That "gate-blocking match" against the upperclassmen sent Chen Zhuo's reputation soaring.
The four participants were now enjoying a hearty meal in the academy cafeteria.
The table was covered with dishes, the aroma of meat wafting through the air.
"Little brother, study hard."
"When you get into the advanced academy, your big sister will have your back."
Hu Liena smiled at Chen Zhuo as she ate her roasted beef ribs.
The moment she said it, she realized there was a rather large gap between their ages.
By the time Chen Zhuo graduated from this academy, they would have finished their courses at the advanced Soul Master Academy.
Under normal circumstances, they would never get the chance to study at the same academy.
Yan caught the mistake too, but he was blunt by nature, so he pointed it out directly, undercutting Hu Liena.
"That's easy enough to handle."
"With young Chen Zhuo's talent, graduating early isn't out of the question, as long as he meets the requirements."
Xie Yue suggested that if Chen Zhuo ever wanted to skip grades, he could tell the three of them.
With them stepping in-especially Hu Liena, the Supreme Pontiff's personal disciple-the academy's dean would surely grant them that favor.
"Then thank you, Sister Nana, Brother Yue, and Brother Yan."
Since the Golden Generation trio was extending an olive branch, Chen Zhuo was happy to befriend them.
Naturally, they got along very well.
Among Spirit Hall's younger generation, these three were not only exceptionally talented, but decent at heart.
They counted as a rare handful of normal people.
As for their flaws, Chen Zhuo had no interest in splitting hairs.
Who didn't have flaws?
As long as those flaws didn't cross any bottom lines, they were things people could tolerate and understand in one another.
"Hey, there's no need for all this brother and sister stuff. It sounds so stuffy it makes my teeth ache."
"Just call us by our names from now on." Yan leaned back in his chair, his legs spread wide, utterly easygoing.
They chatted as they ate, laying the groundwork for a friendship.
Hu Liena shifted the conversation to Zheng Qingqing.
As a disciple taken in by Bibi Dong, she naturally received better treatment than Chen Zhuo.
Teachers came to teach her every subject, and she could also receive personal guidance from Bibi Dong.
"I'm on friendly terms with her father."
"But I don't really know her."
At Chen Zhuo's reply, Hu Liena narrowed her eyes without saying anything, but the smile on her face deepened.
Previously, she had been her teacher's first and only disciple. Barring any surprises, she would become the future Holy Maiden.
But Zheng Qingqing's arrival had brought a faint, invisible pressure.
One reason she had come to see Chen Zhuo was genuine curiosity about a genius with innate full soul power.
The other was to probe the relationship between this genius and her future rival.
From beginning to end, Hu Liena had never considered Chen Zhuo a competitor.
That was because she had learned from Bibi Dong that Chen Zhuo's body martial soul had an innate defect.
As long as someone like him did not oppose her, he was the ideal person for her to win over and cultivate.
He would pose no threat to her while providing considerable support.
Simply perfect.
Chen Zhuo knew about Hu Liena's little calculations, but he didn't care in the slightest.
Hu Liena's horizons still extended no further than the struggle for power and profit.
Her lifelong dream was merely to become the Holy Maiden, then, after accumulating seniority and reaching the cultivation of a nine-ring Titled Douluo, to one day ascend the Supreme Pontiff's throne like Bibi Dong and wield power over the world.
But his goal was to become a god.
Princes and generals, fame and fortune-all were no more than passing clouds.
They stood on entirely different planes.
Naturally, they weighed gains and losses differently.
"Train hard! Once you have three or four rings, let's have another fight."
The two boys, Xie Yue and Yan, had none of Hu Liena's complicated calculations.
Fighting felt great!
After the Golden Generation trio left, Chen Zhuo's life gradually settled back into quiet routine.
He attended classes during the day and meditated at night, cultivating his soul power.
The days repeated themselves, and just like that, his first vacation arrived.
In the little courtyard Chen Zhuo rented.
Someone delivered a large, five-colored rooster to him.
It looked remarkably extraordinary, bearing a faint resemblance to the phoenix of legend.
"A rare breed of chicken that's lived for at least eighty years-the Angry Sun Chicken!"
Apparently, it had been bought from a hundred-year-old man.
Chen Zhuo didn't know how much the reseller had paid the old man, but by the time it reached him, it cost five hundred Gold Soul Coins.
A low-ranking Soul Master like him might not earn that much in a whole year, even without spending anything on food or drink.
"Old Mr. Ma Xiunuo really is a good man!"
Without his financial support, Chen Zhuo's life would have been many times harder.
"Cluck, cluck-"
Chen Zhuo seized the Angry Sun Chicken from its bamboo cage and reached for the Main God Space with his consciousness.
It was refined in an instant.
The tier-one bloodline gene potion, the Angry Sun Chicken potion, was complete!
Chen Zhuo drank it down in one gulp.
Golden rooster stands on one leg, golden rooster pecks for food, golden rooster shakes its feathers, golden rooster mounts the perch, golden rooster heralds the dawn.
Moving his hands and feet together, Chen Zhuo practiced the moves of the Chicken-Form Fist in the courtyard.
Without the potion's enhancement, these moves would have been little more than flowery fists and embroidered kicks for strengthening the body.
But with the Angry Sun Chicken potion...
Form and intent became one, transforming the Chicken-Form Fist.
Chen Zhuo finished his stance and exhaled a breath of white vapor.
His eyes were sharp as swords.
If he faced the Golden Generation trio again now, he would be far more composed.
Even if they used the thousand-year soul skills of their third rings, he was confident he could fight them.
Two years later.
Chen Zhuo had achieved major mastery of the Snake-Form Fist.
His soul power level had also reached twenty.
If he wanted to advance his fist technique further, diligent training alone would no longer do much good.
To reach perfection, he would have to undergo battle after battle, until everything melded into a seamless whole.
His soul power level had also reached a bottleneck.
To advance from Soul Master to Soul Grandmaster, he needed to hunt for a soul ring.
"Little Zhuo, are you sure you don't need my help?"
"I really don't, Dean. Thank you and the academy for your kindness!"
With vacation approaching, Chen Zhuo told Dean Su Rou that he had distant relatives in the Heaven Dou Empire, a lie.
Now that he was a Soul Master, he wanted to pay them a visit.
And see whether he could get their help.
"Honestly, you little rascal."
"Just be careful out there."
Su Rou took a token from her drawer and tossed it to Chen Zhuo.
"If you encounter danger, show them this."
"Even in Heaven Dou's imperial capital, there shouldn't be many people who dare refuse you face."
The token bore two short-handled axes and a single character: "Nine."
"Thank you, Dean!"
Rumors had long circulated through the academy that this graceful female dean had the backing of an elder from Spirit Hall's direct line.
It seemed those rumors were probably true.
It wasn't that Chen Zhuo didn't want to borrow the academy's strength.
This matter was simply too difficult to handle.
If he wanted to obtain a soul ring by hunting soul beasts like an ordinary Soul Master...
With his current physique, he could absorb a Thousand-Year Soul Ring beyond his normal limit without any help from whale rubber.
But with Chen Zhuo's horizons...
He truly had no interest in the Thousand-Year Soul Rings that ordinary Soul Masters dreamed of.
With the ability of his Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils, he could find a ten-thousand-year snake soul beast and make it sacrifice itself to him, just as he had obtained his first soul ring.
That way, his second soul ring could also be ten-thousand-year grade.
But compared with spider soul beasts, there were far too few known high-level snake soul beasts.
Even if he found one...
He would still have to see whether the soul ring it produced was one he needed.
Chen Zhuo had rejected both of those methods of obtaining a soul ring.
That was because, when he broke through to level twenty, his understanding of how to apply his martial soul's abilities had deepened once again.
He wanted to attempt something bold.
To verify whether his theory was feasible.
And so, this journey to Heaven Dou was one he absolutely had to make!
Before you continue