Digging Up Treasure!

"He's already been beaten half to death, and that big guy just knocked him down again..."

"So pitiful. He's so hardworking, and he's a genius, too!"

"He ran toward... he ran that way..."

Although the man in the middle was babbling incoherently, the information he gave was consistent with what they'd seen.

Zhang Lanfeng felt a surge of strength well up inside him. In the end, he could only carry Jade Little Blade on his back and hurry toward the place where the city lord's son had been subdued.

As for Liu Erniu, after one of the men in the crowd glanced at her a few times, she slammed him to the ground with her knee and punched him until his face was a bloody mess.

The Soul Eater Academy, dormitory area.

"Boss, the deputy leader is seriously awesome!"

Lin Lin took off his mask and gave a thumbs-up.

"Right? That guy claimed to be some big shot, but he couldn't even take on Mu Rong. What a loser!"

Suo Ling nodded in agreement.

"Enough. If we keep standing here, the three of us will be the ones kicked out of the academy."

Mu Rong's expression had returned to normal.

"Although Jade Little Blade is a rare treasure, that other friend of his named Demon Blade isn't."

"Another friend? What do you mean by that?"

Lin Lin asked curiously.

Suo Ling was puzzled, too.

"Haha, you'll understand once you see it."

Mu Rong smiled and took the Soul Eater from Jade Little Blade's hand.

"This is a weapon-grade soul artifact. Let's see what's inside."

He poured soul power into the Soul Eater. A burst of light spilled out from it.

Several hundred gold soul coins, a stack of thick booklets, and a third-grade martial soul hall token engraved with the crest of the Black Dragon King Clan.

There were also a few clean sets of clothes, which Lin Lin immediately tossed into the trash bin.

"What a lousy family. They're no better than the Ghost General."

Lin Lin curled his lip.

Mu Rong ignored the Soul Eater's glow. His eyes lit up as he eagerly examined the ten or so books.

On their covers were the words "Black Dragon King Clan" and "Martial Soul Hall"!

This was the real treasure!

As for the scattered scraps of information, the three of them flipped through them. Most were useless trivia about Jade Little Blade, along with a few pages from his diary. The trio tossed them aside without a second thought.

Mu Rong picked up the ring and focused his soul power on it, sensing what was inside.

Good grief! The space inside was actually twenty cubic meters! Much bigger than the five-cubic-meter storage ring he'd gotten before.

As expected of a young master from a great clan—their gear was on another level.

He put the ring on his own finger.

"Boss, this ring is incredible. It's clearly not an ordinary soul storage device."

Lin Lin clicked his tongue in amazement.

"That's only natural."

Mu Rong removed his gold soul coins, herbal medicine, and an entire set of disguise clothes and masks, placing them in the ring. Then he took it off and handed it to Suo Ling.

"Little girl, you don't have a soul storage device. You can have Mu Rong's ring."

"And you can share these gold soul coins with your friends."

"Then take a good look through these books. There might be something useful in them."

"Thanks, Boss. I won't stand on ceremony, then!"

Suo Ling grinned, her eyes fixed on the Soul Eater. She'd wanted to get her hands on one for ages, and now the perfect opportunity had come along.

Lin Lin and Suo Ling happily divided up the gold soul coins. Mu Rong picked up a book bearing the Martial Soul Hall's emblem and opened it to the first page.

The book was yellowed with age and gave off an ancient aura. Its rough, leather-bound cover bore the crest of the Black Dragon King Clan.

Mu Rong's slender fingers slowly traced the cover before he opened it.

Lin Lin and Suo Ling had finished dividing the several hundred gold soul coins. They were now examining with great curiosity the ring Mu Rong had given Suo Ling.

"Boss, is there anything useful in this book? We might as well sell the gold soul coins."

Lin Lin shook a bag full of coins. They clinked together with a crisp sound, and his face was bright with undisguised greed.

Suo Ling slipped the ring onto her finger and glanced sidelong at Lin Lin.

"What do you know? What Boss is after isn't the book. He wants to find a way to get stronger! Can gold soul coins buy that?"

Lin Lin curled his lip and stopped arguing.

Although he was usually loud and brash, he wasn't stupid. He knew Mu Rong wasn't some ordinary young master, but the son of the city lord of Ju Yuan City.

Mu Rong didn't hear their bickering. His entire attention was drawn to the book.

This book recorded the research and classification of the Black Dragon King Clan's martial souls, which had been passed down for generations.

The Black Dragon King Clan was one of the three great clans, with a deep and substantial legacy.

The book listed ten rare soul fragments that contained the bloodline of soul beasts. They'd been passed down for hundreds of years, and each had different properties and effects.

For example, the "Earth Armor Dragon" soul fragment, which granted great strength and protected ordinary people.

The "Crimson Flame Dragon" soul fragment, which could spit out blazing flames and had destructive power strong enough to topple buildings.

And the "Deepwater Serpent" soul fragment, which lurked in the depths of the sea and attacked with poison.

Any one of these soul fragments, if released into the outside world, would be enough to destroy an ordinary soul master clan.

But the book also pointed out that true soul fragments containing a soul beast's bloodline were extremely rare. Even across the entire continent, they were almost impossible to find.

And the Black Dragon King Clan's martial soul, as the clan's ancestral martial soul, contained a trace of a rare, ancient true dragon's bloodline.

That made it all the more extraordinary.

This martial soul's potential was far too high.

Absorbing the soul seeds of ordinary dragons would greatly reduce its effectiveness, and could even stunt the martial soul's growth by sending it down the wrong evolutionary path.

Finding a rare soul fragment with a true dragon bloodline was as difficult as climbing to the heavens.

"Good grief, what a headache."

Mu Rong tapped the table with his fingertips.

He couldn't stand the Black Dragon King Clan, a family that had enjoyed a thousand years of glory, yet produced only a single good-for-nothing like Yuan Xiao.

It was all because of this book.

Its martial soul had an abundance of soul power, but lacked a soul source to match. It was practically impossible to make progress.

And what about him?

Mu Rong's thoughts raced.

The Ice Phoenix martial soul had only a trace of dragon blood in it, but its ancestry was far nobler than that of a so-called "true dragon."

At first glance, it seemed like a dead end.

But from another angle, it might actually be his greatest advantage.

Without that harsh limitation, his evolutionary path could be broader!

Still, evolving the Ice Phoenix martial soul all the way into a true dragon martial soul wasn't something that could be achieved just by absorbing dragon soul fragments.

That path had a ceiling that was simply too low.

He had to find external help.

The vast encyclopedia of the continent flashed through his mind, along with its rare herbs and plants.

Herbs—and genuine dragon souls, too!

The best choice would be... the Ice Dragon King's thousand-year-old soul bone...

The thought had only just crossed his mind when he was immediately startled out of it.

That was far too ambitious. He'd have to consider that in the distant future.