Le Bai's First Soul Ring (Part 1)

Le Bai officially became a member of Shrek.

Afterward, his daily rhythm and routine did not change much.

There were two insignificant changes.

One was that he had to gather at the Shrek playground every morning regardless of whether there was anything to do; the other was that during class, he was no longer just auditing, but sitting next to Oscar, with Ma Hongjun also present.

Because Ma Hongjun had just arrived and was two years younger than Oscar and Le Bai, the three of them did not have many opportunities to attend class together.

Originally, Flender had planned to arrange for Le Bai the same basic physical training courses as Oscar, but after some testing, he discovered that Le Bai's physical capabilities were already very close to the level of a Battle Soul Master above level 20 using Martial Soul Possession, far exceeding what a level 8 Support System Soul Master could achieve.

While marveling at Le Bai being a "Monster," Flender simply instructed Le Bai to be mindful of his limits during training and not to overexert his body, then silently doubled Oscar's training load.

Half a year passed just like that.

"Le Bai, is your soul power almost at level 10?"

Beside the small cabin where Le Bai lived, on the "Cultivation Ground" he had built himself, Oscar asked while doing push-ups.

"Almost."

Le Bai was also doing push-ups, though he had a flat block of iron larger than himself pressed onto his back.

"It's been almost three years since your Martial Soul awakened; you're finally going to become a Soul Master too."

Oscar looked nostalgic: "By the way, have you thought about what effect you want for your first soul ring? Although you might not necessarily find what you want, you should at least have a few goals."

"I asked Teacher Zhao and the others before, and I also discussed it with the Dean, so I've more or less decided."

Le Bai added a slightly smaller piece of iron of the same style onto the flat iron block on his back: "Your Big Sausage has a comprehensive recovery effect. Since we will likely be operating together in the future, the teachers suggested I choose an effect that doesn't overlap with yours. For example, increasing soul power, strengthening defense, or increasing speed."

"And what about you?"

Oscar pushed up hard and stood up: "Your thoughts should be quite different from the teachers', right?"

"They are different."

Le Bai lifted one hand, switching to a one-armed push-up: "My combat power mainly relies on my own soul power, so I want something that can increase the amount of soul power as much as possible. Like a soul skill that can continuously recover soul power, increase the total amount of soul power, or accelerate the speed of soul power recovery."

"I still feel that we Support System Soul Masters shouldn't be thinking about fighting."

Oscar shook his head: "Anyway, no one expects us to have combat ability. Isn't it fine to just hide behind everyone and provide safe support?"

"It's fine, of course it's fine."

Le Bai looked up at Oscar: "But that's on the condition that the enemy is stupid enough to only attack the people in front of us first. Besides, what if in the future, the person you like can only marry a Soul Master with combat ability? What will you do then?"

"You're talking about the future; who knows if that will even happen?"

Oscar shrugged nonchalantly: "Besides, what kind of family in this world would have such a strange rule? Alright, I'm not going to argue about this with you. I've worked up a sweat training today, I'm going to take a bath~"

Watching the cheerfully flag-planting Oscar leave, Le Bai shifted his attention to his panel:

"Upgrading the Cultivation Method is truly difficult. Over the past six months, I've modified it nearly a thousand times, yet the progress bar has only reached 47.17452%."

"The speed of soul power leveling is also very slow. It's been half a year since reaching level 8, and I still haven't reached level 10. Oscar is already level 19, and Ma Hongjun is level 16. The gap between us is getting wider and wider."

"The gap in Innate Soul Power is just too large after all. But once my soul power level is higher, their leveling speed will definitely slow down. My Cultivation Method is upgrading, and I have no bottlenecks, so I will catch up sooner or later. No need to rush... must not rush..."

"Soul Power Control, Lv41, let's keep leveling it up; it might come in very handy one day."

"Parallel Thinking is at Lv32. A while ago, I really could think about three things at once. It's basically certain that for every ten levels gained, I can think about one more thing simultaneously. I wonder if it will change if the level gets higher. The pinnacle of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's Distraction Control is the Seven Orifice Exquisite Heart; I should be able to surpass that in the future."

"Soul Power Overclocking, Lv27. It's a pity that the soul power increased by overclocking cannot be accurately judged by level, otherwise I could deduce the conversion relationship between the overclocking skill level and the maximum soul power after overclocking. The improvement speed has slowed down recently; it seems it's not just affected by the level of Soul Power Control."

"[One Blade Asura] and [One Blade Rakshasa]? When did I practice these two skills? Wait a minute... it seems like they just appeared during testing? Only Lv1, that's a bit of a waste, considering they are both very practical and powerful skills. Hmm, decided, I'll find time to grind their levels next."

"Aha, the progress for Basic Body Technique and soul power has increased by another 1%. Only three points left until it levels up~"

"Three points, level up?"

"Grind the hell out of it!"

Two more days passed.

The progress bar for the soul power level on Le Bai's panel had reached 99.99999%, a level where a little more cultivation would trigger an upgrade.

After a class ended, Le Bai suddenly called out to Zhao Wuji: "Teacher Zhao, do you have any time recently?"

"Recently? Besides teaching you three brats, what else could I have to do?"

Zhao Wuji indicated that he was super free.

"It's like this, Teacher Zhao. My soul power should be able to break through to level 10 today, and I'd like to ask you to help me get a soul ring."

Le Bai said cautiously.

"Ha! I thought it was something big; isn't it just your first soul ring? Any time is fine! As long as your luck isn't too bad, half a day is enough!"

Zhao Wuji didn't care about that, but he was curious about something else: "Hey, Le Bai, you said you could break through today just now. How do you know you'll break through today?"

Le Bai was stunned: "Don't all Soul Masters know how long it takes them to break through?"

"Knowing is one thing."

Zhao Wuji wore a subtle expression: "But generally, you can only know a rough estimate; there's no way to be very precise. Being sure of a breakthrough within seven days is considered very accurate. I've never seen someone as certain as you that they can break through within a single day."

"That falls into my blind spot of knowledge."

Le Bai feigned ignorance: "Maybe it's my talent? Actually, when I cultivate, I can clearly feel my Soul Power increasing, so I can calculate the time until my next breakthrough quite accurately."

"Oh?!"

Zhao Wuji raised an eyebrow: "I didn't expect you to have such a skill!"

Le Bai was a bit confused as to why Zhao Wuji believed him so easily: "Teacher Zhao, don't you think I'm just spouting nonsense?"

"Hahaha!"

Zhao Wuji laughed and ruffled Le Bai's hair: "This world is vast, and there are many things you haven't seen yet. Although you are a Little Monster, there are plenty of people in this world even more monstrous than you. Being able to clearly perceive your own cultivation progress isn't such an incredible talent; why wouldn't I believe it?!"

Le Bai nodded thoughtfully: "I see..."

"Since you, kid, are sure you're about to break through, then I won't leave."

Zhao Wuji sat down on a chair in the classroom and said to Le Bai: "It's quite a hassle to go back to my quarters and come back to find you later. It's better if I just wait here for you to break through, and then I can take you directly to hunt a Soul Beast."

This was, of course, the best outcome, and it could effectively prevent any accidents that might lead to him being suspected—Le Bai had not forgotten the effects of his Panel, especially the effect of ignoring bottlenecks.

According to the common knowledge, or rather, the theorems of this world, every time a Soul Master's Soul Power reaches a multiple of ten, they must have a Soul Ring to continue cultivating and breaking through.

From any perspective, this situation of needing a Soul Ring to break through could be called a bottleneck.

And the existence of the Panel eliminated Le Bai's bottleneck.

This created a problem—what would happen when Le Bai's Soul Power reached a multiple of ten?

Le Bai imagined roughly three possibilities:

The first: The Panel's effect reigns supreme, allowing Le Bai to ignore the rules of the world and continue increasing his Soul Power without a Soul Ring.

The second: The rules of the world suppress the Panel, and Le Bai must, like other Soul Masters, hunt a Soul Beast, absorb a Soul Ring, and only then continue to improve.

The third: Something between the first and second, where the Panel would directly grant Le Bai a Soul Ring to ensure he would not encounter a bottleneck.

As for which one it would actually be, Le Bai had no way of knowing the answer until his Soul Power reached that tenth level.

If it were the first or second possibility, there wouldn't be much of an issue; as long as he obtained a Soul Ring in time, he wouldn't even need to worry about anyone noticing anything different.

The key was the third possibility.

Regardless of how many methods there were to obtain a Soul Ring, the fact that "humans cannot autonomously generate Soul Rings" had always held true.

Once Le Bai quietly possessed a Soul Ring, what would the teachers at Shrek Academy think?

The outcome wouldn't necessarily head in the worst direction, but he had to guard against it.

Excuses, or convincing reasons, weren't exactly non-existent if he really had to come up with them.

But as the saying goes, lies often require more lies to cover them up.

Le Bai felt that was too tiring and inefficient.

First of all, that line of thinking was wrong—why should he be the one to explain it?

As long as he created an established fact of "I don't even know myself," he could let those with excellent imaginations fill in the blanks with an answer that they themselves found convincing, wouldn't that be enough?

As the Vice Dean of Shrek Academy and the strongest person besides Flender, Zhao Wuji was also a man without too many crooked thoughts.

Compared to others, Zhao Wuji was undoubtedly the most suitable candidate to act as a "witness" when Le Bai broke through.

"Thank you, Teacher Zhao!"

Le Bai thanked him sincerely, then sat cross-legged in the open space of the classroom and began to level up!