Pain and Joy

After polishing off yet another plate of meat, Bao Liang was finally full.

He slumped in his chair, rubbed his round belly, and sighed with satisfaction.

Cups and plates lay scattered across the table. He alone had put away three baskets of meat buns, two bowls of rice, a plate of red-braised pork, and an entire plate of braised pork knuckle.

Meng Hongchen watched, dumbstruck. "Little Baozi... you can eat so much. How did you get so skinny?"

"Being able to eat is a blessing." Bao Liang burped. "Besides, if I don't eat more, how will I have the strength to grow?"

Xiao Hongchen snorted but said nothing.

But for all his snide remarks, Xiao Hongchen hadn't kept his hands idle-half that plate of braised pork knuckle had gone into his own stomach.

"Brother, didn't you say you don't like meat?" Meng Hongchen gave him a sidelong glance.

"...I was tasting it for Bao Liang to see if it was salty enough." Xiao Hongchen's expression didn't change. "So he wouldn't say the cooks at the Hongchen Residence weren't any good again."

Bao Liang: "? When did I ever say..."

"Eat your food." Xiao Hongchen didn't even look up.

As for Jing Hongchen, he had left while Bao Liang was still tearing into the pork knuckle.

After all, besides being Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen's grandfather, he was also the master of Mingde Hall and the dean of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy-it was no exaggeration to say he had ten thousand affairs to attend to each day.

Now he also had to hunt down Whale Rubber, medicines to nourish Qi and blood, and information on the Soul Beasts needed for Bao Liang's Martial Souls.

There was no time, none at all.

Fortunately, he still had a few people under him he could trust, and he could assign these matters to them.

Jing Hongchen had already made a list in his mind: the Whale Rubber would go to the old associates who spent their days traveling between several coastal ports; for medicinal herbs to nourish Qi and blood, he would have the residence's buyers make a few more trips to the auction houses, and stockpile scarce goods like Mystic Water Pills whenever possible;

As for the Evil Demon Forest... he would first send a reliable team of scouts to investigate the Evil Eye Clan's distribution and bring back a map of the terrain.

He himself would remain at Mingde Hall, handling official business while he waited for news.

Everything was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

As for the information about Bao Liang, Jing Hongchen kept an iron grip on it.

He hadn't dared let a single detail about the Ultimate Martial Souls slip-not even to his mentor, Kong Deming.

It wasn't that he didn't trust his mentor, but that his mentor was too deeply entangled with the imperial family and was himself a retainer of the imperial family.

Although Little Bao Liang was the grandson-in-law his granddaughter had "picked up," the first stroke of the character hadn't even been written yet.

What if he told his mentor, his mentor told the imperial family, and the imperial family then threw a princess his way to fight his granddaughter for her husband? What if spies from other countries within the imperial family sent Little Bao Liang's information back to their countries, and Little Bao Liang became a target?

So-!

He had better keep it hidden for now.

He would hide it as long as he could, and come clean to his mentor only when he really couldn't hide it anymore.

At worst, his mentor would pinch his ears until they swelled and that would be the end of it. It wasn't as if his mentor would kill him, was it?

With that thought, Jing Hongchen's heart settled for the time being, and he began working through the documents on his desk.

Meanwhile, at the Hongchen Residence.

Having finished his meal and been forbidden both strenuous exercise and releasing his Martial Souls, Bao Liang sat in disbelief before a table piled high with all kinds of books.

Beside Bao Liang stood Little Meng, holding books of all kinds, including Sun Moon Royal Junior Academy Preschool Education, A Complete Guide from Soul Master to Titled Douluo, The Complete Encyclopedia of Sun Moon Soul Beasts, Five Years of Theory and Three Years of Practice for Soul Tools, and A Guide to Ores: From Beginner to Giving Up. There was also Xiao Hongchen, grinning wickedly, purely there to enjoy the show.

Bao Liang stared at the pile of books on the table, taller than he was, and went completely dumbfounded.

"Sister Meng... don't tell me these are..."

"That's right." Meng Hongchen nodded firmly. "These are some of the books you'll be reading over the next few years."

"Th-this is only some of them?!"

"Mm-hmm." Meng Hongchen smiled and stroked Bao Liang's head. "Don't worry, Little Sister Meng will read them with you."

"..."

Bao Liang turned to Xiao Hongchen, who had already picked up Soul Guidance Technology: From Beginner to the Grave and begun reading, hoping he would say a fair word.

Instead, Xiao Hongchen didn't even look up. "What are you looking at? Grandpa said that before we enroll, we can't skip a single book we're supposed to read.

"Bao Liang, just accept your fate."

Bao Liang: "..."

He finally saw it clearly: of that grandfather and his two grandchildren, each was more blackhearted than the last.

In fact, Jing Hongchen's arrangement made sense.

Because Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen were still young and would have plenty of time to study Soul Tools after entering the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, Jing Hongchen had only required the siblings to focus on cultivation without worry before enrollment and understand the theory behind Soul Tools-as for researching and developing Soul Tools, they could study that in detail after enrolling.

And as a newly initiated "unofficial member," Bao Liang naturally had to keep pace.

Thus, amid pain and joy, Bao Liang spent nearly an entire day studying in misery.

From the habits of the Evil Eye Clan in The Complete Encyclopedia of Sun Moon Soul Beasts, to the principles of Soul Power circulation in A Complete Guide from Soul Master to Titled Douluo, to the brain-aching formulas and Core Arrays in Five Years of Theory and Three Years of Practice for Soul Tools...

Bao Liang felt he hadn't worked this hard in both his lives combined.

Resigned to his fate, he opened the topmost book, The Complete Encyclopedia of Sun Moon Soul Beasts. On the first page was an Evil Eye, pitch-black all over and sporting more than a dozen eyes, with dense annotations crammed beside it.

"Evil Eye Clan, innately of the Mental Attribute..." he read softly. "Sister Meng, why are the illustrations in this book so lifelike?"

"They were drawn from real specimens." Meng Hongchen didn't look up. "Grandpa said that when you go to the Evil Demon Forest, you'll be able to see the real thing."

"...I think just looking at the pictures is enough."

"Little Baozi, your mind's wandering." Meng Hongchen tapped his book. "Have you memorized this sentence?"

"...Sister Meng, my head is full of Evil Eyes right now. Do I look like I can memorize it?"

"Then read it again."

Bao Liang: "..."

That evening, after dinner, Bao Liang went straight into the medicinal bath Jing Hongchen had prepared for him, replacing sleep with meditation.

The medicinal bath had been specially prepared, steaming hot and rich with the fragrance of medicine.

As soon as Bao Liang got in, he felt a warm force slowly wash through the meridians all over his body. His head, muddled from a day of reading, gradually cleared as well.

He closed his eyes and looked inward.

In his meridians, the medicinal power turned into wisps of warmth that slowly traveled along the route of his Soul Power. With each circuit, a trace of Qi and blood was swallowed by the indistinct golden shadow deep in his dantian.

The Golden-Haired Lion Mastiff lay curled up there like a dozing cub, occasionally giving a soft, satisfied huff.

The Explosion Martial Soul at his heart was also breathing steadily with each beat.

Bao Liang could feel them growing stronger bit by bit.

The same was true for Xiao Hongchen and Meng Hongchen-though they couldn't last as long as Bao Liang, and the amount used in their medicinal baths wasn't nearly as excessive as his.

"Little Baozi, remember to go back to your room and sleep when you're done soaking." Meng Hongchen was already yawning halfway through her bath. "Don't fall asleep in there."

"Got it, Sister Meng."

Bao Liang answered, closed his eyes, and continued meditating.

The medicinal power circulated through his body, gradually filling that sense of "deficiency."

Bao Liang could clearly feel both his Martial Souls greedily absorbing the essence of Qi and blood contained in the medicinal power.

Like a beast that had gone hungry for a long time, finally getting its first bite of meat.

And so, Bao Liang's painful yet fulfilling day passed.