Choices and Effort

After leaving the Star Dou Forest, Chen Ming dismantled and destroyed most of the grenades on his person. When he was about to return to Nuoding City, he simply found ways to completely dispose of all the old-fashioned firearms and grenades he had.

Despise the enemy strategically, but take them seriously tactically.

Chen Ming did not overestimate Tang San's intelligence or creativity, but neither did he underestimate Tang San's knowledge of hidden weapons. The fact that Tang San could recreate the Buddha Fury Tang Lotus meant he at least understood explosives.

If Tang San somehow got his hands on firearms and grenades, Chen Ming firmly believed that with Tang San's unfathomable hidden weapon techniques, he could copy the firearms Chen Ming had made.

What if Tang San suddenly had an epiphany, discarded the useless outer mechanism of the Buddha Fury Tang Lotus, and started handcrafting grenades according to the formula from his previous life...

If Tang San really ended up carrying grenades all across the Douluo Continent, blowing things up wherever he went, Chen Ming's path of growth would undoubtedly become far more difficult.

Firearms had to be used sparingly. Especially in front of Tang San—if he could avoid using them, he absolutely would.

When Chen Ming returned to Nuoding City Junior Soul Master Academy, both the teachers and students were shocked by his return. Especially after Chen Ming displayed his Spirit Master cultivation and Hundred-Year first Spirit Ring, almost everyone looked at him as though he were a monster.

A level-ten Spirit Scholar had gone alone into the Star Dou Forest to hunt a Hundred-Year Spirit Beast for his own Spirit Ring...

That was simply inhuman!

"Did you really come back from the Star Dou Forest?" Xiao Wu looked Chen Ming up and down, her eyes filled with disbelief.

As one of the former Beast Kings of the Star Dou Forest, Xiao Wu understood just how dangerous the Star Dou Forest was. Any Hundred-Thousand-Year Spirit Beast could be called a Beast King, regardless of species.

Let alone a Spirit Scholar, even the academy's teachers would find it extremely difficult to ensure their own safety in the outer regions of the Star Dou Forest.

Back when Xiao Wu transformed into human form, Da Ming and Er Ming had risked danger to secretly escort her to the outskirts of the Star Dou Forest. Otherwise, even Xiao Wu herself would not have dared guarantee that she could leave the Star Dou Forest after transforming.

"Look, this is my map." Chen Ming stuffed the map he had bought into Xiao Wu's hands. Xiao Wu looked at the marked locations and Spirit Beast distributions on it, then nodded slightly.

Although Xiao Wu was not familiar with every part of the Star Dou Forest, she could indeed tell from the rough markings and Spirit Beast distribution that this was the outer region of the Star Dou Forest on the side near Spirit Hall.

"What Spirit Beast did you kill?" After thinking for a moment, Xiao Wu poked Chen Ming's shoulder.

"A Spirit Beast that looked like a huge lizard. Its head looked like a horse's, it had two curled ram horns on top of its head, and yellow scales covered its body. I don't know what it was called." Chen Ming gave a detailed description of the unlucky creature that had been blown to death by a grenade.

"That was a Dragon-Headed Lizard, an omnivorous High-Level Spirit Beast. Among Sub-Dragons, it has relatively strong dragon blood, which is why it has a dragon-like head. Its attribute is earth as well, so it suited you quite well..."

As a Transformed Spirit Beast, Xiao Wu's knowledge of Spirit Beasts was actually better than Yu Xiaogang's. Just from listening to Chen Ming's description, she knew exactly what Spirit Beast he had hunted.

"How did you even kill that Dragon-Headed Lizard? With that little body of yours, you shouldn't have been enough for a single bite." Xiao Wu asked curiously, without any sadness or emotional reaction in her heart.

For Spirit Beasts, eating and being eaten were as commonplace as daily meals. Although Xiao Wu herself did not eat meat, both the Titan Giant Ape and Sky Azure Bull Python were omnivores, and Xiao Wu had often seen those two eating.

In a sense, for the vast majority of high-age Spirit Beasts, aside from blood relations and mates at their side, every other living creature around them was like roadside weeds.

It was not that high-age Spirit Beasts lacked emotions. In fact, their feelings were often no weaker than those of humans, perhaps even more intense than those of ordinary humans. But these Spirit Beasts often lacked empathy, displaying two completely opposite extremes of emotion toward "their own people" and "others."

Other than Spirit Beasts like the Emerald Swan, the saints of the Spirit Beast world in the positive sense, the best relationship between most Spirit Beasts was usually to stay out of each other's way until death.

"You really know a lot. You don't seem like a Work-Study Student. And how did you recognize that map as one of the Star Dou Forest just now? Have you been to the Star Dou Forest before?"

"As for how I got this Spirit Ring... When I passed by a canyon, I saw an injured lizard lying below and basking in the sun. Then I pushed a large rock down. The rock crushed half its body, and the Spirit Ring appeared."

"Haha, is that so..." Hearing Chen Ming's suspicion, Xiao Wu gave two awkward laughs and hurriedly changed the subject.

"You really are lucky." Xiao Wu scratched her head and stiffly changed the subject. "I can't lose to you either. I'm going to cultivate."

Without waiting for Chen Ming to react, Xiao Wu skipped away. Chen Ming showed a puzzled expression on the surface, but inwardly, he understood perfectly.

Chen Ming was not sure whether his words could fool a Star Dou know-it-all like Xiao Wu, so he simply let Xiao Wu leave on her own.

In any case, no matter who asked now, Chen Ming's answer would be that he had luckily crushed an injured Spirit Beast to death with a rock. As for anything else, Chen Ming would not reveal a single word. If anyone asked, it was simply because he was lucky.

After returning to the academy and proving that he was not dead, Chen Ming went to the Spirit Hall in the city to register as a Spirit Master.

At the Spirit Hall in Nuoding City, Su Yuntao and another Spirit Master, Si Si, were both away on business. The person in charge was therefore the branch hall master, Ma Xiunuo, who personally stepped in temporarily.

Seeing Chen Ming's Martial Soul and Spirit Ring, then looking at the awakening date from seven months earlier on the certificate Chen Ming provided, Ma Xiunuo's eyes widened in shock.

Facing Chen Ming, Ma Xiunuo extended an invitation, hoping Chen Ming would join Spirit Hall.

But after thinking it over, Chen Ming still directly refused Ma Xiunuo's invitation.

It was not that joining Spirit Hall was bad. Joining Spirit Hall through the Nuoding City branch was bad. Given Chen Ming's current identity and strength, at most the Nuoding City branch would recommend him to the Martial Soul Sacred Hall in the capital of the Heaven Dou Empire, where he would then seek opportunities within the Sacred Hall.

Rather than fight for opportunities in the Sacred Hall, Chen Ming felt it would be better to go directly to Spirit City and find a way to catch the attention of important figures in Spirit Hall's main headquarters.

Compared with steadily accumulating seniority through conventional means, Chen Ming would rather... well... take a slight shortcut.

With the knowledge in Chen Ming's mind and his understanding of this world, accomplishing such a thing would not actually be too difficult if he put his mind to it.

He could use information about Immortal Herbs to tempt Chrysanthemum Douluo, use the concept of the Body Martial Soul to tempt Ghost Douluo, or even try to draw the attention of Snake Lance Douluo and perhaps Qian Jun and Jiang Mo Douluo by displaying his talent for and ideas about Tool Soul Beast-ification.

Especially since Spirit Hall's current Grand Worship, Qian Daoliu, was an overly stubborn gentleman who kept his promises, finding a way to gain Qian Daoliu's attention would offer far better value than slowly accumulating seniority at the bottom of Spirit Hall.