Chapter 211: Everyone Wants to Dominate the Continent
The Divinely Bestowed Soul Bone was a right arm bone. Like the Divinely Bestowed Soul Ring, this soul bone could also have its age raised—only the difficulty was far greater. How many years it could be raised depended entirely on one's ability.
If Furina were still at the Soul King level, she estimated she could have raised it to around ninety thousand years at most. But now that she was at the Soul Emperor level, her strength having taken a major step forward, raising it to a hundred thousand years posed no problem whatsoever.
With prior experience absorbing the Divinely Bestowed Soul Ring, Furina was already highly proficient in the steps to raise a Divinely Bestowed Soul Bone's age. This time was even ten percent faster than the last, the soul bone's age swiftly reaching the hundred-thousand-year standard.
Only then did Furina begin the absorption.
She could sense that this soul bone seemed to have the potential to be pushed even higher. But she chose to play it safe.
Fortune favors the bold.
It wasn't that she didn't understand this principle. But she was already plenty fortunate; there was absolutely no need to seek risk for more.
Besides, she wasn't exactly in any dangerous situation right now.
Although that Tang Buddha's giant hand was still hanging in the shadows, the God of Destruction was certainly watching him now, the Goddess of Life and the Water God were keeping an eye on her side of things, and the God of Destruction was paying extra attention to Huo Yuhao, Wang Dong, and Gu Qiuer.
There was no need to worry that the Tang Buddha would seize the chance to make a move. If he wanted to act, he would have to prepare for a mutual fight to the death, eliminating his thorns in his side with lightning speed.
But in that case, the first person he'd have to deal with wouldn't be her, but the God of Destruction. After all, in the Divine Realm, besides the sealed Golden Dragon King, only the God of Destruction alone could contend with him.
So for now, Furina was relatively relaxed and at ease.
A hundred-thousand-year soul bone was already sufficient. Unless her limit could reach over two hundred thousand years, raising it another ten thousand or so would yield little effect, the improvement negligible.
After all, once soul beasts cultivated past the hundred-thousand-year mark, their strength only underwent a qualitative change for every additional hundred thousand years of cultivation. The sole exception was that guy Tianmeng Ice Silkworm, who only ate and slept—he purely had quantity, zero quality.
Still, for him to muddle through to a million-year cultivation was indeed no easy feat; one could say he'd completely devoured the entire fortune of his species' destiny.
After finishing absorbing the soul bone, Furina immediately checked the soul skills granted by this right arm bone.
Just like a hundred-thousand-year soul ring, a hundred-thousand-year soul bone also granted two soul skills.
Her two soul skills were Intangibility and Blink. Both were life-saving skills.
Compared to offensive-type soul skills, life-saving soul skills were indeed far more practical. Because these things allowed one to freely attack or evade, advancing or retreating with ease.
No matter how powerful an offensive soul skill, it likely couldn't compare to her own Water Explosion anyway. That was an attack with zero blind spots, unless she was in a place utterly devoid of water. But even then, her second martial soul could still manufacture water, so she could still use it.
And after absorbing the hundred-thousand-year soul bone, Furina's soul power smoothly rose from Rank 69 to Rank 70. She only needed to absorb one more soul ring to break through and become a Soul Sage.
"Perfect, not a bad stroke of luck!" Furina stretched her body, a satisfied smile on her face. "Rest a bit, then go buy a hundred-thousand-year soul ring from the System store. The seventh soul ring is one hundred percent Martial Soul True Body, so even if it comes down to luck, it doesn't matter."
She stretched lazily, planning to rest for a while before absorbing the soul ring.
—
Meanwhile, elsewhere.
Yan Shaozhe sat in his office. Seeing Ma Xiaotao push the door open and walk in, he immediately put down the documents in his hands and stood up to greet her with concern.
"Xiaotao, how's the situation?" His gaze swept over Ma Xiaotao, his tone carrying unconcealed worry. "Has that evil fire within your body been completely purged?"
Ma Xiaotao nodded emphatically, her face alight with a relaxed smile she hadn't shown in a long time. "Although it hasn't been completely purified, it's so much better. I estimate for a very long time I won't have to worry about being unable to cultivate or about rampaging."
Her eyes were sparkling, and even her voice sounded much more lighthearted as she spoke.
"Furina also told me to come by once a week from now on, so she can help purify it. To see if, over the long term, it can be completely removed." Ma Xiaotao added, pausing before continuing, "Also, she said if it doesn't work, she'll try to find an immortal herb to help later."
"That's simply wonderful." Yan Shaozhe finally let out a breath of relief, the heart that had been hanging in his throat finally settling back down.
At last, he could rest easy letting Ma Xiaotao cultivate properly, and rest easy that she could become a soul master of indomitable spirit.
Though Shrek would certainly owe Furina another debt of gratitude for this, it didn't matter. For the sake of Xiaotao's future, these were all minor issues.
After all, Xiaotao was one of the monster students in Shrek Academy's history. They couldn't just abandon her, and even less could they sit by and watch her rampage and fall into becoming an evil soul master due to the evil fire.
As for the point about Furina being able to procure immortal herbs—while it was indeed no small matter, considering all the various methods Furina had demonstrated before, her ability to create soul tools that required no soul power, her Water God Church's ability to create artificial soul rings and soul bones, and the presence of a Limit Douluo expert in their ranks...
By comparison, the matter of immortal herbs seemed like a minor witch meeting a great sorcerer.
Honestly, he was very curious as to what means Furina could use to obtain immortal herbs that had been extinct for ten thousand years. But he was even more aware that Shrek now had to cling tightly to the benefactor that was the Water God Church. For the sake of Shrek Academy's future, they absolutely could not sour relations with the Water God Church.
This was precisely why he hadn't felt at ease letting Ma Xiaotao go find Furina alone. With Xiaotao's impatient, rash personality, it would be very easy for her to stir up some kind of trouble on her own.
"Alright, Xiaotao, go cultivate now." Yan Shaozhe patted Ma Xiaotao on the shoulder. "And then go report the situation to Elder Mu."
"Alright." Ma Xiaotao responded respectfully and left the office with springy steps.
Yan Shaozhe watched her leave, and seeing that genuine smile from the heart on her face couldn't help but feel emotional. It had been a long time since he'd seen Xiaotao this happy.
After she left, Yan Shaozhe sat back down in his chair, looked down at the mountain of drafts and documents piled on his desk, and began to feel a headache coming on again.
"There really is so much to do..." He rubbed his temples, muttering to himself.
He picked up one document, put it down, then picked up another.
"Start with the simplest things first. Moral education... this is something unprecedented on the continent. This can be put aside for now; it needs meticulous planning."
As he spoke, he made notations on the document.
"The dormitory buildings and the cafeteria can get started first. Admissions is a bit tricky..." He tapped the desk with his pen. "I can't make a decision on this alone, either. When the time comes, I'll have to convene a Sea God's Pavilion Conference and properly discuss it with the venerable elders and Qian Duoduo and the others. At the very least, we must recruit some true commoner students."
He picked up yet another document, his brow furrowing slightly.
"Right, there's also the Spirit Arena district matter. That needs changing too. Mainly the issue of fees—change it to free as much as possible, to let the students learn better, and to give them more opportunities to train."
He set down his pen, stood up, and walked to the window to look out at the sky.
The sky was somewhat overcast, as if it were about to rain.
"Ah..." He let out a deep sigh. "I hope the continent won't see any more wars breaking out, at least not before our Shrek has completed its reforms."
His gaze grew distant, his brow furrowing even tighter.
"But the world is unpredictable. The movements of the Sun Moon Empire give me the feeling they're ready to go to war at any moment. The Water God Church's influence has spread throughout the Star Luo Empire, and there are even signs of infiltration in the Heavenly Soul Empire and the Dou Ling Empire."
He stood with his hands clasped behind his back, his silhouette looking somewhat desolate.
"It gives me a feeling of an impending storm. Whether it's the Sun Moon Empire or the Water God Church, everyone wants to dominate the continent. Our Shrek Academy can only choose a side. Otherwise, this ten-thousand-year legacy... I fear it might be destroyed at my hands."
He gazed at the grey, overcast sky outside the window and let out another deep sigh.
In that moment, he seemed to have aged a few more years.
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Thanks for reading the chapter!
I started a new translation and I would be very happy if you decided to check out my new translation story. It's a crossover of Toaru and One Piece... Well, the only Toaru element here is one cute Misaka. This is all that came of my desire to translate a Toaru fanfic, but I'm not complaining—even though I've only just started reading and translating it, I'm really enjoying the story. It has plenty of slice-of-life elements, and the pacing is quite slow and detailed. It's written in a sweet, positive way—at least for now. There likely won't be any romance, as there were no tags indicating such, but I won't say for sure until I've finished reading it myself. I'd recommend it to those who aren't craving violence, carnage, or excessive cruelty. In my opinion, it's a worthwhile story, though it's definitely a matter of personal taste—especially since the protagonist is a girl, which isn't everyone's cup of tea (though it doesn't really matter for now—at least as of 30+ chapters in, Misaka is still 6 years old). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this story as much as I do.
One Piece: Railgun Misaka Misaka https://www.webnovel.com/book/one-piece-railgun-misaka-misaka_37195209600636405