Sorry, I'm Not Playing House

Chu Chen turned and walked away with the belt, thoroughly satisfied. Behind him, Yu Xiaogang stood rooted to the spot, his face bruised and swollen.

He couldn't understand how spotting a promising youngster and trying to take him on as a disciple had ended with him beaten, robbed, and forced to swear a dire oath.

While Gangzi questioned his life choices, Chu Chen felt better than ever.

For one thing, beating up Yu Xiaogang had given Chu Chen a sense of where his strength stood among Soul Masters.

At the peak of the fifth stage of Dou Qi, he had been able to pummel a level twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster. That was reassuring.

Granted, Yu Xiaogang was a special case—an exceptionally hopeless weakling even by the standards of Soul Masters—and his manifested Martial Soul came with plenty of limitations. But a Soul Grandmaster was still a Soul Grandmaster!

Having tested his strength, Chu Chen felt more confident about obtaining his first Soul Ring on his own.

They were only low-age Soul Beasts. Could killing them really be harder than beating a level twenty-nine Soul Grandmaster?

Of course, testing his strength was only part of it. What pleased Chu Chen even more was the compensation he had taken from Yu Xiaogang.

The belt was black and covered in dark patterns, with twenty-four milky-white, round jade stones set evenly along it. Each stone was no bigger than a fingernail.

How could Chu Chen, a transmigrator, fail to recognize a belt like that when it had belonged to Yu Xiaogang?

It had to be the storage Soul Tool Tang San named Twenty-Four Moonlit Bridges in the original story!

Chu Chen strolled through the campus in high spirits, looking for the building where he could complete his enrollment while fiddling with his newly acquired Soul Tool.

Having used a Storage Ring before, he had no trouble working out how to use another spatial item.

He fed a little Soul Power into it and soon sensed the space inside.

And the things Yu Xiaogang had left in there...

Gangzi really was something else. Stuck at level twenty-nine and unable to advance, he had landed himself a neat little loophole.

As everyone knew, Soul Masters on the Douluo Continent could collect subsidies from Spirit Hall, funded by the two great Empires: one Gold Soul Coin a month for a Soul Master, ten for a Soul Grandmaster, and a hundred for a Soul Elder.

In other words, since Gangzi couldn't advance to Soul Elder, he could collect ten Gold Soul Coins a month for the rest of his life!

A single Gold Soul Coin could cover an ordinary family's expenses for several months. Ten a month was more than enough to live comfortably, and Yu Xiaogang couldn't spend it all while living alone at a Soul Master Academy.

That was why Chu Chen found nearly a thousand Gold Soul Coins in the Soul Tool belt alone.

It wasn't enough to make him rich for life, but he certainly wouldn't have to worry about food or drink.

As for the other things inside the Soul Tool...

Chu Chen's expression turned strange. He walked over to a trash can and dumped everything else into it.

Before long, the trash can was packed full, and he still had plenty left to throw away.

It wasn't that Chu Chen was wasteful. The things Yu Xiaogang had kept in his storage Soul Tool were simply bizarre.

Who in their right mind fills a Soul Tool with radishes?

Chu Chen rolled his eyes inwardly.

During this era, the Douluo Continent had barely any contact with the Sun-Moon Continent. Soul Tool technology was so backward that making one was out of the question; they could only be found in ruins.

Yet Yu Xiaogang had used something so precious to store radishes. What a waste.

Once he had emptied the Soul Tool, Chu Chen looked at the mountain of radishes burying the trash can and curled his lip in disgust.

After reporting to the academic affairs office and completing his enrollment, Chu Chen headed to the dormitory building.

Notting City Junior Soul Master Academy had only seven student dormitories. As a work-study student, Chu Chen was naturally assigned to Dorm Seven—the room from the original story where students of all ages and genders lived together.

As he approached Dorm Seven, Chu Chen heard a commotion inside. He opened the door to find a vast room of nearly three hundred square meters.

There were fifty beds in all, but only eleven had bedding. Seven or eight children between the ages of eight and twelve were making a racket inside.

At the sound of the door, the children turned toward him. One of the older boys sized up Chu Chen's clothes and walked over.

He stopped in front of Chu Chen and looked down at him.

"A new work-study student?"

How could Chu Chen not know what was coming next?

He sighed softly. Instead of answering, he gathered all the Dou Qi in his body into his right leg and stamped hard on the floor.

Crack!

A sharp snap rang out. Under the stunned gazes of every child in the dormitory, spiderweb-like cracks spread across the floor beneath Chu Chen's foot.

The dormitory floor wasn't wood. It was laid with genuine marble tiles.

That was stone!

And one stomp from this guy had cracked it?

"My name is Chu Chen. I'm from Holy Soul Village, and I have Innate Full Soul Power."

Chu Chen spoke slowly, raising his head slightly to meet the eyes of the older boy, who stood a head taller than him.

The boy stared, slack-jawed. When he noticed Chu Chen looking at him, he jolted.

"Reporting... boss! I'm Wang Sheng, a level-nine Soul Warrior! My Martial Soul is Battle Tiger!"

"Boss?"

At Wang Sheng's choice of address, Chu Chen shook his head.

"I'm not your boss, and I'm not interested in playing house. My family forced me to attend a Soul Master Academy. Once I've obtained my first Soul Ring, I'll apply to graduate early. Just pretend I'm not here."

As he spoke, Chu Chen took out two Gold Soul Coins and pressed them into Wang Sheng's hand.

"I'm only passing through this dormitory, but I'll need to stay a month or so. I've just arrived and don't know Notting City very well. Wang Sheng, could you help me buy some bedding?"

"Huh?"

Wang Sheng froze, then shook his head repeatedly.

"Bo—Ahem. I mean, Chu Chen, I can buy you bedding, but no bedding costs this much..."

"I can't ask you to do it for nothing, can I?"

Chu Chen smiled and handed back the two Gold Soul Coins Wang Sheng had just tried to return.

"One Gold Soul Coin will be more than enough for the bedding. Keep the change for your trouble. As for the other coin... since we've met, treat the others to a meal on me!"

"That's settled. I'm going to look around campus and find somewhere to meditate. Thanks for the effort, Wang Sheng!"

With that, Chu Chen turned and left, leaving Wang Sheng and the other work-study students staring at one another.

"Looks like someone formidable just moved into Dorm Seven..."