Three Soul Rings Shake the Arena · The Secret of the Manuscripts

Heaven Dou Royal Academy's training ground was nearly ten times the size of Nuoding Academy's.

Nan Feng stood at the edge of the intermediate division's training ground. The floor was paved with smoothly polished green stone slabs, and eight stone pillars stood around it, each carved with reliefs of different Soul Beasts.

More than a dozen students were sparring in the middle of the grounds, waves of Soul Power rising and falling. Most of them were between level twenty and level thirty.

Ye Lingling stood beside him, waiting for an intermediate division instructor to come register his status as a temporary guest elder.

Footsteps came from outside the grounds.

Nan Feng turned his head for a look. A purple-haired girl was walking over from the other end of the training ground, dressed in a dark green combat outfit with a short dagger tucked behind her waist. Her pace was unhurried, every step carrying a rhythm. Her purple ponytail swayed behind her, and the afternoon light traced the clear lines of her profile.

Dugu Yan.

She was a little thinner than when they had parted in Gengxin City, but she looked well, with a smile on her lips.

She stopped at the edge of the training ground and swept her gaze over the students before it landed on Nan Feng. Her purple eyes froze for a moment, and her stride faltered.

She stood there looking at him for two breaths, then walked briskly over.

"Nan Feng?"

"Dugu Yan." Nan Feng nodded.

Dugu Yan came up to him and looked him over from head to toe. "What brings you to Heaven Dou Royal Academy?"

"I'm staying here for the time being," Nan Feng said. "Ye Lingling helped arrange a guest elder position for me."

Dugu Yan glanced at Ye Lingling and nodded in greeting before looking back.

The way she looked him over was different from before, more searching.

Nan Feng knew what she was looking at. When they had parted in Gengxin City, his Soul Power had yet to reach level twenty-five. A few months had passed, and its fluctuations had risen by more than one grade.

"What level is your Soul Power now?"

"Level thirty-four."

Dugu Yan raised an eyebrow. "From twenty-five to thirty-four? What did you eat?"

Nan Feng didn't answer. Dugu Yan didn't press him. She glanced around the training ground, made sure not many people were paying attention to them, and stepped closer.

"Bring out your Soul Rings and let me have a look."

Nan Feng looked at her. There was no malice in Dugu Yan's eyes, nor was she trying to pry.

In Gengxin City, she had seen that his First Soul Ring was deep yellow tinged with purple, and knew he had absorbed it beyond the usual limit. He had been level sixteen then, and his configuration had still been within the bounds of her understanding. Now he was level thirty-four, with all three Soul Rings in hand, and his configuration lay beyond a normal Soul Master's understanding.

He thought for a moment, then channeled his Soul Power.

Three Soul Rings rose in succession from beneath his feet.

The first was deep yellow tinged with purple. A layer of purple light wound around its solid yellow base, not intense, edging the deep yellow with a rim of purple.

The second was purple, neither dark nor light, with Soul Power fluctuations nearly twice as substantial as those of an ordinary Thousand-Year Soul Ring.

The third was pure black, rich and steady, without a trace of another color. Its Soul Power fluctuations were nearly twice as substantial as those of an ordinary Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring. The pressure could be felt from three paces away.

Dugu Yan stared at the three Soul Rings for a long time.

Her expression changed from curiosity to shock, then from shock to something Nan Feng couldn't read. She stepped forward, closer to the black Soul Ring, dim light reflected in her purple eyes.

"The first ring is deep yellow tinged with purple, over nine hundred years. The second is purple, two thousand one hundred years. The third is pure black, twelve thousand years."

She repeated the three numbers under her breath, forcing the words through her teeth.

"You're level thirty-four. Your first ring alone was more than twice a normal Soul Master's limit, and your third jumped straight to ten thousand years."

She looked up at Nan Feng. "Grandmaster said a Soul Elder's limit was a thousand-year ring. In his theory, a Soul Master at level thirty could absorb a Thousand-Year Soul Ring at most, and a Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring would make their meridians burst. Not only did you not burst, you're alive and well."

"My tower can suppress the backlash from the Soul Rings."

Dugu Yan stared at him for two breaths, then suddenly laughed. It was a short laugh, carrying that particular delight of hers that refused to concede.

"My grandpa said your Martial Soul was different from ordinary ones. I only half believed him before. Now I believe him."

Footsteps came from the other end of the training ground. A young man in a blue combat outfit walked over, tall and broad across the shoulders, his short hair tied back.

Nan Feng recognized him. Yu Tianheng, a direct heir of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and the top student of Heaven Dou Royal Academy's intermediate division. The two had fought in the exchange competition at Nuoding Academy, ending in a draw after twenty moves.

Yu Tianheng came closer. His gaze fell first on Dugu Yan, then moved to Nan Feng, and finally stopped on the three Soul Rings beneath Nan Feng's feet.

He stopped in his tracks.

Yu Tianheng stared at the three Soul Rings for three breaths. Things stirred across his sharply defined face: surprise, confusion, and a deeper concentration. His gaze swept from the first ring to the third, lingering longest on the pure black Ten Thousand Year Soul Ring.

"Your third ring is ten thousand years old."

"Yes."

"Twelve thousand years."

"Yes."

Yu Tianheng was silent for a while. He stepped forward, fixed his gaze on the black Soul Ring, and used the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's Soul Power perception to confirm its age and quality.

A few breaths later, he looked away. His brow relaxed, but whatever lay in the depths of his eyes grew deeper.

"Your Soul Ring is genuine. I've never seen any Soul Elder capable of withstanding the energy density of a twelve-thousand-year Soul Ring. The suppressive power of that tower of yours... really does fall outside the scope of Grandmaster's theory."

"Grandmaster's theory," Nan Feng said, looking at him, his voice level, "was stolen."

Yu Tianheng's gaze sharpened.

Nan Feng did not look away.

"Most of the data in his Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul came from research manuscripts kept in the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's secret archives. Those manuscripts contain the essence of generations of your clan's Martial Soul research. They've never been made available to anyone outside the clan."

"Back when Yu Xiaogang was still in the clan, he used his status as the young clan leader to read a great deal of internal research material. When he was expelled, he took all of it away in his head, and he may have taken a few scrolls with him too."

"He cobbled together a set of theories from that data, then slapped the label 'Grandmaster' on himself."

The edge of the training ground fell quiet.

Dugu Yan stood nearby, her purple eyes moving back and forth between Yu Tianheng and Nan Feng twice, without a word. Ye Lingling stood a few paces away, her plain white dress motionless.

Yu Tianheng stared at Nan Feng for a long time. His lips pressed into a line, his jaw tightened, and the fingers at his side curled once before relaxing.

"You say he stole it. Do you have proof?"

"In your clan's manuscript room, the top shelf of the third bookcase against the wall."

"The seventh through twelfth scrolls from the left have the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan's emblem embossed in a hidden pattern on their covers."

"The records in those scrolls begin three hundred years ago. Starting in the year Yu Xiaogang left the clan, they were interrupted for six years."

"Go check whether any scrolls from those six years are missing, then compare them with the data tables in his Ten Core Competencies of Martial Soul. You'll see for yourself."

Yu Tianheng's expression changed. The scroll numbers and location Nan Feng had given were too precise for him to dismiss as fabricated.

He was silent for a few breaths.

"I'll look into it."

"You'll know once you do."

Yu Tianheng stared at him for one last breath, then turned and strode out of the training ground. His blue combat outfit moved swiftly through the afternoon light, his steps quick.

Nan Feng withdrew his Soul Rings, and the three rings sank back into his body one after another.

Dugu Yan watched the direction in which Yu Tianheng had disappeared, then turned back to Nan Feng, her lips curving upward.

"What you just said was even harsher than my grandpa."

Nan Feng didn't respond.

Dugu Yan reached out and patted him on the shoulder, using about as much force as when she had kicked him on the mountain behind the academy.

"Not bad, Tower Simpleton. You just got to Heaven Dou and you've already sent a direct heir of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan packing. If you stay long enough, even the sky over Heaven Dou Royal Academy will change."

She turned and walked toward the other end of the training ground, her purple ponytail swaying behind her. After a few steps, she glanced back at him, her voice drifting over on the wind.

"If you're free tonight, come find me at the Dugu Family's residence in the east of the city. My grandpa has come to Heaven Dou City. He told me before that if you came to Heaven Dou, I should bring you to see him."

Nan Feng nodded.

Dugu Yan walked into the crowd on the training ground, and her purple figure was soon hidden by the other students.

Ye Lingling came over from the side and stood beside him.

"Her grandpa is Poison Douluo."

"I know."

Ye Lingling turned her head to glance at him, then looked away, her gaze settling on the training ground.

"I've already spoken to Teacher Qin Ming. Your guest elder status has been processed." She took a bronze token from her sleeve and handed it to him.

The emblem of Heaven Dou Royal Academy was engraved on the front of the token, and his name was on the back.

"The library is on the third floor of the building west of the training ground. I'll take you there tomorrow morning."

Nan Feng took the token and put it away. In his palm, the deep black glow beneath the Soul Ring pulsed against his skin, answering the green light in the crack at the base of the tower, one rising as the other fell.