When the left leg bone of the Void Demon Leopard was brought before Lin Yao, he felt the soul imprint of his Ender Dragon Martial Soul grow slightly warm. The next moment, the Soul Bone was repelled a short distance by the Soul Power radiating from his body.
Du Weilun watched the scene unfold and furrowed his brow slightly. He had originally intended to give Lin Yao the Soul Bone, but seeing this, he knew he had tried to curry favor and gotten kicked in the teeth. He calmly said,
"Looks like your compatibility with this Soul Bone is terrible. Even if you fused with it, it'd be as painful as stuffing a watermelon up your nose. You'd be better off giving it up."
Lin Yao nodded. He hadn't thought much of this Soul Bone to begin with. When Du Weilun had introduced it, he'd even been too embarrassed to mention its age. It was obviously not very old; there was a high chance it was even younger than Wang Dong's ten-thousand-year Radiant Earth Dragon King Soul Bone.
Unless this Soul Bone had some exceptionally powerful special ability, Lin Yao wouldn't be able to forgive himself for using it. The Ender Dragon Martial Soul would probably slap him hard across the face twice in his dreams.
Lin Yao shrugged and said to Du Weilun, "Give it to Xu Ye. His Soul Power is the weakest among the three of us, and he needs a Soul Bone to improve his abilities the most."
Ye Guyi nodded. She didn't object to Lin Yao's decision at all, and she echoed his words to Du Weilun. "I agree with Lin Yao. Director Du, just give the Soul Bone to Xu Ye. He's teamed up with us before, so we're friends."
Xu Ye, who had been watching from the sidelines, was completely stunned. For a moment, he couldn't even process what Ye Guyi and Lin Yao had said.
For a student like him, who came from an ordinary family, Soul Bones were priceless treasures in the Soul Master World, no matter how old they were.
Yet the two of them had just casually given one away.
It was as if, to them, this Soul Bone were nothing more than a piece of junk.
Xu Ye's eyes immediately grew damp. Then he stammered, "Brother Lin, Sister Ye, you..."
Lin Yao patted Xu Ye on the shoulder, then reassured him, "I come from a great noble family in the Dou Ling Empire. If I want a Soul Bone, I can get a better one in no time. Ye Guyi's the same, so don't feel burdened by this."
The fact that Lin Yao had been named Prince Xuelin wasn't very well known. The Douling Royal Family had kept things quiet and proceeded cautiously, so they hadn't granted him a fief right away. Instead, they had promised to give him a proper prince's fief after he graduated from Shrek Academy's outer court.
Lin Yao didn't really care about it. The Dou Ling Empire wasn't like the Sun Moon Empire, the eventual winner, and being a prince didn't mean much to him. In fact, if he were given a fief, it would only tie him to the Dou Ling Empire's warship.
Then he'd have to overcome the Dou Ling Empire's long-standing poverty and weakness to strike at the Sun Moon Empire, a mighty power at the height of its strength. That would be no easy task.
After all, the military gap between the two countries could no longer be overcome with mere strategy. It was the difference between an adult and a child.
Whenever Lin Yao thought about this, he felt a little dazed. During these relatively peaceful years at Shrek Academy, besides cultivating and studying as usual, he also had to think carefully about how to strengthen the Dou Ling Empire.
Lin Yao wasn't an ungrateful person. The Dou Ling Empire had raised him all these years, giving him the confidence to turn down Soul Bones without a second thought.
If he could, Lin Yao didn't want the Dou Ling Empire to follow the original story's footsteps and become a country that was wiped off the map.
Xu Ye was looking at Lin Yao, but he didn't notice that Lin Yao was lost in thought. Instead, his gaze shifted back and forth between Lin Yao, Ye Guyi, and the Soul Bone.
After a long while, the taciturn young man suddenly picked up the Soul Bone. He put it away in his spatial pouch, then bowed deeply to Lin Yao and Ye Guyi.
"Brother Lin, Sister Ye, I, Xu, will never forget your kindness in giving me this Soul Bone. If you ever need me, no matter how far away you are, I'll come and do my part!" Xu Ye said earnestly to Lin Yao and Ye Guyi.
Lin Yao waved a hand at Xu Ye. "You don't need to keep this on your mind. If you do, it'll inevitably affect your cultivation of Soul Power in the future."
Looking at Lin Yao and Ye Guyi standing together, Xu Ye straightened up and suddenly said, "By the way, Brother Lin, Sister Ye."
Lin Yao and Ye Guyi both looked at Xu Ye, wondering what else he had to say. Xu Ye looked at them earnestly and said,
"Your little brother wishes you a lifetime of wedded bliss!!"
Silence. After Xu Ye said this, a long silence followed. Du Weilun was leaning against the desk, looking more shocked than anyone. Shrek Academy didn't forbid young love, but Xu Ye and the other two pulling something like this in front of the director of instruction made them the first in the academy's history.
During that silence, Du Weilun even wondered whether he should report this to Elder Xiu and have them study it and record it in Shrek Academy's history. Students openly challenging their teachers weren't uncommon at Shrek Academy. After all, they were all geniuses, each with their own pride, and their youthful restlessness was understandable.
But openly pulling a stunt like this right in front of the director was truly outrageous.
Xu Ye seemed to realize that something was off. When he saw Lin Yao start rolling up his sleeves, he immediately ran for the door.
"You're really asking for it today. Let me give you a good thrashing!" After a moment of silence, Lin Yao instantly summoned his Ender Dragon Martial Soul, activated every enhancement he could, and charged straight out of Du Weilun's office.
Ye Guyi followed right on Lin Yao's heels. The Angel Wings of her divine Angel Martial Soul spread behind her, echoing the black wings of Lin Yao's Ender Dragon. From a distance, they really did look like a perfect pair.
"If they could receive the blessing of Sea God's Fate, they'd truly make a divine couple," Du Weilun murmured to himself. Watching the three of them dash out of the office building and chase one another around campus, he seemed to glimpse his own younger self, full of youthful vigor and soaring ambition.
There was a time when he, too, had companions and a girlfriend, and they'd chased one another around over little things.
Du Weilun leaned against the window, lamenting how quickly time passed. But Xu Ye was in a completely different frame of mind...
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