"Young man, it's good to have ideals."
Long Xiaoyao neither confirmed nor denied, and he didn't try to discourage Wang Lin. Reality would teach Wang Lin everything.
"I know, Master."
Wang Lin nodded, realizing Long Xiaoyao might have misunderstood his meaning. It was unrealistic to give commoners soul power; Wang Lin was very clear on this.
However, it wasn't hard to make the Sun Moon version of the "Spirit Hall" appear on the continent again. Conveniently, he was Long Xiaoyao's disciple and could be considered a member of the Holy Spirit Cult.
As a member of the Holy Spirit Cult, he naturally hoped for the sect to improve and planned to establish a Spirit Hall from scratch within the Holy Spirit Cult.
Wang Lin had already thought out the plan: first, kill all the Evil Soul Masters in the Holy Spirit Cult until only he remained, and then the Holy Spirit Cult would naturally become better.
Then, with only him remaining, the Holy Spirit Cult would start from scratch to change people's prejudice against it, recruit new members, and establish an organization similar to the Spirit Hall.
With this interruption, Long Xiaoyao did not continue to persuade Wang Lin to go to Shrek Academy. The current Shrek Academy was indeed not suitable for the "idealistic" Wang Lin.
The conversation between the master and disciple returned to daily topics. The old and the young talked as they walked and soon left the range of Mingdu.
Mingdu disappeared from the sight of the master and disciple in the distance. The flying soul tool was taken out by Long Xiaoyao and strapped onto his back.
Swoosh!
Red tail flames gushed out. Long Xiaoyao scooped up Wang Lin and ascended directly, heading in a direction north-by-east.
Being held by Long Xiaoyao, an invisible force was released from the old Black Dragon, enveloping Wang Lin 360 degrees. The fierce wind from the high speed did not affect Wang Lin at all.
Wang Lin's pair of gray eyes watched the constantly sweeping scenery below in a daze, and he called out "Attribute Panel" in his heart.
A simple blue square box appeared in his field of vision:
Name: Wang Lin
Martial Soul: Brain (Mutated)
Cultivation: Level 30 (Level 35 [87%])
Spiritual Power: Level 39 [34%]
Techniques: Secret of the Body Sect—Brain Rank 2 [20%], Eight-Part Vajra Skill (Proficient) [49%], Bone Refining Fire Rank 1 [98%], Bone Control Rank 1 [34%]
Soul Rings: Yellow (642 years), Purple (1000 years)
Artifact: Staff of Life Rank 1 [78%]
In the eleven months, Wang Lin's status panel had greatly improved.
As the Staff of Life recovered, Wang Lin steadily leveled up at a cultivation speed of one level every two months.
It didn't seem fast, but Wang Lin was only thirteen years old and was still held back by a soul ring he hadn't absorbed.
If Wang Lin could maintain the cultivation speed of one level every two months, reaching the Soul Emperor rank would not be a problem by the time he reached the same age as Xiao Hongchen.
More importantly, it wasn't that Wang Lin was unwilling to absorb the third soul ring. Ten months ago, as soon as he broke through, he asked Long Xiaoyao to take him on a soul hunt.
The target was chosen: the Evil Eye.
The Evil Eye, as a native mental-attribute soul beast of the Sun Moon Empire, was located in the Evil Mist Forest, west of the Jingyang Mountain Range.
It wasn't far, and the attribute was suitable, but Long Xiaoyao refused to take Wang Lin, insisting only that Wang Lin lay a good foundation, saying that cultivation was possible even without attaching a soul ring, using similar excuses to put Wang Lin off several times.
After a few times, Wang Lin understood the key point and could roughly guess why Long Xiaoyao was unwilling to take him to the Evil Mist Forest for a soul hunt.
In the original work, the Holy Spirit Cult's lair was located in the Evil Mist Forest, and it was highly likely that the old woman Ye Xishui was holed up in the lair.
Understanding Long Xiaoyao's concerns, Wang Lin changed the target soul beast for the third ring to the Ice Silkworm. This time, Long Xiaoyao finally didn't refuse again.
Although he didn't refuse, he still put Wang Lin off until the vacation, which made Wang Lin a little worried.
The class schedule of the Sun Moon Royal Soul Engineering Academy was not much different from that of Shrek Academy: continuous classes for eleven months, followed by a month of vacation.
So, in terms of date, Wang Lin's soul hunt would most likely coincide with Huo Yuhao's, but he sincerely hoped not to run into Huo Yuhao.
Wang Lin had no intention of interfering with Huo Yuhao's opportunity this time.
Even with Long Xiaoyao, an Ultimate Douluo, taking him on the soul hunt, the water in the Far North was too deep for him to get involved in, and even if Ice Empress gave herself to him, he wouldn't be able to use her.
While pondering, Wang Lin touched a small, round, white jade-like spherical pendant hanging under his neck.
He reached out to the white jade sphere. The hard white jade sphere was like a piece of putty in Wang Lin's fingertips, being kneaded and constantly changing shape at will.
What was under Wang Lin's neck was not white jade, but a bone artifact refined from numerous bones. In the eleven months, a total of 330 days, averaging three complete chicken bones per day.
Nearly a thousand chicken bones were refined into this small bone artifact under his neck by the Bone Refining Fire.
There was no helping it; the quality of chicken bones was too poor. According to the classification of necromancy, generally, the stronger the creature, the better the bone quality, and the fresher the bone, the better the quality.
But the chicken bones Wang Lin usually refined came from weak chickens, and the crucial point was that the bones were also cooked—a double debuff.
According to Elder Yi, a fresh, complete human skeleton was enough for the Bone Refining Fire to complete its first stage of transformation, which showed how poor the quality of chicken bones was.
The bone artifact constantly changed shape under Wang Lin's control, sometimes turning into a straight small sword, and sometimes turning into a small tiger-like shape.
While practicing Bone Control, Wang Lin focused his mind and slowly entered a shallow state of meditation.
Although they used the flying soul tool, due to the long distance and Long Xiaoyao not being in a hurry, the master and disciple spent a full two days.
Only then did they enter the northern part of the Heaven Soul Empire.
A biting cold wind blew on his face. Wang Lin couldn't help but wrap his winter clothes tighter, while Long Xiaoyao, enveloped in the black robe beside him, was still wearing a single thin garment, seemingly completely unaffected by the cold.
After entering the northern part of the Heaven Soul Empire, the master and disciple bought a map in a city and continued to head north. In just one day, Wang Lin and Long Xiaoyao stood on the northern border of the Heaven Soul Empire.
In a vast expanse of white, Wang Lin held the map. White mist was exhaled from his mouth and nose, instantly turning into fragments of ice that scattered in the air.
Wang Lin, almost bundled up into a ball, struggled to turn his head and look at Long Xiaoyao, who was only wearing a single thin garment beside him. Long Xiaoyao's long eyebrows fluttered freely against the cold wind.
"Master, the Far North is ahead. There's no more map."
Saying this, he handed the map in his hand to Long Xiaoyao. The area to the north on the map was all large swaths of white, with a line of small annotation text:
"The Far North, a forbidden area for humans. Soul beasts roam. Danger, Danger, Danger!"
The last three "Danger"s were marked in red.
"Let's go!"
Long Xiaoyao took the map and didn't even look at it. He narrowed his pair of black eyes, staring intently at a constantly shrinking figure at the northern horizon.
With his eyesight, even though the figure was far away, he could tell at a glance that it was a human, and a young boy at that.
"Let's go!"
Long Xiaoyao said, not paying attention to the figure entering the Far North alone. Every year, there were people like this who wanted to enter the forbidden area to search for treasure.
"Let's go." Wang Lin shrunk his head and walked side by side with Long Xiaoyao toward the Far North. He did not see the figure that had already disappeared from the horizon.
Therefore, Wang Lin didn't know that Huo Yuhao had entered the Far North only half an hour before him.