Before Departure

After filling out the application form according to Wang Yan's instructions, Bai Cai exited the simple office and headed toward the first-year cafeteria.

Unlike the crude freshman cafeteria, the first-year cafeteria was equipped with a considerable number of tables and chairs, and it also allowed students to pack meals to go.

Shrek Academy's collective teaching curriculum only covered academic courses; in fact, most students did not stay in their dormitories to cultivate.

The Mimicry Cultivation Ground was not just for show; unless there were no spots available, one would rarely see students shutting themselves away in their dorms to cultivate.

In addition to providing takeout, the first-year cafeteria even offered a delivery service, specifically catering to cultivation facilities like the Mimicry Cultivation Ground.

Of course, such meticulous campus service came at a high price, and the usage quotas for the Mimicry Cultivation Ground were scarce for the Outer Court and abundant for the Inner Court, with more available for senior students and fewer for juniors.

The methods for obtaining a quota for the Mimicry Cultivation Ground were generally categorized into three types.

The first type: being selected as a core disciple, for which the academy granted usage quotas free of charge.

The second type: achieving excellent results in various competitions and assessments, for which the academy rewarded temporary quotas.

The third type: using Gold Soul Coins or rare treasures to purchase usage quotas.

If the Mimicry Cultivation Ground was like this, the academy cafeteria certainly did not lag behind.

Top-tier dishes meticulously prepared from the flesh of high-level soul beasts and precious medicinal herbs averaged a price of over twenty Gold Soul Coins. If purchased via takeout or delivery, the price would double.

The atmosphere in the first-year cafeteria was lively, with students celebrating their successful freshman assessments everywhere; Wang Dong and Xiao Xiao had already been waiting for a long time.

With six dishes and three soups, Xiao Xiao sat to Bai Cai's left, and Wang Dong sat to his right, instantly becoming the envy of others.

With her true gender exposed, Wang Dong had completely abandoned her disguise; although she still dressed in men's clothing, her speech and behavior had begun to lean toward that of a girl her age.

The upper echelons of the academy turned a deaf ear, the instructors turned a blind eye, and rumors flew among the classmates, yet Wang Dong seemed completely unaware, still residing in Dorm 106.

Xiao Xiao and Wang Dong chatted and laughed happily, while Bai Cai contentedly served the soup and began to enjoy the expensive, top-tier dishes.

The flesh of high-level soul beasts was difficult to process; unless a massive amount of soul power was consumed to destroy the fascia and meridians, the resulting dish would taste like wax and have the texture of crude leather.

Most of the ingredients for these top-tier dishes were the essence of thousand-year soul beasts or the flesh of ten-thousand-year soul beasts. From this, it was evident that the chef responsible for processing them was at least a high-level Soul Ancestor.

The dean of the Farnos Junior Soul Master Academy was merely a low-level Soul Ancestor, and the city lord of Farnos City was only a high-level Soul Ancestor.

That a top-tier powerhouse of a third-tier city in the Star Luo Empire was equal in soul power cultivation to an obscure logistics chef at Shrek Academy showed the true foundation of Shrek Academy.

What needed to be prepared for heading to the Extreme North to obtain a soul ring?

A tent, a sleeping bag, bedding, food, drinking water, beast-repellent powder, and snake-repellent powder.

The storage space of the Blue Ring was only one cubic meter and could not hold all the supplies, so Bai Cai had to pile some of the items on his dormitory bed.

"Little White?"

After finishing his mimicry cultivation, Wang Dong returned to the dormitory happily, just in time to see Bai Cai clearing off his bed; her powder-blue pupils suddenly dilated, losing their luster.

Suddenly locking the dormitory door, Wang Dong approached Bai Cai from behind and asked expressionlessly, "Where are you going?"

"The Extreme North."

While organizing his camping gear, Bai Cai was completely immersed in the joy of soon heading to the Extreme North to obtain the Mirror Shadow Beast soul ring.

Fortunately...

Wang Dong breathed a sigh of relief and asked with concern, "Attaching your second soul ring?"

"That's right." Bai Cai sat on the bed, with dry rations and water barrels scattered on both sides.

Even after organizing it repeatedly, the one-cubic-meter storage space was still packed to the brim after stuffing in the tent, sleeping bag, and bedding, leaving no room for food and water.

"Take this and use it."

Removing the Sea Blue Bracelet from her left wrist, she handed it to Bai Cai proactively and instructed him earnestly, "Remember to come back early."

After stepping out of the back gate of Shrek Academy, Dean Yan Shaozhe had already disguised himself as an ordinary passerby, and Bai Cai traveled alone in a private carriage, the two of them leaving Shrek City one after the other.

The process of obtaining a soul ring was also part of the training. Before arriving at the Extreme North, unless Bai Cai encountered a life-threatening danger, Yan Shaozhe would not easily appear to rescue him.

After leaving Shrek City, Bai Cai settled the carriage fare and waited for the driver to leave before cautiously summoning Ralts.

The little one with blue hair sat upright on Bai Cai's left shoulder, and with a burst of psychic power, she enveloped herself and Bai Cai, forming a streamlined Psychic Shield that covered their entire bodies, before slowly rising into the air and streaking across the cloudless sky at high speed.

Bai Cai and Ralts landed from time to time to rest, recovering their mental strength while correcting their course and re-planning their flight path.

On the first day, the temperature dropped significantly, and Bai Cai had to wrap himself in a quilt to fly; while his psychic power could block the biting cold wind and strong air currents, it could not insulate against the plummeting temperature.

On the second day, the wild grass turned yellow and snowflakes began to dance; Bai Cai stopped in a nearby town to buy thickened cotton clothes, gradually lowering his flight altitude to reduce the consumption of his mental strength.

On the third day, water froze upon contact and breath turned to snow; Bai Cai had already arrived at the northern frontier of the Heaven Dou Empire, the Extreme North of the Douluo Continent.

The Northern Frontier Topographic Map purchased in the cities along the way was largely blank and did not mark the location of the Ice-Sealed Forest.

With the wind and snow blurring his vision, Bai Cai wrapped his thickened cotton clothes tighter around himself, and Dean Yan Shaozhe suddenly appeared, his scorching radiance illuminating the surroundings and bringing warmth and gentleness.

"The Ice-Sealed Forest is a hunting ground for high-level soul masters; ordinary people cannot survive a single night there, which is why it was never marked on the maps of the northern frontier."

"Follow me." Yan Shaozhe gently pressed on Bai Cai's shoulder, his warm and soft soul power protecting Bai Cai and dispelling the encroachment of the cold.

Yan Shaozhe's martial soul was the Radiant Phoenix, and his source attributes were light and fire, which countered most of the soul beasts in the Extreme North.

After struggling forward for four or five hours, Bai Cai arrived at a Cold Pine Forest alongside Yan Shaozhe. The vast, snow-white expanse of the Cold Pine Forest stretched endlessly, with towering Snow Mountains standing tall in the distance.

"Beyond the Snow Mountains lies the Ice Plain. This area happens to be the habitat of the Mirror Shadow Beast. Our target is a Mirror Shadow Beast with a cultivation between seven hundred and nine hundred years; we need only wait patiently."

"The Mirror Shadow Beast is covered in mirror-like scales, allowing it to change its body color at will and reflect most long-range offensive soul skills."

"A century-old Mirror Shadow Beast reaches a body length of two meters, a millennium-old one exceeds four meters, and a ten-thousand-year-old one grows beyond six meters."

Yan Shaozhe looked up at the sky; in the Far North, the days were short and the nights long, so they ought to prepare early.

"I hear that student Bai Cai possesses excellent wilderness survival skills."

"Then, the time has come to test you."

Gently pressing down on Bai Cai's shoulder and imbuing him with a surge of gentle soul power, Yan Shaozhe vanished without a trace the moment the wind and snow blurred their surroundings.

The cold wind was biting and bone-chilling, so Ralts immediately deployed a Psychic Shield to isolate them from the effects of the blizzard.

"Shelter, water, food."

Bai Cai rubbed his right wrist, and as the Sea Blue Bracelet flickered with light, a shovel appeared abruptly, landing on the accumulated snow.

Ralts controlled its psychic power to drive the shovel, digging through the snow until it struck the hard, frozen earth beneath.

The cold pines of the Ice-Sealed Forest grew slowly, their trunks too narrow for two people to wrap their arms around, making it difficult to carve out a shelter.

Wantonly felling the cold pines would easily provoke nearby soul beasts, so the shelter had to be established within a rock formation or beneath the ground.