Training

Shen Ranxi looked at the dean with blazing eyes.

Flender said, "Martial Soul Mutation is very rare. You can only find out after awakening your Martial Soul. It's a random event.

"It may bring positive effects, making the Martial Soul stronger or more unique. Hong Jun, for example, underwent a positive mutation.

"Everyone in his village has poultry Martial Souls. By rights, he should have had one too, but his mutated into a Phoenix Martial Soul with flames. Though it still has flaws for now, once those are resolved, it will become a true top-tier Beast Martial Soul.

"However, there are also malignant mutations, such as one of my friends..."

At this point, a complicated look flashed through Dean Flender's eyes.

He continued, "Almost everyone in his family has powerful and imposing Dragon Martial Souls, but his mutated Martial Soul had exceptionally poor aptitude. He may never be able to break past level thirty in his lifetime... His Martial Soul has its own consciousness and is very lively."

Shen Ranxi thought of the Great Void Kun. Since such cases existed, there was no need to worry.

Next, she had to solve the Pill problem. If it kept eating like this, she really would go bankrupt!

"Boom—" Feifei stood far away, gnawing on a fruit as it watched the scorched-black person lying on the ground with black smoke puffing from her mouth. It shook its head pityingly. How miserable!

The Great Void Kun blinked as it floated nearby, watching curiously.

The pitch-black figure lay there for two seconds before immediately getting back up, fully revived as she roared, "I don't believe it! I fucking endured the hardship of martial training—how can making Pills stump me?! If you've got the nerve, heavens, let me succeed just once!"

With no time to clean herself up, determination flashed in her eyes as she immediately reignited the fire and started over.

Feifei could not bear to mock her anymore. She was truly resilient. Anyone else would have given up after failing so many times, yet she could begin again with the same calmness as the first time.

More than two hundred times!

A full two hundred-plus attempts! She had never given up through all that time.

Yet Feifei also witnessed her terrifying improvement. If her flame control failed once, it would never go wrong again the next time. If she repeated a hand seal a few times, she would never make another mistake with it... At a terrifying speed, she was absorbing foundational knowledge that took others years, even more than a decade, to learn.

Feifei stopped laughing and instead watched Shen Ranxi's nearly perfect hand seals with a solemn expression.

Sweat seeped from Shen Ranxi's forehead and flowed into her eyes, stinging them, but she did not even dare blink. There were very few Medicinal Herbs left, and several of them were extremely rare.

She had not found substitutes outside, so she could only buy them from the system. That black-hearted thing had made a huge profit off her under the pretense of charging dimensional fees. That black-hearted system had definitely marked them up several times before selling them to her!

Though she had no proof, she knew it just by thinking about it. If she were the system, she would definitely make a killing too. It had an exclusive monopoly!

Thinking of the Merit Points she had lost, her gaze turned fierce. This time, it had to work!

A fluctuation came from the Medicine Furnace. Shen Ranxi increased the output of her Spirit Fire until she reached the final step—Form Pill.

"Form for me!!!"

"Boom—"

Feifei curiously leaned closer, and Taixu stretched out its head as well. Shen Ranxi opened the lid, and a burst of radiance instantly poured out, followed by a refreshing fragrance that penetrated the heart.

Shen Ranxi's heart raced... This time, it had definitely worked!

Four heads completely blocked the Medicine Furnace. Feifei took out a Medicine Bottle it had prepared, and Shen Ranxi teased, "Didn't you say I had no talent for this? Why did you prepare that for me?"

Beneath the fur covering it, Feifei's skin reddened. Its gaze flickered as it stubbornly said, "I was just preparing for the worst!"

When Shen Ranxi had first said she wanted to learn alchemy herself, it had thought she was dreaming.

There was no spiritual energy in this world, so how could she learn like this? Besides, if alchemy were that easy, it would not be a profession respected by everyone over there.

Unable to withstand her insistence, it had found her a copy of Alchemy Basics and dug out a Medicine Cauldron from among the offerings. It came with low-grade flames, enough for the early stages, but she would have to use higher-grade flames later.

Shen Ranxi had suggested making Pills in its space. With Spirit Stones and the spiritual energy that came with the space, it would be enough for the early stages. They could deal with the rest later.

Thus began several months of self-study. Apart from classes and training, she threw herself wholeheartedly into the ocean of knowledge, unable to pull herself out. She brought out the same drive she had once used to prepare for the college entrance exams, determined to conquer it!

And it said it didn't believe in me... So stubborn. Shen Ranxi curled her lips and took out all the Pills.

One, two... ten.

Feifei's eyes widened in utter disbelief. There were actually ten!!!

Who could produce so many on their first successful attempt? The vast majority had a ninety-percent defective Pill rate, with at most two to four intact Pills.

The Great Void Kun was already dazed by the fragrance. Since its birth, this was the most delicious-smelling scent it had ever encountered, tightly gripping its mind.

Like a little puppy, it desperately nudged Shen Ranxi's hand.

Shen Ranxi flashed her pearly white teeth and pushed away the Great Void Kun's enormous head. She thought it would have been nice to have a camera to record this great moment.

It seemed she needed to hurry Little Bell along. She had given the Soul Tool Crafting Method she bought earlier to Little Bell. Little Bell was extremely talented in this area, while Shen Ranxi herself truly had no interest in it and no time for it.

She kept two as souvenirs, gave two to Feifei, and gave the remaining six to the Great Void Kun.

The child was overjoyed. Seeing little jets of water spray from the Great Void Kun's back, Shen Ranxi smiled gently.

Feifei's eyes lit up after eating one. "Sweet! Delicious!"

It happily came over and rubbed its face against hers too.

Shen Ranxi decided to make several more flavors next time.

With a little over three months left before the Academy began admissions, Shen Ranxi decided to enter the mountains alone for Training. She had more or less mastered the methods of making Pills and had bought a book of Pill formulas from the system suited to the Medicinal Herbs of Douluo Continent.

She had to learn more thoroughly through practical experience.

If she were not so weak, she would have chosen Sunset Forest. For now, she could only choose the mountain forest not far from the Academy. The endless mountains contained Soul Beasts of at most a thousand years, so she only needed to avoid them. Hearing something a hundred times could not compare to experiencing it once herself.

After carefully explaining herself to the Teachers, they did not approve, but they still could not change her mind.

Shen Ranxi promised she would return safely before the Academy opened.

She refused Oscar and Ma Hongjun's offer to accompany her.

The girl carrying a golden Long Staff on her back walked into the mountain forest beneath the sunlight, every step filled with determination.

In one week, Shen Ranxi paid the price of swollen, aching hands and a face swollen like a Honey Puppy to learn how to identify and avoid poisonous insects in the mountains.

In the second week, she learned to identify medicinal and poisonous plants in the mountains, harvested a large batch of useful herbs, and successfully made Poison Pills. The Great Void Kun said they tasted pretty good.

Ever since she had acquired another Money-Guzzling Beast that ate everything and only ate the best, Shen Ranxi had been left with no choice. She gathered whatever she could wherever she went, practically wishing she could strip the ground bare!

In the third week, she began deliberately challenging hundred-year Soul Beasts and learned to identify their age more precisely. Because she had provoked a Bloodthirsty Bat over a thousand years old that lurked deeper in the mountains on her first attempt, she realized she could barely fight hundred-year ones, but against a thousand-year one, Shen Ranxi could only run.

Fortunately, with Feifei around, escaping was not a problem.

After that, she began harassing the Bloodthirsty Bats.

At first, they chased her until she fled in a sorry state.

Two weeks later, she could already take away several hundred-year minions right under the eyes of a thousand-year Bloodthirsty Bat.

Three more days passed. This time, she came thoroughly prepared and gave that fellow something good, smoking the area around its nest with something that could send them straight to heaven.

She infiltrated the bats' nest once more and, under the furious gaze of the old bat, successfully nailed it to death with a single strike of her staff.

Golden light flashed repeatedly as Soul Skills erupted wildly through the dark cave.

When Shen Ranxi emerged again with her staff in hand, the Bloodthirsty Bats' nest was already a complete mess. Corpses covered the ground, and not a single one had survived.

The upright girl stood tall, fragmented sunlight falling onto her golden pupils, making them clear as glass and setting off the blood at the corner of her eye, making it appear even redder.