Chapter 8: Soul Furnace!

Let us set aside Chen Bo's self-satisfaction on the other side for now.

At this moment, inside the Copy where Zhou Chu was located, a continuous stream of Corpses was being released.

Even Zhou Chu himself did not know exactly how many Corpses he had contracted.

Until a series of notification sounds arrived—

【Congratulations on successfully clearing the Normal-level Dungeon—Shadow Jungle!】

【Your completion record has been logged; it will be calculated after you exit the Copy!】

【Ding! Your level has increased to Level 3!】

【Your attributes have increased: Strength +5, Constitution +5, Soul Power +5, Agility +5!】

【Free attribute points +5!】

Cleared?

Zhou Chu was stunned for a moment and checked the time taken: a total of 14 minutes and 18 seconds.

In other words, it only took over 800 thugs to clear this Normal-level Dungeon.

This was much faster than the 50 minutes he had anticipated.

In a Normal-level Dungeon, there are 100 monsters in total.

Once they are killed, the Copy is cleared!

As long as one can successfully clear a Normal-level Dungeon, one can obtain eligibility for the College Entrance Exam.

Looking at it now, the threshold is really not high.

To put it bluntly, a Normal-level Dungeon is just the simplest form of troop training, with no difficulty to speak of.

This is the most intuitive feeling for Zhou Chu, who has currently become a God-level Soul Professional.

If it weren't for the need to earn a spot for the College Entrance Exam, there would really be no need to participate in this Novice Dungeon.

However, for most novice Soul Professionals, it would still take some time and effort.

Zhou Chu's goal is very simple: to obtain eligibility for the College Entrance Exam.

As for being the son-in-law of the He Family, Zhou Chu is not interested at all...

Eh~

However, that He Muxue from the Third Middle School is indeed quite lovely.

Fair skin, beautiful face, long legs, with a curvy figure and a slender waist.

Any normal man would be tempted.

But as the old saying goes, women affect a man's speed in drawing his gun.

It is just a matter of speed...

If one could become the son-in-law of the He Family...

And they even pay for university tuition for free!

Getting a wife and being able to attend university for free.

A huge profit!

*Cough cough! *

Seems like I'm thinking about the wrong things!

Zhou Chu withdrew the stray thoughts from his mind and did not exit the Copy immediately.

Instead, he used the 100 Soul Fragments he had to upgrade his Life Soul Artifact by one level.

【Consumed 100 Soul Fragments; your "Life Soul Artifact—Dead Man's Coffin (D-Grade)" has successfully upgraded to "C-Grade".】

【Dead Man's Coffin (C-Grade): Can automatically collect Contract Material of C-Grade quality and below; simultaneously, the Contract Pool can produce one C-Grade quality Contract Material available for contract every minute. (Evolving to the next grade requires consuming 1000 Soul Fragments)】

【Effect 1: Obedience—Immune to the backlash of all mental-type attacks; the contracted undead creatures will never betray you.】

【Effect 2: Soul Furnace—Can smelt collected materials of the same grade, turning them into new materials and increasing their grade by one. Current smeltable material grade is D-Grade; requires 100 materials to smelt!】

His Life Soul Artifact had increased by one tier, rising to C-Grade.

At the same time, the materials that could be collected also increased to C-Grade, and the materials that could be contracted in the Contract Pool also increased to C.

From this, it can be seen that as the Life Soul Artifact continues to advance, the Contract Materials in the Contract Pool will also improve.

In this way, obtaining God-level Contract Materials is not a dream.

But it is a distant dream!

Because upgrading the Life Soul Artifact to the next grade requires a full 1000 Soul Fragments.

This is equivalent to a massive fortune of 10 million!

Isn't this just pure "pay-to-win"?

1000 Soul Fragments require killing 1000 monsters to achieve.

However, for Zhou Chu, who currently possesses an army of over three thousand thugs, this is not difficult to accomplish.

Besides this, the upgraded Life Soul Artifact gained two more attributes.

One is the permanent passive of Obedience, which can immunize against all mental-type attacks; this one is quite formidable.

One must know that the monsters of the Calamity Legion from the Abyss are most adept at mental-type secret arts.

With this powerful passive effect, Zhou Chu can directly negate over 60 to 70% of damage.

Even if Zhou Chu were to serve as cannon fodder for the Exorcism Army on the front lines, he could be sturdy enough.

But having said that, if one wants to level up as quickly as possible, going to the Exorcism Army to serve as a reserve team member for a few days is indeed a good method.

After clearing the copies in the Dungeon Hall, Zhou Chu does have considerations in this regard.

Finally, there is the Soul Furnace, which can fuse collected Contract Materials into a brand-new Contract Material and increase its grade by one.

At this moment, the D-Grade materials Zhou Chu has collected are exactly 100.

It's just the right time to perform a fusion!

No dawdling, fuse them directly!

Zhou Chu summoned the Soul Furnace directly.

A black furnace exuding an aura of death appeared before him, with grey souls constantly swirling within it.

Zhou Chu then tossed all the materials he had just collected, such as the Shadow Spider and Shadow Scorpion, into the furnace.

The next moment, intense soul flames ignited within the Soul Furnace, instantly emitting bursts of ghostly shrieks.

【Ding! Fusion successful!】

【New Contract Material—Crypt Poison Spider (C-Grade) has been successfully added to the Contract Pool!】

The material, composed of 100 D-Grade poisonous insects, generated the Crypt Poison Spider after fusion.

Now, there were two different types of C-Grade contract materials in Zhou Chu's Contract Pool.

Relying on these two C-Grade materials, Zhou Chu intended to challenge a higher-difficulty Copy.

On one hand, he wanted to test the combat power of his new servant; on the other, he wanted to farm more Soul Fragments.

No need to say more, let's go for the new difficulty!

Zhou Chu laughed, then chose to exit the Copy.

……

Dungeon Hall.

The principals of the three high schools sat in the observation area, drinking tea and chatting idly.

"Old Luo, honestly, the child I like the most is Qin Ye. He looks good and has a gentle temperament."

"If he can take first place in this joint examination, that would be wonderful."

The principal of the Third High School, He Laijin, said to the principal of the Second High School, Luo Dachun, with a face full of smiles.

After hearing this, Luo Dachun smiled proudly: "Qin Ye was personally supervised and taught by me, after all; his character and upbringing are absolutely fine. If he could become your He Family's son-in-law, that would naturally be a joyous occasion."

"Hahaha, that couldn't be better. It just depends on whether this child can stand out among the three."

Su Zhanghe, unable to get a word in, could only drink his tea in silence.

In fact, he was truly happy that the First High School could produce an S-rank Soul Profession.

It was just a pity that the binder happened to be Chen Bo, rather than Zhou Chu, whom he favored.

It was common knowledge that Chen Bo did not have a good reputation at the First High School.

Therefore, while Luo Dachun was praising his own student to He Laijin, Su Zhanghe had a different opinion in his heart but found it difficult to say anything.

"Oh, that's right, Old Su, your First High School has become famous this year; you actually produced an F-Grade Soul Profession."

"The probability of that is comparable to an S-rank, but it's a pity that the two are like heaven and earth!"

Seeing that Su Zhanghe hadn't spoken, He Laijin turned around and said.

Su Zhanghe pursed his lips and said nothing, only nodding slightly, his expression looking rather unpleasant.

That old bastard He Laijin was clearly making fun of him on purpose.

Poking him exactly where it hurt.

Luo Dachun chimed in: "The matter of binding a Soul Profession actually depends on fate. If it wasn't bound well, one can only say that the heavens aren't looking out for you."

"I have heard people mention this child surnamed Zhou; his grades are alright, but it seems there is something wrong here..."

As he spoke, Luo Dachun couldn't help but point at his head with his finger.

Listening to the subtext, he was clearly belittling his judgment.

This guy Luo Dachun had even worse intentions.

Even worse than He Laijin.

Seeing this, Su Zhanghe no longer intended to speak politely.

"I say, Luo Dachun, is this how you usually act as a teacher?"

"Although the child Zhou Chu was unsatisfactory in the binding phase, if he were willing to repeat a year, he would definitely be able to bind a good Soul Profession with his outstanding Soul Power!"

"As the saying goes, if the upper beam is not straight, the lower ones will go aslant; I don't think Qin Ye has learned much good from you either."

Su Zhanghe pointed his finger at Luo Dachun's nose and said indignantly.

"Old Su, you..."

Luo Dachun's face flushed red, and just as he was about to argue with Su Zhanghe, a noisy commotion broke out among the crowd in the hall.