"Boss!"
"Boss!"
The members of Room Seven fell into a brief silence after watching Wang Sheng—who had been treated like a human ball and beaten around several times—before quickly and decisively choosing to pledge allegiance to Xiao Wu. Because of the similar pronunciation, nearly no one even felt anything was wrong.
Only Chen Ming was forcing his expression so tightly that he barely managed not to laugh out loud.
But in a room full of people shouting "Boss," the one person staying silent stood out immediately.
Xiao Wu marched straight up to Chen Ming, sizing him up from head to toe with an aggressive glare.
She was well aware of what kind of Martial Soul the Heavy Armored Earth Dragon was.
In fact, deep in the Star Dou Forest, near the Lake of Life, there had once been a ninety-thousand-year Heavy Armored Earth Dragon. That beast had likely survived its hundred-thousand-year heavenly tribulation over two thousand years ago before disappearing into the deeper regions of the forest—no one knew where it had migrated afterward.
Xiao Wu's impression of that type of Spirit Beast could be summed up in one word.
Lazy.
Once they found a suitable place, they would stay put for decades, centuries, even millennia. They would eat mineral ores when hungry, drink groundwater when thirsty, and aside from eating, sleeping, and basic survival, they barely moved at all. Only rarely—during mating periods—would they leave their territory.
Otherwise, they were practically no different from stones. Not a trace of the dragon race's usual ferocity—if anything, they were more like giant turtles. Even when attacked, as long as their defense wasn't broken, they simply ignored it.
The second trait was hardness.
These beasts constantly consumed mineral ores, absorbing metallic substances into their bones and scales. While they sacrificed speed and agility, their physical defense became absurdly strong.
The older the Heavy Armored Earth Dragon, the more metal it absorbed, and the stronger its defense became. It was even said that once they broke through the hundred-thousand-year threshold, their metallic scales would compress and refine, restoring some of their agility while further increasing their defensive power.
If that particular hundred-thousand-year Heavy Armored Earth Dragon hadn't disappeared back then, Xiao Wu almost wished she could have lured Spirit Hall's "bad women" into its territory during their attacks, using its terrifying defense to buy time.
Thinking of this, she looked at Chen Ming's barely suppressed grin and immediately planted her hands on her hips.
"What? Are you looking down on me? If that's the case, let's have a match."
"I'm not—I just can't control my mouth…" Chen Ming tried to explain, but Xiao Wu didn't give him the chance to finish.
She lunged forward instantly.
With a light tap of her foot, she slipped behind him in an instant, stepping right onto his tail to stabilize herself before locking onto his body like a clamp. In the next moment, she wrapped her legs tightly around his neck, attempting to force him down with a joint lock.
But Chen Ming wasn't a stone statue. Even if his reaction speed couldn't match Xiao Wu's, he wasn't like Tang San—he wasn't going to just take a beating.
Enduring the pressure on his neck, Chen Ming forced his arms through the gap between her legs to restrain her movement. Then, with a powerful sweep of his tail against the ground, he twisted his body and hurled himself backward.
Chen Ming might be tough as iron, but Xiao Wu had no intention of taking the impact with him.
Her flexible body twisted in mid-air in an almost impossible angle. She kicked off his neck, flipping herself directly in front of him, then used the momentum to clamp his face between her legs while driving her knees toward both sides of his head.
Using that opening, she twisted her waist and slipped off his body, landing smoothly as she reapplied another joint lock the moment he hit the ground.
Strength and defense were Chen Ming's strengths, but after his Martial Soul transformation, his agility had actually dropped even further compared to before—like a heavily armored soldier in full plate. While his defense skyrocketed, his mobility suffered greatly.
Especially around the joints, where the armor-like scales restricted his range of motion. For a moment, he was genuinely pinned down by Xiao Wu.
Her legs locked around his neck as she twisted his arm behind his back, completely restricting his movement.
Chen Ming didn't actually feel much pain—at most, a bit dizzy. If this turned into a pure endurance contest, he wasn't necessarily going to lose. But after trying to break free a few times without success, he finally let out a small sigh.
Then he slightly tilted his head, shifting his mouth free from the grip of her leg.
"Alright, alright, I admit defeat, okay?"
Chen Ming felt the warm pressure at the bridge of his nose and sighed helplessly, utterly resigned.
Only after seeing him concede did Xiao Wu finally release him. She stood up, brushed off her slightly disheveled clothes and stockings, then placed her hands back on her hips with renewed confidence.
"Good. Since that's the case, I'm the boss here now. Call me Sister Xiao Wu."
"Fine, fine… Sister Xiao Wu, Sister Xiao Wu." Chen Ming climbed up from the floor, dismissed his Martial Soul, and while casually replying, already began thinking about how to make up for his lack of agility.
Seeing his attitude, Xiao Wu grew annoyed—but there was nothing she could do about it.
If Chen Ming had already prepared for her joint techniques, she really wasn't confident she could take down a guy like him again without using soul skills.
Just like some kind of scripted NPC, Room Seven's former "former former boss," Wang Sheng, stepped forward to explain the situation in Room Seven.
In simple terms, work-study students were required to help the academy clean and maintain hygiene. The academy only held morning classes—two sessions in total, one for general knowledge and one for Martial Soul studies. The rest of the day was free for personal cultivation. Work-study students, however, could take on additional labor in the afternoon to earn money for living expenses.
Chen Ming casually asked about the pay—and the answer nearly made him pause.
Cleaning the academy gardens paid ten copper soul coins.
In this era, one gold soul coin equaled ten silver soul coins, and one hundred copper soul coins. A single gold soul coin was already enough to cover the living expenses of a small family for several months.
So ten copper coins equaled one-tenth of a silver coin, or one-hundredth of a gold coin. If one worked twenty days a month, that came out to roughly two gold soul coins per month.
And as everyone knew, the Spirit Hall's subsidy for soul masters was only one gold soul coin per month…
This… was still just cleaning floors?
Chen Ming quickly ran the numbers in his head. Even if a person with Spirit Power stopped cultivating entirely and only did odd jobs at the academy for six years—assuming they saved twenty gold soul coins per year—that would amount to one hundred and twenty gold soul coins by the time they graduated. That alone would be enough to set up a fairly decent livelihood outside.
But looking at everyone around him, none of them seemed surprised at all. So in the end, he could only treat it as some kind of special welfare system for potential soul masters.
While Chen Ming was still lost in thought, the dormitory door opened again. A teacher in his thirties walked in carrying a set of bedding.
"Which one of you is Tang San?"
"I am," Tang San stepped forward.
"My name is Mo Hen. You can call me Teacher Mo." The teacher said calmly. "Tang San, this is the bedding given to you by the Grandmaster."