One year later

"In that case, you can test Bi Ji's healing abilities after you get back."

At Di Tian's words, Xiong Jun immediately protested.

"Come on, Di Tian, you're seriously going to test it on me again?!"

Di Tian answered with perfect justification, "We still haven't sorted out their parting gifts. I'll have the Scarlet King deliver the rest later."

Xiong Jun: o(╥﹏╥)o

Why am I always the unlucky one?!

Gao Ren and Xuan Zi, neither of whom belonged to the Soul Beast camp, couldn't help grumbling inwardly: the Beast God of the Star Dou Great Forest really was savage, whether toward outsiders or his own people.

Di Tian: It wasn't me. I didn't do anything. Xiong Jun ran into the Black Dragon Sword himself.

After staying at the Lake of Life for a while longer, Gao Ren and Xuan Zi prepared to return to Shrek Academy.

Before leaving, they asked Di Tian for some life water from the Lake of Life.

Although Gao Ren's Healing Overlord Leg replenished vitality just like life water, there were still differences between them.

At the bottom of the Lake of Life, which was formed from accumulated life water, lay a core-the lake's spring.

A ring of green metal surrounded the spring. It was the same material as Huo Yuhao's Blade of Life's Watch: gold of life.

Life water that had been in prolonged contact with gold of life certainly wasn't ordinary water.

Gao Ren and Xuan Zi had already experienced that firsthand.

Although the healing effects of life water were far inferior to those of the Healing Overlord Leg, drinking it over a long period was definitely enormously beneficial to the body. It could even extend one's lifespan to a certain degree.

Extending one's lifespan was something the Healing Overlord Leg couldn't do, and it was also what Mu En needed most at present.

Gao Ren: As long as someone is alive, there's still hope.

Time flew like an arrow, the sun and moon shuttling across the sky like a weaver's shuttle.

In the blink of an eye, nearly a year had passed.

Now, less than half a month remained before Shrek Academy's new term began.

This term, Gao Ren would officially begin his studies at Shrek Academy as a first-year student of the Outer Court.

Over nearly a year, his soul power level had risen from thirty-five, following the ten-thousand-year Emerald Swan's sacrifice, to thirty-nine.

Perhaps, during Shrek Academy's entrance assessment, we would witness the birth of a Four-Ring Soul Ancestor.

Gao Ren was swimming in Sea God Lake.

Although the weather had been rather hot lately, he wasn't swimming in Sea God Lake to cool off.

Having just reached level thirty-nine, Gao Ren had discovered a strange change in his Martial Souls.

It was precisely because of this strange change that he had chosen to swim across Sea God Lake and seek out his teacher on Sea God Island.

After climbing onto Sea God Island, Gao Ren found somewhere to change into clean clothes, then headed straight into the Sea God Pavilion.

As an observer of the Sea God Pavilion, he had the right to enter freely.

Inside the Sea God Pavilion, Xuan Zi and Mu En sat facing each other, with a chessboard between them.

Since the term hadn't officially begun yet, Shrek Academy's Outer Court dormitory building was rather lifeless. Rather than sunning himself downstairs as usual, Mu En had returned to the Sea God Pavilion to pass the time.

After treatment with the Healing Overlord Leg, Mu En's old disabilities had all healed. He could straighten his back whenever he pleased.

After a year of drinking life water, even his face, once positively bursting with wrinkles, had become much easier on the eyes.

"Check!" Xuan Zi declared smugly as he placed a piece.

Mu En glanced at the chessboard, then at Xuan Zi, and couldn't help laughing. "Xuan Zi, why don't you take another look? Have you really put me in check?"

Hearing this, Xuan Zi hurriedly surveyed the entire board and discovered that he was already doomed.

He seemed to have put Mu En in check, but in reality, whatever move Mu En made next, his own general faced only one fate: death.

"Mu En, could I..." Xuan Zi wanted to take back his move.

"No. I've already let you take back two moves." Mu En shook his head with a smile. "Your alcohol allowance is halved this week."

"No, Mu En!"

Xuan Zi's voice abruptly cut off as he looked toward Gao Ren, who was walking in through the entrance.

"Teacher, Granduncle."

"Ah, A-Ren's here." Xuan Zi looked up at him, then lowered his head to study the chessboard again. "A-Ren, you look a little anxious. Did something happen?"

Mu En also looked at Gao Ren. With their Spiritual Power, the two had already sensed his condition, but they weren't entirely certain. It would be best to confirm it through Gao Ren's own account.

"Teacher, Granduncle, something strange happened while I was cultivating just now."

"What was it?" Xuan Zi asked.

"Halfway through cultivating, I discovered that both my Martial Souls had appeared on their own at the same time, completely out of my control."

"And then?"

"And then..." Gao Ren raised both hands, and faint phantoms of his Martial Souls appeared over his left and right hands simultaneously.

Above his left hand was a vat of Immortal's Drunk, and above his right was an Overlord Drumstick.

The moment the two Martial Soul phantoms appeared, Xuan Zi and Mu En noticed Gao Ren's hands trembling slightly, as though something were pulling them involuntarily toward each other.

"A-Ren, stop shaking your hands."

"I'm not." Gao Ren shook his head. "My hands aren't moving at all. It's my two Martial Souls that are moving. They look like they want to merge.

"Teacher, Granduncle, do you think this could be a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill?"

At these words, Xuan Zi and Mu En nodded. They felt that nothing was strange when it happened to Gao Ren.

He had nearly reached level forty by the time he passed eight years old, and got along amicably with the Ferocious Beasts of the Star Dou Great Forest... Adding a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill to the mix now wasn't impossible.

"That is indeed possible," Mu En said solemnly. "However, even Shrek Academy's library has no records of Self Martial Soul Fusion Skills.

"Twin Martial Souls are rare to begin with, and having two Martial Souls with a high degree of compatibility is rarer still.

"So I can't say for certain that this is a Self Martial Soul Fusion Skill."

"A-Ren, why don't you simply let them touch each other?" Xuan Zi said earnestly. "With Mu En and me here, you can go ahead and try without fear."

"Yes, Teacher."

Gao Ren relaxed his body, no longer trying to control his hands, and instead deliberately allowed his two Martial Souls to draw closer.

Once the two Martial Souls came within a certain distance, they both began to glow faintly.

The instant they touched, they merged naturally into one, like two drops of water.

Immediately afterward, Gao Ren involuntarily raised both hands high.

The next second, an enormous wine vat appeared!

The instant the wine vat appeared, a meaty aroma mingled with the scent of wine filled the space around the three of them.

When Gao Ren set the wine vat down, they discovered that it was filled with Overlord Drumsticks!