One Year Later

The only pity was that none of it was over a thousand years old.

The piece Lin Yuan had taken before was only a hundred years old.

According to his mother, perhaps because it was so rare, Thousand-Year Whale Rubber almost never reached Notting City.

Even if it did, they couldn't afford it.

The price had been driven up to an astronomical sum of over a thousand Gold Soul Coins.

That made Lin Yuan even more certain there might be other Transmigrators.

Meanwhile, he had spent eleven consecutive months using the Heavenly Vial to collect Green Liquid and improve the quality of his Martial Soul.

Lin Yuan's Lone Bamboo Martial Soul had changed from deep green with faint dark markings to dark emerald, its entire surface covered in fine bamboo patterns with a metallic sheen.

Those were traits found only in Thousand-Year Lone Bamboo.

Judging by its appearance, Lin Yuan estimated that it was at least three thousand years old.

That lined up with the thirty-odd drops of Green Liquid he had collected.

And that was despite the rainy weather.

Otherwise, his Martial Soul's quality could have risen even higher.

Even so, his cultivation speed had increased dramatically.

Before his Martial Soul evolved to thousand-year quality, it had taken him a full three and a half months to reach level four.

After the evolution, he had reached level five in only about two months.

His cultivation speed had improved by more than half, and his Lone Bamboo was as hard as iron.

The benefits Martial Soul Evolution had brought Lin Yuan were obvious.

Over the following six months, the increase in his Soul Power had been less striking.

Still, Lin Yuan had continued to gain roughly one level every two months.

His Soul Power had now reached level eight.

By his estimate, he would reach level ten in three to five months at most. It was time to think about obtaining his First Soul Ring.

That was why he wanted to return to Bamboo Ridge and accelerate the growth of some Lone Bamboo.

He had also collected a drop of Green Liquid in advance and left it unused.

If luck was with him and it didn't rain much during the month-long break, he could collect another three or four drops.

Then, if he collected one more drop before reaching level ten, he could grow the bamboo to over six hundred years old.

A First Soul Ring of over six hundred years wouldn't be bad.

Before that, though, he had to get Lin Tian out of the way.

If Lin Tian went to Bamboo Ridge too, it would be hard for Lin Yuan to act.

With that in mind, Lin Yuan went to Dorm Seven.

Before he even entered, he heard Tang San ask, "Xiao Wu, break starts tomorrow. Are you going home?"

At the doorway, Lin Yuan saw Lin Tian sitting cross-legged on his bed, his Lotus Martial Soul resting in his hand while blue energy flames surrounded him.

Perhaps because of his cultivation method, blue energy flames surrounded Lin Tian whenever he cultivated.

To conceal his secret, he always released his Martial Soul while cultivating.

Several other work-study students were also sitting cross-legged on their beds with their Martial Souls released.

They were following his example.

Tang San, meanwhile, was packing his things.

As for Xiao Wu, Tang San's question had drained her usual liveliness. She leaned against her bed, looking dejected. "I'm not going home. I'll stay at the academy."

"You're not going home?" Tang San asked.

Xiao Wu's eyes lit up. "Lin Tian, are you going home?"

"Me?" Lin Tian stopped cultivating.

Perhaps because he could rely on his Martial Soul, he no longer needed to shut himself in a private room to cultivate, as he had in his previous life, for fear that a disturbance would cause his energy to run amok.

As for how he knew Xiao Wu was a Transformed Soul Beast, that went back to the life before that.

Xiao Wu looked at him expectantly. "Yes! Your home isn't far from the academy, is it? Why don't I go with you?"

Lin Tian couldn't keep the corners of his mouth from rising. Tang San, on the other hand, froze mid-pack, suddenly feeling hollow.

Over the past year, both Lin Tian and Tang San had become good friends with Xiao Wu.

Though to Xiao Wu, the two were still just little boys, and all they had experienced together were ordinary day-to-day things.

She was nowhere near falling for either of them.

But she genuinely considered them both good friends.

The relationship between Tang San and Lin Tian was more complicated. They weren't enemies, and they got along well enough, but something always stood between them.

In short, they were friends of a friend.

Both had Innate Full Soul Power, yet as soon as Lin Tian obtained his Soul Ring, his Soul Power rose to level fourteen, one level above Tang San's. His Soul Skill was also far more powerful than Tang San's Blue Silver Entanglement.

Over the next eleven months, he reached level nineteen, gaining a full five Soul Power Levels.

Tang San, by contrast, was only level seventeen. He had gained just four Soul Power Levels.

The gap between them had widened again.

That alone might have been bearable. After all, Yu Xiaogang had repeatedly assured Tang San that Lin Tian had only one Martial Soul, and a temporary gap meant nothing.

Tang San had two Martial Souls. Once he became a Titled Douluo and added nine ten-thousand-year Soul Rings—or even Hundred Thousand Year Soul Rings—to his Second Martial Soul, he could surpass Lin Tian in an instant.

He would reach heights Lin Tian could never attain in his lifetime.

But Tang San had caught Yu Xiaogang approaching Lin Tian in private several times, trying to take him as a disciple, only to be refused.

Even that might have been bearable.

What Tang San truly couldn't stand was that whenever he sparred with Lin Tian and Xiao Wu,

he had never beaten Lin Tian. Not once. Even when he teamed up with Xiao Wu, even when he used Hidden Weapon techniques to throw stones at Lin Tian, he had never won.

Lin Tian was handsome and good with words, and he had time to take Xiao Wu into town. Tang San was ordinary-looking and had to forge iron and attend Yu Xiaogang's lessons, leaving him no time to go with her.

Xiao Wu was closer to Lin Tian than to Tang San.

As a result, Tang San was deeply jealous of him.

Even knowing Lin Tian wasn't a bad person, even though they had never had a single conflict, Tang San remained jealous.

Seeing Xiao Wu want to visit Lin Tian's home only made it worse.

Lin Tian smiled. "My home is over fifty li from Nouding Academy. It takes a whole day on mountain paths to get there. Are you sure you want to go?"

He hoped the difficulty would make Xiao Wu give up. He had little choice, with Tang Hao watching from behind the scenes.

If he dared take Xiao Wu away, what was to stop Tang Hao from capturing her ahead of time?

Tang Hao had once sought a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Ring. He had known Ah Yin was a Hundred Thousand Year Transformed Soul Beast, yet he had still taken her wandering right under Spirit Hall's nose before she reached maturity. In the end, Ah Yin had been forced to sacrifice herself.

He was absolutely capable of doing it.

But Xiao Wu's eyes lit up. "You live in the mountains?"

"More or less," Lin Tian said with a smile.

"Then I'm going with you."

She had grown up in the Star Dou Great Forest. Going into the mountains would feel like going home. Besides, she had nowhere else to go.

"Well..." Lin Tian felt helpless, but more than that, he was happy.

He was glad Xiao Wu wanted to go back to Bamboo Ridge with him instead of following Tang San to Holy Soul Village.

The problem was that Tang Hao stood behind Tang San.