Su Ling finished tidying his room and lit some incense to dispel the lingering smell of medicine.
He sat cross-legged on the bed.
He glanced around the room. At last, it felt like a home.
With a flicker of his eyes, the system screen appeared before him.
Xiao Wu's affection: 8 Ning Rongrong's affection: 10 Zhu Zhuqing's affection: 61 White Chest ×4 Yellow Chest ×1 Purple Chest ×2
He had also opened two Yellow Chests earlier, receiving 5,000 Gold Soul Coins and ten Basic Soul Power Recovery Pills.
The screen also displayed his own status panel.
Host: Su Ling (healthy) Age: 19 Martial soul: Water Moon Bow Soul power: Level 40 Spiritual power: Level 51 Soul rings: Yellow (320 years, water attribute), yellow (652 years, wood attribute), purple (1,358 years, fire attribute) Soul bones: None
Perhaps because he had absorbed his predecessor's memories and endured over a month of torment from illness, Su Ling's spiritual power had increased considerably. Like his soul power, it had reached the Soul King level.
Aside from his spiritual power, there was nothing remarkable about his status panel!
Of his three soul rings, he had obtained the first at seven years old with his family's help.
He had obtained the other two with help from Flender and the other teachers at Shrek Academy.
Among the five elements, water nourished wood, wood fed fire, fire produced earth, earth bore metal, and metal generated water. They both nurtured and restrained one another.
Su Ling's soul rings followed the sequence of water, wood, fire, earth, and metal.
Speaking of which, the body Su Ling now occupied held another secret.
Su Ling came from the Water Moon clan, a family affiliated with the Clear Sky Sect.
Unfortunately, twelve years ago, the Clear Sky Sect had abandoned-or sacrificed-its affiliated families and chosen to withdraw from the world.
Back then, the Water Moon clan had been utterly loyal to the Clear Sky Sect, so its members had fought on the front lines against Spirit Hall.
Unfortunately, Spirit Hall had been far too powerful. Coupled with the Clear Sky Sect's abandonment, this had led to almost the entire Water Moon clan dying in battle. Su Ling, only seven at the time, had escaped under the protection of the clan's experts.
Later, Flender had rescued him while out searching for suitable students.
That was how he had ended up at Shrek.
The reason he absorbed soul rings with different attributes lay in his clan's legacy: over two hundred years ago, the Water Moon clan had produced an extraordinary member.
That person had blazed a new trail, making the Water Moon Bow's first five soul rings embody five different attributes: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
Once the five soul rings reached equilibrium, that clan member had successfully condensed a five elements heart and evolved the Water Moon Bow into the Five Elements War Bow, sending their combat strength soaring.
Innate soul power determined the upper limit of soul power, while the quality of a martial soul determined the upper limit of combat strength.
Burdened with his family's hatred, his predecessor had cultivated diligently and embarked on this same path of martial soul evolution.
Sadly, he had failed while absorbing his fourth soul ring, allowing the current Su Ling to reap the benefit and take over his body.
At that thought, Su Ling took an ancient-looking book from his Soul Tool.
It contained a detailed account of how that clan member had condensed a five elements heart and advanced the Water Moon Bow into the Five Elements War Bow.
The process was grueling. Over the past two hundred years, dozens of clan members had died attempting it, and not one had succeeded.
The main difficulty lay in absorbing five different attributes. This placed an enormous strain on the body, particularly when absorbing the fourth and fifth soul rings.
"Looks like I'll have to follow this path too," Su Ling murmured.
He seemingly had three soul rings and three soul skills, but in reality, only the first was usable. Because the second and third soul rings had incompatible attributes, their soul skills were pitifully weak and utterly useless in combat.
Only by evolving his martial soul into the Five Elements War Bow could he unleash the power of soul skills with other attributes. Until then, he could only use his first soul skill, which matched his own attribute.
Fortunately, his family's three-hundred-year legacy also included precise archery techniques.
Rapid-fire arrows, Multiple Arrows, even making arrows curve-he could do all of those. There were also archery techniques that concentrated soul power into attacks, which were every bit as effective as some ordinary Soul Masters' soul skills.
However, Su Ling had only just inherited this body and had yet to fully integrate everything.
His predecessor had been a genius who had mastered almost the entirety of the clan's legacy. All Su Ling needed to do was master it again by following those memories.
Putting away the book containing his clan's legacy, Su Ling looked at the system screen again.
"Open all the chests!"
[Ding... Congratulations, host! You opened White Chest ×4 and received one case of red wine, Gold Soul Coin ×200, Ten-Year Ginseng ×1, and Fine Iron Dagger ×1.]
The White Chests offered mediocre rewards, all exceedingly ordinary items.
[Ding... Congratulations, host! You opened a Yellow Chest and received Basic Soul Power Pills ×1 bottle.] [Ding... Congratulations, host! You opened the Purple Chests and received Record of Immortal Herbs ×1 and Five Elements Inner Breath Cultivation Method ×1.]
Five Elements Inner Breath Cultivation Method?
Record of Immortal Herbs?
At last, something good had appeared.
Su Ling immediately took the Record of Immortal Herbs out of the system space.
The Record of Immortal Herbs was roughly two centimeters thick, with 358 pages documenting 131 different kinds of immortal medicinal herbs.
It covered harvesting, preservation, and methods of consumption, and even included cultivation methods. Its descriptions were extremely comprehensive.
With this in hand, why worry about failing to obtain the medicinal herbs at the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well?
Su Ling had worried about that before, but now things were easier. Of the three major obstacles to reaching the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the most difficult had been resolved.
The remaining two obstacles were Dugu Bo himself and his poison formation.
Putting away the Record of Immortal Herbs, Su Ling took out the Five Elements Inner Breath Cultivation Method.
But he had barely taken it out when someone knocked at the door.
"Boss! Boss, are you there?"
From the voice, it was Ma Hongjun.
"Fatty, what's wrong? What do you need?"
Su Ling put away the book in his hands and opened the door to find Ma Hongjun in a frantic rush.
Judging by his impatient look, he probably couldn't hold his evil fire back much longer.
"Boss, congratulations on making a full recovery. Could... could you lend me some Gold Soul Coins? I need to go to Suotuo City. Brother Dai's already gone."
Su Ling took ten Gold Soul Coins from the system space and said, "Here, take them."
One Gold Soul Coin was enough for Ma Hongjun to find a decent helper to dispel his evil fire, let alone the ten he had just received.
Ma Hongjun immediately set his sights on something new. "Thanks, Boss! I'll be off, then. This time, I'm going to the place Brother Dai spends his money at."
Once Ma Hongjun left, Su Ling was about to close the door and return to studying the Five Elements Inner Breath Cultivation Method when he saw Zhu Zhuqing step out of her dorm room and look his way.
Their eyes met. A little embarrassed, Zhu Zhuqing couldn't help looking elsewhere.
Su Ling simply closed his door and walked over to her.
"Zhu Zhuqing, may I call you that?" Su Ling asked.
"Uh, sure!" Zhu Zhuqing replied.
"Since it's your first day at the academy, how about we go to Suotuo City for dinner together?" Su Ling suggested.
"That... wouldn't be a good idea," Zhu Zhuqing said, trying to refuse.
She turned me down?
Su Ling immediately activated the Advice Listening skill for his bound goddesses. It had a thirty-percent success rate, and he had no idea whether it would work. In any case, the day was almost over; leaving it unused would be a waste.
Besides, Dai Mubai had most likely gone to Suotuo City to find women. It would certainly be interesting if Zhu Zhuqing caught him red-handed.
"All right! I'll do as you say." Zhu Zhuqing suddenly changed her mind and agreed. The Advice Listening skill had naturally succeeded!
"Take me along. I want to go too."
For some reason, Ning Rongrong appeared from who knew where, looking mischievous, as though some scheme of hers had succeeded. She even wore the air of a troublemaking little demoness.
"Sure, you can come too!" Su Ling said.
He actually had a purpose in taking Zhu Zhuqing along.
Hadn't Ma Hongjun just said Dai Mubai had gone to a certain establishment? Perhaps he could let Zhu Zhuqing see for herself and have the two settle things sooner.
"Brother Su, should we bring Xiao Wu and the others too?" Ning Rongrong suggested.
"Of course!"
Su Ling had originally intended to go alone with Zhu Zhuqing, but Ning Rongrong had interrupted his plans. More importantly, he couldn't very well refuse her now. After all, Ning Rongrong and Xiao Wu were also targets.
"Zhu Zhuqing, let's go get Xiao Wu." Ning Rongrong took Zhu Zhuqing's hand and ran toward Xiao Wu's dorm.
Once they had gotten some distance away, Ning Rongrong whispered into Zhu Zhuqing's ear, "Zhu Zhuqing, don't tell me you fell for Brother Su at first sight?"
"N-no, I didn't," Zhu Zhuqing hastily protested.
"Then why did you agree to go out for dinner alone with him? And you still say it wasn't love at first sight!" Ning Rongrong said.
"I don't know why I agreed just now either," Zhu Zhuqing said. In truth, she kept asking herself the same question. How did I end up saying yes just now?
Before you continue