Two and a Half Years

Two and a half years later.

Shrek Academy, combat zone.

Oscar performed a sword flourish, sheathed the longsword behind his back, and drifted into a slight trance.

Over these two and a half years, he had thoroughly mastered the four skills of his second Spirit Ring and, after integrating them, had even developed quite a few new tricks.

For instance, selling sausages in the city and using mental sharing to gather new intelligence. Or stuffing a Simulation Gold Jade Sausage inside a Mental Confusion Gold Jade Sausage to create mental bombs with various appearances, and so on.

At the same time, his cultivation speed did not slow down like others; instead, it improved, reaching the level of a thirty-seventh-rank Spirit Master in just two and a half years.

His third Spirit Ring was obtained with the help of the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm, after hunting a two-thousand-five-hundred-year-old Emerald Swan spirit beast.

Although he encountered quite a few troubles during the process—and the Tian Meng even told him to avoid the Star Dou Great Forest as much as possible in the future to avoid retaliation—and his third Spirit Ring came with the restriction of only being able to produce one per day, with a shelf life of only three days.

But in Oscar's view, it was all worth it!

This spirit skill, named Grace Hymn Emerald Sausage, not only filled the gap of the life force recovery skill he had been longing for, but it could even instantly restore the user's full life force. It could be said that as long as someone had a breath left, he could pull them back from the gates of the underworld!

The most absurd part was that if he consumed it himself, the double effect would cause his life force to overflow, affecting surrounding living beings and slowly enhancing their talent and cultivation speed!

It was by relying on the properties of the Grace Hymn Emerald Sausage that Oscar helped Meng Yiran break through to the thirty-third rank and assisted her in obtaining her third spirit skill—Snake Spirit!

Thinking of this, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl upward. Not far away, Ma Hongjun jumped down from a wooden post and said with a look of pity:

"Sigh, Junior Brother, I told you to spar with me before looking for Senior Brother. Got beaten up, didn't you?"

At this moment, Dai Mubai was standing opposite Oscar, his luxurious clothes slashed to rags.

"Spar with you? When I just reached the thirtieth rank, didn't we fight? You nearly scorched all my bird feathers off!"

Dai Mubai panted heavily, turned his head to look at Ma Hongjun, his tiger eyes filled with annoyance.

In these two and a half years, he had cultivated to the thirty-ninth rank with the help of Oscar's Grace Hymn Emerald Sausage, but facing this pair of senior and junior brothers, he was still... powerless; he simply couldn't win.

After all, this guy Ma Hongjun had advanced rapidly to the thirty-second rank as if he had eaten a panacea!

Facing this guy's Fire Phoenix, Dai Mubai didn't dare to get close; otherwise, let alone his clothes, even his hair would be roasted clean!

He really didn't know how these two brothers cultivated—one was a thirty-second-rank Spirit Master at only eleven years old, and the other was a thirty-seventh-rank Spirit Master at only thirteen!

The most ridiculous thing was that he learned from Ma Hongjun that Oscar's cultivation speed had actually been slowed down significantly due to his cultivation method and injuries!

With these years passing, Oscar's injuries were likely almost healed, which meant he would be even faster in the future?!

Could it be that he would break through to a Spirit King before the age of fifteen?!

Sometimes he really wanted to dissect these two brothers to see what kind of strange things were hidden inside their bodies.

"Junior Brother, that was just Senior Brother being careless. Why are you still holding onto that?"

Ma Hongjun shook his black robe and said with a chuckle.

Dai Mubai turned his head and snorted. According to the order of entry, he was now Ma Hongjun's junior brother, but for the sake of the Taiji Combat Method, he didn't bother arguing with Ma Hongjun.

"Alright, all you do every day is bicker, bicker, bicker!"

Meng Yiran walked over from afar, glared at Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun with dissatisfaction, and gently handed a water cup to Oscar.

Oscar took it with a smile; he had long since lost his previous hesitation.

The sect's rule against marriage was to protect them and prevent them from ruining their cultivation, but having obtained his spirit and spirit power, he no longer needed to worry about such things.

The sect would never limit a disciple's future because of a broken rule. As long as the disciple had a better path, did not harm others or themselves, and did not affect society, then they could follow their own way. As the saying goes, the Dao follows nature.

Oscar understood that his previous hesitation was merely wondering how his master and senior brothers would view him if they knew all this, but in the end, he was only binding himself and enslaving himself.

Only by no longer seeking validation outside of oneself could one become their true self and release their true inner nature.

At the very least, he felt that all of this was valuable now.

"Sister Yiran is fierce to me and Junior Brother every day, but she's as gentle as water to Senior Brother~"

Ma Hongjun said with a straight face, and Dai Mubai glanced over and nodded in agreement, which made Meng Yiran blush. She stomped her feet in embarrassment and said:

"None of your business!"

In the distance, Zhao Wuji watched the frolicking teenagers, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly... well, stretching all the way to his ears.

He hadn't had much confidence in the Continental Elite Spirit Master Tournament before, but seeing these four excellent Spirit Masters, he was now completely convinced that this group of guys could achieve excellent results in the future Continental Elite Spirit Master Tournament!

Thinking of this, he turned his head to look at Flender, who was lying on the roof, and said:

"Boss, I don't think it's necessary to have that Yu Xiaogang come to teach them, right?

Over these years, Little Ao has also gained enough knowledge about spirit beasts in various Soul Hunting Forests, and we've even wandered through the Star Dou Great Forest several times.

I feel that Little Ao can now completely crush that so-called Grandmaster in both theory and strength!"

Flender scratched his beard; this was also the thing he had been most hesitant about during this period.

If it were in the past, he would have undoubtedly let Yu Xiaogang come to teach. After all, no matter how poor Yu Xiaogang's character or brain was, he possessed precious information belonging to Spirit Hall and the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan—a heritage that was difficult to collect no matter how much effort they spent!

But now, Yu Xiaogang seemed to have caused quite a bit of trouble two years ago... having him come might not necessarily be a good thing...

"I'll think about it some more... By the way, have you finished investigating the group of people around Little Ao?"

"Not yet, they are too slippery. Besides, Little Ao is your adopted son anyway; if you're worried, why don't you just ask him yourself?"

Over the years, Flender had long noticed a group of Spirit Masters surrounding Oscar.

He was most worried that this group of Spirit Masters had some ulterior motives toward Oscar, but his private investigations yielded absolutely no results.

He couldn't bring himself to ask Oscar directly, so in his helplessness, he could only send Zhao Wuji to do it.

"Boss, I feel like those people have a good relationship with little Ao, and little Ao's methods are quite impressive, so you should have some faith in him."

In fact, Zhao Wuji had already asked Oscar about it long ago, and he had even participated in the initial planning of Sky Net.

As for keeping it from Flender, that had been a mutual decision between the two of them.

It wasn't that they didn't trust Flender; it was mainly because Oscar claimed it involved heavenly secrets, and for the sake of Flender's safety, it had to be kept confidential.