Su Ling trained in the hotel until noon the next day. After a simple meal, he went to the blacksmith's shop to collect the Weighted Training Gear he had spent a hundred Gold Soul Coins to have made.
It consisted of a garment-or a vest, rather-about a centimeter thick and weighing a little over a hundred kilograms.
Su Ling had wanted to make it heavier, but the materials imposed limits, and this was the greatest weight the blacksmith's shop could produce.
There were also two ankle weights, each weighing thirty kilograms, and two wrist weights, each weighing fifteen kilograms.
Once he put everything on, the total load exceeded a hundred and ninety kilograms.
After leaving Suotuo City, Su Ling found somewhere to change into it, then began jogging along the road.
Actually, Su Ling had no need to worry about his body's toughness, but ever since his martial soul had evolved into the Five Elements War Bow, drawing it had required far more strength.
Although Su Ling could still draw the bow into a full moon, he could not maintain that for many shots. His draw speed had also decreased, restricting the use of many inherited skills. They no longer flowed as smoothly as before, and sometimes even his accuracy suffered.
In short, all of this stemmed from insufficient strength.
When his martial soul had still been the Water Moon Bow, Su Ling had never needed to worry about lacking strength, but that no longer held true with the Five Elements War Bow.
It was not that Su Ling was particularly weak. The gap between the two bows was simply too great, making him feel that he still needed to make up for his shortcomings.
Without using soul power, Su Ling trained in the most primitive way, crossing mountains and wading through rivers.
Whenever he encountered a town or city along the way, he would stroll through it to replenish his supply of fresh food and see whether he might meet a suitable goddess.
Within the system's detection range, any woman with a goddess overall rating of ninety or higher could be detected within five hundred meters of him.
Unfortunately, after ten consecutive days of travel and visits to seven or eight towns, Su Ling had still received no system notifications.
Achieving a goddess overall rating of ninety or higher was no easy feat. There were already few female soul masters on the Douluo Continent, and the requirements were demanding.
Appearance, talent, age, and other factors all had to be taken into account.
Only after another fifteen days, when Su Ling reached a small town still more than a hundred kilometers from the Heaven Dou Empire, did the system chime.
[Ding... a goddess whose goddess overall rating meets the requirements has been detected within five hundred meters of the host!] [Goddess: Huo Wu] [Goddess overall rating: 93] [Binding requirement: favorability above 60] [Current favorability: unknown]
Huo Wu?
He thought of the name of the town he was in. It seemed to be called Blazing Fire Town, a small town that had grown around Blazing Fire Academy.
Huo Wu's goddess overall rating was quite good, on par with Ning Rongrong's current rating.
[Ding... a goddess whose goddess overall rating meets the requirements has been detected within five hundred meters of the host!] [Goddess: Shui Bing'er] [Goddess overall rating: 94] [Binding requirement: favorability above 60] [Current favorability: unknown]
Su Ling froze for a moment. Isn't this Blazing Fire Academy's territory? Why is Shui Bing'er here? Yet the system's voice had not stopped.
It announced the names of two more goddesses in succession, one of whom Su Ling had never heard of.
Shui Yue'er, goddess overall rating: 91 Bing Yuhuang, goddess overall rating: 92
Have the people from Skywater Academy all come here too?
But why aren't there any notifications for the others? Don't they meet the standards for a goddess?
The Tianshui Girl Group had more members than that. If the system did not recognize them, there was only one possibility: their goddess overall ratings were below ninety.
Just then, two young men in fiery-red uniforms ran past Su Ling.
"Hurry back and take a look! I heard our academy's Huo Wu has set up an arena to challenge the students from the other four academies visiting for the exchange."
That was all Su Ling heard. More people ran past afterward, and from their conversations, he learned what was happening.
It turned out that the other members of the Five Elemental Academies-Godwind Academy, Skywater Academy, Thunder Academy, and Elephant Armor Academy-had come to Blazing Fire Academy for an exchange.
This was an exchange gathering they held before every All-Continent Advanced Soul Master Elite Tournament.
In that case, encountering Shui Bing'er here was hardly strange.
With goddesses present, Su Ling naturally could not miss it.
Finding a deserted spot, Su Ling removed his Weighted Training Gear and tidied himself up before heading in the direction the crowd had run.
Su Ling's destination this time was the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, but before going there, he could first build up some initial favorability with these goddesses.
Making his way through the crowd, Su Ling arrived at the Blazing Fire Academy Entrance Square.
A small Soul Fighting Platform had been erected in the center of the square. It was not particularly large, roughly thirty meters in diameter, but that was sufficient for one-on-one soul fighting.
At the center of the Soul Fighting Platform stood a girl in a red dress, her dark-red hair falling to her waist in long, loose waves.
She had exquisite features and a fair face, but her long, slender, jade-like legs were especially striking, like the most perfect work of art-something to admire from afar, not profane with one's touch.
Su Ling swept his gaze around and soon found a group of women dressed in sky-blue.
At their head stood a woman who looked about thirty, with an extraordinary bearing and stunning looks. She bore some resemblance to a girl beside her.
Could she be Shui Bing'er's mother?
Bing Yuhuang... judging by her name, it's quite possible.
Shui Bing'er was easy to recognize. Among the girls, she was clearly the one they followed.
Shui Bing'er was not particularly tall, standing under a hundred and seventy centimeters, but she had an excellent figure, somewhere in the middle-neither voluptuous nor slight.
At first glance, she seemed a little less beautiful than girls like Zhu Zhuqing, yet after a few more looks, she somehow seemed even prettier.
How could he put it? She had an exceptional air about her, and her beauty grew on the beholder.
Shui Bing'er had been one of Su Ling's favorite female characters in the novel and animation in his previous life. She was also the only person who could beat Tang San into a shell of self-doubt during the early stages.
Composed, calm, kind, and intelligent, she was almost the perfect woman.
Unfortunately, she was not part of the main cast. Without opportunities, she could only be reduced to a bit player later on. It was a pity, and the same went for Huo Wu and Shui Yue'er.
In that case, I'll help you become the protagonists this time, Su Ling thought.
Then he looked at Shui Yue'er. Her goddess overall rating was ninety-one, higher than Meng Yiran's.
During the Soul Master Tournament, her soul power had been at rank thirty-six, and she was a little younger than the sixteen-year-old Shui Bing'er.
Even if he counted her as sixteen as well, her talent was definitely greater than Meng Yiran's.
After all, Meng Yiran had only just broken through to Soul Elder at sixteen. Compared with Shui Bing'er, Shui Yue'er had a completely different personality. At a glance, she was clearly the sweet, playful, adorable type.
As for the girls beside them, some were no less attractive than Shui Yue'er. Perhaps their talent was too low.
Those girls were probably all over twenty. Only one among them was a Soul Ancestor above rank forty; the rest were all in their thirties.
Their looks were not top-tier, and their talent was insufficient. No wonder their goddess overall ratings could not reach ninety.
"Welcome, everyone, to Blazing Fire Academy for the Five Elemental Academies' exchange gathering. Our academy is hosting this gathering, and the first stage of our exchange will begin with soul fighting right here."
While he was thinking, Huo Wu had already begun speaking from the Soul Fighting Platform, and Su Ling turned his gaze toward her.
"Anyone may participate in the soul fighting. The final winner will receive a prize of three thousand Gold Soul Coins provided by Blazing Fire Academy. Who would like to be the first to step onto the platform?"
Before you continue