Little Black, the Idiot

Two and a half months flew by in the blink of an eye, and Feng Baiyu truly felt the benefits brought by the Gold of Life.

Over the past two months, he had once again enjoyed the thrill of leveling up.

One year and one month after awakening, Feng Baiyu was already an eighteenth-level Soul Master.

Apart from someone with a Six-Winged Angel and an innate level of twenty, no one could call that slow!

"Only two more levels to go, but I still have more than half of my God Trial left!" Feng Baiyu watched his God Trial progress. Though it would be difficult to finish within half the allotted time, he could still try to complete it as early as possible.

"Bawk! Bawk!"

As Feng Baiyu cultivated, Little Black started bullying the animals and young Soul Beasts nearby again.

"Little Black!" Feng Baiyu reminded him, "Play all you want, but don't go wrecking the flowers and plants I've grown."

The Treasure Pavilion had sent those plants over, but they were all ordinary goods. They were pretty to look at, but had no other uses.

Still, Feng Baiyu hadn't looked down on them. After paying, he'd had them all transplanted into the courtyard.

It didn't matter if they were useless, but he couldn't dampen the other party's enthusiasm. Who knew? Maybe one day, by some twist of fate, they'd find something good.

Not to mention an Immortal Herb—even finding a single spirit herb would be great.

After hearing Feng Baiyu's words, Little Black became more careful as he played.

Little Black was Feng Baiyu's external Martial Soul, and he himself possessed considerable fighting strength.

Feng Baiyu had tested it before. In terms of attack and defense, Little Black was already no weaker than a weaker Thousand-Year Soul Beast.

The problem was that Little Black was a stats monster with utterly useless control. He had no idea how to make use of his own strength.

Whenever he bullied Soul Beasts, all he showed was a chicken's instinctive fighting style.

He scratched with his claws and pecked with his beak. In a real fight, he'd only be stronger than some Ten-Year Soul Beasts.

"Still not smart enough." Watching Little Black fight, Feng Baiyu murmured, "I just don't know when he'll be able to show his true strength!"

"Bawk! Bawk! Bawwwk!" Little Black called out to Feng Baiyu, flapping his wings as he flew over to him.

His glossy black feathers brushed against Feng Baiyu, as though he were showing his affection.

Feng Baiyu stroked Little Black's feathers. He felt that petting Little Black was more fun than petting a cat.

"Here, eat up." Feng Baiyu held out something that looked like an apple to Little Black.

It was a fruit produced by a Hundred-Year plant-type Soul Beast, and one of Little Black's favorite foods, according to Feng Baiyu's experiments.

Since Little Black was an external Martial Soul, Feng Baiyu worried that if he didn't keep him well fed, he'd go off and eat bugs.

Little Black ate happily, finishing the fruit in no time. Once he was full, he flapped his wings and flew down to play again.

"You've had your fill, but I'm getting hungry." Feng Baiyu rubbed his stomach and called outside, "Shui Guan, let's go out to eat!"

"Of course, young master." Shui Duanliu answered at once, without the slightest objection to Feng Baiyu's idea.

Feng Baiyu left Feng Mansion with Shui Duanliu, but he didn't go to one of Spirit City's restaurants. Their chefs were certainly good, but their cooking still fell short of the Soul King the Feng Family had specially recruited last year, whose Martial Soul was an iron wok.

Feng Baiyu was already sick of eating at home, so naturally he wouldn't go to those restaurants for their common fare.

What he wanted more was to try some food with a livelier atmosphere.

Like a child let out to play, he picked up all kinds of junk food that was neither nutritious nor healthy.

Shui Duanliu stood by, watching the young master. A smile appeared on his face.

"That's more like a child!"

"The young master spends all his time cultivating. He's probably forgotten he's only a seven-year-old boy."

Shui Duanliu had watched Feng Baiyu grow up. He had no wife or children of his own, and had long treated Feng Baiyu like his own son. He was certainly happy to see Feng Baiyu working hard at cultivation, but seeing him carefree and full of youthful spirit made him even happier.

"If, if she could become my niece's husband..."

Shui Duanliu was filled with hope. The family had sent word that his niece, Shui Bing'er, had awakened the Ice Phoenix Martial Soul, with an innate Soul Power of nine.

She couldn't compare to a prodigy like the young master, but she was still probably the most outstanding girl of her generation!

Shui Duanliu felt that, given his niece's circumstances, she should be able to catch the young master's eye.

As Shui Duanliu let his imagination run wild, Feng Baiyu once again arrived at the candied-hawthorn shop.

Since learning that the shop made good candied haws, Feng Baiyu had already visited four or five times. He didn't just come himself; every so often, he'd have a servant come buy some for him, too.

"Two skewers of candied haws." As he spoke, Feng Baiyu had already handed over the money.

"Certainly, Young Master Feng." The shopkeeper took the money with a smile, quickly prepared two delicious skewers of candied haws, and handed them over.

Feng Baiyu was already a regular. She knew exactly what he wanted.

Feng Baiyu took the candied haws and headed out without stopping.

"Shui Guan," Feng Baiyu asked, "I've been cultivating lately and haven't heard what's going on outside. Has anything big happened recently?"

As the steward of Feng Mansion, Shui Duanliu naturally knew all about what was going on outside, especially the things Feng Baiyu was interested in. Hearing his question, he answered promptly:

"Young master, aside from countless people joining forces to hunt the Phoenix, the only other major news is that several geniuses have appeared with a thousand-year Second Soul Ring."

"Three of them are descendants of Guangling Douluo, Mighty Lion Douluo, and Qianjun Douluo. Another is Hu Liena, a student at the Spirit City Academy." Shui Duanliu said casually, "Their Second Soul Rings are all just over a thousand years old, but even so, they've got plenty to brag about."

"There are really four of them?"

Feng Baiyu didn't think that was too few. He thought it was too many.

For the promising descendants of the Worship Hall elders, obtaining their Second Soul Ring at around ten years old was only to be expected. He hadn't expected three of the Spirit Hall's worshippers to have descendants of the right age.

Feng Baiyu wasn't surprised that Hu Liena had a thousand-year Second Soul Ring. Bibi Dong had made a deal with him for the sake of this disciple. As for Xie Yue—he'd simply obtained his Second Soul Ring too early to benefit from this.

Hearing Feng Baiyu's remark, Shui Duanliu continued telling him about what was happening in Spirit City.

If only one person had obtained a thousand-year Second Soul Ring, people would have thought it was luck. But now that four had, it meant someone had already figured out how to make it happen.

Recently, not only had people under Spirit Hall begun searching for the method, but the two great empires, with their well-informed networks, as well as numerous sects and noble families, had also begun looking for it.

Unfortunately, nobody knew how to do it. Even those who offered huge sums to question the four people and the forces behind them couldn't get anyone to talk.

Some people had managed to uncover a few clues and learned that the matter might have something to do with Whale Rubber. But they had no idea how to use Whale Rubber to strengthen the body.