Chapter 219: Tianshui Academy

Xiao Wu?

Ning Feiliu was stunned for a moment upon hearing this name, and then his expression turned strange.

"No way, I've run into Tang San and Xiao Wu already?" he muttered to himself.

But soon he shook his head and laughed, "No, how could I possibly run into them here?"

One must know that Tang San and Xiao Wu are likely still in Nuoding City, in the Fasinuo Province on the southwestern edge of the Heaven Dou Empire.

And the location where Ning Feiliu is currently at should be the outer perimeter of the Star Dou Great Forest in the Bei Jing of the Douluo Continent.

One is in the northern region, the other is on the southwestern frontier; they are a hundred and eight thousand miles apart.

The original work never mentioned Tang San and Xiao Wu coming to the Bei Jing in the early stages, so how could it be them? The name Xiao Wu doesn't necessarily have to be that rabbit.

The name Wu seems to be quite common in the Douluo Continent; Ning Feiliu remembers that in the original work, didn't Chihuo Academy have a Huo Wu?

So it isn't necessarily Tang San and Xiao Wu.

However, Ning Feiliu still decided to go and take a look.

Because being helpful is also one part of his many tasks.

For example—

【Receive sincere gratitude from others. After collecting 10,000 times, you can obtain the Wandering God's harvest—Blessing of Life: Increase intimacy by 40% when in contact with intelligent creatures, and increase the probability of epiphany by 10%. (2809 times remaining)】

【Heal 10,000 sick patients to obtain the Verdant God's protection—Increase Pharmacology learning ability by 40%. (3955 times remaining)】

【Help 100 wandering souls fulfill their dying wishes to obtain Mordekaiser's Undead Forbidden Arts and Ochen Language Proficiency. (100 times remaining)】

【Use a Sword to protect the weak and kind one hundred times to obtain two years of Yi's sword technique experience.】

These tasks are all centered on upholding justice, being helpful, and meddling in others' affairs.

After a moment of thought, Ning Feiliu directly summoned his martial soul.

"Black Night Silent Illumination, Moonlight Fills the Sky!"

Radiance surged in Ning Feiliu's hands, transforming into two peculiar weapons: a strange, long, heavy sword radiating golden light, and a dark-colored sphere.

The Crescent Moon King Sword and the Falling Brightness.

Then he rushed toward the direction the sound came from.

In a dense forest, a group of humans was seen confronting a giant blue hippopotamus.

And those humans confronting the giant blue hippopotamus were all female, all wearing uniform blue outfits, clearly belonging to the same Spirit Master faction.

"This is a thousand-year-level Blue Wave Hippopotamus, just right to serve as your third Soul Ring, Yue'er," said a beautiful, slightly older woman who looked like an academy instructor to the other seven girls.

"Understood, Teacher!" the seven girls said in unison.

"Bing'er, pay attention to seizing the opportunity to control the Blue Wave Hippopotamus. Try commanding this battle; everyone else must obey Bing'er's orders!" the beautiful woman issued another command.

"No problem," the beautiful girl called Bing'er nodded immediately in response.

Then she gave orders to her other companions, "Hai Rou, Liu Yu, Ruoshui, you attack from the front. Yue'er, Qingbo, you assist Hai Rou and the others in their attack. Xiao Wu, be ready to provide support at any time."

"Yes!" the six girls responded in unison.

"Spirit Possession!"

Then they each summoned their own martial souls, all of which were uniformly blue water-type or ice-type martial souls.

Next, they all charged together at that Blue Wave Hippopotamus!

Only...

The beautiful woman frowned as she watched this scene, shaking her head inwardly.

These girls... are still a bit careless, especially Shui Bing'er; she has commanded too few times, and she is also a bit too aggressive.

To think that everyone went up to attack, leaving her and Xue Wu exposed.

An Auxiliary System Spirit Master is a very important core of a team; without anyone to protect them, it would be dangerous if someone were to attack.

However...

It is still acceptable; after all, Shui Bing'er is still protecting Xue Wu and didn't join the attack, and the two of them also have a Spirit Fusion Skill.

But just as the beautiful woman was thinking this, the Blue Wave Hippopotamus, finally provoked by the six girls' attacks, erupted with an extremely terrifying aura.

"Qi—!!"

Its massive, thick forelimbs leaped high into the air with the force of a thousand jun and slammed into the ground.

In an instant, the ground erupted with waves of seismic tremors like surging billows.

At the same time, with it as the center, a dozen ice spears condensed in the air and flew toward the six girls.

In an instant, the six girls on the front line were shaken by the seismic waves, their balance disrupted.

And next, they had to face the ice spears launched by the Blue Wave Hippopotamus, forced to channel their soul power and block with their hands or martial souls.

Fortunately, these ice spears looked intimidating but actually had little lethality; upon hitting their soul power defenses, they immediately shattered into frost powder.

But Shui Bing'er noticed at this moment that the Blue Wave Hippopotamus was immediately running toward the back.

It wanted to run! At this moment, Shui Bing'er couldn't care about anything else and flew up with her wings spread! She blocked the Blue Wave Hippopotamus's path, and the third Soul Ring on her body lit up, "Third Soul Skill! Resist Ice Ring!"

A ring formed of frost expanded from her body as the center, and the charging Blue Wave Hippopotamus was irresistibly knocked flying several meters away the moment it touched the frost ring.

But...

After the dazed Blue Wave Hippopotamus recovered, it saw... Xue Wu, who appeared even weaker than the other six girls besides Shui Bing'er.

So it roared again and charged directly at Xue Wu with the force of a thousand jun!

Oh no!

The beautiful woman shouted inwardly; at this moment, she naturally wouldn't stand idly by and intended to intervene to save her.

Seeing this, Shui Bing'er also shouted in terror, "Watch out! Xiao Wu!"

At the same time, she immediately rushed toward Xue Wu, and the other five girls also rushed toward Xue Wu, shouting in terror, intending to save her.

However, the voluptuous woman had already set off at this moment; she also felt that there should be enough time, and she could successfully save her student.

But just at this moment...

"Boom—"

A pale golden light flashed by, and then the massive Blue Wave Hippo, the size of a small hill, was seen flying backward directly into the air. Following that came a huge sound of impact, "Boom—"

The Blue Wave Hippo crashed onto the ground ten meters away, directly losing all signs of life.

"Eh? This shouldn't have killed it outright, right?"

Only then did Shui Yue'er see... in front of Xue Wu, a handsome youth with a graceful and noble temperament was holding a peculiar pale golden Sword, while his other hand held a "cup base" with a dark purple sphere, and he spoke with a slightly dazed expression.

She looked at this suddenly appearing handsome youth, yet inexplicably felt her heartbeat quicken.

"So... so handsome," she murmured involuntarily.

Then she immediately blushed; she did not know why she, who had never been stingy about expressing her intention to like handsome men, would actually feel shy at this moment...

She even looked at her companions beside her with some shyness.

Yet she discovered...

Whether it was Yu Hairou, Gu Qingbo, or Shen Liuyu and Qiu Ruoshui, all of her companions were blushing.

They, too, had felt a strange sensation in their hearts the moment they saw that handsome youth.

Ning Feiliu, however, had arrived in front of the unconscious Blue Wave Hippo, probed its vital signs, and quickly made a judgment.

"Whose Soul Beast is this?" He raised his head, looked at Shui Bing'er and the others, and said, "Although it isn't dead yet, it's down to its last breath. My apologies... even though I was a bit careful, it was still almost hunted by me. But there's still a chance now, hurry up and finish it off."

The moment Ning Feiliu appeared, he immediately judged that Shui Bing'er and the others had come to hunt a Soul Beast to obtain a Soul Ring for one of them.

Therefore, when he blocked in front of Xue Wu, he used the spine of the Crescent Moon King Sword to slap the Blue Wave Hippo away.

He just didn't expect...

His strength was still too great; if the Blue Wave Hippo hadn't been a Thousand-Year Spirit Ring beast with decent natural defense, it would have been slapped to death long ago.

After all, the current Ning Feiliu had five Ten Thousand Year Soul Rings on him, and with the Enhancement from several previous Thousand-Year Spirit Rings, his strength was truly terrifying.

The gap in strength between him and the Blue Wave Hippo was already obvious, and coupled with the monstrous strength Ning Feiliu gained from the constant evolution of Exploding Ring, the collision just now was equivalent to a giant accidentally stepping on an ant—he really had just been careless and crushed the ant.

It was just about the same; the Blue Wave Hippo's cervical vertebrae were shattered, and the front of its Head Bone was also completely smashed, though the head hadn't completely disintegrated.

It was certainly not far from death.

If no one came to "steal the kill," the Blue Wave Hippo's Soul Ring would become Ning Feiliu's.

However... why would Ning Feiliu need this thousand-year Soul Ring? Hearing Ning Feiliu say this, Shui Bing'er was the first to react.

She didn't know why, but despite her usually calm personality and lack of feelings for men, she felt a palpitation in her heart the moment she saw Ning Feiliu.

Yet all of this came from the rewards Ning Feiliu obtained from the Astral Traveler and, most crucially, the Ice and Snow Demigod.

【Life's Friendliness: When in contact with intelligent beings, intimacy increases by 10%, and the probability of epiphany increases by 1%.】

【Life's Joy: When in contact with intelligent beings, intimacy increases by 20%, and the probability of epiphany increases by 5%.】

【Ice and Snow Demigod's Blessing: Gain skill—Summoning of the Ice and Snow God; 50% intimacy with water and ice attribute creatures.】

In other words, in Ning Feiliu's interactions with ordinary people, even if he did nothing, others would innately have a 30% favorable impression of him.

And when facing humans and Soul Beasts with water and ice attributes, he directly gave them a 50% innate favorable impression, plus the gift from the Wandering God.

If Ning Feiliu could see the favorability of Shui Bing'er and the others right now, he would find that if the maximum score was one hundred, they were all above eighty.

Shui Bing'er was slightly better; she looked at Shui Yue'er at this moment and said, "Yue'er, this is your Soul Ring. Since this... friend has spoken, then you go and absorb this Soul Ring."

"Okay." Shui Yue'er walked forward shyly, came to the side of the Blue Wave Hippo, and decisively destroyed its brain.

Immediately, a purple Soul Ring gradually revealed itself.

Seeing this, the voluptuous woman also breathed a sigh of relief; the other party was truly helping, rather than also having taken a fancy to this Soul Ring.

But the other party's strength... to be able to heavily injure a thousand-year Soul Beast in an instant without using any soul skill, and even without using the blade of his Sword-shaped Martial Soul but rather the spine, there was no reason for him to fancy this thousand-year Blue Wave Hippo.

With such strength, even she could not do it.

Seeing the other party's young face, she was suddenly very curious, but just at this moment, she saw...

Shui Bing'er was planning to step forward to thank Ning Feiliu, but just then, she heard the exclamations of her companions in her ears.

Even her mentor, Teacher Jiang Xi, gasped.

This is...

Shui Bing'er was a bit puzzled at this moment, and then she looked at Ning Feiliu and immediately knew why her companions and teachers were exclaiming.

Because at Ning Feiliu's feet at this moment... five Soul Rings were circling!

Two yellow, two purple, one black! Truly five Soul Rings.

Ning Feiliu was, of course, using his ability to disguise them; after all, running around with five all-ten-thousand-year black Soul Rings, you really aren't afraid of people misunderstanding.

He had been running around using this disguise since he first started his training.

Otherwise, if his Soul Ring configuration were mistaken for Twin Spirits...

It could only be said that everyone would definitely want to recruit him for their own use; a Twin Spirits Spirit Master was an invincible existence in the later stages, who wouldn't want to recruit such a Spirit Master?

Holding the idea of not wanting too much trouble, Ning Feiliu always disguised himself when he was out, sometimes even ridiculously disguising himself as having a terrible Soul Ring configuration, specializing in playing the pig to eat the tiger at critical moments.

But even with such extremely normal Soul Rings, his five Soul Rings were not fake.

So what Shui Bing'er and the others saw was naturally a young Soul King powerhouse who was about the same age as them! No wonder... no wonder his strength was so powerful.

And at this time, the Tianshui Academy mentor Jiang Xi also hurriedly stood out and thanked Ning Feiliu, "Many thanks to this friend for your help. We are from Tianshui Academy; let me introduce myself first, my name is Jiang Xi."

Ning Feiliu was a Soul King-level powerhouse just like her, so she naturally treated him as an equal.

In fact, she was only nearly thirty years old; she was a contestant from the previous Advanced Soul Master Academy Elite Tournament for Tianshui Academy, and after graduation, she returned to her alma mater to serve as a teacher.

But seeing that the other party was truly too young, even young enough to make one doubt if he was under eighteen like Shui Bing'er and the others, she found it somewhat hard to believe.

"Tianshui Academy?" Ning Feiliu was stunned for a moment.

He didn't expect... he had coincidentally encountered the Tianshui Academy that appeared in the original plot, but these people might not necessarily be the ones who participated in the tournament for Tianshui Academy.

"That's right, it is indeed Tianshui Academy," Jiang Xi said, suddenly sounding somewhat proud.

After all, it is one of the Five Elements Academies, so it is quite normal for others to know the great name of their academy.

"I have long heard of your esteemed name..." Ning Feiliu nodded with a smile, then thought for a moment and added, "My name is Ning Feiliu."

(End of this chapter)