji's, but he was absolutely no harmless saint.

So how exactly had they ended up in such dire straits?

How strange, how strange~

After dealing with the Shadow Leopard's corpse, Ye Wen returned to the hometown where he had been born.

It was once again the season of harvest, and groups of villagers were diligently working in the fields.

Ye Wen's heart was peaceful, yet tense. He had now passed the Soul Master's initial fragile stage and was about to challenge the future.

"I am not a savior, but I also have things I want to protect. If the gods wish to destroy all this, then even if they are gods, I will fight them.

"Starting from this Holy Soul Village, I will let the light of human wisdom ignite an epic of civilization."

His blood burned in his heart as Ye Wen began the next step of his plan.

Time passed bit by bit, and Ye Wen bought a small mountain range not far from Holy Soul Village.

Since the land could not be cultivated and had no special products, the Nuoding City authorities readily sold the mountain range to Ye Wen. Even so, it still cost him 1,000 Gold Soul Coins.

After that, he hired a construction crew to build walls, school buildings, a cafeteria, and a series of other school facilities.

Although the construction crew consisted of ordinary people without Soul Power, their Martial Souls still improved their work efficiency. In less than half a year, they completed a small primary academy in this remote place.

The newly completed academy looked brand-new, with neat white walls everywhere the eye could see.

Most eye-catching of all were the four large characters carved into a massive yellow stone at the center of the academy.

Heaven's Way Primary Academy

Below them, in slightly smaller writing, was the school motto.

Observe the Way of Heaven, Carry Out the Will of Heaven.

An invisible yet majestic aura seemed to linger there.

"Master, what does 'Observe the Way of Heaven, Carry Out the Will of Heaven' mean?" a boy a head shorter than Ye Wen asked softly.