That Kiss

Eleven months later.

Shrek City lay north of the Star Dou Great Forest, at the crossroads of the former Three Douluo Kingdoms.

It was a sacred land coveted by Soul Masters across the continent, as well as the location of Shrek Academy, the continent's premier institution.

It was just past noon, and the blazing sun hung high overhead.

The mild subtropical climate kept this place springlike all year round.

Beneath the shade of a tree outside the city, a young man and woman approached.

Neither of them carried much luggage.

The boy was tall, with a handsome but still youthful face. He already stood over 1.7 meters tall and wore a fitted set of black training clothes that made him look sharp and capable.

The girl beside him was lovely, her silky hair cascading down her back. Her top tightly hugged her already developing figure, whose budding grace was enough to make countless women envious.

Of course, the most striking feature about her was undoubtedly her eyes.

They glittered like twin pools of autumn water, as though stars dwelled within them, brimming with extraordinary spirit.

The girl turned sideways and looked anxiously at the boy who had come with her.

"Brother, do I really not need to go with you? The Star Dou Great Forest is full of danger. Besides, I'm already Level 27..."

The boy gently hugged her and said with a smile, "What, you don't trust your brother that much? Others might not know, but you should know better than anyone. In all our sparring matches, when have you ever beaten me? Besides, I could already handle Hundred Year Soul Beasts with ease when I hunted my Second Soul Ring."

The girl muttered softly, "That's only because your strength is ridiculously unfair, and you're fast too. How is a Spirit System Soul Master like me supposed to fight once you get close? I can't even use the White Tiger Dagger."

The boy reached out and scraped her fair little nose, laughing helplessly.

"Alright, alright, hurry inside. Keep the recommendation letter Grandpa left you. With your current Soul Power Level, Shrek should be fighting to take you in. Don't be stingy with money when you eat these next few days. Treat yourself better. If you spend it, I'll just earn more. I put all your daily necessities in your Storage Ring. Once you get to the dorm, clean it up first..."

A flush rose across the girl's face. As she listened to his endless instructions without saying a word, she took a dagger from her Storage Ring.

The dagger was about a foot and two inches long. Its dark green sheath was made of tough Soul Beast leather.

The hilt was five inches long. It bore no ornate decorations, yet it gave off an ancient, unadorned air.

Anyone with a discerning eye would have recognized it immediately. This was an expensive Class 5 melee Soul Tool.

The boy froze, then declined. "Xiao Tong, you're a Spirit System Soul Master and lack the ability to protect yourself. I heard Shrek's entrance test relies on real combat. You'll most likely have to fight Soul Beasts. I'm used to using a longsword anyway, so you should keep the White Tiger Dagger..."

"Take it."

The girl's tone brooked no refusal. With stubborn resolve in her eyes, she shoved the White Tiger Dagger into his hand.

"If you were really that confident, you wouldn't have given me almost all the Gold Soul Coins."

"I'll be waiting for you at Shrek."

With that, she rose onto her tiptoes and, taking advantage of their embrace, quickly pecked his cheek.

Before he could react, she had already vanished into the crowd entering the city.

The boy stood there for quite a while, dagger in his left hand.

"This little girl, honestly..."

The young man and woman were none other than Qian Chaoguang and Huo Yutong, who had come from the Star Luo Empire.

Nearly a year had passed, and the crucial turning point where the main storyline of the Original Work began was finally here.

Huo Yutong's cultivation was already very close to that of a Soul Elder. With a Soul Power Level as high as Level 27, she would absolutely dominate Shrek's current freshman class.

If nothing had changed, even Wang Dong, the strongest among them now, was only Level 21.

Over these past ten months or so, Qian Chaoguang had not continued studying forging or tempering his body. Instead, he had placed the full focus of his cultivation on the Spirit Communication Art.

Building upon his original Spiritual Power, he cultivated madly until it filled an area the size of a basketball, then compressed it into a single point.

Fill it again, compress it again.

Fill it again, compress it again.

After repeating this process three times, a mutation occurred.

A speck of starlight appeared within the compressed Spiritual Power, shining as brilliantly as a gemstone.

Compared to that speck of starlight, ordinary Spiritual Power was like the difference between a firefly and the bright moon.

The Spirit Communication Art had a specific term for Spiritual Power of this caliber.

Pseudo Divine Sense.

Watching the direction in which Huo Yutong had departed, Qian Chaoguang placed the White Tiger Dagger into his Storage Bracelet, turned, and ran toward the direction he had come from.

Ten years of sharpening a sword, all for this moment!

Four days later.

Qian Chaoguang appeared in a forest in the southern part of the continent, around seventy kilometers from the Star Dou Great Forest.

"A small forest by the roadside, where the sound of a babbling stream can be heard beneath the shade of the trees."

Recalling the description from the Original Work, Qian Chaoguang activated the Pseudo Divine Sense Within His Mind and spread it outward. He quickly determined the direction.

"A stream less than two hundred meters away, roughly three meters wide and two feet deep. That's right, this is the place."

He let out a long breath and sat down beside the stream.

After several days of intense travel, even he, with his incredibly strong physique, felt utterly exhausted.

He had reached the destination several days ahead of schedule. All he needed to do now was wait here for Beibei and Tang Ya to arrive.

Three days later, Qian Chaoguang was, as usual, making a fire beside the stream to cook.

Fat from the lamb skewers dripped onto the charcoal, erupting into a rich, intoxicating smoky aroma that drifted on the wind.

Though he did not possess Huo Yutong's extraordinary skill with Grilled Fish, he had once worked as a kitchen helper in his school cafeteria. He could still make some skewers and other strongly aromatic foods that tasted quite good.

After all, he had lived in a culinary paradise in his previous life. Other than an absurdly overpowered exception like Huo Yutong, anything Qian Chaoguang casually made was a pure Dimensional Reduction Strike.

There were not many conditions in the wilderness, so he would not be making braised pork or caramelizing sugar today.

Listening to the crackling pops, Qian Chaoguang sighed helplessly.

Beibei and Tang Ya still had not come.

Damn it, why couldn't someone have been more precise and clearly written down the time?

Was today going to be another wasted day of waiting?

He casually sprinkled a handful of cumin and chili over the nearly finished skewers.

If he added them too early, the flames would scorch them, and they would turn bitter.

He bit off a piece. Rich meat juices burst in his mouth, while the scents of cumin, lamb, charcoal, and chili filled his nostrils at once, creating the most exquisite flavor imaginable.

As the old saying went: there was nothing a barbecue meal could not solve. If there was, then have two.

"It smells so good!"

Just then, a girl's crisp, pleasant voice rang out.

Qian Chaoguang jolted awake, nearly leaping off the rock.

After waiting here for so long, had the people he was waiting for finally arrived?

He looked toward the source of the voice. A young man and woman were walking this way along the stream.

The girl looked around fifteen or sixteen. Her long black hair was tied in a ponytail, and she wore a pale blue set of training clothes.

At the moment, she was staring fixedly at the large handful of meat skewers in Qian Chaoguang's hand.

The young man behind her had short dark blue hair and radiated an elegant, scholarly air.

After carefully comparing them to the descriptions in the Original Work, Qian Chaoguang was certain that they were Tang Ya and Beibei, whom he had waited days for.

Tang Ya hurried over in a few quick steps, her face full of longing.

"Little brother, are you selling that grilled meat? It smells incredible! I could smell it from far away on the road!"

Qian Chaoguang smiled, split off half the skewers, and handed them to Tang Ya. Then he took out a batch of raw skewers from his Storage Bracelet and placed them over the fire.

"This isn't anything valuable. If you don't mind, please have some. There's chili on the lamb skewers. Can you eat spicy food, big sister?"

Author's Note

Thanks to All the Good IDs Are Gone, Ye Fengyang, Yu Xuanjian, and A Bottle of '82 Mineral Water for the tips.