Zhu Lu held his hand, feeling its warmth. A sense of safety unlike anything she had known welled up inside her. She looked up at Xuan Xiao and asked softly, "How are you going to help me?"
Xuan Xiao let go of her hand, sat back in his chair, and crossed one leg over the other. "That depends on you."
Zhu Lu understood.
If she performed well, he could protect not only her but the entire Zhu Clan, freeing her from the White Tiger Duke's Estate.
If she performed poorly, she would be nothing more than a pretty ornament. Nice to look at, but useless.
She took a deep breath and lowered her head. Her voice held a trace of shyness and nerves, though she tried to keep it steady. "Ma... Master."
Xuan Xiao nodded in satisfaction, a smile tugging at his lips. "You're not too stupid."
He took something from his Storage Ring: a pitch-black leg bone covered in fine markings. A faint aura of darkness emanated from it, making it obvious at a glance that it was no ordinary object.
It was part of the price that Titled Douluo from the Heaven Dou Empire had paid for his life: a fifty-thousand-year left leg Soul Bone of the darkness attribute.
Xuan Xiao tossed the Soul Bone onto the table. It rolled twice across the surface with a dull clatter.
"Take it, and do well. You're mine from now on. But let me make one thing clear: I won't tolerate the slightest betrayal. Anyone who betrays me will end up ten thousand times worse off than Dai Huabin."
Zhu Lu stared at the Soul Bone, surprise and gratitude flashing through her eyes.
Even the White Tiger Duke's Estate could not casually produce a fifty-thousand-year Soul Bone.
Yet this man had tossed it to her as though it were some insignificant trinket.
She took a deep breath and placed her hand on the Soul Bone.
Xuan Xiao stood and brushed off his clothes.
"Smart. When you get back, put together a detailed account of your abilities: your Soul Power attribute, the effects of your Soul Skills, your physical condition, and anything else relevant. The more detail, the better."
"When you reach five rings, I'll give you power comparable to someone with seven."
With that, his figure flickered, and he vanished from the private room as though he had never been there.
Zhu Lu remained seated, staring at the spot where Xuan Xiao had disappeared. For some reason, she suddenly felt much lighter.
The shackles that had weighed on her heart for years seemed to have shattered completely in that moment.
"Take one more pill, and I'll fucking cripple you right now!"
Zhi An pointed his sword sheath at Xiao Hongchen. Its tip was less than an inch from his nose, and Zhi An's gaze was colder than ice.
Xiao Hongchen had a pill raised to his mouth. Zhi An's roar startled him so badly that his hand shook, and he nearly dropped it.
He hurriedly caught the pill and protested, "What's your problem? What's wrong with taking a pill?"
Jing Hongchen quickly stepped in to smooth things over. His heavy frame came between them, cold sweat beading on his forehead. "Zhi An, calm down! At least tell him what he did wrong before you kill him!"
Zhi An withdrew the sheath with a cold snort, then pointed at Xiao Hongchen's nose and said bluntly,
"Even when Soul Tools are custom-made, do you think a Titled Douluo can use them the same way a Super Douluo can? Or that a Titled Douluo can use them the same way a Limit Douluo can?"
Xiao Hongchen flushed. He sheepishly put the pill away and muttered, "Fine, I won't take it. You don't have to be so fierce..."
Zhi An glared at him. "Say one more useless word, and I'll cut you down right now."
"A pill-popper like you will never make a Level 10 Soul Tool in his life."
Xiao Hongchen bristled at once. He lifted his chin and demanded, "Why not?"
Zhi An sneered, making no effort to hide his contempt.
"Without a Super Douluo's cultivation, you couldn't even power one, let alone make one. What kind of bullshit are you talking about? Why don't you ask your grandfather whether every Soul Tool he carries is Level 9?"
Xiao Hongchen turned to Jing Hongchen with a questioning look.
Jing Hongchen sighed and patted his shoulder. "Xiao, Zhi An is right."
"Level 9 Soul Tools place a heavy burden on the user. If they need a direct supply of Soul Power, three is the most I can handle."
"No one below a Limit Douluo can stop a Level Nine Soul Engineer, but that assumes the engineer is prepared. You're still young. Building a solid foundation matters most, so don't rush."
Seeing Xiao Hongchen fall silent, Zhi An spoke again, impatience creeping into his voice.
"Wake up and get moving. Don't you want to beat Shrek? Don't you want to win the championship? Then hurry up and modify those Invincible Shields. Stop thinking about pills all day. They'll only burn through your potential early."
The thought of the plan he intended to turn on its head made him want to laugh.
Shrek, oh Shrek. Just wait. You'll be crying when the time comes.
Zhi An cleared his throat and dealt another blow. "If my family let me out, they can let others out too. I honestly don't know whether anyone went to Shrek."
"When I left, those old fellows back home were still discussing whether to send a few more people out for experience."
"What?!"
Jing Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen shot to their feet.
They had finally seen a chance to defeat Shrek, only to have a bucket of cold water dumped over them. The chill went straight through them.
One Zhi An was terrifying enough. If there were several more monsters like him, what were they supposed to do?
They might as well not bother fighting!
Jing Hongchen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and asked cautiously, "Zhi An, tell me honestly. Where do you rank among your family's younger generation?"
Zhi An thought for a moment, then held up three fingers. "Top three."
There were only two of them in all. Of course he ranked in the top three. He had not lied.
But Jing Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen did not know that. His answer chilled them more than falling into an icy lake in the dead of winter.
Top three?
Did that mean there were at least two more monsters as freakish as him?
And from the way he said it, was the one ranked first even stronger?
Jing Hongchen felt his blood pressure climbing again. He hurriedly pulled a blood-pressure pill from his pocket, popped it into his mouth, chewed it twice, and swallowed. Only then did he feel a little better.
Xiao Hongchen looked no better. Gritting his teeth, he asked, "If you fought the other two, what are your chances?"
Zhi An spread his hands helplessly. "If I faced the one ranked first, I wouldn't stand a chance."
The two of them stared at him as if to say, Do we look like fucking idiots to you? Zhi An had no choice but to explain.
"Right after that monster reached level thirty, he hunted down a twenty-five-thousand-year Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear on his own. He even beat it to death with his bare hands."
"I saw it myself. That scene... damn. It was brutal."
He was not lying about that either. If it had been struck by Dayun and killed, did that not count as beating it to death?
Jing Hongchen and Xiao Hongchen were utterly stunned.
At level thirty, he had hunted a twenty-five-thousand-year Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear?
And beaten it to death with his bare hands?
What kind of human could fucking do that?
A Darkgolden Terrorclaw Bear! It was one of the Soul Beast Realm's undisputed apex predators, unbeatable against beasts of the same level. Even some weaker Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts preferred not to provoke one.
Yet a level-thirty would-be Soul Elder had beaten one to death with his bare hands?
Xiao Hongchen felt his entire understanding of the world shaken.
He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end, only one word came out. "Monster."
Before you continue