Journey to Sea God's Pavilion, the Soul Bone Reward

"What's wrong with you...? Did I do something?"

"Why are you so hostile toward me?"

When Wang Dong first heard Li Qingming speak, he felt somewhat apologetic. After all, he had pinched him for no reason.

But when he heard Li Qingming say that he was hostile toward him, the apology on Wang Dong's face vanished at once.

He shot Li Qingming a fierce glare, tossed down his chopsticks, stood up, and stormed off in a huff.

Watching Wang Dong quickly retreat, Li Qingming opened his mouth, but ultimately fell silent.

Or rather, he did not understand why Wang Dong was angry, nor why he looked so upset.

Meanwhile, Sea God's Pavilion was already in an uproar.

Yan Shaozhe did not let Qian Duoduo's forceful poaching of a top talent from the Martial Soul Department into the Soul Engineering Department slide in the slightest.

Though both of them were old foxes, Qian Duoduo's temper was far too explosive to contend with Yan Shaozhe. He was thoroughly suppressed.

Seeing Yan Shaozhe shamelessly preparing to go back on his word, Qian Duoduo had no choice but to bring in a heavyweight.

With the arrival of Xian Lin'er, the dean of the Soul Engineering Department, Yan Shaozhe's momentum weakened almost instantly.

Even after completely losing the upper hand, however, he remained unconvinced and still refused to give up Huo Yuhao. Thus, they took the matter straight to Sea God's Pavilion.

Word of this had already spread throughout the academy, and quite a few students were discussing it.

There were two main figures in the matter: one was Huo Yuhao, and the other was Li Qingming.

By then, the fact that Li Qingming possessed an ultimate martial soul could no longer be concealed and was exposed.

The students might not have known, but the upper ranks certainly did. Or rather, it could no longer be kept from them.

With two ultimate martial souls, the Soul Engineering Department had gained an advantage instead. It was reasonable enough for each department to take one of them.

Yet Yan Shaozhe refused to yield in the slightest. On top of that, Mu En himself favored Yan Shaozhe, so in the end, Huo Yuhao remained.

Just as in the original timeline, Huo Yuhao was jointly nurtured by both departments.

As for Li Qingming—or rather, as compensation for him—Mu En agreed to let him choose a soul bone from Sea God's Pavilion.

Li Qingming did not yet know about this, though even if he had known everything, he would not have cared.

After all, his clone had nearly reached the level of a third-rank soul engineer, while Huo Yuhao, despite starting to study it from the beginning, had only barely reached the level of second-rank soul tools.

Moreover, the soul tool technology of the two sides was simply incomparable.

A third-rank soul tool at Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy included soul power shells, soul power bombs, and all kinds of auxiliary soul tools.

At Shrek Academy, however, there were only a few basic soul tool shells and soul-powered weapons. The gap between them was enormous.

Thus, Li Qingming truly had no interest in Shrek Academy's Soul Engineering Department technology. Even if they had asked him to join, he would have found an excuse to refuse.

At that moment, Wang Dong lay in the room beneath the covers. The lights were off, and the curtains were drawn.

Only Wang Dong lay in the dim room, his eyes filled with grievance.

As the door opened, Wang Dong turned his head slightly. He did not look at Li Qingming, merely pulling the blanket over his head.

Then, the blanket over his head was abruptly tugged away.

Seeing Li Qingming's face, Wang Dong's eyes were full of grievance. He was even on the verge of tears.

Li Qingming felt rather helpless, but could only shake his head with a wry smile. He raised his hand, and a cup of milk tea appeared in it, along with a freshly packed meal containing Wang Dong's favorite side dishes.

Seeing that Li Qingming had returned with food, Wang Dong froze for a moment before turning his head away again. This time, however, he did not cover his head, especially after noticing that Li Qingming had sat down on his bed.

Surprisingly, he did not feel displeased at all. He did not even have that earlier sense of fastidiousness, much less any aversion.

"All right, get up and eat. I might need to make a trip to Sea God's Pavilion later."

Li Qingming's expression was exceptionally gentle as he spoke.

Hearing his words, Wang Dong's eyes flew open as he looked at Li Qingming with surprise and uncertainty.

"What are you going to Sea God's Pavilion for?"

"You did so well this time. If they called you there, it shouldn't be anything bad, right?"

Seeing the undisguised concern and questioning in Wang Dong's eyes, Li Qingming merely shook his head calmly.

"It's nothing bad. It should be a good thing, actually."

"All right, get some proper rest. I'll go to Sea God's Pavilion, then come back to see you."

"No, no, who asked you to come see me?"

"I'm perfectly fine. I don't need you looking after me!"

Hearing Li Qingming say he would come back to see him, Wang Dong clearly misunderstood.

With a soft huff, he stood up and began pushing Li Qingming toward the door.

Li Qingming did not mind. After leaving the room, he saw Du Weilun standing there with an extremely strange expression and coughed lightly.

"Let's go, Director Du. Didn't the dean say I was to go to Sea God's Pavilion?"

"Ah, you two... Let's go."

"Yes, you're both still young. The academy does encourage free romance..."

Du Weilun hesitated as he spoke. He looked at Li Qingming with a peculiar expression, but ultimately did not continue.

Li Qingming had no idea what he was thinking.

Because of Wang Dong's Radiant Goddess Butterfly martial soul, most people knew that he was actually a girl, though not everyone did.

Other than the students, perhaps only Zhou Yi, Fan Yu, and a few others knew Wang Dong's true identity.

Under such circumstances, Li Qingming did not know whether Du Weilun knew or not. But regardless of whether he did, his words left both of them feeling awkward.

The atmosphere stalled for a while. Only after arriving at the entrance to Sea God's Pavilion, crossing the water by boat, and entering the pavilion did Li Qingming step forward and bow to Yan Shaozhe, who stood there with a proud expression.

Yet his gaze rested on Yan Shaozhe for only a second before he noticed the girl in the red dress standing nearby.

The girl looked at Li Qingming with some resentment. Ever since Li Qingming returned, he had never taken the initiative to find her, nor had he gone to the edge of Sea God Lake.

Li Qingming, however, found this baffling. After all, the only arrangement between him and Ma Xiaotao was that he would help resolve her evil fire. He had never said they needed to meet often or anything of the sort.

Since Ma Xiaotao had not come to find Li Qingming herself, Li Qingming naturally would not take the initiative to seek her out.

Both Du Weilun and Yan Shaozhe noticed the intensely resentful look in their disciple's eyes.

Du Weilun coughed awkwardly, feeling at a loss over what to do.

In the end, Yan Shaozhe could only point at Ma Xiaotao helplessly and introduce her after a moment of silence.

"This is my disciple, Ma Xiaotao. She'll take you into Sea God's Pavilion to choose a soul bone. This is the reward you are to receive."

"You should be able to fuse with a ten-thousand-year soul bone at your current level. If not, you can choose one with a higher age and keep it for now, then fuse with it later."

Yan Shaozhe looked at Li Qingming as he spoke. His attitude toward Li Qingming was far better than toward Huo Yuhao.

After all, Li Qingming was helping his disciple resolve the problem of her evil fire.

Especially after the improvements of the past two months, more than half of the evil fire within Ma Xiaotao had already been eliminated, and her martial soul had begun transforming toward a Holy Phoenix.

In particular, the sacred attribute in her flames now outweighed the evil attribute. This was what pleased—or rather, excited—Yan Shaozhe the most.

Once his disciple's fire attribute reached the level of sacred fire, it would mean that Ma Xiaotao's martial soul could likewise reach the ultimate level.