Return Journey

"Rongrong, what is written on it?"

Gu Rong leaned in close to Ning Rongrong, with Ning Fengzhi and Flender following closely behind.

They all stared at the same blank slip of paper.

"Strange, why did I feel like there was writing on it at first glance?"

Gu Rong looked puzzled. Ning Rongrong glanced at Gu Rong in surprise, then at the other two. Although no words were exchanged, it was almost certain that they all shared the same feeling.

Ning Rongrong handed the slip to Gu Rong, who examined it before passing it to Ning Fengzhi. Ning Fengzhi looked it over and handed it to Flender, who shook his head and returned the slip to Ning Rongrong.

"Perhaps we are overthinking it. I cannot sense a shred of soul power on this, so it should truly be blank. We likely only assumed there was writing because we subconsciously expected it to be something dropped by the Evil Soul Master clone."

Ning Fengzhi speculated, "Come to think of it, who would keep valuable items on a clone? In my opinion, this was merely an item belonging to the original owner of this body, used for some unknown purpose. It is a pity we did not obtain any clues regarding the location of the Saintess Ritual from this clone. The hour is late; Dean Flender, please take my daughter back to the academy. Bone Uncle and I must continue to investigate this ritual. The children have been through so much and must be exhausted."

"Sect Master Ning is right." Flender nodded, scanned the surroundings to locate the six of them, and waved, signaling for them to return.

After a brief moment with Ning Fengzhi, Ning Rongrong was ushered back toward Flender. The implication was clear: what followed was too dangerous for Ning Rongrong to be involved in.

Would this work?

Of course not. Following the two of them might lead to the third Saintess Ritual dungeon, where she could potentially snag a reward. If things went south, she could just reload the save...

Right! Speaking of reloading, Lu Ma suddenly remembered he hadn't saved yet, so he quickly created a save file.

[Save file overwritten successfully!]

Seeing this line of text on the screen, Lu Ma nodded in satisfaction and attempted to communicate with Ning Fengzhi and the other.

Unexpectedly, the moment the two pushed Ning Rongrong away, they vanished, as if they were trying to avoid Ning Rongrong's pestering.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Lu Ma was speechless. Well, that was that; he had no choice but to follow Flender back.

He hadn't expected to miss the first Saintess Ritual, and now the third one was going to slip through his fingers as well. Lu Ma's heart was bleeding.

"Rongrong, come here."

The voice came from behind and to the right. Lu Ma adjusted the camera angle and saw Zhu Zhuqing waving at her.

"Coming."

With a simple reply, Ning Rongrong put on a formulaic smile and trotted toward Zhu Zhuqing.

Once close, Zhu Zhuqing reached out and took Ning Rongrong by the wrist.

"Rongrong, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Look at this bandage; it's wrapped so exquisitely."

Ning Rongrong rolled her eyes at Zhu Zhuqing.

Zhu Zhuqing realized she had said the wrong thing and let out a small giggle.

But the way Ning Rongrong looked at her was becoming increasingly strange.

Did I do something wrong again?

Zhu Zhuqing was puzzled. In her memory, she hadn't done anything particularly excessive to Ning Rongrong. These past few days, they had communicated verbally, even if perhaps a bit too much.

Little did she know, it was this frequent interaction that made Lu Ma feel strange, prompting Ning Rongrong's body to react accordingly.

"Why does Zhu Zhuqing talk so much?"

In Lu Ma's impression, Zhu Zhuqing was the type who basically never spoke, especially at a time like this. But based on his observations, Zhu Zhuqing's attitude was only abnormal toward him; she remained as cold as ever toward everyone else.

Then... was it his own problem?

Lu Ma didn't think he had done anything.

After pondering for a long time, Lu Ma couldn't figure it out and could only attribute the issue to the game developers.

The night was very quiet.

It was so quiet that one could hear the rustling of leaves, the sound of footsteps, and the breathing of the group.

Not a single word was spoken. It was unclear if they had argued earlier, if they were simply too tired, or if they were afraid to make noise while Flender led the way.

The plot from his memories—such as Zhu Zhuqing getting angry because Dai Mubai told Tang San to go easy, Ning Rongrong asking Tang San to kill Dai Mubai, or Oscar feeling disappointed in Ning Rongrong—none of these had occurred. Of course, the latter two didn't happen because Ning Rongrong was currently being controlled by him.

"Relax, chat a little."

Flender couldn't stand it anymore. He really didn't want his students to be in such a deathly, silent state.

The silence of the night was broken by Flender's suggestion, but the atmosphere didn't truly liven up. Oscar tried to tell a lame soul beast joke, but the only response he got was a perfunctory, dry laugh from Dai Mubai and a token grunt from Ma Hongjun. Tang San and Xiao Wu walked side by side, whispering about the terrifying moment they had just experienced, but their voices were kept extremely low.

It was a single sentence from Zhu Zhuqing that finally brought the atmosphere back.

"Rongrong, you said earlier that you would tell us about your new soul skill. Can you tell us now?"

With that one sentence, the attention of the other five was drawn over. Even Flender pricked up his ears. He was equally eager to hear Ning Rongrong tell them herself about her third soul skill—the one granted to her by a soul beast that didn't match her martial soul.

"Oh, that."

Lu Ma responded first, then began to consider whether or not to tell them. There was no penalty for not telling them, and no reward for telling them...

Perhaps because Lu Ma was more inclined to keep his promise, Ning Rongrong finally spoke up in the game.

"My third soul skill is Poison Attribute Amplification. It can imbue attacks with 60% poison attribute damage while simultaneously applying an immunity-to-poison buff to the target."

"As expected, it adds a poison effect and can also cleanse poison."

Ning Rongrong's words confirmed Tang San's hypothesis; when she had reflected the opponent's spikes back at them, the reason they were poisoned was because of Ning Rongrong, not because the spikes themselves were venomous.

Thinking of it this way, Tang San inexplicably felt that Ning Rongrong was becoming a bit of an eyesore. If she weren't a companion, he would have already fired a hidden weapon at her.

"How much? 60%?"

Different people have different focuses; while Tang San was concerned with the poison and detoxification effects, Oscar was more interested in the magnitude of the amplification.

As a fellow support-type soul master, he knew exactly what a 60% damage buff meant—it was a value typically possessed only by a fifth-ring Soul King.

"This isn't right..." he muttered, beginning to doubt his own reality.

60%—what level of soul beast could provide that?

Since Lu Ma figured he had already said this much, he might as well be thorough, so he revealed the information about the soul beast as well.

"This soul ring came from a three-thousand-year-old Man Faced Demon Spider."

This piece of information did not actually trigger much of a reaction.

The group's first impression was simply that a third soul ring could be a thousand-year ring; they didn't pay attention to what the upper limit was, with the exception of Tang San.

Recalling what his teacher had said about the third soul ring limit being around 1,700 years, Tang San began to question his own memory.