Get right to it!
After deciding on a running plan, Ning Rongrong tried to take a step.
"Riiip..."
She froze and looked down toward the sound. It had come from her clothes.
Her blue-green outfit was already in tatters, and her delicate, rosy-white skin showed through the fabric. It was just the beginning of autumn, and the summer heat had yet to fade completely. The morning breeze brushed against her skin, cool and pleasant.
Ning Rongrong's face flushed a little.
I should change clothes.
Thinking this, Ning Rongrong opened her Space Soul Tool. There happened to be another outfit of the same style inside. She ran back to the girls' dormitory, changed into it, and tossed the old one into the Space Soul Tool.
Once outside again, she looked at her intact clothes and nodded, then tried to run once more...
"Crack."
A crisp sound of bones knocking together rang out, followed by a stabbing pain.
Pain shot through her body, from her knees to her waist, from her palms to her arms. But Ning Rongrong held it in and didn't cry out.
She simply lowered her head and looked at the parts of her body wrapped in bandages.
"Ah..."
She sighed. How had she forgotten? She had used Trapped Beast so many times while fighting the monsters last night that her body was already terribly fragile. That person hadn't cared, so she'd had no choice but to pretend it didn't hurt...
"Looks like today isn't a good day for running."
Ning Rongrong shook her head and decided to walk instead. Walking wouldn't cause her the same intense pain as running, though it was far less effective as exercise.
Shrek Academy was poor—so poor that its entire campus was rented space in a village. The village wasn't very big, with a circumference of about twenty kilometers.
Ning Rongrong walked along the village's dirt roads, bored, not caring at all that the dust was getting her shoes dirty.
The villagers all got up early. Although hardly anyone at Shrek Academy was awake yet, the villagers had already started their busy day.
She was new, so the villagers didn't recognize her. They assumed she was a new student at Shrek Academy and greeted her.
Ning Rongrong returned each greeting in turn, her good upbringing serving her to the fullest—though she had no idea why she had to act this way toward "villagers."
As the villagers grew fewer, Ning Rongrong turned onto a woodland path, closer to nature. There were more and more loose stones along the trail. Sometimes she stepped on one without noticing and then had to spend a while regaining her balance.
But perhaps it was just her imagination—her body seemed to be getting more agile.
Ning Rongrong didn't think she had anything to do with it. Instead, she felt as if her body were gradually becoming unfamiliar to her, and that was terrifying. More terrifying still, when she'd been controlled earlier, her mind had seemed to become strange too.
What a joke. Could she really have become immersed in those moments when she was under someone else's control?
Ning Rongrong didn't believe she could.
"Hey! Hah!"
Just as Ning Rongrong was taking in the natural scenery, a vaguely familiar figure appeared up ahead.
Ning Rongrong stopped and narrowed her eyes.
Was that... Oscar?
She remembered him a little. He was the man from the entrance exam, and the guy who'd gone with her to train in the Star Dou Great Forest yesterday.
He was fourteen, two years older than her. His Soul Power should be at level thirty now, three levels below hers.
He was practicing his punches. After a while, he stopped, apparently noticing Ning Rongrong had arrived.
"Rongrong? You're up so early. Here to exercise too? Have you recovered from yesterday's injuries?"
Perfect. She could leave a trace proving she'd been here. Ning Rongrong shook her head, doing her best to hide her distaste, and said, "I haven't recovered. I'm trying to rehabilitate. What about you? Why are you here?"
Oscar smiled sheepishly. "Of course, I'm trying to build up my physical strength and increase the age limit of my third Soul Ring."
"Mm. When are you going to get your third Soul Ring? Like yesterday, is the dean taking you this morning?"
Oscar shook his head. "It hasn't been decided yet. Normally, a trip to the Star Dou Great Forest takes an entire day. We finished in just one morning yesterday because the dean was with us. The dean's lazy, so next time we go to the Star Dou Great Forest, he'll probably have us go on our own."
Only then did Ning Rongrong remember that the Star Dou Great Forest was quite a distance from Shrek Academy.
"Then how did you get back?"
"The dean remembered me later, of course."
Oscar said it as though it were obvious.
"All right, then. Keep it up. I'll walk around some more."
After a few pleasantries, Ning Rongrong went around Oscar and headed deeper into the woods.
Oscar stayed where he was, his eyes following Ning Rongrong as she walked away.
"Why does Rongrong feel... a little different?"
He shook his head and resumed his punching practice.
The sun continued to climb. It was now noon.
Ning Rongrong had nearly made a full circuit of the village and returned to a spot not far from the dormitory.
Since nobody had come looking for her all morning, there was nothing going on. Once she got back to the dormitory, Xiao Wu's answer at the door confirmed it. There were no classes today. Dean Flender had told everyone to get some rest. The day after tomorrow, they would accompany Oscar to hunt a Soul Beast, which would also serve as their first team-cooperation training session.
Seeing Zhu Zhuqing absorbed in cultivation, Ning Rongrong had no intention of disturbing her.
She had plenty of free time that afternoon and evening... Should she go explore Suotuo City?
In the past few days, while gathering information about Shrek Academy, Ning Rongrong hadn't properly enjoyed the sort of life a little princess of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect ought to have. Now that she had some free time, she felt like relaxing a little.
But when she thought of the strange things she'd experienced these past few days, Ning Rongrong felt she could never return to an ordinary life. For now, the most important thing was to secretly leave behind some clues. Maybe someone would notice?
"I'll go check out the library. There seems to be a fairly big one in Suotuo City. Maybe I can find some clues about Evil Soul Masters."
After murmuring this, Ning Rongrong got up and left Shrek Academy again. She asked around and successfully found her way to the library in Suotuo City.
As a public library open to everyone, it was easy for Ning Rongrong to get inside. She began searching for information about Evil Soul Masters.
The sky gradually darkened.
To her disappointment, there wasn't much information—in fact, there was almost none. She could only find words like Evil Soul Master and Evil Martial Soul in a few novels. There was no mention of them in proper history books or recent newspapers.
"Mm... I should have thought of that. Making this information public would cause panic. That must be why the dean had Zhu Zhuqing and the others leave back then. To find out more, I'd have to go to the Heaven Dou Royal Library, return to the sect to investigate, or ask Tang Twelve if she knows anything... Those are all too far away. I can't do any of that yet."
Ning Rongrong shook her head regretfully. She put the books back on the shelves and left. It was getting late; time for dinner.
As soon as she stepped out of the library, she was accidentally bumped by a black-haired girl hurrying past. Then she sensed two familiar auras.
"Dad and Grandpa Bone? Are they still here?"
She looked around but couldn't find the people she wanted to see.
"The Third Saintess Ritual... Good thing I wasn't dragged into it this time. Dad and Grandpa Bone should be able to handle it, right?"
As Ning Rongrong thought this, she started looking for somewhere good to eat. At last, a grilled fish shop caught her eye. There were quite a lot of people inside, so it must be delicious. She hurried over.
When she reached the entrance, she froze.
One of her acquaintances was sitting inside—or, strictly speaking, that person shouldn't have known her.
Light blue hair, grayish-white eyes, not much older than her, but well-developed enough to make her envious.
She was also one of the participants in the Saintess Ritual Ning Rongrong had experienced: the alluring woman who had left before the ritual began.
Huo Shengsheng.
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