Not long after, outside the attic on the top floor of the dormitory building.
"Who exactly was it?" Tang Hao's face darkened as he was awakened by the commotion of people searching around. After observing from a distance and following Tang San around for a thorough check, he found no suspicious individuals. He was almost certain that the culprit was not someone from within the academy.
Could it be that when Xiao San went to work at the blacksmith's, some soul master sensed the soul-guided device's energy and started targeting him? His son's status at the academy was as a work-study student, meaning he came from a commoner background. This could indeed have made him a target for troublemakers.
"Damn it! They actually stole from my son!"
Tang Hao was already furious. Earlier, he had been injured by an explosion, and now someone had stolen something precious right under his nose.
He never expected it to be Zhu Wu, who had already applied for graduation and lacked the ability for such a scheme.
Meanwhile, elsewhere…
"No wonder he's from the Tang Sect and has cultivated the Purple Extreme Demon Eye—his perception is incredibly sharp. Just being watched for a little while triggered his senses," Zhu Wu panted as he ran through the night, his face pale. "If I hadn't run fast, I'd be in trouble."
The moment he landed, his soul power was nearly depleted. His body felt hollow and weak.
Maintaining his simulated form continuously consumed soul power, and at less than level 13 soul power (only 12 levels), he simply couldn't afford it. Any longer delay would mean either falling from the sky and dying from the fall or being discovered and caught.
After all, there was Tang Hao, the titled Douluo, still at the academy. When Zhu Wu arrived, Tang Hao wasn't at the Sacred Soul Village.
"Luckily, it was a close call!" Zhu Wu glanced back and sneered. "Tang San, you still have a long way to go."
"That's good. Waking Tang San up this time helps clear the academy's name. No innocents were harmed, so this trip counts as a success."
Though he didn't consider himself a good person, he didn't want those who helped him to get involved.
"Next step: search the mountains around Sacred Soul Village. While looking for medicinal herbs for Xiao Bai, I'll also look for A Yin." Taking a deep breath, he quickened his pace again.
Eventually, he arrived at a residential area far from the academy, jumped onto the roof of a house, and sat down to rest.
Time slowly passed until the sky turned orange with dawn.
Zhu Wu opened his eyes and started practicing the Vajra (Diamond) Skill, facing the first sunlight.
"Hey! Whose kid are you?" Suddenly, a shout came from nearby.
"Climbing so high—aren't you afraid of falling to your death? Where are your parents?"
Zhu Wu looked down to see a woman. Although scolding fiercely, her eyes were full of worry.
"Sorry, ma'am!" Zhu Wu smiled, stood up, patted his pants, and leapt down from the ten-meter-high roof.
"Child, don't do anything reckless!" the woman screamed.
Zhu Wu landed with a slap, completely unharmed, silencing her immediately.
"You… are you human or ghost?" Her voice trembled, fear rising in her eyes.
"Of course I'm human, ma'am! I'm off now!"
Feeling good after getting Tang San's soul-guided device, Zhu Wu waved cheerfully and started running.
"That kid…" The woman shook her head and returned home.
Much later, Zhu Wu reached the wilderness outside the city gate, deep inside a dense forest.
"Hidden darts, a bunch of needles… Zhuge's crossbow wasn't made. What a pity." After carefully examining Tang San's "Twenty-Four Bridges on a Moonlit Night," Zhu Wu felt firsthand Tang San's poverty. "No secret manuals of the Xuantian Treasure Record either—Tang San's defenses are quite deep."
"But this soul beast compendium from Yu Xiaogang is still pretty impressive."
"No wonder it combines the strengths of the Blue Lightning Tyrannosaurus clan and the Spirit Hall."
He doubted Yu Xiaogang, who couldn't even defeat the century-old Mandrake Snake, had the ability to obtain such soul beast information.
"Next, I'll have to study this carefully so I can survive better when I venture into the Star Dou Great Forest."
With his current physical strength and continued practice of the Vajra Longevity Skill, plus the improvement brought by Xiao Bai consuming vitality herbs and feeding back to him, he was confident his second soul ring wouldn't be limited to the supposed best age of 764 years. And if he were lucky enough to absorb the ten-thousand-year-old right leg of the Blue Silver Emperor, even a thousand-year second soul ring would give him absolute confidence.
As for a thousand-year-grade spiritual attribute soul beast? Those don't exist in the beginner soul hunting forests.
And the space attribute thousand-year soul beast? He dared not even think about it. Rarity aside, if it had a teleport skill, he'd feel like a joke, let alone those with dragon bloodline.
After all, he was still only a first-ring soul master.
He just wished he had a powerful backer!
Moreover, at first, he didn't think absorbing sub-dragon soul rings would improve him much.
The dragon god bloodline was far superior; ordinary sub-dragon bloodline was too weak by comparison—like a drop in the ocean, barely making a splash. The boost to his bloodline was minuscule. Instead, he felt it better to practice Vajra Longevity Skill to absorb the essence of the sun and moon, then find a way to get the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass from the Ice-Fire Two Phenomenon Eyes and the Fiery Apricot Vegetable. Plus other rare herbs, especially those that boost vitality and blood.
Let Xiao Bai eat those, then feed back to himself—it would be way more effective than absorbing soul rings.
After all, the soul rings left behind by dead soul beasts mostly stored cultivation power, not bloodline strength. It wasn't like a sacrifice that could fuse flesh directly into his body.
Besides, his soul's internal space had now expanded to a diameter of one meter—double the size when he first awakened. However, his internal space didn't expand after absorbing the first soul ring.
So where did this improvement come from?
He hadn't paid much attention before, but after days of practicing in Sacred Soul Village and understanding his soul, he realized.
He was almost certain it was from absorbing the essence of sun and moon through daily Vajra Longevity practice, combined with Xiao Bai continuously devouring rare treasures and feeding him beneficial energy. Together, they nourished his bloodline, that thin thread of dragon god blood inside him. Meanwhile, Xiao Bai's bloodline was also strengthened by this feedback, continuously evolving—slowly but steadily.
This made him understand that the right evolutionary path for him was main body practicing Vajra Longevity to absorb sun and moon essence, and his soul weapon Xiao Bai devouring treasures.
Compared to that, soul rings were secondary. After all, you could only equip nine soul rings, plus a tenth divine ring. But the essence of sun and moon and rare treasures? He could keep absorbing and finding them as long as he lived.
Of course, once he got strong enough and encountered a top-tier dragon bloodline, a soul ring might outclass several others, and he wouldn't miss that.
"For now, I'll focus on steadily improving my soul weapon's main attributes. The main attributes are the foundation. The longevity skill is slow to boost at first, so absorbing soul rings is the quickest and most effective way early on."
"Hmm, for a while, I won't use the soul-guided device. It would be bad if I run into Tang Hao while searching for herbs."
With that in mind, Xiao Bai stored the soul-guided device back into his soul space. Zhu Wu packed up and set off again.
(End of chapter)
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