White light streaked across the sky above Shrek Academy, finally landing before one of the Soul Tool Department's teaching buildings.
"Teacher, what are you...?"
Looking at the familiar office, Xue Chen furrowed his sword-like brows slightly and could not help looking toward Xian Lin'er beside him.
He remembered this place. This was the very office where Xian Lin'er had tried to lure him away back then.
Gesturing for Xue Chen to sit first, Xian Lin'er poured him a glass of water, then sat down beside him.
"Chen'er, you've met Ma Xiaotao, haven't you?"
"I... I have."
Xue Chen shifted his bottom to the side. Seemingly reminded of yesterday's intimate scene, his expression grew rather unnatural.
"Yan Shaozhe... Dean Yan and I have already discussed it."
Xian Lin'er naturally noticed the unnatural look on Xue Chen's face, but did not point it out.
"Ma Xiaotao is Dean Yan Shaozhe's disciple. Because of her martial soul, she has long suffered from the corrosive effects of evil fire."
"And your ultimate ice attribute is the only thing that can suppress the evil fire within her, so you'll need to help her suppress it regularly from now on."
Xian Lin'er and Yan Shaozhe had made quite a scene fighting over who would get Xue Chen.
In the end, Yan Shaozhe had compromised, agreeing to let Xian Lin'er take charge of Xue Chen's education in exchange for her not using any excuse to stop Xue Chen from helping Ma Xiaotao suppress her evil fire.
Ma Xiaotao was Yan Shaozhe's personal disciple, as well as one of his few weak spots.
It was precisely because Xian Lin'er had seen this that she had gained such a decisive advantage in their struggle over who would take charge of Xue Chen.
"However..."
After a pause, a maidenly blush suddenly flashed across Xian Lin'er's face, so ripe with maturity it seemed ready to drip.
"When Xiaotao's evil fire erupts, she can behave a little... a little excessively. You're still young, so you must keep yourself in check."
Clearly, Xian Lin'er also knew what Ma Xiaotao was like when her evil fire ran out of control.
"I understand, Teacher."
Xue Chen's face reddened too, and he nodded repeatedly.
"Your soul power must have been stuck at rank nineteen for quite some time. I plan to take you to Star Dou Great Forest soon to help you hunt for a suitable soul ring."
Skipping over that somewhat embarrassing topic, Xian Lin'er crossed her beautiful legs in front of her and asked:
"What are your own thoughts?"
Xue Chen stole a glance at Xian Lin'er's beautiful legs, which were longer than his very life, and fell silent for a moment before slowly speaking.
"Teacher, my martial soul is the Five Elements Qilin. It can innately control the five attributes of wood, water, fire, earth, and metal."
"So my first five soul rings would ideally come from soul beasts that excel in these five attributes."
"The purer the single attribute of the soul beast my soul ring comes from, the stronger the power of that attribute I can control should become."
The Five Elements Qilin martial soul had first appeared in the Legend of the Dragon King era, ten thousand years later, and had also appeared in the Ultimate Douluo era, twenty thousand years later.
But the soul masters with the Five Elements Qilin martial soul in those two eras had left no detailed soul ring configurations behind, leaving Xue Chen without a reference.
The only thing Xue Chen knew was that a Yin Yang Chaos Bird soul spirit could evolve the Five Elements Qilin martial soul into the Yin Yang Five Elements Qilin martial soul.
"A soul ring from a soul beast with a pure, single attribute... that sort of soul beast isn't easy to find."
Xian Lin'er's willow-leaf brows furrowed slightly, and she looked somewhat troubled as well.
Even across the entire Soul Beast Realm, single-attribute soul beasts were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns, and such single-attribute soul beasts were often exceptionally powerful among their kind.
For example, the Ice Empress and Snow Empress among the Ten Great Ferocious Beasts possessed only the ice attribute, and that ice attribute had even reached the ultimate level.
Meanwhile, Di Tian, first on the Ferocious Beast Ranking, possessed only the darkness attribute, which had also reached the ultimate level.
"There's one more thing I need to trouble you with, Teacher..."
After a moment's hesitation, the storage soul tool on Xue Chen's finger flashed with silver light.
Accompanied by a strange, delicate fragrance, a dark-gold, round object appeared in his palm.
"This fragrance... is this whale rubber?"
Just a light sniff of the fragrance suffusing the air made Xian Lin'er's expression change.
She reached out to take the whale rubber from Xue Chen and examined it carefully, the surprise on her face growing.
"This... I've never seen whale rubber of such high quality. It even seems to surpass a piece our academy once obtained from a sixty-thousand-year-old whale soul beast."
After a pause, Xian Lin'er looked at Xue Chen with a serious expression.
"Chen'er, where exactly did you get a treasure like this?"
Ordinary hundred-year or thousand-year whale rubber naturally did not count as a treasure in the eyes of Xian Lin'er, a Titled Douluo and Sea God Pavilion Elder.
But whale rubber over fifty thousand years old had only appeared a handful of times even in all of Shrek Academy.
Moreover, judging by its quality alone, the piece Xue Chen had produced was far beyond fifty thousand years old.
"Teacher, orphans like us who live in the borderlands sometimes enter the depths of the Far North to make a living."
Xue Chen pressed his lips together, putting on a somewhat downcast expression.
"Once, when I ventured deep into the Far North, I was unlucky enough to encounter a white calamity that only comes once every dozen or so years."
"To escape the white calamity, I fell into an ice cavern. Inside was a corpse that had been dead for who knows how long, and I got this from that corpse."
After a pause, Xue Chen raised his right hand.
"Besides this piece of whale rubber, I also obtained a palm-shaped soul bone, but I absorbed that soul bone long ago."
"A palm-shaped soul bone?"
Xian Lin'er was startled again and quickly reached out to carefully press and feel Xue Chen's right hand.
Only after a long while did she nod with a complicated expression.
"I never noticed before, but the bones of your right palm are clearly stronger than those of your left."
"Whale rubber over fifty thousand years old, a palm-type external soul bone... Chen'er, you really are blessed by heaven!"
Although the experience Xue Chen had fabricated was exceedingly bizarre, Xian Lin'er did not harbor any suspicions.
Both whale rubber over fifty thousand years old and a palm-type external soul bone could be called supreme treasures of the Soul Master World.
Aside from the explanation Xue Chen had given, Xian Lin'er truly could not imagine how he could have obtained such treasures.
Surely they couldn't have fallen from the sky?
"So you want your teacher to refine this whale rubber for you to consume?"
"Yes!"
Xue Chen nodded.
"The quality of this whale rubber is too high... but with your external soul bone and ultimate ice attribute to suppress it, there probably won't be any problems."
After pondering for a moment, Xian Lin'er nodded.
Powerful soul power gathered in her palm, then transformed into a kind of azure flame.
This azure flame was a special flame formed by compressing the wind-attribute soul power within Xian Lin'er to its utmost limit, and was also the origin of her martial soul, the Azure Flame Dragon.