Xiao Wu's Question to Master

At Peach Blossom Spring Academy, Su Ran carefully taught Meng Yiran the two supreme arts, Undead Summoning and Thousand Sounds of Nether Artifacts, and set her on the development path of a Summoner System Soul Master and Hell Dark Artifact master.

Zhu Zhuqing also absorbed a Nether Beast Soul Bone—a thirty-thousand-year-old right leg bone—which granted her a decent Nether Skill. Her Soul Power rose considerably as well, and she obtained the Soul Skill Nether Vortex.

What surprised Su Ran somewhat was that, after returning to the academy, he learned that Ning Rongrong's Third Soul Ring from the Steel Bone Ironclad Tiger had not only perfected the second layer of her Golden Bell Shield, but had also produced an Ironclad Torso Bone.

It was unexpected, yet made perfect sense. This was also one of the reasons Su Ran hunted Soul Beasts that matched their cultivation methods. What if they happened to drop a Soul Bone?

Soul Bones were extremely rare on the Douluo Continent. Even thousand-year Soul Bones were something Soul Masters dreamed of obtaining.

The strength of a Soul Bone lay not only in its ability to possibly grant a Soul Master a Soul Skill, but also in its potential for growth. Even a thousand-year Soul Bone could grow stronger alongside its Soul Master's improvement, though the growth rate was very slow. Few Soul Masters could cultivate their physical strength beyond that of a ten-thousand-year Soul Beast.

External Soul Bones, which existed independently of the six major types of Soul Bones, grew even faster.

Fortunately, the Ironclad Torso Bone complemented the Seven Treasures Golden Bell Shield perfectly.

Ning Rongrong had already cultivated the defensive supreme art—the Golden Bell Shield. Combined with the Soul Bone Skill of an iron wall and copper rampart, it could grant her more than fifty percent additional defense and increase the weight of the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda, directly raising her shield value to a level that Soul Masters of the same realm could not break.

Su Ran also prepared Bone Nurturing Fluid for Ning Rongrong, specially meant to nourish Soul Bones and rapidly increase their age. Given enough time, it could raise the Soul Bone past ten thousand years, greatly enhancing its effects.

While in the Star Dou Great Forest, Su Ran had considered hunting the Man Faced Demon Spider Tang San needed. After all, it contained the growth-oriented External Soul Bone, the Eight Spider Lances. But after thinking it over, he gave up.

First, the Outer Circle of the enormous Star Dou Great Forest was too vast, making that particular Man Faced Demon Spider difficult to find. Second, even if he found it, its age was only two thousand years, which was rather low. Besides, Zhu Zhuqing and Meng Yiran, the two girls suited to absorbing a Man Faced Demon Spider Soul Ring, would then absorb the Eight Spider Lances...

Could you imagine a young girl in full bloom, her clothes torn open across her back during a Soul Master battle, exposing her upper body as she spread eight spider spears?

There was an extremely powerful woman on the continent who was so disgusted by how ugly spiders were that she held back in battle, avoiding her Martial Soul Power whenever possible. In the end, she was enraged after being defeated by someone four or five levels below her.

Simply because that thing was too ugly.

So Su Ran let the matter go.

He could find better Soul Bones for his disciples in the future. There was no need to care about one set of Eight Spider Lances.

During the following period, Meng Yiran trained daily with Zhu Zhuqing and Ning Rongrong while cultivating their respective supreme arts. Since Zhu Zhuqing had already come into contact with one of the Hell Dark Artifacts Su Ran had given them—the Ghost Shuttle—she also learned a little of Thousand Sounds of Nether Artifacts and exchanged pointers with Meng Yiran.

Undead Summoning was a cultivation method compatible with Meng Yiran's Martial Soul. It required her to absorb the power of the sun, moon, and stars through the Serpent Cane and draw in the Death Spirit Qi from the earth's veins. It was exclusive to her Martial Soul, and she would only truly enter the art's threshold once the Serpent Cane evolved into the Death Spirit Snake Staff.

As for Thousand Sounds of Nether Artifacts, besides learning about Hell and Nether Hidden Weapons, one also needed to practice movement techniques and artifact forging. Like Tang San's Mysterious Heaven Skill, it required one crucial ability: training the hands.

Tang San trained with the Mysterious Jade Hands, while Zhu Zhuqing and Meng Yiran trained with the Earth Nether Hands. The two had similarities, but were also greatly different.

One thing was certain: if Tang San saw the Earth Nether Hands they had mastered, he would definitely be astonished.

Meanwhile, at Peach Blossom Spring Academy, four students diligently cultivated top-tier supreme arts and changed the course of their lives.

The students of Shrek Academy were not idle either.

Under the urging of Zhao Wuji and the new teacher at Shrek, Tang San, Oscar, Ma Hongjun, Dai Mubai, and Xiao Wu also cultivated bitterly. They all used the most primitive weight-bearing method, each carrying a large stone while running back and forth between Shrek Academy and Suotuo City under the scorching sun or pouring rain like idiots, training their basic physical strength.

At Peach Blossom Spring Academy, even when Ning Rongrong had trained her basic physical strength, Su Ran had specifically spent money to have equipment made for her, so she could wear it as added weight while still moving naturally.

Shrek was simply poor to an extreme degree.

If carrying bricks were useful, then every young man on a construction site should already be a Titled Douluo, right?

"Monsters? These are the so-called monsters? As soon as I arrived, I heard that every one of you was beaten senseless by the neighboring Peach Blossom Spring Academy. Do you still have the nerve to call yourselves monsters? I think you're all useless trash."

"Everyone, add ten more laps!"

At Shrek Academy, a middle-aged man of average height and ordinary appearance, seemingly in his forties or fifties, had joined the staff. As soon as he arrived, he heard Zhao Wuji reporting the situation to Flender with several Little Monsters.

When he learned that Tang San had absorbed the Man Faced Demon Spider and the External Soul Bone Eight Spider Lances, he was quite pleased. But when he heard that the academy's other students—Dai Mubai had been seriously injured by Zhu Zhuqing, whose cultivation realm was lower than his, while Evil Fire Phoenix Ma Hongjun had only managed a draw against a support Soul Master—his expression changed instantly.

Useless! They were all useless!

The next day, he joined forces with Zhao Wuji and launched special training for several of Shrek's students:

Group Soul Master Duels within the academy, combined with weight-bearing runs.

It was hard to say how effective it was, but Shrek's several Little Monsters were indeed exhausted, their spines bent beneath the rocks.

By dusk, after finishing the final lap, Oscar could endure no longer. He collapsed at Shrek's entrance. Ma Hongjun also fell over from exhaustion soon afterward, sitting on the ground and complaining bitterly:

"Master, isn't this intensity too high? I feel like I'm going to die from exhaustion."

"I can't do this anymore. My whole body aches. If the intensity is still like this tomorrow, I feel like I'll be going to meet Yama."

"One must endure hardship to rise above others. You can't even withstand this little special training, yet you still want to accomplish great things in the future? That's simply a pipe dream."

Master Yu Xiaogang snorted.

"Want to reduce the burden? When you can surpass the students of Peach Blossom Spring Academy, then we can discuss it!"

"Master is right. Look at how badly those students from Peach Blossom Spring Academy have crushed you. Do you still have no ambition?"

"Xiao Gang is one of the most knowledgeable people on the continent. He was once the Wisdom Horn of our Golden Iron Triangle. With his special training and guidance, you'll definitely surpass those students from Peach Blossom Spring Academy in time. Train properly. Do you hear me?"

The students of Peach Blossom Spring Academy had performed far too well. He had also heard that they had recently recruited a new student, and his attempt to poach that student had failed. Flender's sense of crisis was extremely strong.

"So tired."

Was this really special training devised by a human?

Carrying bricks and running—freedom was the direction~

Xiao Wu's face was full of fatigue, and she let out a deep sigh as well. But when she heard Flender praise Master for his wisdom, she forced herself to perk up again.

"Enough complaining. I've already calculated your limits under the weights. Let alone exhausting you to death, you won't even be injured. It's just running."

"Xiao San, what do you think?"

Yu Xiaogang stood with his hands behind his back and looked at Tang San.

Tang San was exhausted too, but he still hardened his resolve and nodded. "Teacher must have his reasons. I believe in Teacher."

"Mm, good. All right, go inside and rest."

With Tang San's approval, Yu Xiaogang became a little more confident. He nodded and gestured for the Little Monsters to return to the academy and rest.

"Ah, my waist~"

Not long after Yu Xiaogang said that, Oscar crawled up from the ground. After taking only a few steps, his expression changed. His lower back had suddenly been under pressure for an entire day... and it had collapsed.

"Master..."

Oscar looked at Yu Xiaogang aggrievedly. Didn't you say we wouldn't be injured by this training...?

"It's fine, it's fine. Xiao San, help him back to rest for a while and apply some medicine. Support-system Soul Masters naturally have weaker physiques."

"Mm." Tang San nodded.

"They're all exhausted and have gone back to lie down. Why aren't you going back to rest?"

Looking at the backs of the students who had returned to the academy one after another after undergoing special training, Yu Xiaogang sighed. When he turned around, he realized that the only girl in the academy had yet to leave. She was watching him from behind, as if she had something to say.

"Um, I heard Third Brother say that you're widely experienced and highly knowledgeable, Master. I have a question I'd like to ask you."

Xiao Wu rubbed her fingers and stammered.

"What question? As long as it isn't something especially secret or obscure, I should be able to tell you the answer." Yu Xiaogang raised his head and puffed out his chest confidently.

"Um, um... Master, you're so knowledgeable. Do you know who the most handsome young man on the continent is right now? What's his name? Where is he now? Well, he shouldn't be over twenty years old, and he's probably about six or seven chi tall."

Xiao Wu looked at Yu Xiaogang expectantly.

This question was very important to her.

As long as she could get the answer, she would have no complaints even if she had to run with weights for another month.

This chapter mentioned the evolution of Soul Bones, and some readers had questions.

I looked through this section of the original work. The original did state that all Soul Bones could evolve, but Tang Family's author may also have changed the setting later, making growth alongside a Soul Master's development a trait unique to External Soul Bones.

Here, I adopted the earlier setting. All bones absorbed into a Soul Master's body were connected to the Soul Master's bloodline, so it made sense that they should be able to grow together with the Soul Master. The only difference should be the speed of evolution. Otherwise, if I reached level ninety-nine while my bones still had only the strength of five thousand years, would that make sense? Wouldn't my bones be shattered by a single blow from another Limit Douluo?