Compensation and a Request

Xu Xingyu looked at the smiling middle-aged man, a trace of wariness rising in his heart.

The main reason was that he truly found Yan Shaozhe hard to judge. Having read the original story, he considered Yan Shaozhe a scumbag who had failed to sort out his romantic problems (though the surprisingly peculiar way Xian Lin'er, the other person involved, thought was also a problem), as well as a hidebound man overly fixated on tradition.

In the original story, if his own teacher had not forced him, he most likely would never have accepted Soul Tools in his entire life. In this life, his position as one of the elders opposing Soul Spirits further confirmed Xu Xingyu's judgment.

However, since Xu Xingyu sensed no hostility from him, he ultimately put away his guard on the surface and buried it deep in his heart.

Seeing this, Yan Shaozhe showed a trace of satisfaction and began, "Student Xu Xingyu, although my disciple already introduced me earlier, please allow me to introduce myself once more."

"I am Yan Shaozhe, the current dean of Shrek Academy's Martial Soul Department. It is a pleasure to meet you, Student Xu Xingyu."

Xu Xingyu politely cupped his fists in reply. "Greetings, Dean Yan."

Yan Shaozhe waved a hand to say there was no need for such formality and continued, "First, I must apologize to you, Student Xu, for my disciple's actions. This matter was entirely the result of negligence on our part, and I am deeply sorry for what happened earlier."

With that, Yan Shaozhe took out a leather pouch and handed it to Xu Xingyu.

"Please accept this as Shrek Academy's compensation for our earlier negligence. You can open it and take a look first. I hope you like it."

Xu Xingyu took the pouch from Yan Shaozhe. It was made of a very soft material, seemingly the hide of some Soul Beast. After examining it carefully, Xu Xingyu also discovered that the pouch could block Soul Power.

Clearly, the things inside the pouch were no ordinary objects either. Xu Xingyu soon opened the pouch to see what was inside.

Three rays of different-colored light filled the entire room.

They were three Soul Bones: a left arm bone, a head bone, and a wing-type Soul Bone.

The left arm bone was golden-red, with five slender finger bones pointing upward into the distance. Each fingertip gave off a faint golden-red glow.

This was the Golden Radiance Left Arm Bone that Wang Dong had absorbed in the original story, a Soul Bone dropped by a Golden Earth Dragon King over ten thousand years old.

Since the Golden Earth Dragon King possessed a diluted pure dragon bloodline, the Soul Bone it provided likewise contained the power of that bloodline.

Thus, although it was only a Ten Thousand Year Soul Bone, its price alone could rival that of a Hundred Thousand Year Soul Bone.

The Head Soul Bone, meanwhile, had been dropped by a nearly extinct Soul Beast known as a Snow Demon.

Snow Demons were a special kind of Soul Beast born in the Far North. Besides the ice attribute inherent to Soul Beasts of the Far North, they also possessed the space element.

Although the Snow Demon race had not cultivated either attribute to the ultimate level, they had come extremely close.

The reason they had been driven to extinction was simply that they were naturally mischievous, always playing pranks and disrupting order in the Far North.

In the end, they unintentionally offended the Titan Snow Demon King of that time, causing them to be surrounded and wiped out, with only a scant few of their kin surviving in the world.

To be specific, they had swapped the token of affection the Titan Snow Demon King had given the Snow Empress for something else, causing her to beat him black and blue.

As for the last wing bone, the instant Xu Xingyu saw it, he understood that it was an External Soul Bone.

What set External Soul Bones apart from other Soul Bones was that they were not among the original six major Soul Bones. Moreover, after fusing with a Soul Master, they could grow stronger and evolve along with that Soul Master's cultivation.

Even if the Soul Beast that provided an External Soul Bone was quite ordinary, its ability to evolve alone would make countless Soul Masters green with envy.

The greatest example was the Eight Spider Lances, provided by a Man Faced Demon Spider that Tang San had hunted ten thousand years ago.

Originally, it was only a Soul Bone provided by a Soul Beast a little over two thousand years old, nothing particularly outstanding in itself. But one day in the future, Tang San refined the Eight Spider Lances into his own natal Super Divine Artifact.

That showed just how unreasonable the evolutionary properties of External Soul Bones were!

Xu Xingyu himself possessed a left palm bone provided by the first-generation Dark Dragon King, a gift from his wife Gu Yuena. In theory, it was also a kind of External Soul Bone.

The wing Soul Bone in Xu Xingyu's hands had been provided by a Silver Emperor Heavenly Falcon, a bird-type Soul Beast with the space and wind attributes.

It was itself a very powerful existence, and the one that had provided the bone in Xu Xingyu's hands had a cultivation of over fifty thousand years.

Ma Xiaotao, standing nearby, was quite surprised to see her teacher bleed so heavily.

It was true that the Evil Fire had invaded her, causing her to lose control and nearly take his life (though in fact she had been beaten down from start to finish), but was there any need to give him an unparalleled treasure like a Soul Bone, something money could not buy?!?

And three of them, at that!?!?!

Unlike the surprised Ma Xiaotao, Xu Xingyu wore a grave expression.

His thoughts were much the same as Ma Xiaotao's. He did not think that merely giving the rampaging Ma Xiaotao a thorough beating could earn him such compensation.

Admittedly, Soul Bones held little appeal for Xu Xingyu, whose faction's upper ranks consisted almost entirely of Soul Beasts.

But a closer look revealed that these Soul Bones were not particularly compatible with Xu Xingyu himself (a mutter from the author: though that was because, in theory, Soul Bones worthy of Xu Xingyu were few and far between). Instead, they were extremely compatible with the three girls he kept at the academy.

Thus, Xu Xingyu knew this compensation was not as simple as it seemed. The old fox before him surely needed his help with something.

And because Xu Xingyu came from the Spirit Contract Pagoda, a faction that stood above Shrek Academy, it was impossible not to bleed heavily in this regard.

So he had most likely decided to simply give Xu Xingyu the compensation and the reward for his request together, leaving him unable to refuse.

Xu Xingyu had originally wanted to decline. After all, although these Soul Bones were well suited to his girls, he theoretically had better ones.

But then he seemed to think of something and ultimately decided to accept the Soul Bones. They would be just right for an interesting experiment.

After putting away the Soul Bones, Xu Xingyu looked at Yan Shaozhe and said, "Thank you, Dean Yan. So, is there anything else you need this student to help with?"

Yan Shaozhe showed no displeasure at Xu Xingyu getting straight to the point. After all, anyone with a modicum of intelligence could see that he had something else to ask; otherwise, what was he doing giving away so much?

Yan Shaozhe smiled and said, "I was fortunate enough to see how you suppressed my disciple's Evil Fire during your fight with her earlier. So, if possible, could you help my disciple suppress her Evil Fire from time to time?"