Night.
A room in Spirit Hall.
Lin Qian, whom a certain little fox had set her sights on, was enjoying the surprise gift package his pope master had sent him.
Credit where credit was due: although Bibi Dong was no good person, she was a good master.
Lying on the luxurious eighteen-meter bed, he stretched out and let out a long breath.
This room, this treatment-didn't they utterly crush Shrek Academy?
Whenever he thought of conditions even harsher than those in impoverished mountain regions, Lin Qian observed a moment of silence for the young noblemen and noblewomen at that academy.
Seriously, how many of the so-called Shrek Seven Devils had made their fortunes through the academy's teaching?
In all of Shrek, its dean, Flender, had the highest level, yet he was merely a Soul Saint. The likes of Zhao Wuji and Li Yusong were even smaller fry, not worth mentioning.
That left the supposedly invincible theorist, Grandmaster Yu Xiaogang. His maxim, "There are no useless martial souls, only useless soul masters," was an even bigger laughingstock.
He talked such a big game, yet his own soul power level was twenty-nine, and his martial soul, Luo Sanpao, could do nothing but fart. What grandmaster? He was the disgrace of the soul master world!
Who knew how Bibi Dong had fallen for him!
Lin Qian would never admit that he coveted his teacher's beauty and had therefore extended his hatred to Yu Xiaogang, like hating someone so much that even the crow on their roof became hateful.
Right now, he had only one thought: he absolutely had to make that man humiliate himself!
Calculating the timing, Tang San and Xiao Wu were still studying at Nuoding Academy. He was twelve, while Tang San was eight.
What? How old was Xiao Wu, you asked?
Sorry, that hundred-thousand-year-old rabbit spirit in human form was automatically excluded here.
Although he admitted that Xiao Wu was beautiful once she grew up, with Tang San there as a third wheel, even if he had any ideas, he could only resort to unconventional means.
But the pressing matter remained his soul ring. What sort of soul ring should he hunt for?
His soul power circulated, and that solemn, majestic body martial soul manifested again, taking solid form in the void.
Unlike twin martial souls, even in the original story, body martial souls had only appeared ten thousand years later. On the present Douluo Continent, no second example besides him had ever been discovered.
No wonder Bibi Dong had mistaken him for someone in the same line of work!
When something powerful and unknown could not be explained through reality, people attributed it to the gods.
Continuing to circulate his soul power and feeling his cultivation speed, slower than that of ordinary soul masters by who knew how many times, Lin Qian gained a clear understanding of his own situation.
Perhaps because he had broken through to the Nascent Soul Stage, the sparse spiritual energy of the Douluo plane could not provide enough nourishment for cultivation.
The era of his previous life, when "Golden Cores were as plentiful as dogs, and Nascent Souls walked everywhere," had to be reversed here.
By his preliminary estimate, each layer his Nascent Soul advanced would raise his soul power by one corresponding level, all the way to Titled Douluo.
Beyond that lay the Spirit Transformation Stage, much the same as the Nascent Soul Stage. After breaking through it, he would truly become a god and ascend as an immortal.
Yin and yang, the five elements-the beginning of heaven and earth.
The Book of Documents: Great Plan stated, "The five elements: the first is water, the second fire, the third wood, the fourth metal, and the fifth earth."
As a mature Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, he had to pay attention to balancing yin and yang and the five elements. Only then could he attain the Great Dao and ascend in broad daylight.
With the spiritual energy of this continent so meager, who knew how many monkey years and horse months cultivation would take if he followed the usual steps? By then, Tang San might already have become a god while he was still spinning his wheels at Titled Douluo.
That would have been fine if he had not joined Spirit Hall, but now that he had boarded the pirate ship, getting off again would be difficult.
After all, in Tang San's words, as Spirit Hall's Saint Son, he already had a reason to die. In the original story, that fellow had shown no mercy when killing Spirit Hall's people. Rather than live at Tang San's mercy in the future, he might as well deal with him now, before a long night brought more troublesome dreams.
After thinking for a long while, Lin Qian abandoned the idea. Leaving aside Tang Hao, who was protecting Tang San in secret, even getting past Yu Xiaogang alone would be difficult.
Lin Qian was not yet arrogant enough to believe that Bibi Dong would break with her old love for a newly accepted disciple. If his own love-addled master discovered it, it was hard to say whom she would help!
Better solve the soul ring problem first!
After going around in circles, he was back where he started. Lin Qian racked his brains, thinking of a way to break the deadlock.
He needed a soul ring with a high age, plenty of energy, and compatible attributes...
After screening all the soul beasts on the Douluo Continent, Lin Qian found only one that met his requirements-
Sky Dream Ice Silkworm!
Star Dou Great Forest.
The underground core.
"Achoo!"
An enormous cylindrical beast, seven meters long and one meter in diameter, suddenly sneezed loudly.
In all fairness, this was a very handsome worm.
His entire body was the color of white jade, crystalline and translucent, his skin smooth and lustrous, with a pair of tiny golden eyes on his head.
Starting half a meter below his head, rings of golden markings encircled his body. A careful count revealed fully ten of them.
Soul beasts came in different species, but they shared one thing: the longer they lived and the greater their age, the larger their bodies grew, gradually turning them into enormous creatures.
For instance, the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm before them grew a little larger every hundred thousand years, gaining another corresponding ring of golden markings.
A full ten rings meant he had a million years of cultivation.
Mental attribute, ultimate ice, immense age...
It could be said that every one of his attributes perfectly met Lin Qian's requirements.
Yet this exceptional million-year-old soul beast was currently suffering inhuman torture. His entire body was bound in chains, and a huge tube had been inserted into him. The soul power inside him drained away in an endless stream, feeding the enormous creature at the core.
"What are you yelling about, you stinking worm? Disturb our sleep again, and we'll suck your marrow dry!"
An enormous three-headed beast, resembling both a lion and a dog, strode over furiously and slapped the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm.
Among Douluo's ten great ferocious beasts, apart from the female soul beasts, he was the weakest of the males: the Three-Headed Scarlet Demon Mastiff, with only three hundred thousand years of cultivation.
But how did that saying go? Even a camel starved to death was bigger than a horse. He could not afford to offend the others, but bullying a damned worm whose lifeblood was being sucked away was child's play, wasn't it? Besides, on the present continent, if their boss had not expressly forbidden them from going out, wouldn't this entire continent be theirs to command?
At that thought, the Scarlet King grew smug and slapped the Sky Dream Ice Silkworm a few more times before returning to his den in satisfaction to continue sleeping.
Only after the other beast had left did Tian Meng, beaten black and blue, dare to breathe again. Compared with before, however, he was especially quiet and furtive this time.
Endure for a moment, and the more he thought, the angrier he grew; take a step back, and fury assailed his heart.
Back in the Far North, he had ruled supreme, roaming wherever he pleased, sideways or upright. Not only had all beasts bowed their heads, but his darling Bingbing had also been by his side. How could the word "bliss" alone do it justice?
Ever since he had come to Star Dou Great Forest and been captured and brought here by a black dragon, that wonderful life had vanished into the distance...
Filled with boundless grief and indignation, he cried out in his heart-
"Someone, please save me!"