Chapter 65: with translation of chapter title

Instructor Xuan, these people rashly entered the lab, then tampered with the access control; I feared they were intruders, so I acted against them, intending to subdue them and hand them over to you for handling. Moreover, they were brought by Senior Orange, and I suspect Senior Orange is colluding with them. Please deal with them." Chen Qiye said honestly, that sincere expression truly made it hard to imagine the fierce aura he had previously emitted.

Juzi also reacted at this moment, her pretty face turning pale as she said, "You, you're talking nonsense. It was you who deliberately attacked us."

Chen Qiye shrugged and said, "If you hadn't tampered with the access control and hurled insults at me, why would I think you were intruders? Could I be wrong? Instructor Xuan, they merely lost their ability to move, suffered only minor injuries—nothing serious."

Although Xuan Zhenwen was obsessed with soul tool research, he was no fool; from Chen Qiye's account he could tell this was clearly Orange and a few others bullying, picking on Chen Qiye the newcomer, and the enraged Chen Qiye found an excuse to fight back.

But the process doesn't matter; what matters is that all four of them collapsed one by one before Chen Qiye, while Huo Yuhao stood there perfectly fine, not a speck of dirt on him.

Could he possibly have some special soul tool? Xuan Zhenwen wondered dubiously.

At this moment, a large contingent of the academy's disciplinary squad had arrived outside. Xuan Zhenwen glared at Chen Qiye, then left the lab and explained a few sentences to the squad outside, merely telling them that there had been a minor issue during experiments conducted by the students in his lab, which had already been resolved.

Conducting soul tool trials inevitably brings various problems, so the disciplinary squad naturally knew this renowned researcher Xuan Zhenwen of the Virtue Hall and had no suspicions, thus they departed. The access-control soul tool also returned to normal after Xuan Zhenwen fiddled with it a few times.

Juzi stared at Chen Qiye, wanting to utter a few threats, but found herself unable to speak. This boy, clearly younger than her, gave her a deep sense of fear at this moment.

Juzi never imagined that, despite their combined strength, they would actually be subdued by Chen Qiye. Although the lab was small and nobody went all out, Chen Qiye's actions were too swift. He didn't give them a chance to exert their full strength before the battle ended! If Instructor Xuan hadn't arrived in time, I probably would have been knocked down by him.

And what's the deal with those six 100,000-year soul rings???

How exactly did this guy manage that? It seems he didn't use any soul tool at all! He relied entirely on the power of a Soul Master.

All along, Orange had been an outstanding student at the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy, and she was confident she would soon pass the evaluation to enter the Virtue Hall. Her deep study of soul tools made her increasingly doubt the abilities of Soul Masters; in her view, Soul Masters of the same rank could never be a match for these soul engineers who graduated from the Sun Moon Imperial Soul Engineer Academy.

But today, Chen Qiye completely overturned her view. Although she still felt unwilling to accept it, whenever she recalled that Chen Qiye had only six soul rings lit on his body, a feeling of indescribable defeat welled up in her heart.

Chen Qiye then went about his business as if nothing had happened, continuing to clean up, especially sweeping Juzi into a pile on the floor.

Xuan Zhenwen locked the lab door with a strange expression, then returned and immediately checked the condition of the three fallen students, realizing it was somewhat tricky.

Chen Qiye had earlier spoken lightly, saying there was no danger to life, and indeed there wasn't, but it wasn't merely a loss of combat ability either!

The only one in relatively good condition was the petite girl; she merely had her central nervous system frozen a bit by Chen Qiye's Ultimate Ice, so at most she would wake up shivering for a day, like Juzi had earlier. The other two, however, were not looking so promising.

The tall youth was struck by Chen Qiye's mental blast. Although Chen Qiye had restrained his mental power output, the blow remained fierce due to the opponent's insult. The powerful mental impact caused the youth's sea of spirit to fracture, plunging him into deep coma; he certainly won't wake up anytime soon. Even if he does, it's hard to say whether there will be any aftereffects.

The handsome youth's condition was somewhat better, but his body had suffered a kind of shock injury that Xuan Zhenwen couldn't diagnose, as if a force lingered within him, continually causing damage. Though not fierce, even Xuan Zhenwen's strength as an eight-ring Soul Douluo couldn't dispel it.

"Chen Qiye, come here." Xuan Zhenwen waved at him.

"Oh." Chen Qiye immediately walked over.

Looking at him with a somewhat complex expression, Xuan Zhenwen said in a low voice, "These three students are also mine. I know you must have suffered unjust treatment, but they are now injured by you, so we can consider it even. What do you think?"

"I'll follow the teacher's instructions." Chen Qiye replied with a "good boy" demeanor. Seeing this, Juzi beside him felt her teeth itch. She secretly thought: This brat, putting on an obedient act in front of the teacher, just now was so fierce.

Xuan Zhenwen said, "You're an exchange student, but you still have to study here for two years. No matter what, they are your seniors, and the academy further prohibits fighting in the lab. I'll let this slide this time; I don't want a repeat. Of course, I'll also restrain them—if they bother you again, I'll handle them according to school regulations. However, you now need to help me restore them. I don't want any problems with my students; do you understand what I mean?"

"Understood." Chen Qiye replied crisply.

After saying that, he immediately crouched on the ground, first pressing the back of the petite girl's neck to withdraw his Ultimate Ice chill, then went to the handsome youth's side and patted him a few times, dispelling the strange force of the Sovereign of Heaven.

The two woke up in succession; the petite girl shivered, saw Huo Yuhao nearby, and was about to lash out, but Xuan Zhenwen's angry shout stopped her.

"Enough, Keke. Cause more trouble and I'll kick you out."

……

"Big sis, have you had enough fun yet?" Chen Qiye, carrying big and small bags in his hands, looked ahead at the slender figure holding nothing and eating candied haws, his face full of despair.

"It's been three whole hours! We've walked less than a hundred meters! I'm dying!"

Who knows what Chen Qiye went through during those three hours.

From the start of the clothing street, the person and beast ran back and forth, looked and looked, bought and bought, never even reaching a hundred meters! The Snow Empress glared at him fiercely, licked a candied haw, and said lightly, "This is what you owe me. Initially we agreed that I would turn my power into your soul rings, and I may freely choose twenty pieces of clothing."

……

How could I have forgotten this?

"Come on, human; I still haven't picked out five pieces of clothing."

Pfft! Chen Qiye almost heard the sound of an arrow piercing his heart, "five more, five more, five more, pieces..."

"Why is girls' shopping so troublesome?"

In the sea of spirit, Jingliu happened to sneeze…

Hefting the little treasury in his bosom, Chen Qiye followed behind, wanting to cry but unable to shed tears.

……Boom! In the mountain range, not having gone far, Chen Qiye heard a sound like ten thousand steeds galloping. Looking back, he saw countless beast eyes flashing with eerie bloodlight as soul beasts rushed toward him, many swift ones arriving in the blink of an eye.

What the heck? Chen Qiye widened his golden eyes in disbelief.

"Oh no!" The mountains echoed with Qin Wangyu's miserable cry.

He didn't even have time to pull out his soul-tool skateboard or flyer before a few soul beasts lunged at his rear.

Sword Control Technique

The Startling Dragon Sword appeared; Chen Qiye stepped on it and instantly turned into a stream of light that shot forth.

"Roar!"

Countless soul beasts' eyes flashed with bloodlight as they roared in unison, quickening their pace.

The Terminator, speeding through the high skies, suddenly turned around; its weapon template activated, gears clacking on its frame, and tubes of dark soul-tool cannons mounted on its shoulders spewed scorching tongues of flame. Brilliant sparks burst on the ground, mingled with countless soul beasts' blood and flesh.

"What on earth is going on? How did a beast tide erupt all of a sudden?" He glanced back at the black mass behind him whenever he had a moment.

With the Terminator buying him time, the black mass of beasts behind him was quickly thrown far behind by Qin Wangyu.

"Huh…?"

Swish! Just as Chen Qiye was about to stop and rest, his scalp went numb; a tearing sound split the sky from above, so he instinctively dodged to the side, where a massive tail plated with silver scales lashed hard at his feet, the force seeming to shake the entire mountain range.

Only fifty meters ahead, a silver jiao dragon a full thirty meters long coiled its body, its cold, narrow beast eyes staring at him.

Six soul rings rose, all six skill rings lighting up at once; Chen Qiye gripped the Startling Dragon, his aura like a rainbow, reaching straight for the ninth heaven.

Black King and White Empress advanced to flank it, the silver jiao dragon unable to withstand the harassment; its tail kept swinging, yet the two doppelgangers nimbly avoided it. Chen Qiye seized the moment when it focused all its mind on Black King and White Empress, unfolded the Dual Kings Descend, flew to its head, and drove the Startling Dragon down hard.

Clang! Who would have thought that the scales of the silver jiao dragon, about to transform into a dragon and about to shed, were so hard that the Startling Dragon could only lift a tiny fragment of a scale, unable to pierce even a fraction deeper.

"Roar!" The silver jiao dragon bellowed, repeatedly shaking its head, trying to fling this hateful human off its head.

"Ugh!" Who would have thought the silver jiao dragon would go so berserk as to repeatedly smash its head against the surrounding mountains, trees, and ground.

Chen Qiye hastily jumped aside.

The silver flood dragon waved its huge tail, lashing fiercely at Chen Qiye lying on the ground; seeing the situation, Chen Qiye grabbed its scales, thrusting the huge sword in his hand into the wound torn open by the giant-toothed tiger, and twisted hard.

"Ang!" the silver flood dragon let out a mournful roar, the huge tail sweeping toward Chen Qiye veered off course and slammed heavily to one side.

On the other side——

Huo Yuhao, cooking on the mountaintop, faintly heard some noises and couldn't help but survey the summit's surroundings with surprise and doubt.

On a mountain ahead, thick smoke billowed, vast stretches of trees were broken, and a silver-colored shadow could be seen dancing in the smoke. Considering the safety of himself and his two companions, Huo Yuhao poured soul power into his Spirit Eyes to see clearly everything opposite.

Upon seeing that the silver-colored shadow was a silver flood dragon with cultivation nearing a hundred thousand years, a bead of cold sweat involuntarily trickled down his forehead.

But when he saw Chen Qiye climbing along the silver flood dragon's winding body to its wound and thrusting his sword into it, his clothes were instantly soaked by cold sweat.

A few minutes earlier, "Huo Yuhao, the Jingyang Mountain Range we are heading to this time is located in the central-northern part of the Sun-Moon Continent, about over a thousand li away, requiring roughly three hours of flight. The Jingyang Mountain Range covers a vast area, its branches extend in all directions, covered with abundant vegetation. Inside the range, there are extremely rich mineral resources. However, it also brings forth many special soul beasts that favor metallic energy. Among them, there are also traces of spiritual-type soul beasts appearing. These are what Professor Xuan asked me to tell you. He said to let you choose on your own. If you find a suitable soul beast, do not let it go. Keke and I will also help you."

Huo Yuhao nodded and said, "Thank you, senior sister." Juzi's proactive friendliness made him also retract his inner hostility, and his tone grew gentle again. Yet he still did not speak much, for he knew that many words lead to loss, and it was impossible for him to say anything to the two women without caution.

Keke flew to Juzi's other side, yet she pursed her lips and remained silent; her hostility toward Huo Yuhao had not lessened in the slightest, and she still clearly remembered the icy sensation the moment Huo Yuhao choked her neck. At that moment, she truly felt as if she were about to die, and despite her desperate struggle, all she gained was instant paralysis of her whole body, to the point that she even felt she might never wake up again.

After flying for another hour or so, they landed again to rest.

"Let's eat first and then continue on our way. At our current speed, we'll reach the Jingyang Mountain Range before evening." Juzi, as the team leader, looked at the sky and issued the order to rest.

For this expedition, her preparations were still quite thorough; she quickly took out a large amount of food from her storage soul tool. As a girl who loved eating dearly, she brought plenty—vegetables, fruits, frozen fresh meat, various seasonings, and even all kinds of cookware and utensils, everything one could need.

Seeing Huo Yuhao stare agape at her, Juzi couldn't help feeling a bit proud as she said, "I, the young lady, am about to show off my skills—let you taste my outdoor barbecue; the flavor is absolutely great, watch out, you might even lose your tongue!"

Saying that, she skillfully set up her barbecue grill, then began to light the fire and prepare.

Huo Yuhao looked at her doing these with some surprise, suddenly feeling a strange sensation. Previously, he was always the one grilling meat for others; this time it was reversed, and for him it was a completely novel experience. He didn't say much, just sat down beside her and watched quietly.

"Hmph, you're lucky. Juzi Sister's cooking is top-notch; usually even Zimu and Wang Shaojie hardly get to eat it." After flying for two hours since leaving the academy, Keke seemed to have already forgotten the unpleasantness between her and Huo Yuhao, and although she still acted a bit coquettish, the hostility in her eyes had largely faded.

"Hehe." Huo Yuhao himself thought he was laughing a bit foolishly, but he still laughed.

And so they encountered Chen Qiye.

(End of chapter)