Probing

"The essence blood of a Three-Legged Golden Toad?" Gu Yue frowned.

It was still the holiday, and Wu Zhangkong had taken Tang Wulin to Tiandou City.

Gu Yue had originally planned to go to the Spirit Pagoda.

But upon hearing that Mu Han had come out of seclusion, she had come over with Xu Xiaoyan.

Then, she heard that Mu Han was searching for this specific item.

She knew that Mu Han's first spirit soul was the Vermilion Clear Ice Toad.

But hadn't that Vermilion Clear Ice Toad already fused with the essence blood of the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King Di Tian, possessing the bloodline of the Dragon race?

"You don't actually think the Dragon race bloodline is invincible, do you?" Mu Han looked at her, speechless.

The Dragon God was the strongest divine beast.

But the Dragon race was not necessarily the strongest species.

The species value of the Dark-Gold Terrorclaw Bear was not inferior to that of a True Dragon.

Moreover, his Dragon Phoenix Golden Toad did not absorb Dragon race bloodlines particularly well.

It could only be considered a spirit beast that possessed a Dragon race bloodline.

If it were a snake-type spirit soul, a single drop of the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King Di Tian's essence blood would be enough to evolve it into a sub-dragon species.

Furthermore, he didn't even look down upon sub-dragon species.

Ordinary sub-dragon species really couldn't compare to his Dragon Phoenix Golden Toad.

What he wanted was a true evolution.

Mu Han had never been to the Spirit Ascension Platform.

This was because the Dragon Phoenix Golden Toad was already a thousand-year spirit soul.

Although the Dragon Phoenix Golden Toad had the foundation to advance to the ten-thousand-year level.

And with Mu Han's strength, he could complete the final step as long as he entered the Spirit Ascension Platform.

But he would not do that.

Ten thousand years of cultivation was a massive threshold in the cultivation process of spirit beasts.

Once they crossed the ten-thousand-year mark, the strength of a spirit beast would skyrocket.

Some spirit beasts would undergo mutations when they broke through to the ten-thousand-year level.

Some existences with top-tier bloodlines could even shed their beast forms and develop true sapience.

Just like the Three-Eyed Golden Lion from ten thousand years ago.

Perhaps the Three-Eyed Golden Lion was an exception.

But besides that, there were many ten-thousand-year spirit rings with powerful bloodlines that possessed intelligence not inferior to humans.

As for those with mediocre bloodlines, although their intelligence would increase, they remained beasts at the end of the day.

But was a bloodline really so easy to change?

The bloodlines that the Vermilion Clear Ice Toad had devoured previously only strengthened its body.

The so-called "Dragon Phoenix Golden Toad" had not changed its bloodline at the root.

Because they belonged to different groups; whether it was a dragon or a phoenix, they were merely external forces to a toad.

If it wanted to completely change its bloodline, it had to devour the bloodline of a pure amphibian spirit beast.

In the original work, there were not many amphibian spirit beasts to begin with, and the most powerful among them seemed to be the Three-Legged Golden Toad.

After all, that was a divine beast bloodline mentioned in the original work.

It was just a pity that Mu Han had searched for so long without finding one.

Since Gu Yue had come to him, Mu Han decided to ask her to help search for it.

In any case, he had a lot of intelligence in his hands and was fully qualified to pay for this reward.

He had come to find Gu Yue this time entirely to challenge the Tianhai Academy.

Next semester would be the Skysea Alliance Tournament.

In the original work, for the Skysea Alliance Tournament, the Skysea Alliance had specifically spent a large sum of money to invite experts from Shrek Academy.

They were there to hold a so-called exhibition match.

Their opponents were the seven-person team champions from the previous generation of the Skysea Alliance.

Given Shrek's strength, the exchange match was conducted across different age groups.

The seven-person youth group champions of the Skysea Alliance would challenge the Shrek juvenile seven-person group.

Representing the Skysea Alliance side were the champions of the previous youth group.

This year, they were all over twenty years old and could only participate in the adult group competition.

That was an age gap of more than five years!

The result, however, remained a crushing defeat.

In the original work, they hadn't even managed to last a minute.

It was practically a massacre.

Now, Mu Han had asked Mu Chen to provide an introduction so he could vie for a spot in the exhibition match.

He intended to challenge those people from Shrek Academy.

The seven students from Tianhai Academy, who were the previous youth division champions of the Tianhai Alliance.

That was why he had brought Gu Yue and Xu Xiaoyan to Eastsea City.

In front of a public crowd, they had fought three against seven, instantly wiping out the opposing seven and securing the spot for the exhibition match.

Although the high-ranking officials of Tianhai Academy looked grim, they could only secretly regret their carelessness.

Originally, they had thought it impossible to lose, so they had done Mu Chen a favor.

Now it seemed they had suffered a massive loss!

Although the funding for this exhibition match was provided by the entire Tianhai Alliance, Tianhai Academy had ultimately paid the lion's share.

Yet, in the end, Eastsea Academy had been the one to reap the benefits.

One had to realize that within the Tianhai Alliance, Eastsea City's position had always been that of an "economic engine."

In truth, Eastsea City's status within the Tianhai Alliance was much like the Tianhai Alliance's status within the Federation.

To put it bluntly, it was there to make money, but it was severely lacking in soul master talent.

How had it managed to produce two monsters?

Gu Yue probably wasn't a local of Eastsea City, right? At the very least, she wasn't from a local soul master family.

But Mu Han and Xu Xiaoyan were both well-known figures.

Mu Han was the foster son of Mu Chen, the president of the Eastsea City Blacksmith Association.

Xu Xiaoyan was the daughter of the Eastsea City Chief Financial Officer.

Having secured the exhibition match spot, Mu Han took the initiative to offer to treat everyone to a meal.

"Mu Han." Just then, a somewhat unfamiliar voice rang out, drawing the attention of the group.

Mu Han turned his head to look and saw a white-haired old man with a spirited demeanor walking toward him.

He was tall and burly, with a pair of palms that looked exceptionally broad and thick.

"Hello, are you looking for me?" Mu Han had a guess in his heart, but he still feigned a look of confusion.

"I am Duan Xuan, president of the Tianhai Blacksmith Association. You may call me Elder Duan." The silver-haired old man walked up to him.

"Hello, Elder Duan," Mu Han replied respectfully and conventionally.

Duan Xuan smiled faintly. "It's like this: our Tianhai City currently has a series of talent recruitment programs."

"I think you are very talented. I wonder if you have any thoughts about coming to develop your career in our Tianhai City?"

Tianhai City was superior to Eastsea City in both political and economic status.

Moreover, it was a comprehensive, crushing superiority; one could say it was just a larger version of Eastsea City.

"The Tianhai Blacksmith Association can guarantee that all your blacksmithing study expenses for your attempt to reach Saint Craftsman will be covered by the association."

This was a condition that any blacksmith would find hard to refuse, but Mu Han turned a blind eye to it. "I'm sorry, I cannot."

He remembered that in the original work, Mu Chen had tested Tang Wulin in this exact same way.

He hadn't expected that he would be tested in the same manner today.

In his heart, he didn't mean to blame his foster father.

Whether a disciple could inherit their master's mantle was not the most important thing.

The most important thing was that their character must not be flawed.

Otherwise, if their ability surpassed their master's but their character was unbearable, it would only lead to disaster.

From a principled standpoint, Mu Chen was not wrong to do this.

However, in his heart, Mu Chen's position had undergone some changes.

It wasn't that Mu Han wanted to rebel; after all, he had received his kindness.

His weapon was not the Fangtian Huaji, and he had no desire to be a "three-surname slave."

It was just that Mu Chen's test had, instead, made him feel a bit sad.

In the original work, Mu Chen tested his disciple.

Now, was Mu Chen going to test him, his foster son, as well?

"Good child. Mu Chen is truly lucky." Duan Xuan raised his hand to pat Mu Han on the head, then turned and strode away.

He clearly hadn't noticed any change in Mu Han's emotions.

Since the test was already complete, he wouldn't continue to pester him in front of the public.