Red Light Go, Green Light Stop

He had never expected his parents to leave him Soul Bones! Three of them, no less.

Jiang Hao rubbed his hands in delight and reached for one.

Dark red, pale green, and silvery white: two right arm bones and one left leg bone.

Three Soul Bones. Ten thousand years later, Soul Bones were no longer treasures so rare they appeared once in a century, but their value had hardly fallen. Certainly not to the point where three could turn up inside a Soul Tool as common as this one.

There had to be another secret here!

Puzzled, Jiang Hao put the three Soul Bones away. None was especially old: two were around ten thousand years old, while the silvery-white one was only a little over a thousand.

If he equipped his Clones with these Soul Bones, his overall strength would rise a whole tier.

After transferring the three Soul Bones into the Soul Tool on his hand, Jiang Hao sent his consciousness back into the silvery-white ring.

Clothes, herbs, a short sword, and a few damaged Soul Tools. It looked as though Qian Duoduo and the others had given him these, though their quality was nothing special.

The best was a fifth-tier Soul Tool, and even that was broken.

Yet his parents, whom he had never met, had kept the broken gifts in a Soul Tool rather than throwing them away like trash. They had been thoughtful people.

Even when a gift from a friend broke, they would not toss it aside lightly.

As Jiang Hao swept through the space with his spiritual sense, he soon noticed something odd.

A blue book looked badly worn. The writing on its cover had faded beyond recognition.

After searching the entire Soul Tool space, Jiang Hao took the book out and weighed it in his hand.

Its old-fashioned texture and musty smell hit him at once. It had probably gathered dust in a corner for years before being stored in the Soul Tool.

Jiang Hao gently lifted the cover. A diagram of the human body's acupoints appeared before him, with a few small words written beside it: Body Tempering Method.

As Jiang Hao turned the pages, diagram after diagram came into view. His memories streamed into more than two thousand Clones, giving him two thousand backups of everything he saw. He could practically remember it all at a glance.

Jiang Hao kept leafing through the book, but reading alone did not seem very interesting. What good would looking do? He had to practice.

He stood. The Clones nearby pulled apart the two wooden benches they had pushed together, leaving the main hall open and spacious.

Recalling the pages he had read, Jiang Hao tried the postures one after another. His breathing guided his Soul Power through his body, and a wave of heat surged from his dantian.

Soul Power flowed past his heart and began nourishing his body.

Hmm. This Body Tempering Method felt more like boxing and palm strikes, but it included kicks too. Was the idea to use his body as a weapon?

Jiang Hao threw a punch. A blast of air burst from his fist, carrying Soul Power toward a nearby window.

Bang! The blast flung the closed window open, and its sash rattled back and forth against the frame.

Excitement rose in Jiang Hao. It really worked, and it seemed designed specifically for training the body. This was probably the secret Body Martial Soul cultivation method his mother had left him.

Jiang Hao practiced the Body Tempering Method again and again. The heat throughout his body grew fiercer. His fists whistled, his palms cut sharply through the air, and wave after wave of force burst across the little courtyard.

Then Jiang Hao discovered what made the method remarkable. Each time he completed a round, his muscles grew denser, until they even took on a metallic quality.

After several more rounds, a faint bronze-green sheen appeared on his skin.

Jiang Hao practiced his punches all night long. When he finally stopped, the force swirling around him slammed into the pond like a cannonball, sending up a towering splash.

The noise startled the sleeping Clones awake.

In the first light of sunrise, Jiang Hao glowed bronze. A layer of gold seemed to coat his skin, leaving it hard as iron and cold to the touch as metal.

"My Soul Power went up one level." Jiang Hao felt clear and refreshed from head to toe. He had broken through the level-sixteen bottleneck with ease.

The stubborn energy that had accumulated inside him like fat was completely gone.

"Main Body, you old thief, that's awesome! What is it? I want to learn too!"

A crowd of Clones gathered around and reached out to squeeze Jiang Hao's arms.

One muttered, "Is this the legendary Iron Cloth, famous alongside the Golden Bell Shield? This Body Tempering Method really works. I didn't expect such dramatic results."

"You want to learn too? I punched all night, and only now that I've stopped do I feel tired."

Jiang Hao waved them off, grabbed a bucket of water, and poured it over himself. The cold water washed away his sweat. "All right, get back to your own work. I'm going to sleep."

Once he had cleaned himself up, Jiang Hao yawned and headed into the bedroom.

The days passed like that. Jiang Hao spent each day cultivating Soul Power and each night practicing his punches beneath the moonlight. Every day was full.

Thanks to Ning Tian, Sword Bro and Pagoda Bro had also secured places among the Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Sect's key trainees.

To avoid arousing suspicion, Jiang Hao did not take the three Mystic Water Pills himself. He gave them to several Soul Masters with higher-quality Martial Souls to cleanse their meridians and strengthen their foundations.

Scalpel Bro was one of them. Two Clones had awakened particularly good Martial Souls in the past few days. One was fairly ordinary: a lightning-attributed spear. The other was a little absurd.

The Clone below the platform scratched his head in embarrassment and waved the stick in his hand. Jiang Hao managed a painfully strained smile.

A light was fixed to the top of the thin stick, with red, green, and yellow sections. Was this a Traffic Light Martial Soul?

How outrageous could it get? The prize pool just kept growing!

More and more Clones were still waiting to awaken their Martial Souls. They spent almost all their time in the Sea of Consciousness, with little to do.

There was no point making them cultivate, either. With a bunch of hoes and poultry for Martial Souls, they cultivated far more slowly than those with top-tier Martial Souls. They were practically being carried along.

As Jiang Hao's Soul Power Level rose, the Clones in his Sea of Consciousness rose with him. They would barely have cultivated for a while before Jiang Hao raised their level cap again.

Rather than waste their time here, he might as well send them out to work.

As Jiang Hao considered what jobs to give them, Banner Bro's voice rang in his mind. "Main Body, you old thief, I've broken through to level twenty!"

Cheers erupted from the Sea of Consciousness. "Level twenty already? I want to be an Evil Soul Master too! Evil Soul Masters cultivate so fast!"

Jiang Hao considered it. Releasing Banner Bro now probably would not draw Shrek's attention. At worst, he could recall Banner Bro, let him out again right away, and hide with the Thirty-Person Group for a month or two.

Once the smell had faded from him, he could return to Shrek City. That would do it. "All right. Wait there. We'll come find you."

Since he planned to visit the Star Dou Great Forest this time, he could restock the Thirty-Person Group's basic supplies while he was at it.

He could buy grain and seeds and take them back, have Hoe Bro and the plant-type Soul Masters make the crops grow, then sell the harvest. He could give rare ores to Flame Bro to forge weapons for sale on the forest's outskirts. Paper, pens, and liquor could all go into the Soul Tool too.

With two Clones beside him, Jiang Hao wandered through Shrek City, stocking up on everything the shops would need: liquor, seasonings, medicines, and all sorts of Soul Hunting supplies, from Snake Repellent Powder to tents. He stuffed the lot into his Soul Tool.

These things sold cheaply in Shrek City, but on the outskirts of the Star Dou Great Forest, where people urgently needed supplies, they could fetch much higher prices. "I'll take it all. Pack everything up!"

Jiang Hao waved a hand. The shopkeepers spun around him like tops, delighted to have found such a big spender.

As he wandered, he unexpectedly reached the Treasure Gathering Pavilion, Lin Huiqun's territory.

Jiang Hao had little desire to go inside. Aside from Yan Shaozhe and Qian Duoduo, the Elder he liked best was Elder Bow from the Beast Arena. The man practically stayed invisible.

Elder Bow never ran his mouth about Jiang Hao's affairs, unlike the other Elders. Lin Huiqun was awful too. He had joined the clamor back then, and if Qian Duoduo had not been looking out for Jiang Hao, who knew how much of the Compensation Payment Lin Huiqun would have withheld?

"Come on, Main Body, you old thief. Let's look inside. We might find a bargain." Shadow Bro, standing beside him, added a hint: "Ten-Thousand-Year Whale Glue."