Xu Zihuang turned around, resting both hands on the wooden railing, gazing into the distance.
Ning Tian came out of the room once more, now wearing a pure white long dress that was elegant yet luxurious, perfectly suited for the early summer season.
Shrek Academy did not restrict the clothing of inner court disciples; only on certain formal occasions were they required to wear the special red academy uniform.
Ning Tian walked slowly to Xu Zihuang's side, holding a purple sandalwood comb in her right hand as she combed her platinum-white long hair.
Unlike Ye Guyi's soft, pure golden hair, the front part of Ning Tian's hair was slightly curled, giving it a unique, playful charm.
"Let me do it." Xu Zihuang smiled and took Ning Tian's right hand.
Ning Tian was momentarily stunned, then quickly understood. She smiled warmly at Xu Zihuang and gently let go of the comb.
The grain of the deep purple sandalwood comb was extremely fine, feeling hard and sturdy in the hand, with a faint woody fragrance lingering on it.
Xu Zihuang held the comb and gently slid it through Ning Tian's hair.
The two faced the Sea God Lake, surrounded by the sounds of insects and birds on Sea God Island, full of the breath of life. They both felt this moment was incredibly peaceful. Sometimes, physical contact expressed more than words ever could.
Ning Tian naturally leaned her fragrant shoulder against Xu Zihuang's chest, tilting her head to gaze into his deep eyes that were like a vast starry sky, making her heart flutter. Her red lips parted slightly.
"Tianhuang, has your spiritual power broken through again?"
Compared to the night Elder Mu left, Xu Zihuang's eyes today seemed much more restrained. Yet Ning Tian felt that Yu Tianhuang had become even more unfathomable.
"It's not that easy to continuously break through on the spiritual level." Xu Zihuang smiled lightly and shook his head.
"These five days of seclusion only allowed me to stabilize and familiarize myself with the new realm. As for you, Ning Tian, your soul power has improved quite a bit in these two years."
With his current tangible and substantial spiritual power, he could tell Ning Tian's exact soul power level with a single glance.
When he had left Shrek Academy, Ning Tian's soul power had just broken through to level 43. In less than two years, she had advanced eleven levels in a row, reaching level 54. For an auxiliary-type soul master at the Soul Ancestor stage, such cultivation speed was truly astonishing.
"Actually, it's because after entering the inner court, during that deep meditation in the underground world of the Sea God Pavilion, my soul power directly increased by three levels. Later, I also fused a head soul bone that boosted me." Ning Tian's pretty face kept smiling as she spoke candidly.
"Speaking of which, the head soul bone I fused has some connection to the Blue Mirror you gave me. That head soul bone is called the Mirror Illusion Wisdom Skull, from a Mirror Shadow Beast with seventy thousand years of cultivation."
"A seventy-thousand-year Mirror Shadow Beast?" Xu Zihuang raised an eyebrow in surprise. The power of Mirror Shadow Beasts was beyond doubt; they were truly top-tier soul beasts. For Ning Tian to obtain such an excellent soul bone was undoubtedly a great stroke of fortune.
After all, Mirror Shadow Beasts had been nearly extinct for ten thousand years.
Ning Tian nodded and explained, "The Blue Mirror you designed was already known to my great-grandfather. In his youth, he had encountered several Mirror Shadow Beasts above ten thousand years in the Extreme North. So he made a special trip there. That seventy-thousand-year Mirror Shadow Beast was personally hunted by my great-grandfather, and fortunately, it dropped that soul bone. Oh right, I deliberately kept the forehead scale for you. If you need it, I can have someone send it over."
The forehead scale of a seventy-thousand-year Mirror Shadow Beast was a material even more valuable and useful than the thirty-thousand-year Diamond Mammoth tusk he possessed. It could be used to craft top-tier eighth-level soul tools or even ninth-level soul tools.
"Let's talk about that later. Making eighth-level soul tools is still a bit difficult for me right now." As he spoke, Xu Zihuang had already finished combing Ning Tian's platinum-white hair neatly.
"Let's go see Senior Sister Xiaoya and the others now. I just used spiritual power to communicate with them. They're waiting for us at the cafeteria entrance."
Xu Zihuang's words revealed a lot of information, just as Ning Tian had been open with him.
"Mm." Ning Tian naturally understood, giving Xu Zihuang a sweet smile without asking for details.
The number of inner court disciples living on Sea God Island was usually under a hundred, so the inner court cafeteria was not very large. Each inner court disciple had their own cultivation habits, so the cafeteria was often quite empty.
At this moment, Tang Ya, Beibei, Xu Sanshi, and Jiang Nannan had arrived at the cafeteria entrance first, all looking toward the road. The inner court cafeteria was located in the center of Sea God Island, right beside the mountain where the Sea God Pavilion stood. To reach it, one had to walk along a not-too-steep mountain path.
On both sides of the path were strange and vibrant flowers, plants, and trees. The fresh scent of grass and the rich fragrance of flowers blended, refreshing the mind and spirit.
Tang Ya held Beibei's arm. The two had mostly moved past the grief of Elder Mu's passing, now filled with hope for the Tang Sect's future. Over these few days, they had come to terms with it; they knew that only by developing and strengthening the Tang Sect could they best comfort Elder Mu.
Jiang Nannan stood beside Tang Ya and Beibei, though she kept a disgusted distance from Xu Sanshi. Unable to bear his harassment, her face was frosty. Even with Xu Sanshi's thick skin, he didn't dare provoke Jiang Nannan at this moment and awkwardly changed the subject.
"In these two years, the gap between Tianhuang has probably grown even larger. Communicating with all of us at once from such a distance with spiritual power, his spiritual power level and control are probably not inferior to Elder Xuan's now."
"How about you spar with Tianhuang later? Then we'll know for sure." Beibei had returned to his usual gentle and refined demeanor, but to Xu Sanshi, it looked utterly hypocritical.
"No way I'm falling for your trap. Why don't you go?" Xu Sanshi raised an eyebrow and sneered.
"With Tianhuang's cultivation speed, he's probably already broken through to Soul Emperor. As fellow Soul Emperors, do you dare say you have even a thirty percent chance against him?"
In these two years, not only had Xu Zihuang improved, but Beibei and Xu Sanshi had also made progress. Take Beibei, for example, he had fused several excellent soul bones left by Elder Mu, received personal guidance from Elder Mu, and cultivated for long periods inside the Sea God Pavilion, allowing him to reach Soul Emperor at nineteen.
Even so, they didn't feel they could defeat Yu Tianhuang. It was an absolute talent crushing.
While the two brothers were bickering, Tang Ya's eyes suddenly lit up. She called out joyfully:
"Tianhuang and Junior Sister Ning Tian are here!"
Xu Zihuang and Ning Tian, holding hands, appeared in their line of sight.
Tang Ya and the others quickly stepped forward to greet them.
"Senior Brother Beibei, Senior Brother Xu, Senior Sister Xiaoya, Senior Sister Jiang." Xu Zihuang greeted the four with a gentle smile, and he shared warm hugs with Beibei and Xu Sanshi.
After Tang Ya smiled and nodded at Xu Zihuang, she gave Ning Tian and Jiang Nannan a meaningful look and pulled them aside to whisper about private matters. She occasionally glanced up at Xu Zihuang, causing Ning Tian to show traces of shyness.
Xu Sanshi heavily patted Xu Zihuang's shoulder and laughed heartily.
"Tianhuang, how were these two years at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy? Did you meet any pretty senior sisters or junior sisters?"
"No junior sisters, but I did meet a few pretty senior sisters." Xu Zihuang replied candidly with a smile.
At these words, Tang Ya immediately widened her eyes, pulled Ning Tian in front of Xu Zihuang, puffed out her chest, and pouted:
"Tianhuang, you can't be a Playboy! Don't learn from this guy Xu Sanshi."
"Xiaoya, what kind of talk is that? What do you mean learn from me?!" Xu Sanshi looked speechless and shot Beibei a resentful glare.
"If anything, it's that jerk Beibei who led me and Tianhuang and me astray. Xiaoya, you don't know Beibei's true nature."
"Ahem—" Beibei cleared his throat. Though his face still wore that warm, spring-breeze smile, his gaze toward Xu Sanshi had turned unfriendly. He moved his lips.
The lip movement clearly said: You're heartless now, exposing me in front of Xiaoya. Don't blame me for being unrighteous when you pursue Nannan later.
Beibei, you're ruthless!
Xu Sanshi had no choice but to behave, though he was surely cursing Beibei inwardly.
Beibei ignored Xu Sanshi's sour expression and smiled as he looked around at everyone.
"Let's eat first and talk while we eat."
Tang Ya stuck her tongue out at Xu Zihuang and Xu Sanshi, then walked into the cafeteria first with Ning Tian and Jiang Nannan.
Xu Zihuang, Beibei, and Xu Sanshi followed behind the three girls. Though Xu Sanshi was exaggerating, both he and Xu Zihuang knew Tang Ya's words were purely teasing with no malice. After all, Xu Sanshi only cared about his image in front of Jiang Nannan, and that image had long since collapsed beyond repair.
He had just been trying to drag Beibei down with him.
The six found a long table and sat down. In front of each person was a bowl of creamy-white, fragrant yellow croaker noodles and several colorful bird eggs with spotted shells.
To provide the most nutritious meals for the inner court disciples, every day's meals included specially supplied foods.
The yellow croaker in the noodles came from the East Sea of the Dou Ling Empire, transported as quickly as possible to ensure freshness. The fish bones were boiled into a milky broth, with deboned fish meat placed on top and a few green vegetables for garnish. The colorful bird eggs were from a type of avian soul beast. When peeled, the egg white was completely transparent, like crystal jelly, and extremely nutritious.
Xu Sanshi had been a little happy at first that he could sit opposite Jiang Nannan, but when he saw Yu Tianhuang and Beibei each receiving peeled bird eggs from Ning Tian and Tang Ya, he became depressed again.
Sigh, everyone was paired up except he and Nannan were hopelessly far apart.
Xu Zihuang had just taken a bite of the bird egg Ning Tian had peeled for him when Tang Ya seemed to remember something. While chewing, she asked Xu Zihuang in a muffled voice:
"Tianhuang, didn't you study at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy for two years? I have a soul tool blueprint designed by Yuhao. Could you take a look and see if this soul tool is feasible to make, and maybe give some guidance?"
"Of course, Senior Sister Xiaoya. Before Elder Mu passed away, he said the academy would provide all kinds of support to your Tang Sect. I'm also part of the academy." Xu Zihuang looked up and smiled lightly.
"That's wonderful." Tang Ya excitedly took out a stack of blueprints from her storage soul tool and handed them to Xu Zihuang.
Xu Zihuang took the blueprints, glanced over them briefly, and had already analyzed the structure of the soul tool in his mind.
"A third-level soul cannon. It seems to incorporate the Tang Sect's unique mechanism expansion device. Strictly speaking, it can be classified as a fixed-installed soul tool. However, the structure and core array arrangement can still be improved. Senior Sister Xiaoya, if you don't mind, I can return the blueprint to you after I've revised it."
"Great, great!" Tang Ya nodded repeatedly, her black ponytail swaying. She was as lively and charming as when they first met.
"Tianhuang, does that mean the blueprint Yuhao designed is feasible?" Beibei asked in surprise.
Xu Zihuang nodded, then asked with interest, "Huo Yuhao was able to design this blueprint, so he at least has the ability of a third-level soul engineer. Has he broken through to Soul Elder?"
For Huo Yuhao, raising his soul power from level 21 to level 31 in two and a half years would be nearly impossible without external help.
These years, Yuhao has taken some drugs that forcibly raise cultivation. He just broke through to level 30 recently." Beibei gave a bitter smile. Though it was Huo Yuhao's own decision, he hadn't firmly stopped him because he had selfish motives.
Among the Tang Sect, only Huo Yuhao was a soul engineer. The Tang Sect's revival depended heavily on soul tools, so he had tacitly allowed Huo Yuhao to take those drugs. Those drugs would cut off Huo Yuhao's path to becoming a high-level soul master in the future, but with Huo Yuhao's talent, reaching Soul King was already difficult, so taking the drugs didn't seem like a big loss.
Only by having Huo Yuhao continue his studies in Shrek Academy's soul engineering department could he provide greater help to the Tang Sect.
"Also, Xiaoya recently reached the level 50 bottleneck. My original plan was to take them to obtain soul rings in a few days."
Xu Zihuang had naturally noticed that Tang Ya had reached the bottleneck. Limited by talent, her cultivation speed was much slower than Ning Tian's.
"Senior Brother Beibei, while I was out on training at the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineer Academy, I once encountered a plant-type soul beast that would be very suitable as Senior Sister Xiaoya's fifth soul ring."
As soon as Xu Zihuang spoke, everyone's eyes focused on him.
Before anyone could ask, he continued:
"It's a Nightmare Man-Eating Flower with cultivation between ten thousand and fifteen thousand years."
"The Nightmare Man-Eating Flower, ranked seventh among the Tang Sect's Ten Great Poisons?!" Tang Ya suddenly stood up, unable to stay calm. The Nightmare Man-Eating Flower was clearly recorded in the Tang Sect. Its most terrifying trait was the invisible Nightmare poison.
If her Blue Silver Grass could fuse with that Nightmare poison, her overall strength would increase dramatically. Even if she couldn't obtain the Nightmare poison ability, a top-tier plant-type soul beast like the Nightmare Man-Eating Flower would still give her an exceptionally powerful fifth soul skill.
Beibei's eyes also showed delight. Ning Tian, Jiang Nannan, and Xu Sanshi were somewhat confused. The rarity of the Nightmare Man-Eating Flower was almost on par with the Thunder Hell Vine; it was practically a legendary plant-type soul beast with very few records. It was normal that the three didn't know much about it.
Xu Zihuang calmly took a sip of noodle soup and continued:
"Senior Sister Xiaoya, I'll give you the map of the Nightmare Man-Eating Flower's location and the revised soul tool blueprint later. But you and Senior Brother Beibei must be very careful. It's best to apply for inner court teachers to accompany you—the Nightmare poison is far too dangerous. As for Huo Yuhao, there's a type of soul beast called Silver Wolf in the Jingyang Mountain Range of the Sun Moon Empire that would suit him well. Senior Brother Beibei might consider taking him there to search."
He had good feelings toward the kind-hearted Tang Ya, which was why he mentioned this. As for the latter part, it wasn't that he wanted to do Huo Yuhao a big favor; he simply didn't care much. He knew the unique traits of the Silver Wolf and casually mentioned it.
Tang Ya became more and more excited, her eyes toward Xu Zihuang filled with gratitude and emotion. Her third and fourth soul rings had both been obtained with Yu Tianhuang's help. Counting this ten-thousand-year Nightmare Man-Eating Flower, she didn't even know how many favors she had received from Yu Tianhuang since they met.
After a long while, Tang Ya calmed her emotions, giggled, and hugged Ning Tian from the side.
"Tianhuang, I won't say too many thanks. In the future, if there's anything you and Junior Sister Ning Tian need help with, just tell me and Beibei, no need to be polite."
"Senior Sister Xiaoya, Tianhuang isn't doing this for any reward. With our relationship, there's no need to be so courteous." Ning Tian, quick-witted as ever, smiled sweetly and took Tang Ya's arm.
Beibei placed a hand on Xu Zihuang's shoulder, thinking of Huo Yuhao, who had once felt jealous of Yu Tianhuang. The difference between the two was now clear as day.
"Tianhuang, thank you."
"Senior Brother Beibei, like Ning Tian said, with our relationship, there's no need for such words." Xu Zihuang replied calmly, then exchanged a smile with Ning Tian.
Among the three men and three women, only the last pair, Jiang Nannan and Xu Sanshi, had a subtle relationship.
Jiang Nannan sat on Ning Tian's other side, smiling and congratulating Tang Ya. Meanwhile, a certain someone stared dazedly at Jiang Nannan, whose smiling face was as gentle and beautiful as a lotus emerging from clear water.
While the others chatted, Xu Zihuang also took the opportunity to draw the location of the Nightmare Man-Eating Flower in the Mingdou Mountain Range and handed the revised soul tool blueprint to Tang Ya and Beibei.
With his current soul engineering ability, revising a third-level soul tool was effortless. Including the time to draw the detailed map of the Mingdou Mountain Range, it took him less than fifteen minutes.
During this time, Ning Tian specially asked the cafeteria staff to reheat Xu Zihuang's yellow croaker noodles.
In this harmonious atmosphere, everyone caught up and chatted. After finishing breakfast, they parted ways.
Xu Sanshi and Jiang Nannan each had their own study tasks. Tang Ya and Beibei planned to set out tomorrow to obtain soul rings and eagerly applied to the academy. In the end, only Xu Zihuang and Ning Tian were left together, walking toward the training field.
Ning Tian had entered the inner court in the past one or two years. As per tradition, every few mornings, she had to receive guidance from inner court teachers and assistants to better plan her future development.
Today, the one guiding Ning Tian and the others was Wang Yan, who had become an inner court teacher several years earlier.
Wang Yan had taught him for a while, so after two years apart, it was only right to visit him.
Besides them, Wu Feng, Nanmen Yun'er, Xiao Xiao, Dai Huabin, and Xie Huanyue, the new inner court disciples, also had to attend this lesson. That was why Wu Feng had come to find Ning Tian this morning.
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