A Month, a New Trump Card

Time flew by. A month had passed since Beibei and Xu Sanshi's fight.

Over the past month, Lu Chen had continued cultivating and refining pills as usual.

He basically lived a routine that revolved around three points and one line.

Through diligent cultivation, his Soul Power had risen to level 33.

During this month, the System Shop had also refreshed with three top-tier items.

The first was ten Millennium Soul Ring Age Enhancement Cards.

Each one could increase the age of one of his Soul Rings by a thousand years.

Naturally, they were not cheap—one thousand Gold Soul Coins each.

The ten cards had cost him ten thousand Gold Soul Coins.

That was enough to buy two Hyorinmaru Martial Souls.

But to Lu Chen, that money was nothing at the moment.

Over the past month, he had formed a good partnership with Beibei and made a small fortune.

If not for limitations in production, he could have earned even more.

Using the Soul Ring Age Enhancement Cards, Lu Chen raised his first Soul Ring from 1,500 years to 7,500 years, and his second Soul Ring from 4,000 years to 8,000 years.

His three Soul Rings were now 7,500 years, 8,000 years, and 8,000 years respectively.

The power of his Soul Skill, Golden Arrow, had nearly doubled as well.

The second item was a Random Teleportation Scroll. Three seconds after activation, it could randomly teleport its user to some corner of the continent.

It was an exceptionally useful trump card for saving one's life.

The final item was a 12,000-year right arm Soul Bone—the Ten-Thousand-Year Ice Marrow Dragon Right Arm Bone.

This Soul Bone came from an Ancient Dragon-Descendant Ice Marrow Dragon deep within the glaciers of the Far North. Its ice power had reached the level of Ultimate Ice.

If his physical body had not been so strong, and if he had not awakened Hyorinmaru as his second Martial Soul with its Ultimate Ice attribute,

he could only have stared at this Soul Bone without being able to absorb it.

After fusing with this Soul Bone, Lu Chen gained a Soul Bone Skill—Dragon Transformation!

Once activated, his entire right arm, from shoulder to fingertips, would undergo Dragon Transformation and become covered in dense, translucent Ice Jade Dragon Scale. His hand would also turn into a Dragon Claw, greatly boosting both his defense and attack power.

This Soul Bone Skill was still secondary. With the Golden Cloth, Lu Chen did not lack defense or attack power.

What truly mattered was that this Soul Bone contained Dragon Marrow Power.

The Ice Marrow Dragon had swallowed the ice-element essence of heaven and earth, then used its dragon bloodline to refine it into the power of its own bone marrow.

The Dragon Marrow Power would continuously nourish the bones in his right arm and the meridians throughout his body.

It would permanently strengthen his physique and increase the explosive power of his right arm.

As his cultivation rose, the Dragon Marrow Power would also slowly spread through all the bones in his body, gradually reducing rejection when he fused with other Soul Bones and lowering the risks of fusing with higher-aged Soul Bones in the future.

In a Courtyard rented by Lu Chen on the outskirts of Shrek City.

Lu Chen carefully controlled his Soul Power as he concentrated on refining the pills within the furnace.

A month ago, he had proposed developing a more powerful Body Tempering Pill using Whale Glue, eliminating Whale Glue's side effects and fully bringing out its effects.

After a month of research, countless materials expended, and who knew how many exploded pill furnaces, he had finally made some progress.

For that reason, he had specifically asked Zhou Yi for three days off and secluded himself in this small courtyard to focus on refining pills.

With a soft sound, the lid of the pill furnace trembled slightly, and a rich, fragrant medicinal aroma suddenly burst forth.

Three round, plump pills glowing with a faint white radiance appeared inside the furnace.

"Hahaha, I finally did it!"

Seeing the three pills in the furnace, Lu Chen let out a long breath, delight flashing through his eyes.

He placed the pills into a porcelain bottle, then took one out and held it between his fingers.

The pill felt slightly cool to the touch. Its medicinal properties were completely restrained, without even a trace of Whale Glue's distinctive restless aura.

Lu Chen did not hesitate and directly put the pill into his mouth.

The pill melted as soon as it passed his throat, and Lu Chen felt warmth spread through his abdomen.

It was not the dry heat of Whale Glue, but a warm, pleasant feeling like standing beneath the sun.

Moreover, his physical body was extremely strong. Like Wang Dong, ordinary Body Tempering Pills were no different from candy to him; eating them produced no reaction at all.

Yet the Whale Glue Body Tempering Pill he had developed gave him that warm sensation.

That was enough to prove that his Whale Glue Body Tempering Pill had been successfully developed.

He had used a piece of two-hundred-year Whale Glue as the raw material for these three Whale Glue Body Tempering Pills.

Lu Chen believed that if he used Whale Glue of higher quality as the raw material, the effects would be even more powerful.

Lu Chen stretched his limbs and could not help nodding slightly. This improvement had been a complete success.

However, just as he was immersed in his joy, the wooden gate of the courtyard was suddenly shoved open with a creak.

A blue figure rushed in.

It was none other than Wang Dong.

Wang Dong's face was filled with anxiety. He hurried over, grabbed Lu Chen's wrist, and started dragging him toward the door without explanation.

"Stop refining your lousy pills. Hurry up, something big happened in class."

Caught off guard, Lu Chen quickly steadied himself and allowed Wang Dong to pull him along as he asked in confusion, "What happened? Why are you in such a panic?"

Wang Dong did not slow down. He spoke rapidly, his brows full of worry. "It's Sun Lu! She was accidentally injured during training yesterday. Even after resting for a night, she still hadn't fully recovered. To avoid leaving behind a lasting injury, she couldn't complete the training target Teacher Zhou assigned today."

"Zhou Yi is truly furious. She insists on expelling Sun Lu directly from the class! Xiao Xiao is still desperately pleading for her right now. Go take a look!"

Upon hearing this, the joy on Lu Chen's face gradually faded. His steps unconsciously slowed as he fell into thought.

He knew Sun Lu. She was a very shy girl.

Whenever boys in class spoke a few words to her, she would blush, and she was always extremely diligent in both studying and training.

Her Martial Soul was a food-type bun. Her first Soul Skill—Cabbage Bun—could quickly restore the Soul Power others had expended.

During daily class training, most of the students had eaten her buns.

As for Xiao Xiao, she was the vice class monitor chosen by Zhou Yi. She was exceptionally talented, and her Martial Soul was the Three-Life Soul Caldron.

Xiao Xiao was also Sun Lu's roommate, and the two were very close in their daily lives.

Now that Zhou Yi wanted to expel Sun Lu, it was only natural for Xiao Xiao to plead on her behalf.

After a month, Lu Chen had also figured out the temperament of their homeroom teacher, Zhou Yi.

This female teacher, who appeared elderly on the surface, possessed an extremely forceful personality and handled matters with stubborn decisiveness.

She followed harsh training principles, using cruel methods to screen students in hopes of cultivating so-called "monsters!"

In her rules, the strong devoured the weak, and there could be no half-heartedness when it came to training tasks.

In just one month, more than ten students had been expelled over training matters.

She even encouraged students to settle disputes through private fights. Right or wrong did not matter; there was only one requirement: win!

In Zhou Yi's eyes, the weak had no right to remain in her class.

Being injured and unable to complete a task meant failing to meet her standards. Expulsion seemed to have been inevitable from the start.

"Stop standing around. As the class monitor, you're the only one who might be able to persuade her now."

Seeing Lu Chen stop, Wang Dong anxiously tugged on his shoulder again.

Lu Chen came back to his senses, put away his thoughts and the pill furnace, then said in a deep voice, "Let's go. I'll take a look."