If You're Not Eating, Keep Your Hands Off

Su Ling found a seat by the window in the cafeteria, with two meat buns and a bowl of wontons in front of him.

The cafeteria lady had specially added extra sesame oil to his bowl, and its fragrance wafted into his nose.

Yet Yu Xiaogang had left him with little appetite.

There were quite a few things circling in Su Ling's mind now.

Ah Yin planned to have Tang Xiaosan go to the Blue Silver Ancestral Land and obtain a fifty-thousand-year first ring.

Since that was the case, he intended to help Tang Xiaosan strengthen her physique. With her first ring already fifty thousand years old, she could hardly go back to absorbing a Thousand-Year Soul Ring for her second.

But that would be no easy task. After all, not everyone was a cheat-loaded freak like him.

The Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, whale rubber, Soul Bones.

Those were all the ways Su Ling could currently think of to strengthen her physique. Speaking of Soul Bones...

He thought of someone: Tang Hao!

He remembered that Tang Hao had six Soul Bones: two inherited from his sect and four he had obtained himself out in the wild.

He could strip them all off and fit them onto Tang Xiaosan. The two inherited sect Soul Bones would be perfectly fine.

As for the other four, he would have to see. He couldn't bear to give Tang Xiaosan trash Soul Bones.

If anyone liked Su Ling the most right now, it was undoubtedly Tang Xiaosan. The others were merely drawing close and throwing themselves at him instinctively after seeing his strength.

Only Tang Xiaosan remained in the dark, yet loved Su Ling from the bottom of her heart.

It couldn't be helped. A bad family upbringing and a lack of love made her easy to win over. Su Ling hadn't even made a move before Tang Xiaosan had won herself over for him.

Su Ling tipped all the wontons into his mouth at once, then howled as the scalding bone broth burned him.

"So rash and impetuous. You'll never accomplish anything great."

Yu Xiaogang enjoyed his breakfast, chewing slowly and carefully.

Su Ling ignored Yu Xiaogang. After all, Yu Xiaogang cared about saving face, and with hardly any spectators around, there would be little satisfaction in slapping his face.

Besides, even Wang Sheng knew the Grandmaster was a useless freeloader, let alone the older students and teachers.

System.

He silently called out in his mind.

"Here."

Where is Tang Hao right now?

"Ding, beauties in front of the Screen, do you think I should tell him Tang Hao's location?"

"For just one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins, you can help Su Ling obtain information on Tang Hao and win the chance to issue today's mission!"

"Zzz~"

"Snrrk~"

Most people were still asleep, making the saying "the early bird catches the worm" seem particularly apt right now.

"Xue Ke sent one hundred thousand Gold Soul Coins!"

"Congratulations to Xue Ke on obtaining the right to issue a mission. As Su Ling currently has an unfinished mission, the mission issuance window has been extended to forty-eight hours."

"Ding, congratulations, host, on receiving a kind person's sponsorship. Tang Hao is currently in the smithy in Holy Soul Village, drunk and still fast asleep."

Su Ling stuffed the last bun into his mouth and stood up to leave.

He had only just turned around when he bumped into someone.

Tang Xiaosan had slipped into the cafeteria at some point and was looking up at him, with a few crumbs still stuck to the corner of her mouth.

She had clearly eaten a little dry bread before running out.

"Where are you going?"

"Out for a bit."

"I'm coming with you."

"No!"

Tang Xiaosan frowned, her eyes, which bore a seventy-to-eighty-percent resemblance to Ah Yin's, filled with displeasure.

She reached out and grabbed Su Ling's sleeve.

Her eyes went wide and round. Although she could no longer use force on Su Ling, she could still act cute.

"Didn't you say last night that you'd look after me for the rest of my life?"

Su Ling sighed and looked down at her.

"And you promised Ah Yin you'd be more sensible from now on."

Su Ling patted Tang Xiaosan's head while taking ten Gold Soul Coins out of his purse and handing them to her.

"All right, I have something to take care of. Serious business. Take these Gold Soul Coins and buy yourself and Xiao Wu something nice to eat. Look how skinny you've gotten."

Tang Xiaosan looked down at her chest. She really was skinny.

All these years, she had barely maintained her vital signs. Where would she have found spare energy to store extra fat?

Su Ling followed Tang Xiaosan's gaze. He had already seen everything yesterday.

Though it didn't seem much different from his own.

"What are you looking at!"

Tang Xiaosan's face instantly flushed red, the color spreading from her earlobes down to her neck.

"Anyway, what are you going to do?"

Tang Xiaosan hurriedly changed the subject, avoiding an awkward situation.

Su Ling hesitated. Say he was going to beat up her dad? That sounded wrong no matter how he put it.

Still, Su Ling felt Tang Xiaosan probably wouldn't object.

"Xiaosan."

He crouched down and met her eyes. "Do you trust me?"

Tang Xiaosan stared at him for a long while, her hand slowly loosening.

"Yes."

"Then wait for me at Nuoding Academy with Xiao Wu. I'll be back before dark."

Tang Xiaosan stepped back, wearing an expression that said, "Fine, I'll reluctantly trust you this once."

Just as Su Ling was about to leave, she spoke again.

"Su Ling."

"Hm?"

"If you lie to me and never come back, I'll chase you to the ends of the earth. When that happens..."

She left the rest unsaid, but her right hand brushed her waist, and Su Ling distinctly saw a cold glint flash inside her sleeve.

"You can say goodbye to your little brother. Don't worry, I'll still like you afterward."

"...I'm really not lying."

After leaving Nuoding Academy, Su Ling went to Nuoding City's secondhand market and picked up a gray robe.

The robe cost three Copper Soul Coins. Though shabby, it had no unpleasant smell.

It was so wide and roomy that when he pulled it over his head, only his eyes showed.

He looked at his reflection in a water vat.

A squat little winter melon.

Tang Hao probably wouldn't recognize him. Su Ling really was afraid that Tang Hao might slaughter everyone in Holy Soul Village in a fit of rage.

"Ah Yin."

"Yes."

"You won't switch sides when the time comes, will you?"

Ah Yin didn't answer. She simply manifested, grabbed Su Ling's arm, and bit down hard.

"Master, do you still not trust me?"

Tears welled in Ah Yin's eyes, her voice quiet.

"If you truly don't trust me, Master, just erase all my memories."

"I..."

Su Ling didn't quite know how to answer. He had only meant to make a joke, never expecting to hurt Ah Yin so deeply.

With their hearts connected, Ah Yin sensed his emotional fluctuations as well. She bent down and wiped the tears from her face.

"Master."

Their eyes met just like that, and then Ah Yin pulled Su Ling into her arms.

"Su Ling, you were the one who rescued me from that sunless cave. You were the one who gave me hope of being reborn. Now, you're the only person in my eyes."

On and on she went, saying things that touched the heart, but Su Ling could no longer make out the later words.

Ah Yin hugged him tighter and tighter, until Su Ling could barely breathe.

Twin peaks crushing his crown! Ah Yin was a trained practitioner.

At first, Su Ling did his utmost to restrain himself, but Ah Yin showed no sign of easing up.

Just as Su Ling opened his gaping maw, Ah Yin pushed him away.

"If you're not eating, keep your hands off."

With that, she vanished from Su Ling's sight in a flash.

"Damn it!"

"How could Ah Yin be so wicked!"

Spirit Hall

"Teacher, um... I've broken through to rank forty. Could you have an elder take me Soul Hunting?"

Hu Liena had held back for several days, trying her best to make her breakthrough to rank forty seem a little more plausible.

As for rank fifty?

She would just say the soul beast had been so compatible with her that absorbing its Soul Ring had taken her straight to rank sixty. When Bibi Dong asked, she would hem and haw and play dumb!

"Nana, your Soul Power has risen that quickly?"

Seeing Hu Liena still trying to fool her, Bibi Dong decided to give this disciple a proper punishment.

"I suddenly gained some insights recently, so..."

Hu Liena didn't dare look Bibi Dong in the eye.

"Since my disciple is doing so well, I'll take you Soul Hunting myself."

"Huh?"

Hu Liena shook her head vigorously. "There's no need, Teacher. I'm only going to hunt for my fourth Soul Ring. You don't need to..."