Time flows like sand through the fingers. Seasons change from cold to hot, summer begins as spring ends—the cycle of one year has completed.
During this year, Chen Junting participated in numerous Inner Court missions. Though he didn't encounter many evil soul masters, he witnessed plenty of dirty dealings behind the scenes among the original three Douluo nations. Despite having the Sun Moon Empire as a major enemy, they still stabbed each other in the back.
Though it's unknown whether high-level officials from the three great empires authorized this backstabbing, many lower-level officials who harmed civilians from other countries were dealt with by the Shrek inspection team.
It could be said that behind the scenes, the three great empires had already stirred up considerable turmoil.
Additionally, Chen Junting exchanged many of the Inner Court's secret techniques using merit points. After some research, though some might not be useful at present, they still expanded his knowledge base. It was better to have them for future needs rather than being helpless without them.
For example, the method of replacing original soul beast soul skills in soul rings with self-created soul skills.
Besides this, at Shrek Academy:
Among the students, Ning Tian, Bei Bei, and others had all recently passed the Inner Court examination within the past few months, and recently broke through to Level 50 one after another.
Now, among the Outer Court students who participated in the previous fighting tournament, only Huo Yuhao, Wu Feng, and Wang Dong remained outside the Inner Court. But except for Huo Yuhao, both Wang Dong and Wu Feng had reached the Level 40 bottleneck—just one soul ring away from breaking through.
However, after their breakthroughs, none of them rushed to obtain soul rings. Instead, they waited for suitable elderly or dying soul beasts at the academy, then contracted soul spirits with them.
Because during this same year, Shrek Academy's soul spirit research made tremendous breakthroughs. First, regarding the method of contracting soul spirits—with Electrolux's guidance, Chen Junting created the Spirit Contract Array based on magic arrays. This array only required drawing the formation with soul power to achieve the purpose of contracting soul spirits. And to date, aside from Chen Junting, no other living person could set up this array.
Secondly, after numerous tests, the error rate of soul spirit contracts had been reduced to extremely low levels. They had also tested the physical strength, spiritual power, and other aspects required for soul masters when contracting soul spirits.
It could be said that only a suitable opportunity was needed before this soul spirit method could be revealed to the world.
Actually, logically speaking, the progress of the soul spirit method shouldn't have been this fast. After all, among the soul beasts raised in Shrek's Beast Fighting Forest, only a tiny minority reached old age and were willing to contract.
But when Di Yao joined the Inner Court and gained the trust and strong cultivation from the Sea God Pavilion elders, after she broke through to Soul Emperor and successfully contracted a soul spirit, the soul beast problem seemed to disappear.
Whenever Shrek Academy entered the Star Dou Forest to search for soul beasts, elderly soul beasts would find them as if possessed, then allow the Shrek members to take them back for soul spirit testing.
At first, everyone was extremely nervous.
This situation even prompted Mu En to personally investigate, entering the Star Dou Forest himself. But before he could discover anything, an eighty-thousand-year Earth Demon Tiger—nearing death and extremely suitable as Xuan Zi's eighth soul ring—ran into him.
This made Mu En suspect the soul beast was scamming him!
It looked vigorous when running toward him, but the moment it reached his side—before even touching him—it became deathly weak.
This forced Mu En to hastily end his investigation trip.
But this trip also gave Mu En some insights.
After returning to Shrek Academy, in the name of the Sea God Pavilion, he issued an order to Shrek's teachers and students: whenever encountering elderly or dying soul beasts in the Star Dou Forest, feel free to spare their lives and bring them out. Upon returning to Shrek, anyone who delivers them will be rewarded according to the situation.
Invisibly, maintaining tacit understanding with the Star Dou Forest.
...
Early morning. When a ray of sunlight gently filtered through the curtain gap and fell on Chen Junting's face, he slowly opened his eyes.
Perhaps awakened by the gentle morning light, the fatigue from yesterday's mission had completely vanished at this moment.
Behind him, a warm presence approached. A delicate hand held an outer garment, gently draping it over his shoulders. The movements were soft and meticulous. Chen Junting, who had already sensed the visitor, reached back and lightly pressed his palm against the warm, jade-like hand on his shoulder.
A gentle voice sounded from behind.
"It's time to get up."
"Isn't it still early? What time is it now?"
Ning Tian, who already knew the time, didn't answer. Instead, she turned to stand before Chen Junting, withdrew her right hand, and buttoned up his already worn clothes—like a newlywed wife.
Actually, after Ning Tian passed the Inner Court examination, she didn't choose a separate apartment. She moved into Chen Junting's apartment, living together with him, declaring his belonging through action.
This made many Inner Court senior sisters who had secretly admired Chen Junting disappointed over the past year, while many senior brothers breathed a sigh of relief. After all, in the Inner Court where wolves outnumbered meat, with the strongest competitor stepping aside, their chances improved.
"I know you're tired, but today really won't work."
Ning Tian took a damp towel, wanting to wipe Chen Junting's face, but he took it from her. Her words continued without pause, "Don't forget, tomorrow Yuhao and the others will be heading to Maple Leaf City. They're all waiting for you to contract soul spirits for them."
"Do I even need to be there?"
Putting the towel aside after wiping his face, Chen Junting stretched and said, "The Spirit Contract Array has already been set up in the soul spirit research institute. They can just proceed normally like before. Just like you successfully contracted the Vajra Baboon soul spirit."
"Still, you should at least bid them farewell."
Ning Tian tugged at Chen Junting's arm, pulling him out of bed. "After all, the next time you see each other will be three years later."
"That makes sense."
Chen Junting knew Ning Tian's earlier words were just teasing. Actually, for someone like He Caitou, the real reason for not yet contracting a soul spirit was that his cultivation had only recently broken through, plus they hadn't found a suitable elderly soul beast.
If no suitable soul beast was found before leaving the academy, he'd have to hunt for a soul ring first.
"Oh, Xiao Tian, how's the Tang Sect hidden weapons situation going?"
While dressing to go out, Chen Junting suddenly recalled their proposal to the Tang Sect. Since he had been extremely busy over the past year, he hadn't paid much attention to it.
But now that Huo Yuhao was about to go to the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineering Academy, if they didn't have something impressive to show, it would be hard to recruit that Soul Guide Research Institute director—Xuan Ziwen.
Chen Junting was determined to have this person.
The reason naturally didn't need to be explained.
If he could join the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect, the sect would definitely give him a heavenly treasure to help him break through to Level 90. After all, the only thing limiting him from becoming a ninth-grade soul guide was his cultivation.
So if they still hadn't obtained the Tang Sect's hidden weapons techniques, Chen Junting planned to have Huo Yuhao try with array pattern soul guide devices.
But Ning Tian's words relieved Chen Junting's concerns.
"Don't worry, it was successful half a year ago."
Ning Tian smiled cleverly. "The cooperation was very pleasant. Aside from the hidden weapons part, all other cooperation methods adopted the cooperation model between the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Sect and Tang Sect from ten thousand years ago. But in terms of requirements, senior brother Bei Bei and senior sister Xiao Ya lowered them considerably."
"Ten thousand years ago... it seems this Tang Sect won't rise again."
Chen Junting shook his head, passing judgment on the Tang Sect's future. Because from just this point, it could be seen that the Tang Sect still hadn't kept up with the times—could things be the same ten thousand years ago and now?
Hearing this, Ning Tian remained silent, even somewhat agreeing.
Because she too had long realized that Bei Bei and Tang Ya now only spoke of reviving the Tang Sect out of passionate enthusiasm, lacking future planning. The entire Tang Sect was only doing two things now: first, recruiting people with high expectations but low capabilities; second, waiting for cooperation.
Wasn't this just a joke!
As the two conversed, they quickly arrived at the soul spirit research institute. At this moment in the institute, He Caitou had just completed his soul spirit contract—a ten-thousand-year Golden Mammoth!
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A/N: The method of replacing original soul beast soul skills in soul rings with self-created soul skills→This was inspired by Bei Bei's fifth and sixth soul skills both being Elder Mu's self-created soul skills.
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