Heaven Dou City was an ancient city with no towering skyscrapers.
More than five months had passed since Yang Fan began studying Soul Spirit techniques under Leng Yaozhu at the Spirit Pagoda Headquarters. He had smoothly completed the fusion of his third Soul Ring and broken through to the thirty-first rank, becoming a Soul Elder.
Thanks to the repeated trials he had undergone in the Spirit Ascension Platform over the past six months, his Soul Rings had now reached the remarkable configuration of "black, black, black."
Soul Masters and Soul Spirits were one. Soul Spirits could not only evolve, but also continually increase their age. As they grew stronger, they would also feed enormous amounts of energy back to their Soul Masters.
It was thanks to the energy Mirror Moon returned to him when she broke through the ten-thousand-year mark that Yang Fan had been able to reach the thirty-first rank so quickly, despite devoting part of his attention to studying Soul Spirits.
Thanks to Teacher Leng's help, Leng Yaozhu, as the Spirit Pagoda's vice tower master, had taken Yang Fan straight to a high-level Spirit Ascension Platform that had not yet fully opened to the public so he could advance his Soul Rings. Yang Fan kept Teacher Leng's kindness in mind.
Though he was only a nominal disciple, his treatment over the past six months had been no worse than that of a personal disciple.
Mirror Moon was Yang Fan's Soul Spirit, a Silver Mirror Beast. At first, he had wanted to name her Little Mirror, thinking that a cheap name would make her easy to raise.
But Na'er had insisted, "I don't care what you think. I'll decide what I think." She had nagged him for a whole week, claiming the name didn't sound nice.
After leafing through the Federation dictionary for several days, she had finally patted her little head and named Little Mirror Mirror Moon.
Little Mirror was a traitor, too. With Na'er as her backer, she refused to come out unless he called her Mirror Moon.
It wasn't that he, Yang Fan, feared Na'er's "threats." It was simply that he, Yang Fan, was a Soul Master who didn't hold grudges against his Soul Spirit. Mirror Moon it was, then. It was only a name.
After Mirror Moon had provided him with his third Soul Ring, she hadn't disappointed him. As expected, she had granted him the Soul Skill Martial Soul Replication!
With this Soul Skill, Yang Fan could replicate Na'er's Silver Dragon Spear or Leng Yaozhu's Phoenix, then pair it with his second Soul Skill, Soul Skill Replication.
At last, he had gained decent frontal combat ability!
What he replicated could never match the original, but he was more versatile.
With these two Soul Skills, his Martial Soul was no longer limited by his Monocle.
For these two Soul Skills, the age of the Soul Ring determined their effect, while his mental power determined how many he could hold.
A ten-thousand-year Soul Ring could replicate eighty percent of the original's power, while his Spirit Sea Realm mental power let him store three Soul Skills and Martial Souls at once.
(One hundred thousand years: one hundred percent; ten thousand years: eighty percent; one thousand years: sixty percent; one hundred years: forty percent. Each level of mental power adds one.)
The Martial Souls Yang Fan had replicated were the Silver Dragon Spear and Fire Phoenix, while the Soul Skills were Fire Element Enchantment and Bathing Fire Phoenix. He kept one replication slot each for Martial Souls and Soul Skills in case of need.
Although he could delete a replication and then make another, the process had a twenty-four-hour cooldown. It was better to keep the slots for adapting to unexpected situations.
It was Friday. He had finished all his internship work in Heaven Dou City for the week and planned to go back to see Na'er and his master.
An internship was a rite of passage for every Spirit Transmitter.
Theoretical study, mental cultivation, and practical experience.
Even Leng Yaozhu's disciple couldn't escape it.
But it wasn't a big deal. At Leng Yaozhu's instruction, he had been assigned to intern in Heaven Dou City, not far from Shrek City.
He really did have a connection with Heaven Dou City.
Compared to the daylong journey from Eastsea City to Shrek City, the trip from Heaven Dou City to Shrek City in the southeast took less than half a day.
So every Friday, Yang Fan went back to see Na'er and study under his teacher, Leng Yaozhu. Then, on Sunday night, he took the train back to Heaven Dou City.
Nine to five, five days on and two days off.
He was finally enjoying the benefits he'd never had in his previous life.
And the buddies he'd made while interning at the Spirit Pagoda here in Heaven Dou City were all talented in their own way. He absolutely loved it here.
He summed up his senior colleagues' "four noes and two direct" approach: "I don't know, I'm not clear, I have no idea, it wasn't me. Go straight to slacking off at work and straight home after."
They had taught him how to skive, and the seasoned Heaven Dou Spirit Transmitters had distilled the art of making money into a theory: if the Spirit Pagoda paid you five hundred Federation coins a day and you did five hundred coins' worth of work, that was earning your wages. But if you only did three hundred coins' worth of work, that was making money.
All in all, Yang Fan had enjoyed his time at the Spirit Pagoda. He'd met a few goofy friends and learned all sorts of things he hadn't known.
Unfortunately, the half-year period was nearly up.
He probably wouldn't be back until six months later, and he still hadn't figured out how to say goodbye to Na'er and his master.
Yang Fan had already told Di Tian and Bi Ji, using the excuse that the elders in his plane were summoning him home and he would probably have to leave for half a year. The story was half true, and it could also help prove that he had a plane coordinate.
After wearing the mask he'd crafted for himself in this world for so long, even he seemed to believe it. He hadn't meant to deceive them, but he had to give them a suitable explanation.
Otherwise, after agreeing to work together for six months, he'd disappear with their Dragon God Reverse Scale before giving them the coordinate?
If he made Di Tian angry enough, wouldn't he detonate the Dragon God Reverse Scale with a secret technique and ruin everything?
He didn't think Di Tian would be willing to detonate one of the few Dragon God relics still left in the world, and he also doubted whether the Dragon God Reverse Scale could truly be detonated across a timeline.
After all, in the fantastical world of Douluo, crossing time and space was no easy feat.
But Yang Fan wasn't willing to gamble unless there were special circumstances. It was something left behind by the Dragon God, after all. What if it had some hidden safeguard?
Even a ninety-percent chance of success was no different from failure in his eyes!
Gamblers don't get to keep a roof over their heads. (-人-.)
As Yang Fan thought, he checked the timetable and walked over to the appropriate platform entrance to join the queue.
There were still twenty minutes until ticket inspection, but for some reason, the line had already grown long.
"Why is the queue for a ride so long in every era?"
Yang Fan stood bored at the end of the line, took out his Soul Guidance Communicator, and started playing Snake.
This was the little game he had suggested making for Leng Yaozhu, hoping to earn some pocket money.
It wasn't that he couldn't rely on the Soul Beasts or Leng Yaozhu's resources, but as a modern person, he didn't like getting something for nothing.
Relationships had to go both ways: you help me, I help you.
Before he could secure a Small Plane of his own, it was best to keep his dealings with the Soul Beast faction to a minimum. And with Qiangu suppressing her, Leng Yaozhu wasn't having an easy time either.
So Yang Fan had come up with a plan: he would provide the ideas, Leng Yaozhu would put them into practice, and he would receive a share of the profits. It was a win-win plan: it could help his master through her difficulties while earning him some pocket money.
As someone from a later era, he thought the best and safest investment—one least likely to fail to take root—was games.
The gaming industry was still in its infancy at this time. After all, the technological tree revolved mainly around Soul Masters. The battles in the Spirit Ascension Platform and the virtual combat system secretly developed by the Federation were far more appealing to Soul Masters than ordinary games.
But there were plenty of ordinary people in this era!
The Sun Moon Continent, Douluo Continent, Heaven Dou Continent, and Star Luo Continent together had hundreds of millions, perhaps even over a billion, people. Even if each person spent just one Federation coin, the total would be astronomical.
With his foresight and Leng Yaozhu's connections, they had successfully launched Tetris!
Of course, on Douluo Continent, it had to follow local customs and be called Spirit Transmission Blocks.
The blocks displayed different Soul Spirit designs depending on the chosen outfit. That was also how the little game made money.
It was probably the earliest game of its kind in this era. Even the celebrity industry didn't seem to have developed until ten thousand years later. The pace of development in Douluo had always been a mystery.
Yang Fan planned to start small and quietly make a fortune. When others began to follow suit, he would bring out more enticing themes like Golden Martial Soul Mining Shovel and Spirit Soul War Against Soul Beasts...
He kept these plans in Leng Yaozhu's secret treasury. They, along with the potential Yang Fan had demonstrated, had improved her opinion of him considerably.
He had probably gone from an average-talented playboy to a fairly talented business genius.