Notting Academy.
In the admissions office of the faculty department.
Xia Yan handed over the Spirit Hall certificate and enrollment application, saying, "My name is Xia Yan, six years old, with a Black Tower spirit, and I am from the Xiling Forest in the west."
The male teacher opposite the black desk reached out to take them,
and instinctively glanced at him: lean, with clear black eyes and matching long hair hanging down both sides of his shoulders, outlining the clean contours of his face.
Anyone could tell at a glance that he was definitely a promising prospect.
"A Black Tower? An uncommon spirit..."
After confirming that the certificate in his hand was correct, he said, "Work-Study Students are all in Dorm Seven."
After Xia Yan received his school uniform and walked out of the academic affairs office, he marveled at how good the fabric of the uniform felt.
However,
the fabric wasn't actually all that good, and definitely couldn't be considered expensive.
Ever since he transmigrated here six years ago, however, he had never touched anything nice, and compared to the coarse cloth garments on his back, the school uniform could practically be considered top-tier.
Yes,
Xia Yan was originally just an ordinary person who accidentally died of overwork after staying up late, and upon waking up, he found that he had transmigrated to the Douluo Continent.
He was found and adopted by adoptive parents who happened to be passing by at the time.
After spending five and a half years in peace, his adoptive parents successively passed away in accidents. When a spirit master came to the remote small village to awaken spirits, he had already prepared himself to awaken a trash spirit.
To his surprise, he became the first person with Soul Power in the small village in one hundred and twenty-seven years.
He even had Innate Full Soul Power.
His awakened spirit was the Demon Suppressing Pagoda, possessing a total of nine tiers and nine spaces. Every time he contracted a Soul Beast, a space could be opened up, and the Soul Beast could live inside it.
Yes, a contract.
Although it was called the Demon Suppressing Pagoda, there was no need to hunt Soul Beasts. The contracted age, like a Soul Ring, was limited by his physical constitution and Soul Power.
He couldn't manage to contract a hundred-thousand-year ferocious beast with his first ring; not even a thousand-year one would work.
The contracted Soul Beasts completely possessed physical entities and could continue to cultivate their age, meaning that in the end, he could have nine hundred-thousand-year Soul Beasts by his side and be invincible across the world.
This ability was simply terrifying to the extreme.
It was an peerless spirit unmatched by anything seen in the preceding one hundred thousand years.
However, precisely because the Demon Suppressing Pagoda was heaven-defyingly powerful, in order to prevent certain people harboring the thought of destroying what they couldn't get from harming him, and also to guard against Tang Hao, he claimed to the outside world that his spirit was a Black Tower with no special abilities at all.
Soon,
Xia Yan arrived outside the Work-Study Student dormitory. The noise grew clear as he approached, and through the wide-open, antiquated brown wooden door, he could see figures running around and the cluttered setup inside.
He walked into the dormitory,
and looked around. The three-hundred-square-meter room had more than fifty beds placed messily, giving an average space of six square meters per bed.
Fewer than half of the beds had bedding on them.
The windows were all open, and the dormitory as a whole looked a bit old, though it was still considered clean.
There were only a dozen or so trainees present at the moment, but no familiar faces were to be seen.
There was no Tang San, and no Xiao Wu.
Could the timeline be wrong?
Xia Yan's heart sank. Had an accident really happened?
Just as he was thinking, a boy who was two heads taller than him and rather solidly built walked over and looked him up and down.
"New here?"
"My name is Wang Sheng, and I'm the boss of Dorm Seven. According to the rules, you either acknowledge me as boss, or you beat me to become the new boss. Choose one."
With that, he raised his fists, took a breath, and puffed out his chest to make himself look sturdier.
Xia Yan immediately let out a sigh of relief.
Good, oh good. Wang Sheng was here, so it wasn't too late yet; Tang San probably hadn't arrived.
He waved his hand. "No, I can't beat you."
He couldn't waste time on this kind of meaningless competition, as he had more important things to do.
Subsequently, Xia Yan picked a bed by the window and put down his bundle.
He had come to Notting Academy with three goals in mind.
First was the Datura Snake, which was currently the Soul Beast with the best growth potential that Xia Yan could access.
Second was the Blue Silver Emperor. The current Blue Silver Emperor had been planted for less than ten years, and top-tier Soul Beast though it was, its age was still within a hundred years, so he could completely absorb it.
Third was the Eight Spider Lances. This gadget was of greater help to Tang San than Yu Xiaogang.
A family of Man Faced Demon Spiders was far more qualified than Yu Xiaogang to utter the words "I nurtured a god."
The Eight Spider Lances were not in Notting City, but if he did not contract a Datura Snake in the early stages, he might not be able to defeat the Man Faced Demon Spider when the time came.
Xia Yan had researched that martial souls generally possessed attributes, such as gems, wood, water, or earth, but the Demon Suppressing Pagoda had no attribute, so it could contract any attribute.
He only needed to consider the combination of contracted spirit beasts: support and assault, sky and ocean, space and mind, buffs and debuffs...
The most pressing matter at present
was that he needed to go to the Soul Hunting Forest as soon as possible to subjugate a Datura Snake.
The Datura Snake was his best choice at present, without exception.
Of course, creatures like the Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff, Dark Demon Evil God Tiger, and Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear were all very powerful and very suitable for contracting, but if he really went to the Star Dou Great Forest, he would definitely be eaten on the spot by a century-old fierce beast that popped out by the roadside...
Besides, the Datura Snake was also a rare spirit beast with inherently good talent.
In the future, feeding it some top-tier Immortal Herbs
would ensure it evolved.
Now the only problem was, how was he to get to the Soul Hunting Forest?
He definitely could not go alone.
It was four hundred miles from Notting City, a permit was required to enter, it was fraught with danger inside, and a ten-year spirit beast popping out by the roadside could kill him...
As he was thinking,
suddenly, the entire dormitory fell into silence. The group of work-study students froze in their tracks, peering out the door like a group of sentinel meerkats.
"Is Xia Yan here?"
A hoarse, low, middle-aged man's voice broke the silence, sounding extremely abrupt.
Xia Yan, lost in thought, started.
He instinctively turned to look.
Blocking the doorway, a middle-aged man in plain clothes stood behind him.
This man was of medium build, with a stubbly beard that made him look somewhat sloppy. His hair was only a bit longer than his beard, also styled in a short black crew cut. No emotion could be read on his face, save for an air of decadence leaking from his brows...
Yu Xiaogang?
Xia Yan feigned ignorance.
"Is the teacher looking for me for something?"
Yu Xiaogang looked him up and down.
His hoarse voice was unhurried. "Come with me."
With that, he turned and left, without any superfluous explanation.
Xia Yan glanced around. The students had long since distanced themselves from him, and now looked at him one after another, wanting to know why this newcomer had actually managed to have a teacher come looking for him in person.
Xia Yan followed him to the administrative office and arrived at Yu Xiaogang's office.
The office was not large, with bookshelves piled full of books lining all four walls.
As soon as Xia Yan stepped inside, he smelled a faint fragrance of old books and saw Yu Xiaogang standing with his back to him, hands clasped behind his back, silently gazing out the window.
He cut quite the imposing figure of an expert. If not for knowing Yu Xiaogang's actual conduct, Xia Yan estimated he would have already been bluffed.
"Teacher, are you looking for me?"
"..."
After a moment of silence, Yu Xiaogang slowly turned around, doing his best to conceal the flash of joyful light in his eyes. A work-study student, a poor kid, a once-in-a-century Innate Full Soul Power, and a special martial soul—he was precisely the best candidate for a disciple that he had been bitterly waiting for!
His hard work and waiting over these past few years had not been in vain!
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