"Hey! Why? I didn't even fight." Xie Xie immediately squeezed past Jiang Mingyuan and slapped a hand on the desk, sounding rather aggrieved.
Long Hengxu gave him a cold sidelong glance.
"While the academy discourages fighting, your behavior was hardly commendable either. If Jiang Mingyuan had only been a one-ring Soul Master, you probably would have stabbed him outright. To put it bluntly, that's called bullying the weak and fearing the strong. You've thoroughly disgraced Soul Masters."
Huh?
Xie Xie was completely dumbfounded. I'm wrong if I fight, and I'm wrong if I don't. Tell me what I'm supposed to do! I'm the most innocent one here!
Standing silently behind everyone, Yun Xiao thought, I'm innocent too.
"Then why doesn't he have to go to Class Five? Just because his cultivation is higher than ours?" Xie Xie pointed at Jiang Mingyuan, indignation written all over his face.
Long Hengxu couldn't help chuckling. This boy named Xie Xie was rather amusing. He took the updated class roster, freshly printed just over ten minutes ago, from his drawer and pushed it toward Xie Xie.
"See for yourself."
Xie Xie looked closely. He found his own name on the Class One roster, but immediately noticed something wrong. Why wasn't Jiang Mingyuan's name in Class One? Tang Wulin's name was missing too.
Xie Xie's eyes carefully scanned the paper.
Zhou Changxi was in Class Three, and Yun Xiao was in Class Four.
Finally, at the very bottom of Class Five, two names sat quietly side by side: Jiang Mingyuan and Tang Wulin.
"Huh? Wait, how exactly did you assign these classes?"
After leaving the disciplinary office, Jiang Mingyuan, Tang Wulin, Xie Xie, and Yun Xiao walked side by side along a path through the academy. Some older students had taken Zhou Changxi to the infirmary.
Xie Xie turned to look at Jiang Mingyuan, who was walking beside him with a smile. Several times, he wanted to speak but stopped himself. Remembering the crushing pressure Jiang Mingyuan had exuded during Martial Soul Possession, he could only silently swallow his anger.
"I... you... no... ugh! Why am I so unlucky? Running into you two freaks!"
"Oh, come on. We'll all be classmates from now on. Stop looking so miserable and smile a little."
Paired with Jiang Mingyuan's beaming expression, those words prompted one thought from Xie Xie: He keeps provoking me.
Just then, Tang Wulin's stomach began to growl. He scratched his head sheepishly.
"Let's go eat. To celebrate getting to know each other, this meal's on me."
Following his memory of the academy map, Jiang Mingyuan led everyone toward the cafeteria.
The intermediate division's cafeteria was a small building beside the main teaching building.
It had three floors serving the intermediate division's six grades, with the first and second grades eating on the ground floor.
The four entered the cafeteria and found it fairly spacious. However, there were only tables here, no chairs.
There were three serving windows in the cafeteria. Their clear glass panes bore the labels A, B, and C respectively.
The A meals were the most expensive, but they also used the best ingredients.
Here was a dark joke: where on the continent were the most Soul Beasts gathered these days?
On breeding farms.
Some large breeding farms raised over a hundred thousand Soul Beasts for meat. These days, even the Star Dou Great Forest might not have more than ten thousand Soul Beasts.
The B meals were more affordable. Although they contained no Soul Beast meat, most of their ingredients were rich in nutrients.
The C meals were free. Naturally, the food was ordinary too: steamed buns, millet porridge, rice, pickled vegetables, and a few simple stir-fries.
Cultivation and combat consumed a great deal of energy for Soul Masters. They often had to eat these ordinary meals in large quantities to obtain the energy they needed for the day. But everyone's stomach had its limits.
Jiang Mingyuan brought the others to the A-meal window and peered through the glass. The food might not have achieved perfection in appearance, aroma, and flavor, but it was at least sixty or seventy percent of the way there. It was far better than some of the inventive dishes served at certain universities in his previous life.
"Brother Mingyuan, won't this cost you too much?" Tang Wulin asked sheepishly.
"It's fine, Wulin. Money is meant to be spent. You need a full stomach to have the strength to cultivate."
Xie Xie and Yun Xiao each ordered three dishes and a soup. Those were normal portions, nothing that would embarrass a friend treating them to a meal.
"Jiang Mingyuan, you're treating us this time. Next time, it's my turn."
Holding his tray in one hand, Xie Xie patted his chest with the other. His family was quite well-off, so he felt reasonably confident.
Jiang Mingyuan was secretly chuckling. Once you see Tang Wulin's earth-shattering appetite, you'll probably regret saying that.
Twenty minutes later.
Not only Xie Xie and Yun Xiao, but the other students in the cafeteria were staring in astonishment at the plates piled into a small mountain on their table.
"Um, Tang Wulin, could you eat a little slower? You're scaring me," Yun Xiao said timidly, afraid the plates would topple onto him-or that Tang Wulin might accidentally eat him too.
Was this really a human appetite?
Xie Xie was utterly stupefied. What he had ordered earlier had been more than enough to satisfy his own needs. Tang Wulin had now eaten at least fifty times as much, yet he was still eating. Jiang Mingyuan didn't seem to mind in the slightest and watched him with a smile instead.
If only the internet were a little more developed. He could make a killing doing eating streams. Most importantly, even eating all this meat doesn't make Tang Wulin's belly bulge.
At last, after finishing the food on his fifty-third plate, Tang Wulin accepted the tissue Jiang Mingyuan handed him and wiped his mouth. Somewhat embarrassed, he said, "Sorry for making a spectacle of myself. Ever since my martial soul awakening, my appetite has become huge for some reason."
That afternoon, Jiang Mingyuan and Tang Wulin left Eastsea Academy separately, heading to the Designer Association and the Blacksmith Association in Eastsea City respectively.
A year and a half earlier, Jiang Mingyuan had already become a Level Two Designer. He had brought Tang Wulin to Eastsea City for a visit back then and picked up a Level Two Designer certificate while he was at it.
After entering the Designer Association, Jiang Mingyuan approached the front desk and handed his identification to the receptionist. Once she had checked it, she respectfully returned it to him.
Jiang Mingyuan took out his Soul Guidance Communicator and opened the messaging interface. He tapped a message from half a month earlier.
"I found something that meets your requirements. Come have a look when you're free."
A picture was attached below. It showed a basketball-sized piece of silver metal with a dull surface.
Soul silver.
A metal with excellent ductility, but extremely low hardness.
Standing before a door marked "President's office," Jiang Mingyuan knocked lightly. A gentle woman's voice came from inside. "Come in."
Jiang Mingyuan pushed the door open. Behind the desk sat a strikingly graceful woman who appeared to be in her thirties.
"President Qin," Jiang Mingyuan greeted her politely.
"Oh, it's you, little Jiang. You haven't come by in over six months. I found what you wanted. But let your big sister remind you: whether you use this stuff for a Soul Tool's casing or its core, it won't be sturdy. The slightest knock can deform it."
Qin Yu was the president of Eastsea City's Designer Association. She could be considered a rank-seven-and-a-half Designer.
When Jiang Mingyuan had come for his assessment a year and a half earlier, she had been his examiner. At the time, she was still the vice president.
Although Designers didn't depend on talent and physical stamina the way Blacksmiths did, they still needed a vast store of knowledge and a sharp mind.
Jiang Mingyuan had become a Level Two Designer at just seven and a half years old, more than enough to qualify as a genius. Qin Yu cherished promising youngsters, and she also found him endearing. During those few days, she had added his contact information and would send him knowledge related to design from time to time.