The trip to the Inner Court had proved fruitful for all three of them.
After absorbing the sixty-thousand-year Mirror Shadow Beast skull, Ning Tian had gained two and a half levels of Soul Power. Her Spiritual Power had more than doubled, making Heart Separation Control much easier to cultivate. Her progress had been astonishing.
Wu Feng, whose cultivation had been the lowest in the trio, had also advanced to Soul Elder after taking the Soul Ascension Pill and absorbing the Flame Lord Left Leg Bone.
Once Ghost Blade Douluo took her to obtain a third Spirit Ring at the upper limit of what she could bear, her strength soared. In individual combat, almost no other freshman could match her.
Back at the Outer Court, their homeroom teacher, Mu Jin, asked a few tentative questions. Their answers left him shaken.
The commotion that day had been enormous. More than two hundred people in the Outer Court had been injured. As a homeroom teacher, Mu Jin had better sources of information than most teachers. Teacher Zhuang had also personally come to request leave for Jiang Yu and the others. Even a fool could have worked out that the three were deeply involved.
Now they had returned from Sea God Island in high spirits. Mu Jin knew exactly what that meant!
With his confidence soaring, Mu Jin let out a sinister chuckle in his head...
Zhou Yi, oh Zhou Yi. With my three star pupils at my side, how will you compete with me in the freshman assessment?
When the time comes, I'll find a chance to set a little trap for you. Let's see whether that vice dean of the Soul Tool Department you married can still bail you out...
As time passed, the initial uproar faded into idle gossip among the Outer Court students. But Jiang Yu and the others could clearly feel that more eyes than ever were on them.
They paid it no mind and went about their business.
In his spare time, Jiang Yu studied the Heart of Space in his dorm room, always with a blocking Soul Tool activated.
As for Xie Huanyue...
Well, his family lived right beside Shrek Academy. If he had no morning classes, he usually went home instead of sleeping in the dorm.
Competition in Shrek Academy's Outer Court was fierce, but its rules were surprisingly lax.
No one cared whether students returned to their dorms at night. As long as they got to class on time and were prepared to risk elimination, they could spend all day visiting brothels without anyone interfering.
The more Jiang Yu studied the Heart of Space, the more he sensed how extraordinary and mysterious this treasure was.
If the Space Spirit Right Leg Bone was a physical spatial node in his eyes, then the Heart of Space was practically the embodiment of the source of spatial power—a Divine Artifact containing the laws of space.
But like the Heaven Dou Empire's national treasure, the Vast Sea Cosmic Shroud, ten thousand years ago, it seemed to reveal its true secrets only to someone destined for it.
That was right. In Jiang Yu's eyes, even if it was not a token of a god's inheritance, it was undoubtedly a powerful Divine Artifact.
After all, plenty of Divine Artifacts lay scattered across Douluo Continent.
Jiang Yu alone knew of the Space-Time Shuttle, the Soul-Seizing Token, the Dragon-Slaying Saber, the Ice God's Heart, and others.
Some remained dormant, while others were secretly controlled. But as Divine Artifacts, they all had absurdly demanding requirements for use.
Jiang Yu looked at the Heart of Space in his hand, its beauty and mystery all the more striking in the dark, and sighed.
Over the past few days, he had tried all sorts of methods, but none had drawn the slightest response from it.
He had dripped blood on it, infused it with Spiritual Power, nourished it with Origin Soul Power, and more.
The power hidden within him belonged to the Space-Time Dragon. If this thing truly was part of a space god's inheritance, surely it should have shown some reaction...
Could it be that I'm not talented or exceptional enough yet to earn its recognition?
Jiang Yu thought that was quite possible.
With another sigh, he let the Heart of Space float before him, then sat cross-legged and began to meditate.
After fusing with the Space Spirit Right Leg Bone, his affinity for and understanding of space had grown considerably. The Heart of Space drew energy from the surrounding space toward itself. With it nearby, Jiang Yu did not even need to gather energy himself. He could simply intercept some of the pure energy it attracted.
For Jiang Yu, the area around the Heart of Space was a cultivation paradise more effective than any Mimicry Training Ground.
The night passed peacefully.
Morning sunlight streamed through the window. Jiang Yu slowly opened his eyes and stretched in comfort.
But before he could lower his arms, the last trace of contentment froze on his face.
What startled him was not that he had wet the bed, but a change inside his body.
More precisely, a change in his ten-thousand-year Space Spirit Right Leg Bone.
Once a Soul Bone fused with a Soul Master, they became one and the same.
That was why Jiang Yu, whose Spiritual Power was already formidable, sensed the strange change in the Space Spirit Right Leg Bone as soon as he woke.
In just one night, its aura had grown noticeably stronger.
The increase amounted to only about a hundred years, but that growth had happened overnight!
"Could it be..."
Jiang Yu turned his bright eyes toward the Heart of Space, still floating quietly nearby.
"Holy shit, you really are my precious treasure."
Unable to contain his delight, Jiang Yu planted a hard kiss on the Heart of Space, which glowed a deep blue.
The Space Spirit Soul Bone had gained a hundred years in a single night. Jiang Yu did not believe he could have done that on his own.
There was only one explanation!
The Heart of Space could directly accelerate the Space Spirit Right Leg Bone's absorption of spatial power, raising its age faster!
As he reached that conclusion, Jiang Yu began calculating furiously.
A hundred years in one night meant a thousand in ten nights and ten thousand in a hundred.
The Space Spirit Right Leg Bone needed another ninety thousand years to become a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone. One hundred times nine was nine hundred.
Which meant!
In nine hundred days at most—less than three years—the Space Spirit Right Leg Bone could become a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone!
More astonishing still, Jiang Yu suspected that as his cultivation grew and he absorbed energy faster, the Space Spirit's growth might accelerate too.
If so, he might possess a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone in just one year, without any pain at all.
Was this the legendary fast-track Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone!?
I'll take as many as you've got!
Finding such a surprise first thing in the morning put Jiang Yu in a remarkably good mood.
And what did he do when he was in a good mood? Skip Mu Jin's morning class, of course, and reward himself with a refreshing nap.
By the time his nap ended, Ning Tian and Wu Feng had finished class too.
Jiang Yu washed up, left the dorm, and found a quiet spot to share his discovery with them.
To him, Ning Tian and Wu Feng had long since ceased to be people he needed to guard against.
The three had grown up together and shared every triumph and setback. Even if things now seemed to have taken on the faint air of a love triangle, that was a separate matter. They were still partners who could trust one another to watch their backs.
When Jiang Yu told them what he had discovered, Ning Tian and Wu Feng stared at him in shock.
Once she recovered, Wu Feng loudly demanded that Jiang Yu treat them to a meal, her face full of envy.
Ning Tian nodded in firm agreement.
It was an unwritten rule among the three of them.
Whoever had the good fortune to obtain a treasure or reach a major cultivation breakthrough first had to pay for a feast.
Jiang Yu smiled faintly.
"A feast might be out of the question, but I can treat you two to a different kind of flavor..."
Before you continue