A Hundred Gold Soul Coins, "Dantian Foundation Establishment Technique"

"Village Chief, I can give up the spot, but I know everything you've done. Hand over the Gold Soul Coins."

Xu Hanfeng knew very well that the village chief had sold all the spots to wealthier villages.

Those villages had more people who could attend school, but if they relied on themselves, they would need far more Gold Soul Coins.

So they bought some Work-Study Student spots from other villages.

The money spent buying a Work-Study Student spot was much less than paying to attend school directly.

At an ordinary Soul Master Academy, annual tuition could range from 10 to 50 Gold Soul Coins.

But a Work-Study Student spot only cost 10 Gold Soul Coins. It was highly profitable.

At those words, the village chief's face instantly darkened.

"Xiao Feng, it seems you still want to attend Nuoding Academy."

Xu Hanfeng could not be bothered to answer. He used the Giant's Grasp card.

A massive dark-golden hand directly seized the village chief and lifted him up.

"This...!"

The village chief froze. He did not understand why Xu Hanfeng could use a soul skill without having obtained a Soul Ring.

"Village Chief, you really won't take the easy way when it's offered."

"Don't... I'll give you the money!" The village chief was being squeezed so hard by the giant hand that he could barely breathe.

Even his entire face had begun to turn blue.

"Hmph..."

Xu Hanfeng set the village chief down.

The village chief cast him a wary look.

"Hurry up."

"Yes, yes."

The village chief had been able to throw his weight around because many others did not understand such matters, but Xu Hanfeng was no fool.

The instant the village chief turned around, Tang Ya flashed forward and knocked him unconscious with a punch.

"Sister Ya, make sure he dies tomorrow."

Xu Hanfeng was no saint. Enemies had to be dealt with directly.

Even if they were ordinary people.

Giving him the same treatment as a Soul Master was already more than fair to him.

Village Chief: Thanks a lot.

"Got it."

Tang Ya lightly patted the village chief's shoulder, injecting a trace of Soul Power into his body and destroying his meridians.

The village chief was already old, and his meridians were fragile. A tiny strand of Soul Power was enough to ruin them.

At the same time, Xu Hanfeng immediately cleared out the village chief's home.

"There are actually over a hundred Gold Soul Coins. He really was rich. Who knows how many people's spots he swallowed up."

Xu Hanfeng took everything.

The two exchanged a glance and left the village chief's house.

The village chief carried great prestige, so no one would visit his home.

By the time anyone discovered his corpse, it would probably be several days later. By then, they would no longer be in the village.

After returning to the room.

Xu Hanfeng prepared to test out the cultivation technique.

Without the Mysterious Heaven Skill, he could only use the cultivation techniques he remembered from his past life. He did not know whether they would work.

"This one, then. The Dantian Foundation Establishment Technique."

Xu Hanfeng began assuming the stance from his memories.

He stood naturally, his feet shoulder-width apart and his knees slightly bent.

His spine was straight, and his entire body relaxed.

He also paired it with a breathing method.

He took deep, slow abdominal breaths. His abdomen expanded as he inhaled and drew inward as he exhaled. He focused his mind on the lower dantian three inches below his navel, feeling the warmth of his breath sinking into his dantian.

After circulating it several times, Xu Hanfeng felt delighted.

It worked!

This cultivation technique worked. It could truly be used to cultivate Soul Power.

After cultivating for two hours.

Xu Hanfeng felt extremely comfortable.

"Young Master, looks like your cultivation is going quite well."

Tang Ya had remained at Xu Hanfeng's side.

Characters summoned by Character Cards had the same Soul Power as Xu Hanfeng, so they did not need to cultivate at all.

"Mm, it really is quite good."

Although Xu Hanfeng did not know whether his Dantian Foundation Establishment Technique could compare to Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Skill.

It was definitely not inferior.

Xu Hanfeng then opened the Douluo Compendium and flipped to the section on Permanent Character Cards.

There were over a hundred characters listed there, but they were all blacked out, making it impossible to see what the cards looked like.

"If I want to activate them, it seems there are special requirements. But I can't even see those requirements."

Xu Hanfeng was at a loss.

Did that not mean he could only stumble through the dark, like completing hidden achievements and quests?

Good grief, that was absurd.

He could only play it by ear.

If one activated, he was lucky. If not, then he was unlucky.

The next day.

The village chief woke up and was shocked to see that his house looked as though it had been plowed over.

He hurriedly got up to inspect it.

He discovered that all his money was gone.

"Xu Hanfeng!"

Pfft—

In his agitation, the village chief's meridians shattered. He spat out a mouthful of old blood and died.

No one in the village knew what had happened here.

After all, it was perfectly normal for the village chief not to leave his house for a day or two.

Another two days passed.

Over the past few days, Xu Hanfeng's main task had been drawing cards.

Whenever he ran out of Soul Power, he cultivated to recover it, then continued drawing cards.

He drew quite a few cards.

There were even Soul Bone Cards among them.

This gave Xu Hanfeng a special idea.

"Sister Ya, let's get ready to leave."

Xu Hanfeng said.

"Alright."

Tang Ya packed up the useful items, then left the village with Xu Hanfeng under cover of night.

Several days later, the villagers discovered the village chief's corpse. It had already begun to stink.

And Xu Hanfeng had fled.

Everyone believed that Xu Hanfeng had killed the village chief and stolen all his money.

Of course, that was a matter for later.

Xu Hanfeng planned to head for Heaven Dou City, where Dugu Bo and Dugu Yan, the exclusive resource NPCs for the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, were located.

But before that, Xu Hanfeng planned to enter a nearby forest and obtain his First Soul Ring.

The forest had no name, and there were few soul beasts inside. At most, there were Thousand Year Soul Beasts, and not many of those.

It was perfect for Xu Hanfeng.

Xu Hanfeng intended to take a gamble and use the Soul Bone Cards he possessed to raise the age limit of the Soul Ring he could absorb.

It was common knowledge that soul bones could strengthen a Soul Master's physique.

Consumable Soul Bone Cards worked just as well.

Therefore, Xu Hanfeng planned for his First Soul Ring to be over seven hundred years old but under a thousand years old.

The Soul Bone Cards he had were only hundred-year and thousand-year ones.

Anything higher was beyond what he could endure.

Besides, he might not even be able to defeat it.

Even against a seven- or eight-hundred-year soul beast, Xu Hanfeng could not possibly fight head-on. He needed to use the Soul Tools in his Equipment Cards to set some traps.

That was the only safe approach.

Two days later, they arrived at the forest.

Xu Hanfeng looked at the forest, which covered less than ten football fields, and was very satisfied.

They found a quiet place.

Xu Hanfeng and Tang Ya began digging, then placed Level One Soul Tools—Mysterious Ice Thorns—inside the enormous pit.

When this Soul Tool pierced a soul beast, it could freeze its internal organs as well. It was extremely useful.

Xu Hanfeng also used other Soul Tools to spread all kinds of poison.

The first trap was complete.

To be safe, there had to be plenty of traps.

In any case, Consumable Cards were cheap.

For the second trap, Xu Hanfeng set up his only Level Two Soul Tool—the Poison Silk Net—in the air. Once a soul beast climbed out of the pit, it would be caught.

It was poisoned as well.

The third trap.

Xu Hanfeng used several Explosive Soul Tools and placed more explosive and Freezing Soul Tools not far from the traps.

If the first two traps failed, these Soul Tools would definitely blow the soul beast to death.

Xu Hanfeng felt that even a Soul Elder would be blown to death if they were careless. He had set up dozens of Soul Tools.