Peerless: After traveling through time, who would still want to be Tang San's son-in-law?

Chapter 277 Apprenticeship
Thirty million gold soul coins?

Upon hearing this number, DiRachel's face was filled with disbelief.

Seeing Zhang Lexuan's serious expression, Di Ruiqiu turned to look at Huo Yuhao.

What to look at.

Wang Dong glared fiercely at Di Ruiqiu.

Huo Yuhao didn't notice Wang Dong's subtle movements behind him; instead, he rested his chin on his hand and pondered:

"I don't pay much attention to the soul bone market, but I can give you a case for reference. Four years ago, a left arm bone of an Ice Jade Scorpion that was about 6 years old was auctioned off for a sky-high price of 3000 million. Although the premium was a bit too high, judging from the auction price trend, the actual price should be between 1800 million and 2000 million. In addition, the rarity of the Golden Dragon bloodline is no less than that of the ultimate attribute, and the rarity of the external soul bone is also very high. 3000 million is a very reasonable price, and even a bit cheap."

"After all, power-type martial souls, dragon-type martial souls, snake-type martial souls, and a large number of sub-dragon-type martial soul masters would all covet this soul bone. If it were auctioned off, the bidding would definitely be more intense than the Ice Jade Scorpion left arm bone, which is restricted to ice attributes."

Huo Yuhao had no hope that Di Ruiqiu would buy the soul bone. After all, it was a soul beast, where would it get so many gold soul coins? Even with the dividends from the Nine Treasure Glazed Tile School over the years, he only had a few million gold soul coins on hand.

"I……"

Di Ruiqiu bit her lip lightly.

Di Ruiqiu's feelings were particularly complicated at this moment. As a mythical beast, she naturally looked down on this soul bone. After all, the other party's bloodline was not as pure as her own. Even if Di Ruiqiu absorbed this soul bone, it would only be icing on the cake. Without it, it would not have much impact on Di Ruiqiu.

But if someone else took it, Dirachel wouldn't be willing to part with it...

Dragons' collecting obsession is nothing short of extreme. They may not use good things themselves, but they can't be without them. Even if they leave them in their nests as mattresses, it's better than having someone else take them!
But where did Di Rachel get so many gold soul coins? Di Rachel doesn't have the habit of actively hunting human soul masters, and the little gold soul coins she has accumulated over the years by collecting human soul master corpses are not much. After all, no one would take a treasure vault on an adventure.

Moreover, those few gold soul coins had already been used up to buy a flying soul tool and to obtain a recommendation letter from Shrek Academy's inner court.

"Our Martial Soul Department will cover this cost."

Cai Meier, who had been hiding nearby, suddenly appeared.

"Dean Cai (Vice)".

Everyone bowed in greeting.

"I'll make the decision. This soul bone will be absorbed by Di Ruiqiu. As for your compensation, the Martial Soul Department will provide it to you after we return to the academy. How does that sound?"

I see. That explains why Zhang Lexuan kept talking about the price.

So I was waiting here.

Huo Yuhao watched this scene silently, but still managed to say, "Of course it's possible."

"What do you think?"

Cai Meier looked at Di Ruiqiu, waiting for her answer.

"why?"

Di Ruiqiu looked into Cai Meier's eyes and said, "Thirty million gold soul coins is no small amount. The academy shouldn't need to go to such lengths for its students, right?"

"why?"

Cai Meier chuckled softly.

"You are a student of Shrek Academy, and that is enough for Shrek."

"The Golden Dragon, the ancestor of power... is one of the most powerful martial souls Shrek Academy has encountered in ten thousand years, even stronger than the few ultimate martial souls in history."

"The legend from ten thousand years ago still circulates in the world, making people believe it without a doubt. However, for ten thousand years, countless geniuses have tried their best, but ultimately stopped at their limit. No matter how amazing the genius is, they are still blocked by that chasm and have not seen a glimmer of hope for a breakthrough."

Upon hearing Cai Meier's words, a hint of surprise flashed in everyone's eyes, even Huo Yuhao was somewhat astonished.

Huo Yuhao thought Cai Meier would give him a straightforward offer, but he didn't expect her to make empty promises.
"At least in my lifetime, you are the person most likely to reach the realm of gods. For that reason alone, you are worthy of Shrek's investment this time."

"Golden Soul Coins are just a pile of metal in Shrek Academy. The soul bone of the Golden Dragon bloodline is most suitable for you. Since that's the case, why shouldn't I help you achieve your goal?"

"Perhaps with its help, Shrek will be able to cultivate another god."

“Even if the college doesn’t approve it, I will pay for it for you in my own name.”

As she spoke, Cai Meier took the soul bone from Zhang Lexuan and handed it to Di Ruiqiu.

This……

Di Ruiqiu looked at the soul bone in front of her, unsure whether to accept it or not.

After Cai Meier said that, Di Rachel actually believed for a moment that she was a member of Shrek Academy.

But Di Rachel knew perfectly well that she had only come to Shrek Academy to have some fun. If she hadn't learned from Huo Yuhao's memories that the Sun Moon Empire was suspected to be the lair of evil soul masters, Di Rachel wouldn't have minded going to the Sun Moon Empire to see how soul tools were developing.

Rachel's moral standards are still too high...

Huo Yuhao squinted at Di Rachel, who seemed somewhat hesitant.

I never imagined that even a soul beast could know that if you can't meet someone's expectations, you shouldn't accept their gift. If it were some creature from my previous life, they probably would have been eager to accept this valuable gift.

"Ugh."

Cai Meier looked at Di Ruiqiu, who seemed hesitant, and sighed softly.

“I know you’re hesitant. How about this: you become my disciple, and I’ll give you this soul bone as a gift.”

"I am the vice dean of the Martial Soul Department, after all. Even if your Martial Soul is not a dragon, I should be able to guide your cultivation."

Apprenticeship?

Di Rachel recalled the way Huo Yuhao and Fan Yu interacted in her memories...

It seems that becoming an apprentice to a teacher is just a matter of being closer to the teacher than to a regular college teacher; there don't seem to be any other problems.

Since that's the case, it's not unacceptable. At worst, we can just outlive the other person, and that will end most of the relationship.

It would be easier for Di Rachel to accept owing Cai Meier a favor than owing the entire Shrek Academy a favor.

Moreover, I do have quite a few questions about human spiritual practice, and having a teacher to help answer them would be much more convenient.

Moreover, as far as Di Ruiqiu knew, in the inner academy, students always had to choose someone to become their master, such as Xiao Xiao to Xuan Lao, and Huo Yuhao to Fan Yu. The teacher would provide more in-depth guidance on the students' cultivation issues, unlike in the outer academy where a whole class would be taught at once, and students had to actively seek out the teacher to receive one-on-one guidance.

Thinking of this, Di Ruiqiu took a step back, bowed slightly, and said, "Greetings, teacher."

"Good good!"

Cai Meier's smile was almost overflowing.

"Now that you've absorbed the spirit ring, strike while the iron is hot and quickly absorb the spirit bone. Your teacher will personally protect you." This time, Di Ruiqiu didn't refuse. She took the spirit bone and sat cross-legged on the ground.

Watching Di Ruiqiu begin absorbing the soul bone, Cai Meier nodded calmly, but the slight upturn of her lips revealed her excitement.

'If those guys knew I took this opportunity to recruit Di Rachel ahead of schedule, wouldn't those old bones be furious?'

With Cai Meier protecting him, Huo Yuhao ended his mental probing and leaned against a nearby tree, lost in thought.

Di Rachel's spirit rings are all sorted out, but where is Huo Yuhao's fifth spirit ring?

Judging solely from his Spirit Eye Martial Soul, Huo Yuhao's attack power and control abilities are completely insufficient to deal with battles against Soul Kings and Soul Emperors.

Even with the existence of imprinted soul skills, which allows Huo Yuhao to unleash thousands of soul skills, and the development of his memory, which allows him to freely store the soul skills he has seen into his imprinted soul ring, avoiding the trouble of having to find someone to imprint them every time, the limitation that imprints can only be used three times a day still exists.

Surprisingly, this limitation doesn't apply to replicating soul skills, but rather to using mental power to simulate the release of soul skills using other forces.

Unless Huo Yuhao can use his mental power to simulate other soul skills on his own, the imprint can not be used without restrictions.

But what level of mental strength would be required? Could a god-level mental strength achieve this? If it really came to that, would one still need to rely on the Soul Imprinting skill to fight?

Speaking of battles...

Huo Yuhao reviewed the scene of the battle and noticed that Di Ruiqiu had not used the Golden Dragon Spear at all during the entire fight...

Is it useless, or does it not exist?

Even when fighting the baboon troop, the 50,000-year-old baboon king had used the Golden Dragon Spear as its leader. If Di Ruiqiu could take the opportunity to absorb the Golden Dragon bloodline from that soul beast that suddenly appeared out of nowhere, there was no reason for him not to use the Golden Dragon Spear this time.

If not.

Two possibilities.

One reason is that a certain Sleeping Beauty Dragon was worried that the Golden Dragon Spear would reveal its whereabouts, so it put it away and wouldn't let Di Rachel use it.

Another possibility?

The Golden Dragon Spear remained in the God Realm along with the Golden Dragon King, and then in the original story, it was secretly brought to Douluo Continent by someone.

We lack the necessary information to know the specifics, and we don't even know the Silver Dragon King's attitude, so we can only leave it at that.

"What are you thinking about, so obsessed?"

Huo Yuhao slowly opened his eyes, and what he saw was a handsome face.

At this moment, Wang Dong had somehow walked to within ten centimeters of Huo Yuhao, tilting his head back and looking at Huo Yuhao, who was deep in thought, with a smile on his face.

Even at such close range, facing each other head-on, Huo Yuhao's eyesight was still unable to detect any flaws on Wang Dong's beautiful face.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves and fell on her face, illuminating the fine, short hairs. Far from detracting from her appearance or making her look uncomfortable, it actually added a touch of cuteness to Wang Dong's face.

"I'm wondering... what exactly is my fifth spirit ring, and what kind of spirit skill does it have?"

Huo Yuhao casually made up an excuse, but his tone sounded very serious.

"We can only search slowly. Spirit attribute soul beasts are like this: apart from the Evil Eye Forest in the Sun Moon Empire where spirit attribute soul beasts are abundant, whether you can encounter spirit attribute soul beasts in other places depends entirely on luck."

Wang Dong patted Huo Yuhao on the shoulder and said, "But don't worry, if all else fails, ask Dean Cai to help us find one that's the right age."

"Dean Cai is still here."

Huo Yuhao said with a dark expression.

Saying this in front of others, and treating them as an alternative, can easily cause resentment.

"Cough cough."

Wang Dong coughed awkwardly and changed the subject, saying, "Speaking of which, what's the situation with your fourth soul skill? I've never heard you mention it."

"We encountered a Silver Moon Wolf King in the Jingyang Mountains, approximately 35,000 years old..."

Huo Yuhao recounted the original story to Wang Dong. Of course, Huo Yuhao's fourth spirit ring was crafted with the help of Elder Yi, which he couldn't just say offhand.

"I originally thought the fourth soul skill would be the defensive ability of that Silver Moon Wolf King, but I didn't expect it to be a mental imprint. But this result is not bad."

"You dared to hunt down a pack of wolves led by four ten-thousand-year-old soul beasts all by yourself. That's impressive, Yuhao. Back then, you didn't even have a fourth ring, did you?"

Wang Dong reached out and gently patted Huo Yuhao's shoulder.

Huo Yuhao frowned slightly, patted his shoulder gently, and didn't say anything more.

Seeing that Huo Yuhao showed no displeasure, Wang Dong breathed a slight sigh of relief and said:
"I heard from Elder Yu that there's some kind of secret medicine from the Sun Moon Empire that temporarily enhances physical fitness to force the absorption of spirit rings far exceeding the normal absorption period. After the spirit ring is absorbed, the spirit master's body has been strengthened to a point where it can bear the weight, but this will also reduce the number of years you can bear the weight when you want to absorb the next spirit ring. I've been worried about this, but thankfully there's no bad news."

"I only learned from Elder Yu that there is a limit to the number of years a Soul Master can withstand with each point of physical fitness. Temporarily improving physical fitness to forcibly absorb a Soul Ring could cause the body to swell up like a pufferfish, making it difficult to even release Soul Skills."

"Of course, for someone like me who has successfully trained and absorbed nutrients beyond their level, there's naturally no problem."

As he spoke, Wang Dong proudly puffed out his chest.

Huo Yuhao's gaze lingered on Wang Dong's chest for a moment before he immediately looked away.

It was summer, and people wore relatively thin clothes. Even though Wang Dong was dressed a little thicker and trying to cover up something, you could still see slight undulations in his clothes.

"So there was this hidden danger... No wonder Jing Hongchen was so kind as to not tamper with the secret medicine; it turns out there was a trap all along."

Huo Yuhao said with some surprise, "But the side effects are actually acceptable. Otherwise, Jing Hongchen wouldn't have used it on his precious grandson Xiao Hongchen. Especially for soul masters like us who have a hard time finding suitable soul beasts, being able to absorb soul rings beyond our level means having more options."

Huo Yuhao said he had nothing to do with the so-called side effects.

In any case, Huo Yuhao just absorbed them normally. He asked Tianmeng to help seal the ones he couldn't absorb. All Huo Yuhao had to do was hold on when the spirit rings impacted his body. In fact, it took Huo Yuhao about ten thousand years to absorb his third spirit ring.

"I never expected that the secret medicine that Mingdetang spent so much effort to develop would end up like this. It's not worth the tens of millions of gold soul coins spent on it, not to mention that it ultimately benefited us."

Wang Dong's lips curled up slightly, as if he were gloating.

"What's so funny? Experiments often fail."

Huo Yuhao's expression, on the contrary, was somewhat serious and earnest.

"Take me for example. In the soul guidance experiments, I mostly failed. Success was just a matter of chance, but that doesn't mean those failures were worthless."

"In fact, most of the things that Soul Masters study in their entire lives are worthless. However, the effort they put in is not without value. They use their lives to verify one message: this path is blocked. Those who come after should go elsewhere."

(End of this chapter)