Ning Tian's Recruitment

After three rounds of drinks, Ning Tian saw that Qin Yue had nearly finished eating. She wiped her mouth and said with a gentle smile:

"Qin Yue, you know that my Martial Soul is the Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda. Have you ever heard of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect?"

"Of course." Qin Yue nodded. "It's the number-one support-system Tool Martial Soul in the world. I'm not some savage who crawled out of the deep mountains and old forests, so naturally I've heard of it."

He could tell that Ning Tian wanted to recruit him, which was in line with the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect's longstanding habit of making investments. But it wasn't as though he had no family or sect behind him. The old men at home had done their utmost for him, so he couldn't exactly imitate a Certain God King.

Ning Tian caught the hidden meaning in Qin Yue's words, and immediately changed what she had been about to say. "By the way, we've already been classmates for three months, and we even fought together for three days. Yet Feng Mei and I still know nothing about you."

Upon hearing that, Wu Feng immediately swallowed the food in her mouth and nodded repeatedly. "Exactly! Forget anything else—we don't even know what your Martial Soul is!"

"My Martial Soul?" Qin Yue thought for a moment and realized that he really had never talked to the two of them about such things. He laughed heartily. "Actually, you already saw it that day. My Martial Soul, Thunder, is rather special. It has no physical form and is neither beast nor tool. It counts as an Elemental Martial Soul."

Wu Feng immediately recalled how Qin Yue had taken her full-force attack head-on without budging, as well as the layer of lightning wrapped around him like armor. "That lightning covering your entire body—that's your soul skill?"

"That's right." Qin Yue nodded. "My First Soul Skill is called Thunder Armor. Simply put, it's an enhancement-type soul skill, much like your Dragon's Fury."

My Second Soul Skill isn't as strong as his First Soul Skill? Wu Feng tilted her head, feeling that something was off, though she could not put her finger on it.

Ning Tian casually refilled Qin Yue's teacup, then asked offhandedly, "By the way, where are you from, Qin Yue? Feng Mei and I like traveling around. Maybe we've even visited your hometown before~"

Qin Yue took a sip of tea and replied with a smile, "I'm from Forest Spirit City, a small city located at the border between the Dou Ling Empire and the Star Luo Empire."

Ning Tian instinctively felt that she had heard the name "Forest Spirit City" somewhere before. After thinking carefully, a sense of foreboding suddenly rose in her heart. She asked tentatively, "Could it be that you're from the Qin Clan of Forest Spirit City?"

When Qin Yue nodded, the last trace of luck in Ning Tian's heart shattered, leaving her quite helpless.

As the eldest young lady of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, the reason she knew of a small city like Forest Spirit City was precisely because of the powerful Qin Clan there. Two years ago, the Qin Clan's patriarch had broken through in cultivation and become a Title Douluo, elevating the Qin Clan into one of the continent's top families.

As long as there was even one normal person in the Qin Clan, there was no way they would overlook someone as obviously gifted as Qin Yue. Trying to recruit him into the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect was simply a fantasy.

After confirming that it would be difficult to draw Qin Yue into her sect, Ning Tian, as the eldest young lady of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, swiftly shifted her approach. What had begun as recruitment became an attempt to forge a good connection.

"So you're from the Qin Clan. Two years ago, our Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect attended the title ceremony of the Prison Sea Douluo. I even personally delivered a gift to Elder Qin."

"I really didn't know about that."

Qin Yue raised an eyebrow. Back then, to be safe, Qin Haichuan had allowed him to decide for himself whether to attend the celebration and meet the people and factions who had come to offer congratulations.

However, he had been on the verge of breaking through to Level 30 at the time, so in the end, he had not gone. Naturally, he had no idea such a thing had happened.

Ning Tian carefully recalled the circumstances from back then and confirmed that she had never seen Qin Yue at the celebration. She came up with two likely possibilities.

First, Qin Yue's talent was so exceptional that it defied imagination, so the Qin Clan had chosen to keep him hidden even when one of their own broke through to become a Title Douluo.

Second, Qin Yue's relationship with the Qin Clan was extremely poor—poor enough that he had not even attended something as important as a title ceremony.

Although reason told Ning Tian that the first possibility was more likely, she was more inclined toward the second.

The private room's sudden silence made Wu Feng feel somewhat uncomfortable. She swallowed the pastry in her hand in one bite, shrank her neck, looked from Qin Yue to Ning Tian and back again, completely baffled.

Uncertain of Qin Yue's exact relationship with the Qin Clan, Ning Tian quickly changed the subject. "Feng Mei, you really eat too many sweets. Once you develop a taste for them, it'll be hard to change. You can't tell now, but after a few decades, you'll gain weight and turn into a Fat Fire Dragon~"

Though Wu Feng was usually not the sharpest, she had encountered this sort of situation many times. Practice made perfect, and she immediately raised her little chin with a smug expression.

"I don't care! Besides, I was born unable to gain weight. If I have too much fat, can't I just breathe some fire to burn it off?"

Qin Yue did not join in. He merely sat to the side and watched Ning Tian and Wu Feng laugh and play around until it was nearly time for the afternoon assessment, when he finally reminded them. Thus ended a fairly pleasant lunch break.

The three had just returned to the Assessment Area when Mu Jin caught up from behind and stopped them. The teacher, who was usually quite gentle, wore an expression full of fury. Only after taking two deep breaths did she speak to Qin Yue and the others.

"Qin Yue, Ning Tian, Wu Feng, the drawing results are out. Your opponent in the first match is Huo Yuhao's team from Freshman Class One. They're a seeded team composed of two Soul Grand Masters and one Soul Master."

Ning Tian looked surprised, but she could tell that Teacher Mu Jin had more to say, so she did not ask about the details.

Mu Jin temporarily suppressed the anger in her heart, pressed her palms together, and implored the three of them.

"Teacher needs your help with something. My relationship with Zhou Yi, the teacher of Freshman Class One, is terrible. So once the drawing results came out, I made a bet with her on whether you or Huo Yuhao's team would win. The wager is a Spirit Bone."

"I don't care about the wager. I just want to beat Zhou Yi and vent my anger!"

"Zhou Yi... isn't she that old woman who claims to be very good at teaching students?" Ning Tian thought for a moment before asking uncertainly.

"That's her!" A flash of hatred passed through Mu Jin's eyes. "What you don't know is that Zhou Yi calls herself an outstanding teacher, but she actually relies on insanely intense daily training. Whenever someone fails to complete it, she expels them outright. That way, the students left behind naturally appear to perform well during assessments."

Ning Tian and Wu Feng exchanged shocked looks. One could tell just by hearing it that there was something wrong with that teaching method. Expelling every student who could not keep up with the training just to make her own record look better on paper—wasn't that nothing more than self-deception?

When both of them looked at him, Qin Yue merely shrugged and smiled. "Why are you looking at me? This is an Elimination Tournament. There can only be one winner. Do you expect me to go up there and surrender so they can win?"

Mu Jin felt completely reassured upon hearing that. She clenched her teeth and threw a fierce punch. "Then I'll be relying on you. Today, I'm definitely going to smash Zhou Yi's ugly face!"