Dugu Bo felt extremely wronged. He had carefully chosen even the Gale Leopard after much deliberation—how could he possibly release a ten-thousand-year soul beast?
"Alright, Grandpa, I was just joking." Dugu Yan chuckled softly, then looked at the minced flesh with some confusion. "But this should be a Crypt Demon Spider, right? Don't these soul beasts rarely take the initiative to hunt?"
"It should be related to the Earth Dragon Golden Melon," Lin Yang explained from the side. "The Earth Dragon Golden Melon contains Earth Dragon power. The aura you released while refining the soul ring has a very strong attraction to Crypt Demon Spiders. That's why it actively launched an attack. I just didn't expect the beast to come from underground."
Dugu Yan felt lingering fear. "Thank goodness. It's all thanks to Grandpa's intervention."
Dugu Bo's face stiffened. His gaze subconsciously drifted elsewhere. "It wasn't me. It was the Lin kid!"
Dugu Yan was stunned. She looked at the minced flesh on the ground, then at Lin Yang standing innocently to the side. Her mind couldn't process it for a moment.
Lin Yang had killed a ten-thousand-year soul beast?
Looking at Lin Yang, Dugu Yan sucked in a cold breath. Just moments ago, she had been secretly pleased about catching up to Lin Yang's soul power level. Now he had delivered such a huge shock.
Previously, she was at two rings and he at three rings—the strength gap was understandable. Now she was at thirty-three levels, and Lin Yang was also at thirty-three levels. Yet why did the strength gap feel like it was growing even larger?
In any case, she couldn't imagine a Soul Elder contending against a ten-thousand-year soul beast.
"Lin Yang," Dugu Yan looked at him seriously. "Are you even human?"
Lin Yang raised an eyebrow. "Of course I am."
"Then how did you manage to…" Dugu Yan gestured with her hand. "How am I, a Soul Elder, supposed to feel about this?"
Lin Yang thought for a moment and replied earnestly, "That's why you still need to work hard."
"Go to hell," Dugu Yan rolled her eyes.
After joking around, Dugu Yan didn't dwell on it too much. The three packed up simply and prepared to head back.
Lin Yang had wanted to take the entire Bone-Eroding Viper Dragon with them, but its size was too large. He could only selectively take some useful materials, such as the poison sac, the single horn, scales, and so on.
On the way back to the city, Lin Yang learned that Dugu Yan's third soul skill was called Jade Phosphor Bone-Eroding Poison. It could be used for single-target attacks or area attacks, and was extremely practical.
For single-target attacks, it could instantly launch highly penetrating and toxic poison spikes. At the same level, few could withstand them. For group attacks, it abandoned the penetrating power of the spikes and instead expanded the area of poison release. It could form a bone-eroding poison domain in an extremely short time, which could be used to suppress or control enemies.
Even Dugu Bo gave this soul skill a very high evaluation.
…
In the following month and a half, Lin Yang enjoyed a relatively peaceful period. Besides occasionally visiting the Great Soul Arena to bully some weak opponents and loosen up his body, most of his time was spent cultivating or researching at Butterfly House. He would occasionally exchange letters with Little Rabbit. His days were regular and fulfilling.
One thing was different from before—Dugu Yan had become a frequent visitor to Butterfly House, dropping by whether she had something to do or not.
Dugu Yan's intentions were written plainly on her face. Lin Yang couldn't possibly miss them. He didn't deliberately avoid her, nor did he take the initiative to approach. He would just let things happen naturally. After all, they were both still young and could withstand the test of time.
Sigh, this damn charm!
On the other side, Dugu Bo's progress was also good. After this period of conditioning, the deadly poison in his body had been completely stabilized. However, the position of the head soul bone was far too important, so Lin Yang didn't dare to rashly introduce too much poison into it. He only allowed a small portion, enough to temporarily free the old poisoner from the torment of poison backlash.
If he wanted to completely solve the deadly poison problem, he would need at least one or two high-quality soul bones. That would depend on Dugu Bo himself. Although soul bones were rare, for a Title Douluo, acquiring them wasn't easy but also not too difficult.
During this month and a half, Lin Yang did not take any more immortal herbs to increase his cultivation. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but that there was no need. The Blazing Fire Apricot and the Octagonal Mysterious Ice Grass were already the two top immortal herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well. They had not only completed the second awakening of his Demon God Body and laid the most solid foundation, but had also given his body extremely strong resistance to medicine.
Taking other immortal herbs now would only waste their medicinal effects for no gain. So he only took the Gazing Through Autumn Water Dew, which increased spiritual power. His spiritual power broke through from the early Spirit Sea Realm to the mid Spirit Sea Realm. The range of his Clear World expanded once again.
Following that, the holiday officially ended, and the new school year at Heaven Dou Imperial Academy officially began.
Because his enrollment procedures had been handled as a special case, he had already received the Heaven Dou Imperial Academy uniform and badge from Qin Ming long ago, naturally skipping the tedious entrance test.
Since it was a soul master academy, students were naturally divided into classes according to strength. Students with soul power below twenty-five levels were "Heaven Micro Class," those above twenty-five but below thirty were "Heaven Ultimate Class." Those above thirty levels were the highest "Heaven Dou Class."
With Lin Yang's cultivation, he naturally belonged to the highest Heaven Dou Class. Dugu Yan had originally been in Heaven Ultimate Class. Now she naturally advanced to Heaven Dou Class as well. The two were still in the same class.
Different classes had different classrooms. Heaven Dou Imperial Academy maintained around five hundred students year-round, most of them in Heaven Micro and Heaven Ultimate Classes. Heaven Dou Class was only a small portion—three classes in total, each with only about a dozen people, most around twenty years old.
Lin Yang and Dugu Yan were the youngest in this group. So when the two entered the classroom, most people's reactions were ones of disbelief, but no one raised any objections. The "Heaven Dou Class" badges on their chests were enough to explain everything.
Lin Yang's unfamiliar face was one thing, but everyone knew Dugu Yan's identity clearly. They wouldn't be foolish enough to provoke the granddaughter of a Title Douluo. Instead, some people proactively sent friendly signals to the two.
However, Lin Yang carried a naturally cool aura. If someone greeted him, he would respond, but don't expect him to be particularly enthusiastic. Dugu Yan, from beginning to end, maintained a cold and gorgeous "strangers keep away" and "don't touch me" expression. Only when facing Lin Yang would she show some smiles.
Others didn't mind this. They couldn't afford to offend Dugu Yan, and Lin Yang, who could get so close to Dugu Yan… seemed like someone they couldn't afford to offend either!
The class bell rang. The teacher who walked in was an old acquaintance of theirs—Qin Ming!
The Qin Ming on the platform and the Qin Ming in private were like two different people. As soon as his slightly cold, hard face turned serious, the entire classroom instantly fell silent.
He didn't waste words and started the lesson directly. It had to be said that Qin Ming, who was highly regarded by all three education committee members, had real skill in teaching. His lectures were clear and well-organized, and some small techniques were indeed practical. However, for Lin Yang, they could only be considered better than nothing.
After class, Qin Ming called Lin Yang and Dugu Yan over and said concisely, "Remember to go to the third training ground this afternoon."
Lin Yang and Dugu Yan naturally nodded in agreement.
The two were still listed as "reserve members of the Heaven Dou Imperial Battle Team." Although they were reserves, anyone with eyes could see that these people would definitely become core main team members in the future. As for the other Heaven Dou Class students, although their strength wasn't bad, their age was a hard limitation.
So after Qin Ming took full responsibility for forming the battle team, the most important criterion for selecting members was potential. Otherwise, even now he would only have found Yu Tianheng, Dugu Yan, Ye Lingling, and Lin Yang.