Return to Nuoding

"Xiaogang."

"Fart like smoke, hypnotize and slumber, Luo Sanpao!"

A puff of yellow gas sprayed out.

Although the scene was hard to keep a straight face for, it had to be said that this soul skill of Luo Sanpao's was very helpful for hunting low-year soul beasts.

Century-year soul beasts would run if they couldn't win, and once they escaped, they were not easy to track down in this Soul Hunting Forest.

Luo Sanpao's second soul skill had a hypnotic effect; even if the hypnotic efficacy was resisted, it could still serve to slow the target down, making it difficult for the soul beast to escape.

Furthermore, this fart was an area-of-effect skill, so there was no need to worry about accuracy.

Jiang Jiu and the others put on the masks Yu Xiaogang had prepared, remaining unaffected by the soul skill.

The Nuoding Dean, showing great tacit understanding, summoned his martial soul, his soul rings lighting up as he prepared to heavily injure the soul beast before them.

"A three-hundred-year-old Ghost Leopard, and it seems to be a Black-Striped one," Yu Xiaogang said, stating his assessment.

Xiao Wu blinked; she could judge it more precisely, but it was indeed still a bit short of four hundred years. It didn't matter, though.

"Black-Striped Ghost Leopard? Sounds like a speed-type."

Jiang Jiu frowned. He hoped it wouldn't grant him a speed-type soul skill.

But if it did, it wouldn't be the end of the world; a one-hundred-percent speed boost wouldn't be bad either.

While agility-attack types were often mocked, the main issue was usually a lack of attack power; no one would ever think having more speed was a bad thing.

Since his Soft Bone Rabbit martial soul required close-quarters combat, being able to close the distance to an opponent faster was a decent choice.

"Speed is indeed its greatest advantage, but its attack power is quite good as well. Although it can't compare to a Ghost Tiger, it is still considered a fairly powerful soul beast," Yu Xiaogang replied.

"Jiang Jiu, come, give it the final blow."

Before long, the Nuoding Dean had finished his part.

As a tool-soul master, he could easily handle a soul beast under four hundred years old. The only problem was controlling his strength; he had to avoid killing the beast outright while also preventing it from escaping or committing suicide via soul power detonation.

With Luo Sanpao's hypnotic smoke, it was much easier. Once heavily injured, the Black-Striped Ghost Leopard simply passed out.

Taking out the dagger he carried, Jiang Jiu killed the Black-Striped Ghost Leopard.

A faint yellow light appeared, gradually forming a yellow ring.

Jiang Jiu began to absorb the soul ring.

Xiao Wu watched from the side, unexpectedly feeling no "grief for the leopard," perhaps because Ghost Leopards had a habit of preying on Soft Bone Rabbits.

It seemed there was nothing to agonize over in the future.

There were far too many soul beasts that treated Soft Bone Rabbits like snacks.

Even if...

Not knowing what she was thinking of, a rare trace of gloom crossed Xiao Wu's face, though fortunately, the others had their attention focused on Jiang Jiu and the surrounding perimeter.

Half an hour later, Jiang Jiu opened his eyes.

"Xiao Jiu, how is it?" Xiao Wu leaned in.

"Quite smooth, just as you thought."

Jiang Jiu thanked everyone in the circle once more.

"Is it also Waist Bow? That's great!" Xiao Wu vaguely discerned a path.

Jiang Jiu himself marveled at the influence of his martial soul.

Being able to draw Waist Bow from the Black-Striped Ghost Leopard's skill pool was one thing.

Another was that as he absorbed the soul ring and refined its power over and over, his body had undergone natural growth—in other words, he had grown taller.

It was normal for a child to grow taller while absorbing a soul ring, but Jiang Jiu sensed a certain trend.

Just like Xiao Wu, his legs would be longer than others of the same height in the future.

In a sense, a beast martial soul could alter a person's skeletal and muscular structure even without possessing the body.

Fortunately, Jiang Jiu didn't have to worry about reaching the deformed levels of some body-type martial souls.

"A perfect conclusion, pack up and head home!" The Nuoding Dean clapped his hands.

"I'll have to trouble you again in the future," Yu Xiaogang squeezed out a smile.

"That Ghost Vine? Sigh, I really do have a life of toil."

They left the Soul Hunting Forest while joking around in a relaxed and happy mood, bringing this soul hunt to an end.

A few days later, on the Nuoding Academy playground.

Jiang Jiu now required more and more time for his morning run.

Of course, correspondingly, his weekly mileage had also seen a qualitative leap compared to half a year ago.

Furthermore, after Jiang Jiu obtained his first soul ring, his strength, speed, reflexes, and other aspects had all improved, causing his athletic performance to suddenly surge by a large margin.

Unable to see any bottleneck in sight, Jiang Jiu felt quite conflicted himself.

Continuous progress was naturally a good thing, but on one hand, he couldn't quantify the accumulation of fatigue, and on the other, endurance training was visibly eating up more and more of his time, especially the long-distance running during the accumulation phase.

Unless he could manage to cultivate while running.

Was that even possible?

It seemed that even for a Soul Saint, cultivation required focused meditation to concentrate one's spirit.

With no solution for the time being, he could only leave it as it was; he would have to continue increasing the running distance as planned, at most speeding up his pace to shorten the time as much as possible.

However, it was about time to start strength training, as his cardiovascular and physical reserves were sufficiently built up.

"Xiao Jiu, come here!"

Xiao Wu walked over carrying Jiang Jiu's bag; the tense and thrilling battle for clothes was about to begin.

Only after obtaining his first soul ring did Jiang Jiu finally have the capital to compete on equal footing with Xiao Wu.

They could finally begin sparring in earnest, which also served to verify everything Jiang Jiu had learned over the past six months.

Beyond the hands-on private lessons, such "sparring" was integrated into their daily lives.

For instance, using the Soft Technique to snatch clothes like they were doing now, or engaging in Soft Technique contests using chopsticks during meals.

The difference from before was that Jiang Jiu was now the one primarily on the offensive.

The two of them attacked and dodged, locked and escaped, parrying each other's moves and having a grand time.

Well, mostly Xiao Wu was having fun; Jiang Jiu remained quite serious.

Finding an opening, Jiang Jiu used a clever burst of force to shake the clothes out of the bag and snatched them into his hand.

"Xiao Jiu, you're cheating!" Xiao Wu protested.

"It's still better than you stuffing the bag inside your clothes yesterday." Jiang Jiu headed toward the bathhouse without another word.

"What's wrong with stuffing it in my clothes? You could have just reached in and grabbed it." Xiao Wu hopped along behind him, stepping on Jiang Jiu's shadow.

"What's wrong with shaking the clothes out? You could have snatched them back."

"Hmph."

Having no reason to retort, she had been laughing too hard at the time and hadn't reacted quickly enough.

By the time they reached breakfast, Xiao Wu began to exert herself, using her chopsticks to snatch every single noodle from Jiang Jiu's bowl during their contest.

Of course, Jiang Jiu ended up eating the bowl that had been prepared with two portions of noodles afterward.

"I declare this project canceled."

"Why?"

"The noodles got soggy and don't taste good anymore."

"Fine. Hey, Xiao Jiu, why are we heading outside the academy? Are you taking me shopping? Yay!"

"Didn't we just go shopping a couple of days ago?"

Jiang Jiu had grown taller at the time and needed new clothes.

Although Xiao Wu had tried her best to guide him, Jiang Jiu had still mostly bought loose-fitting styles.

"Then what are we going for?"

"To look at houses."