After a while, Zhu Qing had finished treating all the wounds around the young man's mouth. She set him down to the side and said to Tang Qinghe, "Young Master Tang, please don't tell my sister what happened today. If she wakes up and starts making a fuss, just tell her that you beat me and drove me off."
"I have no habit of lying to others." Tang Qinghe said that and returned to the campfire. He circulated the Nine Nether Divine Art and began cultivating his Spirit Power.
Nether Spirit Cat and Xuan Chengyu also followed Tang Qinghe away, entering the cultivation state.
Zhu Qing watched them and could only sigh. She stayed where she was, waiting until she saw Tang Qinghe and the others begin to stir. Then she packed up and silently left.
A while later, Zhu Qing opened her eyes. She found that the shortsword she had carried on her had been taken out, and the wounds around her mouth had all been treated. Even her bloodstained clothes had been changed. Her heart leaped in alarm.
She hurriedly looked around, and saw Tang Qinghe, Nether Spirit Cat, and Xuan Chengyu sitting beside the campfire.
Zhu Qing hurried over to him and asked, "Was it you who saved me?"
She had just woken up, and her clothes were still soaked through. If Nether Spirit Cat had been the one to save her, she wouldn't have minded another woman seeing her like that. But if it had been a man, she would have wanted to die on the spot.
As she spoke, she couldn't help giving Tang Qinghe a wary look.
Since Zhu Qing and Tang Qinghe could sense the martial souls in each other, she had naturally sensed his Spirit Tiger martial soul.
She was also astonished that Tang Qinghe had a martial soul similar to Zhu Qing's.
She had heard that even the Star Luo royal family had only one tiger martial soul.
But she'd never heard of two people having the same martial soul.
"It might've been me, or it might not. But as long as you keep quiet about what happened here, your sister won't hurt you. As for your wounds, you brought them on yourself." Tang Qinghe opened his mouth and looked at her.
Zhu Qing's face showed a trace of suspicion. How had Tang Qinghe saved her?
He had clearly been the one who wanted her dead in the first place.
Yet somehow, he had turned around and saved her.
Could there be some other reason he'd spared her?
"If your sister wants to kill you, even if your Spirit Power is ten ranks higher, you still won't survive. You'll only suffer a few flesh wounds. With the recovery power of a Spirit Body, you'll be healed in three to five days." Tang Qinghe finished speaking, then closed his eyes and continued cultivating.
His words left Zhu Qing silent. Since Tang Qinghe wasn't speaking anymore, she could only sigh. She found a place to sit down, intending to cultivate and recover her strength.
Nether Spirit Cat watched this with interest. She sat up and looked at Tang Qinghe, who had been cultivating beside her for a while. She still couldn't understand why he was so different from every other woman she had met besides herself.
In her past life, Tang Qinghe's cousin had been beautiful, especially her chest, which was the sort of thing that could tempt a man into committing a crime.
At the same time, she'd noticed that Zhu Qing's gaze toward Tang Qinghe was different from the way she looked at her and Xuan Chengyu.
Could it be that she had fallen for Tang Qinghe because he had saved her?
But hadn't he already taken a good look at her?
Clearly, after all this time, she was about to get her hands on little Tang.
Besides, she had no idea what his background was.
Nether Spirit Cat was determined to find out.
Feelings were personal.
She didn't want to see Tang Qinghe become like her father one day, talking about how he'd taken in woman after woman.
A while later, dawn broke. Tang Qinghe and the others left the cultivation state and opened their eyes.
They took water and dry rations from their spatial storage devices and began eating breakfast.
Tang Qinghe also gave Zhu Qing some food. Zhu Qing didn't refuse. They ate in silence, without much conversation.
Nether Spirit Cat had barely spoken to anyone in a long time. She looked at Tang Qinghe and Zhu Qing, who seemed to know each other, then coughed and said,
"Miss Zhu, since we're traveling together, let me introduce myself. I'm Nether Spirit Cat. The one I was talking to yesterday was Tang Qinghe, whose martial soul is the Spirit Tiger. He's at rank twelve, with a thirty-six-point attack-type Spirit Ring. The other one is his younger brother, Xuan Chengyu. His martial soul is a lone wolf, and he's at rank eighteen, with a twenty-one-point attack-type Spirit Ring. As for me, I'm Nether Spirit Cat. My martial soul is the Venomous Spider. I'm at rank nineteen, with a forty-one-point control-type Spirit Ring. You can call me Sister Cat with Xuan Chengyu, or you can call me Sister Cat like little Tang does."
When she heard Tang Qinghe and Nether Spirit Cat's ranks and ages, Zhu Qing froze. Nether Spirit Cat, who was nineteen years old with a forty-seven-point Spirit Ring, had already been cultivating for a long time—much longer than her sister. And the Venomous Spider martial soul was one of the most powerful control-type martial souls.
Tang Qinghe was even more astonishing. He was only twelve, yet already at rank thirty-six. If he wasn't a titled Spirit Master, he might reach rank forty-one—or even rank fifty—before he was twenty. How exactly did he cultivate?
Even someone born with full Spirit Power would be terrifying.
And he had that White Tiger martial soul, which seemed to be an exceptionally rare variant of the White Tiger.
Could he really defeat her sister?
As for Xuan Chengyu, Zhu Qing didn't pay him much attention.
She thought for a moment, then said, "Zhu Qing. My martial soul is the Nether Spirit Cat. I'm at rank eleven, with a twenty-one-point agility-type Spirit Ring."
"Rank eleven, with a twenty-one-point Spirit Ring. Qing'er, you're quite talented. So, what are you planning to do next? Little Tang and I have agreed to join the Heaven Dou Royal Academy with Xuan Chengyu and take part in its annual elite tournament. What about you?"
Nether Spirit Cat's words also made it clear that they planned to travel with Zhu Qing.
But Tang Qinghe's reply left her completely stunned. "I'm planning to go to the History's Refined Academy."
"History's Refined? I haven't heard of it. Is it reliable?" Nether Spirit Cat asked doubtfully.
During the three years she'd known Tang Qinghe, he'd never mentioned an academy called History's Refined.
"You haven't heard of it, but it's quite well-known. It's a small academy that only accepts people with martial souls. It's just a school for idiots."
"It recruits students under thirteen years old. To qualify, they need a Spirit Power rank between twenty and twenty-five. There isn't another academy like it on the whole Douluo Continent."
"The academy's teaching resources are terrible, and they don't have a proper Spirit Master cultivation environment. The instructors aren't much better. They look down on anyone without connections, and if you have backing, they'll flatter you. With no one to keep them in check, they'll do whatever they want. They only recruit a handful of students each year, all of them the very best in the whole continent. If they succeed, it's the academy's merit. If they don't, they don't care how those other students turn out."
"The only other requirement is to be twenty ranks in Spirit Power, have a Spirit Power reach of at least forty, and bring your own fourth Spirit Ring."
"Since History's Refined Academy was founded, it's only accepted fifty or sixty students. Everyone except the first batch has been a rare genius from across the continent. To qualify for enrollment, a student needs at least rank seven or eight in innate Spirit Power. Yet only a dozen or so have survived. Of the other forty or more, even the ones with good luck and excellent teachers have died in the process of hunting and absorbing their fourth Spirit Rings."
Before you continue