Mystic Water Pills! (Please invest! Please send recommendation votes! Please send monthly votes!)

After the opening ceremony ended.

Qin Xu led the Young Heaven Class students back to their classroom.

"Students, a month has passed, and you've all done very well," Tian Zilai said excitedly as soon as he entered. "His Eminence the Black Dragon Douluo and the academy leadership are very pleased. We hope you'll keep up the good work!"

Over that month, Qin Xu's soul power had risen from rank 14 to rank 15. Vielvi, Xue Zhao, and Ye Guyi had each advanced one rank as well, and the other students had all made breakthroughs. The number of One-Ring Soul Masters in the Young Heaven Class had reached double digits, growing to eleven.

Such remarkable results had undoubtedly given Tian Zilai, their homeroom teacher, tremendous encouragement.

"To encourage everyone to cultivate diligently and become Soul Masters as soon as possible, the palace has prepared rewards specifically for students who have already obtained their first soul ring and become Soul Masters." Tian Zilai turned his gaze toward Qin Xu. "Class monitor, please announce it to everyone."

"Of course!"

Qin Xu rose and walked up to the podium. With a turn of his right hand, a small celadon bottle appeared. He raised it so everyone could see and explained, "My fellow students, this bottle contains a pill called the Mystic Water Pill.

"It is refined from the blood essence of various water-attribute Soul Beasts and the essence of water-attribute medicinal herbs. It has two main effects. First, it cleanses the marrow and purifies the meridians, improving cultivation aptitude. That effect isn't particularly important for us.

"The second effect is the key: it can increase soul power. For Soul Masters below rank 20, taking one can raise their soul power by at least one rank!"

Qin Xu's words excited all the students. Whether they had heard of Mystic Water Pills before or not, they stared at him and the bottle in his hand with burning eyes.

"Every student who has already reached one ring will receive a Mystic Water Pill as a reward. Come to me to collect yours," Qin Xu said with a smile.

At those words, every Soul Master student looked thrilled, and a trace of fervor entered their gazes as they looked at Qin Xu. No one could remain indifferent to an opportunity to increase their soul power so easily.

"Those who haven't reached one ring yet needn't worry. Every student in the Young Heaven Class has a share. Once you obtain your first soul ring, you can claim this reward," Qin Xu said.

Now the entire class erupted, cheering in unison, "Our class monitor is mighty! Our class monitor is mighty!"

Once the cheers died down, Tian Zilai stepped forward. "Now, students whose names I call should come up to collect their rewards. Meng Xin."

"Present!" Meng Xin sprang to his feet and excitedly jogged up to the podium. He stood ramrod straight before Qin Xu, like a general awaiting a decoration, his gaze burning as he looked at him.

"Here. Keep working hard." Qin Xu handed Meng Xin the bottle containing the Mystic Water Pill and offered him encouragement.

Meng Xin accepted the Mystic Water Pill with both hands and shouted in a ringing voice, "Yes! I will never disappoint Your Grace's expectations!"

That was precisely why he had been called up first: they needed someone who could set an example. Moreover, Meng Xin's soul power had already reached rank 12, still second only to the four class officers within the Young Heaven Class.

After that, Qin Xu handed out a Mystic Water Pill each time Tian Zilai called a name. By the time he had handed out the tenth, every One-Ring Soul Master apart from himself had received one. All ten students, including Vielvi, Xue Zhao, and Ye Guyi, wore excited smiles.

Qin Xu's own smile was even brighter. He still had plenty of Mystic Water Pills in his Black Dragon Ring. Buying loyalty for himself with someone else's belongings felt absolutely wonderful!

As everyone knew, Mystic Water Pills were made using the Xuanming Sect's exclusive secret formula. It was extremely difficult for outsiders to obtain even one. Yet the Qin Family could produce dozens to reward these students. That demonstrated not only how much the Qin Family valued the Young Heaven Class, but also its formidable strength.

Naturally, the Xuanming Sect had not willingly offered up so many Mystic Water Pills. Qin Tianji had used the recent martial soul awakening incident as grounds to make trouble for them, forcing the Xuanming Sect to pay to ward off disaster by offering fifteen pills at once.

Qin Tianji had then taken another twenty-five from the palace treasury's reserves, making forty Mystic Water Pills in total.

Qin Tianji had given all forty Mystic Water Pills to Qin Xu that day. Thirty now remained in his Black Dragon Ring.

Unfortunately, only the first Mystic Water Pill had its full effect. The second was only half as effective, while the third was almost useless. Qin Xu therefore planned to take only two himself. The eleven that would ultimately remain could be used to buy more loyalty.

He returned to his seat. Vielvi was toying with the bottle containing her Mystic Water Pill, and she leaned toward him with a pleading look on her pretty face.

"Xu, could you give me another one?" she begged. "I want to catch up to your cultivation as soon as possible!"

"We'll talk after you've used the one you have," Qin Xu said, putting on a stern expression. "Now isn't the time to reach for the clouds."

Whatever Vielvi's reaction might have been, Xue Zhao and Ye Guyi, on Qin Xu's other side, were staring straight at him. They had clearly heard Vielvi and realized that he must still have spare Mystic Water Pills.

No one would complain about their cultivation advancing too quickly.

"There's one more thing," Tian Zilai continued. "Since some students in our class still haven't decided on a direction for their development, the other teachers and I have decided to provide special guidance for them, so they can settle on their futures as soon as possible.

"I won't announce their names one by one. After this morning's classes end, the other teachers and I will come find you."

Qin Xu knew all about the special guidance Tian Zilai had mentioned. He had the list of students himself, and unsurprisingly, all thirteen students from commoner backgrounds were on it.

Thus, this so-called special guidance was really an extra helping prepared for the commoner students.

The reason was simple: their foundations were too weak. Most had only vague plans for themselves. That was not their fault, since they had lacked the opportunity to receive specialized instruction from their families from childhood, unlike the students from non-commoner backgrounds.

Many were the first Soul Masters in their families, with no path laid out for them to follow. This was a painful reality for the vast majority of commoner Soul Masters. They had no guide when they began cultivating and could only grope their way forward alone, stumbling along in a haze and drifting with the current. By the time they realized they had taken the wrong path, it might already be too late.

Even more commoner Soul Masters might never realize they had taken the wrong path at all.

This was why commoner Soul Masters so rarely reached higher ranks. After all, the lucky ones were few, while the vast majority were ordinary.

The commoner students in the Young Heaven Class were undoubtedly fortunate. Ordinary elementary Soul Master academies merely told students what a path was; they did not explain how to find one or how to set foot on the right one.

"All right, let's begin class," Tian Zilai said. "We'll continue where we left off last lesson. There are many theories about the origins of beast martial souls..."

Before long, the morning had passed.

Since Tian Zilai had called Xue Zhao and Ye Guyi away directly, Qin Xu and Vielvi could only leave first.

"Xu, I'm going to the laboratory. I'll come find you at dinner."

Vielvi said this after lunch, when she and Qin Xu parted at the dining hall entrance.

"Okay. Good luck!" Qin Xu replied.

Ever since taking a Soul Tool laboratory class, Vielvi had fallen in love with Soul Tools and begun studying them under Huang Suyue, a teacher in the Soul Tool Department. She went there to see her every afternoon. Although she had not formally become her disciple, judging from Huang Suyue's affectionate attitude toward Vielvi, that formality no longer mattered.

Vielvi truly possessed extraordinary talent for Soul Tools. In just one month, she had learned the basic processes of shaping, mold casting, quenching, and polishing. She was about to begin learning to inscribe core arrays, which meant she could already be considered a prospective Level 1 Soul Engineer.

That thrilled Qin Xu. No one understood better than he did how important a genius could be to the development of a profession, especially a technical profession like Soul Engineering!

Originally, he had considered whether he should lure Huo Yuhao to Heavenly Profound Academy. That fellow's talent for Soul Tools truly defied the heavens, after all. If the Black Dragon Duchy wanted to develop its Soul Tools and catch up with the Sun Moon Empire, it needed an unparalleled genius like him to lead the way.

But now there was no need. Compared with someone who had a ticking time bomb strapped to him, his own wife was certainly more worth nurturing!

Qin Xu had once entertained the idea of having his great-grandfather go to the Sun Moon Empire and kidnap a Level 8 Soul Engineer to teach Vielvi, but he had immediately rejected it. That would be no different from sending Qin Tianji to his death. Absolutely not.

The Heavenly Soul Royal Family should have a Level 8 Soul Engineer. When the holidays come next year, Vielvi can return to Heaven Dou City and become their disciple. Better yet, she could lure her teacher to Heavenly Profound Academy to teach. Hehehe.

Qin Xu eagerly anticipated Vielvi's accomplishments in the field of Soul Tools.

Back at the dormitory.

"Xuan, I'm going to take a Mystic Water Pill. Come stand guard for me," Qin Xu called.

"Mm."