"We're rich! We're rich! Four soul bones!"
Wu Feng shook Ning Tian's arm in excitement.
"Young Mistress, did you see that? We earned four soul bones in just a few days!"
"Stop shaking me, Wu Feng. I saw them." Ning Tian's eyes were also filled with astonishment.
Even as the young mistress of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect, whose wealth rivaled the world's, she had never seen so many soul bones appear before her at once.
After their brief excitement subsided, the three introduced the soul bones they had obtained.
Jiang Yu spoke first:
"Both of mine are left leg bones, from an eight-thousand-year Voidlight Demon Leopard and a ten-thousand-year Diamond Mammoth respectively. The Voidlight Demon Leopard's left leg bone is of average quality, with only an incomplete lower leg. The ten-thousand-year Diamond Mammoth's left leg bone is fairly complete, though it still has flaws. It counts as a modestly fine specimen."
Ning Tian nodded at his words, then said:
"The first soul bone Wu Feng and I obtained is a secret art soul bone. Absorbing it directly wouldn't do much good. It's best used as a fusion medium to increase another soul bone's age later. Teacher Mu prepared this soul bone specifically as a reward for us."
"The second soul bone we obtained is a ten-thousand-year Azure-Eyed Demon Ape's right arm bone. As for where it came from, Yu, why don't you guess?"
A smile appeared on Ning Tian's face.
Jiang Yu thought for a moment, then ventured:
"Don't tell me it came from Zhou Yi, who made that bet with Teacher Mu earlier?"
Ning Tian was a little surprised by his answer.
"You're half right. Fan Yu, the Soul Tool Department's vice dean, brought this soul bone over. He's Zhou Yi's husband. Wasn't Zhou Yi supposed to resign and leave Shrek after losing the bet? Fan Yu didn't want his wife to leave Shrek, so he came to us just now and offered this soul bone, hoping we'd change our tune."
"Change our tune?" Jiang Yu frowned. "You didn't agree, did you?"
Ning Tian gave Jiang Yu a meaningful look before saying:
"He knows our backgrounds and wouldn't dare force us, but at first, there was a hint of a threat lurking between his words. So I told him outright that I could ask Grandpa Ghost Blade to come talk to him."
"After that, he brought out this soul bone and backed down on his own. He only asked that Zhou Yi be allowed to stay at Shrek in some other job, promising she would never be allowed to return to frontline teaching."
Jiang Yu's interest was piqued.
"Do you know where Zhou Yi was transferred?"
Although Zhou Yi was a little old, she was still a Six-Ring Soul Emperor in her forties and was certain to become a Soul Sage in the future.
Even if someone that strong no longer taught on the front lines, she could at least land a management position at Shrek Academy.
Before Ning Tian could answer, Wu Feng stifled a laugh and said:
"With that personality of hers, always offending people, apparently plenty of departments at the academy rejected her outright the moment they heard her name. They wouldn't even do Fan Yu the favor. In the end, Fan Yu seemed to run out of options and found Zhou Yi a job as a cafeteria director."
"Yep, right in our freshman cafeteria."
As she spoke, Wu Feng's laughter grew even more delighted.
"But you know, the job actually suits Zhou Yi pretty well. After all, her prized student Huo Yuhao works in that cafeteria too."
Jiang Yu smiled as well.
Well, their actions had indirectly helped reunite Zhou Yi and her student Huo Yuhao.
How could that not count as a good deed?
"The cafeteria's great. The cafeteria's where they need to go. The cafeteria's where they belong."
After that remark, Jiang Yu said seriously:
"That said, we'd better stop eating at the freshman cafeteria. I'm afraid Huo Yuhao and Zhou Yi won't give us enough food."
Ning Tian and Wu Feng both smiled at that.
After they enthusiastically discussed a few matters, Ning Tian cleared her throat and said:
"Now that we've finished discussing everything else, let's talk about who gets these soul bones."
"None of us wants the Voidlight Demon Leopard's right leg bone, so I'm planning to give it to Yun'er as an easy favor, then bring her straight into the sect. Do either of you object?"
Jiang Yu and Wu Feng shook their heads at the same time.
Nanmen Yun'er was gentle and cheerful, and she knew when to be firm and when to yield in her dealings with others. With her decent martial soul and potential, she also had a chance of getting into the Inner Court in the future.
Seeing their response, Ning Tian continued, "The ten-thousand-year Diamond Mammoth's left leg bone is good quality, so we can't give it away casually. It would have suited Wu Feng, but she's already fused with a left leg bone, so I'm still a little torn over who should get this one."
Jiang Yu instantly understood what Ning Tian really had in mind and spoke at just the right moment:
"I've asked around. Xie Huanyue's Rubber Elephant is a mutated martial soul. His father's martial soul is an Iron Armor Elephant, and he's a Seven-Ring Soul Sage. He runs a century-old business in Shrek City that mainly handles civil engineering."
"I don't know if you remember, but ten thousand years ago, there was a powerful sect called the Elephant Armor Sect. It passed down the Diamond Mammoth, a top-tier beast martial soul. I had someone investigate Xie Huanyue's ancestry, and guess what? They're descendants of surviving disciples of the Elephant Armor Sect. Their martial soul bloodline has simply deteriorated."
Ning Tian's eyes lit up.
"Then let's make that our tentative plan. Xie Huanyue looks honest and simple, but he's actually quite meticulous. We'd better spend more time getting to know him before recruiting him, and ideally, we should bring his whole family over at once and put them on the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's roster. If any of their descendants awakens the Diamond Mammoth martial soul again, we'll have hit the jackpot."
"As for the Azure-Eyed Demon Ape's right arm bone, I haven't thought of a suitable owner yet, so let's keep it for now."
Jiang Yu nodded in agreement.
He had never worried about Ning Tian's grasp of the bigger picture. Her only flaw was that she could sometimes be too softhearted, but that was fine. He and Wu Feng could perfectly make up for that weakness.
"I'll take the secret art soul bone, then. With my luck, I feel it won't be hard to find soul bones of the same attribute or from the same species."
After a pause, Jiang Yu added:
"Of course, if either of you gets a soul bone that can fuse with one you already have before I do, just come ask me for this one."
Wu Feng rolled her eyes, then quipped:
"Being too confident isn't a good thing, you know!"
Jiang Yu merely smiled, then added something that nearly made Wu Feng burn with envy:
"Sister Feng, in another month at most, the soul power vortex inside me will complete its tide transformation. When that happens, I'm guaranteed to break straight through to Soul Ancestor."
"With the boost from tide transformation stacked on top of the boost from two ten thousand year soul rings, just imagine how high my soul power will rise."
The corners of Wu Feng's mouth twitched wildly. After cursing him for being inhuman, she turned her head and refused to engage with him anymore.
Comparing cultivation with a freak like Jiang Yu was like comparing filial devotion or grades with the other family's child elders always talked about. There was simply no comparison.
Ning Tian also gave Jiang Yu a rather surprised look.
The foundation-building method that transformed a soul power vortex into a tide had been jointly created by the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's ancestor Ning Rongrong and Oscar. It was extremely difficult to practice, and losing control even once would damage the practitioner's very foundation.
Few heirs of the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile Sect had practiced this foundation-building method over the generations. Thanks to their outstanding talents, Ning Tian and Jiang Yu had both taken it up, but she had stopped in haste after getting only halfway through.
There was no other reason: although this method brought immense rewards, it also demanded extremely high physical strength and willpower, and severely slowed the practitioner's cultivation speed.
Only a genius like Jiang Yu, whose cultivation speed surpassed even those pill-popping soul engineers of the Sun Moon Empire, could perfectly master this foundation-building method.
Before you continue