Take Yao and Cai Wenji, for example. If they asked their hidden protectors for help, they would be taken back to Spirit Hall.
"Come to think of it, where did those two support heroes go?" As they talked, Kai suddenly remembered Yao and Cai Wenji, whom he'd forgotten about. He was a little puzzled; he hadn't seen either of them send a message lately.
He didn't mind bringing two support heroes along, either. It was just that they were too far away: they were in Heaven Dou City, while he was in Nuoding City, a hundred thousand miles apart.
"They went to Shrek." Qian Xunji glanced at the minimap.
"Mm... They left again after barely spending any time there. I asked, and they said Ma Hongjun and Oscar were disgusting—both of them are perverts."
"They're in the wilderness now."
"The wilderness?" Kai asked, puzzled.
"They went to hunt Soul Beasts. I asked them, but they stopped responding. Their protectors said they're both safe now, though they seem a little strange." Qian Xunji wandered around the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, listening to Chrysanthemum Douluo's enthusiastic introduction while replying through the system in his mind.
Kai seemed to understand and said no more.
At the same time, the carriage came to a stop. The Dean straightened his clothes and made sure they were clean and tidy, with nothing that might be considered improper. Only then did he lead Kai out of the carriage. They had arrived at Fasinuo Intermediate Soul Master Academy.
Immortal Herbs
It was actually very easy to get Poison Douluo to do what you wanted: just take his only granddaughter, Dugu Yan, hostage.
Holding the hand of a little girl with short, deep-purple hair, Qian Xunji greeted Dugu Bo across from him with a knowing air.
Use his granddaughter to command Poison Douluo!
With a little girl in your arms, Poison Douluo Dugu Bo would willingly take you to his vegetable garden to dig up Immortal Herbs and soak in the hot springs.
The only catch was that an old man would keep watching you the whole time. Just ignore him.
"I've brought you in as you requested. Now you can let my granddaughter go, can't you?" Dugu Bo suppressed his anger and spoke.
"I only said you had to bring us here. I never said I'd let your granddaughter go. Old man, don't get things mixed up." The golden-haired man shook his head. His holy face had an absurdly smug, infuriatingly clever look that didn't fit his demeanor at all.
"You bastard! You clearly promised you wouldn't hurt my granddaughter."
"I haven't hurt her!" Qian Xunji replied with a knowing air.
"Despicable! I never thought the Pope of Spirit Hall would stoop to such underhanded schemes." Dugu Bo glared furiously at Qian Xunji.
"Enough. I don't have time to play with you, old man. Make your choice!" Qian Xunji held the little girl in his arms. "Will you join Spirit Hall, join Spirit Hall, or join Spirit Hall?"
"..." Dugu Bo gritted his teeth as he stared at the golden-haired young man and the little girl in his arms, her eyes brimming with tears.
"I... agree to join Spirit Hall," Dugu Bo said through gritted teeth.
Chrysanthemum Douluo and Ghost Douluo stood to one side, calmly watching their Pope have another episode.
Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan had his mind entirely on the Immortal Herbs in the garden, especially the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, which shared its origins with his Martial Soul.
If he could take it, he would surely reach a higher level.
Ghost Douluo had also been moved after hearing Yue Guan's introduction. He knew Yue Guan very well. Yue Guan had studied herbal medicine and seen plenty of rare herbs, but Ghost Douluo had never seen him this excited.
Anything Yue Guan called an Immortal Herb was sure to be extraordinary!
Suddenly, Yue Guan saw the child brought by His Holiness the Pope run over and touch an Immortal Herb with a translucent, crystalline white body. Each leaf glistened with a moist sheen, and its curved, outstretched shape closely resembled a swan's long, slender neck. Its leaves were crystalline white.
"Wait, don't touch it!" Yue Guan hurriedly warned him. The Snowy Swan Kiss was deadly to the touch!
Split Personality
To Chrysanthemum Douluo's surprise,
the child's hand touched the beautiful yet dangerous Immortal Herb, and nothing happened.
Yue Guan even began to wonder if he had remembered the herb's effects incorrectly.
He never once considered that there might be something wrong with the child.
The child wore a golden robe, and his hair was hidden beneath his hood, with only a glimpse of short, golden hair visible.
His attire was simple. A medicine case hung diagonally at his waist, and he carried a faint herbal fragrance. His air was mysterious and strange.
He was none other than the Alchemy King—Bian Que!
But unlike the other heroes, who focused single-mindedly on cultivating and leveling up, Bian Que only wanted to study the medicinal knowledge of this world.
Of course, if he could, he also wanted to cure his idiot host. It was the shared wish of all the heroes—and the system, too.
Bian Que was practically the whole village's hope.
To treat its idiot host, Qian Xunji, the system had automatically upgraded and iterated through several versions. Yet it still came away defeated whenever it faced that idiot host.
The system had also instructed Bian Que to do whatever it took to cure Qian Xunji, whose condition was even more severe.
That was right!
His condition had gotten even worse!
Electroshock therapy hadn't cured Qian Xunji. Instead, it had worsened his condition and added another entry to his already extensive medical history.
Split personality, delusions, and intellectual disability...
The host's illness wasn't a figure of speech. It was a literal diagnosis.
[These Immortal Herbs should be enough to cure Qian Xunji, right?]
The system wandered around the mall, looking to buy some new medicines for treating mental illness.
[Hey, your host still isn't cured? Why not just get a new one?] The mall's service system greeted the regular customer and tried to persuade it.
[How could I? I've been with my host for so long. We've grown attached to each other. I won't give up on him. All right, give me the latest medicine!] The system firmly refused.
Replacing its host was out of the question. It had already gotten 9,999 hosts killed.
Every single one had died on the very first day after being bound to it.
Qian Xunji was the only host who had survived and was still doing just fine.
If Qian Xunji died too, it would hit the danger threshold, and the system would be sent to the Main God for a virus check and a factory reset.
It didn't matter if its host was a little stupid, as long as he was alive and well. The system could afford to support him.
Could Bian Que actually cure its host?
Dugu Bo's herb garden.
Seeing the golden-haired child smoothly pick the Snowy Swan Kiss and put it into his medicine case, Yue Guan was still in shock when Qian Xunji asked a knowing question first. "Can't we leave some seeds behind?"
"I've already saved some of this Immortal Herb's seeds. But it'll take several hundred years for them to mature into Immortal Herbs. They're the finest of their kind, after all." Bian Que didn't even look at Qian Xunji.
"Can I touch it? It's pretty." Qian Xunji's hand itched with the urge to reach out.
"..." Bian Que ignored him and continued collecting the mature Immortal Herbs that were ready to be picked, putting them one by one into his medicine case.
Chrysanthemum Douluo, watching from the side, was itching to get his hands on them too.
But now he understood why His Holiness the Pope had brought the child here.
Considering how the Pope had suddenly targeted Poison Douluo's granddaughter and brought them to this herb garden, he must have planned it all in advance.
No matter how badly Yue Guan wanted one, he could only hold back.
Still, he had rendered great service to Spirit Hall over the years and remained utterly loyal to His Holiness the Pope. Surely asking for one Immortal Herb wouldn't be a problem.
Poison Douluo had just heard Chrysanthemum Douluo's introduction and learned that the herbs in his garden were actually Immortal Herbs. Now, watching a child dig them up one by one, he felt his heart ache so badly it seemed to cramp.
With so many Immortal Herbs, surely one of them could cure the Jade Phosphor Snake Poison in his body.
But right now, the most important thing was figuring out how to stay alive.
No Choice
Having successfully subdued a grandfather and granddaughter, one of whom was an SSR-rank Titled Douluo, Qian Xunji felt refreshed.
"How are they? Can these Immortal Herbs be used to make medicine?" Qian Xunji seemed unusually clear-headed, almost like a normal person. It was hard to believe he'd just used a little girl to bully her grandfather.
"They can, but I'll need time." Bian Que didn't bother explaining the technical details to this layman. He simply gave him an answer.
"Using other herbs to enhance the effects of one Immortal Herb, I can make about three or four pills. They might not be as effective as eating the Immortal Herb directly, but more people can take them."
Giving an entire Immortal Herb to just one person was a waste to begin with. The excess energy and medicinal effects couldn't be absorbed and would simply turn into Soul Power.
At most, one person could absorb a third of an Immortal Herb's effects. The rest would go to waste.
But...
Bian Que glanced at Chrysanthemum Douluo, who was staring longingly at the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum.
For this Titled Douluo, whose Martial Soul was the Singular Velvet Sky Chrysanthemum, the herb shared the same origins as his Martial Soul. Taking it would perfectly complement him, make up for his Martial Soul's shortcomings, and allow him to absorb the herb's effects completely.
However, considering the herb's properties, someone with this Martial Soul would actually be better suited to the Support System.
Still, many Soul Masters knew this and chose to pursue the Control System or Power Attack System anyway, only to end up mediocre.
But looking at it another way, if they had truly chosen the Support System, it was anyone's guess whether they'd still be alive now.
Some choices might seem like mistakes, when in truth, there had never been any choice at all.
With the recommendation of the Dean of Nuoding Academy, Kai also took the assessment and was successfully admitted.
The Dean received generous benefits in return. When his term ended next year, he could come teach at Fasinuo Intermediate Soul Master Academy.
On the surface, going from headmaster to teacher looked like a demotion. In reality, it was a promotion.
As the provincial capital's Soul Master Academy, Fasinuo's teachers were all at least Soul Elders, and its Dean was a Soul King.
Before you continue