When he opened the door, he found an unfamiliar old man outside. Without saying a word, the old man handed Lin Mo a ring, then vanished in an instant.
"What is it? Who's there?"
Inside the room, Huo Yuyao lay at the foot of the bed, craning her head to look toward the doorway in confusion.
"Probably someone Elder Kong sent to deliver medicinal herbs to help strengthen my body."
Lin Mo closed the door as he spoke, running his fingers over the Soul Tool Ring.
"What's inside?"
Huo Yuyao sat up and asked curiously.
"Let me take a look."
As he spoke, he released a strand of soul power into the ring.
"Whoa, there are even medicinal herbs several thousand years old."
"And a ten-thousand-year spirit herb?!"
Lin Mo was stunned by the sight. He had never imagined Kong Deming would be so generous.
"That's incredible. Do you dissolve it in water for a medicinal bath, or take it directly?"
"You take it directly. He left me instructions."
As Lin Mo spoke, he took out an ornate treasure box containing a medicinal herb that looked like an ironwood trunk.
"Uh, Brother, are you sure you're supposed to take that directly...?"
Huo Yuyao hesitated as she stared at the thing, which was almost as thick as her forearm. She even measured it against her mouth. If it were her, never mind swallowing it-she would not even be able to fit it inside.
"With a ten-thousand-year spirit herb like this, of course you don't just cram it into your mouth."
Looking at his silly little sister, he gave a helpless, wry smile.
He held the ten-thousand-year spirit herb in his hand and slowly activated it with his soul power.
"It looks like Elder Kong really does want to nurture both of us."
In the blink of an eye, the spirit herb, originally as thick as a branch, transformed under the influence of his soul power into a mass of concentrated emerald-green medicinal liquid.
He sat cross-legged on the floor and swallowed the liquid directly.
As the seconds and minutes ticked by, Huo Yuyao could clearly see a faint green glow emanating from Lin Mo's body.
Soon, more than three hours had passed.
The green luminescence covering his body slowly faded, and Lin Mo opened his eyes again.
An invisible wave of air erupted outward from him.
"Brother Xiao Mo?"
Still sitting cross-legged on the floor, Lin Mo slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, then smiled at Huo Yuyao.
"It worked. This is unbelievable. I never thought my physical strength would actually triple."
"That much? It really lives up to being a ten-thousand-year spirit herb."
Huo Yuyao was also astonished by Lin Mo's explanation. Of course, she knew how difficult it was to strengthen one's physique.
Tripling someone's physical strength with a single medicinal herb was utterly astonishing.
"I can feel it. With my current physical strength, I'm no weaker than a power attack system Soul King."
"Wow, does that mean you can officially break through after this training trip? No, I mean officially awaken your second martial soul."
"Probably. My second martial soul really does seem incredibly powerful. The voice in my head told me to visit the remains of the Fire Dragon King and Water Dragon King. I can awaken it there."
"The Fire Dragon King and Water Dragon King?"
Seeing Huo Yuyao's puzzled expression, he told her the story of the Dragon God, the Golden and Silver Dragon Kings, and the Nine Great Dragon Kings. As for how he knew all this, naturally, his martial soul had told him.
The Sky Dream Ice Silkworm actually knew quite a bit about the Silver Dragon King. After all, the Evil Emperor had once invaded the Star Dou Great Forest in an attempt to seize him, fought a fierce battle with Di Tian, and finally been stopped by the Silver Dragon King.
But Huo Yuyao only knew that the Silver Dragon King was stronger than Di Tian. She had never considered just how much stronger she was.
"You need to find the remains of gods like that to complete the awakening? Then, Brother, doesn't that mean the martial soul you're awakening is a dragon martial soul? Especially since you have to seek out the Dragon Kings?"
There was nothing wrong with Huo Yuyao's reasoning. Lin Mo had thought the same thing.
But the Silver Dragon King should still be asleep right now, while the Golden Dragon King remained sealed away in the Divine Realm, making him even less likely.
Let alone the Dragon God.
"Sigh, I don't know either. Whatever. I'll go there after accompanying you all to the Star Dou Great Forest."
"Huh? W-wait a minute. What do you mean, you'll go there? What about me?"
Huo Yuyao abruptly sat up on the bed, staring at Lin Mo in displeasure.
"Huh?"
Lin Mo was slow to react. He had no idea why she was suddenly so angry.
"Why aren't you taking me with you!"
"..."
"I-I'm not dead weight! I don't care, I'm going too."
"I never said you couldn't come. Besides, have you forgotten? Once you have three rings, you need to go to the Far North to keep your appointment with the Snow Empress."
"Huh?"
"I'm going to the Sunset Forest, northeast of the Star Dou Great Forest. It's in the same direction. I planned to take you with me from the very beginning."
As his words fell, a deathly silence settled over the room. The girl's anger turned to confusion, then embarrassment.
"I-is that so?"
"That's why I asked why you were suddenly angry."
"I-I wasn't!"
Huo Yuyao did not know why, either. When he had suddenly said something that sounded as though he did not intend to take her along, she had felt upset and unhappy. She always had this feeling that he might leave her behind at any moment.
After that little interlude, they contacted Kong Deming again. He was deeply surprised to learn that Lin Mo had absorbed the ten-thousand-year spirit herb in just three hours.
They soon settled on a departure time, deciding to set out for the Star Dou Great Forest promptly on the morning after next.
The day soon arrived.
Nearly ten people stood in a relatively secluded clearing.
There were Lin Mo, Huo Yuyao, Xiao Xiao, Ye Guyi, and Nana, four of whom needed to obtain soul rings. Jing Hongchen and Ye Yulin would accompany and protect them.
Sending two Titled Douluos to accompany four students in obtaining their third and fifth soul rings was exceedingly rare, if not unheard of. The only exceptions would be exceptional children of great clans, and even then, they would have to be dearly cherished by powerful elders.
Not only that, three more Titled Douluos were secretly accompanying them, primarily to guard against hidden dangers. One of them was Ruan Feng. Yes, the one from the Fire Phoenix Soul Engineer Corps in the original story. The other two were from the Worship Hall, and Lin Mo had never seen their names in the book.
So, in reality, there were a full five Titled Douluos.
In terms of talent, all five of them essentially had innate soul power of Level 9 or Level 10. Jing Hongchen found that rather strange, though, since he remembered Nana's innate soul power being below Level 9. Under normal circumstances, any student in a given year with Level 9 or Level 10 innate soul power would be reported to him.
But he did not dwell on it, assuming his subordinates had simply forgotten.
The truth, however, was that her original innate soul power had only been Level 7. Her cultivation over the past six months or so had raised it. Of course, that remained a secret for now.
Kong Deming's thinking was that, since Nana's innate soul power was also Level 9, her future achievements would surely reach the Super Douluo level. Among the five, Nana had a chance of reaching Level 96. The other four possessed such extraordinary talent that, with good fortune and sufficient opportunities, even reaching Level 99 as Limit Douluos was not out of the question.
That was precisely why he was willing to dispatch a full five Titled Douluos. Even if they encountered genuine danger, each student would have a Titled Douluo available to protect them at all times.
Furthermore, on this journey, each of the five Titled Douluos carried a Level 9 Fixed Soul Guidance Shell in their Storage Soul Tool.
Under ordinary circumstances, if they encountered an irreconcilable dispute, they could bring one out as a deterrent.
If something truly exceptional happened, all five had to be prepared to sacrifice their lives at any moment.
After all the arrangements had been explained and they had briefly said goodbye to their companions, the seven of them left the academy aboard the most advanced Flying Soul Tool.
What about the other three, you ask? They were in the shadows-the shadows. Naturally, they had concealed themselves.
Sitting cross-legged aboard the Flying Soul Tool, Lin Mo looked at the people gathered around him and suddenly noticed something important.
"Hey, looking at it this way, it seems they're all members of my Spirit Pagoda."
His gaze swept from left to right over Huo Yuyao, Xiao Xiao, Ye Guyi, and Nana.
Respectively, they were the Vice Pagoda Master, two members of the Martial Soul Department, and the Pagoda Master's guard.
Since things had gone wrong with the Spirit Pagoda, he had initially organized his own version with a Pagoda Master and Vice Pagoda Master overseeing three subordinate departments: the Martial Soul Department, Soul Tool Department, and Soul Beast Department.
The Martial Soul Department primarily handled external affairs: negotiations, protection, organization, collection, and exploration.
The Soul Tool Department primarily handled research and development: researching soul guidance technology related to contracts and responding to its needs, as well as exploring and continually expanding soul tool technology.
It was also the Spirit Pagoda's most important department, bearing what would become the organization's core work. As the organization grew in the future, he would further subdivide the Soul Tool Department, but that was a matter for later.
As for the Soul Beast Department, that was still an idea he was preparing to implement. It would not actually exist independently of the other two departments. On the contrary, it would be incorporated into both.
As its name suggested, it was a department centered on soul beasts.
Next, he would visit the major soul beast gathering grounds to explain his plans. In the future, he would also create more refined artificial soul spirits. Even ordinary soul spirit contracts could not do without the support of soul beasts.
At the same time, he believed the original story had gotten one thing right: if he needed their help, he should also give them the positions they deserved. The Soul Beast Department would primarily be run by ferocious beasts, with the task of coordinating soul beasts and liaising with humans.
Likewise, the leaders of the Soul Beast Department-the ferocious beasts-would also serve as Vice Pagoda Masters of the Spirit Pagoda, holding authority over the two subordinate departments.
Their most special privilege would be their status as partners of the Pagoda Master, rather than his subordinates.
After thinking back over all this, Lin Mo could not help sighing.
"Sigh, having someone like me establish an organization really is difficult. I'll definitely have to recruit more talent. I wonder if I can run into any talented people whose names I recognize on this trip to Star Dou."
"No, we're not particularly short of martial soul geniuses. What we lack now are geniuses skilled at soul tool research. Sigh, if the Hongchen siblings joined, Brother Xiao would probably be a good fit for the Soul Tool Department."
Xiao Hongchen's talent for soul tools had actually been exceptionally high in the original story. It was only because he had encountered the protagonist and developed a knot in his heart that he had desperately focused on cultivation, later letting much of his soul tool work fall by the wayside.
And so, traveling at full speed, the group reached a small town near the Star Dou Great Forest in less than a week.
Given their abilities and resources, they did not actually need to stop in the town to rest. However, sleeping at high altitude for extended periods placed a considerable mental strain on Soul Masters with lower soul power levels, such as Lin Mo.
Thus, at Lin Mo's suggestion, they planned to rest here for one night before setting out immediately afterward.
Although that was a perfectly reasonable explanation, Lin Mo's real reason for stopping was to see whether he could scoop up any talented recruits, even if he did not think a little place like this would offer much.
"Let's rest here for one night and leave first thing tomorrow. This place is pretty close to Shrek City, so we still need to be careful."
"All right."
After entering the inn in separate groups and booking their rooms, everyone prepared to head upstairs and rest for a while.
Leaning back in a chair in his room at the inn, Lin Mo glanced out the window.
"Come on, give me a few geniuses I recognize. Little Sheep is only just over nine now, which means some of the geniuses from the original story should only be eleven or twelve. They probably haven't entered Shrek or anywhere like that yet. This location really could turn up some promising people."
Just as he was thinking this, a pretty girl with flowing golden hair jogged along the road below the inn, right outside his window, and entered a pharmacy nearby.
"Hmm?"
Noticing something unusual, Lin Mo immediately sat upright.
Golden hair was uncommon around here. A certain golden-haired girl instantly came to mind, one of the main cast.
Mainly, the girl was also pretty, and her long golden hair had caught his attention.
He watched her rush anxiously into the pharmacy and disappear from sight.
"Whatever, I'll go take a look. It's not like I have anything else to do."
He was just about to climb straight out of the window when Luan Feng's voice suddenly sounded.
"Hey, Lin Mo, what are you planning to do?"
A middle-aged man with long, fiery-red hair stopped him before he could climb out.
"Ah, I have something to do at the pharmacy across the street. Don't tell the others. Don't worry, it's nothing important. I just think I spotted someone I know. If you're concerned, you can follow me over there in secret. Relax, I won't cause any trouble."
Right now, what most urgently occupied his thoughts was the girl's identity.
If she really was Jiang Nannan, as he suspected, he would have struck gold-another genius.
And judging by the timeline, if she was still here, that meant she had not yet entered Shrek, nor had she traded her body for the Black Tortoise Divine Pill.
After some careful consideration, Luan Feng nodded in agreement.
A small town like this had few powerful people. Most of those staying here were low-level Soul Masters seeking soul rings. Besides, their destination was merely a pharmacy across from the inn, and he would follow in secret. There really was nothing to worry about.
"Thanks."
Lin Mo vaulted out of the window. Just as he was about to enter the pharmacy, he heard a sigh from inside.
"Sigh, it's not that I don't want to help you, little Jiang Nannan. We simply can't treat your mother's illness."
Before you continue