A Chance Encounter with Seven Treasure Glazed Tile and a Plan to Find a Patron

Yan Shaozhe laughed. "You lucky brat. You kill a random Soul Beast and end up with a Soul Bone."

Jiang Hao sensed a vivid red pattern above his heart, woven through his blood vessels.

Again and again, it pumped blood infused with Soul Power throughout his body.

Was this an External Soul Bone attached to his heart? And was it speeding up his blood flow to restore his Soul Power?

Once he had taken stock of the changes in his body, Jiang Hao quickly stripped off his blood-soaked clothes and jumped into the lake.

He splashed clean water over his face, then looked at Yan Shaozhe, who was guarding him from the shore. "Just luck."

Yan Shaozhe watched Jiang Hao scrub himself in the lake and smiled faintly. "Not everyone gets luck like yours, brat. Hurry up. We need to get back."

Jiang Hao soaked in the cool, comfortable lake water as he washed himself.

Mu En had hauled Xuan Zi straight back, and now Jiang Hao had gained another External Soul Bone. It was a double blessing.

Time flew. Three days passed in the blink of an eye. Yan Shaozhe and Xian Ling'er led Jiang Hao and the others in a full circuit of the Star Dou Great Forest's outskirts, yet found no trace of Xuan Zi.

Strange. Where could he have gone?

Yan Shaozhe grumbled. These past few days had been hardest on him.

He had a Flying Martial Soul, while the Soul Tools Xian Ling'er had brought all had fairly short detection ranges.

That left him doing nearly all the searching.

The task should have been simple. Xuan Zi was a Titled Douluo, after all.

If Yan Shaozhe drew near and released his Soul Power, Xuan Zi would surely sense it.

By the same token, if Yan Shaozhe got close to Xuan Zi, he would sense the distinctive aura of his Martial Soul and the Soul Power fluctuations of a Titled Douluo.

But after three circuits, they still had not found a thing.

Jiang Hao said, "Could Xuan Zi have already left the Star Dou Great Forest?"

For the past two days, Jiang Hao had practically been treating the trip as a chance to enjoy the fresh air.

Knowing Xuan Zi had been hauled off and locked in a dark room made him feel much better.

"How could that be? We've been on the outskirts the whole time.

If Xuan Zi wanted to return toward Shrek, he'd have to pass through here!" Yan Shaozhe dismissed the idea at once.

Xian Ling'er fell silent and thought it over.

"It's possible!"

"If he left before we entered the Star Dou Great Forest, he could indeed have passed through here already."

"Mm-hmm. Then why don't we head back, Teacher?" Ma Xiaotao suggested.

Boom!

A violent explosion sounded in the distance.

Xian Ling'er knew the sound of exploding Soul Tools all too well. She said anxiously, "What happened? That explosion came from a Level 3 Soul Tool, a Guardian Shield!"

"Our academy makes that Soul Tool.

Come on, let's take a look!"

Yan Shaozhe and Xian Ling'er hurried toward the sound with the others, crossing a stretch of forest.

The burble of a waterfall mingled with a Soul Beast's roars. The scene ahead was in chaos.

A huge gray-black tiger prowled the clearing, its sights fixed on a group of people enclosed within a pale-red Soul Tool Shield.

"They aren't Shrek students!

The strongest among them is only a Five-Ring Soul King.

And he's facing a twenty-thousand-year-old Dark Tiger."

Yan Shaozhe surveyed the scene while Xian Ling'er studied the Soul Tool protecting the group.

"That really is a Guardian Shield!

Shrek Academy only started selling that Soul Tool outside the academy this year."

"They must be disciples of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect," Xian Ling'er said.

When it came to Soul Tools, the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was always first in line. Each time, she bought ore from them at rock-bottom prices, refined it into Soul Tools, then sold it right back for more than ten times as much.

And every time, they were cheerful about it, all smiles.

She loved that business. One glance was enough for her to recognize this specially produced model.

The Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect was an old sect that had fought alongside Shrek Academy ten thousand years ago.

Though it had gradually declined over the intervening millennia,

the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Pagoda gave its members a unique talent for prospecting and trading in rare ores.

It had also been among the first sects to shift toward Soul Tools.

"That Soul King looks injured!"

Zhang Lexuan's words drew everyone's gaze to the center of the shielded group.

A giant of a man stood there, blood slowly seeping from his right arm. Beside him were two young women, one dressed in blue and the other in red.

The one in blue had an air of nobility and short, pale-gold hair.

The one in a short red skirt had lustrous brown hair tied in a high ponytail.

Her close-fitting combat clothes traced the delicate curves of her figure.

"Uncle Qu! Are you all right?" The girl in blue pulled several Pills from her clothes and forced them into the burly man's mouth, then circulated her Soul Power to help him recover.

The Dark Tiger's sudden attack had torn up one arm of the strongest fighter in their group. It would be hard for him to fight at full strength now.

"I'm fine, Young Mistress. Elder Long must have noticed that explosion.

He'll be back to help us before long. We just need to hold out a little longer.

Then we should be able to escape that Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beast."

The middle-aged man gritted his teeth and wrenched his arm back into place. A lump of flesh bulged where the fracture had displaced the bone.

Bruised blood pooled inside it as he circulated his Soul Power. Watching the Soul Tool Shield verge on breaking, he prepared for a fight to the death.

The Dark Tiger tore through the Level 3 shield with a dark beam.

Only then did Yan Shaozhe move from his perch in the tree.

A clear phoenix cry rang out, and in the next instant, he arrived in a blaze of light at the very center of the group.

He raised one hand, confidence shining in his eyes.

His pupils glimmered pale gold.

"Beast! How dare you!"

A phoenix's divine-beast pressure suppressed all Soul Beasts to some degree, while the light attribute was the bane of darkness-aligned Soul Beasts.

The instant the pitch-black tiger paw met Yan Shaozhe's radiant, sacred Soul Power, the black smoke coiling around it was scattered by a dense surge of energy.

That speed.

That power!

Those dazzling effects!

So this is a Super Douluo?

Jiang Hao's Clone marveled to itself.

What's so great about him? Once I get nine Soul Rings and become the Hoe Douluo, one swing of my hoe will settle heaven and earth. I'll look way cooler than Yan Shaozhe.

Jiang Hao, meanwhile, had to admit Yan Shaozhe lived up to his reputation. He was getting on in years, but he still looked good.

This was what it looked like when radiant Soul Power drove away evil.

It was heroism at its most dazzling.

On this continent obsessed with romance, who knew how many advantages that would give him?

"Thank you for saving us, Senior." The girl in blue stepped forward and bowed deeply to Yan Shaozhe.

She explained, "Our elders were surrounded by two Ten-Thousand-Year Soul Beasts while Soul Hunting.

They had no choice but to send us younger ones away while they stayed behind to buy time. We never expected to escape the wolves' den only to fall into a tiger's jaws."

Seeing their young mistress take the lead, the guards around her bowed to Yan Shaozhe as well.

The Dark Tiger had already fled into the forest, frightened off by Yan Shaozhe's radiant aura and the pressure of a Titled Douluo.

Once the scene had settled, the girl in blue spoke again. "I am Ning Tian, a disciple of the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect. Might Your Excellency be Dean Yan, the Singing Phoenix Douluo and dean of the Shrek Inner Court?"