If Only I Had Someone Powerful to Rely On!

Before long, outside the attic on the top floor of the dormitory building.

"Who was it?" Tang Hao had been awakened by the commotion of the people searching nearby, and his expression was grim. After observing from a distance for a while, he followed behind Tang San and searched the area as well, but found no suspicious person. He could almost conclude that the culprit was not from the academy.

Could it have been when Little San was working at the Blacksmith Shop? Maybe some Soul Master sensed the Soul Tool's fluctuations on the way and started keeping an eye on him? His son was a work-study student at the academy, which represented a commoner background. That could indeed give certain people the courage to provoke him.

"Damn it! Someone actually stole from my son!"

He had been injured by an explosion earlier, and now someone had stolen something precious from his son right under his nose. It truly infuriated him.

He had never imagined it would be Zhu Wu. After all, the other party had applied for graduation long ago and did not possess such ability.

Meanwhile, elsewhere.

"As expected of someone from the Tang Sect who also cultivated the Purple Demon Eyes. His perception is actually this strong—just being watched for a little while was enough for him to sense something." Zhu Wu hurried through the night, his face slightly pale. "If I hadn't run fast enough, things might have gone badly."

The moment he landed, almost none of his Soul Power remained. His body felt completely drained.

Maintaining his simulated form required a constant expenditure of Soul Power. At that moment, his Soul Power was only at Level 12, not even Level 13. He truly could not afford to waste any more. If he had delayed even a little longer, he might have revealed his true form in midair and fallen to his death, or perhaps been discovered and caught red-handed.

After all, there was still a Titled Douluo, Tang Hao, in the academy. When he had arrived, he had not seen Tang Hao in Holy Soul Village.

"Luckily, there were no real dangers!" He glanced back at Gu Wang and sneered. "Tang San, we have a long road ahead of us."

"That's fine, too. This incident has awakened Tang San, which happens to help the academy distance itself from the matter. Since no innocent people were harmed, this trip can be considered a success."

He did not consider himself a good person, but neither did he want those who had helped him before to be dragged into trouble.

"Then the next step is to search all the mountains around Holy Soul Village. While helping Little White look for herbs, I can also search for Ah Yin." He took a deep breath and quickened his pace again.

Only after reaching a Residential Area far from the academy did he leap onto the roof of a house and sit down to regulate his breathing.

Time passed little by little, until the horizon was dyed orange.

Zhu Wu opened his eyes and began cultivating the Vajra Longevity Exercise beneath the first rays of sunlight.

"Hey, which family are you from?" After an unknown amount of time, a loud shout suddenly rang beside him.

"You climbed so high—aren't you afraid of falling to your death? Where are your parents?"

Zhu Wu opened his eyes and looked down. It was a middle-aged woman. Although she was scolding him fiercely, her eyes remained fixed on him, filled with obvious concern.

"Sorry, Auntie!" Zhu Wu smiled, stood up, and patted his backside before leaping down from a height of ten meters.

"Child, don't do anything foolish!" the woman screamed.

Then Zhu Wu landed on the ground with a smack, completely unharmed. Her voice abruptly stopped.

"Are you human or a ghost?" Fear rose in her eyes, and her voice trembled.

"Of course I'm human, Auntie. I'm leaving now!"

After obtaining Tang San's Soul Tool, Zhu Wu was clearly in a good mood. He waved with a smile, turned around, and ran off.

"That child..." The woman shook her head and turned to go home.

A long while later, he arrived in the wilderness outside the city gates, deep within a Dense Forest.

"Sleeve Arrows, and a pile of needles. He didn't even make the Zhuge Repeating Crossbow. What a pity." After carefully inspecting Tang San's Twenty-Four Bridges Moonlight Night, Zhu Wu truly felt Tang San's poverty. "He doesn't even have the Mysterious Heaven Treasure Record manual. Tang San was certainly guarded."

"Still, this Soul Beast Illustrated Handbook given to him by Yu Xiaogang is quite impressive."

"As expected of something compiled from the accumulated knowledge of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and Spirit Hall, the two great powers."

He did not believe that Yu Xiaogang, who could not even defeat a century-old Mandala Snake, had the ability to obtain all this information about Soul Beasts.

"I'll have to study it carefully next. That way, things should go more smoothly when I venture into the Star Dou Great Forest."

With his current physical strength, as long as he continued cultivating the Vajra Power Exercise, along with the boost gained from his martial soul Little White consuming Qi and Blood Herbs and feeding the benefits back to him, he was certain that his second Soul Ring would not be limited to the so-called optimal age of 764 years. If he were fortunate enough to find and absorb the hundred-thousand-year right leg bone of the Blue Silver Emperor, then even a thousand-year second Soul Ring was something he had absolute confidence in obtaining.

As for thousand-year Soul Beasts with spiritual attributes, especially ones of decent quality, there was certainly nothing like that in the Beginner Soul Hunting Forest.

As for thousand-year Soul Beasts with spatial attributes, he did not even dare think about them right now. Leaving aside how rare they were and whether they possessed other spatial Soul Skills, just possessing a Teleport skill would be enough to leave him feeling that he could only be toyed with. Those with Dragon Clan Bloodline were even more out of the question.

After all, he was only a one-ring Soul Master.

If only he had someone powerful to rely on!

Besides, in the early stages, he did not think absorbing the Soul Rings of lesser dragon Soul Beasts would bring him much improvement.

The Dragon God Bloodline was far too high-grade. Compared with it, ordinary lesser dragon bloodlines were simply worlds apart. Tossing a drop of water into the ocean likely would not even cause a splash. The boost to his bloodline would be far too tiny. By comparison, it seemed better to cultivate the Vajra Longevity Exercise properly, absorb the Sun and Moon Essence, and then think of a way to obtain the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass and Infernal Delicate Apricot from the Ice and Fire Yin-Yang Well. There were also the other rare herbs inside, especially the Qi and Blood Herbs.

Letting Little White eat them and then feeding the benefits back to himself would definitely be far more effective than absorbing Soul Rings.

After all, the Soul Rings produced after Soul Beasts died stored mostly cultivation, not bloodline power. It was not a sacrifice, which could also melt the physical body down and infuse it into him.

Moreover, speaking of which, the internal space of his martial soul had now expanded to a diameter of one meter, exactly twice its size when it had first awakened. Yet after he absorbed his first Soul Ring, the internal space had not expanded at all.

Then where had this increase come from?

He had not paid much attention to it before, but after studying his martial soul in Holy Soul Village for the past few days, he understood.

He was almost certain that it came from the Sun and Moon Essence he absorbed into his body each day while cultivating the Vajra Longevity Exercise, as well as the beneficial energy Little White returned to him after repeatedly consuming Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures. The two continuously nourished his bloodline, nurturing that faint strand of Dragon God Bloodline within him. Meanwhile, Little White was also nourished by the strengthened bloodline during this process and continued evolving. The changes were not obvious, but they accumulated over time.

This also made him understand that cultivating the Vajra Longevity Exercise and absorbing the Sun and Moon Essence with his main body, while having his martial soul consume Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, was the evolutionary path he should follow in the future.

Compared with that, Soul Rings were secondary. After all, this thing could only be equipped nine times at most, or ten if divine rings were included. But he could absorb Sun and Moon Essence forever, and he could keep searching for Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures—as long as he lived long enough.

Of course, once he became powerful enough and happened to encounter a dragon species with a top-tier bloodline, a single Soul Ring could make up for several of his earlier ones. Naturally, he could not afford to miss such an opportunity.

"For now, I'd better honestly improve my martial soul's primary attribute. It is, after all, the primary attribute. The Longevity Exercise cultivates slowly in the early stages, so using a Soul Ring to improve it is both the most direct and the most effective method."

"Still, I shouldn't carry this Soul Tool for the time being. It would be bad if I happened to run into Tang Hao while searching for herbs."

With that thought, he had Little White put the Soul Tool back into the martial soul's internal space. After tidying up his belongings, he set off.

P.S.: Sorry, I had something to do this afternoon and got delayed. Today's update will be a little late. I hope everyone can understand.