It really was his money

According to the explanation in Douluo Dalu III: The Legend of the Dragon King, all martial souls had been born from the lingering aura of the Dragon God after his death.

As dragons were the highest-ranking and most exalted beings in the entire Douluo Universe, it made perfect sense that their blood could be used to produce gold-grade supplements.

The trouble was that dragon blood really was not easy to obtain. The first ones Chen Ping thought of were the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, Di Tian, and the Hell Demon Dragon King, Zi JI.

But a moment later, Chen Ping hurriedly shook his head and tossed those ideas out of his mind.

Sure, eating Zhenyuanzi's Ginseng Fruit could grant immortality too, but had any demon along the Journey to the West ever dared set its sights on that fruit?

Still, the remains of the Water Dragon King and Fire Dragon King were soaking in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. Could the spring water there count as dragon blood?

If it did, that would be Dragon King-level blood. Wouldn't using it send his progress soaring?

Apart from those, Chen Ping seemed to remember a few lesser dragons as well.

But even a lesser dragon, so long as it had "dragon" in its name, was hardly going to be an easy soul beast to deal with.

Reaching the realm of nine dragons protecting the body would be a heavy burden and a long road indeed!

The night passed uneventfully.

Early the next morning, an enthusiastic Chen Ping sprang out of bed with a kip-up, got dressed, and headed straight for the gates of Shrek Academy.

By then, Bei Bei and Tang Ya had already put on the yellow uniforms worn by second- and third-year students and were welcoming new students at the gates. They greeted Chen Ping cheerfully when they saw him.

"Brother Bei Bei, Sister Xiaoya, farming credits?"

Chen Ping raised a hand in greeting and asked with some amusement.

"Ah, you bet. These past two years, I've spent every spare moment going to the Soul Fighting arena with that fellow San Shi, and haven't earned a single personal development credit. Welcoming new students gives plenty of points, so I came out to farm a few."

Bei Bei chatted cheerfully with Chen Ping for a bit. Welcoming new students was about the easiest way to earn credits.

Of course, it was not the fastest way.

As everyone knew, devices like the Soul Guidance Punch-Force Tester were a specialty of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy.

But one thing was certain: Shrek also needed to test its students' punching strength.

So having senior students serve as teaching aids for junior students, judging roughly what level a soul master's punching strength had reached by how hard they were hit, was another of Shrek's unique ways of earning credits...

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Chen Ping entered Shrek and, knowing the routine by heart, collected the one Gold Soul Coin he was entitled to each month after registering as a soul master.

Although he had already earned a few Gold Soul Coins, Chen Ping certainly was not going to pass up one being handed out for free.

His only regret was that the way this money was distributed differed somewhat from Spirit Hall's system.

Simply put, Chen Ping was currently a Soul Master, so he received one Gold Soul Coin a month.

Once he became a Soul Grandmaster or a Soul Elder, he would still receive one Gold Soul Coin a month.

Hmmmmm...

Still, it was not as though the soul master stipend from the Three Great Empires was completely different from Spirit Hall's benefits.

Spirit Hall stopped paying once a soul master reached Soul Ancestor rank.

After all, a soul master at that level could be considered a pillar of strength in a small city or sect.

At that point, the Three Great Empires' stipend policy fell into line with Spirit Hall's.

Soul Ancestors are already pillars of the soul master world, so we stop handing out Gold Soul Coins too!

It was only because Chen Ping was poor now, and a mouth that had eaten someone's food could hardly speak against them, that he held back. Otherwise, he would have thoroughly condemned this practice.

How many people admitted to Shrek were genuinely poor?

To most Shrek students, this one Gold Soul Coin a month was nothing but a joke. They had to save for ten months just to afford a single match in the Soul Fighting arena.

Rather than that, they might as well pool the funds and provide targeted assistance to Shrek's few impoverished students. That would be a way of distributing money that the soul masters receiving help would truly remember.

But on closer thought, perhaps certain people in the Three Great Empires had arranged this deliberately, betting that most Shrek students would not bother collecting the money.

Targeted aid for impoverished students? Then all those glittering Gold Soul Coins would end up in poor people's hands. What a sin!

That approach would benefit the Three Great Empires as a whole, but not necessarily the officials responsible for distributing the funds.

Conversely, only when soul masters could take or leave the money as they pleased could the officials in charge truly feast until their mouths dripped with grease.

In an instant, Chen Ping saw the light.

No wonder the fellow handing out the money had looked so uncomfortable when Chen Ping collected his share, as though Chen Ping were taking away his own money.

So the money I collected really was his money!

After going through the standard registration procedure and paying ten Gold Soul Coins, Chen Ping soon received his dormitory key and new student uniform.

Without another word, he changed into the new uniform and immediately felt refreshed.

Now that he could even afford to change into new clothes, who could see him without raising a thumb and praising his formidable means?

With his dormitory key in hand, he returned to the dormitory building's entrance. Mu En was still rocking unhurriedly in his chair, his eyes half closed. There was no telling whether he was actually asleep.

This time, Chen Ping did not dare crack any more jokes in front of Mu En. A stumble taught a lesson; he understood that much, at least.

He greeted Mu En properly. Seeing that Chen Ping was clearly much better behaved now, Mu En smiled faintly and waved him inside.

The student dormitory was a corridor-style building, with doors lining both sides of a long hallway and a number plate on each door.

The interior was visibly old. Who knew how many years it had been in use?

There was a communal bathroom at each end of the corridor.

When Chen Ping discovered that his room was right in the middle, he inwardly sensed trouble.

I'm cooked.

There's no way I'm winning the race to the toilets!

From his position, he could see no toilets ahead and no stalls behind; contemplating the hardships of relieving himself, he could only shed tears in lonely sorrow.

Setting aside the arduous challenge of going to the toilet for now, Chen Ping unlocked the door, and a gust of somewhat stale air wafted out.

The room had been unoccupied during Shrek's month-long vacation, so a fair amount of dust was only to be expected.

After opening the window to air it out, Chen Ping got a clear look at the furnishings.

The room was tiny, only about ten square meters, and the two beds took up most of the space.

Apart from those, there was only a desk and two sheet-metal wardrobes, with a lamp on the ceiling and several metal protrusions on the walls.

Chen Ping was familiar with those. Wang Yan's home had them on its walls too; they were used to connect the Unranked Soul Guidance Lamps.

He had already expected the dormitory to need a thorough cleaning, and it took little effort to get it spotless.

Now he was curious about only one thing: would his roommate find the dormitory conditions unbearable and spend money to live elsewhere?

After all, if Chen Ping remembered correctly, Shrek Academy had no bathhouse. Even Wang Dong had washed behind a curtain she put up inside this tiny ten-square-meter room.