Soul Ring Selection

"How inspiring! Unlike A Nuo and me, who are content with things as they are. Qin Ming, I hope you can become the person you want to be." Sha Sha bent down and reached for Qin Ming's head.

Fortunately, Qin Ming had been on guard. He sidestepped, then warily watched Sha Sha, who was pouting in dissatisfaction.

He had not forgotten how, when he first met this lively and adorable girl, she had pulled him into her arms and vigorously rubbed his head. He had suffered terribly.

Qin Ming had never understood why little boys' heads held such immense appeal for grown girls like Sha Sha. After much thought, he could only conclude that women were complicated creatures.

"Children from poor families grow up early. If your parents and Village Chief Qin Chuan saw you now, they would definitely be proud of you." Nuo Si looked sympathetically at Qin Ming's still somewhat immature figure.

But Nuo Si seemed to remember something. "Qin Ming, don't forget that you promised me we'd go sightseeing in Suotuo City together once you broke through to one ring. Don't stand me up!"

Qin Ming hurriedly waved his hands. "Definitely, definitely!"

"The Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament is coming up. I heard that the Barak Royal Family took dozens of treasured items from the Royal Treasury to raise funds for hosting it."

"And in a few months, Suotuo City's Grand Auction House will hold its highest-standard Auction Gala, which only comes once every five years. Barak City even deliberately sent several treasures over for auction in Suotuo City."

"By then, you should have broken through to one ring as well. We can go check it out."

"That's right, little brother Qin Ming. A Nuo should be getting the reward from Spirit Hall by then too. We need to properly fleece... ah, no, let him treat us to something extravagant." Sha Sha blinked, a wicked grin on her face.

Nuo Si:...

Listening to the two of them, Qin Ming genuinely grew interested. An Auction Gala held once every five years?

Could there be one of those classic bargain finds? Qin Ming's heart itched. In his previous life, he had been the kind of person who loved hunting for bargains on secondhand marketplaces. Although he was usually the one getting scammed, he just could not kick the habit.

It seemed that even after transmigrating, his personality had not changed.

"Then I'm really looking forward to it. Though Brother Nuo Si may have to spend quite a bit."

The three did not chat for long afterward. There was still a large group of people waiting for them outside the Martial Soul Main Hall. Qin Ming only told Nuo Si and Sha Sha about his cultivation progress and his plans for his First Soul Ring.

When they heard that he had reached level nine in only half a month, their mouths fell open wide enough to fit an egg. Their understanding of what counted as a genius had been completely refreshed.

In the time that followed, Qin Ming returned to his routine of traveling between three places. As his Soul Power steadily advanced, he also began selecting his First Soul Ring.

He wanted his first few Soul Skills to be enhancement-type skills. After all, the number of Soul Rings a Spirit Master could absorb was limited. Even a Title Douluo could only absorb nine Soul Rings.

Absorbing offensive Soul Skills early on would certainly allow one to stand out among Spirit Masters of the same level, but later on, it would render the first few Soul Skills completely useless.

After all, offensive Soul Skills from Hundred Year Soul Rings and Thousand Year Soul Rings were on an entirely different level from those granted by Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings. At the Title Douluo level, battles were often decided by the eighth and ninth Soul Skills.

Enhancement-type Soul Skills were different. The boosts they provided were percentage-based. In other words, even a Hundred Year Soul Skill could bring enormous improvements to battles between Title Douluo.

That was equivalent to the opponent having several more Soul Skills than you. How were you supposed to fight that?

Qin Ming also recalled Tang San's first and second Soul Skills from the original story, Entanglement and Parasite. Tang San had barely used those two skills in the later stages. Ultimately, the values provided by Hundred Year Soul Rings were simply too poor.

Qin Ming's martial soul was the Inferno Grey Wolf, a wolf-type martial soul with a Fire Attribute. He wanted to develop it by enhancing his martial soul's bloodline quality and increasing the power of its Fire Attribute.

Therefore, he needed to absorb a wolf-type Soul Beast that possessed tremendous strength and fire elemental power. The higher its bloodline grade, the better.

Qin Ming directly asked Charlton for information on every Soul Beast in the Soul Hunting Forests around Suotuo City.

Soul Hunting Forests were specially maintained by Spirit Hall for low-level Spirit Masters to obtain Soul Rings. Thus, Spirit Hall had complete records of what Soul Beasts lived in each forest and how old they were.

Moreover, every Spirit Master entering to hunt Soul Beasts needed Spirit Hall credentials. They also had to report which Soul Beast they hunted and whose Soul Ring they absorbed, so the records were updated in real time.

Therefore, under normal circumstances, there would be no discrepancies between the records and reality.

After making his selection, Qin Ming settled on a type of Soul Beast called the Crimson Blood Wolf.

Unlike ordinary wolf-type Soul Beasts, Crimson Blood Wolves were extremely rare solitary Soul Beasts. They usually lived in volcanic regions or scorching mountain ranges where underground fire and lava flowed.

They were born with immense strength and an exceptional affinity for flames. Feeding on the fire toxins and ores within lava, their blood contained astonishing fire elemental energy and was crimson red like molten rock.

Their bloodline also originated from the Crimson Moon Wolf Clan, the royal clan among wolves. They perfectly met all of Qin Ming's requirements for his First Soul Ring.

With a target in mind, Qin Ming cultivated even more diligently. He even cut the time he spent in the library during the day by half, and the results were naturally obvious.

But just as Qin Ming's Soul Power Level was steadily rising, Nuo Si brought him unexpected news.

Shrek Academy had actually been recruiting students illegally without a school-running permit from Spirit Hall!

Several parents had come to the Martial Soul Main Hall with their children to report it, which was how the matter came to light.

About half a month earlier, those parents had discovered a sign erected where Wild Chicken Village had once stood. It read: Shrek Advanced Soul Master Academy.

The registration fee was ten Gold Soul Coins, while tuition was thirty Gold Soul Coins per term.

There were also seemingly fraudulent claims written on it, such as automatic promotion to an imperial viscount upon graduation. They had not believed any of it at first, until the teacher responsible for recruitment casually revealed his six Soul Rings.

Would a noble Soul Emperor deceive them? Besides, the tuition was nearly one-third cheaper than ordinary advanced Soul Master Academies.

Driven by a fluke mentality, the results were immediate. A long line instantly formed outside Shrek Academy.

However, only a small number of people passed Shrek Academy's assessment. Everyone else was turned away.

What infuriated them most was that their children had failed the assessment, yet the registration fee was not refunded. That was ten Gold Soul Coins, enough to support a family of four for several months.

After getting nowhere with Shrek Academy, they could only report the matter to Spirit Hall. Upon hearing about it, Charlton immediately dispatched a Soul Emperor-level Hall Protection Knight to accompany them to Shrek Academy and demand an explanation.

When they arrived at Shrek Academy, the parents of several children who had already enrolled there stepped forward.

Their children had already entered Shrek Academy, and Flender had promised to help the students who joined the academy hunt Soul Rings, all with the optimal Soul Ring configuration.

Furthermore, Shrek Academy's tuition was cheaper than that of legitimate Soul Master Academies, which would not help students hunt Soul Rings.

At that point, whether Shrek Academy was legitimate no longer mattered to them. As for those whose registration fees had been swallowed by Shrek Academy?

What did that have to do with them? In any case, they absolutely would not agree to let Shrek Academy close down, and so the two sides began arguing.

It eventually turned into a brawl at the village entrance. Left with no choice, the Hall Protection Knight intervened to stop them, then took those parents back to discuss the matter with Charlton at length.

Qin Ming was not surprised when he heard this. Flender in the original story had always been a smooth talker who loved petty gains, with all sorts of tricks for swindling money.

He remembered that the original story mentioned Shrek Academy had recruited sixty-two students in total, but only fourteen had graduated. What happened to those who did not graduate? Could something have happened while they were hunting Soul Beasts?

After all, Flender had indeed promised to help hunt Soul Beasts, but he had not promised to do it for free. Wouldn't it explode the moment he said, "You need to pay more"?

But none of this had anything to do with him. When Qin Ming heard the news, he merely treated it as an amusing diversion from cultivation.