Oscar stood rooted to the spot, his face flushed bright red and his heart pounding wildly.
No need to run a stall, no worries about food or clothing, and someone specifically assigned to provide cultivation resources. To Oscar, who had been squeezed dry by Flender for two years and could barely scrape by selling sausages every day, it was an enormous temptation.
Oscar clenched the hem of his clothes, his gaze full of indecision. After hesitating for a long time, he finally spoke in a quiet voice.
"B-big brother... Thank you for thinking so highly of me. But... I belong to an academy. I can't accept someone else's invitation without permission. I have to go back and ask our dean. Only if he agrees can I follow you."
Oscar was simple-hearted. Though he was sorely tempted, he held fast to Flender's instructions and did not dare abandon his school on his own initiative.
Lu Yu was not surprised in the least. Instead, his smile grew wider.
"No problem. Go back and have a good talk with your dean. Whenever you make up your mind, you can find me at No. 338 in the southern residential district."
Lu Yu was in no hurry.
For now, he would plant a seed in Oscar's heart. Once that seed of temptation took root and sprouted, Oscar would break free of Shrek's bonds sooner or later and come looking for him of his own accord.
"Mm! Thank you, big brother!" Oscar nodded vigorously, his eyes full of gratitude.
"Big brother, I still don't know your name! My name is Oscar." Seeing that Lin Tian was about to leave, Oscar hurriedly asked.
"Lu Yu!"
With that, Lu Yu stayed no longer. He waved, then turned and left with Lin Tian.
On the way, Lin Tian finally couldn't contain his curiosity.
"Lu Yu, that kid didn't seem particularly special to me! Why do I get the feeling you think so highly of him?"
Lu Yu smiled faintly and told him the basics about Oscar.
"Have you ever seen a food-type Soul Master with Innate Full Soul Power? His value is far beyond anything you can imagine."
When he heard about a food-type Soul Master with Innate Full Soul Power, Lin Tian's eyes nearly popped out of his head. There had been far too many surprises these past few days.
He had broken through to level thirty and learned the secret of whale rubber, and now there was a food-type Soul Master with Innate Full Soul Power.
"Seriously, Lu Yu, how is your luck so heaven-defying? How come you run into every good thing?"
Lu Yu smiled slyly, his tone utterly casual. "Really? I think it's only average! There are even more things coming that'll make your mouth water!"
Looking at Lu Yu's humblebragging face, Lin Tian couldn't be bothered to ask any more.
They left the city, putting the bustle of Suotuo City behind them, rented a carriage, and officially set off for the Star Dou Great Forest.
After they had traveled some distance in the carriage, Lu Yu took a copy of the Detailed Guide to High-Level Soul Beasts from his Storage Soul Tool, flipped it open, and held it out in front of Lin Tian.
"After the whale rubber strengthened your body, an ordinary Thousand-Year Soul Ring would only improve you so much. I picked out four lightning-attribute Soul Beasts between three and four thousand years old. See if any of them suit you."
Lin Tian hurriedly lowered his head to look, his gaze instantly drawn to the illustrations and text in the guide.
Lu Yu pointed to the four Soul Beasts in turn and introduced each one clearly and methodically.
"The first is the Thunder Pattern Earthworm.
"You can obtain a control-type Soul Skill that releases chains of lightning over a wide area to bind enemies.
"It's suited to controlling the field in group battles and restricting opponents' movement, making up for our lack of strong control.
"Combined with the Flowing Cloud Seven Tremors I taught you, you'll have no trouble bursting down a single target or instantly killing the backline carry."
After spending a month with Lu Yu, Lin Tian had also picked up a great deal of strange knowledge. He thought these combat terms were very useful and gradually became accustomed to using them himself.
Lin Tian's eyes lit up. A control Soul Skill was extremely useful in both one-on-one and group battles.
Lu Yu continued his explanation.
"The second is the Explosive Thunder Lynx.
"You can obtain a percentage-based amplification Soul Skill. It directly increases the power of all your lightning-type Soul Skills by forty-five percent for fifteen seconds.
"It doesn't stack fixed values; it's a pure percentage increase in damage. The further you progress, the more terrifying the boost becomes. It's a perfect match for the single-target burst of your First Soul Skill, Thunderclap Break."
Lin Tian's breath caught slightly.
Percentage-based amplification Soul Skills were exceptionally rare-more than ten times as precious as Soul Skills that simply increased strength or Soul Power!
"The third is the Purple-Patterned Thunder Spirit Butterfly.
"You can obtain an origin-strengthening Soul Skill. This is the Soul Beast I recommend most.
"I can see that your Thunder Pattern Staff Martial Soul contains a trace of lightning power, but it's very weak. If you keep strengthening your lightning origin, perhaps your Martial Soul can be purified, raising your Innate Soul Power and increasing your cultivation speed.
"At the same time, it would raise the upper limit of compatibility with all your future lightning-type Soul Rings, permanently strengthening your foundation."
At this point, Lu Yu's tone grew solemn.
This was precisely why Lu Yu had taken special care in choosing Soul Beasts for Lin Tian. Ordinary Soul Masters only looked at their current combat strength; Lu Yu looked to the distant future.
Whether it was reading novels in his previous life or learning martial arts at a martial arts school, both had independently affirmed the same thing: to forge iron, one must be strong oneself. No matter how powerful external things were, they were still external things, and could never compare to one's own strength.
It was like Blue Silver Grass and the Blue Silver Emperor. The Blue Silver Emperor's foundation was right there; even if you fed her some poison, she wouldn't die anytime soon.
If it were ordinary Blue Silver Grass, though, hehe! Not dying young would already count as living out its twilight years in peace!
Strengthening the lightning origin was equivalent to directly raising the upper limit of Lin Tian's Martial Soul.
Lin Tian was utterly shaken by the Soul Beasts Lu Yu had selected. He stared fixedly at the Purple-Patterned Thunder Spirit Butterfly in the guide, his heart trembling.
"The last is the Wind-Thunder Swift Falcon.
"You can obtain a speed-amplification Soul Skill.
"It greatly increases your movement speed and the speed at which you strike with your staff, with an added lightning paralysis effect. It's excellent for close-quarters fighting, kiting, and pursuit.
"It focuses on agile surprise attacks, following a path that combines agility-based assault with powerful offense. Paired with the Flowing Cloud Seven Tremors, it can often defeat an enemy in a single strike."
Four Soul Beasts, four entirely different paths of development: strong control, percentage-based burst, strengthening the Martial Soul Origin, and high-speed kiting.
All of them were Soul Beasts Lu Yu had carefully selected, perfectly suited to Lin Tian's Martial Soul. They would be useful whether in future Soul Fights or when Lin Tian ventured out to gain experience, and he would never find himself in the awkward position of covering his head while leaving his tail exposed.
Lin Tian stared blankly at the guide, unable to speak for a long while.
He had never heard of anyone planning the hunt for a third Soul Ring so meticulously and so far ahead, directly approaching it from four aspects of a Soul Master's abilities.
Lin Tian had previously looked up the types of Soul Beasts that suited him, but compared with Lu Yu's choices, what garbage had he found?
They were worlds apart, as different as clouds and mud!
After a long while, Lin Tian raised his head, his gaze utterly resolute.
"Lu Yu, I choose the Purple-Patterned Thunder Spirit Butterfly!"
"Just like you said, I'll strengthen my Martial Soul Origin! My First Soul Skill, Thunderclap Break, looks all right now, but it's only one hundred and eighty years old. By the later stages, that Soul Skill will be useless."
"After strengthening my Martial Soul Origin, perhaps I can still salvage it and increase the power of my First Soul Skill!"
Lu Yu immediately beamed like a proud auntie. "Good lad, I knew I wasn't wrong about you. You're not hung up on the present; you value the future!"
In their time together, Lin Tian had never quite realized that he was ten years older than Lu Yu. Whether it was Lu Yu's strength or the staff techniques Lin Tian had learned from him, both had won Lin Tian over, and he had naturally come to follow Lu Yu's lead.
Lin Tian didn't find it strange. In a world where the strong were revered, whoever was strongest was the boss!
Lu Yu didn't find it strange either. He was a transmigrator, after all. If he didn't become the boss, was he supposed to become someone else's lackey?
(PS: We've reached 100,000 characters now. I don't know why, but I can't see the readership data in my backend, so I don't know how many people are reading.
I'm wondering whether to give Lin Tian an External Soul Bone: the wings of the Purple-Patterned Thunder Spirit Butterfly.
If you'd like to see that, please say so. I can also check whether anyone is reading this novel while I'm at it.)