The Mimicry Training Ground's environment was far better than Chen Ming had imagined.
If the Mimicry Training Ground Chen Ming had used at Nuoding Academy had been a large, somewhat metallic pit, then this training ground had truly been built atop a mineral vein of considerable quality.
Moreover, this mineral vein had not been deeply excavated. Other than hollowing out spaces for cultivation and daily life, it had been preserved in an almost entirely intact state.
The environment inside was dozens of times better than the place Chen Ming had stayed 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 the cultivation method and the basic environmental boosts he already had. The enhancement here was actually quite significant.
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 stay here. The environment is simply too good."
"Sure." Qin Ming was not surprised. Instead, he took something out from his robes.
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 the suspected 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. Zhi Lin acquired it by chance when he was young. It has fifteen cubic meters of space and is a gift from the Education Committee Members. Your school uniform, badge, identification, and other belongings are all inside. You can change into them, then I'll continue showing you around the academy."
"What a generous gift." Chen Ming sent Soul Power into the Soul Tool and easily found the school uniform and other items within.
This was not Douluo Continent II. Soul Tools were irreplaceable limited items; once one was used up, there was one less in existence. They were treasures excavated from various ruins.
After receiving the gold coins from Spirit Hall, Chen Ming had also asked about Soul Tool prices. 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 such a Soul Tool would remain usable for long.
As the storage space expanded 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 just twenty-four low-grade, one-cubic-meter Soul Tools linked together to cosplay as a high-grade Soul Tool. This pendant-like Soul Tool alone would be worth several thousand Gold Soul Coins on the market.
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 temporarily, Heaven Dou Royal Academy's uniform still fit perfectly and was made from exceptional material.
Not only did it look excellent, but the fabric's sturdiness and structure also made Chen Ming regard it more highly. Though the craftsmanship was not particularly advanced, supported by the material science of the Douluo World itself, the uniform possessed a certain degree of puncture resistance and considerable resistance to corrosion.
When Qin Ming saw Chen Ming emerge, his eyes lit up as well.
"Not bad. Very good!" Qin Ming praised, giving Chen Ming a thumbs-up.
After changing into these clothes, Chen Ming's appearance improved dramatically. At eight years old, Chen Ming was already 1.6 meters tall, not much shorter than adult farmers in the Douluo World who lacked Soul Power.
Thanks to a sensible exercise routine and diet, Chen Ming's muscles were defined in streamlined contours. Combined with his confidence, his firm and steady gaze, and the lack of any timid or restrained bearing, wearing Heaven Dou Royal Academy's uniform made him look as though this was how he was meant to be.
Chen Ming had no aristocratic air about him, yet he gave people the feeling that this was exactly how a young Spirit Master should look.
If Chen Ming were placed beside those academy students who merely muddled through their days, then to any passerby, he would look more like a carefully cultivated young genius than those students born into noble families who had learned nothing worthwhile.
With Chen Ming changed into his uniform, Qin Ming led him around the mountain and roughly introduced the locations of its many facilities.
Heaven Dou Royal Academy covered an enormous area. Besides the main peak, several smaller peaks had been set aside for the construction of various cultivation grounds. Although it did not have many students, it possessed every facility that might possibly be needed.
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 for the night in an unoccupied courtyard halfway up the mountain, Qin Ming continued leading Chen Ming onward early the next morning.
The dining hall, library, dueling grounds, cultivation grounds, teaching buildings, testing grounds, beast arena...
Backed by the empire, the royal academy's defining trait was its immense wealth. Though it had only a little over fifty actual teachers, its supporting personnel already exceeded a thousand.
Even rarely used venues were maintained to the highest standards and made available to Spirit Masters free of charge.
One small mountain had been specially enclosed and remodeled into a beast arena. Inside were ten-year, hundred-year, and Thousand-Year Spirit Beasts captured from Sunset Forest. They served both as teaching materials and as opponents for the students to fight.
Chen Ming casually asked around and discovered that as long as he made an appointment one day in advance, it would be approved the next day, allowing him to battle suitable Spirit Beasts 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 even awarded them prizes.
If students wished to observe Spirit Beasts, they needed approval from the three Education Committee Members. Once approved, specialists would suppress the Spirit Beast nearby so that the students could observe it.
If the Spirit Beast species was not too rare, the academy could even directly send people into Sunset Forest to capture one.
To Chen Ming, who came from the countryside, this was fucking cheat mode!
Heaven Dou Royal Academy might not know how to cultivate the best Spirit Masters, but it was willing to spend unlimited money trying to cultivate them.
To put it another 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 simple Immortal Herbs.
After all, his cheat was AI Analysis, which reasoned and diagnosed based on existing data. Heaven Dou Royal Academy had prepared the best possible testing ground for him. Whether he wanted to learn knowledge or study Spirit Beasts, everything was remarkably convenient and efficient.
Entering Heaven Dou Royal Academy was like putting a rice bug into a rice bin. It was simply fucking bliss.
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