The next morning, Ning Tian woke up with a dazed look in her eyes. She only felt as if a faint refreshing fragrance lingered around her nose, condensing but not dispersing.
After fully waking up, her thoughts became extremely clear, her mind refreshed, and her entire body felt indescribably comfortable.
All of this was due to the effect of that Qiluo Heart.
The morning sun entered his eyes, and his big aqua blue eyes narrowed slightly instinctively, his long eyelashes trembling slightly. When his gaze focused, he saw Yu Tianhuang and Ye Guyi sitting opposite each other not far away.
Ye Guyi sat on the sofa across from her, elegantly lifting a delicate porcelain cup and sipping the warm, fragrant red tea inside. Noticing that Ning Tian had woken up, a faint smile appeared on her cool face.
"You're awake?"
Recalling what happened yesterday, Ning Tian couldn't help but blush slightly. Somewhat embarrassed, she said, "Sorry, Sister Guyi. Last night I..."
"Don't mind it, it's nothing."
Ye Guyi smiled and shook her head.
"You probably don't drink much usually, right?"
"Mm." Ning Tian nodded lightly. Unless it was a rather special situation, she generally drank very little, especially the strong liquor from yesterday. Over all these years, she had never gotten drunk before.
The completely unaware Ning Tian still thought this was her true alcohol tolerance. The "true alcohol tolerance" here referred to is without using soul power to neutralize the alcohol.
"Actually, it's good for girls to drink a little less. You can't let certain people take advantage of you so easily when you're unprepared." Ye Guyi replied with a smile full of meaning, but a strange light flashed deep in her eyes as she faintly glanced at Xu Zihuang.
Xu Zihuang, who had just lifted his teacup, had his fingers tremble slightly. His gaze met Ye Guyi's in midair.
Ning Tian naturally had no idea what scene Yu Tianhuang and Ye Guyi were simultaneously remembering in their minds. He came to Xu Zihuang's side and sat down. When she took the cup of hot tea that he handed over, she heard Ye Guyi's last words. Her cheeks flushed red, and she shyly leaned into Xu Zihuang's embrace.
What Ye Guyi said, which seemed like self-exposure, carried a completely different meaning to Ning Tian.
Although Xu Zihuang appeared calm on the surface, he felt extremely helpless inside.
After a brief silence, he directly took the initiative and said, "Sister, Ning Tian and I have already—"
"Tianhuang!"
Ning Tian instantly widened her eyes. Her hands, which were wrapped around Xu Zihuang's arm, exerted force, promptly stopping him. She looked shy yet caught off guard, appearing especially charming at this moment. She hadn't expected Yu Tianhuang to say such private matters in front of Ye Guyi.
However, Yu Tianhuang being so frank was actually equivalent to indirectly seeking Ye Guyi's approval for her. Amid her shyness, her heart felt warm.
"Oh?" Ye Guyi pretended to be surprised as she looked at Ning Tian. Then her gaze moved downward, landing on Ning Tian's flat abdomen.
Ning Tian felt extremely uncomfortable being stared at by Ye Guyi.
"Speaking of which, ever since coming to Shrek City, I haven't really strolled around the city properly. Ning Tian, accompany me later, okay?"
After pondering for a moment, Ye Guyi smiled lightly and took the initiative to change the topic, which finally eased some of the shyness in Ning Tian's heart.
Ning Tian sweetly smiled at Ye Guyi.
"Sure, Sister Guyi. I'll have someone bring breakfast first. We'll go after eating."
After the three finished breakfast together, they left Nine Treasures Pavilion and began strolling in the commercial district on the south side of Shrek City. The relationship between Ye Guyi and Ning Tian appeared unusually harmonious. They walked ahead arm in arm, with smiles often blooming on their pretty faces as they chatted with each other.
And Xu Zihuang, following behind, had completely become a tool person. Whenever the two women bought something, he would proactively step forward to pay.
As long as Ye Guyi didn't cause any more trouble, he was already content.
From that day on, Ye Guyi integrated into Xu Zihuang and Ning Tian's daily life. Of course, during this period, she secretly "stole the home" countless times behind Ning Tian's back.
Poor Ning Tian was toyed with in the palm of her hand. Normally, she still had to rack her brains to please Ye Guyi.
After finishing closed-door cultivation, Xu Zihuang also took over from Wang Qiu'er again and began integrating this brand-new Shrek representative team.
More than a month passed quietly, and the Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament was already approaching.
Bei Bei and Tang Ya, who were eager to make the Tang Sect famous in this Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament, had set off two days earlier with the Tang Sect representative team. This tournament was being held in Mingdu, the capital of the Sun Moon Empire. The journey was long, so they had to prepare early.
The reason the Shrek representative team departed later was that Xu Zihuang had something he wanted to verify and had made another trip to the Star Dou Great Forest.
...
Outside the east gate of Shrek Academy, in an open area, a group of fifteen people gathered.
Leading them were Inner Court senior sister Zhang Lexuan and Ye Guyi.
The remaining thirteen were the Shrek representative team led by Xu Zihuang.
The team leader was Zhang Lexuan, but at Ye Guyi's request, the academy had also arranged for her to become the deputy leader to assist Zhang Lexuan in completing the leadership duties for this trip.
Zhang Lexuan faced everyone. The gentle smile on her pretty face withdrew as she said seriously, "Since everyone is here, let's set off. There are still three days until the start of this Continental Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament. We need to pick up the pace a bit. Arrive early to rest and prepare for the upcoming matches."
"Everyone should be able to use flying soul tools, right?"
"Senior Sister, there's actually no need to go to so much trouble." Xu Zihuang smiled faintly, then used action to explain what he meant.
Under everyone's gaze, six terrifying soul rings, five black and one red, rose from beneath his feet. As the deep fourth soul ring shone, a dazzling ball of azure light separated from it.
A loud and clear bird cry suddenly rang out in the high sky above everyone's heads.
Everyone subconsciously looked up.
The azure ball of light earlier burst open, transforming into a massive azure bird. The bird's appearance was extremely majestic, with a wingspan exceeding seven meters. Its entire body was covered in azure-jade-colored feathers, as if carved from azure jade. A pair of emerald-green eyes flashed with ferocity, steel claws grew beneath its abdomen, gleaming with cold light. Even the edges of its wings looked like sharp blades.
After circling once in the air, the azure bird landed not far in front of the group.
"Is this an Azure Jade Bird?" Zhang Lexuan looked at Xu Zihuang in surprise and doubt.
The Azure Jade Bird was a very powerful avian soul beast. Although its speed and attack power were inferior to the Emerald Demon Bird, it excelled in being more balanced. Its attack power, speed, and defense were all extremely strong, with almost no weaknesses. It had few natural enemies in the Star Dou Great Forest.
This Azure Jade Bird, which had at least ten-thousand-year cultivation, naturally surprised Zhang Lexuan. However, what concerned her more was that Yu Tianhuang could actually command this Azure Jade Bird through some special method.
And Zhou Sichen, who already knew the truth beforehand, couldn't help exclaiming.
"Captain, you succeeded?! Your fourth soul skill can really imprint my ability?!"
Just as Zhou Sichen said, what Xu Zihuang had imprinted was a soul skill from Zhou Sichen's Treasure Book martial soul. When he observed Zhou Sichen using his martial soul ability in battles against others, he had analyzed the principle behind it through his Golden Eyes martial soul.
The essence of Zhou Sichen's Treasure Book martial soul ability was similar to the method used by the Zhongli brothers to control beast souls.
The reason Zhou Sichen could summon soul beasts through his Treasure Book martial soul was that the soul rings contained part of the soul beast's soul power. Through a certain contract of the Treasure Book martial soul, they were made to serve him.
Since the soul beast's soul power preserved in the soul ring was not complete, the soul beasts he summoned could only possess one innate soul skill from when they were alive.
Although Xu Zihuang did not possess the contract ability of the Treasure Book martial soul, he had the contract method taught to him by Electrolux, and the level of that contract method was clearly much higher.
By relying on his fourth soul skill imprinting combined with that contract method, he could perfectly use the ability of Zhou Sichen's Treasure Book martial soul to summon soul beasts. The prerequisite was that he needed to first seal the soul power contained in the soul beast's soul ring into his fourth soul ring.
This ten-thousand-year Azure Jade Bird was the first experimental subject he encountered after entering the Star Dou Great Forest, and it succeeded on the first try.
Unlike Zhou Sichen, he could seal the soul power of multiple soul beasts into his fourth soul ring. In other words, as long as he wished, he could completely summon multiple soul beasts to command, and their strength would not be much inferior to when they were alive.
"Mm." Xu Zihuang nodded slightly without explaining much, simply gesturing for everyone to climb onto the back of this Azure Jade Bird.
Although he felt no guilt about hunting soul beasts, there was no need to create too much slaughter. Unless necessary, he did not plan to use this ability.
After all, with his current strength, he did not look favorably upon combat power at the level of ten-thousand-year soul beasts. And for soul beasts above one-hundred-thousand-year cultivation, he could not possibly waste a one-hundred-thousand-year-level soul ring just for soul power.
"Let's go."
Xu Zihuang wrapped his arms around Ning Tian, tapped his toes, and landed on the head of this Azure Jade Bird. The Thunder Beast stood on his shoulder. From beginning to end, it showed disdain toward this Azure Jade Bird, proudly arrogantly raising its head.
But the others felt very novel about this semi-transparent yet extremely solid-feeling Azure Jade Bird.
"Sichen, why do I feel like the soul beast the captain summoned has a much stronger aura than yours?" Cao Jinxuan asked Zhou Sichen beside him in confusion.
Zhou Sichen rolled his eyes and said irritably, "You don't even look at what level of soul beast the captain summoned. This Azure Jade Bird has at least over twenty-thousand years of cultivation. How can they compare?"
Only Wang Qiu'er frowned. As an Emperor Auspicious Beast, she instinctively disliked soul beasts being driven and enslaved by humans.
Finally, Zhang Lexuan and Ye Guyi also landed in the area behind Xu Zihuang and Ning Tian.
Xu Zihuang controlled the Azure Jade Bird to take flight.
A layer of azure light shield enveloped everyone. The Azure Jade Bird instantly turned into a streak of azure light and shot like lightning toward the direction of Mingdu.
So fast!
Watching the scenery rapidly recede around them, everyone's hearts tightened. However, with this layer of azure light shield blocking, they felt none of the fierce wind blowing against them. It was as if they were inside a sealed space.
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