In the blink of an eye, an hour passed.
Outside the window, night had completely fallen, and candlelight glowed from every household.
During that time, the other diners had gradually left, until only Lin Jing remained.
But no one came to hurry him along. They all waited quietly downstairs.
Because of the clothes Lin Jing wore, worth five Gold Soul Coins, and his appearance, so unlike a village child, everyone firmly believed he was a noble.
Lin Jing no longer felt the sting of spending the money when he'd left the clothing store. Those five Gold Soul Coins had been well spent.
The Whale Rubber on the grill had melted. It no longer looked like flowing gold.
It had become a black lump, a bit like a big glob of black snot.
It also gave off a fishy stench.
Lin Jing felt it was probably ready. He picked up the lump of Whale Rubber and held it beneath his nose to smell it.
"Ugh, it stinks."
Lin Jing covered his nose, reeling from the stench.
What if it smells awful but tastes delicious?
He tried to convince himself and put the Whale Rubber straight into the System Space.
Then he looked at the untouched food on the table and took out a few skewers, placing them on the grill.
He put the rest into the System Space.
The Whale Rubber and the skewers wouldn't take on each other's smells, since time stood still inside.
The Whale Rubber had no time to release its stench.
He polished off the food in a few quick bites, then walked out of the small room.
By the time he reached the first floor, only the waiter who had brought him there remained.
Lin Jing greeted him, paid the bill, and headed for the nearest hotel.
Since it was near the city gate, in a remote area, the prices were very cheap.
Lin Jing rented a room for three days. After telling the owner not to let anyone disturb him, he went upstairs and entered Room 201.
He didn't know how long refining the Whale Rubber would take and was afraid of running out of time, so he booked a few extra days.
Three days should be enough.
After all, this was only a five-hundred-year-old piece of Whale Rubber.
Sitting cross-legged on the bed, he took the melted Whale Rubber out of the System Space.
It was still giving off heat, and its fishy stench instantly filled the entire room.
After bargaining with himself for a while, he steeled himself and shoved it into his mouth.
The heat hit him before the stench did.
"Pff! Pff! Pff!"
Lin Jing opened his mouth and fanned at it repeatedly.
Then the fishy stench and slimy texture hit him, nearly making him retch.
He fought down his nausea and swallowed it without chewing.
As soon as the Whale Rubber reached his stomach, a fierce burning sensation spread through Lin Jing's body.
He broke out in a sweat all over. Luckily, he'd taken off the clothes worth five Gold Soul Coins beforehand, or it would have been a huge loss.
After feeling the heat for a moment, he immediately circulated his Soul Power and began refining it.
Time trickled by. The burning inside Lin Jing grew stronger, then gradually weakened.
By now, only a gentle warmth remained.
Apart from the unbearable heat, nothing else unusual had happened.
He was only a six-year-old child.
Even on Douluo Continent, where children matured early, they couldn't mature that early.
As a result, the Whale Rubber's medicinal properties had no use.
In the end, they could only leave his body along with his sweat.
After a while, Lin Jing's eyelashes twitched, and he slowly woke up.
The first thing he did was check the sky outside.
It was still dark, just as it had been before he began refining the Whale Rubber.
It gave Lin Jing the odd feeling that he'd only just closed his eyes and already woken up.
"System-chan, how many days did I spend absorbing it?"
Lin Jing asked the system directly. He had no way to tell for himself, and without asking the system, he'd have to go ask the front desk downstairs.
[Beep! The host spent two days absorbing it.]
"Two days? That's about what I expected."
Lin Jing tested his body's strength. He was definitely much stronger than before he'd taken the Whale Rubber.
He felt he should be able to absorb a Spirit Ring of seven hundred years, maybe even one just shy of eight hundred.
Just then, his stomach growled.
Lin Jing's stomach was protesting, but he ignored it.
He moved his stiff body around, then toppled onto the bed and fell asleep in a second.
The next day, just after dawn, a dazzling shaft of sunlight woke Lin Jing. He hadn't covered the window,
He grumbled to himself for a while, but his stomach soon began protesting again.
That finally got him out of bed. This hotel offered free breakfast, and it would be a waste not to eat it, he thought, heading straight for the dining room.
The hotel's breakfast wasn't much, but at least it was free.
After filling his stomach, he headed for the Mercenary Guild in the east of the city.
The mercenaries at the Mercenary Guild were a bit more professional than those at the entrance to the Soul Hunting Forest.
At least they didn't resort to murder and robbery or forcing people to buy things.
That was because they were supervised by the Mercenary Association, established by the royal family. If anyone broke the rules, they would be wanted throughout the Heaven Dou Empire.
The guild had been established to help the Heaven Dou Empire produce more talented Soul Masters.
Lin Jing walked straight into the Mercenary Guild.
The Mercenary Guild occupied a tall building with only three floors.
The first floor was where clients looked for mercenaries and mercenaries took on Soul Hunting missions.
The second floor was where mercenaries registered and rested.
The third floor was where high-level missions were posted, such as capturing a powerful Soul Master fugitive.
After getting a general sense of how things worked, Lin Jing learned that there were two ways to hire mercenaries here.
The first was to hire a team exclusively, an extravagant option with a high price. The mercenary group would serve you alone and could find the most suitable Soul Beast.
The second was to join a group hire, which was more affordable. A mercenary group would generally take three clients who needed Spirit Rings, so the risk was higher.
That was because they had to protect three people at once—and this was with a relatively responsible mercenary group.
After thinking for a moment, Lin Jing nervously approached a mercenary group.
There wasn't a single person in front of their stall, which meant they could take on a solo client.
The group had five members: two women and three men. The two female Soul Masters both looked young.
As for the three male Soul Masters, they were middle-aged or older.
"Hello. How much would it cost to hire your group exclusively?"
Lin Jing asked, his expression innocent and endearingly naive.
He knew the charm of his A-grade, super-handsome face, so he had deliberately picked a group with two women.
That way, he could make the most of his looks.
The leader of the group was one of the two female Soul Masters.
Her voice was very sweet, which was quite at odds with her brawny appearance.
"Our group has five members, and we're all Soul Grandmasters. Two of us are above level twenty-five, so your safety is absolutely guaranteed. We also have a warrant from Spirit Hall."
"The fee is thirty Gold Soul Coins per person."
The female leader saw how young Lin Jing was and assumed he wanted to hunt a Soul Beast under four hundred years old, so that was the price she quoted.
"Miss, I want to hunt a Plant-type Soul Beast between six hundred and fifty and eight hundred years old. Is it still the same price?"
Lin Jing looked up at the female leader and blinked innocently.
"Between six hundred and fifty and eight hundred years old!"
Six hundred and fifty years was the minimum Lin Jing could accept. If possible, he wanted a Spirit Ring of around seven hundred and fifty years.
That should be the limit his body could withstand right now.
Before you continue