Ding~ Crack Mode Activated (Not Really)

The Mimicry Training Ground's environment was far better than Chen Ming had imagined.

If the Mimicry Training Ground at Nuoding Academy had been a large pit with a bit of metal in it, then this training ground had truly been built atop a high-quality mineral vein.

Moreover, this mineral vein had not been deeply excavated. Aside from hollowing out areas for cultivation and daily living, it had been kept almost completely intact.

The environment inside was dozens of times better than the place Chen Ming had stayed in before. Simply entering the mine tunnels made him feel his Soul Power becoming highly active.

Cultivating here, Chen Ming felt that his cultivation speed could increase by at least another twenty percent.

That twenty percent was not to be underestimated. It was not twenty percent of Chen Ming's original talent, but an additional twenty percent on top of his cultivation technique and the simple environmental boost to his cultivation speed. The benefit here was actually extremely noticeable.

If he cultivated here, Chen Ming felt that in a few more months, he would be able to break through to Soul Grandmaster and obtain his second Spirit Ring.

"Teacher Qin Ming, I'll choose to live here. The environment is simply too good."

"That works." Qin Ming was not surprised. Instead, he took something out from his clothes for Chen Ming.

It was a pendant resembling a protective talisman, engraved with intricate inscriptions and emanating faint Soul Power fluctuations.

Under Chen Ming's gaze, Qin Ming did not activate this item, which appeared to be a storage Soul Tool. Instead, he directly placed the pendant in Chen Ming's hand.

"Teacher, this is?" Chen Ming swallowed.

"This is a storage Soul Tool. Lord Zhi Lin obtained it by chance when he was young. It has fifteen cubic meters of space and is a gift from the Education Committee Member. Your school uniform, school badge, identification, and other things are all inside. You can go change, and then I'll continue showing you around the academy."

"What a generous gift." Chen Ming sent his Soul Power into the Soul Tool and easily found the school uniform and other items inside.

This was not Douluo Continent II. Soul Tools were limited-edition items that became rarer with every use, precious artifacts excavated from various ruins.

After receiving the Gold Soul Coins from Spirit Hall, Chen Ming had also asked about the prices of Soul Tools. Yet even the lowest-grade storage Soul Tool, with only one cubic meter of space, cost at least several dozen Gold Soul Coins, and there was no guarantee how long such a Soul Tool would remain usable.

As the storage space increased and the quality of the Soul Tool improved, the price rose in a straight line.

The Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges at Tang San's waist was essentially nothing more than twenty-four low-grade, one-cubic-meter Soul Tools connected together to cosplay as a high-grade Soul Tool. This pendant-like Soul Tool alone had a market value of at least several thousand Gold Soul Coins.

And this was merely a gift...

Should he say it was worthy of a Soul Douluo, or worthy of Heaven Dou Royal Academy?

After greeting Qin Ming, Chen Ming found a corner and changed into the academy uniform. Though it had been rushed out at short notice, Heaven Dou Royal Academy's uniform still fit him perfectly and was made from extraordinary materials.

Not only did it look very beautiful, but the fabric's durability and structure also made Chen Ming think more highly of it. Though the workmanship was not particularly refined, strengthened by the material science of the Douluo World itself, this uniform possessed a certain degree of puncture resistance and was also quite resistant to corrosion.

When Qin Ming saw Chen Ming emerge, his eyes lit up as well.

"Not bad, very good!" Qin Ming praised him with a thumbs-up.

After changing into those clothes, Chen Ming's appearance improved immensely. At eight years old, Chen Ming was already one meter sixty tall, not much shorter than the adult farmers in the Douluo World who lacked Soul Power.

Thanks to reasonable training and diet, the muscles on Chen Ming's body were defined in a streamlined shape. Coupled with his confidence, his resolute and steady gaze, and the absence of any timid restraint, he gave people the feeling that this was how he ought to look in Heaven Dou Royal Academy's uniform.

Chen Ming did not possess any air of nobility, but he gave people the impression of how a young Spirit Master ought to be.

If Chen Ming were placed among the academy students who merely muddled through their days, then to a passerby, he would seem more like a carefully cultivated young genius than those students from noble families who had learned nothing worthwhile.

With Chen Ming changed into his uniform, Qin Ming took him around the mountain and roughly introduced the locations of numerous facilities.

Heaven Dou Royal Academy covered a vast area. Aside from the main mountain peak, several smaller peaks had also been used to build various cultivation grounds. Although there were not many students within the academy, every facility that might possibly be needed was fully available.

Even with a Spirit Master's stamina, Qin Ming only managed to show Chen Ming a small portion of the academy in a single day.

After resting overnight in an empty courtyard halfway up the mountain, Qin Ming continued leading Chen Ming onward early the next morning.

The cafeteria, library, sparring grounds, cultivation grounds, teaching buildings, testing grounds, beast arenas...

Backed by the empire, the royal academy's defining trait was its immense wealth. Although there were only a little over fifty actual teachers, the supporting staff alone numbered more than a thousand.

Even venues that saw little use were maintained in the best possible condition and freely available to Spirit Masters.

One small mountain had been specially enclosed and transformed into a beast arena. Within it, ten-year, hundred-year, and Thousand-Year Spirit Beasts captured from Sunset Forest were kept. They served both as teaching materials and as opponents for students to fight.

Chen Ming casually asked about it and discovered that as long as one made an appointment a day in advance, it would be approved the next day, allowing them to fight a suitable Spirit Beast in the beast arena without spending any money.

Whether they injured or killed the captive Spirit Beasts, students did not need to pay a single coin. If they achieved enough consecutive victories, the academy would even give them rewards.

If they wanted to observe Spirit Beasts, they needed approval from the three Education Committee Members. Once approved, specialists would suppress the Spirit Beasts nearby for the students to observe.

If the type of Spirit Beast was not too rare, the academy could even directly send people into Sunset Forest to capture one.

For Chen Ming, who had come from the countryside, this was fucking cheat mode!

Heaven Dou Royal Academy did not know how to cultivate the best Spirit Masters, but it was willing to spend money without limits in an attempt to cultivate the best Spirit Masters.

To put it this way, Chen Ming had originally come to Heaven Dou Royal Academy to find a way to obtain Immortal Herbs. But this environment was even more important to him than obtaining one or two Immortal Herbs.

After all, his cheat was AI Analysis, which reasoned and diagnosed based on existing data. Heaven Dou Royal Academy, meanwhile, had prepared the best possible testing ground for him. Whether he wanted to learn knowledge or understand Spirit Beasts, everything was exceedingly convenient and fast.

Entering Heaven Dou Royal Academy was like putting a rice weevil into a rice bin. It was simply exhilarating.