Chapter 47: The Current Situation After One Year

Looking at the buildings of Maple Leaf City shrouded in the setting sun, Ye Xixuan no longer dared to make any other moves. However, the events of today seemed to have triggered a deeply sealed emotion within his heart, and they were destined to have a profound and lasting impact on him.

The two of them sat side by side, watching the setting sun sink below the western horizon as the dim twilight crept in from the distance. The Soul Guidance streetlights around Maple Leaf Square automatically flickered to life, adding a sense of tranquility and peace to the border city.

Within the range of vision, children were playing and laughing everywhere. Adults, having finished a day of work, were also enjoying this rare moment of leisure, chatting and smiling among themselves.

When the Sun and Moon Empire eventually ignited the flames of war once again, even this simple daily routine might become an out-of-reach luxury for these ordinary people.

Neither Ye Xixuan nor Ling Luochen spoke further, maintaining a delicate silence between them.

How much time passed was unclear; the night grew deeper, and the chill in the air intensified significantly.

Ye Xixuan couldn't help but gently remind Ling Luochen.

"Senior Sister Ling, shouldn't we be heading back?"

"Call me Luochen Sister from now on." Ling Luochen's distant, unfocused gaze regained its original brilliance. She stood up, looked down at Ye Xixuan from above, and extended her fair, slender right hand.

Ye Xixuan was stunned for a moment, then instinctively raised his right hand and let Ling Luochen take it, while secretly pondering in his heart.

*'Why does Senior Sister Ling's phrasing sound so familiar?'*

Holding Ye Xixuan's hand, Ling Luochen walked along the edge of Maple Leaf Square toward the hotel. Time and again, the two of them passed by the Soul Guidance streetlights, only to plunge back into the darkness, the overlapping light and shadow making it feel as though they were traversing through time and space. For a fleeting second, their figures seemed to shrink considerably.

The boy's face was full of joyful smiles, while the petite young girl wore a faint smile at the corners of her lips, her deep blue eyes unable to conceal her doting affection and tenderness.

Yet in the next instant, they were pulled back to reality.

The boy remained bright and cheerful, but the much more mature young girl had already closed off her heart like ancient, eternal ice, leaving only a tiny crack for the boy.

***

After resting for a night in Maple Leaf City, the three of them set out on the return journey to Shrek Academy the next day.

This time, they hired a spacious carriage, which allowed them to cultivate continuously along the road without any hindrance.

Ye Xixuan was immensely grateful for this choice, because focusing on cultivation helped them avoid the slightly bizarre atmosphere among the three of them.

On the evening of the third day, the carriage finally arrived outside the East City Gate of Shrek Academy.

Upon returning to Shrek Academy, Ye Xixuan maintained his usual routine. Before Zhang Leixuan recovered, he spent his mornings training under Elder Mu's guidance and his afternoons at the Soul Guidance Department learning how to carve core arrays.

Through the effect of his first spirit ability, Condensed Shadow, he could shape his shadow into any form he desired while retaining excellent soul power conduction properties.

Compared to traditional soul engineers, he saved a great deal of effort in making the outer and inner shells of soul guidance devices, needing only to carve the most crucial core array. Coupled with the amplification of mental power provided by the inner demon runes, his progress in carving core arrays was equally rapid.

As for the evenings, he spent most of his time meditating inside the Sea God Pavilion, visiting Tang Ya's residence in Shrek City only on weekends.

However, when he was on Sea God Island during ordinary times, the probability of Ye Xixuan running into Ling Luochen had increased significantly. At Ling Luochen's request, the two of them would occasionally take private walks along the shores of Sea God Lake.

Given Ling Luochen's personality, she rarely communicated much with him, seemingly content just to enjoy the feeling of being alone with him.

Near the start of the outer courtyard semester, Ye Xixuan also fulfilled his promise and accompanied Jiang Nannan to the Treasure Pavilion in Shrek City. With his endorsement, Jiang Nannan successfully raised her credit limit and purchased the medicinal pills needed to cure her mother's heart defect.

Thus, the cliché plot from the original work was finally averted.

In the blink of an eye, another year passed.

Zhang Leixuan's body had basically fully recovered. Moving forward, she only needed to use her soul power to gradually guide her meridians back to their normal positions before she could resume her cultivation.

Although absorbing the spirit ring and spirit bone of that hundred-thousand-year Blood Moon Wolf Emperor had caused her to suffer a rather severe backlash, compared to the enormous gains, it was all worthwhile.

Even at the Titled Douluo level, whether or not one possessed a hundred-thousand-year spirit ring and a hundred-thousand-year spirit bone made a world of difference in terms of combat power and future advancement potential.

To put it without exaggeration, since Zhang Leixuan had successfully fused with a hundred-thousand-year spirit ring at the eightieth rank, it meant she would undoubtedly be able to cultivate to at least the Super Douluo realm in the future—meaning a cultivation level above rank ninety-five.

However, because Zhang Leixuan had been busy with cultivation during this period, Ye Xixuan had spent much less time with her. This very reason, coincidentally, provided Ling Luochen with some opportunities.

Shrek Academy Outer Courtyard Soul Guidance Department, Twelfth Laboratory.

This was Fan Yu's exclusive laboratory.

Inside the exceptionally spacious laboratory, only Ye Xixuan and Huo Yuhao—wait, He Caotou—were present.

As he formally entered puberty, Ye Xixuan's physical development accelerated. In just a single year, his height surpassed 1.75 meters, placing him head and shoulders above his peers, even among fellow soul masters.

Of course, he still couldn't compare to He Caotou's exceptionally bulky build, which was even more exaggerated than an adult's.

Overall, Ye Xixuan looked slightly lean, his immense power restrained within. Only when he took off his shirt and revealed his muscle lines, which resembled works of art, could one intuitively realize what terrifying strength was concealed within his body.

Restrained by the influence of his Ultimate Wuhun, despite a full year of cultivation, his soul power had only reached the peak of the thirty-sixth rank, remaining a step away from breaking through to the thirty-seventh rank. Yet even with this cultivation speed, he was confident of reaching the bottleneck of the fortieth rank by the age of twelve.

However, his most significant improvement was not his soul power rank, but the age of his first three spirit rings.

Having absorbed the backlash of evil energy when slaying the Slaughtering Agent of Death and the lingering evil fires of Ma Xiaotao over the past year, the age of Ye Xixuan's first three spirit rings was now around three thousand, five thousand, and nine thousand years, respectively.

At that moment, a tall-stature middle-aged man walked in from outside the laboratory.

The middle-aged man was about 1.8 meters tall, with very broad shoulders. He wore simple cloth garments, leaving his thick, sturdy arms bare. His facial features were well-defined, and his gaze was steady and profound; just standing there, he gave off the heavy, immovable presence of a mountain.

"Caotou, what did you need me for?"

"Teacher, it wasn't me who wanted you. Little Brother Ye wants to show you something." He Caotou reached out to rub his bald head and smiled honestly.

Fan Yu's gaze immediately shifted to Ye Xixuan. Over the years, he had witnessed Ye Xixuan's talent in carving core arrays, but unfortunately, Ye Xixuan's martial soul cultivation talent was even more outstanding, meaning he was destined never to become a core disciple of their Soul Guidance Department.

Therefore, every time he saw Ye Xixuan, his feelings were rather complicated.

"What do you want to show me?"

Ye Xixuan gave Fan Yu a slight nod in acknowledgment, decided against keeping him in suspense, and directly released his martial soul.

Purple, purple, purple.

Three luxurious purple spirit rings successively rose from beneath his feet, and the final purple ring, in particular, clearly already harbored a hint of deep black.

His second spirit ability flashed, and a pitch-black, viscous shadow instantly covered a two-hundred-meter radius. Then, humanoid knights began to condense and form within the shadow, numbering fully in the hundreds. Every single one of them was clad in heavy armor and held shadow weapons of various shapes.

Ye Xixuan raised both hands, and amidst a brilliant flash of light, silver Heavenly Spider Claws enveloped his hands. As his sharp, slender fingertips vibrated, those previously lifeless shadow knights began to tremble as if imbued with life.

"This is?!" Fan Yu lost his previous calmness, his eyes widening in utter shock.

He Caotou, standing nearby, was even more terrified, his body stumbling as he nearly lost his footing. Back when he was still the crown prince of the Sun and Moon Empire, he had seen something similar in a top-secret location.

"A humanoid soul guidance device?!"