Why had the two of them come to Suotuo City? And why at this particular time?
In Chu Chengzhou's plans, visiting Suotuo City—or more specifically, Shrek Academy—was inevitable.
Not for any other reason, but because Chu Chengzhou, who wanted to give his female companions a sense of home, didn't want to miss out on a certain cat girl and a certain wealthy young lady.
However, according to the original plan, Chu Chengzhou intended to wait another half year, until Xiao Wu graduated from Nuoding Academy, which would coincide perfectly with Shrek Academy's enrollment period.
But plans often fall behind changes. The effects of his cheat-enhanced abilities gradually became apparent, and his strength improved far beyond his initial expectations, forcing him to arrive at this point in time.
[Attribute Panel]
- Host: Chu Chengzhou
- Soul Power: Level 29 Soul Grandmaster
- Martial Soul: True Spirit Flag
- Soul Rings: Purple (1000 years), Purple (1108 years)
- First Soul Skill: Summoning - Sky Azure Tree
- Second Soul Skill: Summoning - Radiant Lion
- Skills: Meditation (Black), Body Refinement (Black), Spirit Refinement (Black), Archery (Purple), Movement (Purple), Mastery (Purple), Defense (Purple), Forging (Purple)
- AFK Slots: 1. Meditation (Black), 2. Archery (Purple), 3. Movement (Purple)
A soul power level of 29, two thousand-year summons, and a series of black and purple-tier skills in his skill panel represented Chu Chengzhou's current strength.
After advancing to a one-ring soul master, he started at level 13. With his martial soul upgraded to top-tier quality and paired with a purple-tier Meditation skill, even though the difficulty of upgrading as a one-ring Soul Master was greater than that of a Soul Trainee, his soul power cultivation speed remained undiminished.
Less than two years after becoming a one-ring Soul Master, his soul power reached level 20, qualifying him as a pseudo-Soul Grandmaster.
According to the optimal soul ring ratio, a soul master's second soul ring could be at most around 700 years old.
But Chu Chengzhou was different. After AFKing his Body Refinement skill to the purple tier, even with a thousand-year first soul ring, his threshold for the second soul ring remained at least a thousand years.
The strength of a thousand-year spirit beast equates to at least a three-ring Soul Elder-level soul master to handle—and even then, a three-ring Soul Elder could only deal with a newly thousand-year-old spirit beast.
Fortunately, he had a four-ring Soul Ancestor-level grandfather. Though Su Nan couldn't defeat powerful thousand-year spirit beasts, he could handle weaker ones, especially those with less impressive bloodlines.
Moreover, Chu Chengzhou's grandmother, Li Wan, was a three-ring auxiliary-type Soul Elder. Together, the couple helped Chu Chengzhou hunt down an 1100-year-old Radiant Lion as his second soul ring.
Similarly, due to the high age of his second soul ring, Chu Chengzhou's soul power immediately jumped to level 23 upon advancing to a two-ring Soul Grandmaster.
Additionally, it was worth noting that after advancing to a two-ring Soul Grandmaster, his cheat system also leveled up.
Not only did the number of AFK slots increase by one, but the efficiency of AFKing also improved significantly.
Previously, AFKing a soul ring could only add 10 years per day, but now it added 20 years per day.
For skills, upgrading a yellow-tier skill to purple used to take 300 days, while upgrading a purple-tier skill to black required 1000 days.
After the system upgrade, upgrading a yellow-tier skill to purple now took just 100 days, and upgrading a purple-tier skill to black required only 300 days—a tripling of efficiency.
Nearly two years had passed since then. Combined with the black-tier Meditation skill he had AFK'd earlier and the extended daily meditation time granted by his enhanced spiritual power, his soul power cultivation had reached level 29. It wouldn't be long before he advanced to level 30, becoming a pseudo-Soul Elder.
While Su Nan and Li Wan could still secure a thousand-year-old soul ring for Chu Chengzhou, they were powerless when it came to his third soul ring.
This wasn't just due to their insufficient strength—it was also because there were no suitable targets for Chu Chengzhou's third soul ring in the artificially enclosed Soul Hunting Forest near Nuoding City.
With a first soul ring of over 650 years and a second of over 1100 years, Chu Chengzhou's ideal target for his third soul ring was at least 5000 years old.
Such advanced spirit beasts weren't found in ordinary Soul Hunting Forests—they were typically located in places like the Great Star Forest or the Sunset Forest outside Tian Dou City.
However, these two forests were wild spirit beast territories, filled with danger. Even a four-ring Soul Ancestor like his grandfather could easily become prey if he wasn't careful. Naturally, Chu Chengzhou wouldn't trouble his elders further.
How could a powerless soul master obtain a suitable soul ring?
If they had decent cultivation talent, joining a soul master academy was the simplest solution.
Though Shrek Academy was admittedly run-down, it still had some strength.
While it couldn't compare to the Tian Dou Imperial Academy or the Five Elements Academy, nor to the vast majority of advanced soul master academies on the continent, it at least had a Soul Sage-level expert overseeing it. Securing a suitable third soul ring for him would be effortless.
Thus, to obtain his ideal third soul ring, Chu Chengzhou decided to enroll in Shrek Academy six months ahead of schedule.
As for the fact that it wasn't currently the academy's enrollment period?
Who would turn away a genius soul master who showed up at their doorstep?
Chu Chengzhou believed that unless Flender's brain had been kicked by a ten-thousand-year-old stupid donkey, he wouldn't refuse.
Besides, this was a buy-one-get-one deal!
When it came to displayed talent, if Chu Chengzhou was considered a genius, then Xiao Wu was an absolute monster among geniuses.
Over the years, through persistent effort, he had cultivated to level 29 as a Soul Grandmaster.
But Xiao Wu? Though she didn't exactly slack off all the time in training or meditating, her efforts certainly weren't diligent either. Yet her soul power level skyrocketed, reaching level 38 as a Soul Elder at just 11 years old.
Compared to the original storyline, where she was a 29-level Soul Grandmaster nearing advancement at 12 years old, this was a massive leap forward.
There was no other reason—it was all thanks to the Meditation and Body Refinement skills Chu Chengzhou had taught her.
The cultivation efficiency of the purple-tier Meditation skill was about 1.7 times that of ordinary meditation. The black-tier Meditation skill further increased cultivation speed by 20% over the purple tier, doubling the efficiency of ordinary meditation.
Additionally, after mastering the Body Refinement skill, the higher-aged soul rings she formed led to greater increases in soul power upon advancement, resulting in such a significant gap from the original storyline.
It had only been less than two years since the black-tier Meditation skill was AFK'd into existence—if it had been longer, Xiao Wu might already have become a four-ring Soul Ancestor.
"Little Chu, didn't you say that Shrek Academy was very run-down? Why are we going to Shrek Academy?
I heard that the Tian Dou Imperial Academy is the best advanced soul master academy in our Tian Dou Empire. Why don't we change course and go to Tian Dou City instead? Tian Dou City is the most prosperous city on the continent."
Xiao Wu asked Chu Chengzhou, somewhat puzzled.
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