Su Ling hadn't expected that once her affection passed 70, "quite fond of him" would become "liked him a little"!
What about the next stage?
Would she fall in love with me?
The cultivation benefits from his bound goddesses had also increased by ten percent, something Su Ling had already experienced over the past few days.
Every day, the system infused him with a surge of energy that increased his soul power.
He could receive that energy daily, or save it up and use it all at once.
Su Ling's soul power had already reached rank forty some time ago. Over the past few days, he had only tried receiving the energy once, then stored all the rest.
Once he had accumulated more cultivation benefits, he would use them in one go, either to rise an entire rank directly or to help him when he needed a breakthrough.
Looking at the two skills, the probability of Advice Listening activating had increased somewhat, while the other was a passive skill that increased his luck.
Luck was rather mysterious, but sometimes it really could bring unexpected rewards.
Su Ling and the others waited nearby as Flender had instructed. Since the Titan Giant Ape had just passed through, all the soul beasts in the area had long since been frightened away.
"Big Brother Su, let me look at your injury."
While everyone was resting, Zhu Zhuqing came over to Su Ling and offered to clean his wound.
"Yes, yes! Big Brother Su, just now I thought you were going to be..." Ning Rongrong trailed off, then continued, "But you looked really handsome when you saved Zhu Zhuqing."
"Did I?" Su Ling smiled and looked at Ning Rongrong. "It's an honor to receive your praise, Rongrong."
[Ding... Ning Rongrong's affection +1. Obtained White Chest ×1.]
Huh, just one sentence increased it?
Zhu Zhuqing crouched beside Su Ling. Dai Mubai walked over, but before he could speak, she said, "Big Brother Su was injured saving me. I want to treat his wound myself."
The wound wasn't actually large, but this gesture still mattered.
Zhu Zhuqing looked cold on the outside, but her heart was quite the opposite. Sometimes, once she accepted someone, she would do anything for them.
Her affection toward Su Ling had risen to 75. The words "liked him a little" carried some real weight.
"I was coming to save you too. Su Ling was just a little faster than me," Dai Mubai said helplessly.
"Hmph, wait for you? Zhu Zhuqing would have been in danger by the time you arrived." Ning Rongrong rolled her eyes at Dai Mubai.
Nothing had happened between Zhu Zhuqing and Su Ling lately. Neither of them even spoke much, yet Dai Mubai couldn't tolerate even that.
Besides, Zhu Zhuqing had said she didn't like Dai Mubai.
Ning Rongrong couldn't understand why Dai Mubai always targeted Su Ling. Even the slightest interaction between Zhu Zhuqing and Su Ling displeased him.
So Ning Rongrong was growing increasingly disgusted with Dai Mubai.
"That's right, Second Brother Dai. Boss Su did save Zhu Zhuqing, after all," Oscar chimed in.
In his eyes, Zhu Zhuqing might have suffered a serious injury without Su Ling. She was only cleaning a wound-wasn't Dai Mubai being far too sensitive?
An inexplicable anger welled up inside Dai Mubai. He turned to look at Oscar and said coldly, "Who gave you permission to address her so familiarly?"
With that, Dai Mubai leaped into the large tree nearby and concealed himself.
As a man, Dai Mubai could naturally sense that Su Ling had designs on Zhu Zhuqing, but there was nothing he could do about it.
"Su Ling, you brought this on yourself. I won't hold back anymore. Hmph..." Dai Mubai clenched his fists.
Zhu Zhuqing cleaned Su Ling's wound carefully and skillfully, arousing Ning Rongrong's curiosity.
"Zhu Zhuqing, did you often help other people clean their wounds before?" Ning Rongrong asked curiously.
"Yes, you could say that." Zhu Zhuqing nodded. Could she really tell her that she had always cleaned her own wounds?
Especially on her journey to Shrek Academy, she had suffered no major injuries, but minor ones had been constant. And back in the Star Luo Empire, when had she ever not treated her injuries herself?
"I see! If only we had a healing support soul master here. An injury like Big Brother Su's would only take one healing soul skill," Ning Rongrong remarked teasingly.
Time slowly passed. By nightfall, neither Tang San nor Flender had returned.
Zhao Wuji continued to keep everyone waiting where they were. If they went too far, the others might not find them, making it impossible to regroup.
That night, Su Ling sat outside the tents on watch. He was responsible for the first half of the night, while Dai Mubai would take the second half.
His gaze fell on the system screen!
White ×12, yellow ×7, Black Chest ×1
"What could I get from a Black Chest?"
Su Ling took a deep breath, then silently said, System, open the Black Chest.
[Ding... Black Chest opened. Congratulations, host. Obtained supreme-grade ten-thousand-year whale glue ×3 (no side effects).]
Whale rubber?
And ten-thousand-year at that!
This was excellent for strengthening his body, and he could use it right now.
Just then, a rustling came from the forest.
A soul beast?
Su Ling immediately stood and released his martial soul. Just as he was about to wake everyone, he spotted three familiar figures.
Weren't those Flender and Tang San, who had gone out, along with Xiao Wu?
Xiao Wu seemed to be in good condition. From the look of things, she had already condensed her third Soul Ring.
"Dean, Tang San! Xiao Wu, are you all right?" Su Ling called out.
"Thank you for worrying about me, Big Brother Su. I'm fine. I don't know why, but after carrying me for a while, the Titan Giant Ape threw me down. I was pretty lucky. Later, I found a soul beast that had been caught up in the Titan Giant Ape's rampage and was close to death, so I successfully advanced to Soul Elder," Xiao Wu said with a smile.
"Congratulations, then," Su Ling said.
"Everyone's already resting. Your tents have been set up, so go get some rest," Su Ling said.
"All right!" Xiao Wu nodded.
"Brother, you spent so long looking for me. Hurry and get some rest."
Xiao Wu spoke with concern. At this point, she truly treated Tang San very well.
Perhaps that was also why Su Ling found it harder to increase Xiao Wu's affection.
Zhu Zhuqing had originally been the most difficult, but after he forcibly bound her, and as her relationship with Dai Mubai deteriorated step by step, gaining her affection had become much easier.
Tang San didn't stand on ceremony and went to rest. After searching for so long, he was tired, and he also needed to recover some soul power as soon as possible.
The same went for Flender, who also needed to recover his soul power.
Xiao Wu, however, stayed outside, intending to keep watch with Su Ling.
"Big Brother Su, is everyone all right?" Xiao Wu asked tentatively.
"Everyone's fine," Su Ling said. "Maybe the Titan Giant Ape never meant to make things difficult for us and was just playing around."
"M-maybe," Xiao Wu said.
After that, Su Ling began chatting with Xiao Wu about this and that. They only stopped when Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun came to take over the watch in the second half of the night.
When they arrived and discovered Xiao Wu had returned, she explained everything again, just as she had to Su Ling earlier.
[Ding... Xiao Wu's affection +4. Obtained White Chest ×1, Yellow Chest ×1.]
Huh?
Su Ling, who had just returned to his tent, heard the system notification too. He had actually gained so much affection from Xiao Wu just by chatting for over two hours.
This was definitely an unexpected delight.
Not long ago, Su Ling had been lamenting how difficult it was to increase Xiao Wu's affection. Now that it had risen by four points at once, it seemed rather easy.
Could it be that my approach and manner with Xiao Wu had been wrong before?
Before you continue