After returning to the academy, Oscar never truly had a moment of leisure. Besides his regular studying and cultivation, he now had far more matters that required planning and careful layout.
The root of all of this was his fourth spirit ability. The abilities of the Clone Sausage and Replication Sausage, in the hands of Oscar—a young man from the 21st century—would unleash unimaginable, terrifying potential.
Given time, this would be enough to make the entire Douluo Continent tremble. Because of this, Oscar had already devised extremely detailed plans.
Once these plans were set into motion, he would bring earth-shaking change not just to the Spirit Master world, but to the whole of Douluo itself.
Of course, he hadn't forgotten to keep "gold digging" at Flender's little shop. After all, while Shrek Academy no longer lacked money thanks to Shao Xin's auctioning spirit abilities, Flender's quirky little hobby of reselling strange items hadn't stopped. Every so often, new oddities appeared in his store.
As expected, a few months later, Oscar's persistence paid off. From Flender's Spirit Master store, he dug up a rare treasure—a piece of refined hair-gold (发金), the best of all thread-metals.
This was none other than the material for the ultimate hidden weapon from the original story, the Dragon Beard Needle—the very one Tang San once used to wound Zhao Wuji!
But now, that Dragon Beard Needle material had fallen into Oscar's hands. In the future, this hidden weapon would achieve countless "great deeds" for him…Heaven Dou Empire, Barak Kingdom, Soto CityWithin the Barak Kingdom, two cities were of the greatest importance. One was Barak City, the royal capital where King Barak resided—the political and economic heart of the kingdom.
The other was Soto City, located in the fertile heart of the Lima Plains, famed as the granary of Barak.
It was precisely because Soto was wealthy and prosperous that Flender had originally chosen this location to establish Shrek Academy.
However, due to certain circumstances, he offended the city lord of Soto and was barred from setting up inside the city. Instead, he was forced to establish the academy in a nearby village.
Still, with Soto's wealth at their backs, making money was never difficult. One need only look at how Oscar and Shao Xin's spirit skill auctions thrived to see how much purchasing power Spirit Masters here had.
At this moment, under the blazing noon sun, two young figures—one boy and one girl—walked through Soto City's west gate. They looked about fourteen or fifteen years old, carrying no luggage.
The boy wore plain clothes, about 1.7 meters tall, in a simple light-blue martial outfit. His black hair fell just to his shoulders. His appearance wasn't handsome, but he gave off a natural sense of approachability, his lips carrying a faint, perpetual smile. Around his waist, he wore a belt inlaid with twenty-four jade stones.
If the boy seemed ordinary and approachable, the girl at his side was anything but.
Her silky black hair was braided into a neat scorpion-tail braid that fell past her calves. She was slightly taller than the boy, wearing a pink fitted blouse that hugged her developing curves, her slender waist delicate enough to make countless women envious.
Her curved brows, big watery eyes, and slightly rounded, rosy cheeks made her both beautiful and adorably charming. "Cute" seemed a word made just for her.
Next to her, the boy was already half-hidden in her radiance.
At her waist hung a pink sachet, faintly releasing a refreshing herbal fragrance.
Wiping a bit of sweat from her brow, the girl muttered with a pout:
"Finally, we've reached this Soto City. I really don't get what the Teacher was thinking. There are plenty of intermediate and even advanced Spirit Master academies that offered to admit us unconditionally, but he just had to make you test into some no-name academy that doesn't even have a rank classification."
The boy smiled lightly:
"The teacher asked me to take the test, not you. Who told you to tag along? It's lucky Barak borders the Fasno Province, or you'd be complaining even more."
The girl glared at him, eyes sparkling:
"Heartless! I only came because of you. You're my brother, aren't you?"
She puffed her cheeks:
"Anyway, the entrance exam isn't until the day after tomorrow. Doesn't matter—I'm making you take me around Soto for two days to make up for the deep trauma to my poor, fragile heart!"
The boy chuckled:
"Fragile heart? You—the big sister boss of Nuoding Academy for six years straight? If your little brothers heard that, I wonder what they'd think."
These two were none other than Tang San and Xiao Wu, fresh from Nuoding Academy.
Compared to Nuoding, Soto City was far larger and far livelier. Soldiers patrolled the streets, while endless crowds bustled to and fro.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat, the two began searching for a place to stay. Soon after, Xiao Wu's eyes lit up with surprise.
"Little San, come look! There's a Spiritjade Escort Agency (灵玉镖局) here too! We've passed through several cities, and each one had one of these. It's like they've become a landmark! Just who could have the resources to pull this off?"
The two weren't there to hire escorts, but rather because they knew what always stood next to a Spiritjade Escort Agency—its twin establishment, the Spiritjade Restaurant (灵玉酒楼).
And Spiritjade Restaurants had the best service, the most comfortable lodging, and the most exquisite cuisine Xiao Wu had ever experienced. Ever since the first Spiritjade Restaurant opened in Nuoding half a year ago, she'd been a regular customer.
Now, no matter which major city one went to, one could always find both a Spiritjade Escort Agency and Spiritjade Restaurant standing side by side.
Unlike ordinary escort agencies, the Spiritjade Escort Agency accepted not only civilian jobs but also Spirit Master contracts—and all their escorts were Spirit Masters themselves.
With such a huge investment, impeccable service, and rapid expansion, their name had spread like wildfire.
Rumor had it that not only the Heaven Dou Empire, but even the Star Luo Empire was seeing Spiritjade branches spring up. The name "Spiritjade" was now known across the continent.
Most importantly, it was said that the Spiritjade Escort Agency had the backing of not one, but two Titled Douluo. One was none other than the infamous Poison Douluo Dugu Bo. The other—shrouded in mystery—was the sect master of the hidden sect Spiritjade Sword Sect, a man known only as the Spiritjade Sword Lord (灵玉剑君).
No one had ever seen the Spiritjade Sword Lord. The sect itself seemed to appear out of nowhere in the past year. Yet its very first move had been massive—launching the Spiritjade Escort and Spiritjade Restaurant chains simultaneously.
It was said the only reason Poison Douluo lent his name to support them was his deep personal friendship with the Spiritjade Sword Lord, not for money.And when greedy forces had tried to seize Spiritjade's wealth during its early days—even Spirit Saint-level powerhouses among them—they had all been utterly destroyed. Entire clans were wiped out.