I Choose to Stay in the Clear Sky Sect

"Forty percent."

Ning Wuqian withdrew his fist.

The veins on the back of Tang Potian's hand bulged. He activated his Soul Power, and dark-red lightning patterns crawled over the Clear Sky Hammer. Thunder rumbled within the hammerhead, setting off a chain of explosions in the air.

Without using any soul skill, Tang Potian swung the hammer at the open ground using only his physical strength and that forty-percent boost.

The shockwave surged outward.

An ancient tree ten meters away, so thick it would take two people to encircle it, snapped cleanly through the middle. Wood chips flew everywhere.

Tang Potian drew back his hammer.

A genuine forty-percent increase.

This tough man of the Clear Sky Sect had shattered countless Soul Bones in his life. The Soul Beasts that had died beneath his hammer could form a mountain. He had seen no fewer than eighty or a hundred support-type Soul Masters.

Yet he had never seen a first Soul Ring capable of providing such a boost.

He stared at Ning Wuqian.

"Kid." Tang Potian smashed the Clear Sky Hammer into the dirt, cracking the ground. "Your body doesn't deserve that brain of yours. What a waste."

Ning Wuqian did not reply. That did not sound like praise.

He lowered his head and looked at his palm. That punch had been filled with power. His first Soul Ring had not merely given him a skill; it had comprehensively enhanced his physical abilities. The earth-element energy had altered his bone density. He could now punch a hundred-year Soul Beast to death without much trouble. The ironclad rule that support-type Soul Masters were frail and delicate did not apply to him.

Outside the Sky Curtain.

The Chat Group was in an uproar.

Outside the Worship Hall, several Soul Masters from support-type backgrounds gathered together, their throats dry.

[Chrysanthemum Douluo Yue Guan: The strongest first ring among modern support types is at most a hundred years. The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's ancestor starts with a thousand-year ring—this is rubbing the faces of future generations into the ground.]

[Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect Bone Douluo Gu Rong: It can stack, and it can even be applied to teammates from afar. If this were put into a young team, how many people would fight themselves bloody to get it?]

The commotion in the group only highlighted the true value of Ning Wuqian's first Soul Ring. What broke convention was not merely its age, but its complete overturning of how support-type Soul Masters fought.

Shrek Academy.

In the corner of the training ground, Ning Rongrong clutched the hem of her clothes.

Seven Treasures Glazed Tower. An earthy yellow glow. A forty-percent boost.

There was only one calculation in her mind. If her first Soul Ring had been a thousand-year ring, who among her peers would dare raise their voice at her?

She turned her head and glanced at Yu Xiaogang, who was slumped on the ground.

He had not even figured out the limit of a first Soul Ring, yet he spent every day using that set of theories like imperial decrees to pressure people.

Yu Xiaogang gripped his hair with both hands, his nails digging through his scalp. He repeated the same few words over and over.

"Four hundred and twenty-three years... The limit is four hundred and twenty-three years... How could it be a thousand years..."

Yu Xiaogang felt his scalp go numb. This was the work of his entire life—how could it be shattered so easily? The shock and bewilderment left him overwhelmed, while the powerless feeling of being useless spread through his entire body. After all, he had relied on these theories to package himself as a master.

Tang San stood some distance away, rubbing his temples. His face burned.

This was the master? Getting rubbed into the ground by some outsider in the Sky Curtain.

Ma Hongjun muttered softly beside him, "Boss Dai, I think this master's theories are less accurate than the blind fortune-teller at the village entrance."

Dai Mubai kicked him but said nothing.

Oscar leaned over. "Fatty, say less. Can't you see Third Brother's face has gone green?"

Inside the Sky Curtain.

Ning Wuqian put away his soul skill and returned to camp with Tang Potian.

The tent carried the scent of pine. Tang Potian took out several dull gray pieces of metal and slapped them onto the wooden table.

"Appraise them."

Ning Wuqian leaned forward. A tomb raider lived by his eye for valuables. Over the past few years, he had traveled far and wide, handling more burial artifacts than ordinary people had seen bricks.

He curled his index finger and tapped the Mystic Iron Mother Ore twice.

The sound was dull, without an echo.

"Mystic Iron Mother Ore. Three-thousand-year purity. Material for making Soul Tool casings." The words came out of his mouth immediately. His finger moved to the speckled stone beside it. "This piece here is Starfall Sand. It attracts lightning and pairs perfectly with mystic iron. Judging by the patterns on its surface, it's an associated ore dug up beneath a lightning-struck tree. These two materials would be worth quite a bit at auction."

Tang Potian nodded and pushed over another piece of dark-gold ore the size of a palm.

The ore's surface was pitted and utterly without luster.

Ning Wuqian pressed his fingertip against it.

His mind went numb, and his vision went dark.

He yanked his hand back. Cold sweat glued the clothes on his back to his skin as he panted heavily.

"Can't appraise it."

Tang Potian put the ore back into his robe.

"As expected. The item the master wants appraised is a hundred times more difficult than this. With your current abilities, you have not even touched the threshold."

Ning Wuqian said nothing. Just then, something living had seemed to burrow through his finger and into his mind. That was not ore. It was some sort of living aggregate of resentment.

Tang Potian changed the subject.

"Kid, let me ask you something."

"Do you want to stay in the Clear Sky Sect and work for the master, or go back to digging up dead men's graves?"

Tang Potian clasped his hands behind his back. "If you want to leave, I'll send you out of the forest right now. No one will force you to stay."

The tent fell silent.

Ning Wuqian lowered his head.

The Fire Domain that raised one three levels in seven days.

That defensive line at the edge of the Star Dou Great Forest.

The hundreds upon thousands of thousand-year Soul Beasts baring their fangs and claws beyond the barrier.

Without that defensive line, without Tang Potian and the others holding the front...

The living people outside—farmers, blacksmiths, people simply trying to live their lives—would have long since been devoured.

A tomb raider stole the possessions of the dead. Those burial goods had lain underground for hundreds or thousands of years, steeped in yin energy and deathly aura. The soil brought up by a Luoyang shovel was always bloody-smelling. He was used to dealing with the dead, used to calculating the human heart in pitch-black tomb passages.

Today, for the first time, he understood the weight of the words "living people."

Behind the defensive line were the lights of countless homes. There were commoners who did not possess even a trace of Soul Power.

He could leave. He could return underground and continue being that nimble-fingered grave robber. Once he earned enough money, he could buy a grand estate, marry several concubines, and live out the rest of his life in peace.

But he could not erase the bloodthirsty eyes of those Soul Beasts beyond the barrier from his mind.

Ning Wuqian raised his head.

"I'm staying."

Tang Potian's expression shifted slightly.

"The master did not misjudge you. Back then, you were the one who stopped that Old Li and kept him here."

"Your character is worth far more than that bit of talent you have."

The main hall of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect.

Ning Fengzhi rose to his feet and slapped the table.

"Good! Good that he stayed!"

His voice trembled.

"Our sect's ancestor should possess such courage! Anyone else would have grabbed the benefits and run long ago!"

Bone Douluo nodded heavily.

[Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect Ning Fengzhi: Our ancestor possesses unyielding pride, planning first for all living beings and only then for himself! A model for our generation!]

[Spirit Hall Qian Daoliu: Ning Fengzhi, that flattery of yours was so loud this old man could hear it all the way in Spirit Hall. Still, this kid has guts.]

Qian Daoliu was definitely not offering empty praise. The Star Dou Great Forest in the Sky Curtain was a true Soul Master's hell. Even its outskirts contained a vast number of thousand-year Soul Beasts; who knew what monstrous demons lurked in its depths? In any case, choosing to stay behind was unquestionably an act of immense courage!