Soul Hunting Operation

Soul Hunting Operation

No matter how deep the night was, tomorrow's sun would still rise on time.

No matter what stories unfolded tonight, they would be buried in this deep night. When tomorrow's sun rose on time, it would still be a new chapter, waiting for everyone to leave their own stories upon its pages.

A rapid knocking at the door woke Tang San.

It also woke Dai Mubai and the others sharing the dormitory with him.

Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, Oscar, and Tang San.

The four of them lived in a standard student dormitory at Blue Tyrant Academy.

Xiao Wu, Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and another unfamiliar girl, also students of Blue Tyrant Academy, lived in another standard student dormitory.

Blue Tyrant Academy had thirty dormitory buildings.

Each building was five stories high, with ten dormitories on every floor.

A standard student dormitory housed four people.

Ten dormitories meant forty people.

Five floors meant two hundred people.

Thirty dormitory buildings meant six thousand people.

Of course, excluding students who had yet to graduate, Blue Tyrant Academy certainly did not have six thousand students. At present, it had just over four thousand students. The reason those four thousand-plus students occupied all thirty dormitory buildings, with some places even proving insufficient, was mainly because of Blue Tyrant Academy's survival-of-the-fittest rules.

One building had fifty dormitories.

Thirty buildings had fifteen hundred dormitories.

Was that a lot?

First, according to Blue Tyrant Academy's class system, each class had one hundred students. If there were extra students, the surplus from each grade would be evenly distributed among the existing classes in that grade.

Second, the strongest person in each class served as class monitor and received a private room.

Below the class monitor were five committee members.

The Study Committee Member was the person with the highest Soul Power rank in the class. If the class monitor also had the highest Soul Power rank, the position went to the next person down.

The Soul Tool Committee Member was the person with the deepest research into Soul Tools within the class. The same principle applied: if the position conflicted with that of the class monitor, it went to the next person down.

The Martial Arts Committee Member was the person with the highest attainments in Stellar Martial Arts within the class. The same principle applied: if the position conflicted with that of the class monitor, it went to the next person down.

The Theory Committee Member was the person with the deepest research into martial souls, Soul Guidance Technology, and Stellar Martial Arts in the class. They served as an assistant to each class's teacher, effectively a teaching assistant.

In short, the king of talking and a theory master.

The Healing Committee Member was elected from among the students in the class who possessed support-type martial souls. Precisely because it was an election, most Healing Committee Members were pretty female students.

In short, the class beauty or class heartthrob.

The Study Committee Member, Soul Tool Committee Member, and Martial Arts Committee Member did not require anyone's approval. The Theory Committee Member depended on the homeroom teacher's decision, while the Healing Committee Member depended on the votes of all students in the class.

These five class committee members could enjoy the treatment of a two-person dormitory.

With more than four thousand students and one hundred students per class, there were over forty class monitors and over two hundred class committee members. That immediately took up more than one hundred and forty dormitories. Due to the existence of the Heaven, Earth, and Human Rankings, what should have been over one hundred and forty dormitories was reduced by roughly half, because the Three Rankings Students had all moved to Back Mountain. No matter how good a dormitory was, it could not compare to a villa. After deducting the remaining seventy-odd dormitories from the total of fifteen hundred, only fourteen hundred-plus remained. Those fourteen hundred-plus dormitories had to accommodate thirty-seven or thirty-eight hundred students, so crowding was perfectly normal.

If students had enough credits, they could also pay credits to enjoy the special treatment of a private room, provided there were vacant dormitories.

That was why Blue Tyrant Academy was so fiercely competitive.

Because everyone was a Commoner Soul Master.

Therefore, the strong naturally deserved better treatment.

The advantage of standard dormitories was that they were free.

The disadvantage was that having four people together was inconvenient.

Even those two hundred-plus class committee members were competing for private rooms. Naturally, the remaining three thousand-plus students went mad fighting over dormitories.

Once people had eaten fine grain, they no longer wanted to eat coarse chaff.

Tang San, Dai Mubai, Xiao Wu, Ning Rongrong, and the others had only joined Blue Tyrant Academy yesterday. They had not even had time to report to their classes, so even if they wanted private rooms or two-person dormitories, they had no way to obtain them.

They had also parted on bad terms last night.

Because of their respective teachers, Tang San and Ma Hongjun had fallen out. Dai Mubai stood with Tang San, while Oscar could only stand with Ma Hongjun.

Though they lived under the same roof, they were already united in appearance but divided at heart.

Hearing the knock, Dai Mubai, who was lying in the bunk above Tang San, irritably turned over and casually ordered, "Xiao Ao, go open the door..."

Ma Hongjun glared and raised a hand to stop Oscar, who was about to climb down from the top bunk.

They were both on the top bunk. Why should Oscar have to open the door just because Dai Mubai said so?

Why did Dai Mubai not go himself?

Ma Hongjun had plenty of flaws and shortcomings.

But he did have one virtue: loyalty.

He knew perfectly well that he could not defeat Dai Mubai or Tang San. Still, he gave a demonstrative snort and told Oscar, who was on the top bunk, not to come down. Putting on his slippers, he got up from the lower bunk and headed for the door.

Yet he secretly resolved that he would definitely move out of this dormitory someday. He could take Xiao Ao with him, but he absolutely had to separate from Tang San and Dai Mubai, those two no-good bastards, lest he catch whatever they had.

Fuming, he pulled open the door and saw Flender's stern face.

Behind Flender stood Yu Xiaogang, Zhao Wuji, and several other teachers.

The anger on Ma Hongjun's face instantly turned into a stiff smile.

The speed of that expression change caught Flender completely off guard.

He dared to be angry but did not dare speak, making Zhao Wuji and the others laugh.

Still, they had come on serious business, not to watch Ma Hongjun perform face-changing.

"Go tell Mubai and the others to gather downstairs at the teaching building immediately." Flender estimated the time and added, "Wear your school uniforms. You have ten minutes."

Since the door was open, Dai Mubai and the other three inside the dormitory had heard Flender's voice as well. Looking out through the doorway, they saw Flender, Yu Xiaogang, Zhao Wuji, and several other teachers from Shrek Academy.

In an instant, Dai Mubai, Tang San, and Oscar realized the urgency of the situation. They hurriedly dug out the school uniforms Blue Tyrant Academy had issued them yesterday and shut the door. After a burst of frantic commotion that was practically chaos incarnate, the four of them, having only washed their faces, rushed downstairs. On the way, they ran straight into Ning Rongrong, Xiao Wu, and Zhu Zhuqing, who were likewise bewildered and heading toward Blue Tyrant Academy's teaching building.

"You got notified too?"

"What happened?"

"Why the rush?"

Flender had explained things in a hurry, then turned and left.

Dai Mubai and the other four still had no idea why.

Seeing Ning Rongrong and the other two there only made them more confused.

Because males were forbidden from entering the female students' dormitory for any reason, and loud noise was prohibited within fifty meters of the dormitory buildings, Flender, Yu Xiaogang, Zhao Wuji, and the others had struggled to find a female student coming downstairs for morning exercise who was willing to relay their message. They had then spent quite some effort calling Ning Rongrong and the other two downstairs and explaining the details face-to-face. The rushed notification to Dai Mubai and the others afterward was because time had been delayed on Ning Rongrong's side. Thus, Ning Rongrong and the other two knew far more than Dai Mubai's group.

"It's not a major matter, but I don't know why the dean and the others are in such a hurry..." Ning Rongrong said as they walked. "Do you remember what Ye Qingcang said yesterday?"

"Enough with the suspense..." Zhu Zhuqing saw the unfriendly looks in Dai Mubai, Tang San, and Ma Hongjun's eyes, tugged Ning Rongrong's sleeve, and explained in her stead, "Didn't Ye Qingcang say yesterday that he'd reached level forty? We're gathering beneath the teaching building today because he's going to Star Dou Great Forest to hunt for his fourth soul ring."

"What does that have to do with us?" Dai Mubai could not understand. "With his strength, he can't possibly be asking us to back him up, can he?"

"Yeah!" Ma Hongjun scratched his head. "If any of us were level-thirty or level-forty Quasi Soul Elders or Quasi Soul Ancestors, it would make sense for us to go soul hunting with Ye Qingcang while we were at it. But nobody among us needs a soul ring. Why are we being called along?"

"Because of immortal herbs!"

"Because of the special significance of this soul hunting trip!"

"Because of the enormous rewards from this trip!"

After passing through the park ahead and walking along Flower Path, Ning Rongrong led them around the lake beside Pavilion in Water. The sparse figures in front of the teaching building were already visible. "According to the dean, Yu Xiaogang was the first to discover the soul hunting recruitment notice. If you brought your Jade Seal Machine, you can look it up in the community section. Ye Qingcang has called upon all students whose Soul Power is full but who have not yet obtained a soul ring to participate in this Soul Hunting Operation. The basic reward is a soul ring, the advanced reward is a soul bone, and the top reward is an immortal herb. He guarantees every student's safety. Yu Xiaogang was moved when he saw the notice and went to find Dean Liu Erlong, but Dean Liu Erlong refused. Left with no choice, he pulled our dean over to plead with her. No one knows what the dean and Dean Liu Erlong said in that room. They only know that our dean came out with an answer..."

"So the answer is that we get to go soul hunting with them?" Oscar thoughtfully described his fantasy. "Could it be that Dean Liu Erlong agreed to give us a soul bone? Or perhaps several soul bones?"

"I'm more concerned about the immortal herbs." Tang San, who had remained silent all along, finally spoke up, asserting his presence. "As far as I know, immortal herbs are extremely rare medicinal materials that can directly increase Soul Power. The reason immortal herbs are precious is that this effect of increasing Soul Power does no harm to the body and can instead strengthen one's foundation and nurture one's vitality. There's no need to mention soul bones—their boost to a Soul Master's strength is obvious to all. If Dean Liu is truly willing to part with a soul bone or an immortal herb, it would not be difficult to explain why the dean and the others agreed."

"Directly increase Soul Power?" That was Zhu Zhuqing.

"And strengthen one's foundation and nurture one's vitality?" That was Ning Rongrong.

"Even getting a soul bone would be nice." Dai Mubai, Ma Hongjun, and Oscar were all living in fantasy, already too excited to contain themselves.

They were not allowed to learn Stellar Martial Arts.

They were not allowed to learn Soul Guidance Technology either.

Yet what they lost in one place, they might gain in another.

"Master." As the Shrek Seven Devils hurried toward the entrance of the teaching building, Violet printed out the roster of participants for this Soul Hunting Operation atop the teaching building. "Your mother asked me to tell you that there should not be a third time. Also, this is a transaction between her and Flender. You only need to take them along to broaden their horizons. There is no need to give them any resources, including soul bones. And she wishes to apologize to you."

"There should not be a third time... So this is merely a transaction?" Ye Qingcang stood on the rooftop terrace with his eyes closed, feeling the breeze blowing against him. "It seems Flender is an honest man. He told the truth; otherwise, Mother would never have agreed to this transaction. If they want to follow, let them follow. I'm even somewhat looking forward to them trying something. With Yu Xiaogang's personality, he must be planning to use this forest trip to stir Mother's memories of the Golden Iron Triangle roaming the world back then. The only question is whether Mother can hold firm."

"If she cannot..."

"If she cannot, I'll be very disappointed..." Ye Qingcang interrupted Violet and looked down at the gathered group before the teaching building. "And very saddened!"

"I will not disappoint you, nor will I make you sad for me..." A trace of heartache flashed through Violet's eyes as she looked at Ye Qingcang's upright back. "Nor will I leave you with any worries!"

"You should live for yourself." After saying this, Ye Qingcang already knew how Violet would answer. He waved a hand, steering away from the heavy subject. "Everyone's here!"

Violet straightened up.

Her gorgeous Soul Tool light wings unfolded.

Since they were traveling far, she had already changed into the uniform of Blue Tyrant Academy's Enforcement Team: tactical boots, black trousers, and a brown long-sleeved vest. She had removed her tie and cufflinks, then put on a floor-length black-and-gold cloak. The upper half of the cloak was controlled by a zipper, while the lower half hung open for ease of movement. On its back was a dark red vertical sword mark, symbolizing both the enforcer's identity and the fact that this enforcer had hunted Evil Spirit Masters outside the academy.

Probationary enforcers who had never hunted an Evil Spirit Master also wore black-and-gold cloaks, but the vertical sword marks on their backs were white. Only after killing an Evil Spirit Master listed on a wanted notice could a probationary enforcer, upon turning in the mission, receive from Blue Tyrant Academy's Logistics Department a vial of blood dye extracted from an Evil Spirit Master's corpse and specially blended, which they could scatter over the black-and-gold cloak made from special materials to dye the mark red.

Ye Qingcang's outfit was identical to Violet's.

Only the cut differed.

If there was any distinction, it showed only on their cloaks.

Violet's cloak bore a Red Vertical Sword Mark.

Ye Qingcang's cloak bore a golden vertical sword mark.

Meanwhile, before the teaching building, the Blue Tyrant Academy students who had paid credits to participate in this Soul Hunting Operation were divided into three types according to their clothing: enforcers with Red Vertical Sword Marks on their backs, Three Rankings Students in platinum-white cloaks, and ordinary students with only school uniforms and no cloaks.

"Distribute the standard-issue Flying Soul Tools." If Violet's light wings were breathtakingly beautiful, then Ye Qingcang's ability to walk through the air without using Soul Power gave everyone only one direct impression: shock. "Students with Flying Soul Tools of level five or above may use their personal Flying Soul Tools. Those without Flying Soul Tools, or whose personal Flying Soul Tools are below level five, come over here to receive standard-issue Flying Soul Tools."

The enforcers in black-and-gold cloaks and the Three Rankings Students in platinum-white cloaks did not move at all. Only a handful of ordinary students stepped forward to collect standard-issue Soul Tools.

Dai Mubai, Ning Rongrong, Tang San, and the others were forced to enjoy the attention of the entire crowd.

"Obey orders, follow commands, and take responsibility for your own lives and the lives of the team." Holding the roster, Ye Qingcang gave the final summary. "This soul hunt has a total of fifty-two participants: forty-three students, eight teachers, and one private asset. Among them are one Titled Douluo, one Soul Douluo, three Soul Saints, and four Soul Emperors. The soul hunting period is expected to last one and a half months. Departing from Heaven Dou City, we will pass through Xilu City, Star Dou Great Forest, Sunset Forest, and Jialing Pass before finally returning to Heaven Dou City. Anyone with objections may withdraw..."

Ye Qingcang waited ten seconds.

When no one spoke, the level-seven Flying Soul Tool on his back erupted with light flames, and he shot into the sky.

One pair of differently colored light wings after another unfolded.

Some were feathered wings; others were light flames.

Everyone took flight.

Destination—Star Dou Great Forest!

Thank you all for your advice.

I didn't think it through while writing. The first figure was wrong, so everything after it was wrong too. It has been corrected; you can refresh and take another look. I won't make that mistake again. (*)