Tai Cai and the others' reactions left Chu Xiu feeling immensely pleased.
No wonder so many people loved showing off.
This feels so damn good!
"Master? Master?"
Chu Xiu called twice, looking smug.
"Huh?"
Tai Cai snapped out of his daze and waved his hands repeatedly. "No, no, no, Chu Xiu, you'd better not call me master. I'm just an ordinary member of the Strength Clan. I'll introduce you to our clan leader another day and let him be your master."
A mutated Ice Phoenix martial soul, and an eighteen-year-old Soul Ancestor.
If they could win over a genius like this, their clan's strength would take a qualitative leap.
Although Chu Xiu's surname wasn't Tai, the Tai Family had plenty of pretty girls.
A son-in-law was half a son, after all.
"A teacher for a day is a father for life. Master, you've put your heart and soul into teaching me your craft all this time. You're the only master I'll ever acknowledge."
Chu Xiu spoke earnestly.
Tai Cai might have been a little weak, but his character was beyond reproach.
He genuinely treated Chu Xiu as his disciple and taught him his craft with care. He was just as diligent when teaching his other disciples.
Compared with Tai Cai, a sanctimonious teacher like Yu Xiaogang, who used taking a disciple as a pretext to experiment on him, was nothing short of a beast.
Someone like that didn't deserve to be a teacher at all.
"A teacher for a day, a father for life?"
Tai Cai savored Chu Xiu's words, moisture gathering at the corners of his eyes. "My good disciple, since you don't look down on your master, I won't stand on ceremony."
"From now on, the Forge is your home. Whatever difficulties you encounter, I'll support you without reservation."
After leaving the Forge, Chu Xiu headed straight for the city gates.
There were too many people in Heaven Dou Imperial City to test his soul skills.
Chu Xiu went outside the city and tested the Ice Phoenix martial soul's four spirit ring skills one after another. Then he summoned the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda and used Ning Rongrong's soul skills to enhance the Ice Phoenix martial soul.
Chu Xiu discovered that the Third Soul Skill, which originally couldn't enhance its user, could actually be applied to the Ice Phoenix martial soul.
"It looks like, although they both belong to the spirit rings of my main martial soul, the deserted island martial soul, the Ice Phoenix and the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda actually exist independently of each other."
"Not only can I release both martial souls at once, they can complement each other too. With my current strength, I can definitely take on an ordinary Soul King one-on-one."
"I might even stand a fighting chance against a weaker Soul Emperor."
With his experiments finished, Chu Xiu had gained a clear understanding of his own strength.
Combined, his two martial souls should give him strength equivalent to a top-tier Soul King.
What frustrated Chu Xiu a little, however, was that Shui Bing'er's soul power was only at rank forty-eight, still a little short of breaking through to the Soul King realm.
And the deserted island martial soul calculated the number of survivors using only one martial soul's soul power.
In other words, no matter how many spirit rings Chu Xiu obtained, the calculation would only use the martial soul with the highest soul power.
"I can't bring in anyone new this time, so I can only find a way to win over Qian Renxue and Ah Yin. That's a bit of a pain."
Chu Xiu let out a long sigh.
He had tried several methods before, but even now, he still hadn't figured out what made Qian Renxue's bond grow.
Sometimes he gained some without even trying.
Sometimes nothing happened no matter what he tried.
Ah Yin, on the other hand, gained bond value very slowly, but at least he knew what to do to guarantee a return.
"Worst case, I'll slowly wear them down. If a month isn't enough, I'll take a year."
Chu Xiu wasn't in a hurry. Both Qian Renxue and Ah Yin had soul power of at least rank sixty or seventy. Winning over either one would mean two or three more survivor slots.
Then he could simply bring in a Titled Douluo first. Once he won them over, his soul power would immediately rise into the nineties.
When he returned to the Deserted Island, the women hadn't woken up yet.
Chu Xiu took off his leaf, slipped between the three of them, and lay down. With a woman in each arm, he fell asleep.
He had thought screams would wake him the next morning. Instead, when he groggily awoke, Shui Bing'er and Ah Yin were both gone, and even Ning Rongrong wasn't in the room.
"How strange."
Chu Xiu's head was full of question marks.
Shui Bing'er and Ah Yin were one thing, but why had Ning Rongrong left without a word too?
Could Shui Bing'er and Ah Yin have woken first, realized something was wrong, and quietly slipped away, leaving Ning Rongrong completely unaware that they had been there last night?
Chu Xiu felt that was the only possibility, but he soon realized he was wrong again.
After breakfast, Ning Rongrong sought him out in secret.
"Hey, what did you do last night?"
Ning Rongrong had come to call him to account.
Chu Xiu spread his hands. "What did I do? I didn't do anything."
"Hmph, don't think I don't know."
Ning Rongrong sneered. "You planned the whole thing last night and got all three of us drunk. I woke up in the middle of the night because I needed to pee, and I saw everything. Shui Bing'er and Ah Yin were both stark naked."
"Huh?"
Chu Xiu feigned shock. "Then what should we do?"
Ning Rongrong huffed, looking a little frustrated. "What else can we do? It already happened. Luckily, you didn't touch that old woman, or I would've castrated you last night."
Chu Xiu swallowed, feeling a lingering chill of fear.
Then he saw Ning Rongrong pull a tough leaf out from behind her back with a wicked grin.
Several diagrams had been carved into the leaf with a dagger.
"What's this?" Chu Xiu asked blankly.
Ning Rongrong chuckled. "To keep something like this from happening again, I designed this Chastity Belt. Make one out of iron, and we'll find a way to put it on that old woman."
Chu Xiu was truly stunned.
He knew Ning Rongrong and Qian Renxue didn't get along, but he hadn't expected things to have reached this point.
If they actually put this on Qian Renxue, it would be utterly humiliating.
"No, no, absolutely not."
Chu Xiu shook his head repeatedly.
Ning Rongrong immediately glared at him. "What, do you really want to have her too?"
Chu Xiu's eyes shifted, and he smiled. "You guessed right. That's exactly what I'm thinking."
Seeing Ning Rongrong about to fly into a rage, Chu Xiu hurriedly added, "But it's not because I like her. I just can't stand the sight of her."
"What do you mean?" Ning Rongrong asked, puzzled.
"Think about it. That old woman wears a stern face all day, pretending to be holy, as if she's a cut above us. Who wouldn't find that annoying?"
"If I could conquer her and make her whimper and moan in front of me, wouldn't that feel great?"
Chu Xiu raised his eyebrows with a grin.
Ning Rongrong and Qian Renxue were as incompatible as fire and water. That was bad, but it wasn't necessarily without its advantages.
If he handled it well, he could turn Ning Rongrong into an ally.
Sure enough.
After hearing Chu Xiu's words, Ning Rongrong immediately became interested.
"Then what are you planning to do? Are you confident you can get her into bed?"
Chu Xiu shook his head. "She was my target last night, but she was already on guard. She probably won't give me another chance."
"You're so useless."
Ning Rongrong looked at him with disdain.
A moment ago, she had looked ready to kill him if he dared touch that old woman. In the blink of an eye, she was lamenting that this iron couldn't be forged into steel.
Just then.
Qian Renxue's voice came from outside. "Chu Xiu, come out here for a moment."
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