Invitation to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well (1)

"Surround it! Don't let it escape!"

In the Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast Zone of the Star Dou Great Forest.

A pink Ten Thousand Year Chicken Crested Serpent had been reduced to the point where everyone wanted to beat it to death. Yet the ones who had driven it into this state were not a dozen Soul Saints, nor a dozen Soul Emperors or Soul Kings, but a group of Soul Ancestors and Soul Elders.

If this Ten Thousand Year Chicken Crested Serpent could speak, it would surely rage at the inhuman beasts chasing behind it: What the hell is wrong with this world? A bunch of Soul Ancestors and Soul Elders are fiercer than Soul Kings and Soul Emperors. Have they stopped being human?

Unfortunately, it could not speak.

Even more unfortunately, speaking would not save it from death.

Not far from the Ten Thousand Year Chicken Crested Serpent.

Behind that group of Soul Ancestors and Soul Elders.

Ye Qingcang had just placed a freshly extracted soul bone into a Crystal Storage Box. Thoughtfully, he also affixed a label to it bearing a name.

"The twenty-fourth soul bone." Violet took the storage box and placed it into a large chest. Inside this priceless chest lay another twenty-three Crystal Storage Boxes, along with the soul bones contained within them. They came in all shapes and corresponded to different body parts, but every one of them was ten thousand years old. "Twelve more, and we'll reach the quota."

"That depends on their abilities." Ye Qingcang waved a hand, dismissing the Alchemy Array. His casual manner made Yu Xiaogang, Ning Rongrong, and the others green with envy. "A hunting area two hundred kilometers in diameter. Ten days. However many Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast corpses they bring back, that's how many soul bones I can extract. So whether we reach the quota and everyone gets a soul bone depends on them, not me."

Ning Rongrong suddenly understood how Blue Tyrant Academy had become rich enough to rival a nation.

So far, she had identified three cash cows.

The first was the Spirit Cuisine Room, which brought in mountains of money every day.

Its hourly income was measured in tens of thousands.

What was most infuriating was that the Spirit Cuisine Room used nothing but scraps!

The second was soul tools, which commanded exorbitant prices.

Blue Tyrant Academy did not sell its truly good items. Just one Fifth Level Storage Soul Tool could fetch several million Gold Soul Coins at auction.

The third was the soul bones before her.

There were few soul bones on the market, but that did not mean they were cheap. On the contrary, it was precisely because there were so few that they were exceptionally valuable. A Ten Thousand Year soul bone was worth no less than the auction price of a Fifth Level Storage Soul Tool. In fact, because a Ten Thousand Year soul bone could enhance combat strength while a soul tool could only make life more convenient, Ten Thousand Year soul bones were even more sought after.

Were several hundred million Gold Soul Coins a lot?

Not at all!

Not even a little!

It was the sort of money a farmer would earn only after farming for a hundred million years without eating or drinking, while selling all his grain.

It was also the sort of money a merchant could earn only after decades of thousands of years of trade, making all the right choices and managing painstakingly.

It was even the sort of money a family business could earn only after operating safely and steadily for centuries.

But!

That was the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's annual income!

Net income!

The entire Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect worked diligently for a whole year, only to discover in the blink of an eye that they could not compare to a single wave of Ye Qingcang's hand in one day. Ning Rongrong could hardly be blamed for feeling unbalanced. Anyone who witnessed this would feel the same.

Still, just as the world itself was unfair.

Fairness was only relative, never absolute.

Ye Qingcang possessed power and knowledge, so earning money came easily to him. Ning Rongrong possessed status and the appraisal ability bestowed by her martial soul, so she never had to worry about food or clothing. The essence of unfairness was fairness, and so-called unfairness was merely an excuse people gave themselves for desires like jealousy, greed, and hatred. They hoped to turn unfairness into fairness through that excuse, but in truth, this so-called fairness was merely another, even more unfair kind of unfairness.

However...

"Twenty-four plus twelve, thirty-six..." Yu Xiaogang noticed something wrong with the numbers. "If thirty-six soul bones are the quota, there are forty-three students in total. Who will be the seven left without one?"

The more Yu Xiaogang thought about it, the less willing he was to accept it.

Taking advantage of the lull before the twenty-fifth Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast was brought back, he rose and walked toward Ye Qingcang, Violet, and Xiao Wu.

When he arrived, his expression was far from pleasant.

His attitude was cold, and his tone stiff.

Suppressing the greed in his heart, he pompously lectured Ye Qingcang, "Shrek Academy has already merged with Blue Tyrant Academy. As Erlong's adopted son, you should treat everyone equally. Besides, a hunting area two hundred kilometers in diameter is still too small. Since you have a method to extract soul bones from Soul Beast corpses, you should be more ruthless. Remember: if Heaven grants you something and you do not take it, you will suffer for it!"

Ye Qingcang did not react.

It was as though he had not even seen Yu Xiaogang.

Violet did not react either.

Holding the Jade Seal Machine, she watched the Tom and Jerry cartoon playing on it with great interest, as though she had not heard Yu Xiaogang at all.

But Xiao Wu could not ignore Yu Xiaogang!

She did not have Ye Qingcang and Violet's temperament!

"Mind your own damn business!" Xiao Wu controlled her eyes, pulling her gaze away from the ridiculous cat and mouse and fixing it on the face of this "Grandmaster," who looked as though someone owed him millions of Gold Soul Coins. Anger flared in her pink pupils.

"Does an adopted son owe you something?"

"Adopted son this, adopted son that—where are your manners?"

"A hunting area two hundred kilometers in diameter is too small?"

"Are you planning to kill every Soul Beast and extract all their soul bones?"

"I've disliked you for a long time. You look down on this and sneer at that all day. No one pays attention to you, so can't you just find somewhere cool to stay?"

"You just have to jump out and disgust everyone!"

She admitted that Ye Qingcang was cruel, slaughtering Soul Beasts for soul bones. But she also admitted that his cruelty had limits. Despite having the strength to kill three Ninety Thousand Year Thousand Jun Ant Kings alone, he did not personally hunt Soul Beasts. Instead, he allowed Blue Tyrant Academy's students to hunt them on their own. Even the range had been limited to an area two hundred kilometers in diameter. He had not completely destroyed the Star Dou Great Forest's ecosystem. Even if Blue Tyrant Academy's students killed every Ten Thousand Year Soul Beast within that area, it would not affect the vast Star Dou Great Forest.

Throughout this process, all Ye Qingcang had done was extract the soul bones. If the other students were incompetent and could not catch Ten Thousand Year Soul Beasts, then there would not be so many soul bones.

Ye Qingcang had given the order.

But the responsibility did not rest entirely on Ye Qingcang.

As Ye Qingcang put it: "Every day, no fewer than a hundred thousand Soul Beasts die in the mouths of other Soul Beasts in the Star Dou Great Forest. We only come here once in a while. We have the ability to indulge ourselves a little and kill a few dozen more Soul Beasts. Will that have a lasting impact on the balance of the Star Dou Great Forest?"

Therefore, she could not criticize Ye Qingcang.

But her refusal to criticize Ye Qingcang did not mean she would refrain from criticizing Yu Xiaogang, whom she had disliked from beginning to end. Even if Yu Xiaogang was Tang San's teacher, his miserly, opportunistic behavior was utterly beneath contempt.

This time, even if Liu Erlong, his adoptive mother, stood with Yu Xiaogang, and even if Tang San stood with Yu Xiaogang, she would still choose to firmly support Ye Qingcang. It was her own insignificant show of support.