Chapter 24: I Said I'd Feed You—Did You Really Think All I Needed Was to Eat?
"Xiao Bai!"
"Here!"
"Use Bite on the target."
With Fan Chen's command, Xiao Bai immediately pounced forward at high speed, swiftly biting down on the roasted meat Fan Chen had thrown out and swallowing it in one gulp.
"Mmm~ Delicious."
Qian Renxue, standing nearby, was also amused by two living treasures and couldn't help but laugh.
"If you're going to eat, then eat properly. Why are you putting on a circus show?"
Golden Crocodile Douluo shook his head helplessly. By nature, he was a rather old-fashioned and rigid person.
Fan Chen, on the other hand, was free-spirited and unrestrained, his whole body radiating a bright, sunny aura.
Strictly speaking, their personalities clashed. Under normal circumstances, Golden Crocodile Douluo would have already scolded him aloud—but now, he merely complained quietly.
For some reason, Fan Chen seemed like a very special existence in his eyes.
It had nothing to do with talent or the fact that he was his disciple. He simply found him… pleasing to look at.
Of course, that was excluding the times when this kid stirred up trouble.
"Kids should be lively. It's a good thing. Don't be so rigid."
Guang Ling's personality was unlike Golden Crocodile Douluo's. He was far more tolerant of Fan Chen.
In his eyes, Fan Chen was just a child. Liking to play around was perfectly normal. If he were the stiff, rule-bound type, Guang Ling would actually find him unpleasant.
Golden Crocodile Douluo didn't say anything further, which was essentially his way of tacitly agreeing.
The pleasant break soon came to an end, and Fan Chen's group once again set off to search for soul beasts.
Since Fan Chen had given up on attaching a soul ring to the Reverse-Edge Demon Armor, they now only needed to help Qian Renxue complete her remaining soul ring slot.
"Xiao Bai, given the current situation, how many years of soul ring can Xiao Xue still absorb?"
With Qian Renxue successfully absorbing her first soul ring, the age limit of the soul rings she could now absorb should have increased significantly.
The previous way of estimating clearly wouldn't work anymore—it was better to just ask Xiao Bai directly.
"Hmm… let Xiao Bai calculate for a moment—one, two…"
Standing on Guang Ling's shoulder, Xiao Bai looked in Qian Renxue's direction and began counting with its tiny claws.
"Six… a bit more."
Xiao Bai reported the final result.
Xiao Bai's unit of measurement was based on Shadow Wolves. Six Shadow Wolves amounted to about eighteen hundred years, and "a bit more" would roughly place it around two thousand years.
A two-thousand-year soul beast wasn't easy to find, but thanks to Xiao Bai's assistance, they quickly locked onto a suitable target.
With their previous experience, the group dealt with it effortlessly.
However, the quality of this soul beast was nowhere near as rare as the Dawn Cloud Winged Bird. It could only be considered a relatively uncommon light-attributed soul beast.
After Qian Renxue finished absorbing the soul ring, the four of them prepared to return to Spirit City.
Meanwhile, deep within the distant forest, a small figure was silently following behind them.
Because the distance was too great, no one noticed its presence.
...
Upon returning to Spirit City, Golden Crocodile Douluo and Guang Ling immediately took Qian Renxue and Fan Chen to undergo soul power testing.
The results left both of them utterly shocked.
Qian Renxue's soul power was at rank twenty-three. With the boost from consecutively absorbing two soul rings, this number was completely reasonable.
Moreover, one of those was an ultra-rare soul beast—the Dawn Cloud Winged Bird—which carried certain special enhancements.
But Fan Chen's soul power reaching rank seventeen was what truly baffled them.
Fan Chen hadn't absorbed any soul bones, nor had he consumed any rare medicinal herbs.
His second martial soul, as a twin martial soul holder, still hadn't been fitted with a soul ring. According to normal logic, after absorbing the first soul ring, reaching rank eleven would be the most standard outcome.
Rank twelve would be considered top-tier genius talent.
Rank thirteen would be an unparalleled prodigy.
Back when Bibi Dong—who also had innate full soul power—absorbed her first soul ring, she reached rank thirteen as well, and just like Fan Chen, she hadn't immediately added a soul ring to her other martial soul.
If Fan Chen had reached rank fourteen or fifteen, Golden Crocodile Douluo and Guang Ling could still convince themselves that this kid was simply extraordinarily gifted.
But rank seventeen was pushing it a bit too far.
He was practically just a step away from rank twenty and obtaining his second soul ring.
Qian Renxue had the blessing of the Angel God.
Could it be… that Fan Chen had one too?
"This is really strange… Kid, are you really human?"
Even Golden Crocodile Douluo had begun to doubt Fan Chen's identity. He was even half-tempted to give Fan Chen a slash right now just to see whether a red soul ring would drop.
"Probably… maybe… possibly… I guess?"
Forget Golden Crocodile Douluo and the others—not even Fan Chen himself believed it.
"How about we test it again? Maybe the device is broken?"
Fan Chen suggested another test, but Golden Crocodile Douluo shook his head at that moment.
Could he really not tell whether the testing equipment had problems?
"Even though I can't figure out what's going on with you, your master here has one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
Seeing the mischievous grin on Golden Crocodile Douluo's face, Fan Chen felt an extremely bad premonition rise in his heart.
"Can I just hear the good news and skip the bad one?"
"What do you think?"
Golden Crocodile Douluo's smile grew even brighter, making Fan Chen shiver involuntarily.
"Since you won't choose, I'll just tell you both."
"The good news is that from now on, Spirit Hall's cultivation resources will be heavily tilted in your favor. You won't need to worry about cultivation resources anymore."
The talent Fan Chen had displayed, along with Xiao Bai's special abilities, was more than enough to justify this level of treatment.
This kind of authority would normally require joint deliberation among the major Worship Elders, other elders, and even the Pope.
But the final result wouldn't differ much anyway, so informing Fan Chen in advance wasn't a problem.
"How is that good news?"
Fan Chen tilted his head and looked at Golden Crocodile Douluo in confusion.
"Wasn't this something you already promised me before taking me as a disciple?"
Golden Crocodile Douluo stared at Fan Chen just as blankly.
The two looked at each other for a moment—then both took a step back at the same time.
"Good grief, so this kid's idea of 'providing meals' was this!"
"Hey, did you really think I was some ignorant child? You think I meant just feeding me food?"
The two had completely misunderstood each other, leaving the atmosphere more than a little awkward.
Off to the side, Guang Ling and Qian Renxue both understood exactly what had happened—one had been present at the scene, while the other had heard Golden Crocodile Douluo brag about it himself.
"I want a refund. Someone here is scamming children."
Fan Chen immediately voiced his protest, but Golden Crocodile Douluo directly suppressed him with brute force.
"Refund my ass. You're really rebelling against the heavens now, aren't you?"
There had only ever been masters expelling disciples—since when did disciples kick their masters out?
"I don't care. You have to compensate me. Otherwise, I'll go find someone else to be my master."
Fan Chen completely dropped all pretense and started acting shamelessly.
After all, he was a child right now. If he didn't take advantage of that innate advantage, it would be a complete waste of his talent.
"Sigh… you little brat…"
Golden Crocodile Douluo wanted to say something, but seeing Fan Chen looking ready to go all-in against him, he could only choose to compromise helplessly.
"Fine. What compensation do you want?"
"I haven't thought of it yet. You can owe it to me first. I'll tell you once I've decided."
Fan Chen was extremely sly. He didn't state his demand right away, choosing instead to let Golden Crocodile Douluo owe him first.
That way, he'd have some leverage to negotiate with Golden Crocodile Douluo later.
Of course, this all hinged on Golden Crocodile Douluo having a sense of shame. If he didn't, then there'd be nothing to say.
"…Fine."
Golden Crocodile Douluo could only helplessly agree, especially with Guang Ling and Qian Renxue watching nearby.
He couldn't exactly shamelessly go back on his word in front of them—he still wanted to keep his old face intact.
And just like that, Fan Chen settled the matter under the condition that Golden Crocodile Douluo owed him one favor.
Watching Fan Chen's smug, self-satisfied expression, Golden Crocodile Douluo felt his blood pressure rise.
"You little brat… did you forget there's still bad news?"
—
End of Chapter