"Hiss..."
Xiao Xuan couldn't help drawing a sharp breath on the spot.
He had already conducted a private test in the old house's backyard yesterday.
The original one-star Lone Bamboo was as fragile as sugarcane. When he smashed it against a stone without using Soul Power, the stone didn't budge.
Even with Soul Power infused into it, the most it could do was leave a faint white mark on the stone's surface.
But now?
Without using even a trace of Soul Power, relying solely on the strength of his six-year-old body, he had given it a light poke, and several cracks had split across the hard stone!
"How is this still a plant? It's clearly an alloy steel spear wrapped in bamboo skin! It's just a little short on hardness."
Xiao Xuan's gaze grew increasingly heated, and his approval of the system shot straight to the maximum.
Having perfectly inherited the properties of gold crystal ore, his Lone Bamboo finally had some killing power.
Coming back to his senses, Xiao Xuan put a serious question to the system in his mind.
"System, if I want to raise my two-star Lone Bamboo to three stars, does that mean the wild Lone Bamboo used as the main fusion materials have to be at the hundred-year level?"
[Ding! Host's answer is entirely correct!] [Two stars correspond to hundred-year quality. To raise a Martial Soul from two stars to three, two stalks of two-star (hundred-year-level) wild Lone Bamboo are required as main materials, and tier-three alloy ore of the corresponding grade may be used as an auxiliary material.]
The system's reply was mechanical and brisk, but it made Xiao Xuan rub his brow.
Looks like my idea of manually synthesizing two stalks of two-star Lone Bamboo won't work. The other two materials have to be wild, and that makes things difficult.
On the Douluo Continent, Soul Beasts were fundamentally different from ordinary wild grass and trees.
Lone Bamboo under ten years old could be found by the handful in the wild, but Lone Bamboo Soul Beasts that had reached a certain age either grew deep in remote mountains and forests, or had already been chopped down by someone passing by for their Soul Rings.
Still, there was plenty of Lone Bamboo in Lone Bamboo Village, and the mountains behind it stretched on and on. He might just strike it lucky and find a few hundred-year-old stalks.
"Besides raising my Martial Soul's star rank, I need to put improving my physical strength on the agenda too."
Xiao Xuan quietly squeezed his rather scrawny little arm.
A Soul Master's physical strength determined the maximum age of the Soul Rings he could absorb in the future. It wasn't enough to focus solely on piling attack power and hardness onto his Martial Soul.
If his Martial Soul became so hard it defied the heavens one day, while his body remained as fragile as paper, he'd fall apart after swinging it like a hammer twice. Then he'd really be in for a laugh.
"I have to start tempering and training my body as soon as possible!"
Having secretly made up his mind, Xiao Xuan flicked his wrist and deftly withdrew his two-star Lone Bamboo. He brushed the dust off his clothes and jogged home, humming a little tune along the way.
That evening, at the Xiao family's small courtyard on the outskirts of Nuoding City.
The tempting aroma of stewed meat wafted from the kitchen. The family of three sat around the dining table, the atmosphere relaxed and warm.
His father, Xiao Wuyong, picked up a large piece of Soul Beast meat and placed it in Xiao Xuan's bowl, a proud smile on his face.
"Xuan'er, eat more!"
"I asked an old friend about it today. Nuoding Junior Soul Master Academy officially starts in a little over half a month, about ten-odd days from now."
"I won't have you competing for a work-study spot. We'll pay your tuition ourselves, so you can study there in peace and apply yourself!"
Li Ya nodded with a smile beside them, her eyes full of hopes for her son.
Xiao Xuan took a couple of mouthfuls of rice and obediently swallowed them. Then he looked up and said with a perfectly serious expression:
"Father, Mother, since there are still ten-odd days before school starts, I plan to go back to Lone Bamboo Village tomorrow and stay for a while."
Xiao Wuyong was taken aback. "Back to our old home? Why do you suddenly want to go back to the village?"
"When I went back to the old house yesterday, I saw that Grandpa and Grandma are getting old, and they aren't so steady on their feet anymore."
"Once I start studying at the academy, it'll be under closed-campus management, so I'll hardly ever get to come home. Before school starts, I want to spend these ten-odd days back in the countryside keeping Grandpa and Grandma company and showing them some filial devotion."
At those words, Xiao Wuyong and Li Ya looked at each other, their eyes immediately reddening slightly.
"Good child! You're so thoughtful it makes my heart ache!"
Moved, Li Ya rubbed Xiao Xuan's head.
"All right! It's a good thing to show your elders filial devotion. Go! Your father will take you back tomorrow. Stay at the old home as long as you like, and Father will come get you two days before school starts!"
"All right!"
Early the next morning, Xiao Wuyong hired a carriage and took Xiao Xuan safely back to the old house in Lone Bamboo Village.
After seeing his father off, Xiao Xuan behaved impeccably in front of his grandparents. He first swept the courtyard spotless, then found an excuse to "go dig up wild vegetables" and dashed out of the house.
Finding hundred-year-old Lone Bamboo was far harder than he had imagined.
Although Lone Bamboo itself was hardly aggressive, its gentle nature and feeble killing power made it the soft persimmon of choice for many low-level plant-type Soul Masters on the continent seeking their first or second Soul Rings!
Xiao Xuan wandered through the fields around Lone Bamboo Village and the outskirts at the foot of the mountains for most of the day.
All he saw were ordinary young bamboo stalks that had grown for three to five years or a little over ten. Let alone hundred-year Soul Beast Lone Bamboo, even the fifty-year-old stalks had been picked clean years ago by independent cultivators out Soul Hunting.
Still, Xiao Xuan didn't come back empty-handed.
Passing the village's only smithy, he used his sweet tongue, the pocket money his grandparents had given him, and a little savings his father had left him.
After much wheedling and persistence, he managed to trade with the blacksmith for a precious, fist-sized piece of ore, black with a reddish tint-tier-three red-patterned alloy ore!
Besides its hardness, red-patterned alloy ore was also known for its toughness.
With the auxiliary material secured, everything was ready. All he lacked now were two genuine hundred-year-old Lone Bamboo stalks!
"If there aren't any in the village, I'll have to look in the mountains behind it."
Xiao Xuan raised his head and gazed at the deep mountain forest behind Lone Bamboo Village, where the peaks rose and fell and ancient trees towered into the sky.
The mountains behind the village were steep and treacherous, covered in thorns. Few dared venture deep into them, and even the village's old hunters wandered no farther than halfway up.
Xiao Xuan took a deep breath and tightened the wrappings around his calves. With the heavy piece of red-patterned alloy ore tucked inside his clothes and determination in his eyes, he plunged into the vast mountains behind the village.
For five whole days.
Xiao Xuan came down the mountain during the day to eat with his grandparents, and whenever he had free time, he climbed over mountains and ridges, scrambling through dense bushes and piles of rocks.
To avoid encountering other ferocious Soul Beasts, he carefully concealed his tracks. Wild thorns cut his palms and ankles in several places, but he didn't make so much as a sound.
Heaven did not let down those who tried.
On the fifth evening, just as the sun slanted westward, Xiao Xuan abruptly stopped in a natural mountain hollow deep in the mountains, cold and shaded from the sun, where few people ever set foot!
Deep in the hollow, several strange bamboo stalks suddenly came into view, each as thick as an adult's arm and about two zhang tall!
Those bamboo stalks were utterly different from ordinary Lone Bamboo. Their entire length was a rich hue like deep green jade.
At each joint, ring after ring of ancient-looking dark gray light faintly pulsed, giving off a weak but pure fluctuation of Soul Power!
Xiao Xuan's heart pounded as he hurried forward and grasped two of the stalks.
[Age assessment: approximately 120 years and 130 years.] [Quality assessment: two stars.] [Perfect compatibility. All fusion conditions for "three-star Lone Bamboo" have been met!]
"I found them! I really found them!"