Nobles Abuzz: Whose Manhood Was Failing?

Lu Fan did not leave either.

Whale Rubber was still quite valuable.

It sold very well among the nobility.

He was afraid the owner might secretly switch out his goods.

So he stayed nearby the entire time, meditating and cultivating as he waited.

The blacksmith shop's furnace was turned up to its highest setting, making the temperature extremely high.

Before long, the owner placed the melted Whale Rubber into containers and handed them to Lu Fan.

After taking them, Lu Fan immediately returned to Shrek Academy with his things.

"Five bowls of Whale Rubber will last exactly five days."

Lu Fan thought to himself.

After returning to the academy, he began considering what he should use to assist the absorption.

Following Ma Hongjun's example and visiting a brothel was definitely out of the question.

Lu Fan had some guesses as to why Whale Rubber was clearly so popular in this era, yet no one had discovered that it could strengthen the body.

He believed it was surely because people only treated Whale Rubber as an aphrodisiac.

Following that line of thought, he realized that its aphrodisiac effect might itself be part of the process of strengthening the body.

If its medicinal power was released in that manner, it would naturally become useless.

But if he tried to endure it head-on, Lu Fan was afraid it would be unbearable.

After much consideration, the only things he could think of were cold water and ice.

"For a first attempt, I should probably start with the hundred-year kind. But what if Whale Rubber only works best the first time?"

Lu Fan first arranged the area.

He brought over an enormous basin.

It was filled with enough water that, once Lu Fan sat inside, everything but his head would be submerged.

He then prepared ice inside his Storage Soul Tool.

If the cold water was not effective enough,

he could immediately add ice to increase its effect.

Once everything was ready, Lu Fan took out a bowl of pitch-black liquid.

It was a bowl of Thousand-Year Whale Rubber.

After weighing it over and over, Lu Fan decided that, for safety's sake, he would directly consume the Thousand-Year Whale Rubber.

After swallowing and mentally preparing himself, Lu Fan downed it in one gulp.

"Mmm~"

The moment it entered his mouth, Lu Fan realized it was different from what he had imagined.

"This thousand-year quality is pretty good. It doesn't taste as fishy and foul as I expected."

Before Lu Fan could say much more about the aftertaste,

the Whale Rubber had already flowed down his throat and into his stomach.

Then, starting from his lower abdomen, unbearable heat continuously spread through all four limbs and every bone in his body.

Lu Fan hurriedly jumped into the basin and began meditating to cultivate.

But little Lu Fan was in far too much discomfort, making it difficult for Lu Fan to remain calm as he kept wriggling around in the basin.

"Ah~ I'm about to explode!"

Lu Fan sat cross-legged in the basin, his face twisted in a ferocious grimace. His hands clutched his knees as his nails continuously dug into his flesh, trying to preserve his sanity through pain.

"This won't do. The cold water isn't enough. Add ice!"

With a thought from Lu Fan, the ring on his ring finger flashed, and countless chunks of ice fell into the basin.

The ice pressed against Lu Fan's naked body.

It made him shiver violently from the cold.

But once he adapted,

the surging heat inside him swept back in.

In that instant, Lu Fan felt as though his entire body was caught between ice and fire.

He had now become someone who was cold on the outside and hot on the inside.

Although the process was incomparably painful, everything went smoothly in the end.

Once the aphrodisiac effect faded,

Lu Fan was already completely exhausted and simply leaned against the basin, sleeping there for the night.

The next day,

Lu Fan woke up and clenched his fist hard, delight flashing through his eyes. "It really works!"

He could clearly feel that his body had become far stronger than it had been yesterday.

"I'll try the hundred-year kind tonight. If it can still improve me, I'll use all three hundred remaining Gold Soul Coins to buy Whale Rubber. Once I've finished eating it, I'll go obtain my second Spirit Ring."

Although Whale Rubber's strengthening effect was remarkable, Lu Fan had also been tortured into getting dark circles under his eyes.

"What happened? Didn't sleep well last night? Those dark circles are really heavy."

Flender and the others could not help but laugh as they asked about the dark circles beneath Lu Fan's eyes.

Lu Fan nodded. "Didn't I just break through to level 20? Lately, I've been thinking about what kind of soul beast I should hunt for my second Spirit Ring."

The others nodded.

Choosing a Spirit Ring truly required careful consideration.

One careless mistake could very likely ruin a Soul Master.

Nearby, Ma Hongjun and Oscar also looked at Lu Fan with envy written all over their faces.

"One of the three of us has finally become a Soul Grandmaster."

A little over a year ago, the gap between them had not been large. It could even be said that they had started from the same line.

But after a year and a half, Lu Fan's level had already pulled several ranks ahead of theirs.

Oscar was now level 19, while Ma Hongjun was only level 16.

This was mainly because of the Evil Fire.

Although Ma Hongjun did not forcibly suppress it like his descendant Ma Xiaotao would ten thousand years later,

and would go out to enjoy himself,

there was no denying that the Evil Fire had caused him considerable trouble and delayed his cultivation.

Otherwise, his improvement speed might not necessarily have been slower than Oscar's.

Although Oscar's talent was better, he was ultimately a food-type Soul Master, and his cultivation was much slower than that of other types of Soul Masters with equal talent.

Furthermore, he was a year older than Lu Fan and Ma Hongjun, giving him an age advantage.

After a full day of training,

Flender looked at Lu Fan in surprise. "Why does it seem like your physical condition has suddenly improved so much?"

Oscar and Ma Hongjun also looked at Lu Fan in astonishment.

Lu Fan smiled when he heard that. For now, he did not intend to reveal the effects of Whale Rubber so soon.

After all, the others probably would not believe him even if he told them.

Besides, he was afraid that Ma Hongjun, who was already plagued by Evil Fire, might develop problems from eating Whale Rubber.

Lu Fan planned to tell everyone this secret only after he absorbed a Spirit Ring far beyond the limit for his second Spirit Ring.

That night, Lu Fan took out a bowl of already processed Hundred-Year Whale Rubber and consumed it using the same procedure.

With yesterday's experience of trying Thousand-Year Whale Rubber,

using the lower-grade Hundred-Year Whale Rubber today was obviously not as painful as yesterday.

Even so, Lu Fan still wore a mask of pain.

This was mainly little Lu Fan's fault.

The following day,

Lu Fan tested his physical strength again.

"The effect is much worse. Is it because of the Hundred-Year Whale Rubber?"

Lu Fan secretly frowned.

But one or two attempts could not prove anything.

He still had two bowls of hundred-year Whale Rubber and one bowl of thousand-year Whale Rubber.

Lu Fan planned to eat the hundred-year kind today and tomorrow, then try the thousand-year kind again the day after tomorrow.

Another three days passed.

He ate Whale Rubber for five full days.

Lu Fan suffered every night.

But his improvement was also obvious.

The others merely thought that Lu Fan's Martial Soul was a mutated Martial Soul, and that this was the mutated Martial Soul gradually revealing its other effects.

After all, the abilities of mutated Martial Souls came in all manner of strange forms.

Flender in particular

had seen a Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Martial Soul mutate into a Farting Pig.

So his ability to accept such things was the strongest.

And Lu Fan had now made up his mind as well.

"Although the later Whale Rubber provided limited improvement, it really is useful. No wonder people in later generations ate Whale Rubber as an after-dinner dessert."

With that thought, Lu Fan no longer hesitated and took his remaining three hundred Gold Soul Coins.

He used all of it in Suotuo City to buy Thousand-Year Whale Rubber, purchasing six pieces in total.

And his large-scale purchase of high-quality Whale Rubber sparked heated discussion throughout Suotuo City.

For a time, countless nobles were asking whose young master or lord was failing in that department to need so much Whale Rubber.