After leaving the Star Dou Forest, Chen Ming dismantled and destroyed most of the grenades on his person. As he was about to return to Nuoding City, he simply found ways to thoroughly dispose of all his old-fashioned firearms and grenades.
Despise the enemy strategically; take the enemy seriously tactically.
Chen Ming did not overestimate Tang San's intelligence or creativity, but neither did he underestimate Tang San's understanding of hidden weapons. The fact that Tang San could recreate the Buddha Fury Tang Lotus meant he at least understood explosives.
If Tang San happened to get his hands on firearms or grenades, Chen Ming firmly believed that Tang San's unfathomable hidden-weapon techniques would allow him to copy the firearms Chen Ming had made.
If Tang San happened to have an epiphany, discarded the useless outer mechanisms of the Buddha Fury Tang Lotus, and started handcrafting grenades directly according to the formula from his previous life...
If Tang San really ended up carrying grenades across the Douluo Continent, blowing things up all the way, Chen Ming's path of development would undoubtedly become far more difficult.
Firearms had to be used sparingly. Especially in front of Tang San, he absolutely could not use them unless necessary.
After Chen Ming returned to Nuoding City Junior Soul Master Academy, both the teachers and students were shocked to see him back. Especially after Chen Ming displayed his Spirit Master cultivation and Hundred-Year first Spirit Ring, nearly everyone looked at him as though he were a monster.
A tenth-rank 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 full of disbelief.
As one of the former Beast Kings of the Star Dou Forest—any Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast could be called a Beast King regardless of species—Xiao Wu understood very well just how dangerous the Star Dou Forest was.
Not to mention a Spirit Scholar; even the academy's teachers could barely guarantee their own safety in the outer regions of the Star Dou Forest.
After Xiao Wu underwent Transformation into a human, Da Ming and Er Ming had still taken great risks to secretly escort her to the forest's outskirts. Otherwise, even Xiao Wu could not have guaranteed that she could leave the Star Dou Forest safely after transforming.
"Look, this is my map." Chen Ming shoved the map he had bought into Xiao Wu's hands. Xiao Wu examined 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 map's rough markings and Spirit Beast distribution that it depicted the outer region on the side of the Star Dou Forest 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 resembled a horse's, it had two curled ram horns on its head, and yellow scales covered its body. I don't know what it was called." Chen Ming described in detail 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 abundant dragon blood, which is why it has a dragon-like head. It also has an earth attribute, so it suited you quite well..."
As a Transformed Spirit Beast, Xiao Wu's knowledge of Spirit Beasts was actually even better than Yu Xiaogang's. Merely hearing Chen Ming's account was enough for her to know exactly what Spirit Beast he had hunted.
"How did you even kill that Dragon-Headed Lizard? With that little body of yours, you wouldn't have been enough for a single bite." Xiao Wu asked curiously, without any sadness or emotional turmoil in her heart.
For Spirit Beasts, eating and being eaten were as ordinary as daily life. Although Xiao Wu herself did not eat meat, the Titan Giant Ape and Sky Azure Bull Python were both omnivores, and Xiao Wu had often seen the two of them eating.
In a sense, for most long-lived Spirit Beasts, aside from blood relations and mates by their side, all other nearby lives were like weeds by the roadside.
It was not that long-lived Spirit Beasts lacked emotions. In fact, their emotions were often no weaker than humans', sometimes even more intense. 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 saintly mother of the Spirit Beast world—in the positive sense—most Spirit Beasts had relationships no closer than living and dying without ever associating with one another.
"You sure know a lot. You don't seem like a Work-Study Student. And how did you just recognize that map as being of the Star Dou Forest? Have you been to the Star Dou Forest before?"
"As for how I got this Spirit Ring... I passed by a canyon and saw an injured lizard lying below, basking in the sun. Then I pushed a huge rock down. The rock directly smashed away half its body, and the Spirit Ring appeared."
"Ha, is that so..." Hearing Chen Ming's suspicion, Xiao Wu laughed awkwardly twice and hurriedly changed the subject.
"You're really 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 someone as knowledgeable about the Star Dou Forest as Xiao Wu, so he simply let Xiao Wu leave on her own.
In any case, from now on, no matter who asked, 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 never reveal the slightest detail. If anyone asked, it was simply because he had been lucky.
After returning to the academy and proving that he was not dead, Chen Ming went to the Spirit Hall in the city to obtain his Spirit Master certification.
At the Spirit Hall in Nuoding City, Su Yuntao and another Spirit Master, Si Si, both happened to be away on business. The person in charge was temporarily replaced by Ma Xiunuo, the master of the branch hall.
Looking at Chen Ming's Martial Soul and Spirit Ring, then at the awakening date from seven months earlier on the certificate Chen Ming provided, Ma Xiunuo's eyes widened in utter astonishment.
Ma Xiunuo extended an invitation to Chen Ming, hoping Chen Ming would join Spirit Hall.
However, after considering Ma Xiunuo's invitation, Chen Ming still refused directly.
It was not that joining Spirit Hall was bad. Joining Spirit Hall through the Nuoding City branch was bad. With Chen Ming's current status and strength, at most, the Nuoding City branch could 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 that he might as well go directly to Spirit City and find a way to draw the attention of the powerful figures in Spirit Hall's main headquarters.
Compared with the ordinary route of slowly building seniority, Chen Ming would rather... well... take a slightly crooked path.
With the knowledge in Chen Ming's mind and his understanding of this world, accomplishing something like that was not actually too difficult if he put some thought into it.
He could use information about Immortal Herbs to lure Chrysanthemum Douluo, use the concept of the Body Martial Soul to lure Ghost Douluo, or even try displaying his talent for and ideas about Tool Soul Beast-ification to attract the attention of Snake Lance Douluo, or even Qian Jun and Jiang Mo, the two Douluo.
Especially while Spirit Hall's Grand Worship, Qian Daoliu, was still an overly stubborn and promise-keeping gentleman, finding a way to attract Qian Daoliu's attention offered far greater value than slowly building seniority at the bottom ranks after entering Spirit Hall.
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