The Promise

"These two Immortal Herbs would be worth a fortune on the open market. For Soul Masters with certain Martial Souls, they could even be called priceless treasures."

"For example, the Aromatic Silk Beauty might only cleanse and strengthen the body on its own, but a Soul Master with the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda Martial Soul could take it and potentially evolve their Martial Soul into the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda!"

"As for the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, while it isn't quite as precious to spiritual-type Martial Soul users as the Aromatic Silk Beauty is to those with the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda, it's still extraordinarily valuable."

"Not only can it greatly enhance spiritual power, it also has the potential to evolve a spiritual-type Martial Soul, though the odds are lower than with the Aromatic Silk Beauty."

Wang Hong shifted a little closer to Huo Yuhao and continued:

"The Aromatic Silk Beauty might not be of much use to you, Lord Huo Yuhao, but it's valuable in its own right... According to Director Tang, it could get you a substantial amount of start-up capital."

With Wang Hong hinting so broadly, how could Huo Yuhao fail to understand?

As the Director of the Crafting Bureau at Spirit Hall, Tang You definitely knew the true identity of the young mistress of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect: Ning Tian, who happened to be Huo Yuhao's classmate. The chance to evolve her Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda into the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Pagoda alone would be enough to make Ning Tian pay a high price for the priceless treasure in Huo Yuhao's hands.

Compared to the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew, the Aromatic Silk Beauty—which could let Huo Yuhao squeeze a hefty sum out of the young mistress of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect—was the real gift Tang You had sent him.

Huo Yuhao gave Wang Hong a long look, then bowed.

"Please thank Director Tang for me..."

Watching this, Wang Yan chuckled.

"Don't celebrate too soon. We still don't know what the task actually is. But it seems Director Tang has quite a lot of confidence in you, Yuhao." Wang Yan walked over to Huo Yuhao and gave him a light pat on the shoulder.

"Head back for now. There's still some time before winter break. Just focus on getting through these next couple of days."

Huo Yuhao nodded, said goodbye to the two men, and left the office.

Once Huo Yuhao had left for good, Wang Yan sat down beside Wang Hong.

"This task was meant for Yuhao from the start, wasn't it? The Aromatic Silk Beauty and the Full Moon Wearing Autumn Dew... Huo Yuhao might not know, but you and I both do. They're Immortal Herbs used by the Sea God and the Nine-Colored Goddess ten thousand years ago."

"The Aromatic Silk Beauty doesn't merely have a chance of working. Your Director went all out. The Crafting Bureau must have spent quite a few Gold Soul Coins wresting this Immortal Herb from the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, didn't it?"

"Haha, Cousin, you're as clever as ever."

"But there's one thing you got wrong. The money and effort for this didn't come from the Crafting Bureau. It came from Spirit Hall." Wang Hong's expression turned serious as he handed Wang Yan a research report.

"Here's the report on the Dream Silkworm Huo Yuhao encountered. Take a look."

Wang Yan immediately sensed something was off. Sure enough, when he opened the report, the first page showed a line of text:

"Age determination: no less than thirty thousand years."

Wang Yan felt his hand trembling as he held the report. He looked at Wang Hong in disbelief.

"Your equipment has advanced this far? I remember you writing that all that was left of the Dream Silkworm was a pile of ash."

"Heh... Who knows what those lunatics in the research department get up to every day? They've had the technology to determine an age from a corpse for a while, but only recently figured out how to do it from a pile of ash. Still, it can only give us a rough estimate."

"Good grief... You mean...?"

Wang Yan seemed to realize something. Wang Hong nodded.

"It might be more than thirty thousand years, but it could also be... much older."

Wang Hong waved a hand. "That's all I know. Anyway, both the Crafting Bureau and Spirit Hall headquarters are pretty interested in Huo Yuhao."

"Who knows? Once he's old enough, Huo Yuhao might represent Spirit Hall in a competition."

Back in the classroom, Huo Yuhao immediately spotted Dong'er sitting on the teacher's desk, keeping an eye on the class, while Ning Tian helped her from the back row with her Soul Power.

As soon as Dong'er saw Huo Yuhao return, she started to give up her place at the desk, but Huo Yuhao waved her off, signaling that they could talk after class. Switching places now would make too much noise.

He quietly returned to his seat and began studying. As soon as class ended, Dong'er rushed straight over to him without even waiting to pack up her things and asked what Teacher Wang Yan had said.

Huo Yuhao didn't tell her the details. He only said that he had to carry out a work-study assignment over winter break.

"Aw..." Dong'er sat down looking crestfallen.

"I was hoping to visit your home during winter break..." Her little face fell. The Spirit Soul Academy's workload was heavy, and she'd been looking forward to finally getting a long break to relax.

But... in all her planning, she'd completely forgotten that Huo Yuhao was a work-study student.

"Is that assignment really important?" Though she wasn't happy, she knew that if it weren't important, Huo Yuhao would definitely choose to go home and spend time with his mother.

"Yeah... It's important." Huo Yuhao nodded, then gently ruffled Dong'er's hair.

"Don't be sad. Winter break ends, then a month later it'll be winter vacation. I'll definitely take you to my house then, I promise."

Huo Yuhao held out his little finger. Dong'er followed suit, hooking hers around his.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk... Look at those two. So sweet..." In the back row, Wu Feng watched them, shaking her head in wonder.

"What's wrong? Isn't this just a common promise between friends?" Ning Tian was holding a novel Wu Feng had enthusiastically recommended to her. She had just reached a scene where two characters made a pinky promise, too.

"Ah... Young Mistress, you don't understand. This is... the spark of romance!"

"The spark of romance...?" Ning Tian looked at Wu Feng, only half understanding. She didn't have the faintest concept of such things yet, so she couldn't catch Wu Feng's hint. All she could think was that there seemed to be a tangled mass of threads in her head, waiting to be unraveled.

"Forget it, Young Mistress. You're not old enough to know about this yet." Wu Feng shook her head, then turned her attention back to Ning Tian.

"By the way, Young Mistress, weren't you planning to invite Huo Yuhao to visit the sect over winter break? Could the reward for that assignment really be more precious than the sect's treasures?"

At that, Ning Tian looked toward Huo Yuhao, then shook her head.

"Since Huo Yuhao already made a promise to Dong'er, it would be rather annoying of us to go and break it. We'll have plenty of chances to bring Huo Yuhao back to the sect. There's no need to do it this time."

"Hmph... Young Mistress, you're pretty clever when it comes to things like this." Wu Feng sighed helplessly, then went back to reading the novel with Ning Tian.

Several days later, at the entrance to Spirit Soul Academy.