Thanks

After the meal, Jing Hongchen checked the circulation of Meng Hongchen's Soul Power once more. Only after confirming that her foundation was stable did he feel reassured enough to let her rest.

"Grandpa, I'm amazing, aren't I?" Meng Hongchen lay in bed, but couldn't resist poking her head out to ask.

"You are." Jing Hongchen smiled as he tucked her in. "Much more amazing than Grandpa was back then.

"Go to sleep, my good girl."

Only then did the little girl close her eyes in satisfaction. Before long, her breathing grew steady.

Jing Hongchen sat by the bed, watching his granddaughter's sleeping face. After a long while, he sighed softly.

Meanwhile, Xiao Hongchen sought Bao Liang out of his own accord, a rare occurrence, and handed him a packet of pastries. "...Thanks."

Bao Liang stared. "What are you thanking me for?"

"Meng's cultivation." Xiao Hongchen turned his face away, the tips of his ears turning slightly red. "If it weren't for your ultimate talent, she wouldn't have reached rank twenty so quickly."

"Oh my." Bao Liang clutched his chest in an exaggerated gesture. "Our esteemed young master Xiao actually knows how to say thanks? The sun must have risen in the west!"

"Shut up!" Xiao Hongchen flew into a rage from embarrassment. "If you don't want them, forget it!"

"I do, I do!" Bao Liang hurriedly snatched the pastries. "How could I possibly accept... Oh man, they smell amazing."

Of course, Meng Hongchen's speedy breakthrough was mainly thanks to Bao Liang's ultimate talent and the Hongchen Clan's substantial resources.

As everyone knew, the Mystic Nether Sect's Mystic Water Pills could purge impurities from the body and increase Innate Soul Power.

Before Bao Liang came along, the Hongchen siblings had eaten plenty of them-to purge the impurities and pill toxins from their bodies so their cultivation foundations would not be affected.

A single Mystic Water Pill was worth ten thousand gold on the market. An ordinary Soul Master couldn't afford more than a few in a lifetime.

But now that they had Bao Liang, what roadside trinket was a Mystic Water Pill compared to his ultimate talent? The Hongchen siblings had never heard of such a thing~

Jing Hongchen had privately done the math: on Mystic Water Pills alone, the three children could save a huge sum in a year.

He said nothing about it, but his heart was blooming with joy-Bao Liang was practically a walking treasure basin.

He had calculated it all down to the last coin: the savings on Mystic Water Pills, the savings on medicinal ingredients, and those jars of medicinal broth for strengthening the foundation and nurturing vitality... Added together, it was enough to buy another mansion in the best part of Mingdu.

Yet Jing Hongchen didn't begrudge a single coin. Instead, he felt he had made a huge profit-after all, anything money could buy was no real concern.

A child like Bao Liang was a blessing he wouldn't trade for a thousand pieces of gold.

"Grandpa, will you take me Soul Hunting?" Meng Hongchen bounded into the study, pushing the door open in one go, her little face flushed red with excitement.

Jing Hongchen put down the Soul Tool carving knife in his hand and patted her head with a smile. "All right, Grandpa will make the arrangements."

He first gave Meng Hongchen a full examination, determining her physical limits and the range of Soul Ring ages she could absorb-the results were even better than he had expected.

Tempered by the ultimate flame, Meng Hongchen's meridians were exceptionally resilient, more than capable of accommodating a high-age Soul Ring.

"You've tempered your body well." Jing Hongchen nodded in satisfaction. "Meng, your physical foundation is even better than Grandpa expected."

"Then can my Second Soul Ring be a thousand-year one?" Meng Hongchen asked, her eyes sparkling.

"Yes." Jing Hongchen nodded with a smile. "Grandpa picked one out for you long ago."

Bao Liang stood nearby, watching the scene, happy for her.

The stronger Meng Hongchen became, the more at ease he felt-after all, the shadow of that cold poison still hung over everyone's heads.

"Meng can now absorb a Soul Ring of around a thousand years," Jing Hongchen told the two of them. "But in fact, she can easily absorb any Soul Ring under thirteen hundred years."

"And as it happens, the Soul Beasts I found before are a pair-and they're the same as Meng's Martial Soul, Vermilion-Eyed Ice Toads.

"One is around eight hundred years old, and the other is exactly eleven hundred years old."

"The only question is whether those two Soul Beasts are still where they were." Jing Hongchen paused. "Vermilion-Eyed Ice Toads aren't the sort to stay idle, because their ice and fire are at odds."

"Don't worry, Grandpa." Meng Hongchen clenched her little fists and spoke in a clear voice. "If we can't find them, we'll look for something else!"

"Sister Meng is right," Bao Liang chimed in. "If it really doesn't work out, another kind of ice-type Soul Beast will do just as well."

"All right, we're leaving." Jing Hongchen patted the two boys on the head. "You two stay home and cultivate hard. Don't cause trouble."

"Got it!" Bao Liang and Xiao Hongchen answered in unison.

On the morning of their departure, Bao Liang and Xiao Hongchen got up early for once and helped Meng Hongchen pack.

Bao Liang stuffed several packets of osmanthus cakes into her Storage Soul Tool, while Xiao Hongchen quietly added some thick clothes-the Far North was cold, and it couldn't hurt to bring extra.

"Thank you, Brother, thank you, Little Baozi!" Meng Hongchen hugged them both, her eyes curving as she smiled.

"Be careful out there." Bao Liang patted her head. "If you can't find the Soul Beasts, come back. We're not in a hurry."

"Mm!"

"Grandpa," Xiao Hongchen added, unusually saying a little more, "take good care of Meng on the way, and take care of yourself too.

"It is the Far North, after all..."

"Don't worry." Jing Hongchen smiled and stroked his grandson's head. "Grandpa knows what he's doing."

After seeing the two off, the residence suddenly fell quiet.

Without Meng Hongchen's chattering, even the koi in the courtyard seemed listless.

Bao Liang stood at the entrance for quite a while before finally looking away.

Having watched Jing Hongchen take Meng Hongchen away to the Far North, Bao Liang and Xiao Hongchen stood at the residence's gate without speaking for a long time.

There was no other reason.

Even knowing the trip would surely go smoothly, they still feared that one chance in ten thousand.

The Far North was a place of bitter cold and frozen earth. Anyone below the level of a Super Douluo would lose a layer of skin going in.

Jing Hongchen was a rank ninety-three Titled Douluo, but what if?

None of the Three Great Heavenly Kings of the Far North were easy to deal with. What if they ran into a rampage of thousand- or ten-thousand-year ice-type Soul Beasts? What if something went wrong while Meng Hongchen was absorbing her Soul Ring...?

But worrying was useless.

They were too weak.

They couldn't even hold their own lives in their hands, so how could they speak of worrying about others?

Bao Liang clenched his fists.

What did it matter if he threw himself into death a hundred times?

Destruction was a moment of tragic glory-to go to one's death in cowardice was the wrong path; to face death and live was the right one.

One day, he would hold his fate in his own hands, with no need to wag his tail and beg others for mercy.

Xiao Hongchen stared at the now-empty street corner, his lips pressed into a line, silent as a stone.

After a long while, he finally spoke in a low voice. "...The Far North. Sooner or later, I'm going there too."

"What for?"

"To learn the way for Meng." Xiao Hongchen paused. "If she wants to go there again, I'll go with her."

Bao Liang didn't answer, only giving a quiet "Mm."

At that moment, their thoughts unexpectedly aligned-they both wanted to grow stronger and protect the people important to them.

After a long silence, Bao Liang suddenly spoke. "Xiao, I've run into a small problem while researching Soul Tools these past few days. There's something I can't figure out. Come help me."

"Help?" Xiao Hongchen raised an eyebrow and looked him up and down. "Is there really a problem with explosive Soul Tools that you can't solve?"

Although his talent for Soul Tools was greater than Bao Liang's, when it came to explosive Soul Tools alone, his talent wasn't even a tenth of Bao Liang's.

Bao Liang was far too gifted in that respect.

Xiao Hongchen knew this perfectly well-Bao Liang's hands were born for explosions. Given the same materials and the same formation, the result was always a notch more powerful in his hands than anyone else's.

If Bao Liang's ambitions didn't lie elsewhere, that skill alone would have been enough for him to strut around Mingde Hall unchecked.

"Hehe, you'll know when you get there." Bao Liang lowered his voice mysteriously. "Come on, come on. I've made something good, and it's just one step away from completion."

"What is it?" Xiao Hongchen's curiosity was piqued.

"A magnetic bomb." Bao Liang gestured as he walked. "I've been thinking about it for ages-combine a magnetic formation with an explosive core, throw it at a target, and smack, it sticks. Activate it, and boom!"

"..." Xiao Hongchen halted. "That idea of yours... is interesting."

"Of course." Bao Liang puffed out his chest proudly. "I might not be as good as you in a fight, but when it comes to blowing things up, if I rank second in all of Mingde Hall, no one dares rank first."

"You certainly know how to gild your own face." Xiao Hongchen sounded disdainful, but he didn't stop walking, following Bao Liang toward the laboratory.

"Xiao."

"What?"

"Are you afraid of death?"

"Who isn't afraid of death...? But I'm even more afraid of being mediocre and incapable all my life.

"After all, I'm Xiao Hongchen! Aren't I?"

"...True. Compared to being mediocre, I'd rather die."

Looks like I need to start planning what comes next.

That was what Bao Liang thought.

The setting sun stretched their shadows long. One behind the other, they swayed along and disappeared around the corner of the courtyard wall.