Meeting the Protagonist Group

"Didn't you just try that?" Qingxi poured two cups of hot water and replied without looking up.

Dugu Yan recalled the move from earlier and shook her head, putting the immature idea out of her mind.

As expected, some things couldn't be judged by level.

"Your dishes, honored guests." The server brought the dishes out one after another. "Also, the rabbit takes a while to roast, so you'll have to wait a bit longer."

"That's fine. As long as it's roasted well," Qingxi replied.

The two picked up their chopsticks and began to eat.

"By the way, Master. Do you have any connection to Spirit Hall?"

At the table, Dugu Yan asked curiously.

Back then, she had only used the Body Tempering Pill Formula her master gave her on her friends. As for the cultivation method, her master had said that people with different spiritual roots couldn't cultivate it, and might even suffer cultivation deviation.

But before long, Spirit Hall had come out with an identical formula.

Dugu Yan was a little displeased—not because her master had given the formula to someone else, but because she disliked Spirit Hall.

"Mm... I gave it to them." Qingxi kept her head down and ate. The last few years of roughing it in the wind and sleeping in the open had been hard on her.

"Why? Spirit Hall is an evil power like that. They run rampant and bully others, suppressing the two great empires..." Dugu Yan stood up, indignant.

"And then?" She lifted her eyes slightly to look at the indignant girl. The clarity in her gaze left Dugu Yan unable to get another word out.

"So they're bad people?"

Qingxi swirled the wine in her cup, her eyes deep.

They were sitting in the farthest corner, and their voices were fairly low. There were only a few scattered tables occupied in the whole place, so they didn't need to worry about anyone overhearing them.

"All I know is that they help commoners awaken their Martial Souls for free, take in orphans, and spread a formula that appealing across the continent, all for the cost of just one Silver Soul Coin."

The basic cost of buying medicinal ingredients.

That Body Tempering Pill Formula wasn't especially profound; it simply involved many different medicinal ingredients.

She didn't think a power like that was evil.

"When the empire thrives, the people suffer; when it falls, the people suffer! You're still young, and your perspective is too narrow. You're looking at Spirit Hall only from the nobles' point of view, not from the people's. But on this continent, the ones who suffer and toil, with no hope of ever rising above their station, are the commoners."

Whether it was the inheritance or awakening of Martial Souls, most of it belonged to great families with inherited powers. Commoners could hardly ever awaken Martial Souls, and even when they did, they usually had Trash Martial Souls.

The two great empires weren't even willing to help commoners awaken their Martial Souls.

So she had left that cheap adoptive father of hers a written formula to test the waters.

"Those who cultivate the Dao must enter the world and understand its truths. You should go and see this mortal world for yourself, as an ordinary person."

Qingxi swirled the wine in her cup. She did have something even better—an art that would let even ordinary people without spiritual roots cultivate into Martial Masters—but now wasn't the time to bring it out.

This continent was far from peaceful. If she brought it out lightly, it would only lead to heresy or war.

The one hundred thousand years of inheritance at Slanted Moon Three Stars Cave had been refined by generation after generation, keeping the essence and discarding the dross, until it became a sacred place of the Dao.

"I..." Uncertainty flickered in Dugu Yan's green eyes.

"Sit down and eat." Qingxi patted the stool beside her, calm and unruffled.

Dugu Yan let out a breath and sat down.

"Let's get one thing straight first. After we finish eating, come with me to find my fifth Soul Ring."

"Don't worry." Qingxi picked up a piece of dry-pot rabbit. The rabbit meat was fried crisp, mixed with Sichuan peppercorns and chili peppers, and tasted especially good.

Just then, a group of people entered through the door.

At the front was a burly, middle-aged man with black-and-white hair, nearing forty. Four boys and three girls followed behind him, all around twelve to fourteen years old.

As if sensing something, Qingxi paused with her wine cup halfway to her lips and lifted her eyes to one boy and one girl in the group.

A Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast and a soul from another world with the bloodline of a beast-person?

"Master, what's wrong?" Noticing Qingxi's odd behavior, Dugu Yan spoke quietly. She, too, had noticed the group entering the room.

Noticing the two women looking their way, the chubby boy behind the others brightened. Beauties!

One was a mature beauty, curvy in all the right places, and the other was a cool, delicate little girl with a beauty mark between her brows. They'd be a real thrill to play with.

When Tang San saw those jet-black eyes, his heart suddenly skipped a beat for some reason. He furrowed his brow, almost imperceptibly.

He used the Purple Demon Eye, but she looked no different from an ordinary girl. The woman beside her, on the other hand, was entirely enveloped in a faint green glow.

"Nothing." Qingxi looked away and took a sip of clear wine.

Since it wasn't her concern, she didn't intend to interfere.

Still, it was bold of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast to run into the human world.

"Mm." Dugu Yan nodded and stopped looking at them, too.

"We'll stay here tonight and set out tomorrow morning. You'll cover your own lodging and meals." After the middle-aged man at the front got a room, he went upstairs without paying any attention to the others.

The members of the protagonist group got rooms at the front desk, then prepared to find a place to eat.

"Boss Dai, let's sit over there."

The chubby boy had been itching to go. He picked a corner seat near the master and her disciple.

"Waiter, bring us a menu." Once they were seated, Dai Mubai, at the head of the group, spoke up. "It's my treat today. Eat as much as you like. Think of it as a welcome banquet."

"Boss Dai is awesome! Then I won't hold back." Ma Hongjun cheered. His chubby cheeks jiggled as he grinned, and his eyes narrowed into slits.

The server brought over a menu, and he ordered more than a dozen dishes before stopping.

After taking his seat, he kept casting lecherous glances at Dugu Yan, especially at her more prominent features.

Dugu Yan's expression darkened. Her hand tightened slightly around her wine cup, anger flashing across her face.

His gaze made her feel sick.

She immediately wanted to get up and beat the dead-fatty to a pulp, but just as she was about to move, Qingxi held her back.

"Don't fight in a place where people are eating."

Dugu Yan snorted and released her Soul Power. Four Soul Rings—two purple and two black—appeared around her, carrying a potent aura of poison. "You dead fatty! Keep looking, and I'll poke your eyes out!"

Everyone at the neighboring table was stunned—not by the Soul Power Dugu Yan had displayed, but by her two purple and two black Soul Rings.

After all, Dai Mubai himself was a thirty-seventh-level Soul Elder, and he was considerably younger than Dugu Yan. He was confident that his future achievements would surely surpass hers.

"T-two purple and two black..." Oscar spoke in a trembling voice. Even Ning Rongrong, who had been keeping her head down, lost in thought, raised her head.

They had never seen a Soul Ring Configuration like this before.

Tang San couldn't help looking surprised. He remembered his teacher clearly saying that the ideal Soul Ring Configuration was yellow, yellow, purple, purple, and black, and that exceeding the age limit would cause the body to explode.

How could this be...

Dugu Yan snorted and withdrew her Soul Rings.

She felt a little smug. Haven't seen anything like it, you bumpkins?

Ever since she absorbed that drop of spiritual liquid, her Soul Rings had undergone a complete transformation. Her first and second Soul Rings had evolved directly from Hundred-Year Soul Rings into Thousand-Year Soul Rings. So, for her third Soul Ring, she had tried absorbing a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring—and unexpectedly succeeded.

"Hmph, what's there to be proud of?" Xiao Wu linked her arm through Tang San's and snorted. "In my eyes, Third Brother is the strongest."

A trace of warmth flashed through Tang San's eyes as he ruffled Xiao Wu's fluffy hair.

"Your roast rabbit is here, honored guests." Just then, the server came out of the kitchen carrying the roasted rabbit and set it on Qingxi and Dugu Yan's table. "Enjoy!"

"You two!" Anger flashed through Xiao Wu's eyes when she saw this. She stood up, wanting to teach the two women eating rabbit a lesson.

"Xiao Wu." Tang San held her back and shook his head at her.

Something told him not to provoke those two people—especially the green-haired woman in the green-and-blue dress. The poison on her was powerful enough to make his heart tremble.

"Hmph!" Xiao Wu snorted, but still listened to Tang San and sat back down.

"Like it's anything special." Ma Hongjun had been startled into turning around and lying facedown on the table by the intense poison aura around Dugu Yan. After a while, he muttered aggrievedly, "I was only looking. So stingy..."

He'd been with more women than he could count on both hands. If that woman hadn't used poison, he would've forced himself on her.

"She's only a lowly Soul Ancestor. What's there to be so arrogant about?" The chubby boy rolled his eyes disdainfully and raised his voice.

"Dead fatty, keep that up and you'll die between a woman's legs sooner or later." Dai Mubai patted Ma Hongjun on the shoulder, then cupped his hands toward Dugu Yan. "My brother's young and doesn't know any better. I hope you two can forgive him. I'll cover your bill today as an apology."

They were both beauties, after all. He still had to show them some respect.