A Promise of Three Meals to Repay a Benefactor

The group busied themselves moving all five wounded individuals into one spot, but after waiting for a long time, Xuan Zi still hadn't arrived.

"That old geezer, he's probably stuffed himself silly and forgotten he even brought students along!"

Su Qing frowned. Although the injuries of Zhou Qing and the others had been stabilized, there was no healing Soul Master present, and simple bandaging was far from enough. He had originally assumed that the time it took to treat all the wounded would be enough for Xuan Zi to show up, but who would have thought that Zhang Lexuan would have nearly finished absorbing her soul ring before he appeared?

Of course, this might have been caused by Su Qing's intervention, which ended the battle prematurely. Looking at the situation back then, if the Magic Flame Lizard had continued to use the corpses as bait to lure them in, they would have had to fight at least a few more rounds until all the students were dead before Zhang Lexuan could have successfully killed the Flame Demon Lizard.

"I owe you my life. May I have your name?"

Just as Su Qing was waiting anxiously, Zhou Qing's hoarse voice pulled him back from his thoughts. He suddenly realized that he could take this opportunity to secure a recommendation letter. A recommendation letter from an inner court student was fundamentally different from one provided by a city lord, especially if it were written personally by the inner court's senior sister, Zhang Lexuan. This meant he wouldn't have to pay tuition at all!

Especially since he had saved these seniors; he wouldn't have to worry about food at Shrek! It wasn't that he only cared about food, but ever since he started roasting soul beast meat himself, he hadn't tasted anything decent! A person had to have something to look forward to in life; living on the rations he'd been eating, it was a miracle he'd managed to survive this long!

No, he couldn't dwell on this anymore. He felt he should respond to the other party first:

"My name is Su Qing."

Zhou Qing's face showed gratitude. Only now was he pulled back from the terror of impending death. Heaven knows how miserably he would have died if Su Qing hadn't used his soul skill to pull him away. Most importantly, because they were injured, they had become a weakness for the senior sister, making her attacks hesitant. If they had died and caused the senior sister to be killed by the soul beast due to distraction, they wouldn't have forgiven themselves even in the afterlife.

"Su Qing? I've remembered it. I will definitely repay you with my life in the future."

Zhou Qing silently repeated the name, wanting to etch it firmly into his memory.

"If you really want to repay me, remember to treat me to a meal when I get to Shrek. And I don't just mean one meal."

Afraid of being misunderstood, he specifically emphasized this; he didn't want the other party to think he was someone who did good deeds without expecting a reward.

This remark left Zhou Qing feeling both amused and pained. His wounds hurt so much he wanted to cry, but the other party's words made him want to laugh. However, he couldn't cry or laugh right now, or the bandages he'd worked so hard to apply would burst open again.

Meanwhile, Chen Yao, who was lying nearby wrapped up like a mummy, was making muffled noises. Su Qing waved a hand at her and said:

"Forget about offering your life or being a beast of burden. How about you treat me to a meal too? He covers breakfast, you cover my lunch."

"Wow, benefactor, you can actually understand that!"

Zhou Qing cast an envious look. How on earth did this guy manage that? He could barely make out a few muffled sounds.

"Then I'll cover your dinner."

At the same time, Zhang Lexuan's voice came from behind him. For some reason, this Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast had neither soul shock nor mental resentment; the test of mental strength was not even as difficult as that of a ten-thousand-year soul beast, which was why she had absorbed it so quickly.

"So fast?"

Su Qing was secretly shocked. Zhang Lexuan's talent was truly terrifying. Her absorption speed for an eighth soul ring of a hundred-thousand-year level was faster than others absorbing a ten-thousand-year soul ring—she was simply a monster. But... now his three meals a day were all covered. This was a huge blessing; in so many fan-fiction stories, no one had ever said the food in the Shrek cafeteria was bad!

"Thanks to you protecting my teammates, I had no worries. Without you, even if I could have killed this Flame Demon Lizard, I would have been severely injured, and the process of absorbing the soul ring would have been a life-or-death struggle."

Zhang Lexuan's tone was steady, her words filled with sincerity. She knew deep down that without Su Qing, her spirit would have been completely shattered today, forever immersed in the guilt of not being able to save a single teammate.

"It's nothing, just a small favor. I remember that a hundred-thousand-year soul beast is guaranteed to drop a soul bone. Why didn't you absorb it along with the ring?"

Su Qing asked, puzzled. He remembered that there hadn't been any glowing parts on Zhang Lexuan earlier. Could it have been an External Soul Bone? But what kind of External Soul Bone could a lizard produce?

"You saved my teammates, so I decided to give it to you."

This soul beast was killed by her and her teammates working together, so she had full authority over the ownership of the soul bone. In her view, Su Qing's life-saving grace could not be repaid by just treating him to a meal, so she decided to give the soul bone to him.

"No, it's too ugly. I don't want it."

Su Qing shook his head. The magic flames of this Flame Demon Lizard were far inferior to his own Ultimate Fire. Why would he want to absorb its soul bone? To strengthen his body? Wouldn't that just be a waste of two skill slots?

"You..."

Zhang Lexuan was stunned. This kid didn't even want a soul bone and had nothing but food on his mind. Could his martial soul also be a Godly Taotie Bull? That didn't seem right; the abilities he had just displayed were clearly those of a martial soul capable of utilizing multiple elements.

"You should hurry up and absorb it. Rumor has it that a soul ring and soul bone from the same soul beast complement each other better."

"Yeah, Senior Sister, absorb it now. I feel like my wounds are almost healed!"

Zhou Qing endured the pain and spoke in a booming voice, drawing glances from everyone. Where had that half-dead look from when he was being bandaged gone?

"Wuu wuu..."

Chen Yao and the others, unable to speak, also raised their hands, signaling for Zhang Lexuan to absorb the soul bone as soon as possible. But seeing that her teammates were in such poor condition, she decided to take them back before absorbing it.

"Oh, right, Senior Sister, write a recommendation letter for Su Qing first."

Seeing that she had no intention of absorbing the soul bone right now, Zhou Qing immediately thought of what Su Qing had said about going to Shrek. The couple behind them were clearly the parents of that little girl and likely had nothing to do with Su Qing. This meant he had come to the Star Dou Great Forest alone. As someone without any connections, he had no way to get a recommendation letter, so he could only have Zhang Lexuan write one.

"Alright."

Looking into Su Qing's clear eyes, Zhang Lexuan nodded. She took out a piece of stationery reserved for the inner court from her Soul Tool, thought for a moment, and wrote: I recommend this child to join Shrek. She signed it with a large "Zhang Lexuan."

After signing, she handed it to Su Qing along with the storage Soul Tool.

"Little Qing, keep this safe. Don't lose it."

Seeing Su Qing happily accept the silver storage ring engraved with a crescent moon, Xiao Xiao's little face puffed up again, but seeing the two of them turn their gaze toward her, she instantly deflated.