Watching Su Yuntao's hurried retreating figure, Tang San doubted, "He wouldn't really be going to the City Lord's Mansion, would he?"
"Well, in the end, any big trouble will surely be toned down, and small issues will just be smoothed over."
Given Su Yuntao's current state, the chance that he might go to the City Lord's Mansion was quite high, but this kind of thing definitely wouldn't escalate.
As the ruler of a city, the City Lord must maintain face. This sort of matter absolutely can't be made public; otherwise, the reputation would suffer badly. Once gossip spreads throughout Notting City, even the City Lord wouldn't be able to stop or control it.
The law doesn't punish the masses!
Therefore, the City Lord of Notting City is undoubtedly the one who most wants to keep this incident under wraps.
As for this event causing a total break between Su Yuntao and Sisi...
Even the well-experienced Matthew felt: Sisi has a big heart, and she's not a woman Su Yuntao could easily win over. Furthermore, Sisi now truly wants to rise socially and is taking real actions. Naturally, Zhou Qing holds a similar view as Matthew.
In this way, it's also somewhat a relief for Su Yuntao to be freed from a "long-term pain." He probably won't bear grudges against his childish self... Once he emerges from this "short-term pain" in the future, devotes himself to cultivation, improves his strength, attracts a more devoted girl, and they fall in love, he might even feel grateful to himself.
Though that hope is faint—
"Master Su Yuntao is really pitiful," Xiao Wu said. "I hope he'll meet a better girl someday."
"I'm afraid not," Zhou Qing shook his head.
"Why not?"
"Because his Spirit Beast is a lone wolf a solitary wild wolf," Zhou Qing answered.
Tang San opened his mouth in disbelief. "That's a joke, right?"
Could a Spirit Beast really affect whether someone can get a girlfriend?
That's ridiculous!
"Uh, actually, it's not entirely a joke," Zhou Qing explained. "The day before I asked Teacher Mo Hen for leave, I was looking through the library's archives. I found that many owners of lone wolf Spirit Beasts stay single for most of their lives only finding a partner in their thirties or forties..."
"A curse of the Spirit Beast?" Xiao Wu wondered.
"It's more like the Spirit Beast influences the person's personality to some extent. For example: a rabbit Spirit Beast likes vegetarian food; a lion Spirit Beast prefers meat, and so on."
Zhou Qing explained, "I reviewed most of the library's records on Spirit Beasts and Soul Masters, and concluded that the Spirit Beast itself affects a person's habits and even personality. Beast-type Spirit Beasts have a stronger influence than Tool-type Spirit Beasts. The exact reason is unknown, but one thing I'm sure of is that in the future, when cultivating Spirit Beasts, one must regularly meditate and communicate with their Spirit Beast — at least never treat it merely as a tool."
These words were mainly meant for Tang San, a subtle way to influence him.
"I'd never treat my Spirit Beast as a tool," Xiao Wu rolled her eyes. She was a hundred-thousand-year-old Soul Beast in humanoid form — her Spirit Beast was her former self. How could she see it as a mere tool?
Tang San nodded slightly.
"Alright, time to climb over the wall."
But just as Zhou Qing grabbed the railing, hurried footsteps approached from behind.
Romantina and Romanyak came briskly.
"Romantina, you... need something?" Zhou Qing noticed the middle-aged man beside her and naturally didn't think he was Romantina's playmate. Though Romantina often spoke shockingly and was expressive in gestures, she wouldn't act too wildly — after all, she was still a young girl.
"Sorry..." Romantina looked apologetic.
"Hello, I am Romanyak, Deputy City Lord of Notting City." After introducing himself, Romanyak requested to purchase the soul bone originating from the head. He revealed the full background of Darius, his personality, and the possible turmoil that might soon occur in Notting City.
"So, I hope you can sell me that head soul bone. I will discuss with the City Lord and auction it off to divert attention."
"Or, I can auction it directly for you, and you keep 70% of the proceeds... It's not that I want the remaining 30%, but the City Lord will certainly take a cut..."
Understanding the full context, Zhou Qing finally grasped the soul bone's value.
Besides the intrinsic value of soul bones to soul masters, ambitious elites exploit soul masters' obsession with soul bones to create chaos for profit.
Large sects and powerful families might ignore a century-old soul bone, but ordinary soul masters would flock to such news.
[No wonder in the original story, soul masters who obtain soul bones keep it hidden, and after soul-hunting teams kill spirit beasts and discover soul bones, they immediately start killing each other. Once it's known someone possesses a soul bone, countless troubles arise. Except for the top three sects, the lower four sects, and the aristocrats of the two empires, no other forces dare openly reveal possession of a soul bone.]
After deep thought, Zhou Qing took the head soul bone out of his storage soul device.
"A storage soul device!" Romanyak was shocked — this was not something ordinary soul masters possessed. In all of Notting City, probably only the "Jade Master" had one.
"Deputy City Lord, don't overthink it. I have no backing," Zhou Qing handed over the head soul bone. "But I don't want spirit coins either. You know, I'm just a commoner; even if I had a lot of money, I couldn't protect it. So I want something else."
Romanyak now didn't dare regard Zhou Qing as an ordinary commoner soul master. He also noticed that this little fellow was unusually calm.
The two other kids nearby were also more composed than typical children.
Are they really six years old?
"What do you want?" Romanyak decided to hear him out.
"Compared to getting money directly, I'd rather have a storage soul device," Zhou Qing made his request.
"You can't buy one of those, even with money."
Unlike other soul devices on the market, the crafting technique for storage soul devices was lost. It's an antique of immense practical value, extremely rare and priceless.
"Does the Spirit Hall have one?" Zhou Qing asked.
"You!" Romanyak was stunned — how did this kid know about the Spirit Hall's influence?
"It's simple. Judging by Romantina's behavior, she went to register at the Spirit Hall with Tina today. Her relationship with Master Matthew is close, like a grandfather and granddaughter."
By observing Romantina and Matthew's interactions, Zhou Qing deduced that her father must also be connected to Matthew.
"I believe you will become a powerful soul master one day," Romanyak took the soul bone but shook his head. "But you're still young and don't understand. Although the Spirit Hall's branches spread across cities of Douluo Continent, the branch leaders and city lords/deputy city lords only cooperate formally. Behind the scenes, they may be close, but publicly they must maintain clear boundaries because we represent the Spirit Hall, the Tian Dou Empire, and the Xing Luo Empire respectively."
"Right now, Darius is certain the head soul bone belongs to my daughter. The information he spreads will confirm that, not the idea that 'some kid from Notting Academy got the soul bone.'"
When you're insignificant, your words carry little weight.
Zhou Qing instantly understood: even if the soul bone is in his hands now, Darius will definitely spread the word that Romantina obtained it to serve his purpose.
If the information that he himself possesses the soul bone leaked first and then he sought help from the Spirit Hall, that would be fine.
But Darius will certainly act tonight, and tomorrow news that Romantina obtained the soul bone will fly everywhere.
At that time, even if he comes forward to admit it, while it might divert some attention, most of Notting City's citizens and soul masters will think the Deputy City Lord found a scapegoat — ruining his reputation.
Besides, it will already be too late by then.
"No matter what, this will be public knowledge by tomorrow. So the soul bone can only be auctioned. Matthew can participate in the auction, but neither you nor I can directly trade it to the Spirit Hall's higher-ups to get what we want."
Romanyak sighed. "So, sorry, the storage soul device is out of the question. I can only exchange you spirit coins. Otherwise, if the good relationship between me and the Spirit Hall branch leader is publicly exposed — not just tacitly understood — though it's not illegal, my career as Deputy City Lord is nearly over..."
"But rest assured, I guarantee no one will try to snatch your spirit coins, and if you or your friends get into trouble, you can always come to me for help."
Sighing deeply, Zhou Qing agreed to Romanyak's terms and accepted the soul card containing five hundred thousand spirit coins.
After Romanyak left, Romantina stayed behind, looking a bit downcast. "I'm sorry for making you lose a soul bone, and such a valuable head soul bone, second only to the torso bone."
"It's alright. Just a century-old soul bone."
Zhou Qing didn't blame Romantina. When he first got the soul bone, he had said if he couldn't research anything useful, he'd sell it to her.
This was just ahead of schedule.
"It's all that damn fat pig's fault!" Xiao Wu, knowing a bit of right and wrong, comforted Romantina. "Don't be sad. It's just a century-old soul bone. With Zhou Qing's luck, maybe he'll get a ten-thousand-year soul bone someday."
"Exactly, no need to blame yourself," Tang San also comforted her. But behind his calm expression, his anger was raging, blaming everything on Darius.
Back in Notting Forest, he shouldn't have hesitated. The second time they met Darius and the others, he should have called Zhou Qing and Xiao Wu over and pulled the trigger on the Soul-Conducting Zhuge Crossbow, letting the soul arrows pierce those great soul masters and the quasi-Soul Sovereign Darius's chests, sending them to meet King Yama!
[Darius!]
[You are already walking the path to death!]