Team Building

Ning Rongrong chose a place that looked expensive at a glance. The waitresses who showed them to their table and served them were all top-notch.

"Order whatever you want. It's on me."

In the private room, Ning Rongrong waved the red card in her hand.

She'd brought it with her when she slipped out of the house. As long as they weren't somewhere particularly remote and impoverished, she could use her card.

Although high-level Soul Masters could carry plenty of Gold Soul Coins with them thanks to Storage Soul Tools, using them for transactions was still too much trouble. The banks on the Douluo Continent had filled that gap quite nicely.

The currency was still copper, silver, and Gold Soul Coins, but at higher levels, there were all kinds of bank cards representing different sums of money, such as a black card worth ten thousand Gold Soul Coins. The Red Card in Ning Rongrong's hand could even be used to pay for purchases directly.

Jiang Jiu had no idea how this real-time card payment system worked. It might involve some very advanced Soul Tool designs, or perhaps it was operated through some very down-to-earth manual labor.

Jiang Jiu didn't care about that. All he knew was that Ning Rongrong was rich, and that she could actually spend her money—not the kind of wealth you could only look at.

He had to make sure to stay friends with Ning Rongrong.

"Xiao Jiu, this is so good. You should try some."

Jiang Jiu gave a slight nod as he ate the food Xiao Wu picked up with her chopsticks and offered him.

There was a good reason it was expensive. The quality of the ingredients and the care taken in preparing them were in a class of their own, nothing like the meals they'd had at the Nuoding Academy cafeteria or the Blacksmith Shop.

Then he thought about the cafeteria at Shrek Academy. Its food was plain, sure, but the main problem was that it wasn't very nutritious.

The best thing in the Shrek Academy cafeteria was probably the eggs.

Maybe they could find a restaurant in Suotuo City and arrange for regular takeout?

There was no way their food could be worse than what they got at the Blacksmith Shop.

"You two are really close," Ning Rongrong said, looking a little envious.

Though she had two Titled Douluo grandfathers who doted on her so much that no one dared to mess with her, she really didn't have any friends her own age.

"Of course. I'm Xiao Jiu's master!" Xiao Wu blurted out.

Then she thought about it. Their relationship really had improved after she'd offered to be Jiang Jiu's master, even if the main reason at the time had been that she wanted to share Xiao Jiu's bed.

"Really?" Ning Rongrong grew interested. As if remembering something, she rubbed her index finger against her cheek. "Oh, right. Your Martial Souls are the same, aren't they?"

"So you're master and disciple, not relatives?"

When two Soul Masters of similar age and with the same Martial Soul were so close, Ning Rongrong's experience told her that they were most likely related.

It was fairly common to see situations like that in major sects. Outside of sects, they were more often twins or something similar.

But Xiao Wu and Jiang Jiu looked nothing like relatives.

Xiao Wu had clearly crossed over from cute into the vivacious young lady type, though even her height and figure couldn't quite hide her original air.

As for Jiang Jiu, there was nothing to say. He was so handsome in a classic, heroic way that he looked like the type to stun people from childhood to old age. Even Ning Rongrong felt a little inferior.

"That's right! I worked so hard to teach Xiao Jiu for six years." After saying that, Xiao Wu glanced at Jiang Jiu without thinking.

Oh no. She'd gotten a little carried away!

His chopsticks were up!

"Teacher Xiao Wu, you've worked hard."

Seeing how meek Xiao Wu looked, Jiang Jiu couldn't help but smile.

He wondered what he'd even done. How had Xiao Wu trained herself to act like this?

"No, no, it wasn't hard at all." Xiao Wu shook her head vigorously, then quickly polished off the food Jiang Jiu had picked up for her.

Watching them, Ning Rongrong immediately understood what it meant to hold the real power in a family. From the looks of it, she could only believe half of what Xiao Wu said from now on.

But there was still an honest person at the table.

"Could you teach me, too?" Zhu Zhuqing, who had been quietly keeping her head down and eating, spoke for the first time.

Conversation was a skill. People who didn't talk much could easily bring a chat to a dead stop, and Zhu Zhuqing was showing signs of doing just that.

"I can pay you, or offer you something else. Anything, as long as I can manage it." Zhu Zhuqing looked at Xiao Wu and Jiang Jiu, adding earnestly.

Her expression was serious and her words sincere, but honestly, the timing was off, and it came across as a little rude.

But still, as the saying went, this was a world that cared far too much about looks.

Given Zhu Zhuqing's cool, stubborn face and the fact that they'd be classmates for the next few years, Xiao Wu found it hard to brush her off.

"Um, during the trial earlier, I thought you did pretty well. You understood your own Martial Soul, and your timing when you attacked was good."

When Zhu Zhuqing first made her move, she hadn't managed to break through the opponent's defenses, and Zhao Wuji had soon sent her flying. But that wasn't Zhu Zhuqing's fault. Zhao Wuji was simply too overpowered an opponent.

"Compared to you two, I'm nowhere close."

The "you two" Zhu Zhuqing mentioned was, in truth, only aimed at Jiang Jiu.

It was normal that she couldn't compare to Xiao Wu, since Xiao Wu was a Soul Elder. Jiang Jiu, though three levels above her in Soul Power, shouldn't have been that much stronger. In reality, however, it wasn't even close.

"But what I taught Xiao Jiu was the Soft Technique. It's for throwing people." Xiao Wu mimed the movements with both hands. She was starting to understand what Zhu Zhuqing wanted to learn.

"Throwing people?" Zhu Zhuqing frowned. "Learning to throw people can give you this kind of strength and speed?"

Though Zhu Zhuqing had muttered it under her breath, Xiao Wu heard every word.

"The Soft Technique is my fighting style. Xiao Jiu trained his own physical fitness."

Xiao Wu grabbed Jiang Jiu by the sleeve and ran her hand all the way up from his cuff to his shoulder.

"Look at these firm muscles and smooth lines. Hehe, I have them too."

Jiang Jiu was speechless. He slapped Xiao Wu's hand away. His arm circumference was a sore point.

Maybe it was his natural genes, maybe it was the influence of his Martial Soul, but Jiang Jiu had always struggled to build muscle in his upper body, even though he'd reached a terrifying weight on the Bench Press.

And after he hit his growth spurt, his muscles had stretched out. In his clothes, he looked just like someone who'd never trained.

His lower body, on the other hand, was excellent as always—or maybe a little too excellent. Perhaps that was the fate of a Soft Bone Rabbit?

Still, having astonishing leg strength was a good thing. It was better than having no area where he excelled.

"Wow, your arms are beautiful!" Ning Rongrong was very encouraging, and the way her eyes shone made it clear she wasn't pretending.

Ning Rongrong touched her own soft upper arm, then looked at Jiang Jiu's fair arm with its elegant muscle lines. She wanted to touch it!

There was absolutely no way she'd agree to work out herself, but she was more than happy to enjoy the results of someone else's training.

Xiao Wu coughed. Today, she'd learned that too many words could lead to trouble. She'd better steer the conversation back on track.

"Xiao Jiu ran every day for six years without sleeping or taking a break, no matter what. It's only natural that he's this fast now."

Jiang Jiu: "?"