Back to Nuoding

"Xiaogang."

"Farting like smoke, Hypnotic Sleep, Luo Sanpao!"

A cloud of yellow gas burst out.

The scene was hard to watch, but it had to be said: Luo Sanpao's Soul Skill was a great help when hunting low-year Soul Beasts.

Hundred-Year Soul Beasts would run if they encountered an opponent they couldn't beat. Once they escaped, they wouldn't be easy to track down in the Soul Hunting Forest.

Luo Sanpao's second Soul Skill had a hypnotic effect. Even if the hypnosis was resisted, it could still slow its targets down and make it harder for the Soul Beasts to escape.

Besides, this fart was an area-of-effect skill, so there was no need to worry about hitting the target.

Jiang Jiu and the others put on the masks Yu Xiaogang had prepared and were unaffected by the Soul Skill.

Nuoding Dean, meanwhile, was even more in sync with them. He summoned his Martial Soul, and as his Soul Rings lit up, he prepared to deal a serious blow to the Soul Beast before them.

"A Ghost Leopard over three hundred years old. It seems to be a Black-Striped Ghost Leopard, too," Yu Xiaogang said, giving his assessment.

Xiao Wu blinked. She could judge its age more precisely, but it was indeed still a little short of four hundred years. That was no problem.

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

Jiang Jiu frowned. Was it going to give him a speed-type Soul Skill?

But even if it did, that was fine. A hundred percent speed increase would still be great.

Agility-type Soul Masters were stuck with a weakness, but their main problem was insufficient attack power. No one would complain about being faster.

The Soft Bone Rabbit Martial Soul required close-quarters combat, so being able to close in on an opponent faster was a good option.

"Speed is indeed its greatest advantage, but its attack power is decent too. It can't compare with the Ghost Tiger, but it's still a fairly powerful Soul Beast," Yu Xiaogang replied.

"Jiang Jiu, come on. Give it the finishing blow."

It wasn't long before Nuoding Dean had everything under control.

As a Tool Soul Ancestor, he could easily deal with a Soul Beast that was less than four hundred years old. The only problem was controlling his strength: he couldn't kill the Soul Beast outright, but he also had to stop it from escaping or blowing itself up with its Soul Power.

With Luo Sanpao's Hypnotic Smoke, it was much easier. Once it was badly wounded, the Black-Striped Ghost Leopard passed out.

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

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

Jiang Jiu began absorbing the Soul Ring.

Xiao Wu watched from the side. Surprisingly, she didn't feel any "the leopard dies, the rabbit mourns" sort of sadness. Maybe it was because Ghost Leopards preyed on Soft Bone Rabbits.

There didn't seem to be anything left to agonize over in the future.

There were plenty of Soul Beasts that ate Soft Bone Rabbits as snacks.

Even...

Xiao Wu's face darkened slightly as she thought of something. Fortunately, everyone else was focused on Jiang Jiu and keeping watch on their surroundings.

Half an hour later, Jiang Jiu opened his eyes.

"Xiao Jiu, how did it go?" Xiao Wu hurried over.

"Pretty smoothly. Just like you thought."

Jiang Jiu thanked everyone again.

"Was it Waist Bow too? That's great!" Xiao Wu had vaguely pieced together a path.

Jiang Jiu himself was marveling at the influence of his Martial Soul.

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

Another was that, as he absorbed the Soul Ring and refined its power again and again, his body had naturally grown. In other words, he'd gotten taller.

It was normal for a young child to grow taller after absorbing a Soul Ring, but Jiang Jiu sensed a certain trend.

Like Xiao Wu, his legs would be longer than other people's at the same height.

In a sense, Beast Martial Souls could change a person's bone and muscle structure even without being possessed.

Fortunately, Jiang Jiu didn't have to worry about becoming deformed like some Body Martial Soul users.

"Perfect ending. Pack up and head home!" Nuoding Dean clapped his hands.

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

"That Ghost Vine? Sigh, I really was born to toil."

They joked all the way out of the Soul Hunting Forest, and their hunt was finally over.

A few days later, on the Nuoding Academy sports field.

Jiang Jiu's morning runs were taking longer and longer.

Of course, in return, the distance he ran each week had improved by leaps and bounds compared with six months earlier.

Also, after Jiang Jiu obtained his First Soul Ring, his strength, speed, reflexes, and other attributes all improved. His athletic performance suddenly shot up another notch.

There was no sign of a plateau for now, which left Jiang Jiu feeling rather conflicted.

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

Unless he could cultivate while running.

Could he do that?

It seemed even Soul Saints needed to sit in meditation and focus their minds when cultivating.

There wasn't much he could do about it for now, so he could only keep going. If he needed to increase his running distance, then he'd have to keep increasing it—at most, he could run faster to shorten the time as much as possible.

But it was about time to start strength training too. His cardiorespiratory fitness and physical reserves were sufficient.

"Xiao Jiu, come on!"

Xiao Wu walked over carrying Jiang Jiu's bag. The thrilling clothes-snatching battle was about to begin.

After Jiang Jiu obtained his First Soul Ring, he finally had the credentials to compete with Xiao Wu on equal terms.

They could begin sparring in earnest and put everything Jiang Jiu had learned over the past six months to the test.

Aside from their private lessons, where they practiced for real, these "sparring matches" were also part of their daily lives.

For instance, they might use Soft Techniques to snatch clothes, as they were doing now, or use their chopsticks to fight with Soft Techniques over a meal.

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

One attacked, one dodged; one locked on, the other broke free. They traded moves, having the time of their lives.

Well, Xiao Wu was the one having fun. Jiang Jiu was still taking it seriously.

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

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

"Still better than you stuffing the bag inside your clothes yesterday." Jiang Jiu headed straight for the bathhouse without another word.

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

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

"Hmph."

She had no comeback. She'd been laughing too hard at the time and hadn't reacted quickly enough.

When it was time for breakfast, Xiao Wu went on the offensive. During their chopstick duel, she picked all of Jiang Jiu's noodles out of his bowl.

Of course, afterward, Jiang Jiu was the one who ate the bowl with two portions of noodles.

"I hereby announce that this event is canceled."

"Why?"

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

"All right. Eh, Xiao Jiu, why are we heading out of the academy? Are you taking me shopping? Yay!"

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

Jiang Jiu had grown taller then and needed new clothes.

Though Xiao Wu had tried her best to advise him, Jiang Jiu had still mainly bought loose-fitting clothes.

"Then what are we going to do?"

"Look at houses."