After leaving the dean's office, Bai Lan found that it was already completely dark.
He carried the empty wooden box.
Half a year's worth of Soul Gathering Pills—not a single one remained. He had eaten every last one.
He walked back toward the dormitory.
The night breeze was cool, sweeping away the fatigue of the day.
But his mood was anything but calm.
Level twenty.
It had taken half a year to go from level eleven to level twenty, not a day more.
More importantly, tomorrow Yan Shaozhe would take him to make a contract with that space-type Soul Beast.
Just thinking about it made his heart race.
Spatial abilities.
Bai Lan knew better than anyone how rare space-type Soul Beasts were on the Douluo Continent.
They weren't something you could simply buy with money. They were truly a matter of luck and chance.
And now, a five-hundred-year-old Void Butterfly was waiting for him somewhere.
"Calm down. Calm down."
Bai Lan took a deep breath, suppressing his excitement.
He'd worry about tomorrow when it came.
There was something more important to do tonight.
Iron Core Bamboo's second evolution.
Half a year had passed.
During those six months, Iron Core Bamboo had trained alongside him, fought alongside him, and accompanied him all the way from level eleven to level twenty.
He had no idea how many times its nine leaves had been shot out.
He had no idea how many attacks its Iron Bone body had blocked for him.
Now he was level twenty.
It was time for Iron Core Bamboo to evolve again.
When he returned to the dormitory, Bai Lan shut the door and sat down beside his bed.
He didn't summon the Contract Book right away. Instead, he first quieted his mind and steadied himself.
A moment later, he raised his hand.
The Contract Book appeared in his palm. Its pages turned of their own accord until they reached the first page.
[Contract Beast: Iron Core Bamboo] [Age: Three Hundred Years] [Status: Contracted] [Abilities: Iron Bone, Photosynthesis, Growth, Healing, Bamboo Leaf Flying Knife] [Evolutions: 1/2] [Notice: The host has reached level twenty. The Contract Beast can undergo its second evolution. Confirm?]
In the space of half a year, Iron Core Bamboo had gone from one hundred years old to three hundred.
Its abilities had also grown much stronger.
Bai Lan looked at the notice, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
"Confirm."
As soon as he spoke, the Contract Book blazed with light!
The entire book floated up from his hands, hovering in midair as its pages flipped wildly.
Streams of golden light poured from the pages, weaving together in midair to form a massive cocoon of light.
The cocoon slowly descended and settled on the floor.
Within the light, a figure could just barely be seen.
It was Iron Core Bamboo's true form, trembling violently inside the cocoon.
Bai Lan took several steps back, his eyes fixed on the cocoon.
During its first evolution, he had witnessed the entire process as Ten-Year Solitary Bamboo transformed into Hundred-Year Iron Core Bamboo.
What about this time?
How strong would Arrow Bamboo become?
Would it start at a thousand years?
Just as he wondered—
Crack!
A soft sound came from inside the cocoon.
Then came a second, a third...
The cracks came faster and faster, as if something were about to break out of its shell.
At last!
Boom!
The cocoon exploded, scattering into a rain of light.
At the center of the radiance, a completely new bamboo plant stood in silence.
Bai Lan's pupils shrank.
It had changed.
It had changed far too much.
First, its color.
Iron Core Bamboo had been silver-gray, with a metallic sheen.
Now, the entire plant was a deep, verdant green. Its surface was covered in fine patterns, like ancient runes.
Next, its height.
It had previously stood twice as tall as a man. Now it was at least three or four times a man's height, almost touching the dormitory ceiling.
Then there were its leaves.
Before, they had been long and narrow, with razor-sharp edges.
Now they were even longer and more slender, and faint light shimmered along their veins, as if every leaf held some kind of energy.
Finally, its segments.
Each segment was ringed with a faint golden pattern, like a natural seal.
Bai Lan stood motionless for a long while.
Only when the Contract Book fell back into his hands did he come to his senses. He looked down at it.
The writing on its pages had already changed:
[Contract Beast: Arrow Bamboo] [Age: Three Thousand Years] [Status: Contracted] [Abilities: Iron Bone, Arrow Intent, Arrow Rain, Photosynthesis, Growth, Healing] [Iron Bone (Enhanced): The bamboo's hardness has greatly increased, rivaling refined Black Iron. The golden patterns around its segments can further disperse impact, raising its defensive power to more than three times what it was as Iron Core Bamboo. When shared, it can greatly increase the host's physical defense, making ordinary swords and knives ineffective.] [Arrow Intent: The bamboo's body transforms into a streamlined shape, making it better suited for launching projectiles. Its segments can automatically condense Soul Power into energy arrows.] [Arrow Rain: Each bamboo leaf can repeatedly condense energy into arrows. Their range exceeds one hundred meters, and they can pursue targets locked onto by the user's mind. They can also be fired in rapid succession to blanket an area in arrows.] [Photosynthesis: A plant's instinct. Absorbs sunlight to grow and can increase its age.] [Growth: It grows quickly and tall, but that doesn't mean its age necessarily increases at the same rate.] [Healing: A plant's instinct. Through photosynthesis, it can quickly heal injuries that aren't too serious.] [Evolutions: 2/2 (Maximum reached. Reach level thirty to unlock the next evolution.)] [Ability Sharing: Not activated (must be activated manually)]
Three thousand years.
Bai Lan took a deep breath.
It had gone straight from three hundred years to three thousand—a tenfold increase.
He looked at the Arrow Bamboo, which stood three or four times the height of a man, and suddenly felt a powerful urge.
He wanted to try it.
He wanted to see just how strong this Arrow Bamboo was.
Sharing: Activate.
At a thought, a mysterious force surged into his body.
He felt his eyes change.
They became clearer, sharper.
He could see everything—the moonlight outside the window, the distant shadows of trees, even the veins on the leaves.
This was the boost to his dynamic vision from Arrow Intent.
He raised his hand and focused.
Behind him, Arrow Bamboo trembled slightly.
One bamboo leaf detached on its own and hovered beside him.
Then came a second, a third...
Nine leaves detached in succession, hovering in midair as they slowly revolved.
But they were different from before.
Previously, they had simply been nine leaves.
Now each one glowed with a faint green light, as if wrapped in energy.
Bai Lan stared at a tree a hundred meters away outside the window and focused.
Go!
The nine bamboo leaves became streaks of light and shot out!
They were astonishingly fast!
Almost the instant he gave the thought, the nine streaks had pierced the tree trunk and emerged from the other side. They curved through the air, then flew back and hovered beside him once more.
Bai Lan froze for a second.
Then he hurried to the window and looked outside.
Nine tiny holes were clearly visible in the tree trunk, piercing straight through it.
And his bamboo leaves were completely unharmed.
"More than a hundred meters... They can pursue targets locked onto by the mind... And they can be fired in rapid succession..."
He murmured the description from the panel, then suddenly laughed.
How could these be bamboo leaves?
They were nine flying swords that could track their targets on their own.
He turned toward Arrow Bamboo, his gaze falling on the leaves covering its branches.
One, two, three...
There were so many that it had at least a hundred.
He had only used nine just now.
If he unleashed them all, turning over a hundred leaves into streaks of light at once and blanketing the area in arrows...
Just imagining it made Bai Lan's scalp tingle.
"No wonder it's called Arrow Bamboo..."
He recalled the leaves, letting them return to the bamboo's branches.
Then he sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began to sense the changes in the Soul Power within him.
The Contract Beast's evolution affected him as well.
Buzz!
Right at that moment—
Arrow Bamboo's Soul Ring and the yellow Hundred-Year Soul Ring on his body both turned purple, becoming Thousand-Year Soul Rings.
Two purple Soul Rings appeared around Arrow Bamboo's true form, pulsing slowly.
A second purple Thousand-Year Soul Ring also condensed around Bai Lan.
Both Soul Rings were at the thousand-year level.
And both came from the same Contract Beast—Arrow Bamboo, which was three thousand years old.
The two purple Soul Rings shone in harmony, radiating a rich aura of a thousand years. They felt far more substantial than the three-hundred-year Soul Ring had.
But Bai Lan knew that, in the end, these Soul Rings were only symbols.
The skills were still Arrow Bamboo's same abilities.
Iron Bone, Arrow Intent, Arrow Rain, Photosynthesis, Growth, and Healing.
More Soul Rings wouldn't change the skills.
Still, that didn't stop him from contracting a second Soul Beast.
According to the Contract Book's rules, each Contract Beast needed only one Soul Ring to represent it.
The remaining Soul Ring slots could be saved for future Contract Beasts.
After all, no matter how many Soul Rings a Contract Beast provided, it still only had the same abilities.
A moment later, he opened his eyes, the smile on his lips growing wider.
Level twenty-three.
Under normal cultivation, going from level twenty to level twenty-three might have taken as long as half a year.
He, on the other hand, had done nothing and jumped straight to it.
"Is this the terrifying part of the Contract Book...?"
Bai Lan stood up, walked over to the Arrow Bamboo, and reached out to touch its stalk.
The bamboo was cool to the touch, with a faint energy fluctuation.
After three thousand years, Iron Bone had been strengthened until it was comparable to refined Black Iron. Even a light touch revealed its weighty texture.
"Tomorrow, I'll contract my second Contract Beast," he said softly. "Then you'll have a companion."
The Arrow Bamboo trembled slightly, as if responding to him.
Bai Lan smiled and withdrew his hand.
He walked to the window and gazed out at the night.
He was curious to see just how extraordinary this legendary space-type Soul Beast really was.
Before you continue