The Carving Knife and the Snow Empress

Orange sunlight streamed in through the window. Mu Baobao opened his tired eyes. Was it already afternoon?

As for what had happened last night...

He was utterly bewildered. He had never expected that heroine to actually mean it!

Her Soul Power had risen by nearly two levels overnight. If that had been a Soul Emperor, it would have taken at least six or seven months of grueling cultivation.

"Damn, this was completely one-sided benefit!" Mu Baobao complained. Aside from feeling a little pleasure, he had gained absolutely nothing.

Not to mention that it had turned into torture afterward... Even without the Evil Fire troubling him, he felt Ma Xiaotao could qualify as the God of Desire.

T50 was still better, Mu Baobao muttered. One night to become a Douluo, one kiss to shatter the limit.

That was the real deal!

"Get up already. Their elimination matches have probably ended, and they're likely back by now. Do you want them laughing at you?"

The voice came from nearby. Ma Xiaotao emerged from the bathroom, her face brimming with satisfaction. She had changed into fresh clothes and showed none of the appearance one would expect after a first night.

After all, her Soul Power had jumped two whole levels to sixty-nine. If she took the chance to obtain a Soul Ring...

She would become the only Soul Saint in this tournament. Even the serious injuries caused by the Evil Soul Master's explosion had been perfectly healed. Damn it, Mu Baobao felt as if he could see a demon standing before him. It seemed he would not even need to participate in the finals.

"Spare me, heroine. I won't talk nonsense again."

He knelt on the floor with his butt sticking up in surrender. Ma Xiaotao was genuinely angry. Apparently, the gains from last night had made her forget that she was also an inexperienced young lady. This made her look like some female flower thief.

"Which one of us is the young lady here?" she asked with a smile. "I held back for more than ten years. I thought you really couldn't do it, but you turned out pretty well."

"You did quite well, young man!"

Uh... what kind of savage words were those? Mu Baobao was speechless. At least act a little more like a girl. The reason he had not refused was because he knew what would happen during this Spirit Master Tournament.

Ma Xiaotao would be struck by the dark attribute of an eighth-grade Judgment Sword wielded by a Sun Moon Soul Engineer Academy student, mutating into a Dark Phoenix. She would then be sealed by members of the Sea God Pavilion. Yet for some reason, she would end up in the Holy Spirit Cult. Who could steal someone from the Sea God Pavilion?

He suspected Ye Xishui. This ninety-ninth-level Death God Douluo from the same generation as Mu En and Long Xiaoyao must have personally acted. Mu En could not refuse her.

When it came to Evil Soul Masters, they understood Evil Soul Masters best. If things continued like this...

Ma Xiaotao would only suffer. Whether she could awaken again would be uncertain. Perhaps Mu En's ninety-ninth-level Radiant Sacred Dragon and Yan Shaozhe's ninety-seventh-level Bright Phoenix could forcibly purge the darkness... But the result would probably be that her Evil Fire and Soul Power—

Would be gone too, reducing her to an ordinary person. Evil Soul Masters only knew how to remove things; they did not know how to save people.

The teachers had been deeply worried, but Mu En had remained calm. He had told Huo Yuhao that once he became capable enough, perhaps he could bring Ma Xiaotao back. From that, it was clear that he truly knew where Ma Xiaotao had gone.

Over the past decade or so, her Evil Fire had erupted countless times, yet it had never crossed that final line.

He was basically a giant popsicle. The Evil Fire would be suppressed, then revive... The weakening effect was truly limited, and this time, he had genuinely feared something might happen.

"Brother, are you and Sister Xiaotao in there?"

Beibei's voice came with a knock at the door. They really had returned... After receiving no response for so long, he had assumed the two had gone out for a stroll.

But when the door opened, Mu Baobao and Ma Xiaotao stood there, leaving him utterly confused.

The seven reserve team members were all standing outside. Damn it, had the whole team gathered to announce his achievement? He wanted to ram his head into the wall, but then he realized—

"Sister Xiaotao, weren't you seriously injured? How did you recover overnight? And your Soul Power seems to have increased too? But Senior Mu, why are your legs trembling? Hahahaha..."

Xu Sanshi burst into laughter. Clearly, he had not expected this scene. Even Jiang Nannan, who had suffered a rear-end injury herself, forgot to glare at him. She could hardly believe it.

After all, that time, she had been the one left in pain, while Xu Sanshi had benefited from his Martial Soul's partial awakening.

Senior Mu, how had it become the other way around?

Beibei laughed as well.

"Sister Xiaotao, you look so happy. It seems my brother handed in a satisfactory answer. Now Sister Lexuan won't suspect that you can't do it anymore."

"Nonsense, I'm a powerful dragon! But... I never expected I'd still be inferior to a phoenix!" He was confident during the first half, but a little terrified by the latter half. Jiang Nannan even looked at him sympathetically.

That pain was no less than what she had suffered back then!

Xiao Xiao and Huo Yuhao, the two children who did not understand such things, listened in utter confusion. He Caitou wore an admiring expression, while Wang Dong's face had turned completely red.

"Wang Dong, why are you blushing?" Huo Yuhao asked. Only Ma Xiaotao and Mu Baobao knew.

They were Inner Court students and had read plenty of secret texts. Naturally, they knew that the Light Goddess Butterfly... could only appear on the most beautiful girls across the continent.

Therefore, the Inner Court's teachers and students all knew Wang Dong was a girl. Only Huo Yuhao, who had gone to the Sun Moon Soul Engineer Academy as an exchange student, had not yet had the chance—or need—to learn such things. By then, his strength no longer needed knowledge to support it.

Still, he wanted to complain. The gods of the God Realm were all exceptional geniuses who had ascended from various continents.

Whose wife had not been a famous beauty on her own continent? Otherwise, they would not have been able to cling to the protagonist's leg. Tang San and Xiao Wu could only be considered fairly attractive.

At the very least, the God of Life was prettier than her. The wife of Ji Dong, the Second Generation God of Evil, was Lie Yan, the Second Generation God of Beauty and queen of the world beneath the earth.

Rong Nianbing had eight wives, including two phoenix-clan holy maidens, two Life and Death Gods from his world, and the three great beauties of Yangguang Continent.

Zhou Weiqing even had an elf empress for a wife. They all had children of their own!

Xiao Wu was merely a Hundred-Thousand-Year rabbit. Blue Silver Emperor Ah Yin, Emerald Swan Bi Ji, Heavenly Snow Woman Snow Empress... whose appearance was not superior to hers? Even Qian Rensue outclassed her. Before Tang San's bloodline awakened—

He had even been called Shrek Academy's second ugliest by some Blue Sunshine Academy lackey. In the end, she was like his third Martial Soul: something that had been forcibly attached to him.

"Anyway, it's a good thing. Senior Ma's injuries have completely healed, so we don't need to worry as much about the tournament. But how did she gain two levels of Soul Power overnight? Wang Dong and I only speed up our cultivation through dual cultivation!" Huo Yuhao wore the expression of an eager student.

"Dual cultivation? You're not so simple, junior."

Xu Sanshi gave a lewd grin. Jiang Nannan glared at him. "Don't make Yuhao sound like you."

"Okay, Nannan!"

"Who's dual cultivating with you?" Wang Dong's face reddened. Huo Yuhao scratched his head and explained, "Our Martial Soul Fusion Skill is something the two of us cultivate together. Doesn't that count as dual cultivation?" Wang Dong was speechless. "Then explain it clearly. Saying only half of it makes it sound so suspicious."

"So what did you come looking for me about?" Mu Baobao asked irritably. He had already guessed part of it.

During this Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament, Huo Yuhao would encounter two major cheats here. Their first elimination match had naturally been effortless, especially after seeing that Ma Xiaotao had recovered.

Tomorrow, they would begin the second round-robin stage. "Teacher Wang Yan said he wanted to take us out for a walk and help us relax!"

"Relax?"

Mu Baobao immediately perked up. He knew this plot very well. Huo Yuhao would obtain three major cheats there.

The Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone, the Death Blade Soul Tool carving knife, and the third was the foremost of the Three Kings of the Far North—the Heavenly Snow Woman Snow Empress, a peerless beast king more than seven hundred thousand years old. Yet it seemed no one knew that.

They thought she was merely a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast that had failed while breaking through her cultivation limit. Then she was auctioned off by the Sun Moon Empire. When Huo Yuhao became an exchange student, he would encounter the Body Sect surrendering, raid the warehouse, and steal her away.

That was ridiculous enough. Since they had managed to capture her, how could they not know she was the Snow Empress? And Huo Yuhao would not become an exchange student until more than a year later.

Yet no one in the Sun Moon Empire had absorbed that Soul Ring? All he could say was that protagonist aura was truly absurd.

After eating, they marched out of the Star Emperor Hotel. Because of the opening of the Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament, the entirety of Star Luo City was incredibly lively.

The moment they stepped outside, the bustling crowd swallowed them up. If it had been during the day—

They probably would not even have been able to move their legs.

After passing through several streets, they stopped before a pointed-roof building. The building was not particularly conspicuous and looked no different from the surrounding structures.

Only the plaque hanging above the main entrance stood out. It bore the image of a hammer. Beneath the hammer seemed to be the pattern of a golden platform.

Only auction houses and blacksmith shops used hammers as their emblem. However, a blacksmith shop's hammer symbol was usually rougher, and unless it was nighttime, the sounds of hammering could be heard nearby.

Auction houses, meanwhile, usually chose the evening, since most people had finished their work by then and naturally had time to spare.

Wang Yan also stated their purpose in coming here: to buy Soul Tools for them to use.

He explained why, using the huge explosion during their inspection mission as an example. If they had possessed defensive Soul Tools, no one would have died.

Gongyang Mo, Dai Yueheng, Ma Xiaotao, and the others nodded, because they all wore Battle Armor.

That was why they had not lost arms or legs. But there were still requirements for strength, and people had died... After all, Battle Armor was something that substituted for Soul Bones. Before one had enough strength, other tools were naturally needed.

Even auxiliary-system Spirit Masters without combat power could fight with the help of Soul Tools.

As expected, Wang Dong left just as she had in the original story. Like Tang Ya, she did not want to use Soul Tools. One was the current sect master of the Tang Sect, while the other was Tang Chuan, the Tang Sect's founder. If Soul Tools had not caused the Tang Sect's decline, they probably would not have rejected them.

But there were no ifs. That was why neither of them liked Soul Tools and both strongly resisted using them.

"Then should I leave too?"

Jiang Nannan spoke up. She had no money to buy Soul Tools, but Wang Yan said that she was now part of the Shrek Seven Devils reserve team and a core disciple of the Spirit Department.

The academy would not only provide living expenses, but she would not need to worry about spending during this period either, Xu Sanshi added.

"Nannan, I'll buy one for you!"

"Get lost." Jiang Nannan glared at him, seeming to recall what had happened that night.

Having money really was impressive.

Still, she was quite happy inside. She had never expected joining the reserve team would immediately save her so much trouble.

"I'm not going either. I'll take Xiaotao around for a stroll," Mu Baobao said as well.

The Ice Jade Scorpion Left Arm Bone was something even the Ice Empress and Snow Empress would envy, but the targets for his future Soul Rings—

Were almost all more than a hundred thousand years old. He might not even have enough slots, so he had no desire to install a ten-thousand-year one.

The Death Blade carving knife?

He was not learning to be a Soul Engineer. As for the Snow Empress's embryo, could he really walk up and say it was the Heavenly Snow Woman, third among the Ten Great Beast Kings? No matter how he thought about it, that was impossible.

A trace of surprise appeared in Ma Xiaotao's eyes. Why had this guy suddenly become less annoying after one night?

"I don't object," she said, blushing.

She rarely used Soul Tools to begin with, at most carrying a few auxiliary ones. Especially after Mu Baobao had made Battle Armor, she used them even less.

Everyone wore expressions that said they understood, making this hot-tempered senior sister even more embarrassed. That night, she had fought five Soul Kings and one Soul Emperor at once, beating them until they fled. Yet now, she was this shy.

They vanished into the streets of Star Luo City and wandered across the back of this colossal beast. Both were unusually quiet. Neither was normally someone who could sit still: one had a fiery temper.

The other never stopped talking. Yet they simply walked in silence now, while Mu Baobao recalled the past.

From when they met, to when he was tortured, to...

"Damn it, why don't we have any good memories?"

He was speechless. It seemed that most of his interactions with Ma Xiaotao involved suppressing her Evil Fire.

And enduring it without falling... But if he traced things further back, this was one point where he resembled Tang San: their tragic past and present lives.

Comparing them now, it all felt like a dream. Ma Xiaotao was looking at him as Mu Baobao slowly spoke.

"After the Continental Advanced Spirit Master Academy Elite Tournament ends, I want to leave Shrek Academy and wander the continent." This decision was quite helpless too.

The current Shrek could not provide him with much at all. For an ultimate-attribute Martial Soul, cultivation speed was average from levels one to thirty and slow from thirty-one to seventy. On top of that, he was a blacksmith.

His Soul Power Level was lower than Ma Xiaotao's. Huo Yuhao had Sky Dream Ice Silkworm's million-year origin, while Tang Wulin had the Golden Dragon King's eighteen layers of seals.

Tang Buddha Ancestor later frantically fused Soul Rings and Soul Bones, on top of using immortal herbs and receiving divine trials as cheats.

He could not encounter those things, but he had three Martial Souls and still needed more than twenty Soul Rings and six major Soul Bones. Wouldn't his experience soar after all that? The four protagonists became gods at—

Twenty-four or twenty-five years old, which was only around ten years away, and it would definitely be accompanied by a continental catastrophe.

In other words, they only became lifelong Shrek Seven Devils because they were born at the right time and became saviors. At any other time, there would be countless people like stars in the sky who were stronger than the other six members besides the protagonist.

"Ah? Do you need me to accompany you?" Her face reddened. Clearly, she had known this day would come.

"What, can you bear to give up your studies?"

Mu Baobao smiled. "The path I'm taking is dangerous, and it isn't suited for you. On the contrary, the academy can provide you with all kinds of cultivation resources!"

That was the best choice. Remaining at the academy suited Ma Xiaotao better—or rather, most people better.

"Just wait for me to come back," Mu Baobao said solemnly. There was none of his usual unreliability. Ma Xiaotao looked at him suspiciously, feeling that this was some kind of promise.

She did not ask how long he would be gone. She only needed to know that he would definitely return. That... was enough.