"The same species but different attributes can be absorbed too?!!"
Yan Shaozhe and Su Wen exchanged a glance, each seeing delight in the other's eyes.
"Try it!"
It was a pity, though: neither the Ice Jade Scorpion's nor the Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear's soul bones could be absorbed by Gale.
As time passed, the two gradually worked out the results.
A pet beast could only absorb soul bones from the same species and with the same attribute—both conditions were indispensable. Gale alone was the exception: it could absorb soul bones from different-attribute baboons, such as Blood-Red Baboon, Golden-Fissure-Eyed Baboon, and so on.
Until at last—
Su Wen and Yan Shaozhe stared at Gale in astonishment.
So this is the power of a Godslayer?
No wonder its potential score is eight; looks like it'll show more and more later.
Gale hunched its neck and scratched its head in confusion.
"The owner of this Blood-Red Baboon soul bone cultivated for around ninety thousand years—just one step from a hundred-thousand-year soul beast. It's more than enough for Gale to get through the early stage," Yan Shaozhe said with a squinting smile.
"Mhm." Su Wen nodded.
He figured the Treasure Gathering Pavilion had bled heavily for this—digging up their bottom-of-the-chest reserves. Right off the bat, it was soul bones of several tens of thousands of years. Little Gold got a Dark Gold Dreadclaw Bear's soul bone over sixty thousand years old. Soul Bone Skill: Golden Left Arm—restores Behemoth bloodline, granting earth-shaking power; it's an evolved Dreadclaw technique, with formidable might.
As for the Ice Emperor, it received a soul bone of a little over thirty thousand years: Winter's Descent, somewhat similar to Ling Luochen's fifth soul skill—AoE crowd control; paired with the Ice Domain, its power would rise further.
"Shame we didn't find Ice Explosion…" Su Wen said with regret, shaking his head.
He really couldn't wait to get his fix of a divine skill.
"The world is vast; we'll find it in time. We can search slowly later," Yan Shaozhe comforted him with a smile.
With such a monster around, how could the Martial Soul Department not flourish?
But soon, his face darkened…
"You want to study in the Soul Tool Department?!!"
"Yeah. The Soul Tool Department is a must. Even if you can't forge, you should at least know how to use them—just a basic understanding of their structure," Su Wen nodded.
The soul tools of this Tang Peerless era lag far behind those ten thousand years later—at best, they've only just begun to take shape, enough to exert some impact on the traditional martial soul ecosystem. In the original ending, the Sun–Moon Empire steamrolled the Three Kingdoms all the way to Shrek's city gates. Beyond the birth of the first Rank-10 soul engineer and the Sun–Moon Empire's millennia of forbearance and accumulation, the original continent's forces were simply too weak.
A newly advanced Ultimate Douluo—Xuan Zi, known as the weakest of the Ultimates—and Du Bushi at rank 98 who self-destructed before reaching Ultimate—those two were essentially the strongest of the original continent's forces.
Not to mention, if Long Xiaoyao and Ye Xishui had stood with Shrek, the scales would have tipped immediately. Even adding one more elder Mu in his prime, the Sun–Moon Empire might not have won.
It was purely that after Elder Mu died, Shrek relied on Yuhao running around recruiting talent, pushing the integration of soul tools with Tang Sect hidden weapons, and so on.
The rest of them… cough.
So soul tools in this era are useful but very limited. Truly dominating the continent, even venturing beyond the planet—that's at least tens of thousands of years away, still far off from now.
…
Three months flew by.
Besides daily studies in the Martial Soul Department, Su Wen also made time to learn basic knowledge in the Soul Tool Department.
Ning Tian, tail-waggingly eager, followed him around. Even when he went to the Soul Tool Department, she made the excuse that as an auxiliary-type soul master she needed to learn some defensive soul tools—Invincible Barrier and such—for self-defense, then clung to Su Wen's side.
In the Soul Tool Department he occasionally ran into Yuhao. The latter remained diligent, and his cultivation speed had increased quite a bit. In just three short months, he'd gone from freshly enrolled at level 12 to level 15.
But Su Wen knew very well:
There's a problem.
In the original, within just three months, Yuhao had increased at least five levels, reaching the peak of level 17!
That wasn't just the effect of the Profound Water Pill from Xu Sanshi, but also the credit of martial soul fusion with Wang Dong'er—cultivating together every night.
But now… he knew that Profound Water Pill had been won by Bei Bei and given to Huo Yuhao, yet his strength was still two levels lower than expected. That leaves only one possibility—they haven't cultivated together at all!
He didn't know whether, up to this day, they hadn't discovered their martial souls could fuse, or if… the butterfly he was flapping had changed things.
"Let's welcome our new classmate."
Mu Jin started clapping with a beaming smile.
While Su Wen was zoning out staring out the window, the whole class burst into warm applause, especially some of the girls, who were extra excited.
He looked down at the doorway, dazed, to see a figure standing there.
Wang Dong?!!
She's coming to Class Two as well?
Su Wen remembered she and Yuhao were the vice and main class monitors of New Class One, weren't they?
What's more, this semester New Class Two had practically become the benchmark, drawing in all the top talent. Putting aside the four Soul Elders, even among Soul Grandmasters they had many standouts. Now, Wang Dong was practically one of the few in Zhou Yi's hand worth showing off…
He twitched at the corner of his mouth, wondering what Zhou Yi's reaction would be now.
And Yuhao.
He glanced behind Wang Dong—he hadn't come.
What's that supposed to mean?
Yuhao's crucial early-game hack is gone too?
Without the martial soul fusion skill and the accelerated cultivation through fusion, Yuhao's already-not-fast cultivation might really slow to a crawl.
"It's Wang Dong, that little pretty boy from New Class One," Ning Tian glanced down curiously, then snuggled back up to Su Wen.
As the little princess of the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, she'd seen plenty of handsome guys. Wang Dong was indeed handsome, but compared to Su Wen… he was like a vase—lacking a bit of masculine presence.
Su Wen yawned, not taking it to heart.
After Wang Dong sat down—
Mu Jin began cheerfully explaining the upcoming assessment.
After three months comes Shrek Academy's first assessment—teams of three, totaling more than three hundred teams, with at least one-third eliminated in the end. It's the strictest early-stage assessment.
Also a screening.
"Let's do a three-man team!" Wu Feng said boldly.
"What about me?!" Xie Huanyue whined, "I want to team with the boss too."
"I, Su Wen, and Miss make a perfect combo—offense, defense, and support. What do we need you for…" Wu Feng shook his head.
"That offense and defense both come from the boss, and Sis Ning is Seven Treasures Glazed Pagoda—the strongest support, no debate. You, a level-26 soul master, weak as heck, still have the nerve to look down on me?" Xie Huanyue protested.
"Ahem."
Su Wen raised an eyebrow.
The two shut up instantly.
"Registration's still a few days away. We'll talk later."
…
Meanwhile, in New Class One just a wall away—
The click-clack of Zhou Yi's high heels echoed through the silent, empty classroom.
She walked up to the podium with a cold face.
"For the freshman assessment, teams of three. Class monitor Huo Yuhao, hand in your roster tomorrow."
"Yes!"
Huo Yuhao responded quickly.
Zhou Yi swept a chilly gaze around, then left without even starting the lesson.
The whole class was left cowering.
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Advanced chapter here: p-atreon.com/Sajaboyzzz
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