Star Luo City was a nation's capital, after all. Even a small auction offered plenty of fine items, such as Soul Bones, high-grade Soul Tools, and medicinal pills that aided cultivation. Naturally, Soul Bones were the most precious of all. Even with the existence of an atrocious secret art for condensing Soul Bones, their value remained unaffected. A high-quality Soul Bone could even become the foundation of a Soul Master family's legacy for generations.
Of course, none of this had anything to do with Chen Tianyuan. He might have been wealthy, but he only had twenty or thirty thousand Gold Soul Coins on him, while a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone could easily cost over a million. If he really wanted to buy one, he would have to ask Mu En for money.
After leaving the Starlight Auction House, Chen Tianyuan headed to Star Emperor Plaza. The plaza was even more beautiful at night. Soul Guidance Lamps stood at thirty-meter intervals around its perimeter, white light shining from their tungsten filaments and setting off the Star Emperor Statue at the center like a host of stars surrounding their sovereign. The plaza's surface was not paved entirely with bluestone slabs. Numerous shallow channels crisscrossed it, fitted with strips of Soul Guidance Lamps and covered with specially made glass. Across the vast Star Emperor Plaza, scarcely a single dark spot could be seen.
After paying the remaining thousand Gold Soul Coins, Chen Tianyuan retrieved his repaired Flying Soul Tool. As he left, the middle-aged shopkeeper looked at him with a hint of guilt, but Chen Tianyuan did not notice. His attention was entirely on the Soul Tool. Its original precious-metal casing was still there, but the thruster's three exhaust ports had become four. The shopkeeper explained that this gave it greater thrust...
Once he had sent Chen Tianyuan away, the shopkeeper immediately pulled down the shop's shutter and took a strange, palm-sized component from beneath the counter. He let out an odd chuckle. "Heh heh, a Class 4 Core Array of such perfect quality. I'm going to make a fortune!"
The next day, Chen Tianyuan set off early on his journey home. Naturally, Star Luo City was a no-fly zone. Without the emperor's permission, ordinary Soul Masters did not dare fly over the city, or they would most likely be treated as spies from an enemy nation.
After leaving Star Luo City, he flew northeast. Having learned his lesson last time, Chen Tianyuan kept a constant eye on his flight path so he would not accidentally fly over the Mixed Area.
Before long, however, Chen Tianyuan discovered a problem. His flight speed was considerably slower than before, and his Soul Power consumption had increased by at least twenty percent. He had originally been able to fly a hundred li per hour, but now he could not even manage eighty.
Chen Tianyuan instantly realized he had been swindled. "You damned crook! You'd better hope I never see you again!"
Feeling the intense heat radiating from the thruster behind him, he had no choice but to land and wait for it to cool.
The original thruster had taken less than an hour to cool completely, but this replacement of unknown quality had still not fully cooled after more than an hour. Chen Tianyuan used the time to recover his Soul Power...
As a result, Chen Tianyuan had to stop after every hour of flight to wait for the thruster to cool and recover his Soul Power. In four hours, he covered less than a hundred and fifty li. His Soul Power was also draining too quickly for those brief recovery periods to sustain continuous flight.
It took a full three days before Chen Tianyuan finally saw the outline of the Star Dou Great Forest.
A wooden sign stood planted at an angle in the ground, its red lettering strikingly clear: the Star Dou Great Forest lay fifty li ahead.
Upon reaching the Star Dou Great Forest, Chen Tianyuan perked up. Once he crossed the Outer Area, Shrek City would not be far away. He would be home in two days at most.
It was already late, so Chen Tianyuan simply built a fire in the Outer Area and rested.
He left the Flying Soul Tool a short distance away to cool. Coolant did exist in the Sun Moon Empire, but Chen Tianyuan knew nothing about it.
Like the Mixed Area, the Outer Area was dangerous at night, but only for low-ranking Soul Masters. Although Chen Tianyuan was currently only at rank 39, he was more than capable of dealing with hundred-year Soul Beasts and thousand-year Soul Beasts.
A Soul Master's combat strength was not determined entirely by rank. The quality of their martial soul and the degree to which their Soul Power had been condensed mattered more, as did relationships of natural suppression. Angel Soul Masters, for example, held an absolute advantage over Evil Soul Masters.
The same was true of Chen Tianyuan's ultimate lightning. Lightning itself represented the righteous energy of heaven and earth. Coupled with the trace of Light Dragon Clan bloodline he had gained after fusing with his third Soul Ring, his ultimate lightning now carried the light attribute. Any Evil Soul Master struck by it would fall silent for good.
Chen Tianyuan flew through the air at sixty kilometers per hour. He had settled on this speed after careful consideration: it consumed the least Soul Power and kept the thruster from overheating prematurely.
Beneath him stretched the boundless Star Dou Great Forest.
After ten thousand years of logging and slaughter by human Soul Masters, the Star Dou Great Forest had shrunk considerably. Its Soul Beast population was also much smaller than it had been ten thousand years ago, and many species had already gone extinct. The most famous among them was the Mirror Shadow Beast.
Following the example set by Oscar, the God of Food, countless food-type Soul Masters flocked to hunt Mirror Shadow Beasts, crazed by the prospect of gaining the same copying ability. Their numbers plummeted within a very short time, until no human Soul Master had seen any trace of them for nearly a thousand years. They were later officially declared extinct.
In response, a Soul Master scholar had published an article in a newspaper, warning that if humans continued to hunt Soul Beasts without restraint, then in the near future, once Soul Beasts went extinct, the profession of human Soul Master would also become a thing of the past.
After two days of flight, the outline of Shrek City finally appeared in the distance. Only then did Chen Tianyuan fully relax, yet he turned the Flying Soul Tool on his back up to maximum output. The Soul Power within him drained rapidly, and Shrek City's East City Gate came into view.
Like Star Luo City, Shrek City was also a no-fly zone. Chen Tianyuan could only land outside the city and enter on foot.
The East City Gate was the same as ever. Apart from merchants plying their trade, everyone there was a Shrek student.
Among those merchants, Chen Tianyuan spotted a familiar figure: Huo Yuhao.
A grill stood in front of Huo Yuhao. Several green carp sizzled and smoked as he turned them over, their aroma drifting several meters and drawing a queue of students.
Beside Huo Yuhao stood an exceptionally pretty male student who was collecting payment. In all likelihood, this was Wang Dong.
The aroma of grilled fish reminded Chen Tianyuan that he had not eaten all day. He immediately decided to go over and buy two fish to tide him over.
Just as he joined the queue, an argument suddenly broke out ahead.
"Kid, if you know what's good for you, hurry up and sell the grilled fish to Nannan. Otherwise, you'll get a taste of what's coming to you."
The speaker was Xu Sanshi, who was known alongside Bei Bei as one of the outer court's Twin Stars.
Before Huo Yuhao could speak, Wang Dong snorted beside him. "We said five copper coins, and we meant five copper coins. Can't you understand human speech?"
Angered by the loss of face, Xu Sanshi pointed at the two of them and said, "Kid, say that again if you've got the guts!"
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