"Why don't you just beat me up a little?"
With the verbal comfort from Zhou Qing and the others, Romantina gradually returned to normal... No! It would be more accurate to say she returned to her usual 'abnormal' state, her cheeks flushed as she said to Zhou Qing, "Otherwise, I'd feel guilty!"
Zhou Qing twitched at the corner of his mouth, fully aware that for someone like Romantina with her masochistic tendencies and love for being dominated getting hit was not a punishment but a reward.
"You're a pervert!"
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm couldn't hold back any longer. It occupied Romantina's body and cursed at her, then said to Zhou Qing, "The conflicts between humans really are complicated. My clever little brain can't keep up."
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm had listened through the entire account that Romanyak gave earlier but didn't quite understand the details—only one thing was clear: that Les (Lies) had snatched Zhou Qing's soul bone.
Damn!
How could Tianmeng Ice Silkworm tolerate this?
Back then, it was forced by ferocious beasts; now, the one it was protecting was being forced by Les through some indirect means.
True shared misery!
"If I ever meet that bastard, I'll definitely come out and freeze him into an ice block!" Tianmeng Ice Silkworm shouted fiercely.
"Thanks, Tianmeng brother." Seeing Tianmeng Ice Silkworm standing up for him, Zhou Qing suddenly felt a pang of guilt for planning to 'tame' Tianmeng Ice Silkworm in the future—he felt ashamed for three whole seconds.
"But I'll handle this matter myself."
"Just call me if you need anything."
Tianmeng Ice Silkworm yawned, returning control of the body to Romantina. Blushing deeply, Romantina shivered slightly, wiped the drool from her mouth, and said, "Every time that flesh worm takes over my body, I feel powerless, as if everything about me is exposed to that worm. It's really..."
"Awesome!"
On this point, Zhou Qing could empathize to some extent, but he couldn't truly feel it, so he quickly climbed over the wall of Notting Academy and fled as if running for his life toward Dormitory Seven.
Tang San followed closely behind.
Xiao Wu came next.
"Ah, have I been abandoned?" Romantina, still outside Notting Academy and alone, kept 'calling out,' twisting her body, "So this is what being abandoned feels like... kinda nice!"
Inside Romantina's spiritual sea, Tianmeng Ice Silkworm glared with its glittering golden eyes, speechless: "Once again, I gain a deeper understanding of the people chosen by me. Even more perverted than me, is that considered 'birds of a feather'? That's supposed to be an insult, isn't it..."
Back at Dormitory Seven,
Zhou Qing, Tang San, and Xiao Wu sneaked quietly to their beds and lay down to rest.
Early the next morning,
Zhou Qing and Tang San woke up first, finished washing, and started morning training.
Tang San mainly practiced the Purple Extreme Demon Eye.
Zhou Qing, cultivating the innate internal meridian chart and refining his essence, qi, and spirit, didn't need to absorb purple energy, but training in the early morning helped improve his mental strength.
The events of last night had taught Zhou Qing a lesson: in this world, "possessing a treasure invites trouble" was truly on full display.
Although not as extreme as some other fantasy novels Zhou Qing had read in his previous life, the helplessness he felt was something he never wanted to experience again—he had to seize every opportunity to grow stronger.
At the same time, he could not neglect research on Martial Souls and Soul Guidance Tools; he had to make full use of this relatively peaceful "growth period" to compensate for his weaknesses as much as possible.
After Zhou Qing and Tang San finished their morning practice, Xiao Wu and Wang Sheng, along with others, got up and began to wash up.
However, Wang Sheng and the other working students had many more bruises and dark marks on their faces than before.
"What happened?"
Xiao Wu noticed the injuries on Wang Sheng and the other workers' faces and became furious. "Who hit you? How dare they hit my Dormitory Seven's little brothers? That's a slap in my face!"
"It was Xiao Chenyu and his gang..."
Apparently, Xiao Chenyu was not only arrogant and domineering in the academy, often mocking poor students, but also physically bullying them.
Such things were common at Notting Academy.
The teachers' opinions were mostly the same—they thought there was no need to intervene much since this was something common for ordinary soul masters to experience. This world was, after all, inherently unfair.
"That kid obviously isn't a good person." Xiao Wu snorted coldly. "After class this afternoon, I'll help you teach him a lesson!"
Notting Academy didn't have many classes; usually, the mornings were for lectures, and the afternoons were free time, which students could arrange themselves. The working students often spent one or two hours completing cleaning, organizing, and moving tasks assigned by the academy, then had their own free time.
"Xiao Qing, Xiao San, you two come too." Xiao Wu said.
"Please call me by my full name, thank you. Otherwise, 'Xiao Qing' sounds like a girl's name." Zhou Qing agreed, but wasn't thrilled about how Xiao Wu addressed him.
Old Jack called him that affectionately.
Xiao Wu... their relationship wasn't close enough yet.
"Same here. Call me by my full name, please." Tang San mimicked Zhou Qing. After learning last night that Su Yuntao's girlfriend, Sisi, had gone to the city lord's mansion and become a homewrecker, he suddenly felt the nickname "Xiao San" sounded a bit lame.
It was fine when simple villagers like Old Jack called him that, but Xiao Wu was already quite mature about boys and girls and could see through things quickly.
So it was better to have Xiao Wu call him by his full name as well.
"Tch, so picky." Xiao Wu scoffed but agreed.
After Xiao Wu, Wang Sheng, and the others left for class, Zhou Qing and Tang San headed to the academy's back mountain to begin testing the changes in their Martial Souls after gaining their soul rings and to study the specifics of their soul skills.
First up was Tang San.
His Blue Silver Grass had grown more luxuriantly than before, and faint silver threads appeared within it—subtle but definitely there.
"This proves that your Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul is absolutely comparable to the Heaven Hammer, just not fully awakened yet, or rather, it needs a growth period. As you gain more soul rings from plant-type soul beasts in the future, its growth will certainly accelerate." Zhou Qing pointed to the nearly invisible silver threads on the Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul and spoke with certainty.
Tang San fully believed Zhou Qing's theory. "After getting the first soul ring, the practice route map the Blue Silver Grass gave me for my cultivation technique became much clearer."
"Is it more complex?" Zhou Qing asked.
"Not really," Tang San shook his head.
[If that's the case...]
Zhou Qing considered a possibility: that Martial Souls evolving through soul rings might not be that easy.
Innate soul power determines the speed at which a Martial Soul cultivates.
This was widely accepted by soul masters across the continent's major factions.
If simply having soul rings that matched the Martial Soul's attribute, or were compatible with it, could cause evolution, Martial Soul evolution would be too cheap.
Moreover, after so many years of development in the Douluo Continent's soul master system, it was impossible no one noticed this. Even direct descendants of major sects, though having the same Martial Soul, varied in innate soul power, and under the same resources, their cultivation speed differed...
In the original work, Tang San's Blue Silver Grass carried poison only when using soul skills; the Martial Soul itself did not carry poison before evolution.
Soul rings were the energy forms of soul beasts' cultivation levels. In theory, even if the ring had a poison attribute, it shouldn't physically contain toxins; the Martial Soul produced toxins only when using soul skills.
Yu Xiaogang was poisoned because he absorbed the snake-poisoned Luo Sanpao back into his body...
Regarding Dugu Bo, I think his Jade Scale Snake King is somewhat special... more on that later.
Based on the continent-wide accepted rule that innate soul power determines Martial Soul cultivation speed, at the moment of Martial Soul awakening, unless there are special circumstances, the growth potential is fixed—it can't be changed simply by having a very suitable soul ring attribute.
I believe the soul ring's bonus to the Martial Soul's quality is at most a guiding role.
In the original story, the Shrek group also completed transformations through the use of divine herbs.
Ma Hongjun was the clearest example.
Oscar's soul ring never changes the form of his sausages without the use of soul skills.
Other lower-quality Martial Souls wanting to break through their inherent limits had to take alternative paths like becoming Evil Soul Masters this was the fastest way. These Martial Souls had the greatest chance of mutation.
But it's not that all soul rings are ineffective. For example, the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger soul ring probably can ignore the Martial Soul's quality or attribute. If successfully absorbed, the power within can override the Martial Soul and reshape it into the form adapted to that soul ring.
However, I think this soul ring only works for non-top-tier Martial Souls because it couldn't change Tang San's Heaven Hammer in the original story.