A Fulfilling Three Years

With his first Soul Ring obtained, Le Bai was finally able to go to the Martial Soul Hall to register and start collecting his stipend.

After leaving the office of Flender, he went almost without pause to the branch of the Martial Soul Hall in Suotuo City to complete his registration and incidentally collect his one Gold Soul Coin for the month.

Because he had to leave the academy for the registration, the fact that Le Bai's first Soul Ring was a trashy Decade Soul Ring became known to Oscar and Ma Hongjun that very evening.

However, Le Bai had never intended to hide it in the first place.

After all, they were the only three students at Shrek Academy, and they were the only peers nearby to hang out with. Even if Le Bai didn't activate his martial soul or release his soul ring, once Oscar realized Le Bai's Soul Power Level, he would definitely have asked, making it impossible to keep secret.

After hearing Le Bai's simple description and receiving "confirmation" from Flender and Zhao Wuji, Oscar and Ma Hongjun quickly accepted the fact.

Ma Hongjun was more open-minded; he even took the initiative to challenge Le Bai, wanting to settle the score from before.

After being soundly beaten by Le Bai, he became docile, grumbling that he would absolutely never challenge Le Bai again until he gained the ability to fly.

Oscar had found it hard to accept at first. But seeing Le Bai beat up Ma Hongjun and watching everything continue as normal, he soon felt relieved as well.

A few days later, Oscar's soul power broke through to level twenty, and he prepared to obtain his second soul ring.

Initially, Flender and Zhao Wuji only intended for one of them to take Oscar to hunt for a soul beast.

However, considering that Le Bai and Ma Hongjun would likely act alongside Oscar in the future, Flender decided that both he and Zhao Wuji would go, and they would bring along another academy teacher, taking Le Bai and Ma Hongjun along as well, treating it as an opportunity for them to gain some experience in the Soul Beast Forest.

Le Bai in particular was unqualified as a soul master because his first soul ring had manifested spontaneously, meaning he had never been to the Soul Beast Forest nor had any experience with soul beasts up close!

The entire process went smoothly, and Oscar was quite lucky, encountering a suitable Century Soul Beast within half a day.

Le Bai also managed to have his first encounter with a soul beast—it was more dangerous than he had imagined.

It wasn't just the soul beasts; it was mostly the pervasive, toxic threats within the forest. There were plants and animals alike; although they weren't as powerful as soul beasts, their numbers were overwhelming and they were so inconspicuous that they were impossible to guard against.

Fortunately, the three teachers leading the team had extensive experience in field operations and had prepared items with detoxifying effects in advance. Small animals and insects would avoid them, so they only had to be careful of the plants.

Beyond that, there were the soul beasts.

Le Bai subconsciously compared the soul beasts of this world to the ordinary wild beasts of his previous world and unexpectedly found many similarities, but there were also species that looked similar but were actually completely unrelated.

This made Le Bai realize that the ecologies of different worlds could not be lumped together. He then decisively abandoned the common knowledge from his past world, constantly reminding himself to understand this world using the methods of this world.

However, because Oscar was lucky and they didn't stay in the Soul Beast Forest for long, Le Bai didn't manage to accumulate enough experience.

To make up for this deficiency as much as possible, after returning to the academy, Le Bai set his sights on the library of Shrek Academy.

The library was the best-equipped facility in the entire Shrek Academy.

Most of the books in the library were purchased from the market after the academy was founded. A small portion belonged to Flender's personal collection, all of which were treasures he had collected while traveling across the continent with his companions in the past.

The memories from Le Bai's other world made him deeply aware of the importance of "books" to humanity.

But Shrek's library was not open to the public. Before Le Bai officially became a member of Shrek, he had never been able to go into the library to read.

Now, Le Bai was finally able to enter.

Regrettably, he didn't encounter a legendary librarian, which made Le Bai complain inwardly about the lax management at Shrek.

His subsequent reading experience revealed that his Panel could actually provide an effect like "photographic memory," which, while not very powerful, was extremely practical. (Instant memory became permanent memory due to the effect of the Panel.)

Moreover, the existence of the Parallel Thinking skill allowed Le Bai to read two or even three books in his field of vision simultaneously, greatly increasing his reading efficiency and also allowing him to grind the level of Parallel Thinking.

After finishing... after reading all the books in the library, Le Bai's gains were somewhat subtle.

Most of the content in the books was stuff that the academy teachers had already covered in class.

A small portion consisted of local customs and folklore circulating on the continent, as well as some bestiaries of plants and animals with such poor illustrations that it was impossible to distinguish their species.

To say this information was useless would be a bit harsh, but to say it was useful would be a stretch; in short, it was all chicken ribs—tasteless to eat but a pity to discard.

Fortunately, there were some meaningful books after all, such as a book about "Soul Guidance Devices." It contained a fairly detailed record of the process for "Soul Guidance Device Crafting," the methods for which had long been lost.

The most important core content—the operating principles of soul guidance devices, the Core Array, and the specific methods for Array Crafting—were only mentioned in fragments, making it difficult to reconstruct anything complete from them.

This was likely why the book had been left in the library to gather dust.

However!

The difficulty of reconstruction only applied to most people.

For Le Bai, the complete and systematic theories and clear content provided in the book were already more than enough information.

The biggest remaining problem, and also the thing with the highest value, was the reconstruction and further research of the "Core Array."

It wasn't that Le Bai could immediately research and reconstruct the manufacturing methods for soul guidance devices; he wasn't that capable, and the Panel wasn't that powerful.

Just the soul guidance device samples needed to study the "arrays" were not something the current Le Bai could get his hands on.

But Le Bai had confidence.

Because the [Array Crafting] skill had already appeared on his Panel. Although it was still Lv0 and the progress bar was as low as 0.00001/100, the appearance of the skill allowed Le Bai to confirm that his ideas and conjectures regarding the construction of the Core Array were correct.

Because the Panel could not create something from nothing; as long as a relevant skill appeared, it meant Le Bai had already grasped the corresponding ability—incorrect ideas could not yield results, and thus would naturally not be reflected on the Panel.

All that remained was to use the Panel to capture the "flashes of inspiration" during repeated practice, then rapidly improve and master them.

In the end, the soul guidance device manufacturing method Le Bai mastered might be different from the lost one, but what did that matter? As long as it worked, it was fine.

"Am I overthinking things right now?"

Le Bai casually tossed aside the failed array he had been working on, ended his ten-minute session of "physical rest, mental exercise," put on his self-made Weighted Suit, and continued his workout.

Le Bai prioritized physical training only second to Soul Power, dedicating a corresponding amount of time and energy to it.

This was because his vital combat skill, Spirit Power Overclocking, placed a heavy burden on his body. If his physical strength could not keep up, even with his high level of Soul Power Control, the final effect he could unleash would be extremely limited.

Regrettably, physical capabilities were not considered skills by the Panel and would not display specific numerical values.

Therefore, Le Bai never dared to slack off on improving and strengthening his physical abilities, setting aside a fixed amount of time every day for training.

Fortunately, while physical ability did not count as a skill, the act of training did.

Le Bai had now grinded the [Training] skill to Lv30. Whenever he trained each day, as long as he followed the guidance of the Panel, he could not only maximize the results of his physical conditioning but also avoid worrying about bodily damage caused by overexertion.

Because before that could happen, the Panel would guide his body to stop training.

Each fulfilling day passed in the blink of an eye, and another five-plus months went by. Le Bai and Oscar had officially spent their third year at Shrek and were now ushering in their fourth...