A Soul Bone as a Gift

"What's wrong?" Gu Yue noticed the change in Huo Yuhao at once. Wariness flashed through her violet eyes, and she instinctively stepped beside him. "Is someone following us?"

Ning Tian stopped too, her brows knitting. "Could Dai Huabin still be bitter about losing? Did he send someone to cause trouble?"

"It's nothing." Huo Yuhao smiled and waved it off, pushing that inexplicable chill to the back of his mind. He glanced around, sweeping his spiritual senses across a hundred-meter radius without missing so much as a fly. "Probably just the wind on the awards platform. Gave me a chill. Come on, let's see Teacher Fan Yu first. If we don't sort out a venue, the Lionheart Club can't keep recruiting out in the open square."

Huo Yuhao smiled, but deep down, he sensed something was wrong.

With the perception of his Heavenly Eye, he could have caught a trace even if a Titled Douluo had been spying on him. But that chill had felt more like a scheme woven through cause and effect than direct surveillance.

He shook his head and stopped dwelling on it.

When soldiers came, he would send generals; when floods came, he would pile up earth. He had even dared to turn down Yan Shaozhe's offer of a core disciple slot. What did he have left to fear?

Early the next morning, the three of them were summoned to the dean's office by the Academic Affairs Office to receive the final reward for winning the freshman tournament.

When they opened the door, Yan Shaozhe sat behind his desk wearing a gentle, refined smile, as though he had not been the one who had stormed off the awards platform a few days earlier.

He gestured toward the sofa opposite him. "Sit down, Huo Yuhao, Gu Yue, Ning Tian. Congratulations on winning the freshman tournament. You deserved it."

The three exchanged glances and sat down, neither servile nor arrogant, without a trace of unease.

Yan Shaozhe got straight to the point. He took a gleaming white jade box from his Soul Tool, set it on the coffee table before them, and pushed it over. "This is the main reward for your team's victory—a Thousand-Year Soft Bone Rabbit right arm Soul Bone."

With that one sentence, all three fell silent.

Huo Yuhao stared at the jade box. His mouth twitched, and he made no attempt to hide the disdain in his eyes.

Ning Tian frowned outright. As the young mistress of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, she had seen far too much to take any interest in this thing.

Everyone on Douluo Continent knew that Soft Bone Rabbits had little to recommend them besides tender meat and formidable reproductive ability. They could produce litters of more than a dozen.

They were feeble fighters. Even one with a thousand years of cultivation could not beat a Hundred-Year Soul Beast. Apart from being cute, they were good for nothing.

If not for Xiao Wu, the Soft Bone Douluo of the Shrek Seven Devils ten thousand years ago, whose Martial Soul was a Soft Bone Rabbit and who had ascended all the way to the Divine Realm alongside the Sea God, her species might still have been at the very bottom of the Soul Beast Realm.

Yet even after the Soft Bone Douluo had carried her entire species to glory, that glory had lasted only a few short decades.

Later, hunting Soft Bone Rabbits had suddenly become a craze throughout the Soul Master World of the continent. The reason was simple: the Soft Bone Douluo's three outrageously powerful Soul Skills—

Invincible Golden Body, Void, and Instantaneous Teleportation!

To be fair, those three skills were fucking absurd!

Invincible Golden Body rendered attacks useless, Void negated energy attacks, and Instantaneous Teleportation was a supreme lifesaving skill for keeping enemies at bay. Each was a trump card that could let someone kill an opponent above their level. No wonder Soul Masters across the continent had hunted Soft Bone Rabbits like mad, all hoping to gamble on obtaining one of those three skills.

"I know what you're thinking." Seeing the disdain on their faces, Yan Shaozhe did not get angry. Instead, he laughed and opened the jade box.

A soft pink glow spilled from the box. Inside lay a palm-sized Soul Bone shaped like a rabbit's leg, its surface lustrous and smooth. The Soul Power it radiated was gentle yet pure, exactly what one would expect of a Thousand-Year Soul Bone.

"Don't dismiss it just yet." Yan Shaozhe tapped the Soul Bone with a fingertip. A barely perceptible note of pride, fascination, and regret entered his voice. "The Soul Skill attached to this Soft Bone Rabbit right arm Soul Bone is Void. It's one of the three core Soul Skills that made the Soft Bone Douluo famous ten thousand years ago, when she won glorious victories for our Sea God ancestor!"

"Unfortunately, the Soft Bone Rabbit that yielded this Soul Bone had only a thousand years of cultivation, so Void lasts just three seconds. Had it been a ten-thousand-year Soul Bone, it could have completely negated even a Titled Douluo's full-force strike."

Huo Yuhao and Ning Tian, who had been openly disdainful a moment ago, froze. Their pupils contracted, and disbelief filled their faces.

Gu Yue raised an eyebrow slightly, surprise flashing through her violet eyes.

Huo Yuhao was stunned senseless.

Void?!

He even wondered if he had heard wrong!

Over the past ten thousand years, at least eight thousand Soft Bone Rabbits had been hunted, if not a hundred thousand. But the chance of obtaining one of those three divine skills was less than one in ten thousand.

Void, in particular, was the rarest of the three!

A thousand-year Soul Bone was a little weak, and the effect lasted only three seconds.

But for Soul Masters at their level, three seconds of invulnerability was already an outrageously powerful lifesaving trump card!

In a fight to the death, forget three seconds—even one second could decide the outcome!

Huo Yuhao stared at the Soul Bone in the jade box, struggling to make sense of it.

He even began to wonder if he really had misjudged Yan Shaozhe.

In the original story, what had the Martial Soul Department given Huo Yuhao for winning the freshman tournament?

A Voidlight Demon Leopard left leg Soul Bone. It had given him a little extra speed and a nearly useless stealth skill—nothing but scraps.

But now Yan Shaozhe was giving them a Soft Bone Rabbit Soul Bone with Void! The two were worlds apart in value!

"Dean, this..." Ning Tian was the first to recover, but even her voice held a note of disbelief.

As the young mistress of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, she had seen countless rare treasures. Yet even her sect would have locked away a Soul Bone this rare as one of its most precious treasures. It would never casually hand one to a freshman who had just enrolled.

Yan Shaozhe smiled and waved a hand. Then he took a black hide pouch from his Soul Tool and placed it beside the jade box. "This pouch is made from the hide of a thousand-year Shadow Demon Rhino. It can completely conceal the Soul Bone's aura and keep others from coveting it. It's yours as well. How you divide the Soul Bone is up to your team. I won't interfere."

Huo Yuhao picked up the hide pouch. The moment his fingers touched the leather, he sensed the concealment array inscribed on it. It truly was a top-tier item for hiding things.

He looked at Yan Shaozhe's gentle, harmless smile, and his suspicions only deepened.

No one offered favors for nothing. If it wasn't a swindle, it was a theft.

Yan Shaozhe had stormed off in anger a few days ago because they had sided with the Soul Tool Department. And today he was offering such a precious treasure as a reward?

What was Yan Shaozhe really up to?

What Huo Yuhao did not know was that Yan Shaozhe was laughing inside as he watched him accept the Soul Bone.

It was only a Thousand-Year Soul Bone. No matter how rare its skill was, it was nothing compared with Ma Xiaotao's safety.

This little taste of sweetness was merely bait for a much bigger catch.

Once Huo Yuhao was firmly tied to Ma Xiaotao, Yan Shaozhe would make him pay back everything he had taken—with interest...

"All right, you've received your reward. You may go." Yan Shaozhe smiled and waved them off. He picked up the teacup on his desk, making it clear their meeting was over. "I hope you'll keep improving in the Soul Tool Department and live up to your talents."

The three rose and bowed slightly to Yan Shaozhe. Then, carrying the Soul Bone and hide pouch, they turned and left the dean's office.