Punishment Over

This should be enough for you to feel the academy's sincerity, right? If this still can't win you over, what can?

Treasure Pavilion? That could work. Let the Treasure Beast take a look. Maybe it could dig some gold out of a pile of junk.

"Compared to the Treasure Pavilion and becoming a core disciple, I'd rather have special privileges at the Beast Arena."

Yan Shaozhe's eyes immediately lit up.

He was finally making demands. They weren't afraid of him wanting things; they were afraid he wanted nothing. How else could Shrek win him over?

"Of course, no problem. I'll speak to Old Gong later. You can just go straight there. Tell him whatever you need, and he'll agree."

Ling Tianchen raised an eyebrow slightly. As expected of master and disciple—their promises were exactly alike.

"Anything I ask for?"

"Of course. I can't guarantee anything else, but Shrek's Beast Arena is absolutely among the finest on the continent."

"With the Star Dou Forest at its back, it has a vast supply of high-level soul beasts. Could it really not meet your cultivation needs?"

In Yan Shaozhe's eyes, Ling Tianchen probably only wanted to temper himself through battle.

With his strength, ordinary soul beasts would be of little use to him. At most, he would challenge some particularly old soul beasts.

As for doing anything to the Beast Arena itself... that possibility never even crossed his mind.

"That's wonderful. I won't ask for much. As long as I'm allowed to use a secret technique to extract the bloodline of any soul beast I defeat first, I'll return the corpses to the academy afterward. How about it?"

"What? You want to kill those soul beasts? How can that be allowed?"

"Every single soul beast was brought out of the Star Dou Forest by Shrek disciples risking their lives. They're extremely precious. If even one went missing, Old Gong would be heartbroken for ages."

"What's strange about that? In a beast fight, it's life or death. If I lose control and accidentally kill a soul beast, that's perfectly normal, isn't it? Just treat it as an accidental killing, then. Of course, I can kill them on purpose too, Dean Yan~"

"Go talk to Old Gong about it. He's the one who'll be heartbroken anyway."

Yan Shaozhe simply couldn't be bothered to deal with it anymore and kicked the ball over to Gong Changlong.

"And what exactly is this secret technique you mentioned for extracting bloodlines? It doesn't seem like a normal soul master's method. As far as I know, only evil soul masters possess such techniques—draining a soul beast's blood, extracting its soul to use as a beast soul, and so on."

Ling Tianchen truly admired Yan Shaozhe's train of thought. Scorpion Tiger Douluo Zhang Peng would be criticized for draining a little blood for the rest of his life, yet Yan Shaozhe's own disciple repeatedly lost control because of her evil fire without being strictly disciplined. Wasn't that a little hypocritical?

"You wouldn't understand. It's one of my ultimate talents. I can absorb soul beast bloodlines to strengthen my own."

He casually made up a lie.

"There's such a benefit? What a pity. My Bright Phoenix has both light and fire attributes. If it were a single attribute, perhaps it could reach the ultimate level too..."

You actually believed that?

It seemed Shrek's previous three ultimate soul masters had all been useless. They had not even comprehended their ultimate talents.

Beyond simple, pure cold and heat, his ultimate talents also possessed the attributes of creation and destruction.

The talent of creation allowed him to drain an enemy's life force while freezing them with the Ice Phoenix. Whether he used it to nourish himself or grew all sorts of Cthulhu-like things on the enemy's body was entirely up to him.

Naturally, that powerful vitality also granted him an almost immortal constitution. As long as he did not die on the spot, he could slowly recover. He could also grant life force to others, of course, but he was not that charitable.

The talent of destruction meant that when he attacked others using the Fire Phoenix martial soul, his attacks carried not only ultimate fire but also the attribute of destruction. It had an immense armor-piercing effect against all kinds of defenses and could even ignore defenses altogether.

And if someone was struck by the power of destruction, it would cling to them like a parasite gnawing at the bone, following them like a shadow. It was practically impossible to remove completely.

Its only flaw was that he could not use both talents at once. However, Ling Tianchen had been continuously developing his martial souls. He was researching how to release both martial souls simultaneously, or go a step further and fuse them to unleash a self-created martial soul fusion skill.

He had already achieved some preliminary results. He believed the issue would be fully resolved before long.

"If there's nothing else, I'm really leaving. Dean Yan, remember to notify the Beast Arena. Don't have me thrown out as an unrelated outsider."

"Go on, go on."

Yan Shaozhe waved him away.

Only after Ling Tianchen's figure had completely vanished at the end of the corridor did he mutter under his breath, "Come to think of it, if a soul beast's bloodline is extracted, wouldn't the corpse lose much of its value? Then what would I even want the corpse for? Ah, whatever. None of my business..."

Yan Shaozhe then turned toward the silent Ma Xiaotao beside him with a knowing smile.

"Xiaotao, well done."

"What are you talking about, Master? It's not what you think."

Ma Xiaotao waved her hands repeatedly, her gaze darting away as a rare, girlish shyness appeared on her face.

She denied it aloud, but her feelings were complicated.

Even she herself did not know what kind of relationship she and Ling Tianchen had now.

Judging from how he had left without even looking at her, she clearly had not made her way into his heart.

That left her feeling somewhat regretful.

If she could, she naturally wanted to keep him all to herself, but that was obviously unrealistic.

Then again, perhaps her place was the most special. The other girls might not get to experience Ling Tianchen's rough treatment.

What other women likely saw was his gentle, refined facade. What she saw, however, was his true face—unconcealed and utterly unrestrained.

She unconsciously pressed her legs together, her unfocused gaze settling on empty air as her thoughts began to wander wildly. Her supple, willow-like waist gave a faint, involuntary sway.

"I understand."

Yan Shaozhe wore a maternal smile. A lone man and woman had spent so long together in one room—he simply did not believe nothing had happened.

Now that Ma Xiaotao's cultivation problem had been resolved, he could finally enjoy some peace for a while.

"Nothing happened! Ling Tianchen entered deep meditation the moment he came in. He didn't wake up for an entire month. Where would we have found the time?"

As she spoke of it, her tone unconsciously carried a trace of genuine regret.

She had personally experienced the wonderful effects of that thing and had originally wanted to help him produce some more. Yet an entire month of deep meditation had slipped past just like that. It felt as though she had lost a billion gold soul coins.

"Is that so? Then your evil fire still hasn't been resolved?"

Yan Shaozhe found it hard to believe.

"Yes, I—we were busy... Forget it. Anyway, there just wasn't time."

Ma Xiaotao waved her hand vaguely.

"For now, it's only temporarily suppressed by the chill he gave off while cultivating."

"Then isn't that even better?" Rather than worrying, Yan Shaozhe smiled even more happily and patted her shoulder. "Doesn't that mean you'll have plenty of chances to interact with him in the future? You've only known each other for a short time. Take things slowly and get to know each other better."

Ma Xiaotao's eyes lit up. Right—her evil fire not being completely eradicated was actually a good thing.

If it had truly been solved once and for all, she would have no reason to approach him anymore. She did not believe someone with Ling Tianchen's personality would take the initiative to seek her out.

"Thank you, Teacher. I'll go find him right now!"

"Stop." Yan Shaozhe unhurriedly uttered two words, watching his disciple instantly go from ecstatic to wilted.

"Have you gotten something wrong? Your offense was far more serious than his. His confinement lasts one month; yours lasts three. While your evil fire is temporarily suppressed, stay here and cultivate properly. Don't waste this rare opportunity."

"Once your evil fire problem is completely resolved, you can naturally represent the academy in next year's Continental Elite Soul Master Tournament. Don't bring shame upon Shrek."

"Understood, Teacher."

Ma Xiaotao's shoulders immediately slumped. She trudged back to the Ten-Thousand-Year Profound Ice Bed, looking like a flower wilted by frost.

Two more months. Without Ling Tianchen, she would have to return to that dull, moldy life from before.

She sighed. The days truly felt like years.