A Year and a Half

"I'm back!"

In the Seventh Dormitory, Lu Yi walked in carrying a stack of books he had borrowed from Yu Xiaogang, his afro-like hair a mess and his face full of helplessness.

Wang Shu, who had been pondering how to combine the two Self-Created Soul Skills Lu Yi had taught him with his axe, turned around and jumped in fright at the sight of Lu Yi.

"Brother Yi, what happened to you?"

Looking at Lu Yi's appearance, Wang Shu asked while holding back his laughter.

"I jumped too high while testing my leap and got blown around by the wind!"

Hearing Wang Shu's question, Lu Yi rolled his eyes and replied.

Who the hell knew that Yu Xiaogang's Luo Sanpao expelled waste by farting—and that it would come so suddenly.

He couldn't exactly say that he had gone to borrow some books, only to get blasted by the Martial Soul of that freeloading Master at the academy. He was the academy's top student, after all. If he said that, where would he put his pride?

"Then you'd better be careful, Brother Yi. You can't jump so high when testing your leaps in the future. Ending up like this would hurt the reputation of our top student!"

Looking at Lu Yi's exploded hair, Wang Shu said, barely suppressing a laugh.

"If you want to laugh, then laugh. Just get the hell away from me before you do. Don't come near me!"

Seeing Wang Shu's expression as he tried and failed not to laugh, Lu Yi waved him off.

Upon hearing Lu Yi's words, Wang Shu wisely ran out of the Seventh Dormitory to laugh.

Listening to the laughter outside the dormitory, Lu Yi shook his head helplessly. Then, he lowered his head and picked up a Meditation Method from the top of the stack.

Yu Xiaogang had given him this high-level Meditation Method as thanks. According to Tang San's description in the original story, this Meditation Method seemed to involve parts of the human meridians and could be considered the rudimentary form of an inner cultivation technique.

Thinking back to everything he had seen in Yu Xiaogang's room, Lu Yi found it hard not to suspect that Master had developed this Meditation Method himself.

In order to break through Level 30, Yu Xiaogang had nearly become obsessed. He had used almost anything with even a sliver of hope on himself. Lu Yi had no doubt that someone like that could have discovered meridians while researching himself.

Lu Yi carefully flipped through the Meditation Method in his hand. After discovering that the several meridians it involved were all included in the Magikarp Meditation Method, he set it aside.

If he obtained ownership of this Meditation Method from Yu Xiaogang in the future, he could let Wang Shu take a look. For now, though, forget it. Master had only given it to him and had not said he could pass it on to others.

Time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, a year and a half had passed.

"Tackle—Iron Fist!"

On the back mountain of Nuoding Academy, Lu Yi gathered Soul Power in his right hand, which glowed with white light, then threw a punch at a willow tree as thick as a bucket beside him.

"Bang!"

With a dull thud, Lu Yi's right fist slammed into the willow tree, sinking straight into its trunk.

"Water Blade!"

Looking at the hole he had punched into the willow tree, Lu Yi flicked his hand and sent out a Water Blade, cutting it down.

"Boom!"

The willow tree crashed to the ground with a tremendous roar.

After finishing all that, Lu Yi merely walked slowly toward the pond nearby.

As Magikarp's body grew, the little pond that had originally been less than a meter deep had now been expanded by Lu Yi into a proper pond.

Even so, Magikarp had not swum freely in the pond for half a year now. Its body had simply grown too large.

A year ago, under Lu Yi's guidance, Master had discovered the reason he might have a chance to break through Level 30. Since then, Dragon Beast Meat had never been absent from Master's room.

Basically, every week, the corpse of a dragon-type Soul Beast would be delivered to Master's room. As a result, Master's room was now perpetually shrouded in the stench of blood. Whenever Lu Yi went to see him, the bloody smell nearly overwhelmed him.

Still, the Master Lu Yi had encountered was truly loyal. Every time Lu Yi visited him, Master would stuff a pile of things into his hands, including but not limited to an entire dragon-type beast leg or spiritual herbs that could strengthen one's foundation.

Every time Lu Yi visited, as long as Master had something, he would definitely give half of it to Magikarp. There were also medicinal baths specifically meant to temper one's foundation. He prepared a portion for Lu Yi every time, always saying that he was too old to need them anymore.

What a joke. Did he really think Lu Yi was a six-year-old child? If he didn't need them, why was he buying them? Wasn't it obvious that he wanted Lu Yi to acknowledge him as his teacher?

However, faced with these sugar-coated bullets that contained nothing but sugar, Lu Yi finally could not bear the condemnation of his conscience after eating Master's food for two months and acknowledged Master as his teacher.

There was no helping it. Lu Yi had roughly calculated that the things he had eaten over those two months were worth around eight or nine hundred Gold Soul Coins. If he kept eating, he truly would not be able to pay it back. He might as well become his disciple and wipe the debt clean.

Thanks to this, Lu Yi's Magikarp had grown wildly. It was now ten meters long and four meters wide. It was no exaggeration to say that if he summoned it directly over someone's head in a fight, even a Soul Grandmaster might not be able to withstand it, much less a Soul Elder.

However, Magikarp's trait of having only its size enlarged proportionally made Yu Xiaogang click his tongue in amazement. After all, under the nourishment of so much Dragon Beast flesh and blood, his Luo Sanpao had begun to take on the form of a dragon. Although Master had yet to break through the Level 30 bottleneck, he had at least found hope.

Moreover, as Magikarp grew larger, Lu Yi's talent for controlling water became increasingly powerful. Now, based on Tackle and by drawing inspiration from the Six Powers from an anime in his previous life, he had developed all sorts of Self-Created Soul Skills with Master's help.

"Whoosh~"

Just as Lu Yi finished practicing his Self-Created Soul Skills and was preparing to meditate by the water for a while, a familiar sound of rushing wind suddenly came from the sky.

Hearing it, a smile appeared on Lu Yi's face. Flender, the physical cheat code for his Soul Hunting, had finally arrived.

A year ago, in order to obtain enough Dragon Beast flesh and blood to feed Luo Sanpao, Master had contacted Flender, the Flying Horn of the Golden Iron Triangle and his former companion in their travels across the continent.

Over the past year, Lu Yi had become thoroughly familiar with this sound. Whenever he heard it, he knew that Master had received fresh Dragon Beast Meat and that it was time for him to ask his teacher for food for Magikarp.

However, Flender had not come to deliver Dragon Beast Meat to Master this time. Three days ago, Lu Yi's Soul Power Level had reached Level 10. In order to help his disciple obtain his first Soul Ring, Master had written to contact Flender.

But Lu Yi had not expected Flender to arrive so quickly. He had originally thought he would have to wait until next Tuesday, when Flender came to deliver Dragon Beast Meat to Master, before he could obtain his Soul Ring.

Lu Yi stood up from the pond's edge, patted the dirt and grass from his body, and ran toward Master's residence.

"Hahaha, then it's settled! Once your disciple graduates from this academy, he'll come to my academy and become my student!"

Just as Lu Yi reached the area near Master's room, Flender's laughter passed through the wall and entered his ears.

"I don't even know what facilities your academy has. How could I feel at ease sending him there? Xiao Yi's talent isn't particularly outstanding, and he absolutely cannot miss this golden period of training at a high-level academy!"

"Besides, Xiao Yi has ideas of his own. There's no use trying to persuade me. You need to ask Xiao Yi himself what he thinks!"

Looking at the laughing Flender before him, Master spoke with a helpless expression.

Just how desperate was Flender for students? He had merely asked him to help hunt a Soul Ring, and Flender had already set his sights on his disciple.