After another night of meditation, Chen Ping's cultivation still stood at the absolute peak of Soul Scholar-in other words, level ten.
Further cultivation would continue to accumulate soul power, but his cultivation level would not rise again until he obtained a soul ring.
Opening the window, Chen Ping took a deep breath of fresh air and gazed toward the distant west-that was where Star Dou Forest and Shrek Academy lay.
Even before obtaining the system, Chen Ping had never skipped his nightly meditation, come hell or high water. In such a fucked-up world, having no cultivation to protect himself was a dangerous thing.
Especially after Tang San blew up Slaughter City and smashed Spirit Hall to pieces, this world had become more dangerous than ever.
Even a dominant force like Shrek, which stood at the pinnacle of the entire Douluo Continent, had failed to eradicate Evil Soul Masters despite killing them for ten thousand years straight.
His innate soul power had at least been level two, after all. His soul power increased by a little over two levels each year, and by now he had accumulated a considerable reserve of levels, just waiting to cash them in after hunting a soul beast.
Shrek's admission requirements had dropped considerably compared with ten thousand years ago, when Flender ran it.
Originally, applicants had needed to reach level twenty by age twelve and still undergo an assessment, while only those above level twenty-five at twelve could skip the first three tests. Now, anyone who exceeded level fifteen before turning twelve could enroll.
Perhaps Shrek had lowered its standards after merging with Blue Tyrant Academy.
Or perhaps requiring twelve-year-olds above level twenty to undergo further assessment was too inhuman a standard for any sane person to propose, leaving them unable to recruit more than a handful of new students.
Whatever the reason, Shrek's current level requirement for admission was not particularly harsh.
The hardest admission requirement to deal with was actually the recommendation letter from the lord of a major city.
That left Chen Ping rather worried.
If his family had still existed, obtaining a recommendation letter from a major city's lord might not have been difficult. After all, no one had stipulated that each city lord could only write one letter.
For the lord of a major city, giving the children of his own family or the city's prominent clans a helping hand was hardly any trouble.
If a talented child from an ordinary household qualified to join Shrek, sending them a recommendation letter would be an act of patronage and kindness they would remember for the rest of their life.
The crux of the matter, however, was that according to Shrek's inspection team afterward, Evil Soul Masters had been involved in the destruction of his original self's sect.
And the reason those Evil Soul Masters had acted was very likely tied to the Coiling Dragon Sect's hereditary martial soul.
Yet Chen Ping's own martial soul was merely a Willow Wood Staff.
As he was now, he had no family connections to rely on.
Nor did he possess talent that would make anyone recognize at a glance that he deserved a recommendation to Shrek City.
A one-track mind had hit dead ends at both ends.
But just like the Coiling Dragon Staff martial soul of the Qiangu Family in the third and fourth installments of Douluo, a great clan would not carry on through just one surname.
The Qiangu Family's hereditary martial soul was the Coiling Dragon Staff, and so was that of the family behind Chen Ping. If Chen Ping remembered correctly, Wang Yan, a current teacher at Shrek Academy, also had the Coiling Dragon Staff as his martial soul.
So, to ensure his smooth admission, Chen Ping had decided that Wang Yan was his distant uncle. No one could spoil the bond between this uncle and nephew-not even Wang Yan himself.
Before claiming that family connection, however, Chen Ping first had to find a way to resolve the issue of his first soul ring.
Even if he reached Shrek City and Wang Yan was willing to acknowledge this nephew whose connection to him was so distant that eight bamboo poles laid end to end could not bridge it, and put in a word for him, Chen Ping would still need to reach level fifteen first.
If Huo Yuhao had not possessed a skill as absurdly powerful as Spiritual Detection, along with the Tang Sect's recommendation privileges and Tang Ya's staunch support, even Huo Gua would never have gotten into Shrek.
Chen Ping did not know how much influence Wang Yan, Xuan Zi's designated secretary, actually wielded at Shrek, but he did not want to put Wang Yan in too difficult a position.
Reaching level fifteen by twelve was as difficult as ascending to heaven for Soul Masters like Chen Ping and Huo Yuhao, whose innate soul power had only been level one or two.
But just as Huo Yuhao had started cheating the moment he enrolled, his levels shooting up one after another, who said anyone else couldn't use a cheat too?
With the help of the Mighty Tonic and Body Tempering Soup, Chen Ping had awakened his potential, and his cultivation speed was no longer slow. There were still three months before Shrek's admissions, and he felt he could give it a shot.
He packed his luggage, left the room, and carefully closed the door.
Chen Ping went downstairs and leisurely ate seven or eight bowls of noodles, replenishing his carbohydrates with a vengeance. He swallowed a few chicken eggs whole before finally feeling much better.
"The bill. Take this Gold Soul Coin to settle it, and keep the rest as your tip."
Chen Ping casually tossed a Gold Soul Coin onto the table, shouldered his carrying basket, and left.
The attendant was delighted when he heard that. Chen Ping's meal had not even cost one Silver Soul Coin. This was a tidy profit of nine Silver Soul Coins!
But with Chen Ping's penny-pinching nature, which made him want to split every copper coin in half before spending it, how could there possibly be such a good deal?
The attendant first bit the Gold Soul Coin. Seeing the clear tooth marks, he brightened, diligently cleared Chen Ping's bowls and chopsticks, and went upstairs to check out his room.
But the moment he opened the door, a powerful stench rushed out, nearly knocking him flat.
After just one breath of the room's air, the attendant already felt an intense pump throughout his body. Every muscle seemed to be swelling wildly, giving him the illusion that he now possessed boundless strength.
"Will this even clear up without airing it out for three days?"
Taking in the thick, strange odor in the room, the attendant's face crumpled. No wonder Chen Ping had left a Gold Soul Coin.
A premium room here cost three Silver Soul Coins a day. Add in Chen Ping's meal, and the tip amounted to only a few copper coins.
By then, Chen Ping had already set off for Star Dou Forest. It was not as though he had never considered getting his hands on the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm and Electrolux.
Either one of those two would be enough to conquer the world. If someone obtained both together... how had he ended up becoming a dog?
Shaking those thoughts out of his head, Chen Ping sighed.
There was no need to say much about the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm. He was specifically looking for a spiritual-type Soul Master, so he and Chen Ping were destined to cross paths without ever coming together.
As for Electrolux, he was an even bigger heavyweight-an unmistakably foreign soul, subjected to intense surveillance by Buddha Tang from the moment he arrived.
If only Electrolux had not bowed out so early, igniting himself to suppress the Snow Empress's rampaging power, Huo Yuhao would not have been trained into submission so thoroughly.
With Electrolux around, Huo Yuhao would at least have had a fallback path to becoming the Undead Holy Magic God. To hell with that damned Divine Realm-he could simply rebel against it, then establish a Heaven on Earth, a Kingdom of the Dead. Wouldn't that have been wonderful?
Then Electrolux died, without even leaving himself a chance at resurrection.
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